Playing through FFXII again Part 1: Forgot how good this game is

So I recently upgraded my TV in my bedroom because my old CRT TV in there was beginning to die.  New flatscreen with a built in DVD player means I don't have to connect a DVD player to the thing to watch movies late at night.  It also means my old PS2 is getting some much needed attention and what better way to test it out than a long ass JRPG?! 
 
I played most of the way through Final Fantasy XII before and remember liking it; My old save files have 90+ hours on them (I alternate between two save slots), but I know it's been way too long to just jump in to those again.  So many systems to relearn, such high level fights.  So I just started all over.  Loving it so far. 
 
The main thing I've noticed about it though has nothing to do with the gameplay, the slightly outdated graphics (though honestly not bad) or the utter strangeness inherent to all JRPGS.  It actually has to do with one of the main characters, Captain Basch.  Maybe I'm just imagining things, but he looks a helluva lot like James Hetfield of Metallica.  Here... have a look below
  
Am I crazy?  Or do these dudes look alike to you too?     Anyway, i might keep this going, if I feel like it, I might not.  I'm about 10 hours into my new palythrough, we'll see how long that lasts. 
   

So I recently upgraded my TV in my bedroom because my old CRT TV in there was beginning to die.  New flatscreen with a built in DVD player means I don't have to connect a DVD player to the thing to watch movies late at night.  It also means my old PS2 is getting some much needed attention and what better way to test it out than a long ass JRPG?! 
 
I played most of the way through Final Fantasy XII before and remember liking it; My old save files have 90+ hours on them (I alternate between two save slots), but I know it's been way too long to just jump in to those again.  So many systems to relearn, such high level fights.  So I just started all over.  Loving it so far. 
 
The main thing I've noticed about it though has nothing to do with the gameplay, the slightly outdated graphics (though honestly not bad) or the utter strangeness inherent to all JRPGS.  It actually has to do with one of the main characters, Captain Basch.  Maybe I'm just imagining things, but he looks a helluva lot like James Hetfield of Metallica.  Here... have a look below
  
Am I crazy?  Or do these dudes look alike to you too?     Anyway, i might keep this going, if I feel like it, I might not.  I'm about 10 hours into my new palythrough, we'll see how long that lasts. 
   

Yeah, this game was really long. Good, but long. I hope to finish it one day.

It would have been a lot better if the license board was open so you could see where you were going. (Don't tell me to import the damn japanese version.) I was havin fun with it but then I decided I didn't give a flying fuck about the story...so I stopped playing it.

I hate it. Everything from the camera to the story to the combat. Also the characters. Still have my Collector's Edition steelbook somewhere...

I loved it, especially the hunt quests. One thing which stood out was the combat system. No long did I have to suffer through random battles and pressing X repeatedly for 20 seconds. I could just walk the land as my teammates destroyed everything :)

One of the worst FF-games IMO. It felt like playing an MMO in a bad way. A lot of running around grinding fights you could win by gambits alone. For most of that game I literally just used the analog stick to move around and the gambits did everything else. I rather play FFX-2 again, that's how much I dislike FFXII.

I loved how Balthier if as he says the real main character of the story but hated the combat so I ended up giving up on playing it around the stupid tower things and just watched a play-through of the game.

Seems like a story of two halves, I found it dissapointing in that respect as it looks to be building nicely for about the first quarter of the game. Understandable though when you realise the game changed hands at some point during development. Penelo and Vaan are complete passengers the entire game, they only really get a purpose in the spin-offs.  
  
In terms of sidequests I loved the freedom this offered which made the transition into XIII pretty jarring with it's tight corridors. 
 
There is something really odd with the sound in this game, every time someone speaks it sounds as if you are still listening to the VA recording their lines. That might just be me though. 
 
I did really enjoy the game overall despite the complaints.

Not to fond of the battle system or the license grid, though I still keep it at the very bottom of my backlog list, cause it was interesting.

I look nothing like that man. You shut your mouth, sir!
 
(But yeah, i kinda see where you're coming from.)
 
Also i agree, it's certainly a hell of a lot better than XIII.

It's the only FF I can't seem to finish, I've tried several times but lose interest after 8 hours or so. Vaan doesn't help but mostly it's the combat system, I just find it too slow, too much circling around the enemy and not enough hitting things. Not a fan of the licence grid either and get the feeling if I could find the International copy I would probably breeze through the game quite easily as it fixes all of my issues, bar Vaan. I will finish it one day.

I will never forget, FFXII is quite possibly the worst game I have ever experienced. The Characters, The Combat, EVERYTHING did absolutely nothing for me. Vaan..... I just wanted him to die so I wouldn't have to hear his voice in the game anymore. I am not being exuberant here, I found the game to be absolutely boring.

Final Fantasy XII is, for me, one of the absolute high-points of the series. The gameplay (the combat i particular) is a genuine attempt to push the JRPG gameplay formula forward, and for the most part I think it succeeds. The characters are a bit hit-and-miss - Vaan and Penelo aren't great, but on the flip-side you have Balthier, Fran and Basch, who are some of my favourite characters across the whole franchise. I also loved the fact that the story wasn't completely centred on the usual "rag-tag band of adventurers are brought together by fate and have to save the world" concept. Sure, it was there in an underlying form, but they sealed it beneath numerous layers of complex political conflict that manage to turn the cliche into something original and engrossing. The world of Ivalice is vast, beautiful and meticulously detailed, and the environments are so rich and varied that navigating them was a pleasure. The game's translation work rarely gets talked about but deserves a lot of praise, I think. The voice acting is superb, the script is rarely cringe-worthy, and the 'Medieval Epic' tone is remarkably consistent and brilliantly achieved. I really enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII, too, but after playing XII I felt like a lot of the decisions made in development were rather large steps back.

FFXII was a return to form for the series.  It wasn't about some ridiculous romance shit that plagued 7,8,9 and 10.  Even Vaan, annoying as hell, wasn't emo about what was going on around them.
 
The combat was definitely the highlight of the game though.  It was so good that Bioware literally plucked it out for Dragon Age.  It's simple, efficient, and effective.  

There was a story? 
 
Joking aside, the game had issues. 
Specifically horrible pacing problems that were all over-the-place. Giant chasms of no story, and no exposition, quickly hit by quick bursts of plot. Or long extended moments that seemed hampered without proper characterization. The main cast were seldom developed, and many were pretty damn forgettable. If you look at the game's scatter-shot development, how the director quit and so forth, it begins to make sense. 
 
I liked parts of the battle system though. It was a nice bridge between the previous MMO offering, giving the series a bit of gamerplay mechanic coherency. I totally understand those who were turned off by the offering, but it was a solid adaptation of what you would be normally doing in a Final Fantasy game.  
 
Killing Yiazmat is a gaming memory I'll be remembering for years to come.
 
@Jiggah said:

" FFXII was a return to form for the series.  It wasn't about some ridiculous romance shit that plagued 7,8,9 and 10.