Product Description

Since 1987 the FINAL FANTASY series has sold over 63 million units making it one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time. FINAL FANTASY XII carries on the tradition of gaming innovation fantastic graphics and epic storytelling.Format: PS2 Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE (VG) Age: 662248904078 UPC: 662248904078 Manufacturer No: 90407

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #598 in Video Games
• Brand: Square Enix
• Model: P2SQE 662248904078
• Published on: 2006-10
• Released on: 2006-10-31
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Platform: PlayStation2
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .57" h x 5.45" w x 7.53" l, .38 pounds

Features

• Completely new voiced cut-scenes added for the North American release
• Gorgeous CG cinematics and cut-scenes in Dolby Pro Logic II combined with real-time graphics rivaling those of next-generation titles
• Shocking plot twists take players on an unforgettable journey
• Active Dimension Battle (ADB) system enables players to move seamlessly between exploration and combat
• Highly customizable Gambit system allows complete control over character AI during battles

Customer Reviews

One of Finer Fantasies (4.5 Stars)
After a long wait, Final Fantasy XII is finally here, after such a long wait. Everything about it shines. From it's deep storyline, to its fantastic and complex gameplay. All worries aside, Final Fantasy XII is a keeper.

The Archadian Empire has taken over the Kingdom of Dalmasca. The King has been assissnated and the princess is presumed dead. The people of Dalmasca are displeased with the Empire, especially a young boy named Vaan who believes it is up to him to take Dalmasca back. Luckily, he's not alone. There's an entire resistence group out there that are willing to help him out. The storyline of Final Fantasy XII is different from all the Final Fantasy games. For one, it relies far more heavily on its political drama and philosophical intrigue. What you get from Final Fantasy XII isn't a huge epic story in scope, but rather a drama that unfolds. It's a different way to tell the story for Final Fantasy, but here it actually works. It's still got some good twists and it is somewhat deep, but don't expect something along the lines of previous installments such as Final Fantasy X or VII. It doesn't have the most memorable ensemble cast either, but you do, for the most part, like the characters.

What many fans are most concerned about when it comes to this new installment is the battle system itself. It strays away from the series roots. It is no longer the ATB style battles we've been used to since Final Fantasy IV. Instead it's Active Dimension battle. All enemies in any given area of a dungeon are present at all times and will charge you upon seeing you.

You can free roam through any area, and so can your enemies. As your characters approach an enemy they pull out their weapons and you can begin to issue attacks. You can only play as one character at a time, but you can still issue orders to other characters if you want. Since all enemies are present on the map at one time, running away can be a hassle. Enemies will give chase, and some enemies will even join in the battle.

The combat has a couple of downsides. For one, getting money is downright painful and repetitive. Your enemies don't drop money, and when they do it's not a lot. Instead you'll be forced to sell the items they drop. This wouldn't be a problem if stuff wasn't s expensive, and if the items dropped by enemies didn't sell for so little. Also, dungeon maps are huge. It's easy to get lost and overshoot your objective sometimes, even with the ingame map provided.

This wouldn't be Final Fantasy without some complexity to the battle system, though. First, there is the game's complex AI system called "Gambits." Gambits allow you t customize what your characters do in battle. You can set your characters up to attack, or you can get more complex and have them heal anyone whose HP falls below a certain percentile. Once you get used to the Gambit system, however, it's really easy to take advantage of. To the point where Final Fantasy XII becomes a cakewalk. Even worse, if you set them up too well, you'll find that the only thing you ever have to do is move around the left analog stick. It is entirely possible to track through Final Fantasy XII never having to open up the menu.

Then there's the license point system. As you battle through the game you'll earn license points which can be spent on the license board. This helps to determine what spells, abilities and even weapon and armor characters can use. Yes, that's right, weapons and armor. You cannot use a certain weapon unless you have a "license" to do so. There's nothing too complex about this and it suffers from its own little issue, the fact that in the end every character is the same.

Graphicwise, Final Fantasy XII is fantastic. The towns are detailed, and so are your characters. The fact that each town has so many unique looking characters on screen at once is an impressive feat. The game also sounds lovely. Even better is the games artistic design. Towns are breathtaking. The game also sounds good. The voice acting isn't the best in the world, but it does manage to be good in many areas.

Final Fantasy XII should please old and new Final Fantasy fans alike. Its storyline is pretty deep and its gameplay is complex and fun. Its by far one of the better Final Fantasy games in the series.

The Good

+Fantastic Graphics
+Good storyline
+The new battle system is complex
+Tons of side quests and secrets to keep you busy for hours
+Beautiful soundtrack
+Well done voices

The Bad

-Dungeons are huge and save points are few and far between
-The battle system is too easy to take advantage of
-The license board will eventually make every character the same

FINAL VAGRANT TACTICS FANTASY 12
So, here's my take on Final Fantasy's latest. Is it the greatest? Read on and find out!

BATTLE SYSTEM: Everything is in real-time, which any veteran FF gamer knows is not the way it used to be. Although it takes a while to get accustomed to this change I found the real-time battles a breath of fresh air--something this series is definitely going to need if we're ever to hope of seeing Final Fantasy 24 or so. It is so nice when the only transition screens you have are those that occur when going to menus, new locations or cut-scenes. Also, the ability to run for your life all the way across the map is really nice, especially in addition with the sounds of thousands of angry hooves and feet stamping after you!

TRANSPORTATION: I don't know about you, but I LOVE flying airships on a world map! Sadly, in Final Fantasy 12 this is not possible. Very ironic, because this is the powerful Playstation 2 and the game itself sports alot of airships. There are Chocobos, but that is the only type of transportation you actually steer on your own. You can take teleport crystals to warp you almost anywhere and later your airship can "fly" you places.

STORYLINE: I would disagree with anyone that says that this game has no storyline. But I would agree that there is so much leveling up/looting to be done between locations that when you reach your final destination you might forget your initial motive for going there. As a whole, FF12's storyline is not as prominent as other storylines, like FF6 and FF7. And of course part of what makes a good storyline are good . . .

CHARACTERS: Since anyone can learn any weapon or magic, the only thing that makes them unique are their looks. Fran looks like she escaped from the Playboy mansion, Vaan looks like a younger brother to Ashley Riot from Vagrant Story and Balthier is something of a mix between Setzer and Locke, which is cool. Reddas is an interesting Auron-like person, but he appears too little, too late in the game. Ah yes, and if only Elza in Balfonheim Port were a playable character.

ANTAGONISTS: Part of the reason I did not get drawn in by the storyline (what little there is of it) is because the antagonists were not very convincing. You won't find anyone as evil as Kefka or Sephiroth. For a good portion of the game I knew that the Empire was evil (obviously) but had no idea who exactly was the "Boss" and even more importantly, WHY? And it doesn't help either that the Empire's black-clad knights like Gabranth sound like Dark Helmet from Spaceballs. Or at least a very pathetic Darth Vader.

MUSIC: I own several Final Fantasy game soundtracks and of course I think that Uematsu is brilliant in his work. But I also own the FF Tactics soundtrack and I was surprised how good it was. One of the two composers for the Tactics soundtrack did the music for this game. Unfortunately, by himself, he's not that good. Granted, there were no songs that felt out of place, but at the same time, there were no stellar tracks that captured the EMOTION OF THE MOMENT or had the genius of the work of Uematsu's earlier soundtracks. Considering that you will spend alot of time collecting loot/leveling up in different locations, expect to hear the same track over and over again. Also, the ending boss theme, sadly, is nothing spectacular. I'd even say it's forgettable.

SUMMONS, SPELLS AND SIDEQUESTS: For perhaps the first time ever I found myself hardly ever using summons and magic. The summons are nice to look at, but die too easily and deal too little damage and sadly offensive magic is the same way (although Flare comes in handy at the end). Even sadder, to get alot of these spells and summons you have to go on sidequests that are voluntary, but end up feeling mandatory--or you could do the alternative and loot the land for 3 hours and search a whole world for the one shop that sells the magic/weapon/armor you need.

GRAPHICS: To me, the least important, but they're definitely good. Although only the first and last few FMV scenes are worth watching twice and unlike FF10, you can't buy them.

SOMETHING FUNNY: When Vaan is running around saying "I'm Captain Basch fon Rosenburg" I thought it would be funny if he also randomly said, "I'm Rick James, b-tch!"

OVERALL: If you're a casual RPG gamer, this is clearly a solid RPG that is very well thought through in terms of game mechanics. And let's not forget, you can easily log in 80+ hours before beating the game, which is definitely getting your money's worth.
If you're a veteran Final Fantasy gamer, one who's played since it's NES days (or at least its SNES days), then you'll see what a weak story and soundtrack this game has, which to me is below par for a Final Fantasy title.

Am I bored? I think I am...
First, the good: It's set in a huge world with beuatiful landscapes and scenery. The FMV sequences are stunning, as expected. That's about all the good I can say about it though.

From somewhere around hour 20 until hour 90 in gameplay, development in the story was almost non existent. Nothing really happens! It's pretty much a series of boss fights and treks through random jungles. Every now and again there's an extrememly casual one lined piece of 'character development' thrown in that barely keeps the thing going.

It's quite badly designed also. For instance, not every shop sells the same spells... so by the end of the game, when the good spells finally become available, you still have to trek all around the world to find some of them. And even then some of them seem unattainable. Like 'bubble' for instance - couldn't find it anywhere. Apparently you have to be at a certain clan level to buy this. Great. How is that supposed to make my experience of the game even remotely enjoyable? And the 'Ardour' spell, where was that supposed to be? Why not just make all the spells available in all the shops? Wouldn't that make more sense? It's just a waste of my time to have to pointlessly go from shop to shop buying crap. Believe me, by the end I HAD LONG SINCE CEASED TO CARE! Maybe people who play these games more frequently enjoy this kind of pursuit. I'm mostly playing for the story.

Somebody else mentioned that the balance between risk and reward is disgraceful. I agree. It seems like you put in so much effort to get almost nothing. The treasure chests in the game are a joke - they contain a host of the most useless stuff you could imagine. Also, most bosses who are challenged by you in any way will just status effect the crap out of you until you die.

Also the positioning (or lack) of some of the save crystals is not good - again, just bad design. I found myself pointlessly replaying certain parts after dying in boss fights because I couldn't save.

Most importantly though, where was the character development in this game? The most random people kept popping up out of nowhere when the 'story' required their presence. Like that french looking guy with the sideburns. What was his function in the story? What were any of them doing for that matter? Could anybody understand a thing any of them were saying apart from the main six? I know it was something about magic rocks...

Only in the final five hours of gameplay did anything start to actually happen. But way too little too late. For instance, when Ashe says to Vaan, 'don't interrupt me', why was she so moody? There is no relationship in any way between these two people. Vaan and Panello are ... well what are they exactly? If they're just friends, that's great. If they're friends with benefits, that's great too. But we're never told! In fact, their friendship is never referenced in any way by any of the other characters. None of the characters are ever in any real jeopardy either and they don't interact with each other verbally at all. Like a bunch of strangers who met on a street and decided to walk in the same direction. Then they all decided to start fighting monsters and look for magic rocks.

And then at the end Vaan says to Ashe, before one of the final battles, 'you've got good friends'... is he talking about them? They barely speak a word to each other for the entire game... they're off looking for magic rocks and then suddenly, they're best mates?? Jumping the gun a little no? A bit of development wouldn't go amiss here...

Maybe Vaan's just desperate for friends or something...

I just finished the game an hour ago and can barely remember a thing that happened in it. It actually feels as if nothing happened at all, which is basically the truth I suppose. Quite unlike what I felt after final fantasy X, which was more like withdrawal.

If it was Square's intention to make a game about six people whose relationships to each other don't develop in any way, then they succeeded. It's pretty much a group of people who get together and go on a quest (something about magic rocks I think???), barely speak to each other for the whole journey (no exaggeration), and then go their separate ways again at the end. Thrilling. I can barely believe I just spent more than 90 hours of my life on this! LESSON LEARNED.

I really don't like being so critical about a game in a series that I have truly loved. I fully appreciate the efforts and the work that went into making this game, and I am grateful that there are people out there doing this. But I think you can do much better.

In short, it's no final fantasy X and there's no epic feel to it like there was in that game. But still, you may enjoy it. I just found the whole thing extremely pointless!