Here's a complete review of the game from IGN. It goes into detail about the License Board, earning Gil, Gambit, Mist Knacks, and more.
http://ps2.ign.com/articles/696/696513p1.html
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I'm totally through with Japanese RPGs. There, I said it. What was once my favorite game genre has been spoiled by a rush of PS2 sequels that tack on a 3, 4 or 5 but keep the same tired battle system, tired storyline and tired presentation of predecessors. Hey look! I just selected a fire spell from a menu that has options for attack, magic and items, and now that guy is casting a fire spell! And he's shouting out a cool catch phrase too! That's never been done before!
Surprisingly, the Japanese RPG with the largest number of them all is the one to do away with many conventions of the genre. From the moment you start play, to at least the six hour mark (that's where I had to stop playing in order to write up these impressions) Final Fantasy XII offers an RPG experience like never before.
The biggest changes FFXII brings to the RPG world, and the FF series itself for that matter, should already be familiar with gamers based in America (well, the ones who were smart enough to pick up Dragon Quest VIII and its FFXII demo, that is). Random battles and distant overhead views are a thing of the past with FFXII, as we've detailed in past previews. You're now thrown right into the action, with full camera control via the right analogue stick and without the awkward transitions to a virtual battle world separate from the main field of play.
The battle system, while a departure from the static menu-based fare of the past, is easy to figure out in the final build of FFXII. The game holds your hand as you start playing, explaining a few basic concepts through a short tutorial section, then letting you get used to the new system first by fighting alone, then by gradually building up a party. You can slow down or speed up the pace of battles (in our new videos, the speed is set to highest) and switch between active and passive modes. Passive mode pauses the action when you bring up your battle command menu.
Micromanaging each character in your party with individual commands probably wouldn't fit too well with FFXII's battle system, but thanks to the "Gambit" system, you won't have to. This powerful AI system lets you assign custom AI routines to each character in your party.
Each AI routine is referred to as a Gambit. A Gambit consists of an action and a target for that action. Actions can make a character use particular items, attacks, magic spells or skills. Targets can be set as enemies or party members and can even be specified with usage conditions. It's possible to set up a Gambit to make a character use a heal potion (the action) only on party members whose life has gone down by 70% (the target). You can also make a character attack (the action) the enemy that's currently engaged with the party leader (the target).
The power of the Gambit system grows along with your characters. As you learn new spells and skills, you gain new actions that can be selected for a Gambit. New target types can be acquired at a Gambit shop in town. You can even increase the number of Gambits held by a character. These can then be ordered, resulting in priority for certain actions. For instance, you can make a character first attack the enemy currently engaging the party leader, then attack the nearest enemy. Each Gambit can be toggled on and off individually from the main menu.
One cool feature of the Gambit system is that you can make even the party leader run under Gambit control. This leaves much of the dirty work of battle up to the AI, allowing you to view overall strategy and select specific actions every now and then.
The Gambit and battle systems offer a refreshing experience for the jaded Japanese RPG gamer, but FFXII goes much further in its attempts at twisting all the old formulas. Enemies don't leave behind gold anymore! You can find gold in treasure chests here and there, but the real way to get cash is to collect treasures, sometimes in treasure chests, sometimes being carried by enemies, and sell them at shops. This system has worked well over the first few hours of the game, and it has the benefit of actually making sense as opposed to having all these monsters running around with bags of gold.
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Defeating enemies, at least ones that aren't carrying items, rewards you with experience and so-called license points (LP). Experience is used just as it is in any other RPG. Your character rises in level when crossing a certain experience threshold and gains added HP, MP and strength.
The LP is used for one of FFXII's coolest new gameplay systems: licenses. In FFXII, as with most other RPGs, you have to buy or find weapons, magic spells, skills and armor. Here, though, a character can only equip weapons and armor and use skills and spells if he's acquired the appropriate license.
Each character has a personal license board, which looks somewhat like an irregular chess board. Each square on the board corresponds to a single license for a particular set of skills or items. The board is split into six license regions: magic, skills, accessories, defense, options and weapons.
As an example, in the magic area, you'll find one square, titled "White Magic Lv. 1," which allows the character to use a level 1 cure spell. Another square, titled "Black Magic Lv. 3" lets the character use level 3 fire, blizzard and thunder spells. In the case of accessories, defense and weapon slots, opening up a given license allows the character to equip certain classes of equipment. You can make a character equip bows, daggers or heavy armor, but only once you've acquired the appropriate license, even if you have the equipment in your possession.
Two special skill types appear on the license board as you advance through the game: Summons and Mist Knack. Mist Knacks are character specific special moves, presumably like the limit breaks of previous FF games (I haven't gotten my hands on one yet). As for summons, each summon beasts can be assigned exclusively to a single character; once assigned, the summon cannot be acquired from the license board of another character. Both of these skills, once they've been acquired, are selectable via a special command on the battle menu.
Your character starts off with just a couple of slots opened up on the license board. Aside from these, the board reports to you the effect of opening up adjacent slots, but keeps the rest of the board a secret. You open up new slots using your hard-earned LP, adding new potential power to your characters. You're free to open up the slots adjacent to ones that have already been opened. As you move away from the initial slots, the corresponding skills become more powerful, but the LP costs rise.
Even if you get a license to use a piece of equipment or a spell, you can't actually use it until you've purchased the equipment or spell in town. In the case of weapons, each character has to have his own copy of the item; these are then equipped as in any standard RPG. For spells, you need only acquire the spell once, then everyone who acquires the license can use it.
This requirement that you have both a physical copy of an item and a license to use it offers a fresh approach to character development. It's possible that you'll get a powerful weapon early on, but you won't have a character capable of using it. Or, perhaps you'll get a license for a powerful spell, but the only thing keeping you from using it is actually finding a store that sells it.
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FFXII makes new strives in a number of areas outside of the new gameplay systems. Most apparent from the start is the game's attempt at creating a vast, detailed world that could substitute for the next Final Fantasy XI expansion (make it happen, Square Enix!). Vaan's home town, the first town in the game, is a lively place, with much to explore and many residents to converse with; not all residents will talk to you, but the willing display a conversation bubble icon. While full of color and flair on the outside, there's a dark side to this town too, as you learn when first venturing under ground into the "downtown" slums area.
Once you set foot in this town, it becomes clear that a lot of work went into the graphic design for FFXII. While not the most technically brilliant PS2 title around -- the game doesn't even offer 16:9 output -- Square Enix must have had its artists working throughout Golden Week for the past four years to produce all the striking sights and beast/character designs in just the first six hours. The town is full of different races, giving the feeling that the world of Ivalice is indeed a diverse one.
Head outside town, and the illusion of being in an offline FFXI becomes even more convincing, with distant views, expansive terrain, and lots of creatures. As mentioned in past updates, the enemies that populate the world are pretty smart. Some are tame and won't attack unless attacked first (this includes a particular nasty looking T-rex who's best left alone until Vaan gains experience). Others charge at you at first sight. Some beasts come to the aid of other members of their species if you should attack. Some beasts can even be seen fighting amongst themselves!
As with FFX, the entire world seems to be connected. I was able to manually move between different areas of the surroundings of Vaan's home town without returning to the hub area of the town first. Rental Chocobo is the preferred way to travel early on, if you're rich enough.
The only thing keeping this from being the ultimate in RPG exploration is the lengthy loading that splits up the zones of play. Load times have been improved somewhat over previous demo versions, but they're still a bit uncomfortable and take away from what would've otherwise been a completely seamless, immersive experience. The problem doesn't seem to be too significant over all, but speeding through the world of Ivalice on Chocobo sounds like it could've been fun.
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Not everything is 100% new, original and twisted, thankfully. The Final Fantasy series is known for captivating, far-reaching storylines, and FFXII doesn't disappoint. The game starts off at a high clip with a lengthy opening CG sequence that you'll probably find yourself watching over and over again months after you've bought the game. Once you take control of Vaan, things slow down momentarily, but pick right back up as Vaan finds himself involved in a deep plot involving warring nations and a budding rebellion. The storyline has had a few juvenile moments so far, particularly involving Vaan's relationship with one of the heroines, but there's so much depth to the background story, and the characters have so much personality, that it's hard to not get involved.
As expected, the game is full of gorgeous Square Enix brand CG, with lengthy segments appearing periodically following the opening moments. The CG seems to take visual influence from the more recent Star Wars films, especially during townscape and battle scenes.
After six hours of play time, FFXII seems to combine everything that makes the Final Fantasy games so good, including a deep storyline, likable characters and gorgeous CG, with some new gameplay systems that help to breathe life to a genre that's gotten stale thanks to a seemingly endless series of PS2 sequels. If more Japanese RPGs were like Final Fantasy XII, I might start liking the genre again.
