a5c7b9f00b Street thief Vaan becomes embroiled in a quest to save the occupied kingdom in which he resides, Dalmasca, from a war that seems imminent. War is on the horizon. Seeking to strengthen its base of power, the great Archadian Empire has been invading and subjugating its neighboring kingdoms, one by one. The small kingdom of Dalmasca was one of it. When the occupying Archadian forces established a new consul in Dalmasca&#39;s royal city of Rabanastre, it caught the intention of Vaan, an urchin living on the streets. To Vaan, the Empite was an enemy hated by himself who had taken the life of his brother–his last surviving family member. Vaan hatches a plan to sneak into the castle housing the new consul. But before he had the chance, Vaan got far more that he bargained for; a resistance movement of former Dalmascan soldiers rising up against the Archadian Empire were launching an assault! Amid the ensuing confusion that engulfed the castle, Vaan saw something he could scarcely believe. There, among the members of the resistance, was the figure of the sole remaining heir to the Dalmascan throne, Princess Ashe, who had been notified to the peoplemissing. Our story follows Vaan, Ashe and his friends, Penelo, the sky pirate Balthier, his partner Fran and many more through the magical world of Ivalice. Do not get me wrong I enjoyed it somewhat seeinghow I am a role playing game fanatic…still I did not enjoy itmuchany of the other Final Fantasy games I have played. I looked forward to this one for so long too,it took forever for it to be released, but the end result has to many mixed results for my tastes. First the fighting engine, I know they want to cater to us Americans who when a button is pushed an action must be performed, but give me the good old turn based fighting any day of the week. Especially, when I have more than one character to control. That isn&#39;t entirely fair thoughthe fighting has some turn based elements to it…the fighting is exactly the sameKnights of the Old Republic to be honest. It took me a bit to get a handle on it, but in the end it was okay and I was able to totally destroy the final boss of the game. However, to do so I had to level up and level up and level up. I have never spent so much time trying to boost my characters in a FF than I did in this one. I ended up taking at least over twenty hours of my 70 hours of playing time just leveling up. That is too much, you should only be required to level up that much if you just want to beat the extra bosses, not just the regular enemies in the field. Also, be sure to make good use of the gambitsthat is how I finally won the game. Magic casting takes forever here too so that can cost youwell. Then it is too long, seventy hours and I did not complete all the extra stuff you could, I mean if I did not have a life or job sure I would love to have a game that long, but not when I am working and stuff. The story is okayit follows a wannabe pirate named Van (or the Tidus clone)he helps Princess Ashe (the Yuna clone) regain her kingdom. Accompying them are a former guardsmen, an actual sky pirate and his rabbit eared sidekick and a little gal named Penelo. The story has some interesting elements, but gets to political for my tastes. Also with the time you spend walking places and leveling you forget stuff and characters that will be important later become forgottenthey are not seen for long stretches. I think to myself, &quot;who is he?&quot; and then oh yeah I saw him ten or so hours ago. Also, the whole sky pirate plot is a bit dumb here,you mightwell be walking pirates, because if you don&#39;t walk everywhere you will not level up enough to beat anyone. Still the character&#39;s are likable enough and the beginning part of the game is rather good, cut some time off of it and it would be great…the layout of the land is excellent thoughthis world is very detailed. Final Fantasy XII is a really great game with a lot of extras to keep you busy for a long time. The fighting system itself has been overhauled - instead of running into random encounters and being transported to a battle screen, the enemies are on the field and you fight them right there. The system does take some getting used to, especially in the beginning when you only have one person in your party. The system works best later on, when the enemies (and you and your party) are quicker, stronger, and smarter, resulting in fast, amazing battles. Any fan of World of Warcraft or other MMORPGs will adapt to this game in two seconds,it&#39;s basically the same fighting system.<br/><br/>I found the weakest link was the story, which is odd because Final Fantasy is known for great stories. It never felt epic to me, and it didn&#39;t feel like the fate of the world was hanging in the balance. It had to do more with politics and war (probably because the head guy of this game was the same guy behind Final Fantasy Tactics, which focused less on fantasy and more on warring kingdoms). Also, while the game advertises Vaanthe main character, it&#39;s not really so. It makes you wonder why they didn&#39;t just scrap him and go with some other party memberthe main character,there are three others with more &quot;main character&quot; story lines than Vaan. The music is also nothing compared to past games. Finally, the only way to make serious money is by selling the &quot;loot&quot; you find off dead monsters. You will find yourself broke often because everything - weapons, armor, magic, Gambits, technicks, EVERYTHING - costs a lot of money.<br/><br/>But those are actually minor grievances once you start playing the game. The sidequests in this game, mainly hunting Marks, are incredibly fun. There are great bosses, the Judge Magisters are cool and intimidating, the voice acting is superb, the cutscenes are excellent, the graphics push to the PS2 to its limit, there are tons of different weapons and spells, the cities are large and sprawling with life, and Gambits - if you like &#39;em - can be mastered to perfection.<br/><br/>All in all, a great game and a great addition to the series
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295 weeks ago