Belated Review
Hello LJ!
::In furious attempt to rewrite review after Firefox failed::
Screw the side quests, it's been two years!
It's been about thirty minutes or so I completed the last Final Fantasy to bestow its grace upon the Playstation 2: XII. Now, usually with the Fantasy series, I make sure to: defeat all secret bosses, obtain all hidden summons, acquire all ultimate weapons/armor for all characters, perform all side quests, satisfy that checklist to screen that secret ending, and just plain MAX OUT, before sending my airship to its final destination. Something irregular happened though: this time I didn't. Was it frustration? Impatience? Boredom? I'm thinking it was a bit of all. The vital game itself was long enough. But was the game so great if it didn't leave something sort of irreconcilable impression?
Now, I shouldn't vilify this latest installment of the ever-beloved franchise too harshly (lest I face the wrath of fanboys). But when I think back, I haven't the slightest clue how six misfits foiled an empire, abated an ever-impending war, and restored peace once again to a distraught kingdom, mind you I was present for the storyline through. Then again, it has been more than a year since I engendered the file that was to complete the game today. Boggles the mind. The game did contain many elements I did find enjoyable, however; the new battle system (RTB), for example. In the beginning, I found myself loathing it: "It's not Final Fantasy anymore now, jerks!"
Eh, part of me still does perhaps, but it really shone bright with the discovery of auto-leveling. Man, if not for it, I'd be seriously under leveled (more so than currently). RTB sure induced a lotta laziness though, through that sneaky little Gambit system. Also, kinda like how Final Fantasy X told the story of Summoner Yuna's pilgrimage through the oblivious perspective of Tidus, Final Fantasy XII follows suit, following the Princess Ashe's internal struggle of discovering herself and resurrecting her fallen kingdom through commoner Vaan. I actually liked that though. O__o
Now for the disparaging. I'll list 'em out.
Failure #1: Setting
If out of my disappoints, there was the "best" disappointment, it would be the setting. The background of the plot and setting seem to run deep and intricate. The game created a universe chock-full of detail, as if it were some real world faraway. Lineage and background run rampant in this vast land known as Ivalice, but only so much was captured and told to the player. And that may have been its downfall. You'd get this narrator with a funny accent to read most of the background it to you. And I obviously am a terrible listener. You also have all these different races in the game: Moogles, the Garif, the Viera, Urutan-Yensa, the Seeq, Helgas, the Rebe, and Baknamy to name a few. But we, as the gamer, only get to explore, let alone interact, with a very few of these races during game play--causing me to wonder where was the incentive in designing such superfluous creatures. Perhaps because there was so much to swallow, I couldn't enjoy chewing or tasting. I do realize in your handy dandy Clan Primer is an explanation to most of these extraneous details I'm complaining about. Oh, but I'm not so much for reading about my game either.
Failure #2: Character Development
One of the most disappointing aspects by far. First of all, Vaan = EPIC FAIL Just, everything about this boy kinda ticks me off. I cannot judge his Japanese counterpart, but American dub is just awful: drone and borrring. His pretty boy look and bare chest do not serve as inciters either. But enough about Vaan, he only fuels about 80% of FF12 character enmity; but no matter. Screen time was obviously not evenly distributed, I think. Too much Vaan and Ashe. Not enough Basch (every time he talks, I feel as though he'd been biting his tongue for a chance to speak). Dialogue for the characters and voice acting (except for the obvious), in regards to who they were, was superb, but I never felt as though this band of resistors 'clicked' as a team. Not in spite of their differences (two orphans, a princess, an ex-knight, a sky pirate, and an exiled Viera), as this was the point: to unite these unlikely allies under a common objective. They all seemed to remain in their little 'clicks' even while fighting as a group (Baltheir and Fran, Vaan and Penelo, Basch and Ashe). Not enough evident integration.
Now continuing into each character's story, they were decent as well. One thing though: sky-pirating. Watching the early trailers released prior to the game's release, you know, the one with the written sequences, you'd think the game was going to be about this "sky-pirating" thing. Um, no. What is a sky-pirate? Well, it's these rebels who have giant expensive air crafts; they make a living off looting and live 'freely.' And the main character wants to be one. We explore this concept at the very beginning of the game and the very end of the game. It's like it was originally supposed to be the primary plot, but couldn't make the cut: throw-away plot (although this all goes more into storyline than character scrutinizing).
One more nit-picky change I did not appreciate: freedom of character class. Unlike FFV or even FFX-2, which also allow freedom of class, you do not receive specialized outfits or customized limit breaks. Nope, you just get to hold...the weapon. Don't they understand it's the weapon that creates a part of the character, what "justifies" them? Because any character can virtually wield any weapon/armor (or none at all), their Quickenings consequently result in crack: inexplicable dimensions the characters and the monster travel to so that our characters can beat the living hell out of them using unexplainable godlike powers with their HANDS (that usually do little damage at all). Cheap.
Failure #3: Pace
Yeah, yeah; "Guaranteed 100 hours of game play!" or something like that, but come ON. That, plus side quests that take equally as long to do? Leveling shouldn't be so painful. Bazaar items make attaining a lot of weapons/equips practically impossible. Friggin' espers that are too frustrating to find/obtain (let alone being useless in all aspects). I can only walk around for so long! I've had to respark my interest in the game a total of four times in order to beat this game once. And I still haven't "completed" it. One day, just one day... :<
And with that, my bashing will subside. I just had to get this all out of me. These are are all my opinions. There are still loads I love about this game, but my dislikes had to be brought forth.
On a side note, On Friday (August 1st) Back to School sales will begin. I'm trying to prepare myself for the commercials and ads.
I have an idea for a story. It's based on a recent expereince, although not too exciting. I'm sharing this because I NEVER have ideasfor ANYTHING. ^_^
::In furious attempt to rewrite review after Firefox failed::
Screw the side quests, it's been two years!
It's been about thirty minutes or so I completed the last Final Fantasy to bestow its grace upon the Playstation 2: XII. Now, usually with the Fantasy series, I make sure to: defeat all secret bosses, obtain all hidden summons, acquire all ultimate weapons/armor for all characters, perform all side quests, satisfy that checklist to screen that secret ending, and just plain MAX OUT, before sending my airship to its final destination. Something irregular happened though: this time I didn't. Was it frustration? Impatience? Boredom? I'm thinking it was a bit of all. The vital game itself was long enough. But was the game so great if it didn't leave something sort of irreconcilable impression?
Now, I shouldn't vilify this latest installment of the ever-beloved franchise too harshly (lest I face the wrath of fanboys). But when I think back, I haven't the slightest clue how six misfits foiled an empire, abated an ever-impending war, and restored peace once again to a distraught kingdom, mind you I was present for the storyline through. Then again, it has been more than a year since I engendered the file that was to complete the game today. Boggles the mind. The game did contain many elements I did find enjoyable, however; the new battle system (RTB), for example. In the beginning, I found myself loathing it: "It's not Final Fantasy anymore now, jerks!"
Eh, part of me still does perhaps, but it really shone bright with the discovery of auto-leveling. Man, if not for it, I'd be seriously under leveled (more so than currently). RTB sure induced a lotta laziness though, through that sneaky little Gambit system. Also, kinda like how Final Fantasy X told the story of Summoner Yuna's pilgrimage through the oblivious perspective of Tidus, Final Fantasy XII follows suit, following the Princess Ashe's internal struggle of discovering herself and resurrecting her fallen kingdom through commoner Vaan. I actually liked that though. O__o
Now for the disparaging. I'll list 'em out.
Failure #1: Setting
If out of my disappoints, there was the "best" disappointment, it would be the setting. The background of the plot and setting seem to run deep and intricate. The game created a universe chock-full of detail, as if it were some real world faraway. Lineage and background run rampant in this vast land known as Ivalice, but only so much was captured and told to the player. And that may have been its downfall. You'd get this narrator with a funny accent to read most of the background it to you. And I obviously am a terrible listener. You also have all these different races in the game: Moogles, the Garif, the Viera, Urutan-Yensa, the Seeq, Helgas, the Rebe, and Baknamy to name a few. But we, as the gamer, only get to explore, let alone interact, with a very few of these races during game play--causing me to wonder where was the incentive in designing such superfluous creatures. Perhaps because there was so much to swallow, I couldn't enjoy chewing or tasting. I do realize in your handy dandy Clan Primer is an explanation to most of these extraneous details I'm complaining about. Oh, but I'm not so much for reading about my game either.
Failure #2: Character Development
One of the most disappointing aspects by far. First of all, Vaan = EPIC FAIL Just, everything about this boy kinda ticks me off. I cannot judge his Japanese counterpart, but American dub is just awful: drone and borrring. His pretty boy look and bare chest do not serve as inciters either. But enough about Vaan, he only fuels about 80% of FF12 character enmity; but no matter. Screen time was obviously not evenly distributed, I think. Too much Vaan and Ashe. Not enough Basch (every time he talks, I feel as though he'd been biting his tongue for a chance to speak). Dialogue for the characters and voice acting (except for the obvious), in regards to who they were, was superb, but I never felt as though this band of resistors 'clicked' as a team. Not in spite of their differences (two orphans, a princess, an ex-knight, a sky pirate, and an exiled Viera), as this was the point: to unite these unlikely allies under a common objective. They all seemed to remain in their little 'clicks' even while fighting as a group (Baltheir and Fran, Vaan and Penelo, Basch and Ashe). Not enough evident integration.
Now continuing into each character's story, they were decent as well. One thing though: sky-pirating. Watching the early trailers released prior to the game's release, you know, the one with the written sequences, you'd think the game was going to be about this "sky-pirating" thing. Um, no. What is a sky-pirate? Well, it's these rebels who have giant expensive air crafts; they make a living off looting and live 'freely.' And the main character wants to be one. We explore this concept at the very beginning of the game and the very end of the game. It's like it was originally supposed to be the primary plot, but couldn't make the cut: throw-away plot (although this all goes more into storyline than character scrutinizing).
One more nit-picky change I did not appreciate: freedom of character class. Unlike FFV or even FFX-2, which also allow freedom of class, you do not receive specialized outfits or customized limit breaks. Nope, you just get to hold...the weapon. Don't they understand it's the weapon that creates a part of the character, what "justifies" them? Because any character can virtually wield any weapon/armor (or none at all), their Quickenings consequently result in crack: inexplicable dimensions the characters and the monster travel to so that our characters can beat the living hell out of them using unexplainable godlike powers with their HANDS (that usually do little damage at all). Cheap.
Failure #3: Pace
Yeah, yeah; "Guaranteed 100 hours of game play!" or something like that, but come ON. That, plus side quests that take equally as long to do? Leveling shouldn't be so painful. Bazaar items make attaining a lot of weapons/equips practically impossible. Friggin' espers that are too frustrating to find/obtain (let alone being useless in all aspects). I can only walk around for so long! I've had to respark my interest in the game a total of four times in order to beat this game once. And I still haven't "completed" it. One day, just one day... :<
And with that, my bashing will subside. I just had to get this all out of me. These are are all my opinions. There are still loads I love about this game, but my dislikes had to be brought forth.
On a side note, On Friday (August 1st) Back to School sales will begin. I'm trying to prepare myself for the commercials and ads.
I have an idea for a story. It's based on a recent expereince, although not too exciting. I'm sharing this because I NEVER have ideasfor ANYTHING. ^_^