Box Art
Game: Final Fantasy XII
First Released: October 31, 2006, PS2
Developers: Square Enix
Platforms: PS2
Rated: T, for Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language,
Partial Nudity, and Suggestive Themes
First Released: October 31, 2006, PS2
Developers: Square Enix
Platforms: PS2
Rated: T, for Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language,
Partial Nudity, and Suggestive Themes
How I Came To Play This Game
I was originally planning to skip Final Fantasy XII because of all the bad things I heard about the gameplay. I actually played Final Fantasy XIII first. However, I eventually decided that I should give it a chance and play through it just to experience the story. That way whenever Final Fantasy XII comes up in a conversation, I'll know what people are talking about. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out so well and I probably would have been better off skipping it.
Story
Final Fantasy XII begins in Dalmasca's capital city of Rabanastre, where the happiness from the union of Princess Ashe of Dalmasca and Prince Rasler of Nabradia is interrupted by the Archadian Empire's invasion of Nabradia. In the subsequent war, Nabradia and Dalmasca are subjugated by Archadia, the former's capital of Nabudis utterly destroyed; Prince Rasler is killed, and the Dalmascan king Raminas is thought to have been assassinated by the Dalmascan captain Basch, moments after signing a treaty of surrender. Reks, a young knight under Basch's command, bears witness to the assassination, but later dies of his injuries. Marquis Ondore announces that Basch has been executed and Princess Ashe has committed suicide. Two years later, Vaan, the younger brother of Reks, is living as a street urchin in Rabanastre. Despite his friend Penelo's objections, he infiltrates the Rabanastre palace during a dinner celebrating the appointment of Vayne Solidor as consul. During the infiltration, Vaan encounters Balthier and Fran, a pair of sky pirates who are after the magicite that Vaan took from the royal treasury. Their escape attempt fails when a battle breaks out between Imperial troops and Dalmascan Resistance forces, and they end up in the sewers where they stumble upon the Resistance leader, Amalia. Vaan, Balthier, and Fran are captured by the Archadians and detained at the Nalbina Dungeons. In Nalbina, the three encounter Basch, imprisoned but alive, and they escape with him; Basch pleads that his twin brother, Gabranth, had posed as him on the night of the treaty and was the true assassin. While skeptical at first, Vaan eventually believes him. With the help of Balthier and Fran, the party then travels to Bhujerba, where Penelo is kidnapped by Ba'Gamnan, a bounty hunter trying to catch Balthier. While rescuing Penelo, the party meets Lamont, a curious boy who is Vayne's younger brother, Larsa, in disguise. Basch is also able to confront the Marquis, who captures the party and detains them on board the Archadian airship Leviathan, headed by Judge Ghis. On the Leviathan, the party is reunited with Amalia, who is revealed to be Princess Ashe. Ghis takes Vaan's magicite, a royal Dalmascan artifact, and sends it to Archadia. The company escapes from the airship after defeating Ghis and returns to Bhujerba; however, lacking the magicite, Ashe has no proof of her identity and Ondore suggests that Ashe remain hidden in Bhujerba. Instead, Ashe escapes and attempts to collect the treasures of Dynast-King Raithwall, which would prove her royal lineage. The party acquires the Dawn Shard, a piece of "deifacted nethicite", from Raithwall's Tomb, but Ghis seizes it. The small piece of magicite destroys the Leviathan, Ghis, and his fleet, while Ashe and her party barely escape alive. The company later encounters Larsa, who seeks a peace treaty between Dalmasca and the empire; Ashe initially objects, but Larsa convinces her to pursue a treaty in order to protect Dalmasca. She goes to Mt. Bur-Omisace to seek the Gran Kiltias Anastasis, Ivalice's religious leader, and beg his approval of her as queen of Dalmasca. The party learns in Mt. Bur-Omisace that many other influential people also hope to avert war. Larsa, who had been investigating Vayne's connection to the manufacted nethicite, had made contact with Al-Cid Margrace, a member of the Rozarrian Empire ruling family, to convince the two Empires to cease their war. They plan to announce Ashe's status as Dalmascan Queen and to persuade the Archadian emperor Gramis not to go to war, but the plan is thwarted when the Emperor is killed, supposedly by Archadian Senate Chairman Gregoroth, and Vayne assumes the throne of Arcadia. With Anastasis' aid, Ashe retrieves the Sword of Kings, which can destroy nethicite. While she obtains the sword, Anastasis is killed by Judge Bergan and Larsa is brought back to Archadia. After defeating Bergan, Ashe's party travels to Archades and the Draklor Laboratory, Doctor Cid's base of operations. Cid escapes and leaves clues that lead them to Giruvegan, the supposed location of the Sun-cryst, the source of all deifacted nethicite. While the whole party is able to enter Giruvegan, only Ashe encounters the makers of the Sun-cryst, the immortal Occuria, who "pull the strings of history"; they give her the Treaty Blade to cut pieces of her own. It is revealed that Doctor Cid's nethicite research was augmented by knowledge from the Occurian heretic, Venat, who had allied with Cid and Vayne in order to put the "reins of History back in the hands of Man". Vayne aims to become the new Dynast-King by using manufacted nethicite to conquer all of Ivalice. Cid, revealed to be Balthier's father, was obsessed with researching the nethicite's power after his own visit to Giruvegan and initial encounter with Venat. Their expansion campaign—which led to Dalmasca's occupation and the destruction of the city of Nabudis—was waged solely to obtain and study deifacted nethicite. Ashe is faced with the choice to heed the Occuria and take pieces of the Sun-cryst for her revenge or to destroy it and end the Occurian control over history. Still undecided, Ashe and the party travel to the Pharos at Ridorana Cataract, where the Sun-cryst is located, accompanied by the pirate Reddas. At the top of the tower they face Gabranth, who admits to killing King Raminas in an attempt to force Ashe to give in to her hate. After they overpower him, Cid arrives and fights the party; they defeat him, but before he dies he uses nethicite shards to harness the full power of the Sun-cryst. Reddas is revealed to be the former Judge Zecht who had unwittingly unleashed the power of nethicite on Nabudis, wiping out the city. To atone for his guilt, Reddas sacrifices himself to destroy the Sun-cryst and deifacted nethicite forever. Ashe learns from Al-Cid that a war between Archadia and the Resistance group led by Marquis Ondore is about to take place in Rabanastre. The Sky Fortress Bahamut, an enormous, nethicite-fueled airship armed with incredibly powerful weapons, had absorbed the incredible amount of Mist released by the destruction of the Sun-cryst and now hovers above Rabanastre. Infiltrating the Bahamut with the aid of the Resistance, Basch confronts Gabranth, who is impressed by Basch's loyalty. The party encounters Vayne and Larsa in the midst of an argument over Vayne's plot for power, to which Larsa objects strongly; Larsa and Gabranth ally with the party to eliminate Vayne and Venat, though Gabranth suffers a mortal blow. After Vayne's defeat, Ashe announces the end of the war, and Larsa takes over the Imperial Army. The party escapes the Bahamut, now out of fuel after the final battle, with Gabranth's body and Larsa. Balthier and Fran remain on board the Bahamut, steering it away from Rabanastre to prevent a collision, though contact with them is lost. In the following year, Ashe becomes Queen of Dalmasca, and Basch replaces Gabranth as Judge Magister, serving as guardian to Larsa, now Emperor of Archadia. Vaan acquires his own airship, which he operates with Penelo. Balthier and Fran survive their escape from the Bahamut; they recover the Strahl and go to Bervenia. The game ends with Vaan and Penelo setting out to visit them, embarking on another adventure.
Pros And Cons
Story
Esper Zeromus
This game takes place in the same world as Final Fantasy Tactics, so it was interesting to see how the world was. However, the story was not so great at first. It was fine until it switched to Vaan as the playable character, I couldn't wait to see what happened next. Only nothing ever happened next for a very long while. The story does pay off in the end, but you will need to be patient and sit through the rest of the game to get to it.
Characters
I blame it on the fact that I've played so many Final Fantasy games, that I've become numb to them. However, these characters really don't stick out in any way. The main character Vaan is a skinny little kid who somehow saves the world. The only characters that I really liked were Balthier and Basch, because of the formers quirky attitude and the later's sense of justice.
Gameplay
Shameful combat system
The gameplay of this game has not changed much, except for one thing. You can now move around wherever you want during combat. You still have to wait for a meter to fill before you can make a move, but battles are done in complete real time on the overworld. Enemies roam the overworld and battle you when you threaten them or draw close, so there aren't any random battles that take you to a separate battle mode. This new combat system is dubbed Active Dimension Battles, and is one of the stupidest things I have ever seen. If I have the ability to move around wherever I please, then I expect to be able to attack whenever I please. It makes no sense to just stand there, let yourself be hit by then enemy, and then wait for your turn to attack. You would also expect to be able to move out of the way of enemy attacks to dodge them, but they still hit you anyway. Even from 10 feet away their attacks still land a hit. Even with the new degree of freedom it doesn't change anything from the previous games of the series, so they might as well have kept it the same as it always was. Also, instead of waiting for the meter to fill to make a move, you need to select the move before the meter even begins to fill. That means you constantly have to keep selecting moves in order for the battle to progress. The game fixes this problem with the Gambit System, which basically lets you "program" the characters to do certain actions under given circumstances. However, that means you could literally let the game play itself. Just program it to attack the enemies and heal when the characters are low on health and your good to go. This is not what the Final Fantasy series is about. The series is an strategic role playing game where you need to use your wits to escape from dire situations. Not just let a computer do the thinking for you. The only good thing about the gameplay is how you learn new abilities. In addition to the usual Experience Points (EXP), you also get License Points (LP). You spend these points on the License Board to unlock new abilities, or in other words, "license" you to use them. This is the same as AP, so it's another knock off of what's been previously done. At least it works though.
Graphics
A Chocobo
The graphics are a little better than Final Fantasy X, but I find them to be a little dull and greyish. It's depressing to look at. One great thing is that they finally added an option to change the aspect ratio to widescreen. That way it would look better on widescreen TVs. Compared with Final Fantasy X though, the graphics are really pixelated. The full motion video cutscenes still look great though, and there are more of them than there was in the previous games.
Music
Although the gameplay isn't much to be proud of, the music of the game was top notch. Since the gameplay change, there are no battle themes or victory fanfares. However, the victory theme plays whenever you beat a boss. Other themes such as the Chocobo Theme also return, and they made a brilliant remix of the Main Theme from Final Fantasy IV to play in the intro.
Releases
Box Art
Final Fantasy XII was released for the Playstation 2 on Halloween of 2006. It hasn't been released or ported to any other consoles since then, but an HD remaster is currently rumored.
My Rating
I give this game a 7/10. This game was still pretty good, but it doesn't compare to the many that came before it and the new gameplay is terrible.