The words "Final Fantasy" have been buzzing across the Internetz, all surrounding the U.S. release of Final Fantasy XIII.
But it's not this new blockbuster which I'm playing--no, I'm playing an important game in my backlog, the Final Fantasy before this most recent one.
(Still the most beautiful rendition of the theme, if you ask me.)
Being an unfortunate soul who was stuck through last gen with only an XBox (I know, I know), I missed out on a plethora of timeless classics on the PS2. A game that I never truly gave a fair chance, however, was Final Fantasy XII.
I was one of those people who raised pitchforks and torches when the Gambit system was first unveiled, and claimed it was the death of the series I had been playing since 1992. As the years passed, so did my indignity and ignorance, and only as I entered the HD gen did I finally give this Ivalice adventure a fair try... and I'm glad I did.
Though I'm only thirteen hours into the game (how poetic), I am in love with it. Ivalice is perhaps the most well-presented and fleshed-out settings in video game history, and Yasumi Matsuno's prosaic writing--panned by many as generic and boring--is a welcomed change by me. Much as Final Fantasy XII's battle system was a radical change from prior installments, so was its narrative; a Final Fantasy game sans the ever-permeating "anime desu desu" theme. (This coming from someone who enjoys anime.)
Another thing I love about the game are its characters. Akihiko Yoshida was a beautiful change of pace from Tetsuya Nomura's overdone, asinine character designs; and though I wish the cast of permanent party members was larger and more diverse (such as including a Banga or Moogle), I do find myself loving each of the characters... except Vaan, but Square-Enix forced Matsuno to include his annoying ass, so he wasn't even supposed to be there.
Production values are gorgeous and its the best-looking game on the PlayStation 2, and Sakimoto's score has almost no duds in it.
Though I cannot yet give a final verdict as I haven't beaten the game, I do finally see the hype and unabashed love showered upon this game when it came out four years ago. Maybe if I put some time between now and my playthrough of Final Fantasy XIII, I'll be able to put aside any personal biases I have towards that title and be able to appreciate it for its own merits, too.
I quit three quaters of the way through for a variety of reasons and not too long ago I tried to go back but I couldn't remember what to do. :( Probably won't revisit that one any time soon on account of an crushingly large number of other games to play.
I always like it when a Japanese game comes along and basically goes "You know what? Fuck anime."
There are so many bizarre hang-ups people have had with this game, too.
- The story is "boring" meaning, not emo.
- The story is actually mature.
- The world is MMO-sized, there are zones that aren't even part of the story.
- "Auto-pilot" play
The first three all stem from being used to anime-themed, linear stories. These people are very resistant to change. The fact that this is actually more of a western-styled FF was a sin to them.
And you can see this mentality again with Metroid: Other M. Anime fans picture Samus as emotional, but anyone with a lick of sense looks at those internal monologues she had before and sees her as introverted. She's practically Nintendo's own Batman. Not to mention its an inner monologue. Even "Narrator Tidus" in FFX was a bit more flat and relaxed than his annoying present day version.
Then there's the people that can't look past all the Gambit programmings as the preliminary work. Its not an all-in-one solution, you cannot auto-pilot the whole game. You're going to stop some battles and make adjustments. The truth is they're really just intimidated by this system because - like FFVIII before it - it forces people to think and really work the system.
These people wish the game could be auto-piloted, since most RPGs do just boil down to mashing X a lot.
You cannot leave FFXII to play itself and expect to win, provided you are doing additional content. Like FFXIII, you do need to monitor whats happening, what buffs are gone, and what the enemy is doing, whats popped where and what's going to aggro.
Basically, go to the none story levels of the Pharos and you'll realise that auto-pilot will result in death.
What Magnalon said. Never got to finish it on account of a broken PS2, but I finally realized my PC is good enough to run emulators, so I'm slowly working my way though all my half-finished PS2 JRPG library.
Other entries include: Persona 3/4, Star Ocean 3, Final Fantasy 10-2, Xenosaga, Ephemeral Fantasia, Grandia 3, and Jade Cocoon 2.
I loved FF12, in fact I'd call it my favorite of the disk based FF games. Pity we never got the Int'l version which introduced job specific license boards.
Once you get done with FF12 if you haven't tried it find Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne (good luck finding it, it's an Atlus game). It is my favorite RPG on PS2. Also good are Disgaea 1 and 2 (the prior is a greatest hits).
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/shrug
Glad you are enjoying it at least.
There are so many bizarre hang-ups people have had with this game, too.
- The story is "boring" meaning, not emo.
- The story is actually mature.
- The world is MMO-sized, there are zones that aren't even part of the story.
- "Auto-pilot" play
The first three all stem from being used to anime-themed, linear stories. These people are very resistant to change. The fact that this is actually more of a western-styled FF was a sin to them.
And you can see this mentality again with Metroid: Other M. Anime fans picture Samus as emotional, but anyone with a lick of sense looks at those internal monologues she had before and sees her as introverted. She's practically Nintendo's own Batman. Not to mention its an inner monologue. Even "Narrator Tidus" in FFX was a bit more flat and relaxed than his annoying present day version.
Then there's the people that can't look past all the Gambit programmings as the preliminary work. Its not an all-in-one solution, you cannot auto-pilot the whole game. You're going to stop some battles and make adjustments. The truth is they're really just intimidated by this system because - like FFVIII before it - it forces people to think and really work the system.
These people wish the game could be auto-piloted, since most RPGs do just boil down to mashing X a lot.
You cannot leave FFXII to play itself and expect to win, provided you are doing additional content. Like FFXIII, you do need to monitor whats happening, what buffs are gone, and what the enemy is doing, whats popped where and what's going to aggro.
Basically, go to the none story levels of the Pharos and you'll realise that auto-pilot will result in death.
Other entries include: Persona 3/4, Star Ocean 3, Final Fantasy 10-2, Xenosaga, Ephemeral Fantasia, Grandia 3, and Jade Cocoon 2.
Once you get done with FF12 if you haven't tried it find Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne (good luck finding it, it's an Atlus game). It is my favorite RPG on PS2. Also good are Disgaea 1 and 2 (the prior is a greatest hits).