Final Fantasy has long been a name synonymous with RPG gaming. From its humble beginnings in 1986 as a dying company’s last chance, to the powerhouse franchise of 2007 that is centred almost solely around money, it isn’t too difficult to see that this series has been around the block a few too many times. Final Fantasy XII is the latest in a long line of epics, with this particular entrance boasting an all-new flair for originality. Is this title the series’ saving grace, or does it just drive another nail into an almost-buried coffin?
Straight from the outset, it is apparent that this time around, Square have learnt from their mistakes – this game is a far cry from its abysmal predecessor, Final Fantasy X. What is once old, is now new, and vice-versa. The open-world of X returns, best-known for its lack of a world map, and totally 3D environments used rather than the pre-rendered backgrounds of the PSone days. Upgrading X’s use of this wasn’t too hard a job – anyone who enjoyed the claustrophobic hallways of FFX mustn’t have experienced the joys of a massive world map back in the VI-IX days. Final Fantasy XII, similarly, is able to blend both methods of exploration – no world map between towns and dungeons anymore, but a completely movable camera and huge open-ended areas make the world seem massive and completely explorable, which it is.
The world of Ivalice itself is the newest device being used by Square to rake in the cash – similar to the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Yasumi Matsuno’s once grand image of Ivalice in his original epic, the PSone’s fabulous Final Fantasy Tactics, has become a cash-cow known as the Ivalice Alliance. Tactics, Tactics Advance, Tactics A2, Revenant Wings, the list goes on. Suffice to say, only one or two of these titles are worth your hard-earned cash. But what does this mean for XII? Basically, nothing. The Ivalice Alliance was begun because of how successful XII became, hence XII is probably the last time you’ll get to visit Ivalice without wondering why the title you’re playing was even developed.
So XII, in other words, is different. Very different. Random battles? Not any more – monsters now roam freely right before your very eyes. The world is now your battlefield, and the series is all the better for it. Running around as the ‘team-leader’ while the other two characters in your active party are controlled by Gambits is a lot more adventurous than Final Fantasy X could ever have hoped to have been. But what are Gambits, you say? Gambits, basically, are your eternal commands – you set them in the party menu, and from then on in a character will rely on any number of these commands during battle. Think of it as coding in Visual Basic or C++. For instance, if you want your other two active characters to heal you when you drop past a certain amount of HP, you would set the Gambit ‘Ally: HP < 20% - Cure’ – that is, of course, if this character’s Licence Board allows them to use Cure…
Licence Board? Yep, the new buzz-word for what was previously a Sphere Grid. Unlike the great Final Fantasys of old, X and XII have decided to give you the option of making every character exactly the same. Same magic, same weapons, same abilities, same stats. Identical. Unlike X though, XII gives you this ability straight from the get-go. What this means is that, if you so desire, you can make all your characters identical straight away, or you can devise your own set of characters. Ever wanted the main character in an FF to use ninja swords and daggers, have huge amounts of HP and yet still be a successful White Mage? Or how about a gunman who uses all forms of attack magic and yet also has the abilities of a thief? All of these and many more are now feasible with the Licence Board. Without a creative streak though, one would look at this checker board of upgrades and feel completely lost, a fish out of water. Understandably, some play Final Fantasy for the characters to develop through levels to the best in a certain field, rather than trying to make them the best in any number of fields…
And this brings us to one of our main gripes – the story and, what should be the most important part of a Final Fantasy, its characters. The storyline itself is wonderfully fresh, compared to the other games in the series. Rather than an ‘very very evil bad man’ with ‘ultra powerful super extreme magic’ and ‘power given to him by the gods of the gods of the gods’, XII takes a much more mature approach to its tale – our villain is almost the opposite of the predictable Sephiroth. He wants to rule, not destroy. What follows is a tale of political intrigue, of backstabbing, war and corruption. While all this sounds good in theory, the execution isn’t as sharp as one would expect – in all the trades, allied attacks, political deaths and underhanded conspiracies, the main feature of the series is sadly lost – the characters.
Vaan, our protagonist, is no more than a street urchin who wants freedom. He has one scene of character development about fifteen-or-so hours in, and then we never really hear anything further from him until the end. The rest of the main party shares a similar fate – Ashe begins with promise, the outcast Princess of Dalmasca trying to rebuild her homeland, being thrown around between warlords and trying to find her place. Sadly, this is really all we ever see of her, as, like everyone else, she doesn’t really change at all. Penelo, Vaan’s friend, is the worst offender, playing dumb almost the entire story, and never really serving any purpose whatsoever. Are her and Vaan in a relationship? Moving towards a relationship? Moving out of a relationship? Sadly, the potential is there but never explored, with their interactions flat and meaningless. Basch is dull, full stop. Balthier and Fran are the saving grace, being the only original entities in the main six – and what originality! From Balthier immediately charming his way into our hearts (“Why, I’m the leading man of course!”) to Fran’s intriguing past and motives, the player can tell that some heavy thinking went into this characters. Now, if only the same could be said for the rest…
In a strange twist of fate, it’s as if many of the NPCs would have made better playable characters. Vossler, for instance, is a man with a mission, who never lets anything stand in his way. Larsa, while young, is developed thoroughly as the ‘little-Emperor-to-be’, and acts as such. Al-Cid is a character that would have made a particularly interesting lead, especially placed in a party with Balthier – the two clashing personalities could result in some scenes of comical relief, while the man himself would have added an excellent sense of style to the primary cast. He’s almost like a perfect hybrid of designs from two seasoned pros, Amano and Nomura – kind of like a ‘what-if’ from this particular designer’s point of view.
In the realms of presentation, the game does indeed look amazing. Graphically, it’s apparent that there’s no where that the PS2 can really go from here. Characters and environments are alike, extremely detailed. From picturesque cities, to little towns on the edge of nowhere, to mines and waterways crawling with fiends, XII drags you into its world and is reluctant to let you go. A few little hiccups here and there (weapons moving through shoulders, continuous pop-up) bring the game down a few notches, but this takes little away from the grand picture. Just watch out for those load-times…
On the subject of sound however, things aren’t as bright. The voice-acting, luckily, is almost spot-on this time around, with relatively unknown voice actors providing what will probably be the performance of their career. Particular characters, most notably Balthier, Fran, Reks, Gabranth and Al-Cid provide stand-out performances, sitting really well among such an epic tale. Definitely, a vast improvement over the pathetic attempt at English dubbing that was Final Fantasy X – hopefully I’ll never have to see voicework as bad as Tidus and Yuna’s. Sadly, the same level of superiority can’t be accounted for in the music department. XII is really hurt by its lack of Uematsu – while not being a Uematsu fanboy myself, I do know that aurally, he was what made Final Fantasy, and Sakimoto is just… not Final Fantasy. His score is almost Western in its execution, sounding more like a flat track from The Lord of the Rings than a memorable tune from Final Fantasy VIII. There are a few tracks here and there that jump out and shine, but nothing big. Ironically, the best track in the game is Angela Aki’s wonderful Kiss Me Good-Bye, which was composed and arranged by Uematsu. It just goes to show, Square should have forked out any amount of money to bring him back.
So where does this leave the game? Is it worth your hard-earned $50USD, or $100AUD? That really depends on whether you want to play another Final Fantasy. For all its original merits and new features, this is still routine stuff if you’ve ever dragged your feet through forty hours of any previous titles in the series. Final Fantasy may seem like it’s grown up this time around, but in reality it’s the same game with an adult-like haircut and some expensive Calvin Klein clothing – if you’re able to see through this, then you’re not going to be entirely impressed. Like all before it, XII has a problem with grinding, another archaic videogame design, used by lazy developers. Not enough bang for the player’s buck? Make boss number seventeen ten-or-so levels higher than boss number sixteen, so they’ll have to stop for about four hours just beating up monsters so they advance in the story. And this is the game’s downfall – it’s difficult to find a reason to want to go on when you’re destroying your hundredth monster for the day in that same piece of field for the second or third consecutive hour. The story suddenly takes a back-seat, and you have no where left to explore (the Paramina Rift didn’t seem so big anymore after five hours of endless battles). While not as bad as X, it certainly shows that XII isn’t as big an advancement as it could have been.
This piece of bad book-keeping is what makes me reluctant to recommend the title. At the end of the day, it really only depends on how much you love Final Fantasy. The fanboys will definitely eat this one up, savouring every piece (note: I mean real fanboys, not Nomura fanboys). Similarly, if you’re the kind of person who wastes their entire day killing monster after monster so that tiny little number next to the letters ‘Lv’ can raise at a rate of one per hour, this is an easy purchase. But for that casual RPG fan who left Final Fantasy when it stopped innovating, I’m afraid it still isn’t time to pick it up and try again – perhaps next time, but for now, have a look at something that doesn’t rely on hundreds of genre cliches and hours of pointless level advancement, mob hunts and trivial sidequests. This tired old man may shine up good with his new hair and suit, but remember that it’s still the same old man underneath.
