Would-be sky pirate Vaan, stupid haircut and all, slugs it out with insane tomatoes and killer cacti. He’ll save the world, run errands, get tossed in the slammer numerous times, and, inexplicably, have to purchase a license to wear something as simple as a hat. He is, in fact, the quintessential Final Fantasy Hero.

Final Fantasy XII abides. It sprawls. It rocks in a manner similar to that of a paper boat on the high seas. Like other games in the venerable role-playing series, it’s a monster that will take, all told, at least two days’ worth of play time to beat. Its environments are gorgeous, its challenges humbling.

It is, to be frank, fantastic.

A New Fantasy

Although Final Fantasy XII roots itself in the lore of its predecessors, the game also veers off from its counterparts in some very notable ways. This time around, Square Enix has dramatically altered Fantasy’s combat system, its artificial intelligence, and its character development options.

The turn-based battles of previous Fantasy games have been eliminated wholly. Combat now takes place in real-time via an “active dimension battle” system where players can enter commands for each of their three heroes on the fly. Here, it’s possible to move a hero around the battlefield during a fight, shifting his position to, say, gain a better view or perhaps move to a more strategic location.

This new battle system proves to be a more exciting, more workable alternative to the previous games’ combat. It’s certainly more fluid and more dramatic; Fantasy XII doesn’t force players to endure a loading screen before brawls and its use of a wait time meter to show players exactly how long it will be before a hero casts a spell or takes a whack at a foe serves to genuinely increase the tension. With strict and overly formal battle lines removed, and the ability to just let the heroes have at one another in a non-stop freewheeling, frantic melee, Fantasy XII hits a high note.

A new gambit system allows players to create specific situational commands for each of their heroes. Gambits, oddly, must be purchased or found and they are, simply, if/then statements allowing for actions and spells when their conditions are met. An adventurer possessing a heal spell can be told to cast it on an ally whose health is at 70 percent or perhaps on an undead enemy that’s down to one-third of its hit points.

Each character can have up to 12 separate gambits modifying his combat tactics. Here, it seems exceedingly weird that these must be acquired and, moreso, obtrusive that the game world sports specific stores to sell them. It’s a breaking of the fourth wall, to be sure, a definite crack in the fantasy on several different levels. How in the world would a hero be able to tell if his partner was at 40 percent of health as compared to 30 percent? Why would anyone need to purchase or find a special command to perform an action given a set of circumstances?

It’s disheartening to see such an obvious, self-aware reference to Final Fantasy XII the game in Final Fantasy XII the adventure. Yet despite the system’s poor implementation, it is highly functional, allowing players to plot out strategies to counter almost every enemy gambit, defeat any foe. It also reduces the need for players to jump in and issue commands at every turn, allowing the combat to be equally cinematic without sacrificing tactics.

License points, earned with experience, allow heroes to map out the course of their development. Here, the game presents players with a grid, with each square holding a different option in terms of weapons, spells, or special attacks. License points can be redeemed to unlock squares, and players can develop the protagonist Vaan, for example, into a wizard with an arsenal of powerful spells, a melee-based warrior, a gunslinger, or an archer. Again, Fantasy makes some odd design choices with the licenses, assuming that an adventurer would need some sort of special system to determine if he could wear headgear or not. Also, it’s a bit daunting to note that with spells, weapons, and armor, the license system only allows a hero to use them, but the physical item or spell knowledge has to be bought separately.

This goes up to XII…

The shmaltz of Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 has been thankfully excised here. Instead, the game focuses on political intrigue, the subjugation of a small nation amid a larger war, and a hero who’s unsure as to what to make of the situation as a whole. In the process, young hero Vaan emerges as eminently likeable. His five cohorts and the game’s various guest characters that participate in the adventuring but are not directly controlled, are equally fleshed out. There’s a bit of the swashbuckling Errol Flynn in the flamboyant and loquacious pirate Balthier. The haunted warrior Basch broods suitably while splitting his time between mourning and seeking vengeance.

As for the adventure, it demands to be savored and not discussed. Amazing graphics power gorgeous cut-scenes filled with sky-choking ships, huge vaguely futuristic cities, and stunning natural landscapes. And, as beautiful as it looks, it plays even better.

Amen.

Article by: Greg Orlando
Video produced by: Michael Benson