To be honest I never really waited for this game. I was huge fan of FF-games when I was younger but I haven’t been so lately. Never the less I wanted to try out this game. Here are some of my thoughts of the game so far.
The Story
First of all, it’s definitely been inspired by the old Star Wars. With all the ships flying around, world at war and marching soldiers in heavy armours, nothing else really comes to my mind except Star Wars. I’ve only played for sixteen hours of which I’ve been messing around at least a third, so I haven’t gotten really far in the story but I’ve gotten the clue. It’s been pretty interesting so far.
The Characters
Before I started the game I had only seen artwork of the characters. I didn’t find them very interesting but in the game they’re pretty good actually. All of the characters have lots of personality to them and they all stand out in their own way. I don’t like anyone in particular but I play a lot with Ashe.
The Settings
The world looked very asian in FFX. In a way I kinda liked that though I don’t like that game very much. In FFXII the designs of characters and environments have a sort of Middle Eastern touch to them. There’s lots of vast deserts and barren lands to explore. For some reason I really love adventuring in such areas. Might be because of playing Wild Arms games so much. Rabanastre is rather interesting city with it’s bazaars, underground slums and all. I don’t know how Archadia looks like yet, but the soldiers remind me of European knights from the middle ages.
The Battles
Everything in this game so far has surprised me. The battles are no exception. Instead of having your characters lined up waiting for their turns, this game operates in real time and you also have to move your characters to the enemies yourself. This is compeletely different from previous FF-games and it’s quite exciting. It reminds be of Baldur’s Gate and that’s nice. Since everything is real time you control only one character yourself and let the AI handle the others. I personally don’t use many Gambits, orders that make your characters automatically do what you’ve ordered in specific situations. I play this game like BG and order everything that happens myself, though I should learn how to use Gambits as there seems to be benefitst to it.
The Licencing system is quite interesting as well. To use equipments and cast spells, you first need to get a licence to be allowed to use them. With that you can customize your characters however you want. If you want your character to be good at magicks, you can do it. If you want to give your character an axe, you can have it that way. The Licence Board is split into two smaller boards: one for magicks and skills and one for equipment such as weapons and armours. I think it’s a lot like jobs in FFV where you could learn different skills from using jobs long enough and with them create any kind of character you wanted. However FFXII gives you even more freedom and options, which is great.
The Conclusion
I didn’t expect this game to be very good but it seems like I have to take back my words. This game is very interesting and fun to play. It’s more difficult than previous FFs but that’s good as I found them way too easy. After I’m done with this game I’ll write a complete review or edit this post. Let’s hope there’s still lots of more to come ’cause this game is so great I don’t want it to end to soon.
