Welcome to Final Fantasy Forums, a community where you can discuss your love for all things Final Fantasy. Just go ahead and register for a free account. Community features:
Join Date: June 2010
Location: NJ, USA
Age: 18
Posts: 223
Threads: 4
Gil: 2,650
Member No.: 16864
My Mood:
Rep Power: 3961
Well it's a matter of preference really, I can obviously only tell you what I feel. So let me break it down bit by game component bit.
Setting
Okay, you can tell right off the bat that the staff took a great amount of time researching up on different Middle-Eastern locales and the like. Middle-Eastern culture is what inspired the very foundation of Rabanastre and Bhujerba even down to the native tongue of the inhabitants which borrows some linguistic elements from Sanskrit (try to pick out the greetings the shopkeepers in Bhujerba will throw your way each time you come in to see what I mean).
But beyond that there's just detail, detail, detail. From the grand larger-than-life feel of Archadia with its mix between futuristic and just plain well grand as I said, to the twisting labyrinthine structure that is the Garamsythe Waterway, you'll get an aesthetic feast for the eyes playing this game. The beautiful advantage of the open-view almost sandbox style of wandering around is that you get to take all of these in while choosing to 'Flee' from enemies. (SCORE: 9.5/10)
Music
Sure vivid details for the backdrop of a new area is nice (Mist-saturated Necrohol of Nabudis anyone?) but the music is what hits it home. Honestly compared to say FFX's OST or of course FFVII and even FFVIII, the music of XII isn't what I would call memorable. I didn't just stop in class to hear the beginnings of the epic 'Boss Theme' in my head but it was nice. The music fits to the locale of the game. For instance, when you step into the oh-so woodsy Salikwood, you feel like you're in a tranquil and yet dangerous place. The music can fool you and make you feel deceptively calm when there's a gigantic Mantis just ready to saw you into bits, ahem but the overall look of the environment is calm (pretty canopy, filtered sunlight, cute lost moogle, it works).
SCORE: 8.5/10
Story/Plot line
This story is much more politically driven than many of the recent FF installments up to date 'cause let's see . . .
FFX - love story / religious conflict
FFIX - apocalyptic / pseudo-political conflict
FFVIII - LOVE story / weird time-altering magical sorceress of DOOM!!111 conflict
FFVII - post-apocalyptic / terr-er resistance group vs greedy ass conglomerate
You get the idea. So this story is politically driven and it's complex. So you have tons of dialogue and so you have some cut scenes to visually drive that. Vaan is your omniscient character, you see everything through his eyes, including the true main players: Ashe, Balthier, and hell even Basch (actually especially Basch). Betrayal, murder, more murder, some more betrayal, greed, corruption, politics, war, it's all there . . . in fantastic Vagrant Story-esque glory.
SCORE: 10/10
Characters
Vaan, Fran, Penelo, Balthier, Ashe . . . these are all of our main players. They're all colorful, they all have tragic pasts, left something behind, sacrificed a big 'ol slice of themselves, and decided (most of 'em anyway) to go and save the world. YAY! Honestly Vaan and Penelo are just side characters, particularly Penelo. Balthier, Ashe, and Basch were truly established in terms of their personas. Ashe is headstrong, Basch is sensitive surprisingly and very loyal, Balthier is troubled by the demons of his . . . erm past but won't outwardly show it so instead he tries to act all Don Lothario-esque and haughty (and he wins because he actually succeeds in doing so).
The characters are admittedly charming and you might just, depending on how you are, develop a bond with them. I sort of did (mostly with Balthier). Even the side characters: Reddas, Larsa, and Vossler (especially him *drools* ) have distinctive personalities though since they're just guests, they're role is to say their important piece after battling with you up to a certain point and then bowing out.
SCORE: 8.5/10
So anyway that all said, if you like betrayal, sadness, drama, murder, politics, politics, and hey more politics . . . if you like a very liberating skill system (sorry, I didn't go into the License Board system but there's info for that here if you're interested: http://www.ffinsider.net/final-fanta...ense-board.php), free-roaming, wide open maps, NO random encounters, and professionally done translations with (in my honest opinion) superb voice acting, then this game is for you.
If you don't, then that's cool too. There's plenty of great RPGs out there to choose from *coughs* Fire Emblem and Tales of Series . . . *cough*
Join Date: May 2010
Age: 53
Posts: 169
Threads: 5
Gil: 0
Member No.: 16858
My Mood:
Rep Power: 396
really ?
oh well...
I've been embroiled in controversies abou this game for a long time.
Much to my chagrin.
I've come to hate it..as much for those controveries as for the game's....inadequacies.
It doesn't measure up as an FF game.
Should you get it ?
Yes.But just don't expect it to be epic.
It's long and boring, the character development is lacking.It was designed more like a MMO than a standard rpg.The designer had an alleged breakdown and left Square before the game was completed so it has a lot of holes in it.In my opinion.
I didn't enjoy it.In fact I never completed it.
But good luck to you.
Join Date: June 2010
Posts: 100
Threads: 1
Gil: 0
Member No.: 16995
Rep Power: 204
This game is one of the best things that have the Final Fantasy logo on them. The battle system has changed, but overall this is a very retro game, with armor, weapons and abilities returning to their old aquisition method.
Monsters roam freely through the land, each with their own pattern of movements. They often fight alongside or against one another, and generally stick with members of their genus. Pretty cool feature.
The soundtrack is excelent, just as goosd as the previous titles, with the bonus of eliminating the annoying music shift at the begining of every battle present in older entries. The game reuses a lot of ambient soundtrack for story sequences though, which is disappointing.
The story this time focuses more on politcs, scenario and actual plot than character development the older entries was known for. A very good change, I believe.
Join Date: July 2010
Posts: 14
Threads: 1
Gil: 0
Member No.: 17119
Rep Power: 0
I thought this game was fun.The battle system is diffrent to to other ff games so if you dont like the change of ff battle system you might not like this game( Personilly i liked the new battle system). I only have one proplem with this game...........THE FREAKING CHARACTHERS!!!!!!!. Balhtier is cool (except his voice is gay) and Vaan is so annoying, he is the worst ff charater ever....
. Balhtier is cool (except his voice is gay) and Vaan is so annoying
, he is the worst ff charater ever....
final fantasy xii is a great game 
TIDUS!!!!!!
Linear Mode
