Final Fantasy XII brings back the nostalgic experience from the revolutionary Final Fantasy VI.
The Gambits system takes the Final Fantasy series to a whole new level, whether considered a downfall or an upturn. Basically, the Gambits system comprises of pre-setting your characters' action commands in a particular manner they will attack any foes in range. And this works pretty well with the fast paced gameplay that is almost impossible to catch up on manually.
Suppose you've to fight a demon llama, but you're low on your HP. You can set your character's Gambits in a way that when your HP goes below 70%, other party members will automatically cast a healing spell over you.
You can learn new abilities from a liscence sheet (which looks alot more like FFX's sphere grid). The more you fight, the more LP (liscence points) you will gain, and the more abilities you will be able to learn. To learn spells, however, you need to buy spells from vendors first. That way you can never over level and play fair. To equip new weapons, first you need to activate it from the liscence sheet. It's quite easy to understand, but at the same time, drains you out of gil and energy.
As easy the difficulty level can be, the gameplay is equally as challenging. However, all you require is a bit of strategy and you can take upon even giant turtles in a bit.
The visuals in Final Fantasy XII brings back the nostalgic experience from the older SNES titles in the series. In-game you come across some extremely beautiful city-scapes packed with the hussle and bussle of the people. You literally have an entire bazaar you can go to and shop. Almost all of the characters in the city are interactive and you feel as if you're actually walking across the places. And not even once that I felt that the frame rate was decreasing.
Other landscapes are mostly extremely vast (mind you, even larger than the Calm Lands from FFX) and you have so many foes running around that you can pick a fight with. Most of the scenery is bluntly hot deserts or so, but every level is as detailed as the last.
Character models are simply beautiful. It's almost surprising that the PS2 can hold up such highly defined clothing and accessories of the characters.
Final Fantasy is also known for it's cheesy Japanese style music, which is also very endearing, however, FFXII fails to deliver a such an experience. Nubuo Uematsu, who has composed music for FFI to FFX (and always being just as fantastic) left Square in search of something less action based (*coughs* Super Smash Bros. Brawl *coughs*).
The background music in FFXII is simply depressing and repitative. It doesn't measure upto Nobuo at all and seems kind of rushed. The battle-victory music has originally been taken from FFVI (SNES) but besides that, there is nothing else it has to deliver. Unlike it's fore-bearers, you won't be lost in a reminiscence, humming along the background theme.
The voice acting is however very well done and deserves a perfect score! Every character has a different accent. You would notice some characters have Indian, and even Icelandic accents which, I believe is a bigger approach for Square.
The storyline centers around the world of Ivalice, where two nations namely Archedia and Dalmasca were at war. Dalmasca had to surrender because of the horrible conclusion of it (the king getting murdered, the prince getting killed in the war and the princess hanging herself).
We take the role of a poverted peasant in the city of Rabanastre in Dalmasca two years later, namely, Vaan. Vaan is extremely poor and hardly has any money to keep himself alive. In a desperate attempt, he tries to sneak into the castle to take some treasure and then give it to the needy (*coughs*Robin Hood, anyone?*coughs*). However, an ambush attack almost kills Vaan and later on he gets caught and thrown into a dungeon followed by another series of unfortunate events. And for the first time, you have to think in a Final Fantasy game.
The characters are rich with personality and will create a bond with the players. Although sometimes I wish they had more clothes, their looks still match with the warm setting of the world anyway. If everything else doesn't attract you a bit, the environment and the ambience will, which makes this game an excellent eye candy.
The life-span of the game goes over 120+ hours. If you're one of the players who like to clear every side-quest and check every nook and corner of the game, you're in for a long experience. However, if you like to stick with the storyline, the game lasts for 50-60 hours.
FFXII might not follow the path of the games from FFVII and onwards, but instead, it sticks to the formula from the earlier 8-bit era of games, and there is definitely something in it for everyone. It's a great game to be played and enjoyed and doesn't deserve even half the critism it recieves.