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Bjango's Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
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| [January 11, 2007 06:30:29 PM]
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(Both this entry and the entry before this one were written yesterday, but due to the fact that my computer doesn't have internet and I wasn't able to visit a computer lab last night, I'm posting them both today. Therefore, the times these entries were posted are not the times that I actually wrote them. Hopefully that was coherant and not too pointless in explaining...)
Ok! I’m about 60 hours into the game as of now. I’m currently in Archades, and I’ve just finished collecting my “chops.” Since my last entry was more on the negative side, I’ll try working on the aspects of the game that I really like so far. Firstly, I’ll start with the dubbing. It’s not bad! In fact, it’s actually… it’s actually quite good! I’ve experienced some bad dubs in my day, not really in games, per se… since I’ve had little exposure to video games in general. It’s a little embarrassing to be in CMPS 80K surrounded by all these knowledgeable gamers when I know next to nothing about video games. But anyway, I digress. The dubbing is well done, and I’m thrilled about that. Aside from the dubbing though, I also like how they include more sophisticated vocabulary into the dialogue. It’s really a breath of fresh air not to hear the characters say phrases like: “I’m gonna kill you, you’ll see!” and “Nuh-uh, you’ll never beat me!”
Another aspect of FF12 I’m enjoying is the level of difficulty. I don’t use quickenings, so I end up doing a lot of leveling up to beat bosses. FF8, 9, and 10 were relatively easy to beat, they weren’t especially difficult for me. FF12 is a lot more challenging to work through. I have to strategize a lot more, and I end up getting very involved in choosing the actions of my party via gambits, and investing in skills through the license point system. I really enjoy the freedom of choice that these systems provide.
Wrapping things up though (since I’m getting a little tired of writing all this,) FF12 in short is a very dense game. There’s so much to explore, so many side missions and hunts to take part in, so many people to talk to, it’s really really awesome in that way. The story is engaging, the animation is absolutely beautiful, and the characters are pretty nicely fleshed out. I can easily see myself putting in triple the hours I’ve already played.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 19th, 2007 at 14:22:05.
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| [January 11, 2007 05:56:19 PM]
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I started playing this game over the winter break. Soon after starting it, I fell into my usual routine of video game play: Get up at 10am, play till 2am, and then go to bed. However unhealthy and pathetic it is, it’s just the way things end up whether or not I want it to be this way. I’m about 58 hours into the game now, and loving it. I’m currently on my way to Archades. I’ve gotten all my characters up to level 40 and I’m just about to go in and fight the mandragora gang.
As much as I’m enjoying the game right now though, there’s stuff that kinda bothers me about FF12 so far that I feel the need to address. A part of me feels like FF12 doesn’t really fit in well as a Final Fantasy game. When I first started FF12, I didn’t really feel like I was playing a Final Fantasy at all. Of course, my judgment might be completely skewed by the fact that I’ve never played 10-2 or 11, but I feel FF12 is missing a lot of the things that the other FFs I’ve played have (FF7, 8, 9, & 10.) For one, they redesigned a lot of the signature FF things that appear in the games, like the moogles and cactuars. I’m used to it now, but when I first began the game, I was a little irked by this. Sure, the FF12 moogles are cute, but the old ones were much cooler. I wish they had kept that aspect of the FF tradition instead of repackaging it.
The story also doesn’t really have much of an FF feel. This isn’t to say that FF12’s story isn’t good, because that’s the opposite of what I feel. It’s a good story, most definitely! But it just doesn’t feel FF to me. Maybe part of this is due to the fact that in all the FFs I’ve played, there was a pleasant love story intertwined with the plot. After reading this, you may be thinking to yourself, “Just what you’d expect to hear from a stupid girl! Who cares?” But I feel that many other players (as well as the guys) also enjoyed this element to the story. FF12 just doesn’t have this. Sure, I guess you could say that Ashe and her husband have something goin’ on, but her husband is freaking dead. It’s hard for me to count that as a sufficient love story.
Moving on, another thing that I feel is distinctly unFF is the music. I was expecting to hear more of the delightful, memorable melodies and theme music that all the other FFs had, not the tuneless orchestral music of FF12. Music is a really important aspect of games for me. It really shapes the entire mood of the game. I don’t think the music is necessarily bad in FF12, it’s just not as good as I would expect from a Final Fantasy. This is probably due to the fact that Nobuo Uematsu (the previous FF composer) didn’t do the music for the game, which is sad and disappointing… (did he retire?) but anyway, enough of this. I could go on, but I won’t. I am content with the other changes they made to FF12 in relation to the FF series. The battle system was a great improvement compared to the old system. It’s much less tedious than the old one, and much more fun to play through. I’d rather discuss that at a later time though. I think I’m going to wrap things up here. It’s too bad that all I ended up talking about in this entry was how lacking FF12 is, which really wasn’t my intention. I really really do enjoy playing FF12. I’ll make a point of talking about what I like about the game in my next entry.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 19th, 2007 at 14:22:32.
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Bjango's Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Tuesday 25 December, 2007
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