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After playing it, I'm not particularly impressed. So much so, that I don't even want to think about playing it all the way through. For me, that's a really big deal. I'll play pretty much anything compulsively as long as it has A.) Decent gameplay or B.) Decent story.
The only phenomenal thing about FFXII, in my opinion, is the graphics. The music is pretty good too, but it feels kind of campy for being fully orchestrated. Also good is the Hunt system and the Loot/Bazaar system.
Beyond that, I just pretty much hate it.
The fighting system has to be the most boring system I've ever subjected myself to. It's like a combination of .hack's MMOGish system (though I've been emphatically informed that comparing a first-class franchaise like FF to below-the-radar .hack is tacky and baseless, but hey, I can only go with what I know) and ATB. Therefore, it's really, really tedious. You have to "program" your party's AI with things called gambits, which are really just a very limited sort of scripting language in disguise. One reviewer claims this is cool because it keeps your party doing useful things while you, oh I dunno, go walk the dog a few times around the block - but personally, I buy games so I can PLAY them... maybe it's just me. Oh, you can choose to enter commands manually, but it's even more annoying if you choose to do it that way.
The "character customization" system is done with the License Board - where you spend points to "buy" skills, including the ability to use weapons, armors, and accessories. It's not really so bad, except for the fact that in essence, you end up with all your characters being pretty much the same character halfway through the game. The only real "customization" to it is whether you think a particular character looks better holding a spear or a gun.
The story, though not bad, is also not great, nor is it very interesting. It's definitely not very Final Fantasy (or at least, what I expect from Final Fantasy), in that it puts character development on the backburner for a more epic story of political intrigue that seems eerily similar to Star Wars with a dash of Aladdin, only with less interesting characters, and no space travel or genies. One reviewer stated that it was a plus that the FF characters are merely cogs in the mechanism of the story rather than the frontliners... well, I'm sorry, but I also don't play RPGs to be a widget in a factory, I play to be a hero (or anti-hero, as the case may be).
Probably the most incredibly annoying aspect of the game is the "random" treasure chests. Nothing is more frustrating than being excited by finding some hidden off-the-map area in a decently leveled location and opening a lone chest only to find a few coins that aren't even enough to buy a measly potion with. Supposedly, you can keep retrying the chest to get the "good" item, but these maps are insanely huge - I don't see myself leaving and then taking the thirty minutes to an hour to fight my way back into that area multiple times just to get an item that might be pretty cool.
The only review I've found that dares to mention these obnoxious aspects of the game is on Honest Gamers. Pretty much every other review I've found out there oozes over the fantastic graphics and soundtrack and fuzzes over these issues I've mentioned with some of the most incredible politicking I've ever seen.
It must be nice to be the Final Fantasy franchaise and have complete dominion over the opinions of the masses. Commercialism at its finest, I suppose.
But hey, the moogles and chocobos look great!
Fanboys (and girls), do your worst
