Final Fantasy XII

Welcome back to the world of Final Fantasy! Any gamer worth his or her salt is bound to have come across one of its previous titles, especially considering that there are now more than twelve of them.

This current incarnation takes place in the same world as the previous title, Tactics Advance, called Ivalice. This story follows a young man named Vaan, who has lost his family and dreams of becoming a sky pirate. Along the way he meets a host of characters, including his girlfriend Penelo, a princess named Ashe, an archer named Fran, and Balthier, another sky pirate.

The bad guys on the scene are the Archadians, part of an empire whose only goal is to dominate the surrounding kingdoms. One of the few regions holding out is Dalmasca, and the royal city of Rabinastre, where Vaan lives. I bet you can see where this is going. Indeed, Vaan joins the fight against the Evil Empire, and you get to join him on the resulting adventures.

In case you hadn’t noticed so far, Final Fantasy XII makes good on continuing the tradition of brilliant storytelling found in previous titles. Many credit this to director Yasumi Matsuno, who again came on board for this game. It is without a doubt, one of the main pleasures of Final Fantasy games: storytelling that pits not good against evil, but human against human. Characters are real people with real motivations, not ridiculous bad guys and angelic heroes.

That said, Final Fantasy XII has introduced some quite new features to this game, some of which are real changes from the usual RPG mechanics. Whether these actually wind up to be features or instead are seen to be drawbacks will only be proven once the gamers get their hands on this.

One area that I can see being incredibly popular are the inclusion of “gambits” during battle sequences. Gambits are specific scripts which can be set for all AI partners. They let you set your own AI patterns, to set certain actions based on any given set of conditions. For example, you could choose to have your character give a health potion on a companion which reaches a health level of 30%. Resulting from this is the option to set gambits for all battle actions, which can produce seamless battles that require little input from you, the player. Those who prefer a more micromanaged style of play are still able to do so.

More debatable, however, is the licensing system method of advancement. Rather than gaining experience points, characters gain license points, which in turn allow you to purchase – you guessed it – licenses. Licenses allow your character to use a particular skill, weapon, spell, or armour. Unless you have both the item and the corresponding license, you are not able to utilise that thing or skill. Some may find this frustrating; others might enjoy the extra challenge of finding the license to go with the killer sword you’ve just found. The license system is similar to the sphere grid in FFX, but it’s worth pointing out that licenses are not specialised for each character. While this is nice (and more freeform), this also means that once you reach higher levels you could quite possibly find that you have a mix of characters with similar skills and no real difference between them. What’s more, licenses are for the most part divided into either combat or magic areas, which leaves you the option of pursuing either warrior-type characters or mages. For all its uniqueness, the licensing system sounds a whole lot like some of the earlier RPGs, where your only choices are between the fighter or the mage.

Side quests are another interesting aspect to the game. In total, they can add up to an extra 70 or so hours to the game. It’s not likely that most players will go through all of these; playtesters have reported that these tended to get rather repetitive after a while. All up, though, you’re looking at around 100 hours of gameplay, if you consider both the main story line and the side quests.

There looks to be a great variety in character designs and backgrounds. Cities are humming with NPCs of different races and interests. You’d almost swear you were playing an online game.

All in all, Final Fantasy XII is shaping up to be a winner for the PS2. Regardless of what you may think of the new features, it promises to bring you immersive gameplay, with a host of new characters and cities to explore. It’s definitely one to check out.