| Final Fantasy XII (PS2) | 
| From: Square Enix
Category: Video Games
List Price: £14.99
Buy Used: £4.65
as of 6/9/2010 10:22 CDT details
You Save: £10.34 (69%)
New (24) Used (43) from £4.65
Seller: zoverstocks
Rating:  reviews
Sales Rank: 3380
Platform: PlayStation2
Genre: role-playing-games
Rating: To Be Announced
Media: Video Game
Age: 11 - 18 years
Operating System: Playstation 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5060121820487
ASIN: B000EYHBH2
Release Date: February 23, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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Product Description
As war looms on the horizon, the mighty Archadian Empire begins a campaign to subjugate its neighbours. The small kingdom of Dalmasca shares their fate, and it is here that our tale begins.
Two years after the fall of Dalmasca, the citizens are without guidance and direction. In the capital city of Rabanastre, the denizens gather and await the introduction of Archadia`s new consul. To Vaan, a young man living on the streets of Rabanastre, the Empire is a hated enemy who took the life of his brother, the only family he had left. In an effort to exact revenge, Vaan hatches a plot to break into the palace and steal from the occupying imperials. There, he gets more than he bargained for as he runs into Princess Ashe, the sole surviving heir to the Dalmascan throne. Together, the two will embark on an incredible journey through Ivalice, tracing the mysteries behind the Archadian Empire`s invasion. The choices they make will determine the very fate of the world. - Active Dimension Battle - The Active Dimension Battle (ADB) system enables players to move seamlessly between exploration and combat. Jarring random battles and their load times are a thing of the past, keeping you in the world from start to finish
- An All-New Combat System - Characters act according to an intricate gambit system of actions and reactions that you determine. As they fight, characters earn license points that can be spent to broaden their knowledge of magic, arms and armour
Amazon.co.uk Review
The UK has always had a very unique taste in games, never comparable exactly to either the U.S. or Europe. As such, Japanese role-playing games have never been very successful here, even such worldwide blockbusters as the Final Fantasy series. No matter how fancy the graphics, most Britons just can't be having with the tedious, randomly initiated, turn-based combat. So it's a bit of a shock to find that Square Enix has finally come around to our way of thinking, because this game completely ditches the usual battle system for a semi-automatic design that actually has you looking forwards to fights rather than dreading them. Although you can still take manual control of a character the game invites you to set-up a series of tactics and rules for your allies before a fight, so you only have to intercede directly in combat if something goes wrong. Character customisation is also much less regimented than before and the storyline has none of the teen angst emoting that made previous games so hard to stomach for some. In fact the only major feature remaining from the other games is the stunning graphics (and they really are stunning too - probably the best ever seen on the PlayStation 2). So thorough has Square Enix been in revamping and refining every aspect of the series' formula that the only people not likely to enjoy it are die hard fans of the originals. Other than that the only real criticism you could level against it is that it doesn't exactly rival Wii Sports in the accessibility stakes, but with a game of this length and depth that's a small price to pay.
HARRISON DENT
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| Customer Reviews:
 Awesome!!! March 22, 2007
D. Francis (Kent)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
FFXII is by far the most time consuming FF ever. The world (Ivalice) is huge, with many different types of environment and terrain, even the weather changes, affecting which types of monsters inhabit an area.
With such a huge world in which to run around in it can seem somewhat overwhelming. Large areas can harbour some seriously handy treasures but with the new "probability" system the treasure may only stand a 20% chance of being a useful item and maybe only a 60% chance of appearing at all. This can lead to hours of going away and coming back again, hoping to have re-spawned the treasure into something you need.
Monsters can be a serious pain, especially if they gang up on you. You can avoid a lot of battles by simply fleeing past them, because unlike other FF titles FFXII allows you to see monsters roaming arround so you can avoid tough battles. Sometimes fleeing seems like a great idea but you need to idealy spend hours and hours fighting them and "leveling up" otherwise you will stand no chance of completing the game.
There are 21 optional side quests, some of which you will have to complete to find hidden bonuses and bosses throughout the game.
Magicks, Weapons, Armour, Shields, Tecknics and Augments can be bought for the usuall transfer of GIL at traders, but (and this is a very big but) you will need to unlock the corresponding liscence on the liscence board using points you have gained from defeating monsters. For instance, you have bought a sword but need to unlock the liscence square for 25 LP (licence points) you will need to defeat 25 wolf type creatures, most of which only award 1 LP. when you have done this simply unlock the tile on the liscence board and slash away. Its exactly the same with everything else.
Thats the basics of the game really but i could go on and on, if i did this review would take up several pages. Its a brilliant game and well worth the wait. I hope you enjoy it as much as i have.
If there is one piece of advise i could give, i would suggest you buy the strategy guide when you buy the game. You can complete the game by not having it but you will find it very difficult to find the juicy bonuses throughout the game with out it.
Happy Gaming.
Close to perfect March 27, 2007
R. McDonald (Southampton)
37 out of 39 found this review helpful
Every Final Fantasy game of the Playstation era inevitably gets compared to the legendary Final Fantasy VII, and this is the first one that really comes close to matching that legacy, although in fact so much has changed now that it's very hard to make a meaningful comparison. Both are superb games, but whereas VII told a tight, intense story, XII is a more of a sprawling, drawn-out epic that takes something like twice as long to complete and will sometimes see you exploring absolutely massive environments for hours on end between plot scenes.
The combat has been changed to do away with random battles, so that the gameplay has become a lot more fluid. The balance between direct and automated control, and between combat and exploration, has been tweaked very carefully, with the result that the game is a lot of fun to play, and very deep to boot. It's just as well that it's so good, because the game world is physically absolutely massive (we're talking MMORPG massive here), and you'll still find that you have to plough through endless hordes of monsters to progress, though now at least now you feel like you have some control over engaging them.
Graphically it's simply stunning. The individual character designs are awesome, and the environments you explore are astonishing. Each landscape is broken down into a series of `rooms' which you pass through loading screens to transition between, but you can always see beyond the area you're in, which means you can see geographical features that are miles away in game terms. The game must physically be something like 10-20 times as large as FFX, say, and the scale means that you'll no longer miss the world map.
The story. On the one hand it's much more daunting than previous Final Fantasies. On the other hand it's much more mature, better written, and beautifully translated. FFXII requires you to keep track of dozens of characters and the internal politics of at least three warring kingdoms. The difference is that in previous games, the player would learn what was happening as the characters did. This time the characters are intimately involved in the labyrinthine plot, and it's sometimes frustrating to feel that they understand a lot more about what's going on than you do. Occasionally the game will send you out to retrieve an artefact without any very clear idea of why you're doing it or what you're trying to accomplish. But it doesn't really matter, because the plot and dialogue are so good, and the characters so deeply engaging, that it keeps you playing. FFXII is much more subtle than the previous games, much more westernised, and almost completely devoid of Japanese quirkiness. Some people will love this, others will be alienated by it. This game is not going to please everyone. But it is a great return to form for the series.
Looks beautiful, plays well. April 13, 2007
R. B. Moore (Leeds, UK)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I've been a fan of the FF series for a while now, dipping in and out to see how they progress. And I've been astounded with just what they have achieved here on a (relatively) elderly console. The cut scenes are just beautiful to watch, the play is smooth, the load times are minimal and the story plays out just nicely and draws you in.
There a couple of things to note - the battle scenes can get pretty complicated when you've got characters firing off gambits left right and centre and enemies are putting spells up, and using items. I didn't mind this - first time I had a big battle, I was struggling to keep up with the action, but after one or two more, I went with the flow and the pace that things happen feels true to combat. Secondly, the licence board is a definate case of there being a few key squares that you make for to get an early character boost. The Quickenings make things very easy for a while, and the HP boosts really help too. Thirdly, the overall difficulty swings up and down a bit. Early on, it felt easy, then it got a bit tricky, then I hit a mid game patch where five or six bosses were just trivial and then it got a lot harder again.
So this is a character based RPG, with a bit of grind in there, plenty of monsters, plenty of female characters with not much on (some of Fran's scenes are just wrong!) - you know what you're getting. But it is all very well done, and I'd recommend without any hesitation.
Impressive February 27, 2007
Weasalpop (UK)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Like everyone else I am a massive FF fan and was concerned when I haerd the whole fight engine was being overhauled. But I wasn't disappointed once I started playing. What seems a bizarre system at first soon turns into a logical progression for the series.
I simply don't understand where the comments from some of these so-called FF experts are coming from. This is a beautiful game with incredible detail, a more mature storyline and a nicely nostalgic score. Although at times this feels a far darker and broodier game than the typical FF fodder. The gothic, detailed graphics, political intrigue and often moody score reminds me very much of Vagrant Story on the PS1. There's even a very similar battle system.
If you want an impressive and new gaming experience give this a go - if not go play FF7 and remind yourself how much the franchise has improved.
up there with the best March 6, 2007
Mr. Bs Holloway (UK)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This game is the culmination of many previous Final Fantasies and Vagrant Story that was released on the Playstation. Rival kingdoms, air ships and petty thieves are all very reminiscent of FF9. Magicite, Espers, the Empire and underground resistance groups coming together to go against them is very FF6. In one sense this is great as you have essentially the FF6 story but told with all the panache that a next gen system can offer that the SNES couldn't.
But on the other hand, you can't help but think the story has been told before. As another reviewer pointed out, it is more politically driven rather than character driven which is annoying because it is the characters that make or break a final fantasy in a lot of cases.
Graphically, the early hours are dark and gloomy, dungeons, sand and stone architecture which suits the context of 'ye olde cities and castles', but a more vibrant colour palette would have done wonders. These do come later on in the game but its a little off putting to begin with. This does not mean that the graphics are not suberb, the CG sequences are vintage SquareEnix and the in game graphics are a notch better than 10s but this is mainly due to being in control of the camera, so you can pan under your character to check the buildings and surrounding areas and get more of an appreciation for the amount of detail that has gone into this game.
The battle system is where this game comes into its own, sorting out your Gambits (simple algorithms like IF hit points fall below 50% THEN cast cura ELSE attack), including your own player means that if you don't fancy fighting yourself, you can just wander upto enemies and your characters will do all the work for you. This only gets annoying when you are wanting to retreat for whatever reason and your allies continue to battle away.
Overall, it kills any competition, the graphics, sound, voice acting and (if you liked FF6 and 9s) the story, which is far deeper and impressive than any other RPG out there but I personally preferred 8 and 10s storyline more. It is only because it is in its 12th incarnation that its hard not to be overly critical but compare it to any other RPG out there and it wins hands down.
Go buy and immerse yourself in the latest of the greatest game series ever.
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