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Final Fantasy 12

Final Fantasy 12 Review

Final Fantasy XII is yet another interesting role playing game from Square-Enix, the Japanese entertainment company. Final Fantasy XII has a renovated strategic combat system which provides great complexity and superb game play backed up by excellent music. The battles are fought along with context during exploration without any random encounters making the plot very interesting and linear.

Though Square Enix have shipped various games with Final Fantasy brand since 2001, Final Fantasy XII has been the most ambitious, lengthy and lavishly produced role-playing game of all. Final Fantasy XII has a cohesive game play with a new combat system and unique visual style. The amiable cast of characters, remarkable art direction and umpteen number of challenging battles in this new game live up to the name of Final Fantasy series.

Final Fantasy XII starts very slow when compared to typical RPG and can take around 3-6 hours to make you pushing forward. Final Fantasy XII allows you to travel through beautiful world of Ivalice with massive adventures and mature storyline which has all types of emotions like love, hatred, treachery, misfortune all starting with an invasion. The world of Ivalice has excellent graphics and has unique theme compared to previous version. The Moogles and Chocobos have been redesigned to some extent apart from the Airships and other staples of Squre Enix.

The powerful Arcadian empire start their war campaign on Dalmasca, which is a neutral kingdom and the king who wants his people to remain in peace, signs an treaty with Arcadia which gives them occupational rights at the end of war. But at the end, the king of Dalmasca gets assassinated and his daughter commits a suicide due to her father’s death. Now Arcadia takes control over Dalmasca and their people are struggling for freedom. Vaan who is a young and energetic store worker also acts a thief on city streets. He is a brother of the Dalmasca soldier who died during the battle and Vaan feels that he should free people of Dalmasca from tyranny of Arcadians.

The plot of Final Fantasy XII has plenty of surprises with many ups and downs which make it interesting. Yasumi Mitsuno, who is the scenario and concept plotter, has done a very good job by charming the storytelling elements similar to popular TV shows “24” and “Lost”. The plot has very expressive and gorgeously produced cinematic cut scenes with well-written dialogue. The characters of the game show genuine lifelike emotions during cut scenes with very good use of body language and facial expressions. There is plenty of exploration, lot of combat and excellent game play which is hallmark of Final Fantasy series.

Final Fantasy XII utilizes a turn-based engine similar to its previous versions and allows camera movement which allows users to shift to any angle as they please. It is a fantastic role playing game and blows all its competitions for Play Station 2. The only drawback is that license-board systems and gambit is too complex to get familiar with. The art style of Final Fantasy XII is different from earlier version, but has some similarity to Japanese role playing game - Vagrant story of the year 2000. Final Fantasy XII has some similarities with respect to sound design and visual styles with Vagrant story.

The sound track is composed beautifully using synthesized instruments and accompanies each and every moment in the game. It has some popular themes along with original background compositions which suit the mood of the game along with a game’s voice acting which deserves a special mention. Final Fantasy XII has support for surround sound setup and wide screen display which makes it remarkable for present game standards.

The new gambit system, upgrades of license-board and full-camera control and some important updates in this game. The load times are very quick with detailed skeletal and facial animation of characters. The game play ranges from forty to hundred hours depending on your preferences.

Final Fantasy XII is yet another role playing game from Square Enix Corporation that has won the hearts of hardcore gamers with its impressive 3D visual effects and sensational soundtrack accompanied by an exciting plot.

Plot: 9/10
Game Play: 9/10
Battle System: 8/10
Graphics: 10/10
Music: 9 /10
Sound Effects: 9/10

Final Fantasy 12 Information

Game: Final Fantasy 12
Developer: Square Enix PDD 4
Publisher: Square Enix
Genre: RPG
Medium: DVD-ROM
Platform: PlayStation 2

Final Fantasy 12 Release Date

Japan: 16 March 2006
USA: 31 October 2006
Europe: 23 February 2007
International Version: 9 August 2007

Final Fantasy 12 Box Arts

Japan	USA		Europe


USA Collector's Edition		International Zodiac Job System

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