Why a lot of fans don't like this game *SPOILERS*

[Egami]

After finishing X for a second time a couple of weeks ago I decided to start FF XII again. When I first played the game in 2006 I had a 70+ hour file but lost the memory card before finishing the game. Discouraged I simply shelved the game and didn’t bother to start again until recently. I am playing it right now and I am at Giruvegan so far…I am having as much a blast as I had the first time around.

SPOILERS may lie ahead…

Music
The OP asks which songs are memorable from FFXII. I think that quite a few of the tracks are amazing and memorable. I have the soundtrack and the Esper Battle, Boss Battle, Loop Demo and Battle for Freedom are ones I have listened to regularly for more than a year. In fact, just as the first time I played it, almost every time that I start up the game now, I let it run the intro before loading just to hear the song. I love it. As I am writing this post, the theme from Tchita Uplands is stuck in my head, it is very catchy and so are many of the other songs such as the theme of the Mosphoran Highwaste, which is awesome too.

Overall I think the soundtrack is superb and complements the game rather nicely. Granted, not all tracks are memorable or even good, but such is the case for every other FF.

Ran<st1:PersonName w:st="on">do</st1:PersonName>m Battles
Some have complained about the lack of ran<st1:PersonName w:st="on">do</st1:PersonName>m battles but I think that this is one of the main things which make FF XII such an engrossing and enjoyable game. The battle system of FF XII is amazing and to my mind, the best thing to happen to the series. No more shaking screen and taking you out of the field into a “boxed” combat ring and then back again into the field after a transition, victory dance and dialogue box. Seriously, what fun is watching the same victory dance and listening to the same music every time you end a battle for over 40-60 hours? It gets tiresome after a while and is very time consuming. I find that it also detracts from the experience and makes one lose interest in exploring the area. This system is also very static; your characters as well as the enemies are fixed in the same position, effectively limiting your free<st1:PersonName w:st="on">do</st1:PersonName>m when it comes to battling enemies and limiting the possibilities of planning strategies to fight them.

I think that FF XII <st1:PersonName w:st="on">do</st1:PersonName>es away with all the issues of the previous system by preserving all of its best elements and none of its flaws and also by adding some online RPG elements as well. Now exploring and fighting are seamless, you are as free to move around when you are fighting as you are when you are exploring. You can now see the enemies and decide to engage them or if the enemy is too strong, seek a different route or prepare yourself first. While fighting, the ability to move behind the enemy and pincer them is nice as it allows you to evade some of their attacks. Moving away from them a bit is also useful, for example, a monster that readies to cast Thundaga in the party leader will hit all allies in range but if you move the character away from your allies it won’t hit them.

The gambit system is worth gold in my opinion. By allowing you to set up your characters to perform specific tasks automatically, it allows <st1:PersonName w:st="on">do</st1:PersonName> away with the repetitiveness of the previous system and also makes your characters feel alive and gives you a sense that you truly are traveling with companions instead of a group of characters that <st1:PersonName w:st="on">do</st1:PersonName>n’t <st1:PersonName w:st="on">do</st1:PersonName> anything until you input some command. It also <st1:PersonName w:st="on">do</st1:PersonName>es away with the one at a time form of battle that was the form of the previous system, where only one character could act at a time, something which is very unrealistic and far less exciting than what is the case here.

Once you know an effective way of defeating the foes in the area, you can set up a gambit so that your characters <st1:PersonName w:st="on">do</st1:PersonName> it automatically. For a flying creature that is weak to ice you can set up your characters to automatically cast Blizzaga on it and it will save you the need to select 6 or even 8 times the same command targeting the same creature.

All this makes the task of going through an area to get to a certain location a lot of fun, despite the length of the different areas. It also invites you to explore the vast world of the game. I always like to complete the whole map before moving out to the place I am going to and it <st1:PersonName w:st="on">do</st1:PersonName>esn’t feels boring but quite fun, at least to me.

This brings me to another point, just as the new battle system invites you to explore the world, so too the game lets you explore it. Compared to say, FF X, which is incredibly linear, so much that you are actually prevented from entering any other place until you get the airship, in FF XII you are told you need to go to a given area but you are mostly left on your own to get there. You can decide how to get to that area, via chocobos, airships, gate crystals or even by foot or you can stop for a while and decide to explore other unknown areas. The game <st1:PersonName w:st="on">do</st1:PersonName>esn’t forces you to follow a rigid straight line but gives you the free<st1:PersonName w:st="on">do</st1:PersonName>m to move at your own peace. I think this is a very positive thing and quite refreshing as well.


Where is the love?
I <st1:PersonName w:st="on">do</st1:PersonName>n’t see a problem with the lack of a central love story and think it was quite a refreshing and much needed change for the series. While there is no in your face love story in FF XII, some relationships such as the one between Ashe and her husband, Gabranth and Drace, and perhaps even Balthier and Fran while subtle an brief were well executed and believable.

This brings me to the characters. The first time I played the game when I bought it, the thing that stood out the most to me was the strong and marked personality that characters such as Balthier, Ashe and Basch have. From Balthier’s witty personality and intriguing background, Ashe’s struggle when it came to the power of the stone was rather touching, especially when she is asked about it and Bash’s loyalty and cool despite his troubled past, I enjoyed then and have enjoyed now every moment when they get some screen time. While Vaan and Penelo <st1:PersonName w:st="on">do</st1:PersonName> not take center stage, I like the way in which they grow up and mature as they explore the world, especially Vaan who gets more confident and determined and overall sounds more like a “sky pirate” everyday. Penelo is perhaps the one with the less exposure of the group but the bits when she takes the stage such as during her conversations with Larsa, while she is being held captive and her exchanges with Vaan at the beginning are memorable. Fran is also very good and always has something useful to say when she speaks. Her background of leaving the forest and her sisters behind yet coming back to meet them after 50 years was quite moving.

The NPCs have interesting and relevant things to say for a change. There is much you learn about the gameplay, locations and the story from them.

Story
While it is true that the pacing of the game, as far as it's story goes, is not it's strongest point, I do find the story of FF XII interesting and involving. While simple, the story is wide in scope and epic. The parties involved both good and bad (if such lines can really be drawn) are all interesting and are developed sufficiently to allow the player to know and understand them and their motivations. I liked in particular the internal conflict there was within the empire and the judges, how some wanted Vayne while others preferred Larsa and the struggle of their father to choose between his role and his sons. The state of the people who lived in Lowtown in Rabanastre and how the soldiers treated the merchants as seen in one of the opening scenes really puts you on the same page with Vaan, who wants to take back what is theirs from the empire and reclaim their free<st1:PersonName w:st="on">do</st1:PersonName>m and motivates you to <st1:PersonName w:st="on">do</st1:PersonName> so. The same goes for Ashe, who lost so much to the empire yet is torn between revenge and peace, what would one <st1:PersonName w:st="on">do</st1:PersonName> were one in her shoes? I think that when one looks at the story of FF XII through the viewpoint of each character, it is rather interesting and many sides of the same plot are revealed and it is when taking all those viewpoints together that the story reveals its epic nature. One cannot look at the story apart from the characters or vice versa.


Overall
As should be obvious by now, I like FF XII, no…I love it. With its exciting battle system, engrossing and vast world and memorable characters, it is easily the best FF I have played since FF VI and by the looks of it, it will end up rather close to the top of the list of my favorite RPGs. The only weakness I see in this game is that the flow of the story is a bit slow due to the large amount of exploring/fighting that one has to go between the different scenes. It could have been a bit more balanced in that regard, yet, I think that given how much fun it is to fight and explore and how involved one gets in developing and configuring the characters, that one can easily overlook this minor issue.


Egami