Great, but flawed game
I played Final Fantasy XII (and beat it) just this year in 2010, I had been putting it off for a while, but was extremely glad I finally got the motivation to play through it.
- For a PlayStation2 game, the graphics are very good, and the game really does have a fantastic visual style.
- The new combat system is actually a lot of fun, and not being sucked into random battles was definitely a welcome change for the series.
- While the game did do a very good job of developing the game world, they really didn't pay enough attention to the characters themselves, who ended up being somewhat underdeveloped (in my opinion).
- Unfortunately the game was also set up so that you really need to grind up some levels, as you really can't smoothly progress without staying and leveling up in one spot for a decent length of time. I did quite a bit of this and I still ran into bosses that game me a lot of trouble.
- There is a particular sequence near the end of the game where I wanted to shut the game off completely, it was far too much of a grind, and in my opinion was just pain that Square didn't need to put players through in order to finish the game.
- It's still got a very cool story and despite the characters not being developed as much as I would have liked they are for the most part interesting and like-able in their own ways.
Final Verdict:
- If you think you can put up with PlayStation2 graphics, and are willing to invest 60 hours into it, then it's definitely worth a look, if you're an RPG fan you'd be hard pressed to find another game (even today) that has the same great production values and great combat.
