Sound/Music:
Many of us know by now that long-time series favorite Nobuo Uematsu is no longer with Square, and many fans were a bit nervous to see who would step up to fill such grand shoes. Fear not, as composer Hitoshi Sakamoto has more than risen to the occasion. The music definitely has a different feel compared to the melodies of Uematsu, but Sakamoto does a wonderful job of pulling you into the world of Ivalice. Featuring sweeping, bombastic marches, and quiet, pensive moments, every piece seems perfectly suited to the scene it’s used for. However, I do have one qualm about the score. Compared to Uematsu’s works, I’ve found that the soundtrack to Final Fantasy XII simply isn’t as enjoyable to listen to on it’s own. Without the accompanying scenes, many pieces seem to fall flat. This is merely an opinion, of course, and the music is by no means in poor quality, so your mileage may vary when trying it out for yourself.
As for the voice acting, Square has once again upped the ante and done an outstanding job. Save for the too-young sounding Vaan, every voice is spot on and fit’s the character perfectly. From the gruff Basch, to the debonair Balthier and the sultry Fran, Final Fantasy has never had characters with such…character! In all seriousness, the personalities of the game’s cast are more developed than in many games I’ve seen up until now, and it makes Final Fantasy just that much more enjoyable to play through. I usually will skip through the voice acting in some games once I’ve read the text portion through, but not once did I miss a word throughout Final Fantasy XII. Again, a truly fantastic job by all parties.Gameplay:
This is the segment a lot of fans have been worried about. From the minute Square announced the drastic changes to Final Fantasy’s once-familiar battle system, the internet was in an uproar. Fortunately, I can say the battle system is much more enjoyable than ever before, and incredibly streamlined to make for a very pleasant experience. Gone is the Active-Time-Battle structure of Final Fantasies past, to be replaced by a Final Fantasy XI-like real-time system. There are no scene transitions, and all combat happens directly in the field.
When it comes to the actual battles, you can handle each team member yourself, or you can let the game’s AI handle things for you. This is done through a system called “Gambits.” Gambits consist of two parts, an action and a target. Both of these can be either found in treasure during game play, or bought in Gambit shops in various towns. From the Gambit menu screen, you create a target and an action, and then set it to a character. For example, you could have Fran set to cast Cure on any character that falls below 80% of their hit points, or you could have Ashe set to cast Fire on any enemy weak to that particular element. Many detractors say the game plays itself by this system, but I can assure you that is far from the case. Not once did I feel like I wasn’t a part of the battle, and boss fights are more grandiose and stressful than ever. Every time a major battle popped up throughout the dungeons, my adrenaline was pumping like any fast-paced action game!
Now, you might say, “Well, how does Fran learn Cure, or Ashe learn Fire?” That happens to be done through a new type of leveling up called the License Board. Somewhat similar to Final Fantasy X’s Sphere Grid, characters gain License Points from battles, and spend them on various squares throughout the chess board-like grid to gain access to spells, weapons, armor, and other things, such as new gambits or more hit points. There are also expensive spaces called Quickenings, which are Final Fantasy XII’s magic point-draining version of Limit Breaks, Overdrives, or Trances, depending on what you prefer to call them. This brings back memories of the job system of older games such as Final Fantasy V or III, as any character can be created to perform any role just as well as any other. You could have Vaan be a gun wielder, or Ashe use axes and dark magic. The choice is up to you and totally limitless. The one problem I have with the License Board system, however, is that you can’t see what each license is until you’ve earned a license directly next to it. This makes long-term development a slight hassle. I also would have liked more party members to join you simultaneously, as three seems a bit on the small side. All-in-all, though, neither of these are major problems, and I would say they don’t detract from the score a bit.Articles on WomenGamers.Com solely reflect the experiences and perspectives of the author(s). Feel free to agree or disagree in the accompanying forum thread.
