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Jan 25th, 2008 at 14:51:18 - Final Fantasy XII (PS2) |
Final Fantasy 12 is an updated next-generation version of the classic RPG genre. It is unfortunate, in my opinion, that 2D rpg's are never to be seen again, but FF12 brings new hope for the 3d, free-camera atmosphere that so many modern RPGs are trying to exact.
Gameplay
So many games can get the 3d free-roaming camera wrong. This being a console game, which is arguably the worst of all platforms for an RPG, I was feeling frightful as to whether I would be enjoying this functionality or instead making a visit to an optometrist for recurring eye-bleeding. However, the camera doesn't seem to get in the way as much as other games I've tried. The hero starts out in a bustling city called Rabanastre, where we are introduced to the myriad of gameplay intricacies and educated on how to interact with our environment. During this time, I must admit, I was quite ready to go slay something instead of perusing amongst npcs for some trivial dialogue exposition that probably wasn't imperative to my success. However, it does feel quite nice to be able to sort out where everything is in a town before I get cracking. Initially RPGs can be quite daunting,... There are enormous cities, vast landscapes, and a throng of npcs (most of which just offer trivial chat not pertaining to the story or linearity).
When I'm playing an RPG I always have a fear in the back of mind that by taking one route I am missing that uber dungeon in the other direction that I KNOW exists. I get nervous that I won't be able to get back there before I've out-levelled it. However, this game seems somewhat linear, atleast in the beginning. I am very, very excited to learn what this game will have in store for me, and very, very disappointed that I will be neglecting all of my other classes in order to figure that out.
After being utterly confused by the license board and gambit system, I decided I'd probably just be better off going out into the wilderness and laying an ethereal beat-down on some mobs. At this point, I still had no idea how combat was going to play out. I must admit I was pleasantly surprised. I had played old FF games and wasn't necessarily an enormous fan of the 'instanced' battles, whereas you are running along the world map, and randomly get taken into a battle. What is different about FF12 from other FF games is that it's the first (besides FF11, an mmo) to have real-time combat. I was very impressed with the combat system. The player can still choose to 'pause' combat if things are getting hectic, or can just let it go real-time (and even adjust the 'real-time' speed). There are 'battle markers' which show who your characters are targetting. I thought this was genius. After mounting up a 40-chain on some underling mobs outside Rabanastre, although the urge to find out what bonuses a 1000 chain yielded, I went back into Town to try and get going on the main quest. It is at this juncture that I found an enormous save crystal and decided to do exactly that. This was the moment of truth. After I exited the game and carried on with real life for awhile, would I be thinking about getting back and playing? Would I be secretly thinking about killing bosses while I'm talking to my friends about their day at work? These are the feelings all gamers want to get from games. Personally, I couldn't help but cease my real-life duties shortly thereafter and found myself playing again until the wee-wee hours of the morning.
Design
FF12 was harked as being innovative because of the gambit system. I absolutely loved, loved, loved the gambit system. I didn't realize it until I saw it, but this is the system that I wished all RPG's had. It is a perfect way to automate your party while still impinging your own tactics. It's kind of a cross between botting and grinding. I was absolutely chuffed with figuring out which order and sequence to put the gambits in for maximum efficiency. After many, many sad, lonely, but absolutely content-filled hours, I had seemingly perfected it and could waltz around wherever I wanted just watching my heroes do my bidding with little or no input.
Unfortunately, the equally innovative license board had the opposite effect on me. With this board you can basically make any of your characters any way you want. Which, topically, isn't a bad idea. However, I want my characters to be specialized. One should be a mage nuker, one a stellar healer, one an uber damage-dealer, and so forth. However, this license board makes it so that any or all of your characters can do anything and everything. After several dozen hours, I could make all my characters have high-level damage spells, high-level heal spells, and high level melee and armour. This was unpleasant. As stated, I'd much prefer more specialization in my characters and I thought this license board actually prohibited that instead of catalyzing it.
FF12 is a large persistent world. There are no defined levels, although certain save points dictate your progress. In terms of other RPGS, the world is spectacular. The game takes you to various landscapes and has hordes of different monsters with different skins. Some areas are light and airy, others more serious and scary. The gameplay, for me, was so riveting that I was left thinking how to finagle my way out of upcoming real-life responsibilities just so I can stay immersed in this fantastic world. I enjoyed the cinematic-scale cutscenes. The voice-acting quality and video imagery was top notch, and I felt close to my characters and had general concern about their well-being. It was a little unfortunate, at times, to reach a certain point in the game where a cut-scene dictates that you have lost one of more of your party members in lieu of a new party member or, at times, just going it alone for awhile. I always feel daunted when this happens because I want to keep all my characters at the same level; I am unsure whether or not I'll see the gear/loot that I left on one of my now lost characters again or if that particular character will never come back and that loot is lost forever. A minor flaw in the grand scheme of things, as this game has so much to offer I'm soon forgetting about its trivial qualms.
This is one of those games that you don't want to ever end. Luckily, I'm not sure that it ever will. This world seems so expansive that I'll probably die of scurvy before I can finish it. A fitting death for a degenerate RPG gamer, I guess. This game will remain high on my list for a very long time, I reckon.
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