Hey y'all,

In anticipation for the release XIII to North America, I have decided that I want to replay XII. I have beaten XII before while getting all of the espers and some other side quests before finishing the game. Now I really hated all of the side quests because there were no cut-scenes to explain the stories behind them and whatnot. And I just forgot what the story was even about. So this time, I'm going to review the game without doing any of the side-quests (except for that awesome spear).

Your replies are welcome (by all means disagree with me!) but this is mostly to get this game off my chest.

Some background: I have beaten FFXII before but I really didn't like it. I forgot the storyline after I had done the sidequests. IMO, a good shot at the game includes getting all of the summons (which I won't be doing in this run). I could say good things about the game but... yeah. I have replayed FFX like 5 or 6 times now (yeah.. I'm a bit of a fanboy) so I want to give FFXII another chance with a strong focus on the plot. Plus it will kill some time before XIII's release that I'm uber excited for.

I am going to do the review in parts because I want to keep things fresh in my mind and I want to also share my current thoughts on the game up until certain parts. I haven't chosen which parts that I want to review on so it's just when I get sick of playing.

Don't expect many updates because I am in University and I do need to study :P . Two weeks from now, you might get a string of updates. There will be spoilers so be warned!!


Part 1 (Prologue - Nomad Village)

Okay, cool. The opening scenes were fine. The prologue is very well done. It gave me the information I needed. It seems like Dalmasca has got Arcadia and Rozaria (sp?) to worry about so it would be fair to expect both kingdoms to need Dalmasca taken over. Basically, Dalmasca looks like it is screwed!! I think that they should have re-done Lord Rassler's character design because he looks like a pretty-boy and that's annoying. I just couldn't take him too seriously when he's doing all of his heroic lines/actions when he looks like he could be 14. I'm not going to lie, I enjoyed his death. And that scene with the mages in the lighthouse in Nalbina (anyone know what I'm talking about?) needs to be explained to me... Why did Rassler not want to retreat until that thing was destroyed? Why is that place so important? etc..

The gameplay with Reks was cool. The only thing that really annoyed me was his breathing as he was dying. I hate to pick on his breathing ( :P ) but I honestly thought that it was over-done and cartoony. But that isn't too big of a deal for me.

Up until the point where you are introduced to Vaan, I can definitely see that this game has more worldly vision than some of the other final fantasies. For example, FFX seemed to have a stronger focus on characters whereas FFXII has a stronger focus on kingdoms and their struggles against each other. I have played FFIX very briefly but I can identify that FFXII has that same feel to it.

At this point, Vaan and Penelo are okay characters. The beginning is annoying but it definitely sets up the mood of one kingdom that's being taken over by another. And Vaan and Penelo set up that innocent point of view in the whole Dalmasca-surrender sitaution. I can deal with this; I don't have to be overwhelmed by tons of action like I was in FFX. I do not mind what is going on to set up the story.

I am going to whine about the Estersand music; it doesn't fit in my opinion. Maybe I'm still stuck on the desert music from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Gerudo Desert and Spirit Temple music) but the strong valiant trumpets doesn't fit the desert environment in my opinion. I prefer Middle-eastern, Egyptian, or Mexican influenced music (instrumental) to desert environments because they seem to fit a lot better. And for the record, I also think that they got the Sanubia Sands music in FFX wrong as well.

Old Dalan as a character (to this point) is okay but I strongly think that they could have continued the cut-scene with him. As soon as he starts talking about the Crescent Stone, the Sun Stone, and Nomad Village, it's just text. I can understand when they make it so that a character switches to text-speaking when they are explaining fighting or the license board, but I don't understand why they did it for Old Dalan at this point. He wasn't explaining any game mechanics or anything. Just doesn't make sense to me..

The battle system is okay so far... It seems a little tedious but it isn't too bad. The license system on the otherhand, is rediculous. I can definitely see (like last time) that there is not point to it at all; your characters end up with the same abilities anyways =/ . Now I heard that an international version (?) had the license system built a little differently; that should have been included in this game. I'll try my best to keep each character with their own class. I haven't gotten up to the Gambit system yet since that doesn't come until the Garamscythe Waterway.

So far I would give the game a 6/10. Its plot is pretty interesting, characters are not boring (yet...), gameplay is kind of fun, the music can be a bit of a headache, and it is overall an okay game that passes the rating so far.


Any thoughts, comments, criticisms, disagreements people? Don't hesitate to post them!

Interesting review... itll be fun to see if your opinion on the game changes during your playtrhrough.

Its good that you are giving XII a second look. These days its pretty easy to pass judgement on something without taking a second look at it.

I havet to agree with you on the estersand music... It seemed out of place.

Have you done some grinding yet? that would be where you get all of your gaming hours from. It's a pain in the ass.

P.S: I actually found the beginning a bit overwhelming to be honest.

Thanks for the response and now to reply.


Its good that you are giving XII a second look.

Yeah, I figured it deserved at least a 2nd look before I shelve that thing forever =P . This time I am actually trying to look at it at a more worldly perspective (almost like a folktale/fairytale); I think that I didn't enjoy XII last time because I was way too focused on the characters.



Have you done some grinding yet? that would be where you get all of your gaming hours from. It's a pain in the ass.

I did grinding last time and I imagine that I'll have to do some grinding this time =( . So far in my run, I haven't done any hardcore grinding. I'm going to try and minimilize (not a word) this because grinding (along with side-questing) really takes away from the story. Then again, I am doing reviews that look at plot...



P.S: I actually found the beginning a bit overwhelming to be honest.
I'm going to agree with you on this actually. I didn't mention it in the first part of my review but I definitely had to pause the game and actually soak in the information from the prologue.

And here's part 2 of my review:


Part 2 (Nomad Village � Nalbina Dungeons)

Okay, the Nomad Village part was a great way to get some licenses and XP. But it seemed to lack some cut-scenes. Am I too hooked on cut-scenes? Because the whole Nomad Village thing seemed so empty without a cut-scene. In other Final Fantasy games (the ones that had voice actors), a whole crap-load of minor characters got lines. Cut-scenes really make the stories come alive. Whatever, it's Nomad Village, it isn't really a big deal. The music on Giza Plains gave me a bit of a headache.

Once again, with Old Dalan, his scene involves it starting out with text and ending with voice. What is the point? Once again, he wasn't even explaining a game mechanic to the player. This doesn't make much sense.

Moving on, I have always hated Garamscythe Waterway with a passion but I managed to get to the secret palace entrance. I made sure not to open up any of the chests that would obliterate my chances at getting the Zodiac Spear but really; there are no clues in the game at all, as to what those chests are. Thank god for gamefaqs.com .

There were some excellent cut-scenes since the Garamscythe Waterway up until Nalbina Fortress. A favourite of mine is when Vaan is dreaming about Reks. It's too bad that we don't get other scenes like that (or at least scenes where Vaan talks a lot about Reks) because it would add so much more to Vaan's character... Which is kind of needed because he happens to be a very hated character in the entire series. Or at least a very forgotten character in the series.

I am discovering that this game totally has a Star Wars feel to it. Like from episode 4, continuing; this game definitely feels like it has a Star Wars thing going on. I'm not going to get into the similarities and comparisons but it definitely feels like a Star Wars story. Perhaps they just approach their stories similarly? I mean both creations take on a more worldly point of view and the writer said that he was a Star Wars fan...

Anyways, at this point, the cut-scenes are abundant and very entertaining. I have some issues with the music choices... There could have been bolder choices. Besides destroying the desert music potential, I think that the dungeon music is very boring and headache-prone. They didn't make bold choices for dungeon music like they did in FF8, FF10, or FF7 but it could be a lot worse.

Gameplay is still okay for me.. I'm getting a better grasp at it but I'm not finding myself consistently grinding either. Hmm, I should mention something about the environments, right? Okay the environments are excellent so far. I feel that everything is what it needs to be. Rabanastre is an awesome city to explore, Garamscythe Waterway is what it needs to be, the palace was great, and Nalbina Dungeons are beautifully done. And that's my views on the environments so far.

At this point, I am going to give the game an 8/10 because the story has kicked off very well at this point. I find the battles engaging so far, the story has got momentum; Fran, Balthier, and Ashe have been interestingly introduced, and there isn't a painful grind yet.

How early is too early to double post? Mods, if this bugs you, you guys can totally delete this post.

Let me know if I'm hitting the right notes with this review or if you think I'm wrong. I mean, I do see that there have been quite a bit of views on this thread but no replies. I'm not asking for replies (especially if you don't have anything to say) but I'm not going to rip your head off if you disagree with me (like I've seen done in other threads) =P . Flaming does not count as disagreeing with me by the way =P .


Part 3 (Nalbina Dungeons – Ogir-Yensa Sandsea)

I remember hating the Barheim Passage in my first run.... This time I actually found it bearable. I didn't like (and I guess I now don't like) how if you got lost, you were basically screwed because there are tons of mimics around and a lot of enemies that can kill you. Did I mention that I wasn't doing a hardcore run at the game?

The music to the Barheim Passage was also a huge headache and the Barheim Passage really felt closed in. I will be generous enough to say that the closed-in feel is what the game going for in regards to the Barheim Passage.

So far, I am definitely not a big fan of the music in this final fantasy because a lot of the music is really painful to play to. Sometimes people exaggerate the word “painful” but I honestly have gotten headaches from listening to it way too much. Maybe I'm just a pussy when it comes to music? But I know that the music isn't easy on my ears. And that damn Lowtown (Rabanastre) song always gets stuck in my head, hahahaha...

It was good to get some downtime and licenses in Dalmasca and whatnot. The story kept moving forward at a fairly good pace until we get to Bhujerba.

So we go from the Barheim Passage to more closed off mines (Lhusu Mines)? I'm not impressed but I'm not going to die either, so whatever. It just annoys me a little that I move from one closed off area to another without much open-space inbetween. And that whole cut-scene about Vaan saying that he doesn't think that Basch killed his brother is bullshit. Basch never admits that Judge Gabranth is his twin brother out loud at this point... There are clues but really, Vaan literally has no evidence that makes Basch innocent of Reks' death.

Lhusu mines are alright; “Lamont” is a fine guest who does a fair bit of damage. Penelo doesn't annoy me yet but I can see how it's a little bullshit that she got captured by Ba'Gamnan and held in the Lhusu mines.

Now comes for the scenes leading up to the Leviathan. I keep on getting reminders of how much this game is alike with the Star Wars franchise. It has such a focus on politics that the audience looses a little bit of the story. And the lack of bright colours within the Leviathan (the Leviathan is more white and gray than anything) is also a throwback to Starwars.

So let me get this straight: Marquis Ondore wanted to keep Basch alive so he announced his death under the orders of Vayne? But he sends them to the Leviathan to save Ashe?

In the Leviathan, there is a scene where it is suggested that the stone that Vaan got from the treasury is the Dusk Shard. But it isn't because that's found in Lord Raithwall's tomb, right? The way that cut-scene is played out, leads the players into thinking that Judge Ghis gets a hold of the Dusk Shard; and it would make sense that the Dusk Shard would be hidden in the Rabanastre treasury. I felt that that was a very misleading scene. And for the record, if you aren't level 14 or if you haven't purchased a blind magick, you are royally screwed for the Leviathan and either need to xp like crazy or restart the game. You need to blind those judges in the judge battles! And the music is also painful.

And wtf is Penelo doing in the Leviathan? Why would Lord Larsa not send Penelo on another Airship straight to Rabanastre? Her being there doesn't make any sense to me because Larsa could have easily have an Airship carry her back to Rabanastre. Penelo being on the Leviathan doesn't make sense to me at all!!

Moving onto the scenes in Bhujerba; I do like Ashe to be honest with you guys. I think that she's a pretty cool character. I know that my favourites are (in order) Fran, Balthier, and Ashe. Okay, so they all decide to leave for Lord Raithwall's Tomb.

But let's re-cap why they are all sticking together.... Balthier and Fran want to plunder the treasure in the Tomb that Ashe said that there would be treasure; Ashe needs proof of her birthright; Basch needs to protect Ashe, who is one of the only people who can make major changes to Dalmasca's future; Penelo is clearly in love with Vaan, who decides to stay; And Vaan wants adventure? Vaan and Penelo's reasons for sticking with the group don't make much sense to me; they aren't strong reasons to stay with the group yet. But what really surprises me is that the adults (being Balthier, Fran, Ashe, and Basch) don't oppose them. This surprises me because I would think that the adults (initially) would oppose Penelo and Vaan from joining because they are young. It seems like it would be a natural response in situations like that. And then Vaan and Penelo seem a little segregated from the rest of the group with their innocent dialogue exchanges.

Anyways, I've stopped up to Ogir-Yensa Sandsea because I know that I'm going to need to grind and that will probably take a little while. Next review, I plan on going from Ogir-Yensa Sandsea to Jahara. I know for a fact that I do a good grinding at Jahara.

For your information, I have decided to class my characters because I hate the license system =P . I'm having Basch as my heavy fight; Vaan as a secondary heavy fighter; Penelo using Green Magick; Balthier using time magic; Fran as a black mage; and Ashe as my white mage. This is just something that I thought might be fun for you kids to read.

Right now I am going to have to give it a 6/10. Some characters' motives (at this point) are unclear, some dialogue really confused me (referring to the Dusk shard here), the music is painful, and Penelo is a little annoying.

WOW, I wasn't planning to make a reply here, but whatever, about the characters motivations, you should see how the relation between the characters develops, specially Balthier & Vaan, that will make easier for you to understand why they let them come to Tomb of Raithwall.
As for Penelo on the Leviathan, doesn't comes to your mind that Larsa wants to hit on Penelo XD!.

About the music, absolutely disagree, but it's understandable, different composers & the focus on the music it's very different, you say the Eastersand music is out of place, well yeah, if we are talking about deserts, but I think it fits perfectly good with the game, I mean look closely, you're fighting wolfs, dinasours, rabbits & horses all that different creatures not from a desert(maybe the dinasours), in a desert, an egyptian or arabian music wouldn't worked on that kind of scenery in my opinion.

The dialogues are confusing, yes, they are indeed, they use complicated words, forms of english, etc... It took me a lot of rewatch scenes to fully understand what everyone said and Implied, but I get used to it.

Off Topic: FFXII is one of my all time fauvorite games, but this has nothing to do with you, apparently every one that I know who plays this game actually likes the character of Ashe, man I found that character way too annoying & hateful, xD, I don't know it's just weird for a person who loves something & hates the factor that makes likes to many others.
Well I also do not consider this game as an FF Game. xD

Continue this review man, I'm looking foward to your final veredict.

Not really important but I didn't think it felt like FFIX at all.

About the music, absolutely disagree, but it's understandable, different composers & the focus on the music it's very different, you say the Eastersand music is out of place, well yeah, if we are talking about deserts, but I think it fits perfectly good with the game, I mean look closely, you're fighting wolfs, dinasours, rabbits & horses all that different creatures not from a desert(maybe the dinasours), in a desert, an egyptian or arabian music wouldn't worked on that kind of scenery in my opinion.

I can definitely see where you're comming from. I think that once I finish this run, I am going to talk about and assess the game in different parts (like music, story, monsters/bosses, characters, etc). I would like to expand on my thoughts about the music in the game as a whole right now but I want to finish off my run in case my opinion changes in anyway. Thanks for bringing this up though!



man I found that character way too annoying & hateful

I guess I just like angry women =P . To me she has a lot of dimensions to her character so far. On one hand she's this angry spoiled brat who got her kingdom taken away, and then on the otherhand she genuinely cares about everything Dalmasca stands for and she wants to return that to the people.



As for Penelo on the Leviathan, doesn't comes to your mind that Larsa wants to hit on Penelo

LOL that would explain a LOT.



Continue this review man, I'm looking foward to your final veredict.

The sole reason as to why I'm doing this review in parts is because I wouldn't be able to make a fair verdict on it since (honestly) I would forget most of the story. Not only that but I wouldn't be able to do a final verdict unless I played through the game at least twice in my opinion. Speaking of which, here's part 4!


Part 4 ( Ogir-Yensa Sandsea – Jahara Village)

Boy did Raithwall's tomb ever take a while =P .

My review continues. Ogir-Yensa and Nam-Yensa sandseas are my favourite environments so far. The music also fits the region this time so that gets a plus from me. Travelling through the sandseas can be a painful experience if you aren't well prepared; I used the sandseas to xp and get license points while I was trying to get to Raithwall's tomb. At this point, I wanted all of my characters to get a quickening (with Ashe getting two quickenings because I wanted her to summon Belias without getting all of her mana zapped) before I finished off Raithwall's tomb.

What bothered me about the sandseas was that I felt like another event should have happened on their way to Raithwall's tomb. The most you can do is a side-quest at this point but I definitely felt that there could have been a point where the group gets a cut-scene and then they are suddenly ambushed by Urutan-Yensas. I would also like to take down the Urutan-queen sometime but isn't she a hunt? Basically I wanted to have one more event happen on the sandseas that could possibly explain more about the Urutan-Yensa culture. First time I played through this game, I thought that I was going to be going under the sandsea and find the Urutan city or something.. The Urutan-Yensas seem so cool and interesting and I feel that the game doesn't explore that like it should.

Also tomatoes as enemies in the sandsea? Yeah, there are several areas in Ogir-Yensa and Nam-Yensa sandseas that have those animated tomato guys as enemies in the environment; they don't really fit the surroundings in my opinion. I feel that they could have added large scorpions, or something that was a little less childish than a walking tomato. I will say that their succulent fruits earned a pretty penny though.

Yeah, so I definitely had to grind my ass off here since I wanted the quickenings, etc. And that's mainly the reason why this part has taken quite a while to churn out.

I decided to skip the first animated wall (I forget his name) and go straight for the second one. I managed to kill the second one pretty fast except for the fact that the first wall cursed one of my characters, which removed him from the game until I touched a save crystal. I guess it was just the first wall's version of kicking me in the balls (considering he cursed Basch who is one of my best characters). Raithwall's tomb seemed easier considering that I xp'd like nobody's business. I didn't even have trouble with Vossler after Raithwall's tomb.

I love the cut-scenes in Archadia. Pretty cool! I like how the politics have a huge role in Lord Gramas' (?) decisions. It really makes Archadia not look like the bad guy of all bad guys in this game.

The cut-scenes were pretty amazing! I love what is happening with the story after Raithwall's tomb. The group needs more information, so off to Jahara village we go!! I felt like I wanted to buy a couple of more spells before I get to Jahara village and so I did some hunts. It's damn good LP and has some excellent rewards, if I say so myself. If you ever find yourself wanting more LP to spend, do a couple of hunts, most of them even hand you teleport stones! That's a plus in my book!

I also wanted an event to occur in the Ozmone plains on the way to Jahara Village. Like a cut-scene or a mini-boss would be excellent because otherwise Ozmone Plains feels like an area that just gives you more gaming hours. Of course that one super high levelled Esper is available as a side quest but at this point (if you're a casual gamer) your level is way too low to take him on.

When I got to Jahara Village I definitely felt that a cut-scene was needed between the War Chief and the group. It was just text and it really stuttered the flow. By this I mean there were camera angles/cuts that indicated that it was a cut-scene that was going to include some voice-overs but that didn't happen. It didn't flow well in my opinion. Perhaps the budget was lower this round?

Now the actual cut-scenes with the high-chief-Garaf was entertaining. And it was nice to finally get to know that Vaan was tagging along because he didn't want to face his brother's death and Dalmasca's loss in the war. Of course any gamer that isn't doing a review like this has a good chance of forgetting this important detail due to the fact that you HAVE to grind at some point in order to beat the game. Did I mention that this review has spoilers?

Now I am back to grinding... I want to get all of my characters all of their quickenings (except maybe Basch because his will take forever since I screwed up =P ). I want to purchase some wicked shit-kicking spells like Curaga maybe if I can at this point. And I want to upgrade my main characters' equipment (weapons at least). So back to the grinding =P .

I'm going to be a little bolder this time and give the game an 8.5/10 . The story is really picking up. Some areas feel a little empty to me. Some monster choices are questionable (I mean how long is it going to be before I find a zone without bats and tomatoes?) I really enjoyed the music from the Sandseas, Raithwall's tomb, and Ozmone Plains. The music in those areas felt very suited to those environments. I, again, feel like some text-scenes should have been legitimate cut-scenes but overall I am enjoying this run of the game a lot more than my first time.


By the way, what kind of weapons do you guys give to Penelo? I can never confidently decide on which weapons she should have; this round I'm giving her poles (no dirty references lol =P ) just to be different. I could give her a staff but I feel like that would be unoriginal... I'm keeping Fran with her Bow, Ashe with rods ( =P ), Basch with Spears and Swords, Vaan with swords, and Balthier with guns. SO what do you guys give Penelo?

In reference to Penelo's weapons:

On my current run I have her with staffs, though only because I've decided to use her as a black mage. Usually, however, I have her with Katanas - she's got fairly high speed, tends to do multiple hits, and Katanas base damage on magic power, apparently.

What bothered me about the sandseas was that I felt like another event should have happened on their way to Raithwall's tomb. The most you can do is a side-quest at this point but I definitely felt that there could have been a point where the group gets a cut-scene and then they are suddenly ambushed by Urutan-Yensas. I would also like to take down the Urutan-queen sometime but isn't she a hunt? Basically I wanted to have one more event happen on the sandseas that could possibly explain more about the Urutan-Yensa culture. First time I played through this game, I thought that I was going to be going under the sandsea and find the Urutan city or something.. The Urutan-Yensas seem so cool and interesting and I feel that the game doesn't explore that like it should.



Yeah, I found the Sandsea, the most boring shit in the game along with the sunstones, man, I was sleeping in the chair while exploring, it's way too big & long & it definitely needed a middle cutscene or something to break the emptiness you feel while exploring.

I wasn't annoyed in the Osmone Plains, when I firstly arrived to that place I had the same thought you had, more boring exploring with nothing in between, but in the end I found it really straight foward, I arrive to the Garif's Village very quickly, soon you will enter to my fauvorite part of the game =D.

Thanks again for your thoughts. Here is part 5!


Part 5 (Jahara Village � Stillshrine of Miriam)

In this part I went from Jahara Village to the Stillshrine of Miriam. I would have gone further but I need a break from this game because I know that I'm going to have to grind even more, before I step into the Stillshrine. Anyways...

I grinded quite a bit in the Ozmone Plains. For me it was serving as some good down-time in between assignments and studying so I don't mind it right now.

Golmore Jungle is definitely one of my favourite environments so far. The environment is very dynamic and the monsters and the music suite the environment. It was a great place to xp in for me. Eruyt Village had some amazing cut-scenes in it. I loved the voice actors for the Viera and I loved learning about the Viera ways. I am kind of a lore-nut in video games so this is definitely a plus for me. So off to Henne Mines we go!

One thing I am going to mention is that so far I am finding that all of the major events in the game (saving Penelo, robbing the Palace, escaping Nalbina dungeons, the Leviathan, Raithwall's Tomb to name a few) takes place inside closed off areas (such as Mines or inside a building). Your goals in this game so far is to go inside some place far away. Main events in this game could take place in open areas such as the Ozmone Plains, the Estersand, or even in the Sandseas.... I feel like the game depends on confined areas to move the story forward so far. And then that leaves the open areas in the game as grinding zones. Some places like the Stillshrine of Miriam and Raithwall's Tomb are going to be closed off spaces no matter what. But I would've liked to see something like a prison riot start up in Nalbina Dungeons and then you would have to escape the city. But whatever, it didn't happen.

So I make it in and out of the Henne mines in record time due to the fact that I have a gamefaqs.com guide holding my hand all the way through. The boss at the end wasn't too hard for me; I managed to defeat him in one go. And here we are first introduced to Venat, who I don't remember what his purpose is =P . I just know that he's bad lol.

New spells are available to me now!! Too bad I couldn't afford any of them at this point so I ended up grinding and doing some hunts. I needed to grind to get Ashe her haste spell and I needed to afford Fira, Blizzara, Haste, and everything else. I ended up getting $20,000 from grinding and hunts. I have a lot of hours of gameplay and each time I need to grind, I can definitely see why a casual player would forget about the plot.... I ended up skipping that Elder Wyrm at the end of the Golmore Jungle; I tried him once and died, and I do not have the patience to get everyone in my part haste and esuna so I just skipped him by going through a small part of the Feywood.

The Feywood is a place that I am definitely looking forward to. But I came across some animated tomatoes that were kicking my ass. REALLY?!?!!?!! I am so fucking sick of running into renegade tomatoes!!! Like it's the Feywood, a level 35+ zone and they give us level 35+ tomatoes to deal with!?!?!! This is not cool with me because they could have definitely replaced those tomatoes with renegade steroid-flowers or something that actually suits the environment!!

The Paramina Rift was enjoyable. Mountain zones never really bug me, it's those damn mines that annoy me so much. I am so sick of mines at this point! Anyways, guess what I ran into in the Paramina Rift? More animated tomatoes... Uh sorry, they're actually onions. Did the creativity get sucked dry before they were placing monsters in these zones? And it doesn't even make sense that the onion/tomatoes are in a winter environment because onions and tomatoes don't grow in the winter unless it's indoors. I know it's a fantasy game but really... tomatoes and onions? I would've accepted animated snowmen because they at least fit the environment.

At Mt. Bur-Omisace, there were some cool cut-scenes. The cut-scene in Archadia was a bit fast considering that Lord Gramis was obviously murdered by Vayne. To pull a specific example, Vayne said at one point that Gramis was a traitor but I never heard why Gramis was a traitor. So that scene (which I believe to be important) was a little fast. They definitely got that �panic� flow right in the scene but it was a tad too fast. So Gramis' death flushed Ashe's plans down the shitter and now we need to get the Sword of Kings from the Stillshrine, which can cut through Nethicite. No problem there, I totally understand why we need that sword now; Ashe needs more power to stop Vayne's war (which he will probably use Nethicite).

This leaves me at a point where I am probably going to need to do some more grinding. I don't even have enough school work to balance out this tedious grinding. I plan on getting all of my 3 main characters haste, getting everyone all of their quickenings, and leveling up a bit.

Right now, I am going to give this game a *4/10. It seems a bit repetitive, right now it requires a little too much grinding for my liking (unless you have your characters doing the exact same thing on the license board), the animated fruits and vegetables in every environment is pissing me off, but the story is still fairly understandable.

I have decided that I want to keep Penelo with Poles or Measures. I have never had a character that used either and considering that I use Penelo the least, I will stick her with the Poles and Measures. I was considering giving her Katanas and I just might do that in the end.


* I'm changing the rating to a 6/10. Part 5 wasn't as bad as I thought when compared to part 6.

The Paramina Rift was enjoyable. Mountain zones never really bug me, it's those damn mines that annoy me so much. I am so sick of mines at this point! Anyways, guess what I ran into in the Paramina Rift? More animated tomatoes... Uh sorry, they're actually onions. Did the creativity get sucked dry before they were placing monsters in these zones? And it doesn't even make sense that the onion/tomatoes are in a winter environment because onions and tomatoes don't grow in the winter unless it's indoors. I know it's a fantasy game but really... tomatoes and onions? I would've accepted animated snowmen because they at least fit the environment.

At Mt. Bur-Omisace, there were some cool cut-scenes. The cut-scene in Archadia was a bit fast considering that Lord Gramis was obviously murdered by Vayne. To pull a specific example, Vayne said at one point that Gramis was a traitor but I never heard why Gramis was a traitor. So that scene (which I believe to be important) was a little fast. They definitely got that �panic� flow right in the scene but it was a tad too fast. So Gramis' death flushed Ashe's plans down the shitter and now we need to get the Sword of Kings from the Stillshrine, which can cut through Nethicite. No problem there, I totally understand why we need that sword now; Ashe needs more power to stop Vayne's war (which he will probably use Nethicite).

This leaves me at a point where I am probably going to need to do some more grinding. I don't even have enough school work to balance out this tedious grinding. I plan on getting all of my 3 main characters haste, getting everyone all of their quickenings, and leveling up a bit.

Right now, I am going to give this game a 4/10. It seems a bit repetitive, right now it requires a little too much grinding for my liking (unless you have your characters doing the exact same thing on the license board), the animated fruits and vegetables in every environment is pissing me off, but the story is still fairly understandable.


Do not get yourself hate the game because of a salad man, it's something like someone comes and tells me that hates castlevania because of the fleaman, which I hate them, but that kind of things happens all the time in games dude, the cute cat is your biggest threat in almost any Japanese game, so if you played a lot of NES games you should get used to it by now, but apparently not.

The Paramina Rift & Bur-Omisace cut scenes are my fauvorites in the whole game because that's when the story gets it's biggests climax.
Fun-Fact: The first 4 times that I watched the cutscene when you talk with the gran Kiltias(my fauvorite character) & all that, I turned off the console because I didn't wanted that to go further, I didn't want to finish the game because If I keep playing I was going to get near the end & I didn't wanted the game to end. LOL....

I agree it gets repetitive, but only if you are going to follow the main quest, put yourself some other objectives like finishing some hunts & doing side quest to get your head cooled down, the Feywood is not a place that you should explore right now, they'll kick your ass big time & trust me the tomatos aren't the biggest threat there...

The game was designed to be hard to advance because it's short, believe me, the game is very short if it were easier.

After you finished the game if you wish check this:
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Sage_Knowledge
You can read some of those now in the Bestiary, but I reccommend to finish the game first & then read all this stuff because, at least I didn't unlock them all & I don't intend to, but there's a lot of flavor & extra things in the game that makes things easier to understand about the storyline.
But if you don't want to it's okay

BTW which lvl are your party?

LOL, I'm not hating the game because of some tomatoes. I think that part of my review came across more seriously than sarcastically due to the internet being the internet. Sorry about that.



I agree it gets repetitive, but only if you are going to follow the main quest, put yourself some other objectives like finishing some hunts & doing side quest to get your head cooled down,

The bolded part is mainly why I am only giving it a 4/10 in this part of my review. If I remember correctly, FFVIII didn't feel as repetitive like XII. To pull a specific example, it started out (roughly) with Squall and the gang going out to Timber where they meet Rinoa and then the story takes off from there. And if I remember correctly, almost every zone (except the World Map and some of the side quest areas) had a cut-scene or something to do in almost every zone. Now I know that this isn't FFVIII but following the main quest of VIII doesn't get repetitive. You end up doing a lot in main linear story, without conjuring up other objectives or side-quests in order to keep the game dynamic. With XII, there is at least 5 or 8 zones where all you have to do is run through them to get to your goal and it all seems like "get to this zone, grind, get to that zone, grind" right now.

I have been doing some hunts though and they do keep the game dynamic but I also believe that a video game shouldn't pressure (I'm using this word very lightly, guys) the player into doing side-quests in order to make it feel less repetitive. That's just my opinion though. Don't get me wrong, I'm still enjoying my run. I'm just not going to turn a blind eye to smaller details when I'm doing a review on the entire game as I do my run =P . My final verdict is going to be very interesting when that time comes.

Not only that but there aren't any cut-scenes (or anything really) that explains some of the secret Espers and add to the story. That isn't a big deal to me but in my opinion side-quests should try to explain an aspect of the story that the player wouldn't know if they just stuck to the main quest.

Paramina Rift and Bur-Omisace are also a high point for me in the game. It definitely gives you that change of scenery that's needed at that point in the game. And the Gran Kiltias is an awesome character! I think I'll quickly edit something about him in my latest part...



Feywood is not a place that you should explore right now, they'll kick your ass big time & trust me the tomatos aren't the biggest threat there...

Hahaha. Yeah the Feywood means business at this point =P . They pretty much mopped the floor with me as I lazily avoided the Elder Wyrm.

Right now, because I am doing a casual (which might not be possible for this game) run, my people are level 26-28. I realize that this is probably lower than normal.

Hmm, your levels aren't too bad. My guide says to be at about level 30 for the Stilshrine. Just done that part myself!

Am I seriously the only person who actually likes grinding in this game, though? It's never bothered me at all, but everyone seems to hate it.

Hmm, your levels aren't too bad. My guide says to be at about level 30 for the Stilshrine. Just done that part myself!

Am I seriously the only person who actually likes grinding in this game, though? It's never bothered me at all, but everyone seems to hate it.

I hate to grind LEVELS!(in any game in general, but here in FFXII when you pass a lvl the attributes get to be in the same place & they go up after various lvls, just hp is the only noticable add, that's why it becomes hateful), because grinding lvl's is the most frustrating thing in any game, you get to see the fruits of your effort after hours.

I love to grind LP/AP/SP! Because you get to see its fruits soon & their fruits is much more useful in comparison to the lvls.

That's why I tend to hate character systems that the skills are tied with the lvl's because the grinding is absurd, of course there are exceptions such as the first Parasite Eve & Chrono Trigger, but in those games the Curve of Difficulty & XP is well designed, if you make a normal playthrough in these games there's no need to grind any level at all, you can finish the game from beggining to end without making any intentional random battle.


LOL, I'm not hating the game because of some tomatoes. I think that part of my review came across more seriously than sarcastically due to the internet being the internet. Sorry about that.



With XII, there is at least 5 or 8 zones where all you have to do is run through them to get to your goal and it all seems like "get to this zone, grind, get to that zone, grind" right now.

I have been doing some hunts though and they do keep the game dynamic but I also believe that a video game shouldn't pressure (I'm using this word very lightly, guys) the player into doing side-quests in order to make it feel less repetitive. That's just my opinion though. Don't get me wrong, I'm still enjoying my run. I'm just not going to turn a blind eye to smaller details when I'm doing a review on the entire game as I do my run =P . My final verdict is going to be very interesting when that time comes.

Not only that but there aren't any cut-scenes (or anything really) that explains some of the secret Espers and add to the story. That isn't a big deal to me but in my opinion side-quests should try to explain an aspect of the story that the player wouldn't know if they just stuck to the main quest.


Right now, because I am doing a casual (which might not be possible for this game) run, my people are level 26-28. I realize that this is probably lower than normal.

I agree the game shoudn't put a gun in your head & tell you "GRIND! OR I'LL SHOOT", *takes a deep breath* but sadly it does that, but at least the battle system doesn't suck, so that makes the grinding a little less heavy(Really I prefer to Grind LVL's in this FF rather than any other).

Your lvl's are ok, I checked my save(Yeah I have a separate save to watch the whole cut-scene over & over again xD) & my characters in that point are at 28-30, the funny thing is that I explored almost the whole Paramina Rift before reaching the Bur Omisace & something even funnier is that I got lost the first time O.o! that's why my lvls are that, if not they would be the same as yours or lower...

This is one of the FF's where going away and LP farming for a while was actually good fun. I spent a good couple of hours chaining undead in the stiltshire of miriam. Ended up with about a 200 chain, TONS of valuable loot and good weapons, loads of exp and of course LP. Was good fun too.

at least the battle system doesn't suck, so that makes the grinding a little less heavy

I'll agree to that in a heatbeat. Except when it comes to the espers. They just suck.


Part 6 (Stillshrine of Miriam – Salikawood)

This time I decided to take it from the beginning of the Stillshrine up until Salikawood. I intend on having my next part take me up until Old Archades from Salikawood since I know that I need to do HARDCORE grinding before that underground place.

Okay, so the entire Mt. Bur-Omisace – Stillshrine of Miriam was a huge highlight of the story for me. The change of scenery was perfectly timed, the plot moves forward and intensifies, and it is a pretty challenging part of the game in a good way.

The Stillshrine of Miriam had excellent music and scenery. It will also challenge players who aren't having a gamefaqs.com guide holding their hand through the game. I really don't have any criticisms for the Stillshrine of Miriam because it was really well done. It was definitely more challenging than King Raithwall's tomb but it also felt very in tune with the mountainous environment that the Stillshrine sits in. It was refreshing and challenging for me at the same time, this run.

The first boss that you fight in the Stillshrine is a very interesting battle because you can't have any heavy armour equipped. It was an easy battle because I managed to get very good at the quickening chains so that he wasn't a problem for me. Mateus on the other hand could have kicked my ass. I had to do a quickening chain right from the start with my 3 non-used characters in order to weaken mateus and the other elements in the battle. I managed to beat Mateus but I definitely needed a couple of things; a frost shield equipped to each character, a shell spell constantly active on each character, and an accessory that makes each character immune to sleep. With those three components in my strategy, I managed to defeat Mateus proudly.

Getting the Sword of Kings was a cool cut scene to watch but I'm confused about something; why could Ashe only see Rassler whereas last time, Vaan could see him as well? If this is explained later on in the game, then that's fine, but that part did confuse me a little at this point in the game.

It sucks that the Gran Kiltias was killed after you finish up the Stillshrine. Venat makes another suspenseful appearance. By the way, Judge Bergan wasn't as bad for me like he was last time. I managed to have minimal trouble with him and the other Judges this run of the game. After his defeat, some cut-scenes unfold allowing the player to get the feeling that the Archadian Empire, under Vayne's rule, is getting out of control with their manufactured Nethicite. After hearing what Al-Cid has to say about the Rozarrian Empire, Ashe and the group decide that they need to go to the Draklore Laboratories to stall the process of making more Nethicite.

This is fine and all since the game has been alluding us to the fact that the player is going to have to go into the Draklore laboratories; what this really means in this game is that the player is going to travel through more zones to get into a closed off area in order to move the story forward. So I'm going to travel through the Mosphoran Highwaste, Salikawood, Phon Coast, Tchita Uplands, and the Sochen Cave Palace with only one cut-scene (maybe two) during the entire journey. Keep in mind that there aren't any events (or even mini-games) in any of these zones.. It's just a straight-up grindfest until you reach the Draklore Laboratories except for the events in Old Archades.

I'm not at that point though, so I'm just going to reserve my judgements until the next part.... So the Mosphoran Highwaste is definitely a good change of scenery compared to the cold mountainous environment I just dealt with. The music here is okay... I think that the developers could have used a percussion-strong piece (and still fit the theme) here. Instead they recycled the Estersand music I think? I have nothing much to say about the Mosphoran Highwaste because nothing happens in this part except that I thought that I was going to get a boss battle when I was crossing the empty zone into the Salikawood.

Salikawood is a very beautiful zone in my opinion. It has the right music and it definitely has its own mood to the zone. But I know that nothing is going to happen in this zone unless I get desperate enough to start the cut-scene at the Necrohol of Nabudis.

I feel that the game producers are not exploring the potentials some of the zones in the game. I've been through the Golmore Jungle, Estersand, Westersand, the Sandseas, Paramina Rift, Mosphoran Waste, and Salikawood and all that I have done in these zones is grind. There is literally nothing to do in those zones except grind and pass through them. They do not move the story forward at all and they honestly seem a little pointless, except that they lengthen the game. For example, when crossing that bridge into the Salikawood, they could have placed a boss there. Or in the Mosphoran Highwaste they could have had a couple of cut-scenes. Is it too much to ask for zones with more to do in them than just kill enemies?

Now onto the plot at this point... We need to keep in mind that this whole story is from Vaan's point of view. Right now the plot is sort of turning into Ashe's story as opposed to Vaan's story. I think that it would be an interesting approach if the game developers actually made that switch from Vaan's point of view to Ashe's point of view. But that isn't the case; I just feel like the game forgets their main character. This could easily be rectified by adding a couple of cut-scenes that included Vaan and maybe even Penelo (just so that she doesn't seem so useless to the group).

My rating for this section is 4.75/10. It would have easily been an 8 or a 9/10 but after the events have happened in Mt. Bur-Omisace/Stillshrine of Miriam, the plot goes on pause. I literally fought through 2 � zones that had nothing else to offer than a change of scenery and music (unless it's recycled music). There needs to be something else to do in a zone (even watching a cut-scene isn't bad at all!! An example of how lazy the developers can be are the cut scenes in Kilika Woods in FFX. It only had one cut-scene lol). Right now the zones seem pointless and that's not how a game should have their zones feel.

So what do you guys do with your espers? I know that they are pointless but do you guys have a dedicated summoner in the group? Do you spread out the espers throughout the group? I know that last time, I gave all of the espers to Ashe because I wanted a dedicated summoner but this time I'm spreading them out.

By the way, I'm changing part 5's rating because I now feel that it is a little unfair.

Now onto the plot at this point... We need to keep in mind that this whole story is from Vaan's point of view. Right now the plot is sort of turning into Ashe's story as opposed to Vaan's story. I think that it would be an interesting approach if the game developers actually made that switch from Vaan's point of view to Ashe's point of view. But that isn't the case; I just feel like the game forgets their main character. This could easily be rectified by adding a couple of cut-scenes that included Vaan and maybe even Penelo (just so that she doesn't seem so useless to the group).

So what do you guys do with your espers? I know that they are pointless but do you guys have a dedicated summoner in the group? Do you spread out the espers throughout the group? I know that last time, I gave all of the espers to Ashe because I wanted a dedicated summoner but this time I'm spreading them out.


About the Character Focus, let me give you a brief & interesting story about an example Executive Meddling:

The Story & Concept was written by Yasumi Matsuno (Writer of the Ogre Battle Saga, Final Fantasy Tactics & Vagrant Story, of course he's the creator of the Ivalice Universe, later ruined by square but that's not the case) & he leaves the project of FFXII mid way to it's completion(Health Issues according to the Official News), The protagonist of the Story was originally ment to be Basch, this makes more sense because of the relation between the characters of Basch & Ashe, but they didn't do that because in the previous game of Matsuno (Vagrant Story) the protagonist share similiarities & Vagrant Story didn't selled as much as an FF title, so instead of using a protagonist "Strong Man in his Prime" they used the "Bishonen childish" type of Vaan, a more marketing & more commercial Image in comparsion to Basch.
So that might be an answer to the reasons that why some parts of the game felt empty & why it changes it focus as the game advances.
By the end of the game Vaan is not any relevant to the storyline (YES!!!! xD).

About the Espers... I really don't use them at all, because I can't modify their gambits, If I could do that, it would be much more useful, but sadly we can't.
Another thing that's ugly about the Espers is the fact that when you summon one it only remains the summoner & the summoned, the rest of the party is just swallowed up to another dimension.

The long grind to Archades is another thing that a lot of people don't like about FFXII, but I really don't mind it. Though it is made better if you do some sidequests along the way - defeating Bergan is another of those milestones that opens up new stuff (read: a crapton of hunts).

As for Espers, I just never used them, period. Partly because I was incredibly anal and managed to get each party's experience values to be exactly identical, and I didn't want to mess that up, and partly because Espers sucked. Like topopoz said, they might have been better if the rest of the party remained and you could modify their gambits.

topopoz, that is really interesting. It makes more sense as to why the storyline is a little broken. Even after they made that writer switch, the new writer should have realized that if they wanted Vaan to be the main character then they needed more cut-scenes with Vaan in them. I don't mind it when the story "takes a break" from the main characters but it does bother me when the story doesn't return back to the intended main characters; that's how I feel about FFXII right now.

So yeah... I'm going to be doing a lot of grinding. I want to get my characters up to level 35+ and I want to do an armour/weapon upgrade. As well as getting some spells.

Speaking of spells; what is the deal with the water spell? I mean, after you get water, there aren't any upgrades to that spell (such as watera, etc). Is it because there are many enemies with a weakness to water? This isn't a big deal but I do find that spell very frustrating to use since there aren't any upgrades to it.

Well right now I am giving Mateus to Fran and I gave Belias to Ashe. I don't plan on using them ever ( =P ) but that's what I have done so far. I think that you should've had complete control over the esper (without any of the main characters on the field) in order to maker them useful but after their time is up, it depletes the summoner of their mana.

topopoz, that is really interesting. It makes more sense as to why the storyline is a little broken. Even after they made that writer switch, the new writer should have realized that if they wanted Vaan to be the main character then they needed more cut-scenes with Vaan in them. I don't mind it when the story "takes a break" from the main characters but it does bother me when the story doesn't return back to the intended main characters; that's how I feel about FFXII right now.


Unfortunately it turned that way, but overall the story is really good, I like it a lot, the problem is that, when they changed the direction & writer things obviously change & the visions are diferent, but they didn't screwed it that much, it could have been much worse, at least they keeped the original concepts, the story centered in other characters & they tried to at least give a curtain by putting Vaan as the "protagonist".
I think FFXII would have been much much darker & edgier. I would like to see how would have looked the Real FFXII

I would like to see how would have looked the Real FFXII

Now that would be interesting. Too bad it'll never happen.

I think FFXII would have been much much darker & edgier.

Now that would be interesting. Too bad it'll never happen.

Amen to that. When I was waiting for FFXII to get released, it looked darker and edgier. It looked like it was going to be a hell of a ride in the trailers. But when I played the game, it felt more grindy (lol) & too linear.


Part 7 (Salikawood – Old Archades)

You guys are use to me giving my “X” amount out of 10 at the end of my review; this time I'm switching it up because I feel that I need to justify my rating in further detail to you all.

I'm giving it a 3/10 for this part.

Keep in mind that I will be considering a ton of more aspects of the game when I do my final review. I haven't looked at any gaming mechanics (such as the license/gambit/summon system) because I am saving that for the final verdict. I feel that I need to view those gaming mechanics as a whole rather than viewing them in parts in order to give those mechanics fair feedback. So far, they are enjoyable.

2 of the points come from the environments that I had to travel through. The environments were beautifully created. The Salikawood was a refreshing zone, so was the Phon Coast, Tchita Uplands, and the Sochen Cave Palace was okay. The environments were very detailed, the lighting was beautiful, and all of the environments for this part conveyed particular moods that differed from all of the environments that the player has gone through so far.

1 point goes to the music in the environments..... Like it has been mentioned in the FFshrine forums, the musical pieces of this final fantasy fit a specific theme. I feel that the musical theme is about Nationalism. Now this isn't a problem for me; the musical pieces are beautiful and they have the intended theme. But I strongly feel that the developers didn't consider the environments that they were going to place specific pieces in. The Phon Coast has a song that doesn't fit the environment and the same thing happens in the Tchita Uplands. There are more specific examples but I don't want to get into them.

The Phon Coast has a musical piece that focuses blaring, valiant trumpets in the song. The song fits the whole nationalistic theme that the composer intended FFXII's music to have (from my interpretation) but it doesn't fit the environment. Plus it was recycled (which is understandable) from the Estersand zone, where I also think that the music doesn't suit the environment. Now I will give the music one point to my total score because there were places where I felt that the music suited the zone very well, such as the Sochen Cave Palace, Salikawood, and the Hunter's Camp. But that would be it for this part.

Now with a typical (I use this term LOOSELY) final fantasy game, I think that it is fair to expect a strong focus on the plot. The plot has always been a super-strong focus (and strong edge) of a final fantasy game, in my opinion. At this point, the plot falls flat on its ass. I hate to refer back to a previous part of my review but since the events at Mt. Bur-Omisace, there have only been 3 (at max) cut-scenes in the journey from Rabanastre to Old Archades. There are approximately 5 zones where there aren't any cut-scenes to keep the plot alive. Instead the player grinds, and grinds, and grinds, for five zones until they finally reach Old Archades. 5 zones is a lot, and I would bet tons of money that players tend to forget about the plot at this point. And grinding isn't always fun; I found that I went back to the Ozmone Plain to grind because it gave me more money and experience faster since I could defeat the enemies very quickly.

I feel that they wasted at least 5 really nice zones for grinding. They could of moved the plot forward or even give us a cut-scene that reveals more about a character. I'm not saying that the Phon Coast cut-scene didn't exist, it just feels like the rest of the zones during this journey, had to be fought through.

Plot and character in a final fantasy game, for me, is the bread and butter. 5/10 of the points that I didn't give to this part of the review, was due to the lack of development in that area. And during this part of the game, there was next to no plot or character during the run. And there were tons of opportunity to do some plot and character development. I feel that this lack of initiative (to make the plot/character deeper) causes the weird main character-shift. Right now, this story is not about Vaan anymore. The plot revolves around Basch, Ashe, and Balthier (to a certain extent). It's fine if stories change their main characters in the middle of the story but the writer needs to justify and transition that change in order to make it work. In this case, Vaan is just forgotten about and nothing is done to justify and transition that main character change. Honestly, this leaves the player feeling robbed of the main character because we started with Vaan reminiscing about his brother, robbing the palace, and escaping Nalbina Dungeons. We started out FFXII very fast, already developing some opinion on Vaan. And then, as soon as Ashe and Basch hit the scene together, Vaan (and Penelo I guess) are put on pause while Basch and Ashe steal the spot-light.

2/10 points would be awarded for stuff to do in the game besides fight or grind. Well at this point most of the side-quests involve combat, there are no mini-games at this point, and practically everything in the game has to force you into combat. I understand that the battle system is a selling point of the game but it's ridiculous how much the game forces you to fight. Hunts are fights, espers are fights, etc. Comparing to other FF games; FFX had blitzball; And FFVIII had that card game. FFXII doesn't have any non-combat mini-game that the player can choose to play when they are sick of grinding. Right now the game just consists of fighting and to be honest, it is getting a little boring.

So this time, I am giving this part a 3/10. 0/5 for plot, and 0/2 for any side-quests or alternatives to fighting in the game. I am not a peace-keeper, I just think that combat shouldn't be everything that this game has to offer =P .

My next part is going to be shorter. I hate the Draklor Laboratories (just because last time I died a 123123123204734598347589 times) so I want to stop shortly after I finish the Draklor Laboratories. My favourite part is Giruvegan, so I want part 9 to begin and end Giruvegan in one go.

I knew that part was going to get low rates, when I was playing that part I go rushing, that kept me at low level and that made the feywood & giruvegan hard as hell xD.

There's a fun mini game in archades. I found it fun anyway. look out for it ;)

There's a fun mini game in archades. I found it fun anyway. look out for it

If you're talking about getting the pinewood chops then yeah, that was definitely fun for me as well!!




I knew that part was going to get low rates, when I was playing that part I go rushing, that kept me at low level and that made the feywood & giruvegan hard as hell xD.

I know; I hated that I clearly indicated in my posts that I was going to give that part low rates. But right now, it feels that the next part is definitely going to get a higher rate. All I have to do is grind one more level and I think I'll just get Draklore done in one go.

How did you guys find the Draklore Laboratories?

How did you guys find the Draklore Laboratories?

I don't know why everyone find that part hard, but to me was pure cakewalk, or maybe I was just lucky... xD

Draklor was never a problem for me, but I always overlevel. I still get lost though...

topopoz, it sounds like you just got luck. Otherwise that wasn't the Draklore Laboratories that you were in =P . JK.

Yay, new page!


Part 8 (Old Archades – Balfonheim)

Did I mention that this part was going to be a lot shorter? =P

Old Archades is cool. I don't feel that the music in that zone was perfect but I also don't feel that the music was far off the mark either. I hate to head right into a complain (especially considering that in the last part I gave FFXII low rating) but I definitely felt that the scene with Jules needed to be a cut scene.

Yes; I realize that Jules only interacts with the player in Archades and then he disappears but he reveals a lot more of Balthier's Archadian history as well. I felt that Jules' scenes were definitely important enough to get a voice-over for.

Okay, we get into Archades and we get a little scene between Penelo and Vaan. Those kind of scenes would've been nice to have back in that big grinding gap but... I'm beating a dead horse now =P . The mini-game in Archades was very fun for me; I liked learning a lot about the mentality of the Archadian citizens! Basically they are very into themselves and I thought that was fun learning about each individual story. I think that the chops are a little cheesy. I feel that they could have been something else like a signature on a passport or something... The fact that the chops were pieces of wood kind of looked a little effortless to me. Once again, I feel that the scenes with Jules should have been cut-scenes.

I do not like how small Archades is compared to Rabanastre.************* I was expecting Archades to be a HUGE city like Esthar (in FFVIII); this was also hinted in some of the cut-scenes that showed Archades' city layout. I was disappointed by its sheer size, I felt that Rabanastre was bigger, and I felt that Archades was just very limiting. Maybe I expect too much? I've also noticed that in FFX, Bevelle is a huge city that you don't get a chance to explore either but then again they did explain it by making Bevelle the 'enemy' in a way..... I just don't get why we couldn't explore more of Archades.

So I did some hunts and a little bit of grinding (to buy new spells) before I went onto the Draklore Laboratories. I've managed to do enough hunts to purchase Bravery and Faith so yeah.. I'm just trying to boast =P . I ended up doing the Draklore Laboratories at level 38 because I had really good equipment. I had Basch with a Sledgehammer and diamond armour; Ashe with a Rod of Power and the mystic armour from the Phon Coast; And Fran with a Loxley Bow (I think) and the mystic armour from the Phon Coast. It actually worked very well.

Draklore Laboratories.... I didn't die this time. Before I get into that, it is an excellent zone! The puzzles are hard to do and it could be tons of fun for players that like a lot of fighting. I have nothing bad to say about how the Draklore Laboratories is laid out. That aside, I ended up using three different guides from gamefaqs.com because 2 out of 3 of the guides wanted me to go back to the 66th floor or whatever. I just needed a guide that could get me to the 70th floor a.s.a.p. So I spent some time down there but I ended up leaving the Draklore Laboratories within the hour.

The last boss fight was great. We finally learn that Venat is that thing that appeared with Judge Bergan and Mjrn in the Henne Mines. We also learn that Dr. Cid is not just talking to himself =P . It was a hard fight but I did manage to beat it; I ended up sacrificing the 3 characters that dont get played in a quickening chain. But I did it!

The Balfonheim scenes were fun to watch. Reddas kicks ass and he has got the side-burns to prove it! Another note, I felt that Reddas' henchmen (including some stripper-pirate) should have gotten a cut-scene but they ended up being another Jules situation..

In the end, I felt like the game flatlined in part 7 of my review but I also feel like the events in Archades is that heart-beat that happens after hours of resuscitation. The events in Archades brings back the good 'ol plot that was lost in 5 zones, basically. And they bring back the plot strongly! I'm going to give this part a 8/10.


************* Taking into account what topopoz said about it not being able to fit into the game without making it multiple discs.... I know that the designers didn't want FFXII to necessarily be a multi-disc game. I still feel that it should be larger than Rabanastre but the designers did really well with trying to make Archades seem larger. For example, they have several background props and buildings making Archades seem multi-levelled.

Archades bugs me a little that it is roughly around the same size as Balfonheim in the game but the convention that the designers are implying is that Archades is a huge city. Like I mentioned before, they achieve this convention by the use of the background and by using the taxi-cab (which gives the city more depth). In this case, the convention is what makes the city.

topopoz, it sounds like you just got luck. Otherwise that wasn't the Draklore Laboratories that you were in =P . JK.

I do not like how small Archades is compared to Rabanastre. I was expecting Archades to be a HUGE city like Esthar (in FFVIII); this was also hinted in some of the cut-scenes that showed Archades' city layout. I was disappointed by its sheer size, I felt that Rabanastre was bigger, and I felt that Archades was just very limiting. Maybe I expect too much?

Yeah, you expect too much, considering the quality of the graphics, sound & art direction making the game the way it should be done, it would have need much more budget, money, cash, dinero & effort to make it properly & it would be at least 2 or 3 DVD's and also it would have probably ended as Vaporware, actually FFXII was near to be Vaporware.
Esthar was made huge because the graphics on the areas off battle & Off world map are pre-rendered, that's more cheap XD.

Yeah, you expect too much, considering the quality of the graphics, sound & art direction making the game the way it should be done, it would have need much more budget, money, cash, dinero & effort to make it properly & it would be at least 2 or 3 DVD's and also it would have probably ended as Vaporware, actually FFXII was near to be Vaporware.

Hmm... I suppose that I do agree. While I have myself online right now, I am just going to edit in a better response to this. Thanks for calling me on my shit though =P .

I'm not going to delete anything because I really don't like deleting anything in my reviews. I also don't want to delete anything because I don't mind being corrected and I want everyone to see my mistake. In this case, I'm just adding on some of my thoughts with your information in mind. I am just going to add onto it and bump up the rating because the designers did achieve the convention of the Archades zone being a huge city.. Which is hard to do since they have to create an environment that the player can infer from.

I consistently find myself moving the camera so that I can look down the city and to me, that's a good sign that they achieved their convention =P .

I thought the music in FFXII was fantastic. Especially for Old Archades, The Dalmascan Estersand and the Eruyt Village. Lovely tunes.

Glad you ended up liking Archades and the Draklor Labs! The chops minigame is one of the best in the game, in my opinion.

Yeah I quite enjoyed the chops minigame as well. Considering that it was a really long road to archades it felt to have a nice minigame after you got there, and not get thrown instantly into the action. Also I just love the theme of the Empire.

Btw you say that Archades needed more room to explore? I kinda disagree. In Esthar the city was truly big but a lot of it were just needless areas and the lack of a map just made you get lost more often. I prefer Archades over that, to be honest. besides what else would they add? Everything you really needed to do other than go to Draklor was visit some shops I guess. And they can't possibly be like miles apart from each other. I was very satisfied with Archades just the way it was.

I thought the music in FFXII was fantastic. Especially for Old Archades, The Dalmascan Estersand and the Eruyt Village.

Yes, I also think that the music pieces (alone) are great. Eruyt Village, Giruvegan, The Great Crystal, and the Salikawood are some of my favourites in the game.



In Esthar the city was truly big but a lot of it were just needless areas and the lack of a map just made you get lost more often.

To each their own.... I still don't think that 4 or 5 small zones does justice to the capital city of Archades =P . I'm not here to convince you of anything (due to this being opinionated). If anything I think that they could have made the zones that are already in the game, larger. Rabanastre's zones are way larger than Archades.

I'm not changing my mind about anything that I said in the review because they did achieve the convention that Archades is a larger city but in the game, Archades is actually quite small in comparison. I'm not going to recycle my discussion further than this about Archades because I do realize that the developers don't want to have FFXII being a multi-disc, etc, etc. I just feel a little "cheated" out of being able to explore a large city other than Rabanastre.

As for an update on my progress: After buying the -aga spells and Curaja (which is my new best friend), I am up to Rafflesia who's kicking my ass =P . Worry not, all I need (I think) are more x-potions and some bowline sashes. But still, that's a pretty hard boss lol.

rafflesia doesn't mess around. It'll rock you so hard that the earth will tilt in a different direction. that is unless you silence it. Silencega + Faith seems to work the best....

I guess I can see what you're saying about Archades..

have you noticed that the bosses in the game don't give you any xp yet?

When was the last time that bosses gave you exp in an FF game?

When was the last time that bosses gave you exp in an FF game?

Don't the bosses in FFX give you exp? Only in that game, it's AP (Ability Points) that give you levels. I could be wrong though =P .




Part 9 (Balfonheim – Balfonheim)

I just wanted to give you guys a quick update, I haven't even started on Giruvegan yet I just saved in Balfonheim..... Just kidding =P . This part I went from Balfonheim, to the Great Crystal, and back to Balfonheim to get Reddas.

Now I have already mentioned that in one of my previous reviews I pussily (not a word) skipped the Elder Wyrm by going through the Feywood briefly. So I already have a feel for what the Feywood is like. The Feywood is a very beautiful zone; I have always liked foggy/misty places in video games. The music was okay.. and then I faced some more renegade tomatoes. And if you've been following along with all of my review parts, I hate killing animated vegetables at high levels.

Rafflesia actually killed me a couple of times when I attempted that flower. But all I had to do was silence Rafflesia and he basically got curb-stomped. So with the gigantic mist-infected flower out of the way, I found that the rest of the zone was fairly fun. I appreciate the little easy puzzle with the Feywood shrines. I feel like the gate to Giruvegan should have had a cutscene to explain why only the Gigas (Belias) summoner could get into Giruvegan. I don't think that the player ever really gets a clear explanation for it.... I have a theory though; the Occuria only wanted to deal with Raithwall's descendants and so because Raithwall had Belias tagging along, they limited the city of Giruvegan to the Belias summoner. But that's just a theory...

Giruvegan and the Great Crystal have some of the best (in my opinion) musical pieces to them! It was a pleasure playing in the zones, especially considering that I still have a gamefaqs.com guide leading me the way. Unlike the Feywood or when I was travelling to Archades, I actually fought through this zone. By the way, this zone has monsters that actually make sense! I did not have to fight a rejected vegetable or a super-powerful bat, I actually fought monsters like imps and behemoths. And Giruvegan is just a beautiful zone with lots to look at.

The layout of Giruvegan is pretty confusing. At times I felt at times that there were platforms just for the sake of there being platforms to confuse the players. Plus it forces you to think outside of the box (or outside of the mini-map in this case) since it has those green paths that suddenly appear off the map. There was no extra scenery added along with the platforms before you fight Tyrant so it made the platforms seem kind of pointless to be honest. I died a couple of times before I finally took down Tyrant before the Great Crystal. What can I say? You just need Blizzaga, Huntsman (from the License Board), and some patience...

The Great Crystal will confuse the average player if they do not have a gamefaqs.com guide with them. It was pretty hardcore for me because I found that I needed to run a couple of times when the malboros gained up on me. But I did do A LOT of fighting. The music in this zone, I felt, was phenomenal. It gets stuck in your head =P but it definitely suited the zone. I managed to pick up a Black Mask on my out of the zone so that was very enjoyable for me (yes, I'm bragging a little).. Shemhazai wasn't that hard of a boss fight either although I do admit that I died once because I was stupid.

Concerning the plot, I need to get something straight. It takes a very complicated turn and after you defeat Shemhazai, there is a huge cut-scene between Ashe and the Occuria of Giruvegan. So the Occuria basically over-see the history of Ivalice. The deifacted (sp?) nethicite comes from the sun cryst which is this huge powerful thing of nethicite. They give Ashe a sword that can cut new stones (like the dawn, midlight, and dusk shards).

Venat is an Occuria that went renegade and betrayed the other Occuria.... He betrayed them by telling humes of the powers of nethicite and how it can be used to cause tons of destruction. In particular, he told Cid. Venat tells Cid that he can have the “reins of history back into the hands of men” by using the nethicite and the manufacted nethicite to win their wars.

Now the Occuria want Ashe to cut new stones from the sun cryst, use them, and destroy the nethicite that Archadia is using which would basically destroy Archadia itself. Does that all sound right to you guys? I just need to have all this written down.

Anyways, we return back to Balfonheim and get Reddas (yay!) and access to the Strahl. I have bought some important spells (like Protectga, etc) and I suppose that I am semi-ready for the Ridorana Cataract.

I am going to give this section a 9/10. The zones were beautiful, music was great, bosses/puzzles were quite challenging, and the PLOT makes a huge move this time. Kind of like it did back in Mt. Bur-Omisace.

This means that I have to do some more grinding.... But this also means that I can choose to do more side-quests/get secret espers. Right now, I only have Adremmelech. So I am left with Ultima (which I need white masks for), Zeromus, and others.... I am left with the Necrohol in Nabudis and the espers there (along with the Zodiak Spear) which I will be doing anyways. So what do you guys think? Should I get more of the secret espers before I take on the Ridorana Cataract? When I do take on the Ridorana Cataract, I also want to get into the Bahamut right away for my review (and so that the current events are still fresh in my mind). Unfortunately the game makes the last tier of spells ready for this ONE zone =S ..

The advantage to this is that I will be grinding and doing something productive at the same time. No matter what I will at least get a couple of the secret espers; the only question is, “how many should I attempt?” But if I don't attempt to get all of the secret espers, then I can't really say much about the bigger side-quests when it comes down to my final verdict. I have no problem leaving out Zodiark by the way =P . That battle is suicide-worthy in my opinion.

Part 10 (Balfonheim – Ending Credits)

Yes I have finally played up to the ending credits!! Between juggling this game, FFXIII, university exams, work, and life in general; I have achieved managed to beat two games!! Before I get into the review, I'll explain to you guys what I did in FFXII.... I obviously went through the main dungeons (being the Ridorana Cataract,/Pharos and Bahamut) but I also got all of the espers except Ultima and Zodiark. I also got the Zodiac spear and completed the Necrohol of Nabudis. This part of my review isn't my final verdict by the way.

First thing that I did in the game after the Great Crystal was grind my ass off. Normally, by the end of the game, I look forward to that free-roam grinding before you beat the game or attempt the sidequests. But unfortunately this entire game has been grinding so I didn't look forward to it... But the grinding did allow me to collect some Espers.

Zalera was pretty easy to be honest. I was level 47 at the time that I attempted him so his death spells weren't that effective on me. His opening scene was pretty awesome. I ended up giving him to Basch. This time, I'm giving all of the espers to different characters. So far I have Vaan with Zeromus and Adremmelech; Penelo with Cuchulainn and Shemhazai; Fran with Chaos and Mateus; Ashe with Belias and Ultima (once I get Ultima, if ever); Basch with Exodus and Zalera; And Balthier with Famfrut and Fenrir. If I had gotten Zodiark, I would have given him to either Basch or Ashe.

Cuchulainn (anyone know how to pronounce his name?) wasn't too bad of a fight either. But he could take down your party if you aren't careful.. Yeah the most important thing to do is heal and you should be good to go. I just used a quickening on him at the end for old time's sakes. I'm sure that any average gamer could take him down without using a quickening.

Exodus was a HELL of a fight. I remember him being tougher than Ultima when I first played the game.. But God, Exodus knows how to kick ass!! I had to retry him a couple of times, the fight took forever but I finally managed to kill him off (after using many Ethers and Elixirs). My best advice is: float at all times =P .

Now we go onto the Necrohol of Nabudis. To get into the Necrohol of Nabudis, you have to travel to a bunch of places, collect certain medallions, and you'll eventually gain entry. This was a pretty fun task. The Nabreus Deadlands got a cutscene that I thought was cool... Just a basic introduction that included Basch mentioning that they shouldn't be there was fun for me. I savored that cutscene because it was one of the only cutscenes that happen during a sidequest. The Nabreus Deadlands is a very interesting zone; it has that mist element that the Feywood had but it didn't feel mystical like the Feywood; instead the Nabreus Deadlands had a darker mood to it. It was a cool zone and the music supported the zone beautifully.

The Necrohol of Nabudis doesn't fool around. But since I just beat Exodus, I was sure that I could take on anything =P . Anyways, this zone also has a very unique look to it. To me it looked like the inside of an Aztec temple but that's just me playing the zone very late at night =P . The music also supported the darkness of the zone as well. The Nabreus Deadlands felt very dark to me; the Necrohol of Nabudis felt like it was the centre of that darkness. They were both very well constructed zones since they created that particular mood. Zeromus was a bit of a challenging battle since he didn't allow any magick on the field. It was a tough battle but I managed to take him in one try. Chaos, on the other-hand, took a few attempts. Without having the attack command, I had to have Basch use Firaga for the entire battle. His magick stat sucks so yeah, I just had to get use to that. The boss battles in the Necrohol of Nabudis were challenging but I managed to defeat them and grab my precious Zodiac Spear. And like the Shadow Temple in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I wanted to get the hell out of there once I was done =P !!

At this point, I was sick of just fighting. I didn't want to collect Ultima because all I have done for the sidequests is fight. The rare game monsters is all about fighting, the hunts are fighting, just everything about this game is about fighting. I was just sick of it and because I was sick of fighting and I wasn't even rewarded with a cutscene that would help reinforce the story. Ultima was one of my favourite Espers (considering that they're useless and that I could NEVER get her to use her special attack) but at that point, I was tired of the game. In my opinion, sidequests should give you something (like a cutscene) that reinforces the main plot of the story. When I was first playing the game, I was expecting a ton of cutscenes in the Nabreus Deadlands/Necrohol of Nabudis because those were the ruins of Basch's homeland. I thought that he would have something more to say other than ''let's not go there''.

I don't really have much to say about the Ridorana Cataract... It had some recycled music, it looked a little bit like the Great Lighthouse that was built in Alexandria, Egypt, it had some boss battles that weren't worth mentioning.. The Ridorana Cataract itself just seemed forget-able. I don't hate the zone at all, it just never really did anything memorable for me. That Pharos on the other-hand, was very memorable. It was a super-cool zone! It was hella long but it was a really cool zone. The only boss battles that I paid attention to were the Esper fights (both of which I gave to Balthier). Hashmal wasn't too hard and Famfrat got destroyed after I sicked some oil onto him + firaga. Also some notable characters bit the dust in this zone. It was really sad to see Cid and Reddas bite the dust. But it was wise that Ashe destroyed the Sun Cryst in order to prevent Humes from using the stones to fight devastating wars.

At this point, Ashe chooses not to listen to the Occuria (who want her to use Nethicite to destroy the Nethicite in Archadia's/Venat's control) and she chooses to destroy the Sun Cryst even though it could be her only hope of winning the war against Archadia.

Now at this point, we are suddenly surprised with the appearance of a gargantuan sky-fortress called Bahamut. I don't know about how everyone else feels, but I feel that there was definitely no lead up to the showdown in Bahamut. If I remember correctly, there was a girl in Old Archades that mentions that she saw a larger airship in Archadia but unless you talk to her in the game, you will not be hinted that Bahamut exists. I have no issues with being surprised by a video game but with a sky fortress that large, I doubt that no one wouldn't have seen it somewhere. I honestly doubt that Archadia could keep something that large a secret. I find that Bahamut's appearance was just way too sudden (without any kind of a lead up) to be believable.

So approaching Bahamut, we get a couple of cool fighting scenes between Marquis Ondore and Vayne. But wait a minute; the last time we see Ondore do anything is at the beginning of this part where he's giving orders for his men to be ready for battle. But what really has bothered me is that this resistance hasn't had any real showtime since the events in Bhujerba. Yes, I understand that this resistance is suppose to be secret (especially at the beginning of the game) but I doubt that they could hide their fleet forever. This is just me but I really don't like the fact that the resistance disappears since Bhujerba until now. I feel that the sub-plot of the resistance should have been progressed as much as the plot with Vayne because the resistance is half of the conflict in the story.

The Bahamut part of the game was fairly easy, especially considering that I picked up the Zodiac spear =P . The fight against Gabranth wasn't that hard but the cut-scenes with him were very well done. Makes me like Basch that much more. The final boss was fun to look at. His wings were wicked. But he went down fast as well.

The ending of FFXII was good. The cutscenes were beautiful (which is one word I have been over-using). What impressed me most was that Penelo was narrating the story!! She's makes a great narrator and now that I think on it, I think that she should have been the narrator from the beginning of the story. Penelo just filled space during the entire game but if she was the narrator the entire time, she could have been the ultimate wall-flower character (which is someone who observes their environment instead of acting in it). They would have to change some things around but I really think that Penelo could have made a very strong narrator for FFXII. Not only that but it would also give her some PURPOSE!!!!!!!!!!! She also had a better costume for the ending as well.

Penelo's narration really ties the loose ends of the story. The ending spells out a new beginning (like most final fantasy games) and it also doesn't leave Dalmasca in the best position either. Dalmasca is still the underdog because it wouldn't have the strength to defend itself against Archadia (if they decide to attack) or Rozarria (who has been quiet this entire game). Archadia isn't in the best position either since their earlier ruler went crazy with power, killing the emperor, using tons of resources for Bahamut, and (in the end) just became a tyrant who ignored the political structure of Archadia. For me, the ending left me thinking that it was a neutral ending. Nothing was completely solved, Dalmasca is not in the best position, Archadia is not in a good position anymore and there are still tensions between the people that belong to those kingdoms. For me, the ending was satisfying because it was believable. I doubt that it would take a few events to get Dalmasca back to the way it was, when it suffered years of being a vassal state.

I always watch the credits, especially since FFX because of that scene at the end of the credits. I hate FFX-2 by the way... Anyways it was nice to see that it wasn't all text; there were some really awesome artwork in the credits as well. My favourite artwork was when Jote, Mjrn, and Fran were all looking out the window. I give this part an 8.5/10.

So that's it!! I'm done the game!! I have given you guys my current thoughts on the game as I went through! But my review isn't done yet.. My next part is the Final Verdict; and for that part I will be looking at the game as a whole instead of parts (like I've been doing this whole time). Here's a list of what I will be looking at:

Game Mechanics:
License Board
Magick/Techniques
Battle System
Sidequests
World Map

Visual/Audio:
Environments
Music (zone music, boss music, battle music and how they relate to the game)

Story:
Plot (and how it flows with the game)
Characters (including individual assessments of the main 6; maybe Vayne and Cid as well)

Sage Knowledge 19: The Bahamut
Gained by defeating Gazers
"No. 1 Sky Fortress Class Airship Belonging to the Western divisions of the Archadian Imperial Army, a mobile fortress and tactical base, under the control of the commandant of the Archadian forces, Lord Vayne. This was the last sky fortress designed by Dr. Cid, powered both by ordinary skystone and manufacted nethicite, the latter absorbing Mist from its surroundings to generate the massive amounts of energy the fortress requires to function."

I think that it wasn't kept as a secret...

Sadly this game is not finished, really, I felt it that way, but there was so much money on this game, that things needed to be rushed & we've got these, at least is still a fine good great game to me.
I agree the Resistance & Rozarria was something that needed to be more explored, but we ain't gonna see that.

Exodus was a HELL of a fight. I remember him being tougher than Ultima when I first played the game.. But God, Exodus knows how to kick ass!! I had to retry him a couple of times, the fight took forever but I finally managed to kill him off (after using many [B]Ethers and Elixirs). My best advice is: float at all times =P .


Ethers and Elixirs?
I thought items were disabled in the Exodus fight?

Yes High Seraph, you are totally right. I must have gotten mixed up with a different fight when I was typing up my Exodus experience.



Sage Knowledge 19: The Bahamut
Gained by defeating Gazers
"No. 1 Sky Fortress Class Airship Belonging to the Western divisions of the Archadian Imperial Army, a mobile fortress and tactical base, under the control of the commandant of the Archadian forces, Lord Vayne. This was the last sky fortress designed by Dr. Cid, powered both by ordinary skystone and manufacted nethicite, the latter absorbing Mist from its surroundings to generate the massive amounts of energy the fortress requires to function."

Is this in the bestiary? Because if it is, you should know that I almost never pay attention to bestiaries in video games. I'll have to look it up.

I agree with you on what you're saying about the game getting rushed. FFXII had a lot more potential.

My final verdict is going to be LONG by the way. I did mention in my first post that I wanted this game out of my system; a long post is how I will be able to achieve this.

I'm going to warn you guys now that I don't hate the game at all. It would be fair to call FFXII a good game. I don't want to give too much away until the final verdict but FFXII isn't going to get a terrible review. It isn't going to get a 10/10 but it isn't going to get a 4/10 either.

Final Verdict Part 1

Yes, I finally got it complete and it is a LONG read.... Prepare!

Game Mechanics: 7/10


License Board 0/10:

Since I was playing the regular version of the game, the license board system that I used was the standard thing. So what this meant is that all of my characters could become anything that I put LP into.

My experience with the License Board system was very boring. I ended up developing three characters (Basch, Fran, and Ashe) to learn all of the abilities that they needed to know, in order to defeat any kind of boss. Now this game gets you grinding like nobody's business but grinding only 3 characters, as opposed to 6, is just a good way to save some time. And it doesn't make a difference either because all of the playable characters have access to every ability (except mist abilities). I only played 3 characters throughout this entire game because it would have been 100% more painful if I wanted to grind 6 characters; and in order to play 3 characters, I made them learn a broad amount of abilities, which destroys any hope of giving your characters separate classes.

If you did want to class you characters, you could. But sometimes you have to get additional spells or augments in order to properly do so. For example, if you wanted someone to specialize in Arcane magick only, you have to give them some Time or Green magick in order to get them started on the Dark Magick. Also if you wanted someone to specialize in Green magick, you would have to give them either Green or White Magick in order to get to the fiinal Dark Magick stage. The same thing goes with weapons, I ended up having Balthier and Penelo get some Hand-bomb abilities when I really wanted them to specialize in guns and poles (respectively); I ended up having characters share abilities that I didn't want them to have, therefore making my attempt at classing them a failed attempt since I was forced to give some characters spells and equipment that I thought was outside of their class, in order to get that last Green Magick spell or that last piece of equipment that they needed for their class.

Also if you wanted certain characters to acquire certain Espers (if you choose to do so), then sometimes you have to make your characters purchase something that is outside of their desired class.

In regards to augments, sometimes you'll end up giving characters certain augments outside of their desired class. But in the end, there isn't a reason not to give each character every augment because those augments are very useful. Same with accessories.

Now if you decide not to class your characters, in my opinion, all of the characters will be played in very similar ways. Which is fine for some people but not for me.

I have to give the License Board system a 0/10 because it eliminates all fighting classes and in order to develop your characters, you need to give them some abilities that wouldn't be class-specific. If you don't choose classes for your characters, then they end up having the same functions as each other in the battlefield creating a ''cookie-cutter'' effect. The ''cookie-cutter'' effect is (in this case) characters that are played the same with minor differences (such as their stats like magick defence). I hate the ''cookie-cutter'' effect with a passion so when I tried to classify my characters, they ended up having shared abilities which nullifies the attempt at classing them.

If I were to make the License Board system better, I would give dormant characters the ability to gain the XP that the fighting characters are earning at the same time. This way, it promotes the player into keeping certain character(s) class specific, and you won't have to spend another 6 hours grinding for three more characters. Or I would have a separate chain from the main license board that would have just Green Magick or just Black Magick abilities to avoid being forced to cross-class.


Technicks/Magick/Espers 7.9/10:

Yes, the rating is a bit high considering that I'm including technicks and espers. But that will get explained.

I never used any technicks in my run of the game because I was trying to really soak in the story of FFXII; so I never used steal. I think that the only technick that I really used was Telekinesis towards the end of the game, with my melee fighter (being Basch). The game never requires technicks (except maybe Telekinesis) for any of the bosses so this time I almost never used any Technicks. To be honest, there are some good technicks available but because the game never really requires the player to use a single one, I would only be able to give technicks a 3/10. If I were to make the Technicks system better, I would have many bosses and enemies be vulnerable to the technick attacks.

Espers were even worse. They were completely useless and uncontrollable. The battle system was great but having a controllable summoner and an uncontrollable esper made the esper system completely useless because the esper would do whatever the hell it wanted. Also there was no benefit of summoning an esper to begin with. With FFX, summoning an aeon means that it gives your characters a break but it also means that you could do more damage in short amount of time; and recently with FFXIII, summoning an Eidolon heals all of your characters in the battle. Summoning an esper in FFXII literally gives you nothing; you don't get to deal a lot of damage in a shorter amount of time, it doesn't give your character a break from fighting, and summoning an esper doesn't heal anyone. And if your summoner dies, your esper immediately leaves, leaving you in a worse position than you started in. I would have to give the Espers a 0/10 because they are actually useless; the only time that you really need to summon is when you want to get into Giruvegan.

So the Magicks is where all of the points are coming from. I would rate them a 10/10 because you literally can't win the game without Magicks. Although Magicks like Flare, Ardor, Holy, and Scathe have super long animations making it so that you can't fire them off like nobody's business, which I found a little annoying. I have nothing more to say about Magicks since they are required to beat the game no matter what.

I didn't give this part an 8 because I feel that this game mechanic shouldn't rely on a good mark like an 8, on only one aspect (being Magick). But I did count this number as an 8 when I was averaging out the Game Mechanic rating.


Battle System 10/10:

The battle system is getting a 10/10. It is not robotic at all, you can control three characters at once, and it is a very challenging system to get a hang of. Not only that but the battle system allows monsters to roam the environments, which livens up the environments and it gets rid of those random fights. There is almost nothing that I can fault the battle system on except that once you get your gambits 'set in stone', you don't even have to control any of your characters. I never got that good at the Gambit system but it isn't a big enough fault to have the battle system lose a rating because this battle system is definitely a step in the right direction for future Final Fantasies. This battle system was also challenging in a good way and it forces players to put more thought into their fighting strategies.

Now considering that FFXIII was recently released, I have to say that FFXIII should have had its battle system more like FFXII's. FFXIII is a step-back from FFXII's battle system but it is definitely better than FFX's battle system in my opinion. I just wanted to give you guys a short summary on a comparison for the two battle systems just so that you know how I feel about FFXII compared to its predecessor, FFXIII.


Sidequests 6/10:

Before anybody jumps down my throat about only giving the sidequests a 6/10, let me explain myself.

The sidequests that I tried were the Necrohol of Nabudis, Adremmelech, Zalera, Cuchulainn, Exodus, Zeromus, Chaos, the Viera in love in Rabanastre, July the Spy, a lot of hunts, and several elite hunts. The sidesquests were fun and they gave you the desired LP and XP that you needed. But only the Necrohol of Nabudis had a cutscene which consisted of Basch saying ''let's not go there'', which is misquoted.

In my opinion, sidequests should give you extra information about characters and the plot that you wouldn't normally find if you went straight through the game. You shouldn't be forced to read through the bestiary/database to get that extra piece of information that the sidequest has too offer. So because there was only one cutscene (with voice actors) during the sidequests, I noticed that I was forgetting the story since there were no reminders of what the story was still about (thank god I recapped the story in my review in parts). I suppose that the game designers couldn't put cutscenes in the sidequests because you could technically do most of the sidequests near the beginning of the game. But in my opinion, they could have added extra blocks to solve that problem. Don't get me wrong, the sidequests were fun to do but it is a huge downfall when the player starts forgetting what the story is about. FFX and FFVIII do sidequests the best, in my opinion, because they have cut-scenes that explain a little more about a character, about some lore, or they explain something about the plot that you wouldn't normally get when you only play the main plot. FFXIII, on the otherhand, is also in a similar situation with FFXII in terms of how they approach the sidequests.

Also FFXII's (and FFXIII's) sidequests all involve fighting. I feel that FFXII was way too focused on the battle system (which is a great system) that the game producers forgot to give the player a break from fighting and to give the player a mini-game. Slaying monsters can only be appealing for so long and by the end of FFXII, I was sick of fighting in every zone. FFX had blitzball, FFVIII has that card game; so it isn't like Square Enix has never done a mini-game before that didn't involve fighting.



World Map 8/10:

What I mean by World Map is the World of Ivalice that we are given to play in. This includes all of the zones that you can play and travel to.

All of the zones in FFXII are very accessible at almost any given point in the game. For example, you could technically go to the Mosphoran Highwaste right after you escape from the Nalbina Dungeons. It was a very free world map that the game designers gave us to play in and that's where most of the points come from. You felt like you could do whatever you wanted at any given point in time.

To be honest, it wasn't as free as FFVIII's world map. In order to explore the entire world of Ivalice, you had to grind some levels because there are monsters that will kill you in one hit (basically) if you don't have high-level equipment or if you don't have high level characters. Also the world map feels larger than what we're given. For example, the kingdom of Rozarria is located south of the Feywood. Now Rozarria isn't separated by an Ocean or a mountain range (from what we're given in the world map view), instead Rozarria is just cut off from the map and it looks like the World of Ivalice has land that continues south toward Rozarria.

In my opinion, if you are going to give the player freedom to roam around the World map at any point in the game, then you need to give the player limits (like Oceans or unpassable mountain ranges) that explains why the player can't go to a certain place. There is never an explanation in FFXII that explains that the player can't go to Rozarria. There is an explanation near the beginning of the game that explains that Balthier doesn't have skystones that enable him to fly in Jagd but later in the game, he does get a skystone that enables him to fly in Jagd (which allows the player to go anywhere on the map).

If I were to make the World Map of FFXII better, I would clearly explain why players cannot go to certain places. There is land to the west, north, and south that looks like it could be explorable. But it isn't explorable for some unclear reason... There are lazy ways to explain this like an un-passable mountain range, very hostile enemies that attack anything 100km near their border, or an ocean/rapids. But we are given no reason at all that doesn't allow us to go to Rozarria, or further west than Raithwall's tomb, or even further north from Archades. I don't expect to explore every centimetre of land on the map, I would just like to have some clear explanations why we couldn't have gone further. The lack of explained limitations contrasts the feel of the World Map in a bad way. The World Map of Ivalice feels very free and explorative but when you limit the player to specific locations (without explaining those limitations), it makes the World Map feel very controlled by the game designers.

I consider the World Map a game mechanic (as opposed to a visual) because it is the bread and butter of this game. Almost everything revolves around the World Map's design. Here is a map link to give you guys a visual:





I realize that my final verdict is way too long to fit on one post. So I want to separate the posts in order to make it easier to read for you guys. I hate to separate my final verdict into parts but I am going to have to. Part 2 will be looking at the visuals and audio of FFXII extensively.

My rating for the game mechanics is based on the average ratings I gave for each game mechanic that I wanted to talk about but because it was a little low, I adjusted it to be what I feel is a justified rating of FFXII's game mechanics.

If I have missed anything super important about the game mechanics that you want me to talk about, please let me know. I have no problem editing this post to talk about a huge aspect that I missed in the game.

I'm going to get a sword, a gun, a stinger missile module & a fucking M1 battle tank.

Why did you bash that harshly the License Board?
Telling me because it doesn't preset your characters in Classes is not an excuse or reason good enough to give it 0 out of 10
The License Board was made to be open-ended so that the player decides to do whatever he wants with the characters it's up to the player to complete it or not.
If you wanted to make a character into a "Class" you just had to take a look to the atributes and follow the route that corresponds to the Class that you wish to make that character. That's all.
I played with all the 6 Characters mantaining them at the same lvl & using them as two teams, exchaging members in the middle of the battles giving them a task, it isn't hard & it made the game more dynamic, specially the boss battles.
Very Unfair giving 0/10 to the License Board IMO. If you wanted to class-specific gameplay go back to FFI, III, IV, V, IX because even in VI you can blend the characters the way you wanted to.

I'm going to get a sword, a gun, a stinger missile module & a fucking M1 battle tank.

This is sarcasm, right? I'm not trying to be a dick but the internet being the internet can sometimes cause mis-communication and I don't want to attack back to sarcasm =P .

Okay, like all reviews, this is a subjective review. Almost nothing is objective anymore so this is all MY opinion.


Telling me because it doesn't preset your characters in Classes is not an excuse or reason good enough to give it 0 out of 10

I do agree, which is why I added more to the License Board section of my final verdict. I didn't change the rating. But I apologize for not justifying it a little better.



The License Board was made to be open-ended so that the player decides to do whatever he wants with the characters it's up to the player to complete it or not.


If you wanted to make a character into a "Class" you just had to take a look to the atributes and follow the route that corresponds to the Class that you wish to make that character. That's all.

True, it is open-ended. When it comes down to the augments, who doesn't want Swiftness or the +300hp on their characters? And who doesn't want battle lore? I don't know about anyone else on these forums, but when my characters weren't casting any spells, they were attacking the enemy physically. Most of the augments are very useful and there is no excuse not to improve your characters with most of them.

For my Mateus battle, I had to give my 3 main characters Ice Shields (and I had shell on each of them) and 1h weapons in order to survive Mateus' ice attacks. I knew that I wasn't going to grind for another 3 hours in order to beat this boss just so that I could stick to the classes that I designated them have, so instead I decided to take the easy-way out by cross-classing. Which is another thing that the License Board does, it gives you the option of cross-classing or more grinding to out-level the next boss (which allows you to stick to your characters' classes).

Also, to give you another example, I wanted to give Basch Zalera; what I had to do was give Basch some Rods and Staves abilities in order to get Zalera. If I wanted to give Ashe Ultima, I would have to either have her get Time Magick 7 or Dark Magick 7 abilities in order to purchase Ultima. It would be out of their classes because I wanted Basch to be a heavy fighter (who would never use a rod), and Ashe was my white mage (who wouldn't have Time or Dark Magicks).

Also if I wanted my Green Mage to get their nearest quickening, they would have to learn Renew in order to learn their nearest quickening.

If you wanted to have your characters stick to a particular class, you do have the choice to do so but when you want specific characters to have specific espers, or get quickenings, you HAVE to cross class them. And this happens sometimes with spells. For example, when you want to get Time Magick 4 for your time mage, you either have to get a black magick or dark magick spell in order to stay true to that character's class, depending on how you define that class. The same thing goes with your White Magick spells, if you want White Magick 8, you need to purchase Green Magick 6 in order to purchase White Magick 8.

In terms of developing classes to their full potential, you have to cross class spells, armour (look at Mystic armour line), and weapons in order to achieve that class' full potential. I didn't mention Augments because you can get those (for the most part) without cross-classing. They are just tempting and stupid not to get sometimes.. This forces the player to blend their characters and I blended my 3 main characters so much that I didn't need the other three characters to fill in any roles that weren't already filled in.

For me, the License Board system is too open and it doesn't have enough structure or limitations to it. Choosing to class or not to class characters isn't my issue with it; having ''cookie-cut'' characters (battle-wise) is.



I played with all the 6 Characters mantaining them at the same lvl & using them as two teams, exchaging members in the middle of the battles giving them a task, it isn't hard & it made the game more dynamic, specially the boss battles.

Now this is where all of my subjectivity is going to come into play here; exchanging characters in the middle of the battle would be way too tedious for me. I would get way too impatient way too fast because I could be grinding with faster battles if I didn't switch out my characters. Maybe I'm not old school enough for this game, but it is how I am right now. I am not going to spend the extra time to train 6 characters when all I really NEED is 3 characters to beat the game.

This is sarcasm, right? I'm not trying to be a dick but the internet being the internet can sometimes cause mis-communication and I don't want to attack back to sarcasm =P .

More than a sarcasm is a method to make emphasis that it put me out for you saying that.
I was like "license board 0/10, mhm... WAIT WHAT!!!?!!?!?!?" xD



when my characters weren't casting any spells, they were attacking the enemy physically

I used Penelo as the main Black Mage for example & if she wasn't casting a spell she was using Charge Technick, I made her in a way so that she only cast's spells.



Now this is where all of my subjectivity is going to come into play here; exchanging characters in the middle of the battle would be way too tedious for me. I would get way too impatient way too fast because I could be grinding with faster battles if I didn't switch out my characters. Maybe I'm not old school enough for this game, but it is how I am right now. I am not going to spend the extra time to train 6 characters when all I really NEED is 3 characters to beat the game.

Well I used all the characters mainly because I get to die a lot if 3 characters die, I'll have to switch & use an escape/revival tactics, I mantained them at almost the same level so that the fight was constantly going, it's a fun method, What I do to mantain the characters at same level is Pick 3, when one goes a lvl you switch it for another & you keep going.
I played all the game this way I did only one playthrough.
It's not being old-school or whatever, You just have to figure the best way take advantage of all at your disposal, I wouldn't mind if the License board was bigger & if I could control my 6 characters at the same time. =D
B-Sides I played most of the game in Active mode, IT'S AMAZING HOW THIRILLING IT IS! THE ESPERS REALLY FUCK YOU IF FIGHT THEM ON ACTIVE! XDDDDDDDDD

Still I think that giving it 0 out of 10 because of that is not Fair. xD

Anyway this is your show, carry on... =D

I'll try that out next time, topopoz... In fact I really wish that I played like that.

Final Verdict Part 2

My opinions on the Visual and Audio aspects of the game. Yeah, two parts in one day (can you tell I'm off school now?).


Audio: 9.5/10

Visual: 10/10


Boss/Esper Battle Music 10/10:

Pretty epic. Sounds fairly classical too. Yeah, I have nothing much to say here =P. Okay, the music of FFXII has a very specific theme to it. To me the theme of the music (and some could argue the game) is nationalism and every aspect of nationalism (from patriotism to political structures). So this game's set of music explores that theme with the use of more brassy instruments (particularly trumpets if I've been listening correctly).

The Boss/Esper music is very epic music, same with the final boss music. Those pieces of music are very engaging to the players, they're loyal to the theme of the music (/game some would argue), and they are fun musical pieces to play to when you are trying to take down a super hard boss.


Zone Music 8.5/10:

Because I have used my Boss/Esper music section to explain what I think that the theme of the music pieces are; I have to say that the zone music fits the musical theme(s) perfectly! The zone music reinforces those themes and ideas like a hand in a glove.

Now, there are music pieces that were recycled a little too often. One piece that comes to mind is the Dalmasca Estersand music. That piece was used in the Mosphoran Highwaste and in the Phon Coast. I feel like this one piece was recycled a little too often because you travel through the Dalmasca Estersand (if you choose to), to Nalbina, to the Mosphoran Highwaste, to the Salikawood, and to the Phon Coast. Every second zone you hit the same Dalmasca Estersand music if you travel like that in the game. I think that is a little too much recycling of one piece; they should have switched out for a different musical piece for the Phon Coast in my opinion. But I do understand the importance of recycling music; so that the composer doesn't have to make 20+ separate pieces for EACH zone.

I also felt that some of the zone pieces didn't fit the environment for a couple of the zones. Particularly the Estersand and the Phon Coast. The Estersand is a desert environment that has a piece that has a lot of valiant trumpets playing. For me, connecting an environment with a suiting piece of music is very important to the game. As a contrast, I feel that the Westersand and the Sandsea zones have very fitting musical pieces for a desert environment, while staying true to the music's theme. Anyways, the Estersand music and the Estersand environment did not fit at all. It was hard to contemplate because you have this coarse, dry, desert environment paired with a very nationalistic piece of music.

The Phon Coast also had the same piece of music that the Estersand had. In this case, a very nationalistic musical piece was paired with an environment that looked like a hell of a good vacation. The only point that the Phon Coast has appropriate music (in my opinion) is when you are in the zone with the other Game Hunters. But the rest of the Phon Coast's music felt way too fast for that environment.

In the end I give this part an 8.5/10 because I feel that the music was very good. The musical pieces were very dedicated to their theme of nationalism (if that was the intended theme). It did not get a 10 because I feel that some of the musical pieces were paired, inappropriately, with some of the environments.

And for the record, my favourite zone music is Giruvegan and the Great Crystal.


Ending Credit Music 10/10:

''Kiss Me Good-Bye'' was an excellent piece; I kind of wanted to listen to it without Penelo narrating over it but I guess that if the game producers don't have a long instrumental version of it, it ain't going to last through the entire credits =P . That's not to say that the ending credit music was bad, it was very good in fact. Just watching the ending and listening to the music that accompanied it was a real privilege. It left me ''wowed'' at the end of the game, like the FF's have been doing for years now (except X-2; that can suck it).


Visuals:


Environments 10/10:

I really shouldn't have to explain why I'm giving a 10/10. Final Fantasies have never failed to deliver (for me at least) when it comes to its environments.

They have very dynamic environments with very original looks to each of them in this game. Just the subtle differences in light and props can make similar zones like the W/Estersands and Sandseas feel very different. You had all kinds of zones and environments to be wowed by with FFXII, that there really is no excuse not to give it a 10/10.

That's not to say that I liked all of the zones =P. I really hated the Barheim Passage, the mines, Sochen Cave Palace, and the airships (they might not count though lol). But it was the other zones that really made the game come alive.



FMV's 10/10:

Some of you might argue that FMV's belong to the story section of my final verdict and I would readily agree with you. But to me, a final fantasy's FMV does as much for the story as it does for the visual appeal of the game. So the rating that I have given it, reflects how I feel about the story and visual aspect of an FMV.

Okay, if a final fantasy failed at every other aspect of the game, it would not fail on the visual aspects, especially when it comes to FMV's. The FMV's in FFXII really does suck the player into the story from the start. There are so many beautiful things about the FMV's in this FF that it is hard to keep it in one paragraph. The FMV's of FFXII deliver a visually fascinating story that is accompanied by excellent music, and this time, some really good voice-over's.

I tend to be a very visual person so this FF was a real treat for me. With the final fantasy series, speaking completely on the visual aspects, it feels like they can make video-gaming into an interactive art as opposed to just a time-eater.



Now, in my next part, I will be talking about the plot and story of FFXII. I'm going to be honest, I think that the real ''bread and butter'' of a final fantasy is (in order of importance) its plot, music, characters, and environments. So the next part is going to really focus on the plot of FFXII.

I mantained them at almost the same level so that the fight was constantly going, it's a fun method, What I do to mantain the characters at same level is Pick 3, when one goes a lvl you switch it for another & you keep going.

I DO THIS! in fact i have never done it any other way

You know about the FMV's I think that even though they were perfectly directed, I didn't liked how the characters turned in the FMV's in comparison to the game's engine graphics, in the FMV's I felt that they were made of plastic, very unreal, but with the game's engine graphics it was better, the expressions were more fitting & you could even see that the characters had some imperfections in a way, in the game's engine graphics they even worked on the rings under their eyes, in the FMV's they suddenly did a surgical work xD.

Compare how larsa & basch Scar on thesee two videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw3mu9ENaF8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU0VixnLeiE

My point is that in the game's engine graphics the characters looked more realistic in comparison to the FMV's.

....in the FMV's I felt that they were made of plastic, very unreal, but with the game's engine graphics it was better, the expressions were more fitting & you could even see that the characters had some imperfections in a way, in the game's engine graphics they even worked on the rings under their eyes, in the FMV's they suddenly did a surgical work xD.

It is strange how you mentioned that because I have always thought that the characters looked like barbies in the FMV's. Hmm.. This is definitely a legitimate reason to dock at least one point off of visuals and change it to a 9/10. Continuity is a huge deal after all.

I would argue that even if the world map isn't as open as FF8 to take your example, the locations are much better.

There are some duds of course, but even locations that have no relevance to the main plot, have their own feel to them, and help to make the world feel more real, possessed of actual distance and scale (as opposed to other RPGs, where whole nations are sometimes seperated by one small field etc and consist of a village and a capital city etc!).

But I take one of your earlier points, that Archades really isn't executed very well. The whole section feels very rushed and the city lacks the sense of scale and importance it should have.

But this in itself is not unusual. RPGs (West and East) often place much more emphasis and resources on getting the early cities and locations right, because of the desire to win people over, create good first impressions etc.

As development progresses and deadlines loom however, the early craft and time lavishaed on the initial sections, has to make way. Hence a great many RPGs have significantly worse (but above all rushed) second halves than first halves.

Your point about side quests is a little unfair. The vast majority of side quests in FF are about fighting, whether secret dungeons or bosses etc. And the hunt quest does have a story (its not much, but its more than you usually get with these things).

Side Quests almost never have additional cutscenes, and (at least in FF) generally much more absorbed with acquiring better treasures and defeating bigger bosses, than they ever are about developing your characters.

Sure, we'd all like that to be different, but developers know that people's attention spans are smaller now (meaning they are less likely to do side quests full stop) and development costs are bigger.

Games like FF13 and ME2 have seen side quests pared right down (ME2's side quests are just endless battles against Merc bands for example), because its assumed that casual gamers won't stick with the games long enough to notice that there aren't as many side quests and won't care if the game is short.

We'd all like games to be deeper, richer, filled with all sorts of extra stories and interesting quests etc. But that's not the way that the wind is blowing, and its hasn't been for some time now.

I do agree with you Vrykolas, you're right about "the way that the wind is blowing", but still, but I agree on Scryer about the sidequests, In FFVII, FFT & Chrono Trigger for example, most of the sidequests are tied in some way to the characters or the facts & concepts the world is made of.

For Example, many of the Sidequests in CT, are tied to the understanding on how affecting is doing anything in timelines & in the ending of the game, some things are affected & tend to get resolved differently, In FFT the sidequests are made to understand the lore & the relation with the plot devices.

In 90% of the sidequests are just kill mobs, get the reward, move on, almost none(there are few, but I can probably count them with my fingers) of the sidequest rely on interacting with NPC's.

Anyway this is Scryer's show, I would like some more points on the License Board because seriously 0/10 is unfair.

But 6 on the sidequests is okay, there are billons of hunts, special hunts & ultra-monsters, but there might be 3-5 sidequests that are based on interacting NPC's.

You're not wrong, but:

1) Chrono Trigger is probably the best game for inventive side quests, that also develop your characters. Taking the best example and criticising others for not doing it, isn't really very fair, is it?

2) Your examples are getting on a bit now, and all predate voice acting and the expense of modern cutscenes etc. It's simply harder and more expensive to produce reams of extra dialogue and cutscenes, only to hide them away.

Mass Effect 2 for example, takes such content and turns them into the loyalty missions. Not technically required to complete the game, but still considered part of the main story anyway.

This has the dual effect of making the main story seem longer for completionists, and removing the need for them to do any other side quests with the characters, because they technically already have.

Simply put, gamers want fast action titles and instant gratification now. Even the most hyped and anticipated games (in all genres) last only about a fortnight, before gamers are on to the next big thing.

I'd love it to go back to being like your examples, but I just can't see that happening now.

But I've said my piece, so I'll hand you back to the OP!

Final Verdict Part 3

This is the final part of my final verdict on FFXII. I also give the game a final rating at the end, along with some final thoughts.

Plot and Language: 7/10

Characters: 6.5/10


Plot

I don't want to summarize the plot at all. But there will be spoilers.

The plot/story is a darker final fantasy. I've always felt that FFX was dark but FFXII is a dark story in a different way. I guess that (in comparison) FFXII has a more Worldly vision. By that, I mean that the story of FFXII is about a country in a bad situation before it is about any individuals. I guess that what makes FFXII different in a darker sense is that at the end of the game, all of the characters are barely changed. Fran and Balthier end up staying in their sky-pirating profession, Vaan is closer to his goal of becoming a sky-pirate, Penelo still hangs out with Vaan doing her thing, and Ashe is queen AGAIN. The only character who really changed was Basch who started out protecting Ashe and Dalmasca, and ended up protecting Larsa (Emperor of Archadia). Anyways, I think that the plot is darker because the events in FFXII doesn't change most of the characters; this is disturbing because there was a rebellion against the Empire's control of Dalmasca at several points in the story, and the characters faced the Occuria but they all didn't pay too much attention to those God-like creatures after their encounter.

The plot is also darker because it is about countries, in particular it is about Dalmasca being in the middle of two greater empires (Rozarria and Archadia), where Dalmasca is a vassal state of Archadia. The fact that the story is more about countries is a little intimidating because there are more people involved; innocent people who have done nothing to suffer war and Imperialism from another country. The story is much bigger than the six main characters of the story; they do make a difference but in the end, it is not just about those six characters. Arguably, every final fantasy game is like that but in my opinion FFXII is a lot more focused on the world of Ivalice than it is on the six main characters. It's a story where the player knows that there are other forces in the story (one of them being politicians and royalty) that will always be there, even after the end. I guess that that is what makes FFXII a darker final fantasy.

FFXII's ending, for me, was a very neutral ending. I liked the ending because order was restored but I also liked the ending because their work wasn't finished yet. What I mean by that is that Dalmasca isn't left in the best position, Dalmasca is still an underdog between Rozarria and Archadia. Dalmasca may be free from Archadian rule but it definitely isn't in a good position after the events of FFXII. Archadia isn't in the best position either because Vayne overthrew the political republic-like system and used tons of resources to wage war against the resistance. So Archadia isn't in the best position either. At the end of FFXII, no one has a ''leg-up'' over anyone else. I didn't mention anything about Rozarria because Rozarria has been ''sleeping'' this entire game.

Now, the story of FFXII lets on that it is a story about kingdoms and factions, not about individual characters (not to say that they aren't important, but in the end it is about their kingdoms and factions). In my opinion, a story about kingdoms needs to cover what the other kingdoms and factions are doing and what their relationship is. For example, is one faction trying to buy out another faction, is one faction at peace with another, did a vassal state have to discontinue trading with another faction, etc. In the game we never got any updates like that with Rozarria and the Rebellion led by Marquis Ondore. What we do get is Al-Cid telling might or might not attack Archadia if the the Rebellion attacks; and what we get with the Rebellion is one cut-scene that shows Ondore giving out orders to train harder. FFXII covers Archadia's side of the story perfectly but that is half of the story, the other half of the story about factions concerns Rozarria and the Rebellion. We are hardly given any information about the Rebellion or Rozarria in the entire game. I'm sorry but those two factions are half the story and those factions are the reasons that everybody is shitting their pants about a war with the Archadian Empire. In FFXII, there are also zones that are completely empty and force the player to fight through. There are so many zones that I don't want to list them all; I'm just saying that the game producers could have easily added in a couple of events or cutscenes that could have included information about Rozarria or the Rebellion's activities.

Other than the long grinding periods and side-quests, another reason that players will tend to forget about the storyline is that there aren't any cut-scenes or events that involve Rozarria or the Rebellion. Those two factions are mentioned way too much in the story and they are both very important that it was a little stupid not to have them more involved in the story. For me, leaving out Rozarria and the Rebellion in the story is a huge hole in the plot. And the empty zones reflect that...

Another point in the plot that bugs me is the part where Jules lets Balthier know that the senators fled from their positions, which allows Vayne to have complete power over the Empire. First of all, the exchange between Jules and Balthier deserves voice-overs, second of all it is un-believable. At that point in the game, you are in Archades. The reason that the whole senators thing is un-believable is that everyone in Archades is acting normally and there aren't any cutscenes or FMV's that show the senators fleeing, or people in panic, or even people rebelling against the change in power. Tearing down a kingdom's political structure doesn't happen everyday and it definitely doesn't happen that quietly either. There are usually people who feel oppressed and upset that the political structure is changing and so I think that there should have been something to show that; FFXII has already got a strong focus on politics (particularly Archadian politics) that I think that it is very un-believable that when Archadia's political structure got torn down so quietly. Sure, I suppose that there could have been rebellions the day after they left Archades, but that kind of news usually spreads like wildfire. And if there wasn't any action, I think that the citizens would have at least been talking about their political structure being changed completely.

Now when I mention language, I am talking about the language that the people in Ivalice spoke. I played it in English by the way. Anyways, I noticed that the people in Ivalice who held a higher position in society (like royalty and high ranking politicians/militia) would sometimes have Elizabethan English lines. I found that to be a cool effect... In the movie ''Alexander'' they had the Macedonian characters speak with American accents and the Greek characters speak in English accents to distinguish the two countries (they chose english-language accents because the movie was originally released in America and nobody there would know what a Greek or Macedonian accent sounded like). Recently, with FFXIII, they had Vanille and Fang with Australian accents to represent them being from a different place. Playing around with accents and language is a cool effect and it was kind of reflected in FFXII with its higher-status characters.

My only issues with the Elizabethan English lines was that it was only sometimes used by high status characters. This didn't work for me because I think that if you are going to play around with language, you need to keep it consistent for those types of characters. The only exception to this would be Ashe since she was in hiding, therefore she would probably need to disguise her language in order to hide her identity. Anyways, the ''hit and miss'' with the Elizabethan lines really didn't work for me because it would upset the flow of the speech in the game. I think it was a cool idea, but I think that what they should have done is either scrap the idea or have the characters that would use Elizabethan English, speak in Elizabethan English the entire time because that language continuity would have had a better effect in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong, I like the plot, I think that it is a good plot but I also think that it could have been an excellent plot since FFXII has that potential to really explore the story with the three big factions (being Archadia, the Rebellion, and Rozarria).

If I were to improve the plot, I would send the group down to Rozarria after the events in the Stilshrine of Miriam. At Mt. Bur-Omisace, Lord Gramis is killed and everything is escalating because Vayne is in power and Ashe has to hold off announcing her succession since Vayne isn't interested in peace. I would have them go to Rozarria because at that point in the story everything is escalating, and if I remember correctly, Al-Cid said that Rozarria would be firing up and getting ready to make their move... I would have the party go to Rozarria and try to cool things off whether it be by sabotaging their main weapons or by convincing the lord of Rozarria that it's a bad idea to attack. I would find some reason (no matter how pathetic) to take the party to Rozarria because Rozarria needs more air time; not only that but on the map, there aren't any geographical obstacles blocking the party's path to Rozarria. So there is no way that they absolutely cannot go to Rozarria.

I would also improve the plot by having the main party encounter the Rebellion a couple of times on their way to Archades. I think that it's a fair bet that the Rebellion would send scouting parties or hired mercenaries to harass Archadia, especially if the Rebellion plans on making the first strike. My suggestions would give Rozarria and the Rebellion their much-needed face time, it would give the player more to think about, it would give the story more defined dimensions, and it would fill up those empty zones with something about the story!

In the end, I have to give the story a 7/10. It hits its main points well but the story of FFXII had so much more potential I think that FFXII's story could have been a lot better than FFX's story if the game explored its potential. Unfortunately I won't be giving points to potential; I give points to the finished product.


Characters

Here, I will list the characters that I feel were very important to the story, including the main 6, and bitch about them. I'll also give them a rating.

Vaan: 4/10

Is there a better place to start? As the main protagonist, he is a failure. He gets points because he is more likable than Tidus in FFX, but Tidus won out on this one because FFXII from Vaan's point of view, honestly ends around Garif Village, while Tidus' point of view lasted until the end of his game.

I understand that there was a writer-switch in the middle of the game's production. But that isn't an excuse to ignore your main character (being Vaan) during half of the game. Vaan fails as a main character because when your party decides to go to Archades, FFXII becomes Ashe's story. This makes Vaan a very forgettable main character and it confuses the player since FFXII suddenly becomes Ashe's story without any kind of a transition.

Vaan also fails as a main character because he forgives Basch (who he thinks has killed his brother, Reks) way too soon to make it believable. After you escape from the Barheim Passage, Vaan suddenly say's that he thinks that Basch didn't kill his brother; excuse me for expecting more, but Vaan has no shred of proof to be sure that Basch didn't kill Reks and Basch never admits to Vaan that he has a twin brother. I'm going to call bullshit on that. That important characteristic of Vaan should of never have been solved in one scene. I feel that Basch needed to prove himself to Vaan before that scene could have taken place.

Penelo: 3/10

Now Vaan's role as the main character in FFXII had a short run, but Penelo wasn't given a purpose in the group in the first place. Like Vaan, she hardly has any lines that say much about her character for most of the game. Penelo is very likable though, she isn't as sexualised as Rikku or Vanille, instead she has a very down-to-earth take on things. This down-to-earth quality was very nice to have with her narrating at the end of FFXII.

Anyways, I doubt that Penelo would put herself through that much danger just because she was in love with Vaan. It wasn't believable for me that she was so in love with Vaan that she would do anything for him. It would have been more believable if Penelo stayed in Rabanastre (after the events in Bhujerba) because it seemed like she had no other reason to stick with the group. She seemed like a space-filler which is why I am giving her a low rating.

But, she would have made one of the best narrators (in my opinion) if she was narrating throughout the entire story. She would've been able to clearly explain her motives in regards to staying with the group the ENTIRE time, she wouldn't have needed to be in many scenes, and she would have had a PURPOSE.

Basch: 9/10

Basch is definitely a very well developed character. He has many characteristics that make him extremely interesting, he has one of the most badass backgrounds in the game, and he has clear intentions to continue on in their journey. He was originally written to be the main character of the story and I believe that he would have made a great main character.

The only reason that I'm not giving him a 10/10 is because in the game, they really don't use his potential to explain more of his history in Nabudis. His Nabudis history should have come up more, especially when the player is going through the Nabreus Deadlands and the Necrohol of Nabudis. There is no excuse not to give the player a little more about Basch and his history with Nabudis.

Ashe: 8.5/10

Ashe is such a bitch at the beginning but until mid-way through the game, the player doesn't get to find out that she probably has the best intentions out of all of the characters. She actually wants to restore Dalmasca's honour and not just win a war with the Archadian Empire. I honestly think that Ashe is a bitch throughout the entire game and that her intentions with Dalmasca just hides her coarser qualities.

If there isn't a main character transition, then that means that Ashe stole the spotlight from Vaan. That is more of Vaan's fault but that also means that the plot revolves more around Ashe if she could steal the main character role so easily. Having Ashe in an awkward role suddenly, doesn't sit well with me, having her transition into a role would have been a lot smoother for the plot. Now since she stole the role of main character (more than Basch has) from Vaan, she also needed more moments to be the hero. In this case, the only point that I think she is a hero, is when she destroys the Sun Cryst in the Pharos. But she needed more opportunities to prove to the players that she is the hero of the story; but considering that she isn't meant to be the hero of FFXII, it just adds more confusion as to who is the protagonist.

Balthier: 9/10

What a fun character. Extremely likable. And as opposed to what he say's, I think that he is the best supporting character of the main six.

He doesn't get 10/10 because we lose some important information when he has those text scenes with Jules. I don't know about you guys, but I noticed that Jules revealed very important details about Balthier; the scenes with Jules deserved to be cutscenes with voice overs even though Jules is only needed once in the game. In Archades, Balthier always ran off to do some ''errands''. Those ''errands'' are not exactly explained in the game, especially considering that Archadia's Senate just ran away when the party arrives.

Fran: 7.5/10

I love her voice actor. The Icelandic accent was very beautiful. I think that the other speaking Viera had it too which is a cool effect like I was talking about before... It sucks that the Volcano recently erupted in Iceland though but I guess that's what happens when you live near volcanoes...

Fran needed to bring in her culture more in her cutscenes. I realize that Fran ran away from her culture, and it's phasing out, but I felt that we really needed to see Fran's culture play a bit of a stronger role in her character. Either that or we really need to see Fran open up in a scene or have her open Balthier up more. Fran is also described as a ''master of machines'' (I think) so I also think that we should have seen more of this as well. We only see this when Fran is explaining to Penelo how to keep the Strahl in shape.

Fran is like a combination of Lulu and Auron from FFX... She is an unchanging character because she knows who she is. I could have gotten really analytical in the plot about the theme of identity, but I feel that Fran is the one character (out of the 6) that has found a concrete identity.

I gave her and Balthier high ratings because those two are characters that played really well with each other. Balthier and Fran wouldn't have been half of the characters that they are, if they weren't together. I don't think that we would have liked Balthier as much unless he had Fran and vice versa.

Vayne: 8/10

I will be doing a character from each of the main factions in the game, being the Archadian Empire, the Rebellion, and Rozarria because those three factions are extremely important in the game.

I hate his voice actor, he sounded way too much like Seymour from FFX. No more feminine voices!! But he does have a pretty cool character that I think is underrated.

He's killed his brothers, he's involved with Ashe's father's assassination, he knows how to play the political game in the Archadian Empire, he knows how to appeal to his enemies (his speech to Rabanastre), he kills his father, becomes the Emperor of Archadia, overthrows their political system (being the senate), becomes a tyrant to be reckoned with, gets ''corrupted'' by Venat, goes absolutely blood-drunk with power, and gets killed. That's pretty hardcore, much more hardcore than Seymour from FFX.

I think that players don't give Vayne a chance because his voice was way too feminine; and players overlook how badass he really is because of his voice. I think that the voice-actor was mis-cast; he did a good job with what he had but I don't think that he was right for the part since everyone hates Vayne so much that they can't see that Vayne is a very smart antagonist. And that is why he doesn't get a 10/10; some people refuse to say that he was a decent villain because of his voice.


Marquis Ondore: 5.5/10

Yes, I know. Why Marquis Ondore? Well, he is an important part of the story that doesn't get explored. He belongs to the Resistance/Rebellion. He wants to fight the Archadian army because they are making several cities and kingdoms into vassal states, taking away freedoms. His faction is half of the story, he is one of the reasons that people are shitting their pants over war.

Well Marquis Ondore got his battle over Dalmascan land (Rabanastre to be accurate). But during the game, you almost hear nothing about what he does until the very end. In the beginning, he gets you captured in order to save Ashe (who was originally with the Resistance). And he gives you the sense that he doesn't explain any of his intentions.

He isn't getting a 10/10 because the game doesn't explore his actions enough to make his character shine (I've already bitched about the Resistance not getting enough air time though) but in the end of the game, he does get his battle time in. He's an important part of the story (since he's leading one of the big three) but he needed more air time.


Al-Cid: 4/10

Like I mentioned before, I wanted to analyze a character from the big three factions. Al-Cid is our ONLY voice from Rozarria. They did another cool little detail by giving him an accent but in the end he is pathetic.

The only information that we get from Al-Cid is that '''Rozarria might do this'' or ''Rozarria might do that'' or ''Rozarria is pretty quiet right now''. This information is unacceptable because people in Ivalice are shitting their pants if a war broke out between the Archadian Empire, the Rozarrian Empire, and the Resistance lead by Marquis Ondore; they are shitting their pants because it would have been one of the largest wars that Ivalice has seen. And the nethicite magnifies the casualties.

Al-Cid should have either given long specific details about Rozarria's actions or the party should have gone to Rozarria to ''keep the peace'' so to speak. We didn't see enough of Al-Cid and we didn't get enough information on Rozarria and Rozarria is the other half of the story since Ashe (in the end) is trying to prevent a war.


Final Thoughts:

Rating Average: 8/10
Final Rating: 7.7/10

I do not think that this game is an 8 because there was way too much potential that should have been explored with the plot. I understand that Square Enix didn't want the game to be a multi-disc game but what they gave us was a game that designated a main character (Vaan), who eventually failed in his role and got up-staged by Ashe and Basch; a plot that forgets the story about the two of the main three factions, leaving big gaps in the storyline; and they gave us 2/6 characters (being Penelo and Vaan) who end up looking like space-fillers. The story of FFXII had the potential of a 10/10 in plot and characters but because that potential wasn't realized, I definitely do not feel that it deserves an 8, which is what my average is.

The rating is high only because that aesthetic (being audio and visual) parts of the game were rated high based on my opinion. Aesthetics are beautiful but it is the plot and the game mechanics that serve more as the essence of the game.

For me, an 8/10 game was FFXIII. That game explored more of its potential than FFXII. FFXII comes close though.

I liked the game. I'm not sure if I'll ever play it again since it is a long game and I feel like this is getting it out of my system. I will recommend this game to any casual gamer that would like a challenge and I would also recommend this game to hardcore gamers because there is some challenging shit in this game (like Yiazmat). I would not recommend this game to a softcore casual gamer or to someone who has just begun playing video games.

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Now to reply to some posts:

topopoz, thanks for sticking up for me. But this is no longer my show. I have gotten FFXII out of my system and I do not want my thread to be just about my thoughts. I would really like to open up the ''floor'' even more to the ffshriners since I would really like to see some discussion on the game. This is a forum after all, and I would love to hear opinions. I can't promise that I won't defend what I say =P but I will promise to lend an ear and not flame at people like a gasoline fire. I like opinions supported by evidence.

Now because I have been writing long posts, topopoz, let me ask you some questions about your opinions on the license board system: What is a worse system than the LB system? What rating would you give it? What do you consider better than the LB system? I don't believe that you have answered those questions yet (I will be going back to your previous post to see if I'm not asking you to repeat anything so expect the questions to get edited eventually =P ).

Vrykolas, you have some really down-to-earth opinions on the way RPG's are being made now. I 100% agree with that; I just wish that some companies would give us something more intelligent to deal with like a fun mini-game (yeah, that shows how far my intelligence goes =P ). Or to change the game completely by the end of it.

The deadline for FFXII should have been pushed back since it had too many holes in the plot for me. But whatever, I don't work for Square Enix so I'm sure that delaying games is much more challenging than it actually is.

About side-quests, almost every side quest with FFX (getting the secret Aeons, collecting the Jecht spheres, etc) had a cutscene to help explain the story more.


I have done my ''Hoorah'' on this game and I hand the floor back to everyone (like it's supposed to be). If you disagree about something on my review, say it!!I promise not to decapitate anyone and pour bleach down their neck if they disagree. Or if you have any other thoughts on the game, or thought that I should have included something else in my review, say it!

Like I have already mentioned, this is no longer my show anymore.

Nice, I like the final veredict, I would problably give the game a 8(10)/10, I put the 10 on parenthesis because of it's potential.
Regarding the characters, I wouldn't dare myself to rate them because we can't really know them deeply, In the end, many things were left to chance.

What's worse that the LB system?
FFIX skill system, I hate it, the fact that you have to wear a weapon and use it until you learn the skill tells you this. "GRIND!"
Other system worse than the LB... FFIV classic system, Learning skills that are on par on the lvl of the character is also horrible. It tells you "GRIND" as well.
Other thing that's worse than the LB is the Junction System, the Concept is stupid(the whole idea of Stock magic), Systematically works but it's broken because in FFVIII the monsters lvl up as you do, so if you farm the best magic & escape from every battle, you're a real power house, the monsters are weak & you are strong making 9999 of damage at lvl 1.
What rate I would give to the LB?
I would give it at least an 8/10, because it lets you do what you want the way you want, but you can't get very creative either & that leads me to the next question.
What is better than the LB?
Simple, the Materia System, I love that system, because it let's you combine & get creative with your resources, it's simply amazing.

I hope that this answers your doubts xD! I played every FF I through IX, with the exception of III & I finished IV, VI, VII & VIII apart from XII & really I couldn't finish IX because I found the gameplay so stupidly stupid.
But I'm tired of ranting about IX gameplay, if you want to know everything I think about IX system go check this thread.
Thread 68558
From that page till the last one.

Anyway, nice review!

I consider both FF12 and FF13 to be 8/10 games. For my money, both have interesting plots, that aren't executed as well as they might have been, but are still highly enjoyable and playable games.

FF12 does suffer by its downgrading of Vaan's main character status. People can complain about him and say he's the wettest thing since water etc etc, but the fact is that he was the main character.

And once that decision has been made, you just have to go with it and do the best you can to make it work. Not abandon him halfway through, because you'd rather write for the other characters!

For much of the first half of the game, we see events through Vaan's eyes, seeing and learning as he does. For events to be on camera, it either has to be through him, have him nearby (Ashe and Vossler readying the rebel forces in the waterways), or be intimately tied to him (Reks' mission at the start, for example).

We rejoin the story in Nalbina Fortress when Vann wakes up, and again after he is attacked by the Seeq thugs. We learn about Basch and the old Dalmascan Knightly orders through him attending the meeting at Dalan's request etc.

So at that point, the game is doing a great job of tying Vaan into the story. And it establishs several times that Vayne vaguely recognises him etc, opening the way for the conflict to follow.

If they'd kept this up, then the game would have been a lot more cohesive. Having a main character may seem old hat, but it is necessary. Ensemble parties are hard to manage, especially when people like Gabranth and Larrsa are essentially party members (narratively speaking) as well.

It became a problem in FF13, towards the end of the game. In the first half of the game, you can have an ensemble, because the party is split up into small chunks, so everyone can have top billing.

But when they come together as one party, it becomes a bit of a ruck. Previously important characters like Sazh, Hope (and even Lightning) are relegated to the sidelines, as Snow, Fang, Dysley and Vanille spout plot intensive exposition.

I think both games are mindful however, of the need to court both casual and series faithful fans. The quicker combat and simplification of side quests etc is obviously casual gamer friendly.

But both games have lots to offer as your party gets tougher. FF12 has loads of 'secret' or addtional dungeons (and let's not forget that FF7 has none at all, unless you count the sunken Gelnika).

The sheer amount of different Hunts, plus the steep diffculty curve for the later beasts, with their millions of HP, ensure there is always something more to be aiming for.

And FF13's quick-fire, short attention span, linear stop and start play through the first half is replaced by more open areas and side quests, in the latter half.

So you can read it as them catering for the series faithful, who were much more likely to have continued playing up to that point, whereas casual gamers would probably have given up by then.


The problem is that we want the high production values of a Mass Effect 2 or a FF13, but we want the old intensity and complexity of a FF7 or Chrono Trigger.

And whilst it's easy for us to sit here and say 'Oh, why didn't they do it like this?!' or 'They don't know to write good games anymore' etc, the reality is money and deadlines would tie our hands just as surely, if we were the ones making the games in the modern industry.

They can't afford to keep tinkering away indefinately, spending money all the while, on games that are only bought and focused on for about a month.

It's not fair to just blame the developers, as the stories and characters of both FF12 and 13 show that they do care about such things. But they can't just pretend that the industry isn't the way it is, and that people aren't buying and consuming games at the ferocious rate they are now.

The cold facts are that unless the trend towards shortening attenton spans somehow reverses itself, games are going to get faster and faster and more and more lightweight.

Which I'm sure none of us really want. Because if it keeps up like this, FF20 will be little more than a title screen, some quick edits of swords flashing, explosions roaring, people showing NOOOOOO!!!! etc and then some credits rolling!