Thread: Final Fantasy XII

While there are a lot of statements about this game, I'm here to share my view ( and hopefully some others will share their views too). I'm going to split up my reviews into a few sections: Gameplay Story and Graphics. I'll then split each category into smaller sections where I'll explain a more in depth look at that aspect of the game. My final statements about the game is given in the last section: Summary

GAMEPLAY:

Battle System

This is what most people hate the most about the game. The system follows a "gambit system" where you can set your allies to follow particular AI's in battle. Under certain conditions, they will react in a certain way according to what you command them to do. This is the same (or very similar) system to Dragon Age Origins. Unfortunately, this was a new concept, so I guess people didn't grasp it very well, thus creating a large group of people that hated this game.

Each battle becomes more of a "sit back and watch" kind of event. You would walk your character around until they run into some enemies, where you could either let the AI do their thing, or turn off the gambit system and do everything yourself (which is very tedious). Finding a right balance in between will help you enjoy this game.

Another downside of this system is that the summon spirits and limit breaks are very weak in this system. And you will not use them at all.

Completion Time

It took me roughly 80 hours to complete this game. Fortunately, when things started to get boring in this game, it was over. There were plenty of side quests and extra options that I didn't exploit. If you chose to continue with the side quests, the main story would become extremely easy for you to complete. Which takes away most of the pressure to do so.

At certain times though the game seems to "cheat." What I mean by this is that there are plenty of cheap deaths far along the dungeon away from a save point. And when you die... you'll have to play another extra 30 minutes or so to get back to where you were. Or there are dungeons in which you have to look up online to solve... RPG's shouldn't be like this. The moment you look online to try to solve something for an RPG is when it fails (or at least I think so). This "cheat moments" become more common as you advance further in the game which takes away from most of the enjoyability.

Another thing is: without a guide, you cannot achieve 100% completion... What kind of RPG doesn't allow you to achieve 100% completion without a guide? Some failed attempt to get you to play through the game again to acquire everything?

Freedom/Travel

This is where the game shines. Of course all your party members comes from the main storyline, but there are many side quests that you can go out and do on your own. one such side quest is to acquire the summon spirits. There is much to do.

STORY

The story was okay in my opinion. The main story seems very short and each segment is told through cutscenes that you do not control (no choices). These cutscenes are fun to watch, but the story seemed far too predictable. If your asking: "if the game is 80 hours long, how is the story short?" Then here's your answer: Most of the game is traveling through the dungeons before you actually get anywhere in the story. And when you do, the characters barely get anything accomplished.

Sidequests were fun to do, but the main problem was that you didn't care much about the world. Why would you do extra side quests if you don't care about the world that your saving?

Sorry I'm making this section too short, but I don't wanna spoil anything.

GRAPHICS

Of course, this is Final Fantasy... so graphics will be amazing. The cutscenes seemed far beyond its time even for PS2 and the world is amazing. Your weapons even show when you equip it (and you can equip anything for any of your characters). Armor does not though.

SUMMARY

8/10 Gameplay
5/10 Story
10/10 Graphics

Final: 7.7/10

I enjoyed this game. But at the same time, there were moments where I wanted to slam the controller into the ground because they set me up in situations where I will die or dungeons impossible to solve without guides (which I hate using for an RPG). Also, the fact that I cannot achieve 100% completion without a guide makes this game lose a lot of points in my book.

Please share your personal opinion. Sorry this review was so long, but it's been awhile where I wanted to share my opinions of this game. Thanks for reading :D

It did not feel like a final fantasy and I thought the soundtrack was forgettable.

Graphics were alright, I thought ff10 was better, especially for character models, but I really liked the area designs for this.

They shouldnt have called this ff12, they should have called it: final fantasy RTS or something.

This game was quite easy, though. I dunno what you're talking about difficulty for. RPGs dont get much easier than this.

Lol, i was actually about to put in "audio" as a criteria, but then took it out. I too agree that the audio was bad. I never played final fantasy X actually.... to confess, this is probably the only final fantasy I ever finished. But I've gotten up to the last boss in FFVII and VIII, just never beated the last boss for some reason... o.O

As for difficulty, I'm used to dungeons where I know where to go, and I can go from point A to B quickly. This one.. kinda hard to do that. You have to be very observant of your surroundings which I'm not very used to yet. Overall 7.7/10 was what I stuck with, hope you agree.

I agree, it wasn't a bad game by any means. I played the zodiac job system which made me dislike it more.

Definitely give FF6 a try, its probably the easiest and looks damn good on the snes. If you have a modded ps3, give the snes9x emulator for it a whirl.

I've heard good things about FFVI (like it's the best FF game out). Unfortunately I haven't even JB'ed my PS3 yet let alone mod it... I look forward in playing it down the road when I start to learn more about modding my PS3.

Thanks for the heads up :D

I love FF7 everything there forward no good, I have 13 but just feels like a tunnel vision, not the same sand box game.

Originally Posted by Kuzco

I love FF7 everything there forward no good, I have 13 but just feels like a tunnel vision, not the same sand box game.

Lol yeah, I heard FF13 have no freedom. You didn't like FF8 though? That was my personal favorite... maybe because I played it first...

well however i like ffXII ist just a good game, the mob hunt they added was something really new :D an alternative to thats handball fuball game however its called
I agree the graphic is more then amazing for a ps2 game, gameplay is also good but the story... well if they had a nice story it could cough up to ff7 and x, if they had but they have not :o
however this is a great game, and i will remember it like all other great games

I didnt really like XII, X was GREAT tho, i cant see how people think XII has batter gfx the X tho,X is better in everyway

FF 8 is one of the hardest FFs around, and its pretty awsome at the same time....

I got stuck at the last boss back at the PS1 time.... never finished it -.-

Need to grab my PSP and emule it there to give it another go...