After many years of development fans of Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy franchise are finally getting a new installment in the series and they might be shocked to see what developments took place in Final Fantasy XII. Gone are menu based battles and heroes with teenage identity problems. Instead Final Fantasy XII brings a politically charged tale of war and a battle system reminiscent of Final Fantasy XI. The result is the one of the most spectacular games in the series. Read on to find out why.
Final Fantasy XII begins with Vaan’s brother Reks’ a soldier in Dalmasca’s army who is fighting the Archadian Empire. When Reks gets to the throne room he sees the king, murdered and Captain Basch brandishing a blade. Then the story switches over two years in the future where Vaan, Reks’ younger brother, is living in the capital city of Rabanastre. Vaan lives in the slums of Rabanastre, but he dreams of a life of freedom, a life as a sky pirate. To make ends meet Vaan acts as a part time thief. When he stumbles into the waterways to steal the goddess magicite he runs into the famed sky pirate Baltheir and his Viera partner Fran. On the other side of the spectrum is Ashe, the heir of the Dalmascan throne who is plotting a rebellion against the Archadian Empire. When Ashe and Vaan’s paths cross through the work of chance they become the sole hope for restoring the kingdom of Dalmasca.
If you’ve been following the Final Fantasy Tactics series you might recognize that XII and Tactics Advance are set in the same world, Ivalice. The world of Final Fantasy XII is populated with many creatures not just humes. Moogles walk on the streets and the lizard like Bangraa hock goods at the bazaar. Unlike the technologically advanced world of Final Fantasy VIII and VII, XII feels more fantasy-like with castles and the fully armored judges walking the streets. Towns and areas in Final Fantasy XII are huge, Rabanastre is a couple of screens long and dungeons can take an hour or so to complete from start to finish. While you can go straight to finishing the story Final Fantasy XII makes you part of Montblonc’s clan where you can do side quests like hunting down rare monsters for rewards.
Combat in Final Fantasy XII is a refreshing change in the series. All enemies and targets appear on screen and when you run into a monster the game doesn’t shift into battle mode. When a foe is spotted Vaan and his party will automatically brandish their weapons and take action. Battles in Final Fantasy XII are governed by the Gambits, programmable artificial intelligence that you set for your party members follow. To assign gambits first you pick a target like “Penelo”, “ally”, or “party leader’s target”. Then you set an action like “cure”, “steal” or “attack”. Your characters will automatically process the list of actions you give them like a long if then else statement. Along the way you can pick up new gambit parameters like “ally > 70% HP” or “enemy leader” to refine your combat strategy. The large diversity of commands gives players a lot of flexibility of how they want their party to act and react to battle. Even though you might auto set healing and buffing, you still need to pay attention in combat. You still have to control your character’s range to evade attacks and actively select which technicks to use. Gambits are around to make managing combat easier. The system initially takes sometime to get used to and you have to constantly change your gambits as you progress through the game. It is a different style of play than other Final Fantasy games where you select fight from a menu.
While gambits control combat, licenses govern how your characters develop. The license board is an evolved for of Final Fantasy X’s sphere grid with much more freedom. Each defeated enemy gives experience to increase your level and LP, license points. If you want to cast dark from the arcane magick group you have to spend LP to unlock the ability. When you unlock the ability for dark magick the board will unlock adjacent squares with related abilities like the elemental black magick fira. Techniks like steal, libra to scan enemies and first aid to recover HP are also unlocked with license points. However, if you unlock a license you still have to obtain the spell or the ability from a store. This prevents players from getting extremely powerful abilities like thundraga early in the game. One part of the license board is strictly for skills, while the other part is for equipment. If you want to use the new bow you found in Nalbina Dungeon or equip a cap you have to obtain the license first. Equipment licenses have a clever path where learning to use guns leads to hand grenade skills and wearing light armor leads to magic boosting mystic armor. Also scattered on the license board are stat up abilities like HP+, more gambits and at the end quickenings can be found. Quickenings are special attacks that can be chained together for massive damage. Once a quickening is acquired no other character may get the same skill since the square disappears from other characters license boards. Espers, the summoned monsters of XII, are also on the license board after you defeat one. Like quickenings, only one person can control each esper. Because espers and quickenings are spread far out on the license board, it is encouraged for players to make each party member follow a different path.
As for localization Square-Enix has made sure Final Fantasy XII was handled with care. There are no mismatched lips and the voice acting is dead on, if you don’t mind that Baltheir has a British accent. A new feature strictly in the North American release is 16:9 widescreen support. Even if you don’t have a widescreen TV Final Fantasy XII looks great. The vibrant world of Final Fantasy XII has detailed scenery and amazing looking character models. It is easily one of the best looking games on the Playstation 2 from a technical and artistic standpoint.
Each installment of Final Fantasy evolves the franchise, but Final Fantasy XII took this a step forward by rewriting the rules. The result is something fresh with the same cinematic quality that fans expect from the Final Fantasy series.
Version Covered: North American
Release Date: 10.31.06
+ Pros: Completely revamped gameplay with a darker and more complex story than previous Final Fantasy games.
– Cons: At first there is a bit of a learning curve while you’re figuring out how gambits work and how to advance your characters using the license board.
Overall: Final Fantasy XII takes the series in a bold new direction and pulls it off with flying colors. Everyone that owns a PS2 should give Final Fantasy XII a look.
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