Games-OMG-Final Fantasy 12
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Final Fantasy XII
Genre: RPG Plateform: PS2 (PS3 compatible?) Players: 1 ESRB: T Price: $20
If there’s a gaming series that never gets old over the years, then it would be the Final Fantasy series. This stable for the RPG genre has been around for a little more than twenty years now. Within those twenty years, we saw some great moments in the series. From Aerith being stabbed in the back by Seperioth in Final Fantasy VIII, to the ending cinematic scene in Final Fantasy X. The series even spawned its own MMO (e.g. Final Fantasy XI). However, one of the most controversial games in this famous RPG series has to be Final Fantasy XII, which was the last Final Fantasy game for the PS2. It was deemed “controversial” because it made some radical changes to the series.Despite this fact, it makes a great $20 game to pick up.
The story in Final Fantasy XII doesn’t really feature a strong love story the series has been known for. What it does have is a darker story with more of a political theme to it. Final Fantasy XII takes place in the world of Ivalice (the same place where Final Fantasy Tactics take place), where two kingdoms are at a constant war with each other. These kingdoms are Dalmasca (good kingdom) and Archadia (bad kingdom). After Archadia invades Dalmasca, Dalmasca surrenders, the Dalmasca’s king is slain by his own loyal knight, and the newly widowed Princess Ashe is presumed dead. Fast forward two years later, and a rebellious inhabitant of Rabanastre, Vann, decides to steal the treasure from Archadia’s newly occupied castle. However, Vann ends up in a quest to find out what really caused the slew of events that caused the fall of Dalmasca. Along the way, he meets up with an extravagant cast of characters that will help him in his quest. I really dug the story in Final Fantasy XII since I’m a sucker for books, video games, etc. with political intrigue in them (e.g. 24, and Splinter Cell).
I’ll admit this in a heartbeat; I HATE TURN BASED RPGS! Yes, I’m one of those people who hate waiting for his turn to attack. I’m the type who wants to get into the action, while gaining XP along the way ( guess that’s why I love games like Kingdom Hearts or Fable so much). Since, I didn’t like the combat mechanic in Final Fantasy X series, so I swore off all turn-based RPG games. However, Final Fantasy XII has a combat system that will attract many action RPG fans (heck even some MMO fans when you think about it) while keeping true to the Final Fantasy formula. Of course, I’m talking about Final Fantasy XII’s active dimension battle system. This battle system is quite different from other Final Fantasy games since you can move your character in real time, but in order to attack, you have to charge up your gauge to attack, use magick’s (yes, that’s how you spell it), technicks, etc. You could argue that the battle system is real time, but in actuality, it’s really turn based. Why? Simply becuase your character has to wait until his/her attack gauge is full in order to do anything. I heavily enjoyed this system since it strikes a balance between turn based and real time. Also, the system completely eliminates random encounters ( I really, really, really hated this feature in most turn based RPGs).
Another radical change in the series is the inclusion of the gambit and license board system. The gambit system is a more revamped version of controlling your allies move sets in previous Final Fantasy games. In fact, I felt like the gambit system should be implemented in other games (I’m looking at you Mass Effect, and Fable). Instead of telling your allies to always heal, you can set them to heal when an ally’s hp level drops to a specific range. The gambit system is truly amazing, and always provides a feeling of satisfaction when you set your allies gambit system to the perfect specifications in order to survive a boss. Out of all the features in Final Fantasy XII, none is more complex then the license board system. In Final Fantasy XII, you earn both XP and LP (license board points) when you successfully defeat an enemy. Those license points goes to your license board, where you can learn new moves or gain more items. The concept is really simple, whenever you buy a slot in your license board, new slots open up, which branches into different moves sets. For example, I originally had van started off with just thief moves like steal or libra, but I decided to let him learn magic’s moves like fire or blizzard in order for him to be a “balanced” character.
Final Fantasy XII is one of the best Final Fantasy games I’ve played in the while. While I don’t think its better than Final Fantasy VII, it’s not an exgerration that it’s one of the best Final Fantasy game to be released for the PS2, which is the main reason why you should fork over $20 on this epic PS2 classic.
Popularity: 2% [?]
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Related posts:
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.