|
Eegriega's Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
|
| [February 24, 2007 05:19:14 AM]
|
My second session of gameplay had a bit more action in it; I continued onward as Vaan, a street-urchin boy with surprisingly well-kept hair for all that he's a ragamuffin. Most of the action was pretty basic, running around town to various places for small side-quests and suchlike. I got a bit frustrated with the running-about-town business, mostly because I'm terrible at reading maps and had to consult the large one every two seconds and crane my neck every which way in order to divine whether or not I was heading in the correct direction. This is a personal fault, though, and I will not take issue with the game for my own shortcomings.
In any case, I figured out the basic running-around idea well enough and found myself at the Sandsea, where I needed to talk to a fellow named Tomaj in order to be sent on a little side-quest to kill, of all things, a "Rogue Tomato." It's nice to know the developers have a sense of humor. When Tomaj went tutorial-mode on me and delved into the idea of licenses, I'll admit that I was rather confused by the whole idea and decided not to give it much thought until it became absolutely necessary; while I do find involved bits of character advancement via experience points and suchlike interesting, I do not always find them easy to grasp, and this was getting a little more complex than I was really prepared for. In all likelihood it's a lot simpler than it seemed to me at the time, but nonetheless the whole shpiel was a bit off-putting.
I decided to put all that confusion aside and run down my Tomato, and did so without too many problems. After fighting some wolves and running around the Estersand a bit, I found him and dispatched him easily enough; I'll grant that he's a much easier first boss than, say, Gohma from Ocarina of Time. I have to go off-track for a moment to say that I love the inclusion of dinosaurs in this game to bits--after kicking the Tomato's weird little butt, I wanted immediately to hare off and pick a fight with the T-Rex nearby, but my friend assured me that this would be a colossally bad idea, so I restrained myself. Dinosaurs earn this game an automatic +1 in everything because I'm biased like that.
I ended with a visit to Lowtown to see Dalan about a dog--I mean, about a side-quest. I had a little more trouble with the map and navigating myself around the streets of Lowtown, but again, I think that's more a fault of my own than any problem of the game. I was running low on time in which to play, though, and my friend told me that the Giza Plains side-quest was rather long and involved, so I figured that I'd pick it up again later when I had more time.
All in all, I was less impressed with the game as a whole (other than the damn fine graphics) than with a good handful of other games that I've played, but I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt and say that it's probably quite a good game if one takes the time to log the necessary hours and really become involved in the gameplay and storyline. An hour-and-a-half session just doesn't cut it in a game that takes straight days to complete, and I get the feeling that I've only just scratched the surface of what's to come.
add a comment 
|
| [February 24, 2007 04:58:24 AM]
|
At a loss for the next classic game that I should play, I turned to a friend who happens to be more well-versed in the general world of games than I, and since it was on hand she offered to let me play her copy of Final Fantasy XII. I'll admit that I approached the game with some reservation, never having played a game from the Final Fantasy series before and a little uncertain of what I might be getting myself into. I found, though, that although much of my sessions of gameplay ended up being basic tutorial mode and learning how to work the controls (after all, I got an hour and a half into a game on which my friend has logged a cool 86 hours so far), it was surprisingly easy to pick up and figure out without previous experience with any other FF game (or many PlayStation games, for that matter).
First off, the graphics are flat-out spectacular. The cutscenes have a beautiful cinematic quality to them, and the landscape and architecture are exquisite--I did find the characters' faces and expressions to be toeing the uncanny valley line slightly, but all in all everything is just beautiful. (As a side-note, the buildings in particular [as well as some of the world's inhabitants, especially the Bangaa] remind me distinctly of the Star Wars prequel movies, although this may simply be because I'm a bit more well-versed with the Star Wars universe than with that of FF.) I still love the rather goofy, blocky graphics of the older games of my N64 and Dreamcast, but I've got to give it to Square Enix; FFXII blows my mind, graphics-wise. Hoo doggy.
I did find the unfolding of the story via the opening cinematics and various cutscenes to be a bit long, but it does appear to be quite a complex story that deserves proper attention; I guess I'm just more used to playing games that either require little cursory explanation or tell the story more through the gameplay than through elaborate cutscenes. Of course, I'll admit that since I've only played the bare beginning the game probably gets more involved after the beginning fleshing-out of the various events leading up to one's gameplay, but this seems like the sort of thing that a player of previous FF games would be more willing to sit through than someone new to the series.
Most of what actual gameplay I got to participate in for the first chunk of gameplay was in basic tutorial mode, learning how the world works and how to run and fight and use potions--the solid platform upon which the rest of the gameplay will be set. Most of this was pretty easy to grasp, although I found the battle system (which seemed to be an odd mix of realtime and turn-based fighting) a little offputting when compared to previous recent gameplay experiences (as with Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which is completely realtime, or with PokeMon Blue, which is completely turn-based). I have a friend who refuses to play any of the FF games simply because of the general turn-based lean of the battle system, and I'll admit that while turn-based fighting works well with games like PokeMon, it was a bit frustrating to be forced to stand there and take damage from opponents while not being able to fight or defend myself from harm. (I also still find the PS2 controllers with their dual joysticks a bit bewildering; give me an N64 controller with one joystick and a good ol' Z-trigger any day. That's just personal bias talking, though.)
I wasn't too taken with the story itself at the beginning; unlike OoT or other games I have played, I wasn't immediately interested in the goings-on of the world and the plethora of characters didn't really evoke a great deal of emotion on my part. When somebody got hurt or killed in the cutscenes (or, in the case of Lady Ashe, committed suicide), I didn't really feel involved in their demise or sad that they were gone. This may change as I play the game a bit more, but for a first experience I simply didn't find it as engaging as other games.
add a comment
|
|
|
 |
Eegriega's Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
|
|
Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Saturday 24 February, 2007
|
|
