Hey, everyone! Today, I'd like to talk about my favorite game of all-time. Final Fantasy 12.
Oh yes, oh yes, indeed. Now, I know that many hardcore FF fans might leer at me in disgust for this, but truthfully, I don't care. Haha. This is, in my honest opinion, the best Final Fantasy game, next to X and XIII and XIV, of course. Let's begin with why I love the game so much, shall we?
Now, I understand that some of the characters aren't well-liked in this game, but I don't really have a problem with them. Yes, Vaan is bland and dull and has a terrible voice for the main character of the game, but he kinda gets drowned out by the other awesome characters, such as Balthier, the badass sky-pirate, Fran the bunny-stripper--I mean, the Viera, and Basch the Kingslayer and Ashe the princess. Penelo is whatever; she's all right, I guess. In the context of the story, Vaan and Penelo kinda suck, otherwise, I do like them. There are other interesting characters woven into the game, such as Vossler the knight, Dr. Cid, and even Montblac, though those characters don't receive much development. I think Square should've appointed either Basch or Balthier as leading man, but hey, Balthier already calls himself the leading man in the game anyway. And who could forget Vaan's award-winning line, "Hey, buckethead!"
O.K. onto the story. Yeah, in terms of the story, I'm not too much of a fan of it. It's heavily lined around the subject of politics, and deeply so. If you're into that, you might like it. Also, the story echoes Star Wars's plot: a gang of friends team up to help a princess against a malevolent empire. Sound familiar? Yeah, it's not original, but at least they added their own spin on it, such as: the manufacturing of nethicite, and magick, and gods who weave the humans' fates behind the curtains. Essentially, it's Star Wars meets Lord of the Rings.
Ah, but the lore, the lore, my friends, is amazing. It has so much depth and detail: of how the world came to be, the Espers who served the gods and rebelled against them. Of the beasts and creatures who roam the expansive lands, and of warring nations, and creatures that hide in pots that could devastate gods with their magick. The bestiary is very interesting, too. If you take the time to read the Sage Knowledge (the data-library of the game) you'd be in for a very fleshed-out and fun time of reading. Basically, the lore really adds a lot of depth and color to the world, making it feel heavy and rich, instead of bland and dull.
Now onto the combat system. Man, what a refreshing spin on the battle mechanics of the series, eh? So, they basically mixed turn-based combat with real-time action. Freaking amazing! Essentially, you get to move around as you fight whilst awaiting a meter to fill up so that your characters could attack. I really like this addition of combat in the game; it felt so new and fun and just different. And it was cool that you could simply hold R2 and your characters would sheath their weapons, enabling you to flee freely.
Now, if I talk about the combat system, I have to mention the part that truly fleshes out the combat system: Gambits. Oh man, gambits. What can I say about them? Well, for one: you could literally set up your gambits in a way that you wouldn't even have to really press any buttons. Yeah, no lie! You could just set up your gambits to attack all enemies, heal yourself whenever your health dropped below a specific percentage, and heal your allies, too. It was amazing how I could program my gambit table to cast heal on undead enemies (to kill them), buff myself when high-level enemies were in sight, or even set it up to where I could have a mage/healer character in the party.
The boss battles in this game are incredible, and leave no lesser expectations of epicness. Seriously, the chorus music, the magical stages, along with the awesome boss-designs make for memorable and badass fights, sure to leave you in awe. And the difficulty is definitely up there (so long as you don't over-level your team). Remember the boss at the start of Raithwall's tomb? You know, the Demon Wall? That was awesome! The way the boss would chase you down that narrow bridge, hacking and slashing with its swords. I didn't even know there were levers to stop the boss from pushing you off the end of the bridge. And remember the Elder Wyrm? I was stuck on that boss for like two weeks. Damned thing had those tree golems to swarm you, and it would disperse a cloud of toxic pollen to expedite your death. That boss was tough, but so satisfying to vanquish.
(Demon Wall) 
(Elder Wyrm)
All-in-all, I want you guys to know that this game is very underrated, and wrongfully so. The amount of work and effort put into the game really goes unnoticed. The vast, lush plains, the snow-decked ranges and mountains, the diamond-white coasts, the shadowy network of caves, tall palaces, sandy dunes, all of which blanket the massive and impressive world of Ivalice. The stunning architecture of Dalmasca, the futuristic imperial city of Archadia. The hordes of dastardly creatures and enemies that litter the lands. The sidequests (most notably, the Mark Hunts, which are utterly fantastic). The large slew of weapons to choose from: katanas, greatswords, axes, hammers, swords, poles, spears, hand-bombs, guns, bows, crossbows, rods, staves. So much detail, depth, and gameplay is woven into this game, that it is seriously beautiful. I even like how some of the areas in the game are interconnected. I finished the main game at around 70 or so hours, and ended off the remainder of the game sitting at about 300+ hours.
If you ask me what I'd rate this game, I'd give it a 9.75/10. Astoundingly fantastic! Please, Square, I know you guys are busy with the highly-anticipated FF15, but please, port FF12 over to PS4. I would buy that in a heartbeat.
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