# 58 Final Fantasy XII

Game Info

Publisher: Square Enix

Developer: Square Enix

Platform: PS2

Genre(s): Role-Playing Game

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Release Date: October 31, 2006

Intro:

Final Fantasy XII begins with an opening cinematic that rivals most fantasy movies.  The world of Ivalice unfolds before your eyes with a royal celebration.  The populace parties in the streets and the player is effectively introduced to the multitude of cultures and species that cover this great society.  In no time, you are also introduced to war, armies and destruction as the story is laid out graphically before you.  The pacing is epic and busy, but is quickly slowed by narration and handwritten journal entries.

Getting Going:
The opening cinematic was a full 10 minutes in which you could not play.  The addition of the narrated journal entry and following CG further kept me from playing for another 5 minutes.  When I was finally able to play, I was introduced to all new characters and given a character to use for the tutorial.  I found the tutorial to be very helpful in getting me going and I liked the way in which a greater character was teaching the player by teaching the player character.  The tutorial blends this teaching method with a great deal of back-story making the tutorial informative in more than one way.

Fun:
Without giving too much away, I guess I'd say I began to have trust issues in the game.  Who can you trust?  Who can you really play with?  I had given a valued accessory to Penelo, only to have her unexpectedly leave my party.  Characters that I thought would be pivotal to the plot were dead before the first hour of play.  I can't say I didn't enjoy the unexpected twists, however.

Visuals:
One thing I noticed immediately while playing is that the barriers aren't themed very well.  Barrels seem to be simply put in place to block your passage.  Grass is simply taller and, for some reason, the characters can't walk through tall grass.  On the other hand, the graphics, the architecture and the cultures of this game are stunning.  There were times when I was so blown away by the graphics that it was hard to tell whether I was playing a game or a movie.  The camera angles on the map help you find your bearings easily and the camera, itself, has full range of motion.  Visually, this game is simply stunning.

Sound:
I'm very impressed with the sounds in this game.  Every detail is attended to.  The sounds of the characters' footfalls match the surface they are traversing, whether it's a stone path, wooden bridge, the metal grate in a walkway or the soggy fields of the wetlands.  It was very satisfying to listen to the rain and to walk from grass into the water just to hear the change in pattern.  Every area has it's own soundtrack and the music never became a distraction for me.

Intelligence:
Final Fantasy XII is a huge game.  Every area is attended to, filled with area-specific beasts and cultures.  Everything in the game has a back-story and the back-story unfolds in the Clan Primer on your menu.  Beasts attacked me and, with gambits on, it was hard to avoid a battle without fleeing.  This is my only complaint.  It was easy to wander into an area that was beyond my level without really knowing it.  Without a guide, it's really difficult to know where your character levels should be in a given area.  My other complaint would be that some bosses were easier to fight than some field battles. That said, fleeing was always an option.  The other thing I found different in this game was that my characters didn't really have specific built-in skills.  Any PC could be a range fighter, a mage, or the tank.  This wasn't a bad quality to the game.  I'm just not used to having that many decisions in a game.  It didn't paralyze my play, however and I found that I had many more options available when equipping for battle.

Immersion:
Battle Mode stood out in Final Fantasy XII as being very different from all other Final Fantasy games.  In previous games, the player characters warped into a battle field.  Where you had happened upon one enemy, you were now facing 3 or more.  Battle mode was turn-based.  In Final Fantasy XII, the battle takes place where you came upon the enemy and, while some enemies may come over to assist, I faced the enemy or enemies that I came across visually.  The battle is still turn-based, but this is not as obvious due to the way that the user interface displays this mode.

Controls:
The controls in Final Fantasy XII were pretty straight-forward.  If you've played other games in the franchise, the controls for this game would already be familiar.  Compared to other recent arrivals, such as Infamous and Prototype which use a quick succession of controls for combo moves, Final Fantasy XII depends on familiar button presses so that the focus during battle and play can be on the action itself.  This frees the player to be more immersed in the game and put less thought into how to play.

Ideas:
Square Enix put a great amount of thought and creative talent into the art of this game from sound production to every cultural and story detail and it shows.  This game is epic in proportion and the player is introduced to the size and depth of this game from the opening sequence.  The use of simple controls and gambits surprised me in how much more immersive the game felt.  It seemed a small touch that added a lot more fun to the game. 

Memory:
In truth, I am already 60 hours into this game.  The story draws you in.  The variety of environments and assets keep you playing.  If I could only use one sentence to describe this game, I would simply say "It's epic."