Review: Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
After over a year-and-a-half of back-and-forth playing, I finally feel comfortable enough about reviewing Final Fantasy XII (FFXII), which came out in 2006 on the PlayStation 2 (PS2).
It’s official: it is the best Video Game Role Playing Game (RPG) ever created.
Mighty words, indeed, so let me explain.
As a relatively late release in the PS2’s life cycle, Square Enix was able to push the hardware to the max, so ultimately the graphics, depth, fast load times, soundtrack, and memory make it superior to every other game in their library.
The designers also learned from previous FF games, and pretty much incorporated the best of the best in terms of game play, and eliminated stuff that were not user friendly.
I have always compared RPG’s to Final Fantasy VI (released as FFIII in the US for the SNES), and none have rivaled it…until now. The storyline, freedom to explore where you want, hard bosses, and character enhancements are equal to, or better than FFVI. And, because the graphics and options are 100 times better than SNES’s engine, FFXII wins the RPG crown for me: it’s just as fun as the best RPG. The only difference is that I’m older now, and can’t devote my time to it, like I did as a teenager with FFVI.
The Good:
- Game tutorials
- High end graphics, cut-scenes, and sound (I have no idea how they fit all of that memory on one disc)
- Voice acting is top-notch
- Storyline is deep and epic, and professionally written
- Battle engine is real time, and characters can move anywhere- it’s like World of Warcraft with superior graphics
- Freedom to explore in a non-linear way, in-between your main storyline quest
- Sidequests: You can collect bounties for Monster Hunts and join a clan of monster hunters. Although this has no impact to do with the main quest, it is a great way to explore the world, get experience, find rare items, and help the citizens who are being hounded by these monsters.
- Unlike some games that can be completed in 20-40 hours, this game can last as long as you want it to.
- FFXII’s fantasy world is truly a world that you enjoy being immersed in- all of your characters have great backstories and emotions. The citizens and different cities of the world are a pleasure to interact with. Townsfolk will have difference messages for you once certain events have been completed, so talking to them multiple times is necessary. Thankfully, the game indicates which townsfolk speak, and which are background characters in a city.
- Great maps- without them, you’d be 100% lost.
- Systems: The Gambit System allows you to program commands and auto-sim what you want your party members to do in a given situation so you don’t have to micromanage battles. Licenses enable you to buy skills and spells for any character. Espers are god-like monsters which you can summon to help you during battle. Techniques are skills your characters can use without the cost of magic points. Quickenings are super-power chain techniques where you have to press the correct button in a short time to inflict for damage on your enemy.
- Many times, after not playing an RPG for 1 week or 3, you have no idea where you left off, but in FFXII, the map screen shows you what part of the storyline you need to continue from, and your monster primer contains your hunting progress.
- The creativity of the monsters, characters, towns, and environments is awesome. Since you explore an entire world, you deal with the various climates in rich detail.
The So-Called Bad
These are only MINOR frustrations, but what would a DailySkew review by Damian Hospital be without “The Bad”?
- Game guides (found free online and/or Youtube) are necessary if you want to find all the treasures, monsters, weapons, and monsters in the game. I guess it’s a Japanese cultural difference because there are times when there is NO WAY you can find something without a guide hint. If I was programming the game, I would at least give a HINT within the game.
- My sense of direction sucks, so I tend to get lost, even with maps.
- There is a LOT of walking, just like in real life.
- Save points have a tendency to be far away from each other at the beginning of the game, so you are SOL if you shut the game off before a save point. Later on in the game, it’s not an issue at all.
- It’s hard to get into at first. You have to have patience at the beginning. My learning curve sucked, but I never lost faith it would be a rewarding experience.
- The style, graphics, dialog, scenes, and music is derivative of the new Star Wars Trilogy and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. You can call it a homage, inspired by, or you can call it a blatant rip-off, it’s up to you. This was distracting at first; now I just shrug it off.
Conclusion
It’s worth the money ($40 or less). It deserves a perfect score, and it could be argued that it is the best quality game of all time. You can always come back to it if you don’t have time to invest in it all at once. You can go on sidequests and level up your characters for as long as you want. It’s probably the only game you will ever need.
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It’s a million times better than FFVI
Actually, FF3 (I’m American) is just as fun as FFXII, the only edge is that FFXII has is the lack of technical limitations that a 16-bit system had.
I was a teenager, and was in “love” with FF3, just like I loved Mike Tyson’s PunchOut and other games that graphically can’t compete with newer stuff.
I don’t have that “love” for FFXII, only because I’m older now, but it STILL is 100% fun and a technological masterpiece.