Final Fantasy XII, after waiting so long with delay after delay, I finally got my chance to get it, and boy it was worth the wait!! Final Fantasy XII is the 12th installment in the ever growing popular Final Fantasy series. Now Final Fantasy has always been one of my most favourite games of all time for at lease 6 years now, and after a long time inbetween Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII (Final Fantasy XI was online and unnaccesable to me) my view on this game got changed numerous times, mostly because of the drastic change in Battle Modes, with Square-Enix introducing something new into the mix with there Active Dimension Battle (ADB) battle system. The battle system wasnt the only change, with the introducion of the License board, Gambits and numerous other new features, Final Fantasy XII was obviously going to make Square-Enix even more popular, or they would lose their fans and respect with an utter flop.
Final Fantasy XII begins in the Dalmascan capital city of Rabanastre where the marriage of Princess Ashe and Prince Rasler is distrubed by the invasion of the Archadian Empire. In this massive war which rages on, many lives are lost, Prince Rasler’s included. Raminas, the King of Dalmasca was forced into signing a treaty of surrender, and then is made to be assisinated. A rescue attemp by the Dalmascan Knights backfires when Basch, the leading kinght, ends up killing both Raminas and Reks, a young 17 year old knight. After this, the Marquis Ondore announces the death of Basch and the suicidal death of Princess Ashe.
As mentioned before there were alot of new aspects in this game which seperated it from its predecessors, such as the new ADB battle system, License Board, Gambits and more. The battle system was the biggest change in Final Fantasy XII, it has totally eliminated random encounters. Now you can choose which enemies you want to battle and when you want to battle them. You wont actually start combat until you get in range and issue a command to attack, otherwise you can just walk right past without having to fight the monster.
Another new feature is the License Board. The License Board is kind of like the Sphere grid in Final Fantasy X but in a way is totally different. In order for your characters in Final Fantasy XII to use magic or abilities or equip any type of weapon, armour or accessory, they must firstly buy the license for it by paying a certain amount of License Points (LP) which is gained form defeating enemies. Once you have bought the license for a particular thing, you can then buy the equipment or magick or technick and then all characters who have the license can use it.
Last of the notable new features is the Gambits system. In accordance with the new battle system, Final Fantasy XII introduced the gambits system which allows you to control the other characters in your party automatically. For instance you could set it up so a character will automatically use a potion on any member of the party whose HP is below 60% of their maximum HP. You can also set it up so that a character will use Fire magick on the enemy if their HP is more than 1000. At the beginning of the game when the system is first introduced, you get taught how to do it, and you are given a few gambit abilities and each character starts with 3-4 slots for gambits. You can get more spots to put gambits in by getting extra licenses for the character which will increase the amount of gambit slots they have and gambit abilities are obtained by buying them at stores or found during the course of the game.
Well thats it for me, in the end Final Fantasy XII ended up making me very happy, it was an excellent game, not quite enough to take over my number 1 game spot, but it came very close and is still a great game that I reccomend to everyone.
I give it 9.5 out of 10 and will be waiting for the sequal DS release of Final Fanatsy XII: Revenant Wings sometime in 2007 most likely.
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