FFXII: What's the verdict?

[Borkachev]

I can understand people not finding the game to their tastes, but anyone who says it "sucks" doesn't know what they're talking about. FFXII is a masterpiece. It's simply one of the most elegant, confidently executed games ever made. Anyone with a brain ought to be able to recognize that, even if its style doesn't personally appeal to them -- sort of like I can identify a great crime drama when I see it, even though I'm not a fan of the genre.

I'll agree that the story doesn't hold interest very well. It has very few twists and turns, and not much of a plot arc (I was a little surprised to find I was in the last area when it came up, which isn't a good sign). Even so, there's never a sense that the writers are flailing about desperately for plot points, like in FFVIII, for example. There's a constant impression that the story is exactly what it wants to be, because it's delivered with such confidence. And the game's characters are probably the best in the history of the series -- not Vaan/Penelo, obviously, but Basch, Reddas, and especially Balthier are just incredible. And the script and dialogue are easily the best Square has ever done.

It's also got, in my opinion, the best combat system in the franchise. I never want to go back to random battles. The gambit system was just brilliant -- to take a great, underused design feature like programmable AI and turn it into a fun gameplay element: genius! I want to see it in more games, and not just RPGs: strategy games, FPSs, everything.

Just about the only other serious complaint I could muster against the game was the license board. The layout didn't lend itself to differentiating your characters very well, and it didn't proceed in the most logical way all the time. Still, the problem with the characters becoming too similar really didn't arise until about 80 hours in when I was polishing off the entire board, so I probably can't complain too much. And the JP Job System re-release sounds like it might have solved even this little problem... too bad we'll probably never see it here.

It seems you can never make FF fans happy. They either complain that nothing is changing, or that everything is changing. I just approach each game with an open mind, and what a ride it's been.