Review - Final Fantasy XII

Final Fantasy XII was the last game of the series set to be launched for the Playstation 2. As usual, he reinvented all the traditional concepts of relief, having virtually no relation with the main episodes earlier, resulting in a new and unique experience - I say "almost" because this time, although independent of the plot, revisit a world already known, Ivalice, first seen in Final Fantasy Tatics, and reviewed here, apparently, in the past few centuries.

Ivalice scenario is somewhat different from other games of the series.Abandoning (in part) the techno-fantasy that has become one of its brands, is a world closer to the traditional medieval fantasy, drawing perhaps the omnipresence of ships flying (traditionalairships), which makes it very similar to Star Wars,you can say that is a world with which any fan of D & D would be comfortable: there are kingdoms at war, intrigues between nobles, orders of chivalry, dragons, dungeons lost, etc.. And in this fantastic world-medieval tradition, see how a young boy named Vaan who dreams of becoming a pirate of the skies, is involved in a major war that could decide the future of humanity.

Do not think, however, it is more one of those stories about teenagers spirits that save the world. Although it is nominally the main character, the plot of the game focuses much more on that would be cast in support, which end up being the real central characters of the plot, Vaan is half that dragged without much apparent reason in the world, only at be the hero adolescent that the game needed to be needed.That way the game to escape from one more story about teenagers saving the world is one of the merits of a roadmap that, in the end, just being a bit disappointing for a Final Fantasy.

No, of course, is not an interesting story on some level. Some very interesting in it, highlight the two, mainly: the mythological reference to the traditional story of the theft of fire "in which men defy the gods in search of a special gift (and whose best known example is the story of Prometheus from Greek mythology) and the political side it develops, with its pacifist message must have expected any recent epic, but done in a way that, for some reason, reminded me quite a super-power of our world, involved with other preventive wars in recent times.However, it suffers greatly from lack of pace - start a little slowly, but well, and delay before starting to excite, finally ending up too fast when it does.

That is a shame because just drawing little characters who are in a first moment, the most promising of the series. Has the impression that the relationship between the players was very underdeveloped when it comes to the end and there is a bit of supporting characters that appear to be very interesting, if their participation is not just two or three quick appearances. Even the villain of the game is directly confronted by the group very few times, and most of the time the player is very far from the main stage where the action takes place and the intrigue more important.

But of course, sum up the whole game only to the story told it would be unfair - since the beginning is quite clear that the star of this episode is not the roadmap, but the game system, one of the deepest and most innovative in the series, and also one of more fun thanks to the animations and details of the fighting. There is no single shift, the entire game takes place in a kind of semi-real time, with the characters while the screen is moving and finding foes in the path, and then, yes, take turns and work with the traditional Barrinha of time. There is, however, any type of transition between the area of operation and area of battle, as is so common in the genre - the player can move one of the characters chosen as the leader of the group, while the other will be controlled by an artificial intelligence . Unlike an RPG of action, however, here this intelligence is programmed in detail by the player through the system of gambits, if you prefer, also, you can turn them off and put all the commands manually, but is not recommended because it has become very confusing to do that all the characters in real time as you will learn more and more skills. Another interesting detail is that there are few monsters that leave money to the characters when they are losers - the vast majority of them leaving only several items that must be sold in shops in towns.

This is also one of the Final Fantasies more difficult since the days of Super Nintendo. Really had some battles against bosses at the beginning, although in the end, I was getting as easy as any other FF typical. Still adding to the fact that some wild areas between key points of the roadmap are quite large, and also a side quest of the most important game that will make you travel around the world hunting monsters, makes it quite easy to lose track of the plot Main - which, thinking in retrospect, may be another reason why I could not connect me to him and so I called the history of other games in the series, because these secondary searches generally seemed much more interesting. But this also is not even to a fault, of course, the world of Ivalice is wide and interesting, and explore and discover every aspect of it as reading a book of basic scenario of a campaign is part of the fun that the game provides especially for those who like to play some d20s (or equivalent) from time to time.

Speaking of exploitation, is what is most of the time which is out of the fighting, as a few mini-games. Not only the wilderness areas are huge, as the cities are absurdly large, and takes some time to get used to the location of shops and the most important points. Fortunately, there is a map very efficient and practical, although it has not prevented me, I lose a handful of times.

It is also important to any presentation of the game - from graphics to sound. FFXII has one of the most inspired art direction of the series, creating a world rich in colors, shapes and styles. The graphics are easily among the best of the PS2, well animated and full of details. In sound, the area of emphasis is the performance of voice, all perfect and beyond reproach, especially highlight the care to make characters from different regions speak with different accents, giving more life and the likelihood of this world. Only the music is somewhat esquecível - not that bad, quite the contrary, just is not as striking and as regards some of the pieces that have been made for other games in the series.

Finally, Final Fantasy XII may not have consiguido meet all the expectations they had for him, which were not few, and perhaps therefore to be considered a bit disappointing in some ways. Even so, reaches and exceeds a sufficient number of them to still be a good game. And, finally, is a Final Fantasy - that already makes it an experience in itself valid.