Final Fantasy XII: The most underappreciated Final Fantasy
(Lots and lots of text within)
Disclaimer: I should point out that Final Fantasy XII isn't even my favourite in the series, I just feel that it is greatly underappreciated. I'm not trying to be a mega fanboy or anything - I can certainly see why people dislike it, but would urge them to try it again if that is the case.
Edit: Wow, I did not realize just how long it was. Over 2000 words. Thank you very much to anybody who can even be bothered to read that.
(Lots and lots of text within)
You'd have to have tried very hard if you were a member of this website and were oblivious to the Final Fantasy series. While JRPGs are generally disliked around here, no one could deny that Final Fantasy is one of the most popular gaming franchises in the world. The series has been criticized for many years, and I have been a defender of it until now: the release of XIII really threw me off, and for no particular reason: the whole game just felt disappointing. Simply put, I did not enjoy playing Final Fantasy XIII like I had the other adventures Square has taken me on.
Now this could be for a number of things. Maybe now I?m too old to enjoy those cheesy anime stories of youngsters running around trying to save the world; perhaps the ?variety? in gameplay, sidequests and exploration in previous games allowed me to ignore the childish, poorly written story that was being told. I think it?s probably both of these things, but what I know for sure is that we were spoiled by the previous game in the series. Final Fantasy XII made far more steps to improve and expand on the JRPG genre, whilst still keeping to its roots, than people give it credit for. It was, quite simply, underappreciated by the masses.
In this users opinion, Final Fantasy XII should have been the mark of a new era in Final Fantasy, or maybe even JRPGs altogether. Apparently it wasn?t, but it should have been. It actually went fairly unnoticed, being released in the west around the same time as the Xbox 360, but that isn?t the core of my argument, since it still sold well over five million copies. My argument lies in the game itself. It had a mature story, with a largely adult cast; its gameplay encouraged exploration without the tedium of random encounters; and it also allowed for great customization of each of your party members, with a large variety of weapon, armour and ?magick? types. Now, none of these things are executed perfectly in the game, and I will address their flaws as I get to them, however, on the whole, the game still makes great strides to improve a genre that, some would argue, was well beyond stagnation, by its release.
Firstly, anyone who knows anything about the JRPG will be able to tell you how FFXII broke the mould in terms of the gameplay. Say goodbye to random encounters and battles taking place in a separate field to that which you explore in, everything happens in the same area now. Most people who dislike JRPGs will cite random, turn-based encounters as one of their most hated features of the genre, but Final Fantasy XII got rid of them altogether. This should have been a major leap ? the biggest JRPG franchise in the world had seemed to abandon a staple of the genre for something less invasive. Since then, the Tales of? and Dragon Quest series, amongst others, have also rejected random encounters (however, still take the battle to a different field). While it may be untrue, people seem to forget about that.
While you only controlled one party member at a time during battle, it was possible to issue orders individually to each member of your party. This, however, is largely unnecessary due to the Gambit system. The Gambit system is incredibly detailed in the way you can command your party and is the best manifestation of such a system I?ve seen (however, my experience is limited only to the console version of Dragon Age: Origins). By the end of the game you could potentially have a Gambit for any situation, negating the need to control all three party members at all times.
Another compliment I can give to XII is the wide-open environments. The world you?re in genuinely feels grand ? and you?re only in a particular region of that world, barely scratching the surface of the entire globe. XII expanded on Xs use of different zones and made them much larger and wider ? it was like a game made up of the Calm Lands in X. This really gave you a sense of the epic scope of the game and is perhaps the best at doing this out of the entire Final Fantasy series. The quest genuinely feels like it?s a long journey through huge lands.
This freedom is also expressed in the character growth system in the game: the licence board. While similar in nature to the Sphere Grid, it gave you total freedom to pursue whatever role you wanted each of your characters to play, giving you a wide variety of abilities and types of weapons in order to do so. This meant you could customize your team however you felt, something that ought to be well appreciated by many, and the game gave you a multitude of items to do so, too.
These changes made in Final Fantasy XII were then almost entirely ignored in XIII. Yes, there was no more random encounters, but the battles still had to change to a different field, and the enemies were always in the same positions (adding to complaints of linearity, though we wont go into that). Yes, you could change the job (Paradigm) of the supporting party, but you couldn?t control them much beyond that, leading to conflicting priorities between you and the AI in terms of healing, buffing and even attacking. Overall, though, the gameplay developments made in XII seemed to pave the way for a much more accessible and, frankly, less irritating experience in the JRPG.
As I stated earlier, the game is not perfect. For starters, the battle system can make you feel like the game is playing itself (though, that would be a compliment to the intricate nature of the Gambit system, as well) and it has been widely criticized for feeling like an MMO due to the emphasis on drop rates on loot. Also, while the licence board offers a great amount of freedom, it is usually more beneficial to advance your characters in a particular way and they will always end up jack-of-all-trades anyway, making them essentially all the same. That said, the game is still fun to play and the battle system really improves once you get a good amount of Gambits and abilities to use them with. I should also point out that the International Zodiac Job System version of the game does rectify almost all of these errors, though is frustratingly only available in Japan. This version lets you choose a class for your characters and gives them each a unique license board related to that class, or job. The Zodiac Job System also has a feature that allows you to speed up the game, making grinding and looting less of a chore. Another minor improvement is that the player can also control Guest party members and Espers now, whereas, in the original, they were controlled by an AI, making them almost useless. So, yes, it took them two attempts at the gameplay, but what is in the original is still progressive enough to be appreciated for its advancements.
Now to concentrate on what I think is Final Fantasy XIIs strongest aspect, yet what it is most criticized for. The story of Final Fantasy XII is much more mature and subtle in its approach, especially when considering the last few games in the series. Essentially, the story follows the Princess of a conquered Kingdom trying to reclaim her throne from an Empire, the Archadian Empire. Now, I know that that will have sounded very much like standard JRPG fare to all of you, however, with this particular story, it?s all about the characters and the details. Its concentration on the political climate in Archades make it no where near as black and white as any other Final Fantasy before it: the Empire aren?t evil, but, like in real life, certain elements of it are filled with self-interest. Combined with a much subtler approach to character development, this really does make it a more mature story than Square has previously offered. I don?t want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn?t yet played it, so I can?t very well go into any details.
Admittedly, though, it?s not for everyone. Even I felt it was the games weakest aspect on my first play through, but then, on my second, I was amazed at how drawn in I was when I hadn?t gone in expecting the usual trite, angst-ridden teen drama that had been in many of the other games. I realized just how strong the story was because I?d started the game with the right frame of mind. And now I never want to go back to what once was ? I wish that all new Final Fantasy games would grow up with me. Obviously this is not the case, since Squares target audience is the teenager of today, as I was back in when I got into the series, but one can still hope that that will change over time.
The story of Final Fantasy XII can be attributed to the mind of Yasumi Matsuno (also the mind behind the other Ivalice games, Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant story, both of which also have fantastic narratives). However, this is where the story?s shortcomings come into play, as well. Matsuno was a perfectionist and was taking too long completing the game. Eventually he left Square, officially due to ill health, leaving the role of director to his subordinate, who supposedly didn?t want to tamper with someone else?s creation. The result of this is that there are much fewer story sequences during the second half of the game, leading to a rushed feeling, especially when concerning the main cast, half of which are barely involved in the plot by that point yet still tag along. There?s no counter argument to this, really, except that if the story had been fully finished by its creator it could have been perfect, but who can really say? its just speculation at that point. I do, however, feel that despite all of this, the story still holds up well enough to be stronger than that of other Final Fantasy games. In other words, its merits far outweigh its flaws, and I just wish that Square could take a leaf out of Matsuno?s book for their future games, though Kitase?s effort in XIII does suggest otherwise, which is a shame.
In JRPGs, most people are sick of playing as a whiny teenager whose destiny it is to save the world. While Final Fantasy XII does force Vaan in as the main protagonist, he is used as a window for the player, rather than a key character in the plot. We see the world and the events as Vaan sees them all for the first time. True, it?s not perfect, the role of the players avatar would have been more comfortable in the hands of either Basch, Ashe or Balthier (the first two were actually considered during development, but it was rejected because they felt their target audience wouldn?t be able to relate to them as well as Vaan) and it adds to some of the drawbacks of the story (why are Vaan and Penelo even there?), but it is a step in the right direction. The key members of the cast are all adults who have genuine reasons for being around and affect the plot in major ways. For this, I can forgive them thrusting Vaan into the role of main character: its something I can overlook exactly because he is more of a ?window? and isn?t integral to the plot.
To conclude, then, I will just say that the efforts Final Fantasy XII makes to revitalize the genre and bring it to a more mature audience far outweigh any of its flaws, which it has generally been given some great criticism for since its release years ago. Almost everything it does, while not perfect, is a step in the right direction: no more random encounters and a more mature, plot driven narrative being the most significant of these. The game is given far too little credit for everything that it did do, with too many people concentrating on its flaws and being unable to see everything it did right. For that reason it is the most underappreciated Final Fantasy title.
Having seen XIII go right back to square one on the narrative side of things, I am genuinely concerned for my future enjoyment of this series. I haven?t given up hope yet, though, since the rest of the team who developed XII have yet to create something since. Maybe, once they do, that creation will satisfy me. At least, I certainly hope that it does.
Now this could be for a number of things. Maybe now I?m too old to enjoy those cheesy anime stories of youngsters running around trying to save the world; perhaps the ?variety? in gameplay, sidequests and exploration in previous games allowed me to ignore the childish, poorly written story that was being told. I think it?s probably both of these things, but what I know for sure is that we were spoiled by the previous game in the series. Final Fantasy XII made far more steps to improve and expand on the JRPG genre, whilst still keeping to its roots, than people give it credit for. It was, quite simply, underappreciated by the masses.
In this users opinion, Final Fantasy XII should have been the mark of a new era in Final Fantasy, or maybe even JRPGs altogether. Apparently it wasn?t, but it should have been. It actually went fairly unnoticed, being released in the west around the same time as the Xbox 360, but that isn?t the core of my argument, since it still sold well over five million copies. My argument lies in the game itself. It had a mature story, with a largely adult cast; its gameplay encouraged exploration without the tedium of random encounters; and it also allowed for great customization of each of your party members, with a large variety of weapon, armour and ?magick? types. Now, none of these things are executed perfectly in the game, and I will address their flaws as I get to them, however, on the whole, the game still makes great strides to improve a genre that, some would argue, was well beyond stagnation, by its release.
Firstly, anyone who knows anything about the JRPG will be able to tell you how FFXII broke the mould in terms of the gameplay. Say goodbye to random encounters and battles taking place in a separate field to that which you explore in, everything happens in the same area now. Most people who dislike JRPGs will cite random, turn-based encounters as one of their most hated features of the genre, but Final Fantasy XII got rid of them altogether. This should have been a major leap ? the biggest JRPG franchise in the world had seemed to abandon a staple of the genre for something less invasive. Since then, the Tales of? and Dragon Quest series, amongst others, have also rejected random encounters (however, still take the battle to a different field). While it may be untrue, people seem to forget about that.
While you only controlled one party member at a time during battle, it was possible to issue orders individually to each member of your party. This, however, is largely unnecessary due to the Gambit system. The Gambit system is incredibly detailed in the way you can command your party and is the best manifestation of such a system I?ve seen (however, my experience is limited only to the console version of Dragon Age: Origins). By the end of the game you could potentially have a Gambit for any situation, negating the need to control all three party members at all times.
Another compliment I can give to XII is the wide-open environments. The world you?re in genuinely feels grand ? and you?re only in a particular region of that world, barely scratching the surface of the entire globe. XII expanded on Xs use of different zones and made them much larger and wider ? it was like a game made up of the Calm Lands in X. This really gave you a sense of the epic scope of the game and is perhaps the best at doing this out of the entire Final Fantasy series. The quest genuinely feels like it?s a long journey through huge lands.
This freedom is also expressed in the character growth system in the game: the licence board. While similar in nature to the Sphere Grid, it gave you total freedom to pursue whatever role you wanted each of your characters to play, giving you a wide variety of abilities and types of weapons in order to do so. This meant you could customize your team however you felt, something that ought to be well appreciated by many, and the game gave you a multitude of items to do so, too.
These changes made in Final Fantasy XII were then almost entirely ignored in XIII. Yes, there was no more random encounters, but the battles still had to change to a different field, and the enemies were always in the same positions (adding to complaints of linearity, though we wont go into that). Yes, you could change the job (Paradigm) of the supporting party, but you couldn?t control them much beyond that, leading to conflicting priorities between you and the AI in terms of healing, buffing and even attacking. Overall, though, the gameplay developments made in XII seemed to pave the way for a much more accessible and, frankly, less irritating experience in the JRPG.
As I stated earlier, the game is not perfect. For starters, the battle system can make you feel like the game is playing itself (though, that would be a compliment to the intricate nature of the Gambit system, as well) and it has been widely criticized for feeling like an MMO due to the emphasis on drop rates on loot. Also, while the licence board offers a great amount of freedom, it is usually more beneficial to advance your characters in a particular way and they will always end up jack-of-all-trades anyway, making them essentially all the same. That said, the game is still fun to play and the battle system really improves once you get a good amount of Gambits and abilities to use them with. I should also point out that the International Zodiac Job System version of the game does rectify almost all of these errors, though is frustratingly only available in Japan. This version lets you choose a class for your characters and gives them each a unique license board related to that class, or job. The Zodiac Job System also has a feature that allows you to speed up the game, making grinding and looting less of a chore. Another minor improvement is that the player can also control Guest party members and Espers now, whereas, in the original, they were controlled by an AI, making them almost useless. So, yes, it took them two attempts at the gameplay, but what is in the original is still progressive enough to be appreciated for its advancements.
Now to concentrate on what I think is Final Fantasy XIIs strongest aspect, yet what it is most criticized for. The story of Final Fantasy XII is much more mature and subtle in its approach, especially when considering the last few games in the series. Essentially, the story follows the Princess of a conquered Kingdom trying to reclaim her throne from an Empire, the Archadian Empire. Now, I know that that will have sounded very much like standard JRPG fare to all of you, however, with this particular story, it?s all about the characters and the details. Its concentration on the political climate in Archades make it no where near as black and white as any other Final Fantasy before it: the Empire aren?t evil, but, like in real life, certain elements of it are filled with self-interest. Combined with a much subtler approach to character development, this really does make it a more mature story than Square has previously offered. I don?t want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn?t yet played it, so I can?t very well go into any details.
Admittedly, though, it?s not for everyone. Even I felt it was the games weakest aspect on my first play through, but then, on my second, I was amazed at how drawn in I was when I hadn?t gone in expecting the usual trite, angst-ridden teen drama that had been in many of the other games. I realized just how strong the story was because I?d started the game with the right frame of mind. And now I never want to go back to what once was ? I wish that all new Final Fantasy games would grow up with me. Obviously this is not the case, since Squares target audience is the teenager of today, as I was back in when I got into the series, but one can still hope that that will change over time.
The story of Final Fantasy XII can be attributed to the mind of Yasumi Matsuno (also the mind behind the other Ivalice games, Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant story, both of which also have fantastic narratives). However, this is where the story?s shortcomings come into play, as well. Matsuno was a perfectionist and was taking too long completing the game. Eventually he left Square, officially due to ill health, leaving the role of director to his subordinate, who supposedly didn?t want to tamper with someone else?s creation. The result of this is that there are much fewer story sequences during the second half of the game, leading to a rushed feeling, especially when concerning the main cast, half of which are barely involved in the plot by that point yet still tag along. There?s no counter argument to this, really, except that if the story had been fully finished by its creator it could have been perfect, but who can really say? its just speculation at that point. I do, however, feel that despite all of this, the story still holds up well enough to be stronger than that of other Final Fantasy games. In other words, its merits far outweigh its flaws, and I just wish that Square could take a leaf out of Matsuno?s book for their future games, though Kitase?s effort in XIII does suggest otherwise, which is a shame.
In JRPGs, most people are sick of playing as a whiny teenager whose destiny it is to save the world. While Final Fantasy XII does force Vaan in as the main protagonist, he is used as a window for the player, rather than a key character in the plot. We see the world and the events as Vaan sees them all for the first time. True, it?s not perfect, the role of the players avatar would have been more comfortable in the hands of either Basch, Ashe or Balthier (the first two were actually considered during development, but it was rejected because they felt their target audience wouldn?t be able to relate to them as well as Vaan) and it adds to some of the drawbacks of the story (why are Vaan and Penelo even there?), but it is a step in the right direction. The key members of the cast are all adults who have genuine reasons for being around and affect the plot in major ways. For this, I can forgive them thrusting Vaan into the role of main character: its something I can overlook exactly because he is more of a ?window? and isn?t integral to the plot.
To conclude, then, I will just say that the efforts Final Fantasy XII makes to revitalize the genre and bring it to a more mature audience far outweigh any of its flaws, which it has generally been given some great criticism for since its release years ago. Almost everything it does, while not perfect, is a step in the right direction: no more random encounters and a more mature, plot driven narrative being the most significant of these. The game is given far too little credit for everything that it did do, with too many people concentrating on its flaws and being unable to see everything it did right. For that reason it is the most underappreciated Final Fantasy title.
Having seen XIII go right back to square one on the narrative side of things, I am genuinely concerned for my future enjoyment of this series. I haven?t given up hope yet, though, since the rest of the team who developed XII have yet to create something since. Maybe, once they do, that creation will satisfy me. At least, I certainly hope that it does.
Disclaimer: I should point out that Final Fantasy XII isn't even my favourite in the series, I just feel that it is greatly underappreciated. I'm not trying to be a mega fanboy or anything - I can certainly see why people dislike it, but would urge them to try it again if that is the case.
Edit: Wow, I did not realize just how long it was. Over 2000 words. Thank you very much to anybody who can even be bothered to read that.
