FFXII: What's the verdict?

[CAL4M1TY]

I didn't hate FFXII, but it was definitely a step down for the franchise from FFX.

While I appreciate innovation, the new battle system wasn't great (imo), where they tried to may everything more fluid and streamline, they instead made it seem more broken up than Turn based. In turn based you KNEW you had to wait for an attack to be performed, but in FFXII there was an awkward pause (especially early on when all this was new to the player) where you'd issue a command, run around until it charged up and then attacked. That really broke up the pace of combat.

As for the story, I wasn't a fan. I've always stuck by Final Fantasy's ideal that the characters relationships with each other and at times the world was more important then any other story element (which is why 6, 7, 8 are my favourite FF's). FFXII totally broke any emotional connection with the "main" characters (I say "main" because they were the ones you controlled) because it focused more on the warring nations, while good in other RPG's where you don't expect emotional depth in the characters, it was a bit disappointing in a Final Fantasy title. Fact that it was a plot about political unrest and deceit, I would have liked some more plot twists and turns.

8/10 in my book. Innovation (despite not being a step forward) is always appreciated and you can't argue with XII outstanding production values, a standard of S-E's main FF entries.