Did you like FINAL FANTASY XII?

[Forsaken Lover]

I'm replaying FFXII for the second time and I have to say the battle system be perfect if not for the constant need to grind for Gil. You'll never be able to afford decent equipment for your party unless you spend a good chunk of time finding the best chain spots.

It really gets tedious.

[Lamia]

What a bunch of whiners.

FFXII rules. The story was good. Sorry that there wasn't some metaphysical dilemma like in X, IX, VIII, and VII...Those storylines with huge, bizarre, and far-fetched twists are cool and all but it was time for something different. I like that FXII had more of a political/classic fantasy story.

FXII's battle system ruled. I chose not to completely exploit the gambit system, and only set gambits for basic attacking and healing, preferring to micromanage everything else and I had my options set on -wait-, so I could pause the battle and search through the menus to select an ability. This probably made some boss battles tougher than they needed to be but this is the way I chose to play and I loved it.

IMO, since you have the option to exploit the gambit system or not, you can't complain about it.

EDIT: I will admit that the Esper's were completely useless in battle and wish the developers would have made them more useful.

[Mogi]

FFXII is my favourite game in the series! It more closely resembles literature than video games. No, it doesn't tell the player exactly what the character is thinking, but neither do classic plays and the like. You can tell their motivations, their thoughts, their desires by their actions. This is what makes it superior to the other Final Fantasies. I think that one big reason for this is because of the fact that the 3D rendering capabilities of the PS2 gave the designers more freedom to play with character gestures and expressions, something that we didn't see in previous installments because of the limitations placed on the developers by the consoles. We saw the transition in FFX. The only difference is that FFX was narrated by Tidus. If FFXII would have been narrated by one of the main characters, it would've been received in a completely different manner. I am extremely thankful that Square didn't take that approach though.

I also love the battle system. The battle system explains the pacing issues. The battle system requires very, very large areas, so it's only reasonable for the trek between two towns to be much longer in turn. This is why they added in the Teleport Crystals!

All in all, I give this game 10/10. The graphics were beautiful, the world was realistic and alive, the animation was absolutely top-notch, the characters were believable and relatable, the story moved at a pace that I could understand, there were just enough plot twists to keep me intrigued but not so many that I wtf'd, it started on a bang, it ended on a bang, there was very little down time in between (especially for a Final Fantasy game, where we often have hours of filler downtime between two major events).

The game was a literary wonder. It's not a masterpiece, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

EDIT: I also agree with everything that you said, Lamia. The design of the Espers absolutely blew me away, but their stats made them useful in a very small window of opportunities. This was simply a balancing issue though; it wasn't a system design flaw on Square's part. I found the way in which the Espers functioned to be brilliant.

[Persephone Stephanie]

It more closely resembles literature than video games. No, it doesn't tell the player exactly what the character is thinking, but neither do classic plays and the like. You can tell their motivations, their thoughts, their desires by their actions. This is what makes it superior to the other Final Fantasies.

The game was a literary wonder. It's not a masterpiece, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

I think this is why I love XII so much. It's so much more like playing a literary epic than just playing a game. I'm a literature major at uni with more than a passing interest in history so XII was a really fun experience for me, and I think it may appeal to people with these interests in general. It seemed to combine all my favourite things: excellent writing (those Occurians speak in iambic pentameter!), moral complexity, subtle characters, a beautiful world with a dense history inspired by and combining classical cultures, and a layered story that didn't rely on twists. Obviously, other FFs have some of these elements but I feel they really came together excellently in XII. I felt, after finishing it, that it would have made a fine novel.

I know the characters subtlety is interpreted as a "lack" by many people but I really liked this aspect of the game. There were things that could have been improved, but I felt and apppreciated that the game asked you to use your imagination to fill in the gaps of the character's development. Good or bad for a game? Depends on the gamer, I guess.

[Iwrestledabearonce]

I love this game, so much. Though the story didn't live up to the previous stories of final fantasy (VII and VIII in particular), I still found it awesome because it was just so different. To me, most previous final fantasies were love stories (like VIII, IX, and especially X...), and solely focused on character development, whereas XII takes a different approach and rather focuses on the development of nations through continuous warfare, and how it affects its people. I think the reason why a lot of people don't like the story is becuase it's so different from the previous titles. However, the story does lack emotion in its scenes, I find.

I loved the characters, the setting, and just the air of the game... They were all good. I loved Ashe especially. It was cool to see her go from Queen to working in a resistance group. Vayne was a good bad guy, and it was interesting to see how he slipped into getting to the top of the Archadian Government.

The music was simply priceless; definitely memorable, especially that boss battle theme... God, I love it.

I actually enjoyed the gambit system, as well. Though it clearly promotes laziness, I feel that, because of the way the battle system works, if we had to manually input every action, it would be so annoying and tedious... And this for all three people, it would make me too frustrated. The gambit system solves this problem well, though. And I also loved not having to go through a transition between screens whenever there was battle... The whole idea of actually being able to stray away from enemies really suited me, and it was a nice change from earlier titles.

The hunts weren't the best ever (especially when compared to XIII hunts), but they weren't awful. Some of the stories that go with them were interesting as well, and added a nice effect to the game.

Overall, a 9.5/10 I believe? I pretty much loved everything about the game.

[razorrozar7]

I loved XII. The graphics, the gameplay, the story... I loved it all.

[Elskidor]

One of the best titles of the franchise, and awesome story. Characters are great and love the world Ivalice. Battle system is top notch and not sure what brings this game as many critics as it does. I thought FFIX caught a lot of hell until I joined this message board just to find out it's just the opposite. It's not my favorite but it pretty high on the list. I do have one main beef, and that's how Vann and Penelo. If they weren't introduced so early and made to be leading stars, then they could just be random extras but they weren't and the two could easily be tossed out of the game without it hurting a thing. I guess that's one flaw I'd fix about FFXII. Toss out the two and replace them with some deeper characters and the game would be better.

[CloudNyne]

I wasn't a big fan of it just because the characters expressions in my opinon felt plain. Also the battle system was wack. Don't get me wrong but the game was pretty in all but it wasnt all that. I think true FF games stopped at 10. FF13 was good but not in FF terms. Hopefully FF13-2 will bring back some traditional FF features.

[Kaie]

I wasn't a big fan of it just because the characters expressions in my opinon felt plain. Also the battle system was wack. Don't get me wrong but the game was pretty in all but it wasnt all that. I think true FF games stopped at 10. FF13 was good but not in FF terms. Hopefully FF13-2 will bring back some traditional FF features.

Also have high hopes for FFXIII in that regard since they seem to be bringing cities and NPCs back.

I thought FFX was way too linear and FFXII brought more freedom back to the player. I liked it a lot more therefore than FFX

[Jiro]

This thread is pretty old, we tend not to revive old threads!