Thank you for watching!!! Look forward to my 13 Sentinel's review next and then SMT4 THENNNNN XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 3 BABY!! Also if ya like what I do please don't forget to support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/PelvicGaming
This video is a great example of what I think is the strength of your channel. This is a game I love, in fact I think it is the best Final Fantasy from a replay value due to the battle system (A lot of people feel this way about 5 because of the job system). IV and IX are my actual favorites, but this is the one where I feel like I can mess around with all the moving parts. That said, I can't disagree with any of the things you don't like about it. All of your comments are fair. The story clearly suffered from the changes to the team and probable corporate meddling with the main character. The look is more muted. It was made at the start of gaming's "Brown Age" and while it was better than a lot of what was about to come, it is nowhere near as colorful as most FFs. While I enjoy the soundtrack, it is more cinematic/atmospheric than bombastic; more Avatar than Star Wars. Great video.
gotta echo the replay value, i was so glad to be done with it and yet strangely i kinda want to do a 2nd playthrough with a different cast build. IX is also my favorite
After the intro with Vaan's brother, I've often thought that the story should have picked up with Basch in prison. Keeping him as the main character and developed his story from there. Have someone else from the main cast come rescue him as usual. Vaan and Penelo could have been done away with.
I wasn’t a fan of 12 when it first came out but when I got older and decided to dive into the world of Ivalice again, I fell in love with it. I am sad that we were robbed of Basch or Balthier being a main character but this game truly has a special place in my heart.
God I love your sass. Don’t ever change. On topic: i totally get your take on this game and the points you make are all very good, but for me, love everything about this game, except for Vaan. The colours, the voice acting, the dialogue, the setting, the character and level styling, licence board, gambits, weapons. They all work for me.
FF12 is honestly one of my favorite entries in the series, it's a world that feels comfy to return to, a combat system that is as potentially complicated as it is mind-numbingly simple. It's a game with fantastic shells of characters in need of more flesh, and set in a world that feels as vibrant and lived in as it feels muted and colorless. It's a game of many contradictions in my mind, a game with flaws so easy to mark out, but with a charm that I can't help but be drawn in by. In earnest, I think the greatest value that FF12 brings is it's universe. Ivalice is genuinely compelling, and of all the FF games that I've played, and of most games I've played on a broader scope, there's few settings that I'd genuinely want to be apart of, which depsite its myriad issues, I think 12 does fantastically. The lore descriptions and just the general Aesthetics of the Espers are easily top of franchise for me, just a shame they're virtually useless in a fight. ~(Also a Crying shame the Judge Rush is locked behind the trial mode)~
Yes, Ivalice is definitely the star of this game. I remember reading all the lore entries back in the day and being completely enchanted with this world. I highly recommend playing„FFXII Revenant Wings“ if you haven’t already. It really expands Ivalice in an interesting way.
I remember playing this game and loving the graphics at the time, and really getting into the unique battle system, but disliking the character’s costumes. But I also remember not knowing what the heck was going on…😂😂
To me, it's one of my top three Final Fantasy games, and quite frankly, between the quality English voice acting, flexible combat system (though Zodiac Age somewhat changed that), music, and lore pertaining to Ivalice and how the main characters are an "E Pluribus Unum" this really touched me quite a bit.
I liked the story. What brings me back to this game over and over is the vast amount of things to do. Secret bosses. Steal strong items ahead of time, etc. Just loads of secrets.
My journey with FF XII has been a long and twisted one. Played the original on PS2 and I didn't make it past four hours. I just wasn't enjoying myself. I eventually gave the game a second chance with the release of The Zodiac Age and I don't know if it was me being older or some other reason but I fell in love with the game then. I think I was a bit more forgiving after my complete distaste for FF XV.
Good review. I was surprised the cinematic feel of the OST was a negative. Nobuo, the former composer, had a rock background, and so most of his songs have very strong pop-melody hooks that people remember. I really learned to love film scores while studying music in college, and Sakimoto's mode usage had me eating it up and asking for seconds. I like both, but I get it, just a preference.
Fair criticism As this is coming from Matsuno/Ivalice appreciator, I can definitely see that if someone's not on-board with setting and plot laid out for them, then there isn't much in the game. It's great you liked the combat, programmable party members is my favorite type of combat system. Job system in the newer versions is just too good.
I think the reason I love FF so much is that they're willing to try so many different things with such a big franchise. 12 is one of my absolute favorites, and probably my most replayed game in the series (and I rarely replay RPGs to begin with). But I'm always interested in hearing other people's opinions - particularly from folks younger than me who have a different context surrounding their experience. Great review, as always!
Hey Pelvic if you want to follow the legacy of the Final Fantasy Franchise, Might I recommend following the creator him self with mistwalker with games such as blue Dragon, Lost oddyssey, Last story and Phantasian. These games remind you of the nostalgic and memorable moments of when the series was at its highest with its breathtaking cinimatic story telling and gorgious art, colorful worlds, and sound, unlike the later games such as FF XIII and XV which seems to severly stray from its roots.
I have never played the Zodiac age but the ps2 version is one of my favorite games ever. I love half the things she hates about it. Lol. 😍❤💖Although I do agree that Vaan as the main character was a weird and not loved move.
Yeah, FFXII is not for everyone, but people tent to like the game way more on their 2nd playthrough, also The Zodiac Age version is a masterpiece, imo the last great original FF game.
I feel like games that share the lore of Ivalice really are a vibe. Either you'll really enjoy the games they're part of (Tactics Ogre, Vagrant Story, FF:Tactics, FFXII) even FFXIV has parts that take place here. Or you'll be so bored that you won't be able to get into the games. This has always been my problem. I always hear about how the games listed above are some of the best RPGs ever made but I could never get into them. I love FFXIV but when it came to the Ivalice raids and Bozja, I just tuned out completely. Tried playing Tactics numerous times as well as FF12 tapped about after becoming bored and losing interest. I agree with all of your criticism here though. ESPECIALLY the music.
This review pretty much sums up my feelings on the game as well, barring a few minor disagreements. Namely, I didn't even care for Balthier. He isn't bad. I'd put him in the rankings for best character in the game, but... that's more a critique on how forgettable the cast is. I dunno, he just sounds bored all the time to me, even when he's supposed to be interested in something. The character building is great, especially in the Zodiac Age release. Gambits are fun. Even if they make the game play itself, you at least have the final say in what actions the game will take, which is more than I can say about ff13... Couldn't even get beyond 7 hours of that game...
I always felt like people hype up Balthier cause he's a pirate and pirates are always automatically seen as cool. Didn't really stand out to me though.
YOU NAILED IT! This game has so much potential. I've tried to play ffxii several times. I find the game so boring. It could've been so good! Get rid of vaan and Penelo and make basche and ashe the main characters. Maybe I should try it again with the speed up mechanic? F the dumb doom wall thing too.
Shame you didn't enjoy the soundtrack, I always thought of them as quite immersive. Graphically speaking, the game on PS2 was impressive for the times (in technical terms), as for the world building, I believe it's actually quite in line with FFX in the way by which cities and cultures are modelled after existing ones and by mixing them in pretty seemless ways. Not all of them were top notch, by all means, but I generally loved the ideas and lore behind the architecture, costumes, etc. in Ivalice.
THANK YOU! I cannot tell you how many defenders of this game will go for my throat when i tell them i do not like this game. It has elements that are fun but in the long run this game is one of the bottom tier FF games. The characters are boring are look like their made out of sand paper. The battle system is a terrible idea of trying to inject the MMO style of RPG play into a game that could have easily been active turn based without the gambit system. The game has good ideas but poor characters and terrible execution. I enjoyed the world at least, the music was fun and the political side of the story was interesting for what it was worth but this has to be one of the least dynamic group of characters i have ever seen or tried to listen to. At least with 15 there was a sense of brotherhood and friendship, at least with FF13 the characters had SOME interesting aspects to them with some comeradery but with 12 everyone sounds like their bored most of the time, there is next to no chemistry between them and the character art direction is bland.
FFX didn't feel like a true FF game to me in a lot of ways and was my least favorite entry so far. I'm hesitant to play any past it. I was considering grabbing 12, but may stick to earlier entries or spin offs for now.
I understand where your interest lie in Final Fantasy, but I always have to point this out to everybody: Just because you don't like the direction the series is going, doesn't mean the series is going downhill or 'losing its identity'.
I have such an unfair grudge against this game because when it came out and my older brother started playing it, he'd force ME to do all his item farming and whatever for him, like good god. One time he forced me to run back and forth between two rooms until the weather would change in one of them (indicating a special enemy had spawned) and like. I will never get that time back. And then he'd force me to sit and watch him fight Gilgamesh for the upteenth time because he thought it was the coolest thing like. I'm slightly glad the game is actually mediocre because if it was a good game I'd be so upset about it being ruined for me lmao
i loved 10 as a edgy little teen girl so i was so hype for 12 and i returned it to gamestop within a week, it was the most burnt id felt by a game in my life at the time, so yeah i basically agree w all this
I played this game last year and I agree with just about everything you said in this review. I adored Balthier and the combat system but that was about it. The last few dungeons were such a drag for me to get through.
God I love this game; it took over my life when the PS2 version came out, and again when this version came out. The only part of this game I didn't like was the damn Pharos dungeon. I was ready to give up on the series after X and XI came out, and I wasn't liking what I was seeing pre-release out of this game; but I bought it on a whim and fell in love with it. It was so much fun for me, planning suicide runs in places way beyond my level, to try to get super powerful weapons, or trying to spawn a rare monster, steal from it, and run for your life! It was refreshing after X, where until the end of the game, the only thing that really mattered between weapons were how many slots it had. Anyways, fun video as always; I love that I never quite know how you'll react to a game, you're such a wild card lol!
I always liked the Gambit system. It's very reminiscent of the tactics settings BioWare had in the original Baldur's Gates games, and subsequent D&D rpgs in the 90s. The FF7 remake/sequel games should've had this system.
I'm the complete opposite with games and tend to favor gameplay over story but I think you made a lot of good points about the things holding the game back narratively
100% with you I could not bring myself to finish this boring game. FFX was the last great FF game. Love your channel, your opinions, your style, and your amazing looks! You rock Pelvic!
I agree this one was dull compared to others in the series. I really felt like you could have stared the plot when Ashe, Fran and Balthier met and continued the plot without even changing the dialog. The one thing I think they should keep from this title was it was the only installment I played that remembered you still have 3 perfectly healthy and ready to fight party members left if the onscreen ones get defeated
I find your comments quite accurate. Even when I like FF12 now, it was a long process of the game warming up to me. When I played in the PS2 it with my older brother he got so bored in the sandsea huge map (remember no 4X speed), that he gave up and I had to took over the playthrough. It was devastating to see him getting that experience from a franchise that we both used to love. I think I did not like FF12 the first time I played it since I was expecting something similar to the golden age of FF. But after revisiting it later, I have found some positive things about it and the gameplay is quite addictive once you get the hang of it. Oh and one thing... for all the good things Zodiac Age did, you should be aware that they completely messed up the difficulty and balance of the game. They added way too many stats into the job system and even decreased the enemy stats in the zodiac age remaster. The irony is that the original FF12 on PS2 was very tough since you could easily stat the wrong way and lose your precious JP into "useless" stats.
FF12 definitely isn't the strongest in its story and characters (despite Balthier being one of my favorites) but what it lacks in story it easily makes up for in gameplay and exploration. Great review and I respect your opinion
This game was so far ahead of its time; the semi open world structure, extremely customizable character builder and never ending depth in terms of battle tactics, not to mention writing and that actually caters to adults (still a rarity for jrpg's...) . If it was released today but built with modern graphics and tech it would be massive. It's only real issue is that it's not very final fantasy, it's something totally different with final fantasy spells, items and summons bolted onto it. I wish they would have taken this game and just made it it's own thing, it has more in common with tactics ogre or vagrant story in terms of tone and world building. Absolute classic imho
Basch was not supposed to be the main character It was clarified in interviews later on that Vaan was decided as main character at the very start of the development.
11:04 honestly thats my fav part of ff12, is its not like the others. i was hoping the rest of the games would be like this but to many people hated it
y know what ? your review are deep and informative compared to other reviews .. and no spoliers (mostly)... liked and subbed due to your quality reviews... checking your other videos now.. incredible how Japanese RPG outperform western RPG in term of fun and enjoyment (Exception Skyrim / elders scroll series )
Great review! I'll be honest though, the things you did not enjoy, were a lot of things that I did! I love how the characters were mature, and the fact that it did not have a steong protagonist, it felt less anime like and more "serious" if it make any sense, evem Vaan I started to appreciate more as time went by. The colours, the world are so whimsical, the British dub is outstanding, made me a lot more interested in how different it was from the FF games i played.
The combat is THE ONLY REASON I love this game still to this day. THE. ONLY. REASON. . . . Yet…..once you cheese it with overpowered equipment then it just becomes dull…still though. It’s unique!!!
I'm so sad that FFXII got such bad reputation and lack of narrative quality, because I'm such a fan of the Ivalice setting. I'm so sorry that you feel the soundtrack is so lackluster, cuz I love Hitoshi Sakimoto's compositions. Yes, it's cinematic as all hell and it suits Ivalice so well. He's composed the music for every Ivalice-related entry: Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance(1&2), Vagrant Story and of course FFXII and it's sequal: Revenant Wings. He worked with Yasumi Matsuno with projects like Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre prior to their involvement with Squaresoft.
HOW DARE YOU? DON'T LISTEN TO LADY PELVIC'S LIES!! lol Jokes aside, I had the exact same feelings you had about almost everything in the game the first time I played it. But with time my perceptions changed and nowadays I ABOLUTELY LOVE the art style and music of Final Fantasy XII. Generally speaking I love the middle eastern and byzantine vibe of the world, mixed with the fantastical creatures, and the character design (except Vaan's, fuc Vaan). I think Balthier may be my favorite design ever, he made me appreciate machinists in the series a lot more. Also, about the soundtrack, while I agree most of the songs are "forgettable" and not very distinguishable, it's so good to listen to. Honestly the kind of etherial element of some of the tracks made it great for listening doing mundane stuff (like working and studying). Some of the ones I love include: Respite, Eruyt Village, Discarded Power, A Moments Rest, Giza Plains, Battle With an Esper... But don't get me wrong, even if though I like it more now, FF12 is not on my top 5 games from the series and I still think the characters and story development are lackluster. Which goes to show how executives mostly ruins things when they decide to meddle with creative affairs (F.U.C. V.A.A.N). It had so much potential... had Matsuno not left Square during the development we could have had a worthy prequel to Tactics.
I played all FFs. And to this day I can think of only two great Final Fantasies: 6 and 7. 1-3 are fine, little games. I played them in the late 90s, I imagine they were great in 1985, but twelve years later, they were not that great. 4 and 5, which I played in the early 2 thousands, are really good, but kind of simplistic and puerile. 6, which I played the dame year as 4 and 5 (and Chrono Trigger, by the way; I bought all four games the same day) a masterpiece, a game that today, in 2022, feels good to play. I played 7 in 1997, not long after release, and it immediately became my favorite game, next to Doom and Super Metroid. 8 was a disappointment. I hated the characters, the gameplay, the story, everything. 9 was fine, but the story is stupid and Zidane, a pedophile and a sexual harrasser. 10 is crap. 11 is online (i.e. crap), 12 is crap. 13 is crap. 14 is online. 15 is crap. 16 is gonna be crap, obviously. But people will keep buying crap, so Squaresoft will keep making crap. They should lesrn something from Enix, who made the best JRPG of modern times: Dragon Quest XI S.
Pardon me, but you hit your head and I don't think you played this masterpiece at the right time in your life. Just kidding. I feel like defending 12 ZA, but I agree with some of your criticisms. Love 12 and I must have played it at the exact moment i couldnt afford to upgrade to Xbox 360 or PS3, because I saw it as an elaborate, well made game with tons of exploration (for a PS2 game). The Judges had some villain flair, there are compelling moments for your cast and as you mentioned Larsa was such an impressive NPC, probably my favorite to this day (note to self- see if personalized plate name LARSA is taken). The variety of locales and my favorite Moogle, Monte Blanc, calls me Kupo, again (he had me back in FFTA on GBA at 'hello kupo'. I understand 12 not being the right direction for FF fans for most of the JRPG community, but I still feel such a fondness for that world, it's hunts, the costumes of the aerodrome workers, stylish Balthier, and many of the cool weapons, music tracks, monsters, etc. Please don't go too long without seeing a doctor for that conk on your nugget. we all love to love you baby, just don't dis my FF 12, baby.
I'd say 8 is the black sheep of FF. 12 is great, simply from its ties with Tactics. Don't get me wrong, I love ff 8, but it along with 2 are the odd games out...:) Mind you, I'm very fond of both Matsuno, and Ito. FF IX, and IV are tied for my favourite FF's, and Ito created the ATB, which first appeared in ffiv
Not sure if you've played FFVI but if you're a Sakaguchi fan you really oughta if you haven't. My personal favourite Final Fantasy game. But yeah, regarding XII and this review: No LIes DETECTED. As someone who had played all US released FF games up to that point, FFXII was dull and boring and really was the beginning of the end. FFX had its issues but it still felt like Final Fantasy to me and honestly looking back on it it's not that bad, but XII is definitely where it started to fall off hard and FFXIII... well the less said about that game and sub series, the better. EDIT: And btw I played this game when it first came out and I finished it and at the time I enjoyed it okay, but found it boring... but when I came back to the Zodiac Age as an older gamer I thought "Hey, I remember this being good" and tried it and even WITH all the QoL improvements, I couldn't finish it. I couldn't even get past that desert area with all the oil rigs. I noped-out hard. The game was even more boring the second time around. Uuugh. But FFXIV is pretty good. I don't have my hopes up for FFXVI nor do I care at this point about it.
You know, everybody loves “FF’s 1-10”. You know, the turn-based ones that are constantly being released and topping sales charts to this day! But Squeenix feels the need to re-invent the wheel every game after “FF10” and the series has sadly suffered. Such as this boring game that plays itself. (Finally started on “FF9” and enjoying it).
Good point about the lowtown music. I think the game is best described as an ambient adventure. With how realistic XV tried to be, and how much 16 is piggybacking off of that in a medieval fantasy variant, I wonder what parts you might like or not. The only kick I got out of FFXV was the cup of noodles quest, and with their determination to make the combat an action movie with zero strategy whatsoever I just simply have zero hope for the game's success.
At the time, its drabness was welcomed if you thought the series was dipping with titles like X and Crisis Core, which were pretty tacky. It was the more "serious" world of Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story. But looking back, you're right--I don't remember any of these characters, and the game looks pretty bland. Excellent review!
I wanted to play this game. But like u said, it doesn't look impressive to me. Not saying it's bad. Just wasn't the kind of Final Fantasy game that it once was between FF4-FF9 ( Except FF8. ). And not dissing FF10. I do think it's good to some extent. But it was the beginning of what modern Final Fantasy games would turn out for the way it was. Some aren't bad. But they aren't as good as for the likes of FF4, FF6, FF7, FFT & FF9.
I loved FFT and Vagrant Story. When I heard about this I was overjoyed and couldn't wait. But Wait I did through all 60 hours of my playthrough for some kind of compelling plot or character development but...nope...not really.
I love the carefree freedom of the original, it worked well to spark my imagination living in an environment that resembled somewhat the locations in the game. That said I genuinely hate The Zodiac Age, and it still bums me out a bit I don't like any of the changes.. The ending I don't think anyone is going to argue comes as a weird 180° out of nowhere with no real coorelation to the rest of the game (it's there, but it lends to exemplify why you are in a location, why you are somewhere, not where the story is going except in trite anecdotes which makes the ending as odd as it is), but I think that's intentional due to the development of the game, so no continuation would come of it out of respect I guess, perhaps that's just me though. Balthier is the main character, he needs his own game still (even if it was dirge of cerberus levels of weird I'd dig it). I always thought Larsa was a woman, lol. I love how it's a singleplayer mmo, myself being in the middle of nowhere with a PS2 in dead heat made that game a gem. Also 7:28 is incorrect, that's like saying the FFX sphere grid is hot garbage and restrictive (which is true but at the same time not it's intent), because the license board is a genuine improvement over that. If you want a skill for a character, you will either obtain the license or make do without (which makes progression fluid with your exploration, rather than predictable and linear from the moment you touch the board), which I think makes more sense with the gambit system than specializing each character into a niche, where your whole party advances at the same pace with no challenges to overcome except where your party design choices were genuinely terrible (the open board system also allows you to get super nitpicky on who is fulfilling what roll in order to hyper specialize your gambits for a fight, my biggest let down with TZA, since they trivialized the whole system as best they could despite it being the game's strongest element). They also removed a lot of cool stuff like rare drops from treasure chests for the off chance you discover it (similar to the rare enemy variants that are tough and grant more LP (usually)), they didn't bother adding back in any of the secret shops (to my knowledge) you could wander out and venture into the unknown to find before your story beat had unlocked and offered things of that grade in the shops (a shit ton of rewards for exploration essentially got gutted for no reason). Shop variety has severely sunk into the ground since they took the gacha game equivellant of an approach to justify their zodiac job system. They added a weird green overlay thing (shader?) to the game, and removing it isn't 100% possible so it is still CIA Psyops levels of disgust looking at them needlessly undetail the game's original art just so it looks like a piece of smooth taffy. If you couldn't tell I am dissapointed with TZA over the PS2 NA release then go talk to Balzac with your firing squad at hand pls and ty.
Huh, the reasons you don't like the story/characters is why many LIKE them. 12 is trying to tell a far more grounded story. its characters aren't whimsical chosen one with SUPER SPECIAL destinies or whatever. they are just people caught up in politics that are larger than all of them. For me, its a refreshing change form the typical JRPG protagonists.
I love FFXII, and I'm sorry it didn't really vibe with you. Though, my feelings toward it are pretty unusual among people who do like it: I really enjoyed Vaan and Penelo, along with Fran and Balthier, but Ashe and Basch were just... eh. I loved the combat, though, exploring the big areas and doing hunts is all a lot of fun.
If you haven't played it yet, you need to do a playthrough review of Star Ocean: Second Story or PSP version Second Evolution. A gigantic world with multiple recruit able cast dependent on choices, party banter, top 3 JRPG ost on PS1, a crafting system almost as addictive as crack, very fleshed out skill system, lots of replay value. Game is jam packed with things to do, one of the greatest of it's era.
This review falls a lot under the "I mean you're not actually wrong but how dare you" spectrum for me. XII was my... third or fourth I think ? FF, and it was also the video game equivalent of my first crush - with extra bonus points for my parents realising it was 16+ and confiscating it while I was two thirds in, meaning it ended up becoming the one that got away. That might have actually been a blessing in disguise, because the Zodiac Age version is infinitely more playable (bless the job board overhaul, Quickenings no longer draining your MP and the 4x speed feature) and it's the one I ended up finishing years later. But yeah, I won't try and defend the fact it's a mess, especially plot and character wise. The choice to frame Vaan as the protagonist was always kind of weird, although I never thought he was extraneous to the party - it's just that his whole shtick is supposed to be that he's a combat savant, which when you look at it he is. He's a self-taught urchin kid keeping up with a knight captain, two professional pirates and a rebel warrior princess. But you don't really feel it in the actual gameplay, and that lacking impact is reinforced by Penelo also keeping up. She's actually useful to the party dynamics as a mediator in theory, but the way she's implemented is just completely missed and ruins Vaan's kind of only shtick. And yeah, the whole party really isn't helped by Balthier stealing every scene he's in compared to the others. In a way, I think (beyond the British drawl, which as a Brit kind of does nothing for me beyond the ridiculously suave voice) it's because he's the only one who acts like a JRPG character in a cast that's trying to take itself seriously. Cid is the same on the villain side, and he was actually so much more fun as a villain than Vayne, hamming it up and monologuing. But I came into the game straight off Xenoblade 2 and Trails of Cold Steel 3, and I have to say that the party actually felt very... relaxing ? In a lot of JRPGs, the cast and the plot both always feel like they try be 100% maximum no chill, and the FFXII squad is definitely more down to earth compared to that, which actually helped make me more invested in their actual adventure. None of the individual characters are ever going to top my fave RPG characters list, but the party as a whole I actually quite enjoyed sticking with, in a more low-key kind of way. As for the world, I get where you're coming from with regards to the realism and the colour palette... but this particular iteration of Ivalice is possibly my favourite FF world. It's huge and interconnected, to the point you can actually end up in places WAY above your level from pretty early on, there's always a hidden nook or cranny that could lead to a secret passage or a deadly optional boss that can just straight up gank you if you come in unprepared, and I actually enjoy the vistas it spans. It helps that the more drab colour palette (save a few specific locations) really helps to sell Ivalice as an old, dusty world long past its prime. A huge driving force of the plot specifically comes from Archades trying to recreate the glory of time past, and I guess I just feel that longing wandering through the abandoned Sandsea Complex, the Necrohol of Nabudis or places like Raithwall's Tomb. Rabanastre also lives rent free in my head as one of my favourite fictional towns of all time, between its music and aesthetics, and its weird cosmopolitan and cultural crossroad thing it has going on as a leftover from its glory days as the centre of Ivalice under Raithwall. Speaking of, yeah the soundtrack is underwhelming. There's a couple of bangers in there, but that's not really enough out of an hours-long soundtrack. Not much to say to that. Anyway, all this to say that it was very odd (in a good way!) listening to this, and really shows how what you focus on affects your enjoyment of a game. Despite being very much a lover of classic FF, I tried to go through IX three separate times and gave up every time. It feels slow, clunky and something about its design choices just puts me off - and yet there's a veritable armada of people defending it as the series' greatest heights, and I can even see why - it's just based mostly around criteria that do nothing for me. And looking at XII again in that light... Yeah, it's a hell of a mess. A loveable one nonetheless to me, but so many things you'd come looking for in a series that was pretty much the front window of JRPGs in the west for years just aren't there, and I do think it paid for that : it's a game with a lot of good points, but it's not a very good Final Fantasy game or a very good JRPG, and that was a lot of the people who are going to be playing it are going to be looking for. Honestly it's a running theme for the Ivalice games at this point - just look at FF Tactics advance and its lighthearted storybook isekai setting as a spiritual follow-up to FF Tactics, a heavily story-driven game lousy with political intrigue.
FF12 is a game of contrasts to me. I loved the atmosphere, world building, dialogue, and character and story setups. But as you said: the character (and story) payoffs in the end are a huge disappointment. Nothing amounts to much of anything, everything feels rushed over in the end. Likewise with gameplay. I like aspects of it. I enjoy setting up strategic gambits and building my characters via job classes and skills...in theory. But in practice it feels lacking. Setting up gambits is simple and self-evident for the most part -- if health is low, use healing items or magic, if enemy has elemental weakness, use corresponding magic, otherwise attack. Then in late game add Bubble and other buffs below healing but above everything else and voila. Strategy. As for character creation the majority of the job class and boards were just the ability to equip various equipment which is...kinda lame. The majority of skills that did exist were poor -- either underpowered and pointless altogether or had incredibly rare niche uses. Otherwise the battles themselves felt janky. You'd either be obviously safe, but still have to wait to cut through a tankie enemy health pool, or you'd be essentially instantaneously wiped out with no chance for recourse. And some of those late game dungeons were terrible to navigate and soooo long. The Great Crystal in particular was absolute mundane hell. There was so much promise and potential there, but it never quite came together for me. All that said, I highly suggest you check out Final Fantasy Tactics. The character setup strategizing there is second to none, and the plot is great and actually has payoff.
Tl;Dr If you really like character driven games, I think you would really appreciate 358/2 Days. Even if you already know the story, I think the unique format proves worthy of a play through if you ever get the chance. Okay, since you described yourself as very character driven, I would genuinely be very curious about your thoughts on the actual game 358/2 Days if you ever get the chance to play. As a DS Game, it is more limited in certain ways, and, in many ways, the mission format can be described as monotonous (I personally enjoy, it but I also can easily enjoy menial tasks so I’m probably not the best frame or judgement, even though I do standby that it has a lot of good combat moments and that the final boss is one of the best bosses in the entire series), however, it’s exactly because of this format that provides such a strong connection to the characters, which is why I think the story is best experienced as an actual game rather than the collection of cutscenes. Actually getting to, in a way, live the experiences of the characters is a lot more impactful than just seeing them play out in the short term in my opinion (plus they cut a lot of in game dialogue that’s not only cute and funny, but also a lot of the times helps further develop the characters). In many ways, I think it’s best approached almost like an “action visual novel.” If you’re looking for the best KH gameplay, you won’t really find it, but, goddamn, the story goes hard in this format, even if you know what’s coming.
You always review my favorite games!! 😭 these are like a retrospective for me hearing your opinion on them lol Edit: this did now go how I thought it would lol I originally couldn’t finish this game on the PS2 for the reasons you mentioned, but after replaying on the switch, I couldn’t put it down because of the combat!! By far the best FF experience I ever played and wish it were longer
It's funny how public perception changes over time. I remember nothing but negative things being said about this game back in 2006. Now everyone seems to agree it's pretty underrated today in (almost) 2023
I have plans to play every Final Fantasy from 6 onwards, but I just cant bring myself to add this to my backlog. The combat looks so BORING. I either want a thrilling turn based or tactics battle, or intense action. I've never seen this weird "To Do List" combat before. I was surprised to hear the combat is what you liked, because that's the part that made me choose to pass this game. I wish there was a demo or something where I could try out the combat before buying. But as of now, it just doesn't look fun enough.
I enjoy 12. It's the best of the post-PSX era of FF games, and was a great course correction after FFX, which just wasn't very good. Of course it was followed by XIII, which is the worst game in the series.
I don't think you have to be worried about Final Fantasy 16. Also, check out Final Fantasy 14 even if you're not into MMOs. Its pretty much single player now
I think the hard reality is that Final Fantasy just isn't a great series. The gameplay is typically shallow and unbalanced, with the ATB system not contributing much besides extra waiting, and the stories are mostly nonsense with occasional decent character moments. The games have really only ever been sold on the strength of their graphics, with 90% of the marketing material for every game since FF7 being focused on the cutscenes, and even prior to that FF6's only real strength was its 2D artwork and music. When I think about all the ways in which JRPGs can be great, like combat, exploration and storytelling, there are no Final Fantasy games that rank near the top of the genre in any of these categories.
I swear to fuck ff12 wasn't on my radar at all, I had a whole group of weeb friends drawing cloud and sephy fucking all through highschool, all of them played FFX and X-2 and not a single one ever mentioned FF12, never saw or heard anything about it until it was vaguely introduced to FFXIV and suddenly it was everyones favorite FF for a month
I hated Final Fantasy 12 on the PS2 however COMMA I loved the zodiac age. The verbiage, jargon, and lexicon were what enamoured me in my late 20´s when it was re-released
You put in words what I think about this game. I always kind fell bad for not like it but I had to force me to finish it. In that time I wasnt accepting that I just dont like the game
Disappointed that this game seems to be way more dull story wise than i was hoping. Always thought it would be atleast as interesting as Rogue Galaxy (which I still need to go back and finish, now i'm distracted mostly by monster hunter ^_^; ). For some reason I thought this game inspired some aspects to Rogue Galaxy's characters and story, tho I maybe off there
very good point about the FF series as a whole. and this game was amazing compared to 13. 15 didn't change my life or anything, but i didn't hate it! i thought it was fine-ish! and maybe i'm crazy but i'm actually optimistic about 16. - towtansua
I played this right after a playing through 7, 8, 9 and 10 and loving the franchise... it marks the end of my enjoyment of Final Fantasy games. Just could not get into it, the story and characters felt bland, the world uninspired, they battle system was a deal breaker for me.
FFXII is maybe my favourite FF but to be honest it’s largely because of Vibes. The setting, the lore and the dialogue are what I loved and so it ends up being my favourite even though I really did not care much about the battle system! I’m not really surprised that it wasn’t your thing It’s so fucking funny that you played this game just because of sexy Balthier though! And I’m glad you like Larsa at least, he has a lot of great moments
At least you liked the battle system, I didn't like anything about this game. FF12 and 13 made me stop playing the series, until FF7 remake came out, which gave me some hope for the series going forward.
The biggest downfall for me was that the story was terribly told. Dialogue was fantastic, but there were not enough smaller cutscenes in between major plot points to smooth out transitions in the story and expand on how the characters were dealing with everything. Vaan and Penelo did have some narrative purpose, but just like the rest of the story, it was not properly fleshed out, so it would have been better to just axe both those characters and have a 4-person party (you have gambits anyway, so it's okay to control all 4 at once). The only thing I definitely disagree with you here is the aesthetic! I love Ivalice! But that's purely subjective type of stuff.
8:16 I'm pretty sure there was, but there was a dedicated map button anyways (or an easy way to open it I forget, which showed your main story quest whenever you got lost and forgot). The speedup seems nice (essentially the "see we are kinda okay compared to emulation" selling point), but I think the only time I got fatigued with traveling around was in the Sandeas areas, the ridge areas adjacent the metal structure platforms takes a fair bit to get through if it's what you are planning on, or just want to clear the map open. Since every encounter promises an LP (apart some bosses), it gives you the time to carve your path through the game, rather than just yeet your levels into the stratosphere while you lolxd all over the place. Take in your surroundings, learn the land, etc, the zoomies skip a lot of that potential appreciation, but at the same time sometimes you just gotta haste tf through to get to gilgamesh because you never bothered with the more industrial and mining areas (haste and float became pretty essential for exploration in certain areas, so a party provisions specialist for their gambits would often be a thing, where you'd just know what you need and supplant the character that best fit that role, or wasn't necessarily doing the best, until you had one or two people far enough into the white magicks license grouping to stave off the hotswap and build more cohesive roles into your characters).
I actually enjoyed the writing and plot of this game as a whole. I can certainly agree that Vaan was a horrible choice for protagonist though. At the very least they should have tried to do more with his status as the Occuria’s backup plan. But I just didn’t like the gameplay of 12 at all. Any aspect of it. I would have been so much happier if they’d stuck to a standard turn-based or ATB system rather than the Gambits.
I played FF12 when it was on ps2 when I was a kid but never understood jrpgs at them, played it a few days ago just like you I found it pretty boring myself. Love your reviews btw!
I played it again on Switch because I could not finish it on ps2 years ago and damn. This game have a beautiful world and lore and the new combat system is cool but the scenario is boring and flat. I also tried to do side quests but some of them are limited in time and others require items with very very low % drop and I hated that. This game also have the worst dungeons ever in FF games (Pharros, Great Crystal etc.). I still completed the game, its a good RPG but a bad FF.
I'm playing through this right now and i must say, the Gambit system is the was the best thing invented for this type of Active Time Battle stuff, even though i'd really prefer if the game stayed turn-based. I agree with most of the review, and as someone who likes the story more than gameplay i'm ok with the game, it's not Xenoblade Chronicles 1 but it's good.
Final fantasy tactics is one of my favorite games of all time. Lady. You're doing yourself a disservice by not playing the war of the lions. The music. The spells. Even the politics. Is great. So fun. It's a game that's on every single phone iv owned since it's come out.
As a straight guy, I'd say basch should be considered the sexy one. But honestly all the faces are ugly. They feel like they've had a ton of plastic surgery. And I agree with the world being drab and boring, though some areas are colorful. I like it simple so this game wasn't for me anyway.
