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Final Fantasy is renowned for its turn-based battle-system. From I to X, gamers have been sitting on their sofas farting for twenty minutes while they pondered what their next action was going to be against that particularly difficult boss (especially if you were playing Final Fantasy X). Final Fantasy X-2 shifted from this formula slightly by introducing semi-real-time battles, and while it was certainly different, it still operated in the same basic manor as the rest. Squares title game in the franchise, Final Fantasy XII, really does jump off the bungee cliff with no rope attached to its feet, hoping that its daring leap of faith will somehow pay off. And thankfully, Final Fantasy XII really does take off. It adopts a completely new gameplay system unheard of in the series. But is it everyone’s cup of tea?

The game takes place in a new and somewhat familiar world known as Ivalice (which was first introduced in Final Fantasy Tactics on the GameBoy Advance). The imperialistic Archadian Empire is conquering its neighbours one by one to further its territory. One of these unfortunate kingdoms is Dalmasca who has no choice but to defend its kingdom from the Imperial invasion. Predictably, Dalmasca looses the war and is then forced to sign a treaty with Archadia. Here something important occurs which I will let you find out for yourselves. Two years later, a 17 year old street urchin named Vaan is conducting his little rebellion of his own against the now occupying Archadian forces, one pocket at a time. He dreams of becoming a sky pirate and getting away from the oppression. His dream soon becomes reality. I won’t go any further because of spoilers but I will say that this game contains a fair amount of twists.

What you may notice first when playing this game is that it bares a slight resemblance to Gaia in Final Fantasy IX. The game incorporates the same kind of architecture, and contains similar species types such as moogles. And although they don’t help you save your game (you have the crystals to thank for that), there is one particular moogle named Montblanc that gives you a lot of odd jobs to do, if you can be bothered to go out of your way to do them of course.

The storyline in particular, is extremely epic. You literally have to ‘liberate a nation’ and ‘challenge and empire’. And while Final Fantasy XII embodies a larger vision, it lacks sub-plot. For those of you yearning for another romance filled story like the other Final Fantasy’s, you won’t find it here. The entire time I was on my toes wondering whether an opening would occur so that a love element could enter, but it never did. So naturally it does come as a disappointment as so many titles in the franchise have love stories in them, as it is basically Final Fantasy convention to have one in the game. Its not just the lack of romance though either, the entire game is somewhat devoid of emotion compared to other Final Fantasy’s. While the characters were unique and interesting, the game demands no emotional attachment, unlike Final Fantasy X on the PS2 which had all the guys crying by the games end, wondering why their love life couldn’t be like that.

But the real meat of Final Fantasy XII is found in its battle system. Firstly, I would just like to let go of a certain frustration…NO MORE RANDOM BATTLES! Yes you heard me scream right. Final Fantasy XII incorporates all of its enemies onto one map so that you don’t get any nasty monsters coming out of nowhere (with the exception of zombies). This also means that there is no specific battle screen for the game to make a transition to. Allowing for way less load times and gives you the chance to do you’re exploring all without the worry of taking that next fatal next step. I’ve certainly had my moments in previous games where I physically abused the couch more than I should have because of annoying and unwanted battles.

If you haven’t played the game already and feel that the series is moving away from its roots (especially with the battle-system) don’t fret, as the ATB gauge is still in existence. This keeps the title from becoming a mindless button-masher and also gives a strategic aspect to the gameplay. It’s really quite simple. You move your character and party up close to your target, wait until the gauge fills up, at this point your character will automatically attack. Almost every technique in the title uses this basic system. The only slight problem is that whenever another character besides the one your controlling decides to cast a spell (via the gambit system which I’ll get to soon) they can’t move so they always end up falling behind. Imagine your walking your dog along outside a shopping mall when suddenly you felt a tug on the leash. You turn around to find that your dog just decided to take a random poop on the concrete. So you have to wait for him to finish and then it’s your job to clean it up. That’s how it feels sometimes with your party members. Although you always have the option of turning gambits off…but then they won’t do anything even if they are attacked.

Speaking of party members and gambits; Final Fantasy XII introduces a new AI control system called the gambit system. All that is really required is that you set priorities for your party members. For example, #1 Attack #2 Cure. This will result in your character placing offense over vitality as he/she will attack anyone in sight before he/she will use cure. This means that you don’t have to worry about giving your party individual commands, as the gambit system does it for you!

Anyone who has played the previous games will know that summons are a big part of Final Fantasy, and this one is no exception. In XII, summons are known as espers who are basically condemned semi-gods who rebelled against the big daddy gods and got smited. Espers are about the same size as Governor Arnie’s biceps and share the same level of unrestraint as me when I unleash my temper against an unsuspecting game that frustrates me so much, I want to burn it and hang it on the clothes line. And by that I mean that the espers do whatever they want to do. You cannot control their actions in any way (lucky for them they usually make the right ones). Slightly along the same line as espers is the new feature, quickenings. These are basically glorified Kamehameha’s that can be chained together to create one massive attack (if you do it right of course). The quickenings are almost a mini game in themselves, as you are tasked with punching in one button to initiate the next quickening. And if you are good enough, can couple together a really long set of quickenings. My personal record being 24. This is a nice addition to the gameplay and gives a new twist on things (and quite possibly a break).

So okay, you’ve got this great battle system, but how on earth do you buy weapons and armour. Simple, you pick up the loot that fallen enemies give you and sell it at any shop you want. The only problem I found with this is that some of the dead monsters bodies actually get in the way of you reaching your loot. So you will sometimes find yourself waiting for the corpse to disappear. This is really only annoying however if you are in a rush.

Before you buy your awesome weapons with the money you just got from your loot, you have to actually have the necessary license to hold it. Yes you heard me right, you need a license to wear boots…The mechanism you use is called the license board. And believe it or not, while it may look like a sphere grid created by Satan himself, it is actually a lot easier to use than Final Fantasy X’s mechanic. Its simply a matter of obtaining the necessary amount of license points (gained in battle) to buy a square which then opens up all the other squares around it.

Final Fantasy XII also withholds a great score of composed music. And while Nobuo Uematsu only contributed to the theme song, the score still succeeds…mostly. While there are some good pieces within the title, none of them are exactly the next One Winged Angel. In fact, some of the pieces seem quite similar to one another and particular songs are even re-used again in different areas. So you may find one or two locations with the same piece allocated to them.

The voiceovers however, hit every note perfectly. The cast consists mostly of British voice actors and do a surpreme job too. I must admit that the voice work in Final Fantasy XII has got to be the best in the franchise. Every line is said with feeling and not one piece of dialogue feels like a Japanese actor has been recruited at the last minute to fill in for a sick voice-actor, resulting in some rather fast speech (Final Fantasy X, I’m looking at you). And while the common NPC in the game will only offer you text to read, the superb voice work by the main characters more than overshadows that minor fault.

Being one of the last big PS2 games to be released, one would expect the graphics to be quite sharp and refined when compared to other titles on the system. So it’s a good thing that Final Fantasy XII delivers on that too. The level of detail in this game is almost unseen of in a PS2 title. This is most evident during close-ups of the characters faces or clothing. Even the texture detail on the Imperial soldiers is immense, especially if you glare at their shining armour. The environments themselves are gorgeous to look at. So it’s definitely worth going on a short site seeing trip or just pausing to have a look at the games wonderfully crafted and rendered architecture. However, the textures can sometimes look a bit grainy from a long distance off. And since Final Fantasy XII implements a full 360 degree camera (which is only controllable by using inverted mind you) that is forgivable, as all the environments had to been rendered from all angles. Unlike previous Final Fantasy titles that had their backgrounds simply painted on because you only ever saw them from a pre-set viewpoint.

The game will take roughly about 80-100+ hours to finish. And that’s without doing most of the extras. There are so many side-quests in this game, such as a bounty hunter mode, that really give a lot more depth to the title. So if you want to squeeze everything you can out of the game, you may need to put in an extra 50 hours on top of the main quest.
To close off

In the end, Final Fantasy XII is an absolute gem. Its spectacular gameplay, graphics and sound make this one a must buy for fans of the franchise. The game does have its minor shortcomings but most of them are forgivable. Even if your skeptical about the game, I do recommend that you try it anyway as it does have some really great moments. But if you like your Final Fantasy’s all fuzzy and cuddly, then XII may not be the RPG for you, for the game contains little of it.