Final Fantasy XII

If I was a betting man a year ago, I would have bet hundreds of dollars saying that Final Fantasy XII was going to be the death of Final Fantasy. With reports of some arcane new battle system and the possible lack of any love story, the game looked like it was going to be too much of a departure from the Final Fantasy I knew and loved. Hell, and Nobuo Uematsu was gone. It was as if Square-Enix had their knife on the neck of Final Fantasy, and was preparing to kill it in the most flashy and annoying way possible.

Final Fantasy XII is the most recent Final Fantasy game in the series, featuring a completely new set of characters in a new story removed from any Final Fantasy title in the series. Set in the fictional world of Ivalice from Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy XII is a departure from what is the standard fare of Final Fantasy, reworking virtually every aspect of the series into what has to be one of the most interesting and odd game in the series.



Final Fantasy XII begins out quite simply. The Kingdom of Dalmasca, led by it's benevolent king, is caught between in a war between two major powers- Archadia and Rozarria. Archadia, in an attempt to gain on Rozarria, takes over the Kingdom of Dalmasca, killing the King and throwing Princess Ashe (though she married the King, which technically makes her a Queen) from her throne, claiming her dead. Princess Ashe, angered by the way in which Arcadia so quickly and cruelly forced control of Dalmasca, quickly joins a resistance movement to battle against the tyranny of the Archadian empire and restore the Kingdom as it once was.

The game takes a major departure from it's predecessors in the series in that it may be the most impersonal Final Fantasy of them all. Final Fantasy XII is unique in that it focuses on a band of people, considering them one unit, quite unlike the interpersonal feeling that games such as Final Fantasy VIII developed so skilfully. This essentially means that while Final Fantasy XII is very detailed about it's characters and their histories, the game takes most of it's focus and places it on the war on Ivalice as a whole. Much like a movie, long spans of gameplay are broken by detailed cutscenes from all over Ivalice, from the dark chambers of the Archadian Senate to the happenings in the city-state of Bhujerba.

Another interesting facet of Final Fantasy XII is that the engine itself- rather, the battle and game engine- resembles nothing like what anyone has seen before. Highly acclaimed developer Yasumi Matsuno was called in to give new blood to the series, and for the period he did develop the series (he dropped out midway due to health issues), he managed to turn the series into something that definitely screams Final Fantasy, but looks much different.

The battle system in Final Fantasy XII is the most touched. Final Fantasy XII features what is known as real time battles, which is equivocal to the style of battle seen in many MMORPGs, including Final Fantasy XI. Instead of forcing the characters into a new screen for battle, battles happen in real time, the characters simply pulling weapons out and battling immediately on screen. Gone are the battle themes and turn-based attacks of the past- Final Fantasy XII ditches all that in favor of a system that is not only quick and efficient, but also rather unique. One addition to this is the creation of the ?Gambit? system, which functions as a semi-programmable AI for your teammates- so all the player need do is tell the teammates what to do and watch them do it with remarkable skill. This is really actually quite fun- inventive ways to program your team abound. For example, reviewer Mikey discovered that he could teach his characters to steal before they finished off an enemy, whereas I discovered that I could literally make them cover themselves in oil and set themselves on fire. Different priorities, but a lot of fun.



This ?Gambit? system is also teamed with the ?License Board? system, which remarkably resembles the ?Sphere Grid? from Final Fantasy X. In an attempt to destroy the class-based development seen in most Final Fantasy games, the License Board system allows any character to learn any skill or talent without restriction- so long as they have the License Points to fund such a maneuver. License points now act much akin to Experience Points (Both exist in the game, License points given out in addition), given every time a monster is destroyed- meaning that all characters have a fair chance of developing any kind of skill, no matter what.

No standard feature of the Final Fantasy series was left untouched in Matsuno's revitalization of the series. Creatures and monsters no longer drop Gil (money) any more- rather, they drop loot (such as their remains), which can be sold for money- making more sense and adding a more pack rat-like ambiance to the game. Equipment (thanks to the License Board) is totally unisex and unspecific, meaning that money comes in handy- no longer will equipping Magi cost 300 gil and equipping Knights cost 300,000. In fact, many of the Gametrash reviewers found themselves having to actually backtrack to purely steal loot to fund the rather expensive equipment available in the game, as now every single character demands the top of the line equipment.

Speaking of every single character, this may be the first Final Fantasy game to place such a high precedent in training all characters. Instead of allowing you to ?power team? (Making 3 characters ultra powerful and ignoring the others), Final Fantasy XII literally forces you to level everyone equally, lest you find yourself dead. The positive aspect to this is that to encourage you to do this, characters can be dynamically switched in and out of the team with a flick of the menu, in battle or not- meaning that bosses no longer have the nice ability to kill 30% of your team and make you lose, but must kill 100% of everyone to manage such a feat. This also means that you can take one character, equip them with extremely protective items, force them to run in a corner and hide, and pray to god the boss will never find them. They usually do.



These new engine upgrades come with a cost. Final Fantasy XII, being extremely detailed and deep, is actually an extremely difficult game to play through without deep thought and planning. The Gambit system, which replaces the need to specifically chose character actions, requires constant adjustment and refinement, especially when it comes to the precedent in which actions are performed. Equipment is expensive, towns are huge, and the vast variety of mini-games (the biggest one being a mercenary-like hunting system, which one can spend hours at) make Final Fantasy XII's gameplay a little daunting. Many of the Gametrash authors, to parody this kind of huge and confusing aspect of the game, began calling the game ?Final Fantasy XII Online? in honor of ?Final Fantasy XI Online?, one of the most difficult and grinding FF games on the market.

And, of course, one cannot leave out the technical aspects. Final Fantasy XII is by far the most graphically advanced FF ever. Using the blur effect that worked well in Kingdom Hearts 2 and refining the graphics for a more ?realistic? look (departing from the Anime look the series sometimes segues into), Final Fantasy XII resembles something of a movie rather than a game itself. Of course, the engine is aging, and the game shows it. Nothing could be done about that, lest Square Enix develop the magical algorithm for turning off PS2 texture compression and lack of anti-aliasing. Of course, here I must also give my kudos to Akihiko Yoshida (the character designer of the series), who has made some of the hottest pixellated tail (Fran) I have ever seen. I love you, man.

The music is where this game surprised me. Nobuo Uematsu, known generally as the god of the Final Fantasy series for his phenomenal orchestrated music, left Square Enix quite a while ago, meaning that Square Enix was SOL so far as music was concerned. But that did not last long. Hitoshi Sakimoto, best known for his work with Yasumi Matsuno on Vagrant Story, came along virtually clad in a superman outfit to save the day. The music in Final Fantasy XII is oddly fitting, orchestral and beautiful, but nonetheless distinctly Final Fantasy. Nothing here is absolutely remarkable to the level that Nobuo Uematsu used to pump out, but trying to compare ANY music to Uematsu's work is unfair- so we can safely say that Matsuno did a damn good job.

Of course, one must critique this game. Final Fantasy XII may be one of the most intriguing FF games on the market today. When I originally took the game to my office (While hiding it under my jacket and screaming ?IT'S MINE YOU CAN'T PLAY IT?), I was slightly disappointed already. From my perspective, I had not gotten much information on it- other than knowing that it was rather strange (and being very disappointed with the demo enclosed with Dragon Quest VIII), which I believed meant that Square-Enix was keeping it under wraps. Knowing that Yasumi Matsuno dropped out midway was also a blow- I had no faith in the ability of Square Enix to keep things together under pressure.



And much like Famitsu, I cannot find anything wrong with this game. Final Fantasy XII is one of those games that is addictive and fun, a refreshing blast of the Final Fantasy series that I haven't had since Final Fantasy X. XII even trumps X in the fact that it simply engrosses the player in a way that has not been seen in other games before. The deep story mixed with the interesting characters, all blended with a refreshing game style and great music, may be one of the biggest surprises of 2006.

I don't mean to sound like a fanboy saying this. I imagine many readers are scowling, thinking I'm sitting here with some sort of Tifa hugging pillow, drooling while listening to old Final Fantasy music while ranting about how good this game is. I'm not. I simply appreciate how Square-Enix is willing to be original and unique, and not simply re-hash their old work as I felt they would do ever since FFVII: Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus. Even if everyone in the world hated this game with some sort of burning passion, I still feel that the willingness of Square-Enix to experiment with their series means that we may see better and better Final Fantasy games in the future. I have not felt so generally satisfied with a Final Fantasy games since the ?good old days? of the (original) Playstation- and that's saying something.

In this way, I have an idea for gamers this Christmas. If you have a Playstation 2 and desperately want a Playstation 3, just forget it. The systems are already retailing on Ebay for something like $30,000,000 (I'm not kidding). What you should do is take that $600 you have burning in your pocket and use it to purchase gems like this, which show reviewers like me that these old systems still have life in them. Final Fantasy XII is a breath of fresh air that I by no means expected from Square-Enix, and makes me feel so much better about the future of the series as a whole. If you have a Playstation 2, this is a game that you absolutely must have.

5 star(s) out of 5

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