I guess you could say I am a casual Final Fantasy fan. I loved Final Fantasy II & III on the Super Nintendo (actually IV and VI in the series, but hey...who's counting?), but started to lose interest as the games went to 3-D and the Playstation. But Final Fantasy XII is nigh undeniable. Not only does it match my "rose-tinted" nostalgia for what I expect from a Final Fantasy, it is very likely the finest game in the series to date.
First let's talk about graphics and sound. From the detail to the art direction to the sheer scope, this is bar none the nicest looking game on PS2.
And the music is great too. It is epic, orchestral and compares well with the best in the series (listen for hints of the Star Trek II soundtrack in one of the songs.)
The story is epic, well written and nuanced, and matched by excellent voice acting. It's kind of obvious that the game is influenced by the recent Star Wars movies (particularly the city and vehicle designs). But unlike the Lucasfilm prequels you actually grow to like the characters. Ultimately, it's the same story of almost all Japanese RPGs, but it's told so well you won't mind or notice.
Now let's get to the meat of the game, the "real time" MMORPG-style battles. With Gambits, you setup A.I. for the characters in your party. It starts out slow—with commands like "Attack nearest enemy"—so you can learn as you go along. Later, the Gambits (and number of Gambits) open up to allow commends like "Cure if ally is at less than 50% health" and "Cast Blizzard if enemy is weak against Ice magic" and so on. You can always manually set commands during battle, or better yet adjust your Gambits.
Basically, you are doing that same thing you do in almost every console RPG, you just set it up ahead of time, then adjust as needed. It took me a little while to get used to, but it's grown on me and I hope that Final Fantasy XIII keeps this control method.
The side game in Final Fantasy XII is pretty cool too. Rather than playing a collectable card game or water polo
like in the last few games, you can go on bounty hunter 'Hunts'. These fit well with the MMORPG style of the game, and are a good excuse to explore the many different areas of the game world (teleportation crystals help). My wife and I played this game together and the Hunts were great when only one of us felt like playing, since the other could play and not spoil the main story.
And finally, the game takes 100+ hours to complete, so you will get plenty of game time. Overall, I highly recommend it to just about everyone. With the possible exception of Dragon Quest VIII, Final Fantasy XII is the best recent RPG I've played in years.
2008 ben langberg, all rights reserved.