This has been a long time in the making, and I must say, like past FF games, Square has delivered. I will grade FF12 on the following 4 aspects: Graphics, Story, Sound/Music, and gameplay. GRAPHICS: 9 The graphics in FF12 are superb. However, in the beginning of the game you are wondering about them because you start out in a dark dungeon followed by a city then in a plain desert. Where are the colorful landscapes? Well, rest assured that there are many landscapes in this game that look amazing. While the first part of the game the graphics aren’t too great, as you keep playing the graphics get better and better. The cut scenes look amazing as expected, however there aren’t enough of them. Overall, the graphics are an A, while at first it doesn’t seem like, it but as you keep playing, you appreciate the graphics more and more. STORY: 8.5 FF games have usually had appealing storylines that kept you interested to see what happens next. Not in this one. The story in this one is of political turmoil. It is still a wonderful story, but it’s a different approach from the previous FF games. If you are expecting a usual soap opera that keeps you addicted, you will be disappointed. The story has its share of interesting moments, but overall it just doesn’t keep you interested to see what happens next. However I give this an 8.5 because the ending is truly worth the time and effort put forth into playing. It is a remarkable ending. Sound/Music: 9 As expected, the sounds are top notch. Everything from the sound of chaining quickenings to walking over a puddle of water is all here. The music, like the story, is a totally different approach. There are no more epic songs that add emotion and feeling to the characters, instead the music is more orchestrated. Some of the music is easily forgettable, but there is also some music that is absolutely incredible. Overall, the music is not your typical FF music, but that doesn’t mean its no good. GAMEPLAY: 9.5 This is where the focus of FF 12 is. The gameplay is its core. However, it takes a while to learn the battle system completely. Give it time. There are no more random encounters with shattering glass, instead you can see the enemies in the area and walk up to them and start fighting. It makes leveling up a lot easier than previous FF games and much less annoying then random encounters. The battle system includes gambits, which programs your character to take certain action under certain conditions. For example, if I have Ally HP < 30% --> Cure. This means if one of my allies HP is less than 30%, this character will cure that ally. It sounds like it makes the game easy, but rest assured the challenge level is there. As you keep playing you get more gambits to use and they get more and more complicated. For example, Gambit 1. Ally status = confuse --> Esuna then Gambit 2. Foe: Nearst -->Attack. If there is no ally with confuse status, you will attack a foe. But once an ally has confuse status you will immediately do esuna, then attack the foe. The gambits are more useful as you get more of them, so be patient.
If you are new to FF, you probably don’t know what I was just talking about, that’s ok. The game still does a great job of welcoming new players to the series. Although some status effects can be kind of difficult to see what they do especially to a newbie to FF, it is still easy to get accustomed. I must say though, that the new battle system takes away the epic feel to some of the boss battles. In previous FF games, some bosses are huge and very intimidating; you just don’t get that epic battle feel in this one. Negative status effects like poison, confuse, and silence in this version are much more annoying than previous FF games. However, positive effects like haste, protect, and berserk (for your main physical attacker) are much much better. So you need to accept the tradeoff. The main negative about the gameplay is collecting gil. For those new to FF, gil is money in the world of FF. Gil is very rare and you will spend lots of it. Enemies do not drop gil anymore, they drop loot that you sell to merchants for gil. Unfortunately, everything is pretty expensive and you have to buy everything. Spells, weapons, accessories, etc.. you name it you have to buy it. You will spend many hours beating enemies to get enough loot to buy a weapon. And if you need 2 or 3 weapons, you will be slaying enemies for a long, long time to get the gil needed. The last part is the license board. I like this aspect because you can’t just keep playing and overlevel yourself easily. You have to have a license for everything in this game, THEN buy it. The license board is great because it makes fighting really easy enemies in an area you’ve been through already worth it. OVERALL 9.5 Overall, this game has plenty of playing time, especially if you do the sidequests. All you need is patience, willingness to learn the gambit battle system, and creativity with your gambits. It’s a different FF experience from the past ranging from story, to music, to battles. But in the end, all of the hours put into building up your characters, all of the gil you spent, all of the enemies you killed, will be worth every single minute you put into this game.
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