"Final Fantasy? No...Knights of the Old Republic"

Before I begin this review, let me start by saying that I did beat this game entirely, but I did not finish all of the sidequests for certain problems within the game itself. I've played almost every Final Fantasy game in the series, but this is my first game review ever, so bear with me. The reason for me deciding to type a review up is so that I can let people know not to make the same mistake I did in buying this game. I've beaten every FF game at least twice, and I've gotten to know almost everything that I can about what a good Final Fantasy game is like. So here goes:

Graphics 10/10
The graphics in this game were to say the least...beautiful. There is literally no game that I've played on PS2 with graphics that looked like this. The opening scene lets the player see a great view of the city, Rabanastre, and the types of species within it. The details are almost perfect for everything and the design of the city itself is amazing. The characters are very detailed and the weapons look awesome, and the look of the weapons and shields actually make you want to work your butt off to get them and see what they look like. The Summoning scenes are also just out of this world, you would have to see them to believe how amazing they are. Note that this is the high point of what this game has to offer.

Gameplay 4/10
This is the first of the two downfalls of this game. I'm sure everyone who plays these games is used to the traditional styles of Final Fantasy, whether it be hit-for-hit or timebar. As soon as I got into my first battle of the game I could not believe what I was seeing, it was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The same type of fighting style, except they threw the timebar in to make it somewhat traditional. You can change your camera angle to however you want which is a plus because in past games all you could only see from a certain viewpoint. Also, there's the Gambit system, which is impossible to customize correctly, even if you have every gambit and every spell. It was a great idea, but you have to set it up differently for every different type of enemy, and since there are hunts and rare game to go after, it's even harder because there are so many different high level enemies. I spent so much time just trying to figure out the gambit system that I wasted gil using potions and items and I had to spend even more time fighting for loot. Oh yea, did I mention there is no more gil after battles? Yes...you have to sell loot from enemies you battle, and sometimes you are left with nothing from a tough enemy that you defeat. You'll never have enough money in this game for anything, so be prepared to just barely win battles against bosses, base it all on luck of the battle. This game also requires you to gain LP, which are license points. This is just another annoying way to drag the character further into battling in the fields for 2 or 3 hours extra so that they can acquire the correct license so that they can use their brand new sword, bow, gun, shield, etc.

Summons and Mist charges are the next important part of gameplay. The summons, I have to say, are without the best part of this game, unfortunately, you'll almost never use them. Don't even think about using them in a boss battle because you can't control when they'll use their ultimate move, and they'll end up getting killed before you do any damage at all to a boss. Not to mention you can only get 4 or 5 of them during the story, the others you have to go through painful caverns and jungles to get to and when you do battle them, no matter what level you are it's nearly impossible to do damage to them. Just pray that you don't sell the wrong piece of loot early in the game, such as a Serpentskin....., or you won't have the necessary piece of loot to start a sidequest that will lead you to one of the summons. Now Mist Charges, which are basically the "limit breaks" of this game. Mist Charges you can use whenever you please, as long as you have the MP to do so. These are amazing attacks that look awesome graphics wise, and they do loads of damage to enemies. This will be your main weapon against bosses and tough enemies. This is one of the ups of the game, as they're really beneficial to your battle and I think actually make the game better. You can create combos with them if you're good enough and get a huge final attack out of your work. These were a great addition to FF12.

The next are the hunts and the rare game hunts. These are sidequests in themselves and for the most part are the things that begin the sidequests. Most of the things that you'll be hunting are old characters and enemies from the past FF games and in a way it's very exciting to see which creature you'll be battling next. You'll also get a certain amount of gil and items from the person who gives you the hunt, which is another way to get gil. Here's the only problem with the hunts: Some of them require you to stand in a room for a certain amount of time or something ridiculous for the mark to show up, so you'll leave without even getting the target you needed. Otherwise the hunts are an awesome part of this game that really are what kept my interest in this game. Rare game hunts are the same thing, except much cooler looking enemies, but I'm not going to give away anything else about them in this review.

Sidequests as we know are the biggest parts of the Final Fantasy series and usually are how we get the ebst weapons in the game. Honestly the sidequests in this game were just an extra task forcing the player to go through some extra gameplay involving getting items that you have no idea or clue as to where they are. As mentioned in my review, there are items that you can sell that are also part of sidequests, so this way 20 hours later into the game you are kicking yourself when you realize that you actually needed what you sold for that little bit of gil for a new piece of equipment. Overall when it comes down to it, don't bother going on the sidequests because you'll only walk away disappointed if you don't have the right stuff.

Sound 5/10
Yes, the music in this game is great and all of the sounds are different for the type of weapon you are using and the creature you are attacking. But here's the problem with the music: do you really want to do battle against a creature in an area with the same music that the area is playing when you are just wandering around? There is boss music, but this time around in the game I never got excited for battles because the music was not as addicting to listen to. The voice acting for some of the characters is alright I guess, but by no means as good as the acting from the last 2 Final Fantasy games with voice acting in them.

Story 1/10
Finally the part that brings this game down the most, this is the second of the parts of the game to ruin it completely. I'm sure we all know that the story of these games is what is most addicting to us and make us want to keep playing for hours on end. Usually since Final Fantasy VII there has been an intense love story that brought us a sort of attachment to our characters. To me, the love story is what makes the games what they are and without something to attach us to our characters, there is no point in even playing. This game is about a war being fought between the Empire and what is basically the Republic. Yet again, you cannot fly your airship around in a Final Fantasy game, but I guess I've gotten used to in the past 3 FF games. But if you're into games with politics and war storylines, this is the one for you. If you like getting attached to your characters and enjoying the story behind each of them, then this is not the game for you. Also, the ending is a huge disappointment, seriously you will feel upset with Square for leaving you with what it did, and there is nothing you can do about it except for stare at the screen in disbelief.

Replay Value 2/10
I literally had the game in my PS2 ready to play again from the start today, but I changed my mind when I thought of all of the garbage I'd have to do to get to the point in the game that I needed to so that I could just beat the Omega Weapon of this game. Sadly enough throughout this entire game I kept expecting this story to get better but it just never did. This game is like Star Wars and Skies of Arcadia mashed together into one game. I made the mistake of buying the collector's edition for $60 instead of $50 because all of the regular copies were sold out. Save yourself the money and rent this game to see if you like it, because honestly, I'm going to trade it in and see if I hopefully make back half of what I did buying it. Good luck on whatever your decision is and I hope this review benefitted you in some way.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 12/18/06