Please rate this review: Final Fantasy 12

[thevoice560]

The Final Fantasy series is arguably the most popular Japanese RPG franchise. Selling millions of copies worldwide, the series has had streak of quality that is figuratively uneven. Considering that Final Fantasies 4, 6, 7, 9, and 10 are the only good games in the series, it has never followed any distinct pattern, as opposed to say the Star Trek movies where the odd numbered titles were always terrible, and the even numbered titles where usually great. The point being is that determining whether the next game in the Final Fantasy series will be enjoyable or not is about as discernible as putting together a jigsaw puzzle of a clear blue sky. So came Final Fantasy 12, a game so tedious that I would rather put together a jigsaw puzzle of a clear blue sky than be forced to play it.
This entry into the Final Fantasy series suffers from some severe cases of a drastically boring story, and uninteresting characters that lack any compelling personality. The story goes like this: Country A, who happens to be an evil empire, because all fictionally evil countries are empires attacks country B because... Well to be honest it is never really explained and even after the king of country B signs the treaty of surrender, they so graciously thank him with the gift of death. Ashe, the princess of country B then commits suicide, or so we are led to believe until she shows up later in the game since she is advertised as the main character, despite the fact that she isn't even the character that the player portrays through most of the game. No, that role goes to a character named Vaan, a street urchin whose androgynous haircut and stenciled abs has almost nothing to do with the established story, apart from that his brother was killed in the beginning. In his introduction, he steals food from the corrupt authorities, and that was great back when Aladdin did it, but now it does not have the same feel because Aladdin was a genuinely likable character people could feel sorry for, where Vaan seems like a pretentious punk. As if the fact that he wants to be a sky pirate makes him more compelling to make others devote themselves to his cause. The sky pirate he meets named Balthier is actually one of the few interesting characters in the game. He desperately tries to avoid the other characters like the plague, because he has common sense and knows that their problems are not the same as his, despite their (and by their I mean Vaan's) efforts to get him to begrudgingly come along with him when his friend Penello gets kidnapped by the empire, because I suppose kidnapping orphan teenage girls is a top priority of evil empires. The whole story wreaks of a bad Star Wars rip off, even so much as to have massive airship battles during cutscenes. Vaan equals Luke Skywalker but isn't as cool, Balthier equals Han Solo, Fran equals Chewbacca, and Ashe and Penello both equal Princess Leia to a certain extent. Penello should have been removed. The player only knows her for about the equivalent of ten minutes, thus giving little reason for caring about her kidnapping, and she has no useful skills, so why is she around at all? Basch, another useless character leads an underground resistance, oddly reminiscent of the Rebel Alliance, tries to bring down the empire. At first, Vaan despises Basch for killing his brother, but later he discovers that it was Baschs' evil twin that killed his brother. Oh, great so the story goes from a ripoff to a cliche.
Anyway, on to the gameplay. Amongst the terrible story, this is the most maddening part of the game. The combat is in real time, sort of. You select a target, only to wait for a meter to fill up before you can actually attack. The same goes for magic and it's even more frustrating when the spells use so many magic points that you have to wait for your magic to ever so slowly regenerate. The leveling system is complete garbage as well. It takes hours of fighting monsters to increase one level, and just when you get experienced enough to use a weapon or spell you can't even use it right away, you have to obtain a license for it first. Which is arbitrary stupidity.
Both aspects of this game are terrible, and I can't even recommend it to fans of the series, and when it comes down to it, it might be time for Final Fantasy to actually be final. There are twelve games in this series now, with the thirteenth and fourteenth installments on the way. And if the rest of them are going to be like this, then I would rather see the series end than become as terrible as this.

This is easily the best Final Fantasy since VI. FFVII-X really emphasized flash over quality, but FFXII has a fantastic, immersive and strategic battle system, tons of side quests, a great plot (that is NOT about an unlikable teenager with a large sword saving the world from a cartoonish villain with no motives) and pays off from the team actually giving thought to the game's pacing, unlike FFVIII's lackluster middle or VII's plot-free second and third disks.

[thevoice560]

The plot of this game is a mediocre version of Star Wars. I'll admit that Final Fantasy 7's plot dragged, but it was still much better than 12's plot.

[Jason Karney]

An amusing review. I'm a fan of the series, but I didn't like XII either. It had an interesting world to explore, a great soundtrack and ever-present moogles. But I seemed to be forever going out to earn license points in order to use the skills I was purchasing; and there was never enough money for that either.

In other words, I left like I was being punished for not going to to farm gold and skill points. I vaguely remember posts on this forum when XII was first out, and people were discussing the best way to go farm these things.

It was tiresome and frustrating for me.

Hahaha I was wondering if I was the only one that noticed the Star Wars rip off.You explained the whole game perfectly ha, and I'm a huge final fantasy fan. You forgot though Bacsh is kinda like OB1 Kenobee and the black Judge is Darth Vader.

Originally Posted by thevoice560

The Final Fantasy series is arguably the most popular Japanese RPG franchise. Selling millions of copies worldwide, the series has had streak of quality that is figuratively uneven. Considering that Final Fantasies 4, 6, 7, 9, and 10 are the only good games in the series, it has never followed any distinct pattern, as opposed to say the Star Trek movies where the odd numbered titles were always terrible, and the even numbered titles where usually great. The point being is that determining whether the next game in the Final Fantasy series will be enjoyable or not is about as discernible as putting together a jigsaw puzzle of a clear blue sky. So came Final Fantasy 12, a game so tedious that I would rather put together a jigsaw puzzle of a clear blue sky than be forced to play it.
This entry into the Final Fantasy series suffers from some severe cases of a drastically boring story, and uninteresting characters that lack any compelling personality. The story goes like this: Country A, who happens to be an evil empire, because all fictionally evil countries are empires attacks country B because... Well to be honest it is never really explained and even after the king of country B signs the treaty of surrender, they so graciously thank him with the gift of death. Ashe, the princess of country B then commits suicide, or so we are led to believe until she shows up later in the game since she is advertised as the main character, despite the fact that she isn't even the character that the player portrays through most of the game. No, that role goes to a character named Vaan, a street urchin whose androgynous haircut and stenciled abs has almost nothing to do with the established story, apart from that his brother was killed in the beginning. In his introduction, he steals food from the corrupt authorities, and that was great back when Aladdin did it, but now it does not have the same feel because Aladdin was a genuinely likable character people could feel sorry for, where Vaan seems like a pretentious punk. As if the fact that he wants to be a sky pirate makes him more compelling to make others devote themselves to his cause. The sky pirate he meets named Balthier is actually one of the few interesting characters in the game. He desperately tries to avoid the other characters like the plague, because he has common sense and knows that their problems are not the same as his, despite their (and by their I mean Vaan's) efforts to get him to begrudgingly come along with him when his friend Penello gets kidnapped by the empire, because I suppose kidnapping orphan teenage girls is a top priority of evil empires. The whole story wreaks of a bad Star Wars rip off, even so much as to have massive airship battles during cutscenes. Vaan equals Luke Skywalker but isn't as cool, Balthier equals Han Solo, Fran equals Chewbacca, and Ashe and Penello both equal Princess Leia to a certain extent. Penello should have been removed. The player only knows her for about the equivalent of ten minutes, thus giving little reason for caring about her kidnapping, and she has no useful skills, so why is she around at all? Basch, another useless character leads an underground resistance, oddly reminiscent of the Rebel Alliance, tries to bring down the empire. At first, Vaan despises Basch for killing his brother, but later he discovers that it was Baschs' evil twin that killed his brother. Oh, great so the story goes from a ripoff to a cliche.
Anyway, on to the gameplay. Amongst the terrible story, this is the most maddening part of the game. The combat is in real time, sort of. You select a target, only to wait for a meter to fill up before you can actually attack. The same goes for magic and it's even more frustrating when the spells use so many magic points that you have to wait for your magic to ever so slowly regenerate. The leveling system is complete garbage as well. It takes hours of fighting monsters to increase one level, and just when you get experienced enough to use a weapon or spell you can't even use it right away, you have to obtain a license for it first. Which is arbitrary stupidity.
Both aspects of this game are terrible, and I can't even recommend it to fans of the series, and when it comes down to it, it might be time for Final Fantasy to actually be final. There are twelve games in this series now, with the thirteenth and fourteenth installments on the way. And if the rest of them are going to be like this, then I would rather see the series end than become as terrible as this.

[Circle]

I love Final Fantasy 12 - it offered the freedom to explore that FFX severely lacked. I agree the plot is far from the series' best, but everything else, its battle system, its relinquishing of random battles, its huge world, marks this as the best game in the FF series since VII - for me anyway. It certainly felt like more of an evolution than FFX - a game I was seriously underwhelmed by.

[RandomRob]

Originally Posted by Jason Karney

An amusing review. I'm a fan of the series, but I didn't like XII either. It had an interesting world to explore, a great soundtrack and ever-present moogles. But I seemed to be forever going out to earn license points in order to use the skills I was purchasing; and there was never enough money for that either.

In other words, I left like I was being punished for not going to to farm gold and skill points. I vaguely remember posts on this forum when XII was first out, and people were discussing the best way to go farm these things.

It was tiresome and frustrating for me.

Agree 100% prettiest and most forgettable FF entry yet...