Final Fantasy XII for PlayStation 2 Reviews by Gamers

Warning this game will take you forever to beat so it's a good idea to buy this. I own this game and now it's very very cheap so buy this game at your gamestop.

This game is very new from any old final fantasy. First the fighting it's live fighting and you need sometime to get used to it but it's a great way they did it. Warning some puzzles will drive you crazy sometimes but it's fun. Also the bosses are hard in a nice way but sometimes they pull off a big move so watch your hp when fighting.

This game is great but a very long game it's about 50+ hours and i still haven't beat it yet but it's still fun.

First off, within the first hour, one will notice that this is a Final Fantasy much different than any seen thus far in the series, and this can put a gamer off at first, especially a huge Final Fantasy fan like I am, but within a few more hours of gameplay one sees how great the game truly is. The game opens up with beautiful cinemas showing the world of Ivalice and the warring factions that try to control it. You get to play as a rookie mercenary very briefly as you get the controls down as you try and save your king from harm. This is where you notice the battle system is unlike any single-player Final Fantasy, but more like FF XI. There is no turn based battle anymore, just real time slashing action but with the hinderance of a time meter that determines when you slash your enemy. After the scenes with the mercenary are over you take control of the main male character of the game, Vaan, who is a young man who dreams of having his own airship one day. You control Vaan through the town of Rabanastre running errands and going on hunts, which is the main side quest of the story. You go to a bulletin board, find a wanted poster more or less and hunt down and kill the beast for a reward. The License board is interesting but can be a pain in that you need to use points to unlock abilities and upgrades but most also require you to purchase the ability in the shop so if you unlock cure, you can't actually use it until you go to a magic shop and buy the cure ability. It's much like the sphere grid system in FFX, just a bit more confusing. I do however think the Gambit system is very welcome in that you can set your characters actions during battle (with the ability to override manually) so that once you're in battle, you can almost do nothing if you choose. This wouldn't work with a turn based system, but with the system in place it works really well. I'm running out of space so I'll leave with that if you keep an open mind you will find FFXII amazing.

gameplay 4/5
ffxii was a good game overall. as any game it takes a few hours for the story and the game mechanics to sink in but once you get past that it's actually very good.

the game makes you level/gil grind a little bit, which i'm not really a fan of - although sometimes i can see the necessity. as for ff games, it was very different (gameplay) but has some amazing cut scenes (as always); but it really reminded me of ff11 (game mechanics).

the side quests were a nice way to help with grinding, at least 2-3 times (outside of questing) i found myself running through areas grinding levels, points and loot (for gil). i was almost always undergeared/underspelled but making sure i was the same level as the boss really helped with that.

aesthetics: story & graphics 4/5
the story and the characters grow on you and really make it a good playing experience. i don't think i really noticed any plot fails.

i'm not really sure if it was just me/my tv/? but i had a little bit of an issue with the graphics - overall everything looked great, but sometimes the faces looked a little weird. it's hard to explain, but it caught my attention a lot.

The perfect rpg game many hours lost to this game over 150 hours lost but those were good hours, i hope square enix makes a xbox 360 game with similar battle system, i love the battle system and everything else about the game 10 10 10

Well another installment of Final Fantasy is among us. After being delayed numerous times, Square Enix has been under alot of scrutiny about this game. People questioned the new control scheme, the license board, the new freedom.

I must say, it was all for naught. This game is remarkable. Almost every aspect of this game works to perfection. After playing the new battle system for a couple hours... you'll fall in love. It flows so much better than any battle system prior to this one. BIG IMPROVEMENT!

The graphics on this game are outstanding. The in game graphics are probably the best on the PS2. And the CG graphics are knocking on the door on the next gen counsels. Ever texture and monster design and level is bright vibrant and colorful. You''l find your self playing it over and over again just to look at the designs throughout the game. Simply Amazing.

Get ready for a very in depth story and great character chemistry. You will be away from the outside world for awhile :)

Now on to the controversial aspects. First the new gambit system. It works REALLY well. You can pretty much control everyone of your party member to do what you want them to do. ANYTHING you want done you can set them to do. It gets more and more in depth as the game progresses and turns into an absolute strategic experience.

Now the new license board. This is where the game gets tricky. you can view this part of the game two ways. You can either not like it because there really is no direction. OR you CAN like it because there is no direction. I am in between on this one. A little bit more direction would be nice. However, it is nice to be able to set each one of you party member to do absolutely any job or class or skill you want them to do. There are new "quickening" on the board which also work as an absolute damage vortex.

This game is knocking on the door of the greatest game of all time. GET IT!! RENT IT!!! anything. you will be hooked for a long time to come. :)

It's fun simply becuase it's a final fantasy, but leaves a lot to be desired. I've got two points:

low depth. the licencing system makes having a balanced party obsolete. In a tough battle and your healer is out of MP? well just hop to the menu, now Bache can use Curaga, too! If you buy the 2X licence point accessories for your entire party, you'll have more than enough licence points to make everyone good at everything. FYI: the licence points will be doubled for people not in your party as well.

low involvment. As a programmer, simple logic statements (or Gabmits as FFXII calls them) are nothing new to me. gambits are nice for some things, such as curing status ailments. However, just set up a series of up to 12 gambits and watch the game play itself. By the end, you're pretty much just walking into enemies, then watching the resulting battle, no human intervention required.

bottom line. moderatly entertaining story, great graphics, and an initially fun battle system. oh yes, this game also comes with the status quo main character that you can't stand, and want to throw through a brick wall. I'd like to see FFXIII be more challenging, have replay value, and have the main character be old enough to rent a car.

I'll be honest, I've been around for FFI, FFVII and FFX, so I'm a big fan. However, if you have played and enjoyed any Final Fantasy in the past, then this game will be a must see. The main draw - the involved, epic story and mind-blowing FMV sequences are all there at even higher levels, but they have done away with the two things I used to struggle through - cheesy low polygon story sequences and randomized enemy battles which took you out of exploration and basically sucked time. There are generous save points (which also restore HP and MP) and the new ADB system is integrated seamlessly with exploration, so you spend more time doing what you are playing the game to do - get somewhere. For more on the ADB, check out Wikipedia's FFXII entry... In fact, the ADB almost keeps the game moving fast enough to draw the action/adventure crowd, but there is a lot of exposition and it's a massive game to explore, so it's not for everyone. But let me just end with this: "Developed from 2001 to 2006, Final Fantasy XII cost approximately 4 billion Japanese yen (35 million USD) to produce with a crew of more than one hundred people", so it's definitely worth your time to check it out!!

Welcome to the NEW Final Fantasy. This is nothing 100% different from the old pure final fantasy's. Well let's start off by the battle system. Now you see the guys and you can move around while fighting. This makes it 200% harder. So far it seems that no matter what, your going to get hit and while running away, you can mob others and they can get into the fight as well. The "talent" board is completely different and will get some time getting used too. I haven't figured out totally but I'm trying to get there. So far the games graphics are simply amazing. The CGI looks better then some 360 games! Storyline so far is very nice and quite poetic. They do talk in English and "Shakespearean" but that doesn't damage the game. Just the biggest FYI is the new battle system and talent fix. So this the two hour review. I'll make another once I beat the game >.>"

Here's what I liked about FF12. First, the new battle system. There are no more random encounters, enemies roam freely on the world map and you can fight or fly at your leisure. Second, the Gambit System. Basically it allows your characters to do different commands like attack, heal, use an item, etc. automatically. Third, the cinematics. Like any Final Fantasy game, the cinematics are a thing to behold.

Here's what I didn't like. FF12 is too repetitive. Though the new battle system is a breath of fresh air, all you will be doing in this game is fighting non-stop. You can also ride a chocobo and that's about it. In previous installments, like FF7 there were the chocobo races and the motorcycle chase sequence to change up the gameplay. In FF10 there was the blitzball games. FF12 has non of that.

FF12 has this new thing called the Lisence Board. You can't equip a new weapon right away. You have to build up enough lisence points, and then buy the lisense on the board. Sometimes it became a real chore to build up points just to use a slightly better weapon.

The story is subpar. FF12 starts out with this huge LOTR-esque battle and the first 1/2 of the game is really engaging. By halfway through the game, the story becomes convoluted and just boring. Most of the cinematics in the game are just characters droning on and on.

The characters in FF12 are either very well developed or cliche cardboard cutouts. The main villain, Vayne, is the typical power hungry bad guy who wants to be a god. Some of the main characters have interesting backstories, but the main character Vaan is completely forgettable. He just has this been there done that feel to him, like we've played this main character countless times.

I've played far worse games. FF12 had a lot of good ideas, but the boring second half, weak characters, and repetitive gameplay make this far from good.

I own the XBOX 360 and the PS2. I was a little hesitant about playing this game because I was so used to the graphics of the XBOX360. Let me tell you, the graphics on this game are amazing. The cut scenes are gorgeous. The story is great and the fighting system is a lot of fun. This game is a must buy.

...Then this game isn't for you. I am an old school fan of Final Fantasy, going back to the original version on NES. It is with a heavy heart that I can say that it is the first time I am uninterested in playing the rest of a Final Fantasy game. It looks pretty, and if you like games that look nice, then you will love this game. However, if you aren't into the MMO style of games, you will be turned off as much as I was. The battles feel more clunky than seamless and the clunky license system is a thinly veiled level grinding that we were used to in the older games, the same style that many have been complaining about. After putting five plus hours into the game, I felt no attachment to the characters, no real sense of story that could draw me in past the glossy exterior and the sense of getting lost was less than comforting.

Honestly, if you like this kind of game (a free form romp through a world where you have side quests involving hunting creatures for guilds and the like), I am not going to stop you from playing it, nor would I want you to miss out on a chance to enjoy it. However, if you are like me (used to being able to access menus and use items as I want, being able to use items, weapons and armor that are dropped by monsters or sold in shops without having to worry if I have the license to do so), then this might just get you to concentrate your energy on something else.

Undoubtedly, FF12 is a incredible game. The story is gripping from the opening scene. The characters are unique in their own way. As the story goes on, each character begins to find their place. What I mean by that is when you are deep in the story, like a little less then halfway through the game, the story would feel like it was missing something without each of the playable characters. The story is done very well and it never feels as if it were dragging on. There's always something to do in the game. Sidequest, Hunts, Finding weapons, Leveling up, whatever floats your boat. The Voice acting and character motions are some of the best I've seen in any PS2 game. The new fighting system is easy to get use to after a while and is the most fun turn based battle system I've seen yet in any game on any system. While there are some flaws, the game does a great job of "covering them up" by being as good as it is. Die-hard RPG and Final Fantasy fans will agree that this game is a MUST HAVE. For anyone reading this review, believe me when I say that this game is ONE OF THE BEST GAMES I'VE EVER PLAYED. For those who are not Die-hard fans and are just casual RPG players, give this game a chance and I promise that YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT.

Definately not. I am so disappointed that I feel the need to write such a negative review about this game. Before I played it, I heard such good hype, but once I had it in my possession, I spent the next six hours waiting for something exciting to happen. I turned the game off after six hours. Not one memorable thing. Sure, the graphics are totally great, but the story is utterly dull. In XII, you can actually hear the sound bouncing off the walls in wherever they recorded them. The storyline can be somewhat confusing. Throughout the first 10 hours of the game, I had no idea who the main villain was besides the Empire. Sure, the name Vayne suggests that he's the villain, but you couldn't tell. The only reason I give this even a "Weak" is because of the stunning graphics. I respect Square Enix for taking the time to perfect them, but they don't make up for the dull story.

I've been playing Final Fantasy games since VII and for the first time ever a FF game disappointed me on every level. I wanted to like this game, but its only redeeming quality is its beautiful graphics or rather the cutscenes. The in-game graphics are sub par compared to Final Fantasy X the attention to detail is gone. All the environments are monotonous and bland. The gameplay is watered down and repetitive there are no mini-games you don't get to use vehicles or pilot airships. No more variety, it's a glorified hack and slash dungeon crawler. Basically all you do is go from one eerie tomb to the next killing the same 7 monsters over and over again. You can't equip weapons anymore you have to earn Licenses to use them. The bosses are extremely difficult. You can't earn Gil after defeating enemies instead you get animal pelts and sell them for little or nothing while the items and accessories are too expensive. The story and characters were the biggest let down. It is more contrived and convoluted than Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. The game heavily borrows from Star Wars. Here's the character/organization breakdown:

Vaan - Luke Skywalker
Penelo - Padme
Princess Ashe - Princess Leia
Balthier - Han Solo
Fran - Chewbacca (or Jabba the Hutt's Twi'lek dancer, Oola)
Bahamut, Nethicite - Death Star
Nabudis - Alderaan
Empire - Galactic Empire
Senate - Imperial Senate
Resistance - Rebel Alliance
Vayne - Emperor Palpatine
Gabranth - Darth Vader
Basch - Obi Wan Kenobi
Larsa - Lando Calrissian
Mist - The Force

Too much politics and bureaucracy it's like watching C-SPAN. This is not in the spirit of Final Fantasy. If I wanted to play Star Wars I'd play Knights of the Old Republic. Bad voice acting with British accents and speaking in Shakespearean Iambic Pentameter. Vaan and Penelo shouldn't be main characters they are in the background most of the time, have little dialog and contribute nothing to the story. This game could have been so much more.

I was elated when I finally received my copy of Final Fantasy XII. I love stories full of war, adventure, rebellion, and the fight against enemy nations to protect the homeland--all facets of a good story that Final Fantasy XII supposedly HAD. Instead, I wasted 40 hours of my life on a vapid game and story.

In the first few hours of game play, you feel as if a very epic event is going to occur...but that soon fizzles out. When you expect the story to pick up, you're sent off on a what feels like a fetch quest that isn't relevant plot, or the next storyline point which doesn't add much at all to the story, which was very weak. You'll get the feeling that the developers wrote this game's script over night while adding in aspects that seem "really cool" at the last minute. At times, you'll be saying, "Wait, what?" or "When is this game going to START?" The story is that bad. The developers seem to hide this fact with numerous side quests.

Every character is one dimensional, except for Balthier, who seems to have stolen every playable character's personality. If you were to drop every single playable character with the exception of Ashe and Balthier, you wouldn't even miss the other s (if you were to drop Balthier, I don't think this game would have received good reviews, as he is VERY charming). Even the role of the main protagonist, Vaan, fades into obscurity and is replaced by Ashe while he just sits back and acts like a secondary character. The game's antagonists are just as dull. You often forget that Dalmasca is occupied by an "evil" foreign power that you're trying to expel. In fact, their influence is hardly even mentioned. The only redeeming qualities about this game were the spectacular graphics and FMVs, the fact that there were no random battles, and a customizable battle system. FFXII is proof that if you add Final Fantasy to something, the game will be heralded as the greatest RPG ever, despite many flaws that would doom run of the mill RPGs.

Probably one of the greatest games I've ever played in my life. I highly recommend it to anyone who plays Final Fantasy games at all. Now I'm tied at FF7 and FF12 as my favorite FFs. The games new battle system makes it look like a MMO, the graphics are amazing, and the story is just as good as FF7s. This game will change your view on FF games forever and will almost change your life. Go play it. Now.

Graphics A+, Story Seems to have Merit to.
But this Game is Very Very Hard.
If you want a Challenge, play this Game, if you want Fun, I Suggest dont play FFXII.

You could Past FFXII But I Suggest use a walkthrough to make your Life easier, Trust me it'll Help, The Monsters and Enemies tend to be very Hard, The First couple of hours the monsters arent to hard, but Suddenly The Enemies become very Hard, Like my Last Fight, I Had to fight 6 Soldiers, 2 of wich are Judges, You cant simply cast Cure either to heal your Comrads, because Casting spells take time to Cast and by that time they could be dead!.

Potions are pointless, because they only heal 100 HP.
Money is a Issue in FFXII to, it wont seem Like it at first, but trust me, it is!.

Matter of fact i'm Starting over to do things a bit different.
I Think Square Tried to Hard to make FFXII a Challenge wrather then Fun.

NOTE: Get a Walkthrough!.

I Love this game and I gave it a 10. Best effort ever. The graphics, settings and characters are awesome. The roam feature is very cool. Pay attention to looking for and obtaining gil. It is not easy to get and you must look for it or earn it any way you can. You'll need it. This game is harder than all previous FFs and wont be beat easily or in a short period of time. Never travel alone and be careful which character you travel with and where you go with them. These are not easy monsters to take down and will kill you in one hit.

Believe the hype; this newest Final Fantasy game does not disappoint! Boasting a $35 million dollar budget, this next installment in the series shows that the golden elements of FF success (character depth, story, and surprises) are what keep the players coming back.

This Final Fantasy feels and plays a lot differently than previous single-player versions and has a bit in common (especially the all 3D appearance and party mechanics) with the massively multiplayer version of Final Fantasy XI.

Everything is fully rendered in 3D now (no more pre-rendered backgrounds with a 3D character on top of it), and cities and shops have a definitely more "live" feel to them, thanks to the increased amount of city wanderers, shop patrons, and guards located throughout the locales.

The new party/battle system is engaging and real-time, so fans of the turn-based system may find themselves in for a shock. The only break in action is an optional pause when selecting menu items/spells etc. Those who played Final Fantasy X-2 will find the battle system to be similar; action-bars "charge" and a character executes the attack when it is full. Other actions can be selected at any time (item, spell, etc.)

Mechanics aside, the characters, environments, and story are what make this title shine. Each character is immediately enriched by the use of excellent dialogue and (for the most part) great voice acting. The tone in this game has a darker overtone than most, and political intrigue and plots get thick and heavy early on, drawing the player into a world that both feels, looks, and sounds quite alive and realistic.

The only drawback is that this would have been a much better game on next-gen, or at least offered support for progressive scan on the PS2 (which it is quite capable of.) 16:9 is supported, however. Regardless, everything else makes up for this and players will be hard pressed to find any other faults with Final Fantasy XII.

I won't bore you with the obvious -- it's Final Fantasy, of course the graphics are spectacular.

The game play leaves more to be desired.

The combat system, while an interesting idea leaves you in basically two places. You either don't have enough gambit slots (or gambits to put in them) so you're trying to micro manage a fight that isn't going to wait for you, or you've gotten enough gambits and the game doesn't need you at all.

The characters lack any sense of a defining role, and after twenty levels, they're basically the same person with a different look. One healer is simply not enough, everyone will need some magic, and the differences in armor are so minuscule that there's little point in not putting leather on everybody.

There are sudden, jolting jumps in difficulty of the monsters you're fighting -- you'll be swinging along, cutting a swath through a dungeon, then suddenly find yourself needing to level up about five levels. That might not be a problem, except good places to 'farm' are few and far between. Add to that the fact that you're not really needed for much of the non-boss killing and it gets really old, really fast.

Money is also a serious issue. While the concept of getting items to sell rather than money makes perfect sense and adds a bit of realism, the items don't sell for much and the equipment (not to mention all spells and all skills) cost too much.

You also have no way of telling where licenses are, so you can occasionally find yourself in the position of having some new piece of equipment or spell, and having to blindly hunt for the license to use it. Eventually, I stopped spending any points on my secondary characters so that I would have points on them to use for hunting things down -- making them far from useful for actually fighting.

If you can get past these annoyances, however, the game has a rich, detailed world, good voice acting, and an intricate storyline. You'll want to know what happens.

Not as good as some of its predecessors but still an okay game. The new battle system was fun but I still prefer the battle system in FFX to all others. Not to fast not to slow and still holding on to the FF flavor. The characters in this game were pretty lacking compared to some of the others. They were boring to look at and had no real depth to them. There was very little chracter development throughout the whole game and the storyline only focused around rocks the whole game. The concept of sky pirates was new and innovative and I was dissapointed that they didnt quite follow up on that. The world of Ivalice was pretty boring and didnt make me want to explore it more like Spira or Midgar. The cutscenes were nothing too special even though the graphics were spectacular as always. All in all a good game but I've come to expect more out of Final Fantasy

ah, Final Fantasy. What would we do without? A Video Game franchise that is none to tell stories that make us laugh, gasp in shock and even cry. So does the 12th(?) installment live up to the series? In away. The overall storyline was pretty weak compare to past games, but it has its moments. But the one thing that sets this game diffrent then previous games is its Gameplay.
Switching from the Standard Turn base gameplay the previous installments used. You can now walk up to an enemy to attack, Yes no more random battles, which were annoying at times. You get to see what you're fighting. Which makes things easier this time around. Another new additions are Gambits and Licences boards.
Gambits are, hmm how to put it? Gambits are basicly automatic commands. For Example: If you set the Gambit Ally = KO + Pheonix Down. You're character will automaticly use Pheonix down on a KO Ally, without you having to search for your items for one. You can also set Gambits for attacking and useing spell. What makes this great is the limitless possibilities of combos you can create.
Licensess are used to unlock magic/weapon/armor/accessory usablity. For Example: If you buy the Sword 1 slot, you will be able to use whatever is in that slot. This can get confuseing at first, but you learn it pretty quick.
Another neat feature is Teleport Save Crystals. If the Save Crystal is the colored orange, you can use to teleport to previous orange crystals you been, this makes doing sidequest easier. However, in ordor to teleport you need Teleport stones, which can be found from dead enemies or bought in certain mercs/stores.
Also added are Hunts, which are my favorite sidequest to do. You sign up a on hunt and kill the creature, you got back to whoever signs you the hunt to get your reward.
Although the can has alot of pros, it has its cons aswell.
The biggest issue i had with this game was the lack of good EXP points. Boss's don't give exp. But overall its good game and worth renting.

Ok, i'll admit when i first got this game i was really impressed.

The graphics were great, the gameplay was somewhat addicting, and it was completely different from the previous final fantasy i played(Final Fantasy X, if you haven't played it i suggest you try it).

When i started to progress though, things started to get really pointless, it felt like an MMO. The story was almost non existant, the characters weren't memorable(Basch comes close to being that, but he's no Auron or Sephiroth!), and the boss battles weren't connected to the story at all and they felt very random(You could just be walking along a path, then a boss literally comes charging out of nowhere at you).

So here's the good:

-Great graphics
-Excellent Gameplay

And the bad:

-Lackluster story & Characters
-Boss Battles feel too random and unimportant to the story.
-Too much focus on status aliments(Seriously, there were a crapload of those in this game)
-YOU DON'T GET EXP FROM BOSSES! Only liscence points, gil, and maybe an item if you're lucky.

With all that said, this game almost completely shattered my confidence when it comes to RPGs, boss were ridiculously annoying by giving nearly 3-5 player crippling status aliments per hit and you had to do some serious grinding if you really wanted to get anything done in the game.

I originally gave this game a 10/10, but i'm smarter now. 5/10.

I was anxiously awaiting playing this game as I'm a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series. I was completly blown away by the beautiful opening video. The story was incredible, and the characters were beautiful. The battle game play feels a lot like an MMORPG aka an online game, though it lacks the fun you have interacting with other players. I wasn't fond of the menus and the skill system. It's not like any other Final Fantasy. I didn't get very far unfortunatly, I lost intrest quickly. After the beautiful vid you get put into this boring story. I just didn't have the patience for it. I wouldn't suggest it to anyone, even if they are fond of the other games.