I think that Final Fantasy XII was a much needed breath of fresh air for a series that was in danger of becoming stale, in both the gameplay and story department. It does not have a main character, and I like that. Instead, the story takes a much grander scale and focuses on a massive forthcoming war and ties it together with a collection of people that are major players in it. It isnt character driven. IT is event driven. A lot of people see this as a bad thing because they see the characters as underdeveloped, but I disagree with this. The characters are no more or less developed than other FF characters. The story just doesn't focus on them. IT doesnt shove the character developement in your face like previous games. I also liked that the story was much darker than your typical FF and quite a bit more political. It was such a change from the norm.
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What can be said about the voice work that hasn't already been said? It is fan freaking tastic. It blows all other Final Fantasy related voice work clear out of the water with just how good it was. IT stands up there with games such as Metal Gear Solid with how good it's voice work is. Some people said Fran wasnt that good, but I disagree. I thought her voicework was perfect for her. She struck me as being similar to Vulcans where hsedoesnt run on emotion so much as she does on logic, so the emotion tends to hide itself with her character. I thought that was cool.
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Why shouldnt the voicework be good when the script that the actors had to work with was top notch? The scripting for this game is worthy of Stanley Kubrick. IT is, honestly, that good. IT is incredibly sharp and well written. It is like they took extra care to translate this one extremely well, and it shows. Matsuno's scripts deserve that attention to detail, though. Have you played Vagrant Story? That was his game as well and the script was every bit as good. He also did Final Fantasy Tactics, whose script wasnt all that great because of translation issues. IF you have played the PSP port of this game, however, you have seen what should have been. The scripting in that game is top notch as well. Nice job, Matsuno. You are amazing.
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The music in this game is written by series veteran Hitoshi Sakimoto, whose other credits include the brilliant soundtracks for Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. The guy knows what he is doing, and, if anyone should replace Uematsu as the series composure, it is him. The Theme of the Empire is a stunning and epic piece of work, and it just sets the tone for how good the music will be throughout the rest of the game. It is, to say the least, beautiful. That being said, it is different. His music is more complex and more orchestrated than that of Uematsu, but it works. It is just as brilliant
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What can I say about the gameplay? If you know me, you know random battles get on my nerves. NO RANDOM BATTLES! IT is the greatest thing to ever happen ti Final Fantasy gameplay. It took the traditional Final Fantasy battle system and made it work without the random battles. IT is the active time battle system without random encounters. That is all there is to it. IT is as simple as that, but it worked. I never got frustrated with this game because of the random encounters. When I was near dying, I knew I could get back to town without dying because I could just run back and not fear random battles that I cannot escape. Thank you! Finally. If you know me, then you also know that I dont like complete linearity in my RPGs (Final Fantasy X, I'm looking at you). This games world was massive and gorgeous. The jungles. The beach. The rolling dunes. IT was so gorgeous. I just couldnt wait to see what it would throw at me next. I loved exploring every nook and cranny of this games world. It was so beautiful and such a joy
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Ok. I am done fanboying all over this game.
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