Tag: ffxii

#oneaday, Day 44: The Late Review – Final Fantasy XII

Since I’m currently going through my backlog of games and beating them one at a time, it seems only fitting that I should write a sort of “review” of each one as I come to their (hopefully inevitable) conclusion. So tonight it’s the turn of Final Fantasy XII, one of several “black sheep” of the series thanks to its complete defiance of established series conventions and adoption of a quasi-Western RPG style of gameplay. I will try and avoid as many spoilers in this post as possible.

I will preface this by saying, as always, that I am a total Final Fantasy fanboy. I don’t care if they’re clichéd, I don’t care if big tentacley angel monsters as final bosses are overdone, it’s what I expect from a JRPG, and it’s what I inevitably get from the Final Fantasy series in particular. Overwrought melodrama, gratuitous and unnecessary love stories and the inevitable destruction of the world that only a plucky band of teenagers (and one guy in his twenties who inevitably gets referred to as “old man” throughout) can prevent? Sign me up. I love it.

So it was something of a surprise that Final Fantasy XII eschews most of these things. The melodrama is kept to a minimum, any romantic subplots are handled with the subtlest of nudges and winks rather than faintly embarrassing scenes accompanied by someone singing and the small ensemble cast is likeable, realistic and “human”, typically ridiculous Final Fantasy costumes aside. (Penelo must be really sweaty by the end of the game.)

In fact, for once in a Final Fantasy game, the plot almost takes a back seat to the gameplay. There are large tracts of the game where you’re given a lot of freedom—something happens, the party comes to the conclusion that what they really need to do next is travel to something that is inevitably on the complete opposite side of the game world to where they are right now and then it’s up to the player how to proceed. They could go straight there using the various means of fast travel. They could walk straight there. Or they could wander off and go and do some of the many, many sidequests, most of which are available throughout the game rather than the usual Final Fantasy trick of saving them all until just before the world really needs to be saved right now please. Granted, you still have the somewhat silly opportunity to go and do all these things while the final confrontation patiently waits for you right in the middle of the map, but you just know that people would bitch and moan if you didn’t have the opportunity to do this. It’s also worth noting that the amount of time between the “point of no return” and the ending of the game is actually pretty short, so it’s not as if you have to go off and do all the sidequests then spend 6 hours battling through the final dungeon. This is a refreshing change.

By far the most refreshing thing about the game is the battle system, though. I waxed lyrical about this back on Day 5, but it’s worth mentioning again. The combat system, combining the best bits of a quasi-real-time MMO-style combat system and the “active pause” style of a BioWare RPG whilst keeping it optimised for a console, works astoundingly well, especially once you get the hang of using Gambits. By automating common actions such as curing and buffing, you’re not making the game unnecessarily easy, you’re making your play more efficient. Are you really getting any more from a game where you’re manually selecting to cast “Haste” on your attackers every few turns?

I described the Gambit system as being akin to the “huddle” you have when playing an MMO with a well-organised group. The best way to use it appears to be to give everyone clearly defined roles. For me, this means one tanking attacker, one who solely focused on healing HP and status effects and a third who focused on buffing the tanking attacker with Protect, Shell, Regen and Haste. All of them got stuck in hitting things with sticks and hammers when they didn’t have anything else to do, but this setup worked extremely well and saw me through most of the game. Any mishaps could be quickly dealt with by popping up the menu and dealing with them manually. And in boss battles where circumstances suddenly shifted, such as them suddenly becoming immune to physical attacks? Well, that was just a case of popping open the main menu and adjusting the attacking Gambits to use Magicks instead.

It’s a great-looking game for a PS2 game, too. Sure, there’s rough edges when playing on an HDTV, but it’s clear to see this is a well-crafted, well-designed world with distinctive-looking characters. The animations in cutscenes are excellent, too, with some high-quality facial animations doing a great deal to help forget the laughing scene in Final Fantasy X. One tiny bugbear with the graphics is that all the FMV sequences are in 4:3 while the game itself happily runs in 16:9 but this is a minor issue, as the vast majority of story sequences are rendered in-engine.

The sound is probably the weakest bit of the game. The voices are heavily, heavily compressed, though the acting itself is generally very good. The music is unmemorable, however, which is quite unusual for a Final Fantasy game. It has character, and sounds like Final Fantasy Tactics (which is understandable, given their common setting) but there’s nothing anywhere near as iconic as One Winged Angel on display here, which is a shame. There’s also a couple of areas that repeat music from earlier in the game, too, which seems a little lazy, given that the vast majority of areas have unique music. It’s hardly a deal-breaker, though.

Final Fantasy XII is often described as the FF for people who don’t like FF. And it’s absolutely true—the crushing linearity of earlier entries in the series is nowhere to be seen (although the main plot is firmly on rails, you’re free to wander off and do your own thing at any time right up until the finale) and there’s very little need to “grind” by running around in circles waiting for random battles to happen. In fact, it’s possible to “grind” without noticing simply by travelling from one place to another—the numerous long-distance journeys that the plot tasks you with seem to set you up to take advantage of this fact.

At the same time, these elements may put some people off. Some people enjoy the tight focus that a strictly linear plot gives, and indeed in FFXII it’s very easy to lose track of what happened in the story when your last cutscene was eight hours ago. The plot picks up pace towards the end, though, and you find yourself wanting to press forward and see things through to their conclusion. How quickly you choose to do so is entirely up to you—so if you’re a fan of a tight plot, you could probably romp through fairly quickly. If you’re a completionist, though, there’s plenty to keep you occupied here. I beat the game after 98 hours with barely half of the sidequests completed. Then there’s secret weapons to find, a boss with 35 million HP to take down, secret Summons, optional areas to explore and doubtless many other things besides.

So in summary then, I was very, very impressed with the whole game. As a Final Fantasy fanboy, I enjoyed the fact that it still felt like a Final Fantasy game whilst playing very differently to the more “traditional” entries in the series. And as a fan of good games? Well, this is very much a Good Game.

The only thing that makes me a little sad is how few people will probably be inclined to play it these days. With the lack of backward-compatibility on new PS3s, playing it will either involve tracking down a PS2 or using an emulator. It’s wholly worth it, though, as it is without doubt one of the best RPGs I’ve had the pleasure to play for a long time, and certainly one of the finest entries in the Final Fantasy series. A pity we probably won’t see its like from Squeenix again.

#oneaday, Day 5: The FF Gambit

In an attempt to batter the shit out of my Pile of Shame, I’m playing Final Fantasy XII, a game which I bought upon its initial release—just like every Final Fantasy—and have spectacularly failed to finish—just like every post-IX Final Fantasy. (I have since finished X and X-2 and maintain that X-2 is an excellent game despite being almost—but not quite—as gay as Space Channel 5)

The thing is, FFXII is good. Really good. Like, “it’s a Final Fantasy for people who hate JRPGs” good, in that it dispenses with all the usual bullshit (rigid linearity until the last hour, when saving the world can be inexplicably put on hold to go and raise some chickens, endless random battles) and provides an experience that is altogether more “Western” in its feel. We have a much more open world. We have enemies wandering around in the field. We have immensely satisfying combat which takes place in the field. We have sidequests with a bloody quest log and we have an interesting, if unconventional, character development system.

And we have Gambits. I was all set to dismiss Gambits as a means of getting the game to play itself. But having played it for about twelve hours now (coming up on the point that I originally got distracted by something else on my initial partial-playthrough, so we’re nearly into new territory) I’ve discovered something: Gambits are awesome.

If you passed on FFXII, let me enlighten you. A Gambit is a means of “programming” your party members to act in particular ways. You give them a particular condition, such as “Ally has less than 50% HP”, and then give them an action, like “Cure”. You can prioritise the actions, too, so certain things will take precedence when more than one of the conditions are true. And as such, you can plan out the way you’d like a battle to unfold before it starts.

In many senses, it’s like that “group huddle” you have in something like World of Warcraft before you take on a dungeon’s boss. Everyone has a role to play, and it’s important that people stick to that plan where possible, but be able to adapt to the situation if necessary. That’s why FFXII gives you the opportunity to immediately issue direct commands, too, which override any and all Gambits in play. In fact, it’s technically possible to play the entire game by micromanaging every action all your characters do, but it would probably take you approximately ten times longer to play the game if you chose to do that. Gambits aren’t letting you leave the game on autopilot—they’re letting you plan out a battle before it happens and then just focus on responding to situations as they arise. You’ll frequently have to switch them out to take advantage of particular enemies’ weaknesses, and I’ve noticed myself spending a lot more time in the menu in FFXII than I would do in earlier, more traditional entries in the series. Planning out the way the characters will respond is interesting and addictive, and immensely satisfying when it goes right.

In fact, the only thing which may be a bit off-putting to some people about FFXII these days is the graphics. In this HD age, FFXII looks pretty ugly, and ironically this is because it was a pretty good-looking PS2 game. There is a lot of detail in both the textures and the characters, but the low resolution which the game runs at gives the whole thing a very “muddy” and flickery look which some people may find a bit difficult to deal with. It’s certainly not unplayable, though, and spending a bit of time in the company of the PS2 serves as a reminder that games didn’t always need HD graphics and Achievements to be good.

(Interestingly, FFXII does actually feature a proto-Achievement system in the form of the Sky Pirate’s Den, which fills with trophies as you fulfil certain accomplishments in the game.)

So, if you’re hungering for a great almost-Western-style RPG with a JRPG aesthetic? Give ol’ FFXII a chance. If FFXIII didn’t push your buttons with its “here’s a straight line to the finish, apart from this bit” mentality, FFXII is what you need. Join me in my quest through my Pile of Shame!