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Stiltzkin's Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
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| [January 24, 2008 07:55:13 PM]
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Gameplay Session 2:
Returning to the game wasn't hard at all. I'm so enthralled with this game. I must admit that it is a little overwhelming at times. Side quests such as the Hunts, where the player can accept requests from citizens to go kill certain monsters for rewards, have been my priority for a while. I've just made some progress story-wise, but honestly it was only because a Hunt was located in the same area.
The idea of playing "bounty hunter" and fighting elite monsters is extremely enjoyable. It's fun to level up my characters and prepare them for a fight against a monster that won't be found anywhere else in the game. The reward for defeating monsters is also a very good incentive because you can receive weapons or money. Since the player doesn't automatically receive money after defeating monsters in battle, getting money in any way at all is very much appreciated.
I feel that the different environments also encourage me to take a break from the story and explore. The designers did an amazing job creating the different levels that the player can go through. Each place is unique with it's own set of creatures, foliage, music, and overall mood.
Design:
There's no doubt about it that this game is gorgeous to look at. The cut scenes are beautiful and don't drag on forever either. Each city as I've already mentioned is unique, but not just with the environment or the building structures, but with the citizens themselves. For the most part they speak the same language that is used throughout Ivalice, but for certain words they use their "native language". This mixture of two languages reinforces the idea that the characters really are traveling to different parts of the world that aren't their native homeland.
The Real Time battle system definitely makes the battles more interactive and less tedious. Though the player still has to wait for the characters' action gauge to fill, the battles seem more fast paced and active. The concept of the Gambits, where the characters can be controlled by a set of instructions when fighting, is interesting and helpful. However it runs the risk of causing the player to be lazy. If all the characters have their Gambits on, then when the player approaches a monster to fight, he can just sit back and watch his characters, who have been preprogrammed with instructions, engage in battle. I find that it defeats the purpose of playing a video game. Fortunately the designers took that into consideration when creating the Gambit system and have given the player the decision whether or not to use the Gambits on the characters. If such a choice was not given to me, I don't think I would like the game as much as I do.
The concept of selling "loot" as a means to gain money as opposed to simply receiving money after fighting a monster was an interesting aspect of the game. When I first started it I was somewhat peeved by that fact, but I've gotten over it. This game makes it more challenging for the player to buy items and forces them to focus on tactics such as stealing from enemies and stopping what they are doing and running to items that had been dropped by defeated enemies.
In FFXII the characters are not placed in a specific fighting class. The player is able to equip the character with any weapon or magic as long as said character has enough License Points (LP) that enable them to gain the ability to use a weapon, magic, etc. I have somewhat mixed feelings about this concept. While I like that I have more control over how my characters fight and that I can change their weapons to whatever is more conveniant for whatever battle I'm in, I feel that it also runs the potential of losing character diversity and the battles are no longer challenging. If all the characters are using the same sword then what's the fun of that? When characters lose their specific fighting class, then their importance in the party is somewhat lost because everyone is doing the same thing: casting the same spells, using the same weapons, etc. But it's left up to the player to decide what direction he/she wants the character to go.
Overall this game is extremely enjoyable. I like the new elements that have been added into this game and if Final Fantasy continues to move in this direction, I would be pleased.
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| [January 24, 2008 02:36:41 PM]
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Summary:
War has broken out on the world of Ivalice which resulted in the aggressive Archadian Empire conquering many cities throughout the land. Dalmasca, a small kingdom, was one such city. However, an unlikely group of allies made up of two orphans, a fallen queen, a wrongly accused soldier, and two sky pirates, have banded together in hopes of restoring the Dalmascan Queen to her rightful place and ending the Archadian Empire's hold on Ivalice.
Gameplay Session 1:
Let me just say that I love this game. I have been playing it for a while and it is a very entertaining game. The cities and other explorable environments are huge. This really gives the feeling that I am exploring a world. I was surprised by the amount of free roaming that the game makers allowed the player to have. It was really easy for me to deviate from the story and where I was suppose to go so I could explore areas that weren't on my map. I've often come across places that I wasn't suppose to pass through until later in the game. I absolutely loved this feature because it gave me more options on where I could level up.
Since FFXII doesn't have a world map like the older final fantasies, where the player literally runs/pilots an airship around the world traveling from city to city, this idea of having the cities all in someway connect to each other and allowing the player to explore them with few limits is appreciated. Of course there are still restrictions as to where and when the player can enter a certain area. I'm just saying that in this game, it seems the game makers were less restrictive when it came to exploring the world.
What had always attracted me to FF games were the characters. I find these characters endearing. It's fun to watch their interactions with one another. I was surprised by how much I liked the voice acting and I feel that that feature really helps the player determine what kind of person the character is.
When I play this game with my housemates watching, I find that they are also drawn into the story. They also become interested in what the characters are trying to accomplish and how the narrative turns out. Mostly though, I think they just want to watch me fight enemies.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 24th, 2008 at 18:08:08.
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Stiltzkin's Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Thursday 24 January, 2008
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