TEH. BEST. GAMES. EVAR.
By Andr'e Swartley

Issue #15
Final Fantasy XII
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: Playstation 2
Rating: T for Teen

Square Enix has always aimed to reinvent the Final Fantasy series with every numbered entry. Consequently, numbered Final Fantasy games usually offend long-time fans in some new and unforgivable way. Final Fantasy XII took this tradition to the extreme.

After a record five years in development and some production hiccups that would make Duke Nukem's sunglasses explode, Square Enix finally delivered Final Fantasy XII in 2005. For the first time ever the battle system was not turn-based, nor did it rely on random enemy encounters like every previous game in the series. Instead, players controlled their party of three characters in real time and would be able to choose whether to attack or hide from enemies that were plainly visible in the game world. Blasphemy!

However, open-minded gamers could appreciate the fresh perspectives that Final Fantasy XII brought to the franchise's beloved, if aging, formula. The first twenty minutes of the game are crammed with a computer-generated war on land-only Square Enix could take men fighting on giant war-chickens so seriously-and in the air, a royal wedding, and an assassination.

You assume control of Vaan, the game's male lead, after a brief tutorial that ends in the death of Vaan's brother, Reks. Soon you are free to explore a huge city called Rabanastre and test your mettle as a fighter in local regions outside the city.

In these early stages you may also learn, quite messily, that Final Fantasy XII allows you to encounter monsters that you have no hope of beating until much later in the game. Luckily these walking Game-Overs have red lettering over their heads to let you know you should steer clear of them for the time being.

Once you do approach an enemy, the battle system is pitch perfect. This is fortunate because you will engage in more battles than in any other Final Fantasy, which is saying something. Battles give you experience (EXP) and ability points (AP) as usual. Experience points increase your characters' overall levels, and AP go to the License Board.

The License Board looks like a misshapen chess board and dictates which spells, techniques, weapons, and armor you can use. But don't think that simply unlocking a spell or weapon will allow you to use it. All equipment and abilities must also be purchased from a vendor or discovered in treasure chests littered across the world. Because of this, you will need heaps of money, which you can most easily earn by stealing items from foes and selling those items later.

You also buy gambits like "Allies=Any" to combine with actions or spells like Haste. Using those two particular gambits together, for example, will cause one character to cast Haste on any ally who is not under Haste status. Sounds confusing, I know, but after a couple hours of not having to use potions or manually cast Cure after every single battle, you'll never look back. And since your magic points (MP) recharge as you walk, there is extra incentive to explore.

And explore you must, if you wish to complete the game's ample sidequests. The main story took me nearly 50 hours to complete my first time through, and completing MOST of the sidequests-along with locating or creating the most powerful weapons and gear-took me another 50. No joke.

Most sidequests revolve around finding specific citizens of Ivalice who ask you to dispatch certain high-level creatures somewhere in the game world. But before you find those citizens, you must first talk to Mont Blanc, a Moogle (a talking rabbit with bat wings) in charge of the hunting clan in Rabanastre.

The last few hunts in the game, the most famous being Yiazmat, the 50-million-hitpoint superboss named after director Yasumi Matsuno, come directly from Mont Blanc himself and reward you with truly spectacular prizes. Sadly, by the time you get these prizes, there are no challenging creatures left in the game to use them on.

As is obvious from this review, Final Fantasy XII is an immense and complicated game. It is not my favorite in the series, due to its less personal and more political story, but I do believe it boasts the highest replayability of any Final Fantasy and by far the most nuanced battle system. No fan of Final Fantasy, RPG's, or gaming in general should miss out on this terrific experience.

Final Grade: A

Thus ends my five-month recap of the 3D Final Fantasy games (VII-XII). All of those reviews are still posted on the Icon under Columnists/Game Reviews if you would like to check them out. Perhaps someday I will look back even further to the Nintendo days (I-VI), or toss in some series spinoffs such as X-2 and Dirge of Cerberus.

But let us not forget why I started this review series in the first place: Final Fantasy XIII is coming out for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 next Tuesday. According to many folks on the ever-wise internet, XIII may already be more hated than XII, and for even less coherent reasons. But my excitement is undaunted. Rest assured I will post a review of Final Fantasy XIII once I have trekked through every glorious inch of Cocoon and Gran Pulse. Until then, my friends, "Ganbare rushi!"