Final Fantasy XII

We take an in-depth, detailed look at FF12 and give offer our definitive verdict, on the RPG everyone's been waiting for. Tonnes of video included.

	Version PS2	Developer Square Enix	Publisher Square Enix	Genre Fighting

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While special skills don't use any MP, many of them are amazingly useless, offering such techniques as dealing damage based on the amount of steps you've taken or restoring a pitiful amount of HP with no MP expended. Still, the skills that are useful, such as Steal and Libra, more than make up for those you'll never touch. Finally, Summons and Mist Knacks are the game's ultra-powerful attack skills. While they come at a high cost (a character's entire maximum stock of MP), they can be extremely damaging. Mist Knacks are different from character to character and can be chained from one party member to another with timing and a bit of luck. Summons behave differently than in any FF previous - when a character performs a summon, all party members vanish save for the summoner and the spirit. The summoner and the spirit are both capable of attacking and taking damage, and both must stay alive for the duration while the spirit charges for its ultimate attack - which can be a lot harder than it sounds.

Finally, there's the Gambit system, which governs how your CPU-controlled party members behave. Anyone who's played RPGs with CPU-controlled companions (i.e. Star Ocean or the Tales series) can attest to the utter stupidity that the characters can often exhibit. The Gambit system is Square's attempt to remedy this situation, and while it's not perfect, it's definitely a step forward. In other such RPGs, you can only offer your CPU companions either direct commands or change their general combat priorities. What the Gambit system does is basically allow you to create a macro to control how a character behaves in certain situations. A character can have up to 12 gambit slots (they start with 2 and can purchase more through Licenses), each with a specific command. The two parts of a Gambit slot are "target" and "action," the target being (obviously) the one on the receiving end of whatever action is specified. The actions specified are then automatically taken whenever they are triggered by circumstances (provided you don't issue any direct commands). Gambits can be prioritized in case multiple triggers are present. For example, if you want a character to steal from every enemy in range until you tell them where to attack, you can set "Enemies in range of sight > Steal" in a slot and then "Leader's target > Attack" in a slot after it.

Then again, if your party is really hurting, you'd probably want to have something like "Character near death > Cure" above both of those. Available targets for Gambits can be very specific, allowing for some very elaborate macros to be run. You're bound to spend a great deal of time creating interesting and effective custom Gambits. (A personal favorite of mine is "Enemy with high HP max > Oil", which causes fire damage to increase greatly, and then "Enemy with Oil status > Fire Spell" above it. Toasts 'em good, even if it is costly on the MP side.) Gambits are not entirely perfect, as characters may sometimes wind up wasting MP by casting ineffective spells on enemies over and over again - among other foibles. Still, the Gambits are extremely useful and an essential part of combat as a whole.

Several other aspects of FFXII's gameplay are worth mentioning in this review. For starters, earning money in FFXII is a bit more difficult than it has been in Final Fantasies past. This is due to the fact that fallen enemies typically do not drop Gil, but instead randomly leave behind various items such as fur, shells, and magic stones. These items serve no purpose except to be sold at stores in exchange for money (and sometimes opening up new items for purchase if enough of certain goods are sold). Field hunting for treasure is also quite different from what you might be used to. Treasure containers almost always appear randomly at set locations rather than being permanently affixed to a certain spot, and can regenerate if you leave a location and then return.

Items in these containers are random, ranging from gil to weapons to rare Gambit options, but are generally of low value the majority of the time. Since good treasure in the field isn't a guarantee and items, weapons, armor, and skills tend to be quite expensive, you'll often find yourself unable to afford everything you would like. One way to get around this is through the chain system. Defeating enemies of the same type consecutively will cause each fallen enemy to potentially drop more and better loot, along with other unusual side effects like restoring HP/MP or granting the entire party a good status condition.

Another way to earn some extra dough, along with getting some great items and obtaining the game's best Summons, is by completing the game's sidequests and Mob Hunts. Thankfully, Square-Enix has decided to give us straightforward, exploration- and battle-based sidequests, rather than forcing us to learn and master tedious, time-consuming mini-games this time around. Particularly enjoyable are the Mob Hunts, which can be undertaken from the very beginning of the game. A Mob Hunt basically involves you becoming a freelance monster exterminator, solving people's creature conundrums for fun and profit. You can learn about potential mob hunts by reading job postings on the bulletin board at the Rabanastre tavern, which detail the monsters people are looking to have you take out for them. Once you decide to do a mob hunt and visit the individual who posted the job, you can hunt down and take out the monster, often in very unique and challenging battles. Rewards vary from cash and healing items to rare weapons and armor - and sometimes even valuable items key to unlocking other sidequests.

So how do you go about getting from place to place to do your dirty work? Much like FFX, the game lacks a traditional "overworld", instead having the exit from one location flow directly into the entrance of the next. While you are given a World Map to see your relative location in Ivalice, its only real use is to see how locations connect to one another. Specific location-to-location travel is accomplished by either good old-fashioned walking, paid transport (chocobo or airship), or through the use of orange transport crystals in the field that can take you to several previously visited locations. All fields are auto-mapped as you explore them, and maps of any previously visited area can be checked at any given time with a simple push of the SELECT button. This makes backtracking much less of a chore and allowing you to see what territory you have and haven't covered in your explorations.

I've done a lot of gushing over FFXII in this review, but the game certainly isn't perfect. It does have its flaws, and while most of them are quite minor, they eventually start to pile up on one another and start to detract from the game as a whole. Just to give a few examples:

• The chain system sounds interesting in theory but is rather annoying in practice, as killing any enemy outside of the type you are chaining will cause the chain to break, often leaving you with the choice of putting up with constant attacks from annoying enemies outside of the type you're chaining, or breaking the chain in order to kill them off.

• When buying weapons and armor, you only see how they affect a character's attack/defense on the shop screen. However, many weapons and armor also affect other stats such as HP, speed, magic power, and evasion, which you can't see when deciding what to purchase. Nothing sucks more than wasting a hefty chunk of gil on a new piece of armor only to discover that its penalties to your other stats outweigh its defense value.

• Not all things on the License board are placed in logical order, and you often have to waste LP on skills you don't want to open up those you do. Why should I have to have a character learn how to use ninja swords and poles to open up the ability to equip higher-level guns?

• FFXII's way of telling you "no, you shouldn't go to this area yet!" usually involves placing higher-level monsters that can decimate your party near the entrances to these locations. It's more than a little aggravating to wander off somewhere while exploring, only to be mercilessly assaulted and killed the moment you step foot in the wrong place. (It's especially fun if you haven't been able to save for an hour.)

There are other gripes, too - some of the dungeons drag on far too long, for instance - but there's nothing I can complain about that seriously detracts from the game. As skeptical as I was about FFXII due to is well-publicized development woes, the final product has left me thoroughly impressed with its fantastic visuals, interesting characters, and solid combat engine. I would not hesitate for a minute to recommend this title to anyone as one of the very best RPGs on the PS2. It's been a long, arduous journey for FFXII, but it's a trip that has ended spectacularly.

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