"Final Fantasy XII: The Offline MMORPG -- Not Perfect but Not Flawed" -Final Fantasy XII (JPN Version)-
Reviewed by Master LL.

This review is based on the Japanese version currently.

-PLOT- [07]
{Breakdown: Main Plot- C, Character Plot- B, NPCs- C} The structure of how the execution of the plot is very strange. Unlike other games, Final Fantasy XII ("FFXII" from now on) plays the story more of a particular movie or book scenario. First off, you won't see much, if any, conflicts between both the protagonist and antagonist at all for nearly the whole plot. Also the plot is not focused on what generally would be ideal for the audience, the conflicts between two huge factions. Rather, the plot emphasis on Ashe, the Princess who lost everything, on her quest to regain her throne... but at a cost. That cost ultimately determines her decision which may make or break her ideal revenge, against those who cost her everything.

Frankly put, we have three difference scenarios going on at once: - Ashe & Co. (quest on regaining throne and revenge) - Archades Empire (political problems and at war against the Resistance) - The Resistance (the faction at war against the Archades Empire)

Ashe & Co. does not directly get involved with the Empire or Resistance, but instead will be given updated info from NPCs about the current situation between those two factions. The end result is the lack of climax and plot twists, but yet a strange story execution with a really good tale to be told.

Now the whole cast, while plentiful, is not characterized well nor have an in-depth character development. I'm still thinking why is Vaan and Penelo are involved with "Ashe & Co.". To me, all they are doing is just following to witness the events but yet, have no major involvements nor inputs in nearly the whole storyline.

Ashe, on the other hand, was developed well throughout the whole plot as we get to witness her emotions as well as her decisions to overcome her lost "life" (meaning a Princess that lost everything but yet want to regain it all back). It's funny enough while Vaan maybe considered the main character (since you control him for the beginning of the game and more), there is nothing remotely special about him when it's all focused on Ashe.

As for the other casts, Balflear is just plain awesome as he seems to be more of the main "male" character in the game with his witty remarks, as well as his involvements in the plot (much more than Vaan). Even Basch and Fran have their own involvement too.

While there is no deep development at all for the characters (which is a bad thing for me), at least there's some nice background history for most of them, which helps give their reason of why they are involved in the quest with Ashe.

Thus this awkward presentation of the plot kind of hurts. When finally, the action and possible climax scenarios happen, you will soon realize that you are at the very end of the game. This can make it a little disappointing since all the good "exciting" stuff is at the end, while 95% of the plot was dealing with Ashe, alone. Yea, it may be a turnoff for those who prefer having something to lift to gamers' spirit (meaning having a "wow", "plot-twist" or "climax" factor mid-game to help further develop the whole plot to the very end).

-GAMEPLAY- [09]
{Breakdown: Difficulty- B, Battle System- A, Puzzles- B, Control- B} If anything is asked about FFXII, it would be "What is the battle system like?". To this I would reply "FFXII is an offline version of Final Fantasy XI: Online (the mmorpg)." Is this true? Definitely.
Is it fun? Damn right!

Mimicking off FFXI, on the World Map, each icon is an area: whether it's a cave, dungeon, forest, city, village or anything else. In each of those areas, it is divided into many zones (sections and pieces of the total combined area).

During travelling, you enter zone, while huge, is just a small portion of the whole area shown on the world map. All enemies are visible which removes the old-school style of random encounters (as well as all your active battle members are already visible too). Like any mmorpg (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), battles are seamless.

Once a mob (mobile/monster) agros (aggressive) the party, OR you decide to agro the mob, battle mode will automatically being at once. During that time, you may attack or perform any commands such as skills or casting anytime you want. Basically the battle is real time fighting, although all characters and mobs are still restricted to the usual "ATB" system (Active Time Bar). Until the ATB is completely filled, no action will be executed, but during that time, you may input any commands ahead of time. While every action requires to be re-inputted every time (like casting a same spell, using the same skill, etc), only ATTACK is the only action that will repeat nonstop until: 1) Mob is dead
2) You input another command

Stealing is an important factor in this game since that is the ONLY way to earn reasonable amount of money. Mimicking FFXI, gil (currency of FFXII) does NOT drop from mobs anymore, unless it is a humanoid type. After all.. why would a fish or a frog carry gil? It does NOT make sense. Thus stealing helps in the ability to gain items from mobs which you sell to the vendors to make money. Gil is very hard to make thus stealing is basically required for every monster you fight!

As usual, mobs gives experience but to your battle active party ONLY. The new License Points (given to all characters) is also gained from defeating mobs. License Points is used for Licensing which is further explained below.

Now stating so, imagine you have to:
1) Steal on EVERY mob (or keep stealing till you successfully stole the item(s)) 2) Command EACH member to perform an action (until you tell them to do something, they just stand still and get hit) 3) Command EACH member to perform certain actions (spell, skill, items)

That is probably about three to five commands PER member, totalling around nine to fifteen commands. Now, multiply that by EVERY mob you encounter. That is annoying and tedious isn't it? Having to input the same command over and over for every mob.

Luckily, there is an answer to solve this horrible problem... and that answer is called Gambits.

Gambits is a very in-depth ability to customize the character's AI (Artificial Intelligence) to perform exactly what you want them to do. Not only does this automate exactly what you want, it can help create extremely powerful actions which can help in a dire situation (like using Phoenix Down at a fallen ally instantly). Gambits dramatically drops the repetitiveness of performing the same "Steal and Attack" action on every mob, making it a very important tool to master and use. While it is very in-depth, there are a few flaws within the Gambit system.

The first flaw is that you must buy and find Gambit AI settings so you are able to use it. This basically dumbed down your Gambit system at the beginning since the lack of options makes it hard to create a smart AI, while the end of the game, your AI could be godly if set right. The second flaw is not the game flaw but more of a players' flaw. This flaw is based on how well you understand the concept of how it works. If you set it up incorrectly not only will it preform situations which you do NOT want to happen, it may cause the AI to do a loophole (repeating the same command over and over) which may get all your characters killed and result in a Game Over. So beware on how you set it up since it can mean life or death if it is set improperly.

MP (Magic Points) are extremely valuable in the game and should not be wasted needlessly. This is due to the fact restoring MP is much much harder compared to the previous FF installments. Thus using offensive spells (nuking) is generally not a smart thing to do unless it deals a huge blow of damage. Healing is generally my primary purpose to spend my MP if more than anything.

Last, Chains is another feature for battles. Basically, kill the same types of mobs will create chains (meaning the number of consecutive kills of that same type of mobs). Gaining high Chains will result in many bonuses such as some HP or MP restoration but as well as better dropped items from enemies. These items is sold a lot more than the normal items you steal from them. Thus, keep this in mind if you plan to kill mobs to earn money. Try to steal and Chain kill only one particular type for maximum gil earning.

Now to the basics of character development in FFXII, nope, not the "plot" development but the "customization and building" development! FFXII uses a new (but similar to FFX's Sphere Grid) system known as the License System.

License is the way to earn the ability to do ANYTHING (customization) in the game. This includes: - weapons/armors/accessories levels you can equip - techniques and spells levels you can learn for battle - Passive Skills to enhance your characters - and more.

Basically it is one huge board which consists of "hidden" and "revealed" icons. The revealed icons can be licensed, bought with License Points, which will allow you to use that particular description that the icon stated. This also unlocks up any "hidden" adjacent icons around the one you licensed. From there you just license more and more, assuming you have enough required License Points to buy that particular License.

While everyone shares the same License Board, everyone has their own starting "revealed" and Licensed icons. While Vaan may have steal licensed already, Fran may not have it unlocked all at as an example. Just remember, even if you do have it Licensed, it is worthless if you do not have the equipment/skill/spell bought to be able to use it.

With the abilities of the License Board, basically it is a full and total customization of your characters. They can be or have anything you decide. Restrict them to be a Black Mage? Go ahead! Have Penelo be the White Mage and uses Guns? Go for it.. I know I did!

The disadvantage of the License though is the unknown. You don't know what will be revealed around the "hidden" license until you license and unlock an adjacent license. This can hurt if you want to do some careful planning as you do not know which direction to take on the board.

The difficulty is pretty high in this game. Leveling is tough due to the high experience requirements but yet very low experience given. Gil is extremely hard to gain (even with nonstop stealing) and License Points is usually gain about 1 per mob (most License requires 25-150 points to unlock). What makes it even more interesting is the fact that enemies can be tough even around the same level as you. You MUST always make sure no links (additional mobs come to help the current mobs you're attacking) are caused since it will just add more difficulty to it. You MUST also be aware of the mobs' level; some mobs are an extremely high level although they are in a zone where majority of the mobs are easy to kill.

Smart tactical planning and having experienced mmorpgs (especially from FFXI) will help in the long-run, making the game much easier.

Puzzles in FFXII are easy and shouldn't be too hard. Many consist of going through the correct path or pushing/moving the correct statue/button. Nothing hard although there was some boss battles which is a little puzzle like in the terms of using tactics to beat some bosses.

Aside from battles, puzzles and playing the main plot.. there are optional stuff to do in this game! There are Clan Reports (Collector's Book) to fill out by killing mobs, a Hunting Quest (kill some special and rare mobs), side-quests (helping out npcs) and more! A lot of stuff to do for a long long gameplay.

The controls are no problems at all throughout the whole game. The ONLY time I have control problems is during the massive enemy battles, which would drop my framerate pretty low, thus lagging the menu controls (picking and choosing the command I want to perform).

Another problem would be the camera control, it just SUCKS sometimes. While it is normally good throughout the whole game, there are many times which hurts. Fighting flying enemies by meleeing and you will not be able to see the amount of damage done. Fighting in a closed area or space (or backed up against the wall) will thrust the camera into a closeup view of your character giving no help in seeing what is happening in the battle at all.

Before anyone ask me, yes there are summons. In fact 13 Espers in this game. Five are mandatory while eight are optional to gain in FFXII.

Also yes, there are limit breaks known as "Mist Knacks", although it is more of a cut-scene-driven event with some interaction. You are able to renkei (chain) the Mist Knacks from one character to another at the cost of all your MP for major damage. This disadvantage of losing all your MP (whoever participates in the renkei) ultimately determines if it's worth using it or not in certain scenarios during battles.

-GRAPHICS- [10]
{Breakdown: Graphics- A, Animation- A, Full Motion Videos- A} This is a beautiful game. From the buildings to the outworld, everything is in details. What I love is especially the Seasonal effects that will affect areas. It can change the whole area (it's zones) from a desert to a wet grassland! You will see ponds, different pathways, rain, grass and more. Amazingly beautiful. Add with different weather it makes it even more wonderful (experience the heavy rain, the blizzard snowstorm, the near-unviewable sandstorm, the marshlands and more).

This is Square we're talking about, it should know know how well and how high the qualities of the FMV would be. Thus no reason to explain it any further than "Beautiful!" and "Wonderful!".

-Composition- [08]
{Breakdown: Background Music- B, SFX- C, Voice- A} The music in FFXII is a mix and match of good and ok music. Most places the music matches extremely well but it seems the more "confrontation" type musics (like bosses and such) lacks somewhat. If anything, I don't remember a single tune in my head aside from one theme.. which is one of the boss theme (mainly the normal bosses like at the mimic boss).

The sound effects is all the common effects you've heard from the previous installments, at least there is nothing annoying thankfully.

The voice acting, on the other hand, is great. The seiyuus did their parts really well although I question some of the voices used (Penelo's voicing and acting reminds me of Osaka [Azumanga Daioh] or Tomoko [GTO Live] for some weird reason).

-REPLAY- [MED]
{Breakdown: Extra Difficulties- F, Secret Moves- F, Bonus Dungeons- F, Collectors- A, NewGamePlus- F} Since the whole style of the game is like a mmorpg, it's hard to say that there are bonuses in this game. There are optional locations which you may access throughout the game to gain extra powers (aka - there are 8 optional Espers). There is also a collector's book (Clan Report) which shows all the enemies killed and information about them.

Is it worth replaying? Depends. The battle system, alone and the high customization of the characters allow you to make it a challenge. But the terms of having to redo all the stealing and gil-earning could prove to be tedious.

Aside from that, there is no extra difficulties, secret moves, bonus dungeons and even a NewGamePlus (which shouldn't even be on a mimicked offline mmorpg anyways).

-THE FINAL GRADE- 08 / 10 (8.6)
After many delays and the extreme length of time to finish Final Fantasy XII, was it worth playing? Definitely yes.

But how well it will be conceived by the gamers really depends if they give it an open chance or not. It is no secret that the first impression from most, if not all, gamers is that this is an offline version of the mmorpg "Final Fantasy XI". This, alone, caused a wide varieties of negativity towards FFXII.

To me, FFXII was a huge change from it's previous installments (FF1-10) and a good change at that too. While keeping the fantasy of the story, the battle system flows more much better than before. The difficulty and the many quests available make it fun, plus allowing you to decide "Should I play on the plot today?" and "Should I do some of the extra stuff today?". This, alone, gives a lot of gameplay time whether you want to view it as a rpg game or a mmorpg. Either way, it is a combination of both advantages and disadvantages.

The Gambit system is awesome but makes things easy, sometimes a little too easy and lazy. The License System is a great and sometime flawed system (knowing the unknown on the board, unless you cheat with a guide or so).

Only major thing that hurt in my opinion is the way the story was executed (as well an extreme lack of character development). It is not geared in a style that most general gamers would prefer but yet in a different and unique style. I first thought it was an awful way for to create the presentation, but after understanding the director's view, I could appreciate that vision much better. Granted this has NO bearing on the story on Ashe (which I thought was good), it's just the execution of the whole thing together.

Regardless, this may be the starting of a new style of "Final Fantasy" and I like it. How much and well it will be used in the future installment will be interesting (assuming it will be kept like this style).

Buy? FFXII is close enough to an actual mmorpg is it can get. If you do not have a biased but open mind, you should definitely try it out. The whole gameplay... walking through the outworld, battles, storyline, quests, etc.. is as smooth as it can be.

Rent? If you have doubts about the new style then play the demo (which is included in Dragon Quest VIII). If you still have doubts, rent it. After having access to the outworld with Vaan, you have basically felt what the basic gameplay will be like for the rest of the game.

The Perfect Game? Close but there are still flaws. Regardless, it is one of the best (and different) Final Fantasy installment I've played for a long time.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/29/06, Updated 07/18/06