Appalling. Disappointing. Words that shouldn't be associated with FF. They're also the words that describe this game.
Then, I actually played it.
Lets start with the good. The graphics are absolutely phenomenal. They're possibly the very best in the PS2's history. How they made this game look so real and so detailed is absolutely mind blowing. I shouldn't say this surprised me, since Square has always been at the forefront of graphics on the PS2, but it did. Of course, theres a rather large downside to this graphical masterpiece, but I'll focus on that later in this review.
The sound was probably the second best thing about this game. Of course, thats not saying much, but still, follow me. The voice acting is poor at best, but this is avenged by the musical score. Hitoshi Sakimoto does an outstanding job as the man chosen to fill the gigantic shoes of video game music legend, Nobuo Uematsu. The soundtrack is epic, and definitely worth a listen.
Now... The worst part. The gameplay.
I refuse to believe that this is what the future of Final Fantasy is. Cheap bosses? Slow battles? You're kidding, right? Seriously. This game is slower than a Dodge Dart being driven by a legless guy. The lack of the original ATB system from previous games is a huge killer. The Gambit system? Entirely useless. No matter what you set up, none of the characters do their job, or at least do it right. And the cheapness? Don't even get me started. When fighting the boss of the Barheim Passage, I was losing health even when I wasn't being attacked! It was a wonder I ever made it past that point. The auto-targeting system is terrible. No matter how long I held down the "run" buttons, my partymates would always go after whatever they could find, and subsequently, run me out of the ever illusive Phoenix Downs I had.
And the whole "license system"? Allow me to quote the VGCats...
"We Dalmascans are pretty stupid like that. Without the experience points it's a wonder we can wipe our own a**."
That about sums that up. Final Fantasy XII is broken on so many levels. Even the graphics, which I praised earlier, have problems. Want an example? Take a look at Vaan's chest during a normal, non-CG cutscene. What is that? How can Square's QA team miss something that obvious? Come on... And the areas, while large and highly detailed, are way too easy to get lost in. I swear, I think I ran around in circles for about an hour before I finally figured out where I was. Even the map is useless!
At the end of the day, this game is a trainwreck that has completely damaged my faith in this series. The downfall started with XI. It snowballed with XII, and, at this rate, XIII will be the final Final Fantasy, unless Nomura can work his magic with Versus.
I don't want to see the series die, but at this rate, Square should start casket shopping, and prepare to hand the title of the franchise series to Kingdom Hearts.