I would love to be able to play through this 50+ hour epic, but for the sake of timeliness here are my impressions of the first 10 hours of gameplay in Final Fantasy XII.

Story

The tale begins in the land of Ivalice, which was the same setting for Final Fantasy Tactics. War breaks on the horizon as the mighty Archadian Empire plots to conquer all of their neighboring kingdoms. The kingdom of Dalmasca, with the capital city of Rabanastre, is next on the march of war. Rabanastre falls and two years later, the people await the new consul from Archadia. The actual game begins with Vaan, a young man living on the streets of Rabanastre. The Empire was responsible for the death of his brother, and his parents were taken by the plague. So Vaan hatches a plan to break into the palace and steal back the spoils of Dalmascan conquest from the Archadian Empire.

The opening of the game feels steeped in Shakespearian drama from the warring nations to betrayal, assassination, and subsequent suicide. All within the first thirty minutes of play.

Graphics

It’s a given that Square Enix games are pretty, but you haven’t seen anything yet. Final Fantasy XII bursts with a delicious presentation. From the opening cinematic you are immersed in a heavily Anglo-Saxon influenced world with Nomadic Arabic roots. Both worlds collide with wondrous detail. The structures of the castles have embellishments similar to the cathedrals of France, to carry over the religious undertones of the land of Ivalice. The street level, the pulse of the castle Rabanastre, thrives with nomadic culture. There are bazaars and merchants selling woven rugs, with wise old men smoking hookahs. The textiles and patterns from various nomadic cultures grace the surroundings, creating a setting like no other.

Every texture of every polygon is rich with detail. No character, background, or setting is spared. It is the amount of detail Square has given each pixel in the past with their pre-rendered backdrops, transformed into a fully 3D experience. The textures show their faults now and then with some low-res close ups, but the thought and detail of each shines through. The PS2 is showing its age with the new generation of systems right around the corner, but Final Fantasy XII is easily one of the most beautiful games to grace the system.

Control

The greatest improvement to the series is the Active Dimension Battle system. Gone are cracking dissolves to the lengthy loading screens and the horrendous sweeping pan of the camera as the characters slowly res in. I wanted to pull my hair out after a few battles in recent iterations of Final Fantasy. Thankfully now you see all of the enemies in plain view, you can choose to engage them or not, and all battles take place instantaneously.

The ADB has incredibly sped up the overall pace of the game. There is no break in the action from engaging one enemy to the next. The AI controlling the enemies are well done. If you come into any enemy’s sight lines, they will engage you in combat. Now if you sneak up behind them, you can get in an extra strike and cause more damage, because you enemy was unaware of your presence. One of my favorite aspects of the ADB system is the fact that you can target an enemy, then sit back and watch the battle. Once you issue a command, you don’t have to control your character’s movement, AI will take over and run up to the enemy and circle around it, awaiting another strike.

The Gambit system is a means of controlling the AI decisions of your other party members. You create simple equations from little Gambit cards that you pick up or purchase. For example you can set up a Gambit that tells your character if any of your party members dips below 30% of their overall health, you will throw them a potion. The first part of a Gambit is a conditional statement, followed by an action. It’s very simple to understand with the control and presentation of the Gambit system.

With all of the elements of player characters being controlled by AI, you may be concerned with the battles being boring to sit through, which is not the case. You may stop the battle at any moment and issue commands to each party member. The party leader can be switched out at any second, to utilize their abilities fully in battle.

Summation

After some time with Square/Enix’s new offering to the Final Fantasy series, I have to say that this is one of the best yet. The Active Dimension Battle system has given the menu based Active Battle System a much needed adrenaline shot. The story is elegant and the presentation reflects the care and consideration the designers have given to the subject matter. They have taken the best attributes from several previous games and have seamlessly integrated them in to a wonderously streamlined interface. Final Fantasy XII shows how a game can go beyond the limitations of a system, towards the end of its career. I would recommend this game to any fan of the series, and anyone curious about how a franchise can develop and refine its gameplay and technique over 19 years and still be considered fresh.