"I feel insulted knowing I don't have to play"

Final Fantasy was a good game when it was on the nintendo consoles, back when gameplay meant something. Gameplay is hollow here, it doesn't mean anything now; or so Final Fantasy XII and its fanbase leads me to believe.

Remember back in the day of yesterday, where you were putting good use to your controller, to your fingers, and to your time? Those days are over, as this game could have been designed for kids or eager fanboys without any hands!

Final Fantasy, although genius back in the day for re-inventing its gameplay, namely the magic system after every game. This sequel actually redesigns the entirety of the game, but does it work?

The storyline, for me, is a bit hard to comprehend. To point out a fact, some characters' backstories are ridiculous; and their main reason for joining the party slowly decays. After the first hour, they're radiating with their persona, expressing whatever made them join you in your quest with every chance they get. Then.....they forget what they're fighting for. It goes from a cliche revenge story to a bizzare family fun adventure. And the story is all that should be focused on in a 75 hour game, as gameplay will never change and eventually become amazingly boring.

The gameplay for the previous games were simple, fun, and presented top notch eye candy. This game however, plays a lot like an offline MMO. This is the offline mode for Final Fantasy XI. But because MMO games already have such boring gameplay as all you have to do is click on the foe and watch your guy attack him with such slow pacing, they tried to make it better with by redefining the RPG battle system with something that has already been done so many times already. They remove the old school battle system with offline FFXI.

If you could play the game with a buddy like you can do in FF9, this game would rank higher; but this is all Enix's plan to steal your money by folling you with the Final Fantasy brand name much like Konami did with Contra Force. The game plays nothing like it's predecessors, and the only thing satisfying with this game is either when you decide to quit, or know you don't have to play the game anymore when you finish it.

But how bad is it? Lets leave it at this. A good game has you pushing buttons every 3 seconds. You see, Final Fantasy XII may be swimming into the shallow end to present a refreshing break from the random encounters, but they still manage to drown along the way with the Gambit system. Here is a fine explanation as to what this Gambit system is; why play the game when your characters can do it for you? They took out every aspect of gameplay, as you may never have to press any action button while playing this game. Although you can turn the Gambits off, which I highly recommend because if you cram your characters with every possible Gambit, the game will start to play you. The game itself, would somehow draw you into the habit to just move your guys into battle and watch them fight the battle, then move them to watch a cutscene, then move them again. That's all you do, is move your guys, and heal them if they don't do it for you!

Now, what is this about a licensing system? Well, it basically a drivers license to use weapons, armor, magic, what else.... But here's my second buggest gripe with this borefest. You cannot weild what you don't have a license for. Is it illegal to hold it in FFXII? What the hell is stopping you from using a flametongue when you already know how to use a long sword? There really isn't any difference as to how you can weild it; so why can't you? "Oh, it's a new sword!? Obviously I can't use this yet because it acts like a completely different sword, no way is it similar to any of the other 20 swords I have used! I have to learn how to use it by buying a license for it!"

I have heard that what makes you play a game longer is it's replayability, and that's what makes a good game. If you can't play it a second time, it isn't even worth owning. Now, how does FFXII keep you playing? By making it 75 hours long! They know that they couldn't stretch the game's length in replayability, so why bother rewarding you with your efforts and just make the game longer. Scrap all of the extras, and use the free data to expand the game with meaningless cutscenes, meaningless bonus enemies, and useless items like the bombs.

In the game, you can only use 3 people at a time, a 4th if you acquire a "guest". Here's another question. Why can't you use all 6 characters at once? You can switch between them at anytime when not in combat, so obviously they're with you when you're fighting, and they can step in when someone else is dead. But how come they feel the need to simply watch as half of their friends go get killed by a dragon? "Oh, three people can handle it. Come on guys, lets watch until one of them either flees or dies. Then we will help." Jackasses.

Another gripe I have with this game is that all your characters can be played exactly alike. There is no real difference to what each character can do, as you can give ALL the good magic to everyone, you can give ALL the good weapon licenses to everyone, and ALL the good techniques to everyone. It's like choosing a mysterious 7th class to all 4 characters in the original FF, one that can do everything the other 6 classes can do and more. There's no class option in FFXII, hell, there isn't even a hint of class selection in FFXII. No white/black mages, no fighters/theives, just amped up red mages.

The graphics and music make great first impressions, but that's all. There's no real eye candy that FF8 or X had, and no music really sticks with you other than boring, repetitive background music you'd expect in WoW; nothing like the masterpieces found in FF6 or 1.

This is, by far the worst FF game; it fails in comparison to X-2 even! At least you got to play decent gameplay in X-2, and not just watch your guys fight generic enemies like animals and soldiers. To put it bluntly, this is not a game? It's more of a movie as you're doing less button pressing in 3 hours than in Metal Gear Solid 3 in the first hour.

So how do I feel about this game? It's too easy to be rewarding. It's a giant waste of time, it's too long, there isn't enough interaction between the player and the game, too many cutscenes, terrible story, good voice acting, decent music while it lasts, great visuals, terrible licensing system, and I find Anarchy Online a much better game than this because it plays the same only you can play with your friends, and choose from a wide selection of classes.

Pros:
Decent ideas
Appropriate graphics for its console
Save feature
Voice acting is somewhat impressive for most characters

Cons:
Boring gameplay (It takes more effort taking a piss than to play this game!)
A storyline that fades away then comes back for a while, then fades away again....
No character difference in terms of gameplay
Too long of a game
No extra features
Forgetable music
Licensing restrictions
Gambits make the game too easy for gamers
Character models look too cliche, bland, generic, or odd. (Vaan strangely resembles Tidus, no, he even LOOKS like Tidus!)
Character's backstory only as strong as they can remember
Why have an airship or vehicles when you can teleport to where you want to go with the Save Crystals?
Plays like an offline MMO
Unrewarding

What's worse? When a good game gets bad reviews like Castlevania 64? Or when a terrible excuse of a game gets praise like this did? I've had more fun watching gameplay footage of Big Rigs than playing FFXII. In fact, Action 52 for the NES is far superior than this in my opinion; but that is what a review is....an opinion. No review, whether done by a professional or a newbie is the same, nor is it final. It either someone sucking up to the game, or actually seeing what's right and wrong with it. Have this been done before; and is this an improvement to all the other games of its genre?

Final Fantasy is a de-evolution as far as RPGs are concerned. As far as games in general is concerned, this is not even a game. It's an excuse to use the Final Fantasy name to make big bucks; because they know you'll love it because you love Square Enix. No matter what games come out, whether good or bad, as long as it was made by the people who made very good games, you're going to buy it. If the game sucks, you're still going to love it. Fanboys are suck ups, so then all those reviewers in those famous websites and television shows must be paid to give good reviews for product placement and advertisement. If not, then they too are suckups.

3/10.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 08/01/07