Gaming’s most inappropriately named series returns…
FINAL Fantasy? After eleven sequels (more if you count the Tactics games and Crystal Chronicles) and two decades at the top of the industry, the title of Square Enix’s premier RPG series is looking largely ironic. But with so much familiarity afoot, isn’t it time we saw gaming’s breakthrough RPG brand instigate some real changes to the genre?
That’s something the masterminds at Square have clearly been pondering, whilst also looking into their own creative back catalogue and doing a bit of pilfering. So, Final Fantasy XII takes all the elements which define a Final Fantasy title – Moogles, Chocobos, Phoenix Downs… you name it, it’s in there – and place them wholesale into Ivalice, a land seen previously in the Final Fantasy Tactics titles.
Ensemble Cast
And it does so with a nod towards the game’s online forebear, FFXI. Final Fantasy XII incorporates a free-floating third-person camera, fully 3D backgrounds and, as is the series’ tradition, a completely original tale – this one involving an impetuous-but-heroic teenage boy main character, a mysterious female lead and an evil Empire bent on world domination; all the hallmarks of the genre’s finest examples.
Adding to the mix is yet more menu-driven combat, boundary-pushing visuals, stunning cinematic CGI sequences and a sweeping narrative which promises to take in the back stories of the game’s impressive entire ensemble cast.
What makes FFXII mouth watering is the way it takes the franchise’s defining aspects and redefines them.
All of which may be nothing new – but what makes FFXII mouth watering is the way it takes the franchise’s defining aspects and redefines them. Indeed, Final Fantasy XII is shaping up to easily be one of this generation’s finest offerings, and could well set the standard for the next generation of RPGs.
The biggest change has been the battle system. Gone are random battles, turn-based fighting and all the other quirks which made Japanese RPGs so inaccessible to western gamers. FFXII’s Active Dimension Battle (ADB) system offers a good middle ground between the strategic turn-based fare of old and real-time fighting, without abandoning the series’ tactical edge.
Real-time combat
Here’s how it works: approaching an on-screen enemy brings up a targeting line between you and your foe, showing you who's targeting – and being targeted by – who. The ‘Active’ part of the ADB system then comes into play, with a rising bar at the bottom of the screen gauging when your character’s turn comes around. Combat is still menu driven – so you’ll select actions to, for instance, attack, cast a white support magic (such as Cure) or enact a technique (like Steal, for instance), but it all plays out in real time, and is pausable at any point, a little like the battle system from Lucasarts KoTOR games.
Central to this is the Gambit system, which lets you dictate the A.I routines of your team-mates. It may sound complicated, but in truth it’s remarkably easy to use. Through the party menu, selecting Gambits allows you to pre-arrange your parties’ priorities, tailoring the actions of each member to their role in the group by selecting first an action, and then a target for that action.
Cinematically, orchestrally and interactively Final Fantasy XII is a titan of the RPG genre.
For instance, the generic offensive Gambit sees the action set to Attack, and the target being the Nearest Enemy. Where possible, however, preservation acts take precedent, so if you’ve a healer in your party, you can set their Gambits to cast Cure whenever a team-mate suffers damage – or when their health drops below a given percentage.
The intuitive part is that you can set the order of these so that specific actions automatically override others, allowing the A.I to play out battles with limited player input if you choose. Moreover, an increased number of gambits and actions becomes available over the course of the adventure, allowing the player to tailor battles to impressive depths.
Gambits and Licenses
On top of Gambits are Licenses, activated somewhat like Final Fantasy X’s sphere grid system. The party earn license points by killing monsters, which can then be used to govern equipable weapons by moving an icon one square at a time around a chess board. Taking different directions for different characters allows them to learn skills with different weapon types, and thus gives you full rein over the type of characters you want making up your party.
Even five hours or so into the game, where we currently find ourselves, the customisation aspect is already shining through, and the ADB system lending an extraordinary new dimension to a genre which risked becoming complacent. On top of that, the visuals really are amongst the best ever seen on PS2 technology, with the game’s opening locale, the royal city of Rabanastre, putting the likes of Zelda’s Hyrule Town to shame. Cinematically, orchestrally and interactively Final Fantasy XII is a titan of the RPG genre, and even so early into 07, we’re sure it will factor amongst the finest of the entire year. Proof that good things come to those who wait.
Preview by: Mark Scott
Preview Published: 24.01.07