Final Fantasy XII

When you have a franchise as popular as the Final Fantasy series, it's not a common practice to change the formula; especially when you've sold almost 60 million units worldwide. Amazingly enough, Square Enix has gone ahead and done just that with its second drastic departure from the typical FF formula in two years, Final Fantasy XII; But rather than move the series into the online arena like Final Fantasy XI did, FF12 takes an even more interesting approach by simulating online without actually using it.



Earlier this week we had the opportunity to sit down and converse with Final Fantasy XII director Yasumi Matsuno to discuss his plans for the upcoming mega sequel at length in addition to our time spent playing the game on the floor. Already responsible for such legendary titles as Ogre Battle, Vagrant Story, and Final Fantasy Tactics, Matsuno is one of the most respected creators in the Square Enix hierarchy and managed to shed quite a bit of light concerning Final Fantasy XII's less public aspects.

For starters, FF12 has absolutely no connection to last year's Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Though it does take place in the same world as Tactics Advance (Ivalice) it will, according to Matsuno "use all new characters from another time period in the world's history." Specifically centered on a young man who dreams of one day owning his own airship, the story follows the lighthearted Vaan; as he deals with the recent loss of his parents and his determination towards becoming a renowned sky pirate. Vaan is joined by his girlfriend Penelo, who like Vaan, lost her parents in the Great War and makes her living at the local bazaar. A great singer, dancer, and warrior, she is also a headstrong woman with a fierce determination. Other new characters, like the gluteusly-endowed young Dalmascan princess Ashe and the equally appetizing female archer Fran add a nice dose of sex appeal, while another sky pirate named Balthier equalizes the testosterone a bit for the macho types.
As for the story itself, it tells the tale of the Archadians: a ruthless conquering empire that has invaded nearly every kingdom in the land. With most of the independent states gone, the beautiful township of Dalmasca remains as one of the few unclaimed cities left until Archadia claims the Dalmascan royal city of Rabanastre. This invasion is what sparks the main protagonist Vaan into rising up against the foreign forces; as they were the ones who killed his only remaining relative. Before he has the opportunity to relieve the new Archadian consul of his treasures, however, Vaan is caught in the middle of an important battle and the first moments of a new war. It's in this chaos that Vaan stumbles upon the Dalmascan princess Ashe and things begin to snowball from there.

Once in battle, FF12 plays more like XI than any other previous game in the series. The camera is now fully rotational and can be moved on the fly by players unhappy with their current angle. Truthfully, the combat is reminiscent of Bandai's .hack series; as users can utilize a brand new system known as "Gambit" (ten types in all) that allows them to set specific scripts for their A.I. partners. The flexibility of this system is rather robust and just like .hack, gamers can tell their minions to do anything from mirroring the moves of the primary user to serving as a protector for the overall group. In fact, there are several aspects to game that seem to pay tribute to CyberConnect's popular role-player. Enemies, for instance, are no longer encountered randomly -- you can now see your opponents on screen before a battle and avoid them if you so choose.

There are aspects of the combat that are unlike .hack, however, and that's what helps evolve Square Enix's effort a bit beyond Bandai's. For example, weapon strikes and magic attacks are automatically used at the end of a character's ATB bar (just like FFXI) rather remain player controlled and players can switch between any of the several characters in their party at any one time. There's a lot more strategy to the battles too, as players can also use their location to their advantage. Long range attacks particularly, have become infinitely more important and using a good mix of close and far-off tactics are key to winning some of the more difficult battles.

Visually, Final Fantasy XII eclipses the last iteration rather successfully and matches up quite well with X and X-2 in terms of quality. There's a lot more variety in character designs and background locations too, with full 3D environments adding a lot of credibility to an already impressive visual engine. Unfortunately the music is rather hard to sample, as most of the music has been drowned out by the blaring noise of the show floor. But based on the composers' track record (Uematsu and Sakamoto), we're confident that it will hold up rather well.

All in all, we're pretty excited about Final Fantasy XII, as the game has made more changes that first expected. And with the prospect that this iteration of the game is going to be a lot more "realistic" in terms of character interaction, combat, and storyline, it could become the breath of fresh air that burned out Final Fantasy vets have been waiting for.