Final Fantasy XII

What is it?

This is a role playing game where you play as the main character named Van, a young adventurer who dreams of commanding an airship. The story begins with Van's country, Dalmasca is invaded by other country for its tactical value. You will encounter other characters through out the game. The final goal is help the former princess of Dalmasca to revive her country.

Mechanics and Dynamics:

In this game you directly controls the character from a third-person perspective to interact with people, objects, and enemies. Unlike previous series, you are able to rotate the camera 360° with right analog stick to view your surrounding environment.

In FF12, the major navigation method are by airship, teleport crystal, chocobo, or foot. So far, in my opinion, chocobo or foot traveling is probably the way that can make player have the most realistic feeling on traveling around the world.

In the battle system, FF12 has got rid of the random encounter system while traveling. The transition animation between battle and walking no longer exist. Player can now start the battle with ADB (Active Dimension Battle) system, which happens in open world field instead of separate battle screen and in real time instead of turn base system, with menu window available to player.

Player still level up by gaining experience and skill point from defeated monsters. FF12 introduces a different character developing system called License board. The license board is a array of panels that contain "licenses"—the permission that allow a character to perform certain actions. To use an ability or piece of equipment, the character must obtain its corresponding license by spending the required amount of LP (License Points) to permit its use.

Aesthetics:

Fantasy:
The setting of FF12 is in the age when "magic was commonplace" and "airships plied the skies, crowding out the heavens". At this time, magicite, a magical mineral, is commonly used in magic spell and in powering airships. The game developing group visited Turkey to study the Mediterranean-style setting which influent the architectural styles in the game.

Challenge:
On the Dynamic side of this game, since the battle is now in open field, there will be chance where a group of monster helping the group you're fighting. This may somewhat increase the difficulty of the game. There are quests available for player accepting NPCs' request to defeat some certain boss monsters and get rewards from them. These rewards will become very helpful in the later part of the game. I have played this game for total 110 hours and all my characters has reached level 90. But there are still some bosses that are impossible to beat unless with some strategies.

Narrative:
The voice acting of FF12 is using old English! It's a perfect fit in the age setting of the game. The game itself also contains a great story, a princess of invaded country meets a young man who dreams to be a skypirate; they found out the truth behind the invasion.

Sensation:
In most of the previous series of Final Fantasy, player walks through the entire world and often see the building are in miniature scale. In FF12, the world is rendered proportionally to the characters in it. As the player walks around the world of Ivalice (the name of the world), look at the beautiful rendered landscape and listen to the well composed music is also a wonderful point of interest of the game.