Oh, Final Fantasy XII. Has it really only been five years and change? You're one of the oldest games in my backlog, and since I'd played you extensively before putting you on the back-burner, it's easy to forget that you were a Christmas gift in 2006, and that even my oldest memories of you are younger than those of my first semester of college. Regardless, it's been nice catching up with you after all those years. At first I wasn't a big fan of yours. You were just so different from every other Final Fantasy game I'd played, and I had played and enjoyed plenty. Open world battles? An extensive and elaborate auto-battle system? Trying to ret-con yourself into "Ivalice," the world of Final Fantasy Tactics, without ever paying homage to that game? You had some nerve. And with a story so bland and emotionless and hard to care for, it's no wonder I stuck you back on the shelf in a matter of weeks. But since our reunion, I've come to appreciate your quirks. I've played through at least four other Final Fantasy games during our time apart, and there's a certain repetitious nature to those older siblings of yours, what with the same old battle systems and same old medieval settings. Silly old 18-year-old me just wanted you to be the same as some of my favorite games from childhood. But wise-beyond-those-18-years 23-year-old me has realized that after twelve installments and at least twice as many spin-off titles, maybe it's not such a bad thing that Final Fantasy ditched the battle screen set-up and tried something new. I have learned to respect that you march to the beat of a different drum, and as such, I can now consider you something substantially more than a disappointment. You still aren't my favorite Final Fantasy game, and at least four other numbered installments in the series- and perhaps six, and never mind several of your spin-off title cousins - still rank ahead of you in my mind. But an average Final Fantasy game is still a pretty darn good game, and as such, I award you four out of five stars and apologize for taking so long to appreciate you for what you are. Now, having said all that, seriously, what the hell was going on in that mess of exploration quests you call a "story?" I know I bailed midway through and let the first half of your plot rot away in my mind for half a decade, but I'm not sure I ever quite understood what was happening. I'm glad your six playable characters seemed so well-defined; if they hadn't, I'd probably have stopped caring once again. Come to think of it, how were said characters so well-defined while the story was so vague? And f we're being honest here, your music was less than impressive. Like, no disrespect to those who created it, but it always felt like simple elevator music. I suppose part of this is due to that whole "no separate battle screen" thing, but I mean, even during climactic cut scenes, where was the passion and the urgency? Let's see if your spin-off game (child?) manages to work the characters you've already established into a worthier story. At any rate, it's been real, and it's been fun, but boy am I glad I used that auto-grinding loophole to make your tail end a breeze to get through. Peace be with you. Now, enjoy the shelf once more.
Oh, God. Out of all the items on my Blacklog this might be the one that haunts me the most. Got this when it first came out and did some serious damage getting through it, but one day I lost my memory card and had to say "good-bye" to it. Years later I rediscovered it again while moving. I tried to pick it up from where I left off, but it had been so damn long that I couldn't make heads or tails of the storyline anymore and was too far in to justify starting over again.
ReplyDeleteWill I ever beat this game? Although I rank this as one of the best FF's I've ever played, I cringe to think of how I'm suppose to tackle this juggernaut. Plus I think the last time I played I stranded myself in a region where I was massively out-leveled by the surrounding monsters and am a little nervous at opening up that can of worms again.
Oh man Trev, you just described exactly where I was before resuming this game a few weeks ago - about two thirds in but with zero idea of what was going on, and incapable of competently fighting the basic enemies wandering around the area I was in. I started out by backtracking an area or two (via the save crystals, which can warp you) and just kind of grinding for about three hours. Sounds way worse than it was; thanks to the gambit system, the game can essentially play itself, so you just need to nudge the analog stick around half-heartedly to approach enemies, potentially while watching a movie or reading a book or just fucking around on the computer. Once I was WWE tough enough, I progressed back through the game and hit a certain point where you can just auto-level-up by chilling out next to an enemy that endlessly summons other enemies to join the fray. Sween similarly abused the system. Just leave it on overnight and come back eight hours later (or in may case, thirty) to find yourself pretty much leveled up to the point where the rest of the game consists of walking around and destroying EVERYTHING. The end of the game flew by and I hardly minded that I'd forgotten 95% of the plot, and by the time the credits were rolling I had some very fond thoughts for this game I'd back-burnered years ago.
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