"Thinking outside the Square"

No matter what kind of gamer you are, Final Fantasy is a brand which you will surely be familiar with. This immensely popular RPG series consistently showcases the very best production values and, in more recent times, cinematography.

Over the past 10 main outings, one thing has always been a key feature throughout: random battles. Following on from the deviation that was FFXI Online, Square-Enix has drawn a lot of inspiration from the said game to bring us the long-awaited next instalment of this fantastic franchise. Yes the random battles are gone, but that's just the start. Nearly everything you thought was Final Fantasy has changed, some for the better and some for the worse.

Visuals - 10
Sound & Music - 8
Gameplay - 7
Longevity - 10 (60+ hours)
Replayability - 8 (experience makes for a better replay experience)
Difficulty - 9

World of Ivalice - 9
VERDICT - 6.5

The Big Bang
When you first start up the fantasy, you are greeted by a wonderful introduction splash. In typical Square fashion, the opening 7 minute long video sequence is absolutely breathtaking, and sets the scene of war perfectly. As you journey through Ivalice, an amazingly rich world full of life and character, the startling reality of it all will hold you spellbound. The bustling cities are all incredibly diverse and ornate, whilst the surrounding outlands are treacherous and expansive. Travelling between the areas is seamless; this is an amazing creation of a living, breathing world.

The graphics are some of the best I have seen on the aging PS2. FF12 has far surpassed the team's previous efforts, and it shows in the extremely detailed character models and the amazing locales. The transition between in-game cutscenes and FMV is so smooth, it is not immediately noticeable to even the keenest eyes.

Character animations are very life-like too. When your group flees from battle, they look like they are fleeing; when they are stringing together a barrage of hits onto massive dragons, it looks just like how a real fight would look (minus the wait time of course!) With a real-time field and battle system being the main draw of this game, having such smooth interactions helps to make everything look just that much more beautiful to watch.

Despite how good it looks, bad controls make for a very bad playing experience. Thankfully this is not the case here! The R3 stick allows you to control the camera in full 3D space. You can admire the beauty of Ivalice at your own pleasure, as well as point towards anything which may have caught your eye. Moving about is fluid, and when going from wandering to fighting, the switch is perfectly uninterrupted. Navigating the menus is just as much of a pleasure.

A epic score, fit for a King
Gone is Nobuo, in comes Hitoshi. The change in composer has lead to a much different musical picture than what we would normally associate with Final Fantasy's brush. The focus is less on themes and more on drama. As a result, the fully orchestral score sounds right out of a big-screen epic. The majority of the tracks are very powerful and driving, and they do match the new gameplay style rather well. Cutscenes look mighty impressive with such a strong symphony backing them.

But I miss the sounds of old. The new music may be well suited for a movie, but this a game, and here it comes off as quite unimaginative with hardly any hummable/memorable tunes to speak of. Most of it sounds too heavy and too samey. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the OST consists for 4 discs worth of music; I thought there were barely enough different tracks to fill just 2!

Special mention must go to the voice acting; you can forget about the joke that was FFX's English dub. From preview clips, the Japanese seem to have hit the spot yet again. In the English dub here, we are finally blessed with a very competent cast of voice actors. Everyone speaks with conviction and in a very articulated manner. Balthier, Basch, Fran and Reddas get my award for some of the finest portrayals by their respective talents. There are some duds, including the "main" character Vaan who sounds so lifeless, but nothing is too forced and most of the speech comes out quite naturally.

But again, as great as the voicework is, it just doesn't come across as a Final Fantasy to me. The dialogue is so formal, so strict, it can be boring. It doesn't help that the main storyline, which involves itself in politics and power, isn't that well fleshed and mostly a yawn anyway.

The 12th Wonder of the World: Programmable AI
After doing away with random encounters, the battle system has also received a major overhaul. You are no longer prompted to give you party commands, but instead you direct them all the time as to what they should be doing. For example, you could have your support character provide buffs, your healing character restoring health, and your tank character engaging the enemy head-on.

After many Final Fantasies with a lot of redundant magic spells and techniques, the mystically renamed magicks and technicks finally feature more prominently. Enemies will not hesitate to inflict all sorts of nasty status ailments on your party members. They will gang up on you if they come within close proximity, and they will help each other to make life that much more harder on you. Along with the fast-paced nature of battles, it's no rubik's cube that you will have to make some good use of hasting, protect/shell, regen, ,gravijas, and cu-etcete-ras.

Managing the vast amount of actions your characters can perform is helped by the 'Gambit' system, which is essentially a set of instructions arranged in a simple algorithm, so that the characters will do certain things given certain conditions; in other words it is programmable artificial intelligence.

Through the use of Gambits, you can coordinate your strategy to specifically deal with different enemies in the best way possible. It allows you to plan ahead, gives you more freedom in battle to focus on your first in command, and makes for a faster pace than seen before. It really is a great system. Unfortunately, you will have to earn or purchase these gambits, usually only after a certain point in time. You only really get enough flexibility about halfway through your journey, which makes for a first half which will probably involve more manual commands than you would like, just as you are starting out too.

The difficulty of recent games have been on the light side, but FF12 brings back the toughness of the old days. Fights can be brutal and it is very difficult to leave unscathed, regardless of whether you fought or chose to retreat. I myself enjoyed the more cerebral nature of the game as tactics and a well-organised school of thought make a huge difference here. One thing I'm not so fond of is the need to grind, for both experience and more importantly license points.

License to Equip!?
You upgrade your characters' attributes via the license board: a more streamlined version of FFX's sphere grid. License points are used to obtain the 'licenses' here, and as just mentioned, you earn them through lots and lots of battling. But licenses aren't just to improve key stats; they also give you the ability to equip weapons and other accessories. Yes, you read that right. In order to equip yourself, you will not only need the piece, but the right to use it as well! This leads onto a big problem.

You are given free reign as to how to develop your characters on this board. Starting with an obtained license square, you can view adjacent licenses should you want to make the acquisition. But let's say you just bought or found this awesome new spear and can't wait to give it a test drive. Well you can't, not until you have got the license to use it. This dual ownership feature adds to some strategic spending of your points, but since you don't know where on earth the license is located exactly, unless you consult a guide, you probably won't be upgrading as much as you'd like too.

The worst thing one could do is acquire non-functional licenses in hopes of finding the one you want. This results in wasteful spending of points which could have otherwise been used to boost abilities and other support actions. Since magic and items (initially) are especially important in this Final Fantasy, it is wise to seek out the licenses which boost your proficiency in them first. Beware of thriftiness, or you will screw yourself royally soon enough.

Let the game begin
There were a lot of small things that bothered me in FF12. Small things which when I add up the sum of their parts, I'm very disappointed with.

Strike 1 - The graphical underworld
I've already praised the graphics as some of the best seen on a console yet. There's no doubt it looks amazing, but it is a sore loss that there is no progressive scan support given the accessibility of 'new' technology these days; the evident flickering as you roam about the lands is a clear blemish on this pretty face.

Oh, but I forgot to tell you about the body! Well compared with the face, it ain't that attractive. I'm talking here about the dungeons, tombs, and other dark secluded areas that pop up quite frequently throughout your travels. While Ivalice is a sight outside, these crawl-type areas are often made up of dark, bland, repetitive rooms repeated ad infinitum; the main culprit being the final 100-level compulsory dungeon which will take you a good 3-4 hours to get through (assuming you are well levelled and equipped mind you!) It reminds me a lot of the 3D Castlevanias; these level designs just don't cut it with me.

Strike 2 - Drivelling
The conflict between Dalmasca and Archades, brought about by a thirst for power and control, aided by the forbidden use of Nethicite yadda yadda yadda... I simply had no desire to see through the events that unfolded (still I did not not skip cutscenes). The plot here starts off with a sense of intrigue and under-the-table treachery and deception. As you make some grindingly slow progress through the narrative, it doesn't seem to fluctuate much; the climactic moments hardly get your heart pumping, and most of the time you are just moving from point A to B without any real driving reason to do so. Revelations are made so obscure that they may pass you by a casual glance.

Even though it may seem like Vaan is the lead protagonist, I assure you he is far from one. Most of the heroes and heroines play an equal role in the story, and if anything the star of the show is Ivalice itself. Character interactions and developments are surprisingly thin, and I'm stumped at how close they ended up at the conclusion of it all. Your protagonists are very individual personalities, but all but one is of the human race; it would've been nice to have a Bangaa or something different amongst the ranks.

Strike 3 - Lack of Cool
In keeping with the seriousness of the proceedings, it seems that the gameplay itself has decided to tread the path of soberness. There are just no "wow!" moments in the game (apart from the opening sequence). We were promised massive airship battles. Where are they? We expected lots of extraneous customisation. Where is the weapon synthesising? (I was very disappointed that loot was there only to be exchanged for gil.) We expected lots of sidequests and minigames. Fishing and Hunts (more grinding) is what we get? We wanted lots of amazing special effects. The quickenings and espers are supposed to be it?

And you're out!
Although the decision to finally make some changes to the stagnating Final Fantasy formula is a nice gesture to fans, the result here just doesn't cook up the feast I was hoping for. Too many core elements were removed in their entirety and the newer emphasis on battle customisation and specificity is not enough to float this boat. I actually did enjoy the new battle system unlike other critical reviewers, but it was the straight atmosphere and the lack of accomplishment that lead me how I feel now.

This feels more like Final Fantasy XI + 1. That is, an MMORPG with a storyline. The 2 mix together as well as peanut butter on an apple; go try it and see for yourself. I was particularly fond of FFX-2's semi-real-time ATB system and am sad to see this was totally ditched. Hopefully the next fantasy for PS3 will somehow bring the series back to what it is famous for. I'm also talking about minigames which involve more than you talking to a bunch of random people to pair up their needs, and some humour at least once per 10 hours or so! (I loved the goofy victory poses though!)

Final Fantasy XII is so completely a radical departure from its distant siblings, I would describe it as more of an adopted child to the family. If you were enamoured by the past games' mechanics and tone, there's a good chance that you may not take to this one so kindly. It's different kind of fantasy, more complex and involving than ever, but lacking in too many of the qualities that I've grown to expect from my kind of fantasy.

6.5/10 - More like Final Formality; massivity came at a price

08/12/06

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/08/06