Welcome to a world fueled by a hybrid of magic and technology.  Where a high-tech fortresses’ first line of defense is a shield held together by a conglomeration of chanting mages, magically powered airships are as common as sea-borne vessels, and where you’re just as likely to have a sword pulled on you as a pistol (and by anything from a walking talking lizard to a human).  Welcome to the Final Fantasy world of Ivalice.  In Square Enix’s (known affectionately as ‘Squeenix’) twelfth installment of the series, we visit a fantastical realm previously established in the hand-held game Final Fantasy Tactics.  Although already set in an already existing universe, Final Fantasy XII is a visually stunning tour de force that stands entirely on its own two feet.

The story is, for lack of a better term, vast.  It spans from our first meeting of a simple street thief, the main character, all the way up the ladder to mighty rulers of huge empires. Your group of companions is somewhat typical for the Final Fantasy genre; the feisty princess heir, the dashing charismatic sky pirate, the stoic warrior woman.  All are par for the course for any Final Fantasy veteran.  But what makes these characters so much more charming this time around is a quality that even the oft praised tenth installment of the series didn’t accomplish that well.  Excellent and convincing voice acting; and snappy, even quite amusing at some points, dialogue. You

will probably find yourself actually looking forward to the cut scenes, rather than groaning at their Japan-pop cheesiness as past games have done.

The memorable cast of characters is supported by an even more interesting plot.  It begins simply enough:  a small kingdom in between two superpowers gets caught up and occupied during a vicious territory war.  But soon we’re exposed to plot twists and turns on every level that have you second guessing who the good guys are and just what is everyone’s motivation. But the best part about it: it’s intricate, it’s detailed.  And even more importantly, it doesn’t leave you looking at the massively huge plot holes (I personally just couldn’t get past the fact that the big bad guy in FFX was a giant flying slug thing) or feeling like the writers ran out of ideas.  For all intents and purposes, this is a story wrought with enough twists, turns, and political intrigue to be as good as any Hollywood fare.  One caution though… do pay attention.  Missing any crucial cut scenes will leave you wondering what the hell is going on. 

As for the game play, FFXII again is groundbreaking in many ways.  For those familiar with the Final Fantasy formula, this game shakes things up a bit.  For those not, you’re in for an excellent experience.  The series, back in the eighties, made groundbreaking headway for role playing video games by developing the turn based combat system.  Wherein you have one side (the good guys) and the other (baddies) each trying to defeat the other in a series of turn based attacks, be they physical or spells or whatever.  This traditional formula carried through all the way to the tenth installment in 2000, in which the series achieved a technical milestone with the game play and (for its time) highly intricate and expressive cut scenes. 

But the combat, the random encounter based, dragging combat, truly was in dire need of a makeover.  Taking a cue from such Massive Multiplayer Online games such as World of Warcraft, the entire combat process was given a facelift and the result is something that delivers a fast based yet tactical twist to the play experience.  Instead of tasking you with determining each of your three combatants’ individual actions, FFXII puts you in the tactical driver’s seat.  Each character begins the game with a set of what becomes expandable “gambits”, which function like a basic programming language for them.  You can, for example, program a character first to cast heal on any companions whose life falls below 30%, and when not doing that to attack the nearest enemy. 

The system seems easy and almost too removed at first, but as the game progresses you begin to get a handle on the real depth potential.  Given the massive amount of possible negative effects that can be given to you from the baddies, you’re left with a daunting tactical task to set up your party in such a way that everyone can work through a battle fluidly and, most importantly, alive.  Your main character (whomever you choose to directly control at that time, which can be any of your party) will still largely be directed by you.  But you’ll soon see the value to setting up gambits even for them, in that knowing he or she will pop themselves a heal potion when their life gets critical certainly makes the fast paced combat easier to manage. 

Speaking of combat, in another radical departure from traditional FF structure, the random enemy encounter has been eliminated.  Instead your enemies are now fully visible in the environment.  Although the gambit system combined with the loot potential rarely will have you avoiding a fight.  I actually found myself going out of my way to grind for experience and equipment, which for me – a hard core hater of grinding after my time spent in World of Warcraft’s grind-heavy land of Azeroth – was quite a surprise.

My only real complaint with the game was to do with the License board.  What was once a single ‘leveling up’ system has been split into two separate ones.  In previous games in the series you could simply purchase the ability to use a new spell or weapon, and it was yours.  In this one, you have to first buy the License, then the actual ability or spell.  It’s slightly more complicated than it needs to be, and you very likely will end up

spending way too much time switching back and forth between the shop screens and your Licenses to see whether your characters can use what you want to buy for them. 

Other than that, Square Enix as done it again with Final Fantasy XII… even the dated Playstaion 2 graphics don’t take away from the presentation much, as the environments are stunningly well presented and put together.  In fact, the game is a fine example of how an aged system can still be pushed to extremely impressive limits.  If you’re looking for a good, immersive role playing experience without the slow drudgery of the old days, this is your game.