Final Fantasy XII for PlayStation 2 Reviews by Gamers

On the one hand, it is obvious that this game was made with a lot of effort. As a result, they did a lot of things right. The story and storytelling are decent (if cliche), and the overall structure of the controls and gameplay is pretty seamless and bug-free. There are quite a few sidequests and a big world to keep you occupied. The game also has an ingenious system for programming the AI of your party members so that they act on their own in accordance with what you want.

Unfortunately, the details of the gameplay mechanics are poorly done. Characters don't have classes and become quite homogeneous in battle. The weapons are also poorly balanced. There are tons of cool weapon classes, but most of them are too crummy to take seriously. Others are overpowered. Since all characters can use all equipment, this means I rarely used most of the weapon classes. Similarly, magic was not balanced well against weapons, and since all characters can use all magic, the same thing happened.

The flaws with the gameplay mechanics sort of ruined this game for me. I could never fully get into it, and I was glad to have it over and sent back once I beat it.

I rented this game with high expectations, expecting one of the best Final Fantasy games in the series and a great way to get into it. What I got was a game with very good graphics, an excellent soundtrack, and a unique virtual world. You would think that with such intense art and music an equally amazing storyline and gameplay experience would follow, but no.

The story was boring, and after spending a couple days playing it, I have lost all hope that I would find anything interesting or exciting about it. The gameplay is also extremely hard if you're not a skilled Final Fantasy player. You can end up completely screwing yourself over if you don't know which License points to distribute. Without the proper distribution of license points, you can't equip good weapons or get by easily in the game. You will need them considering you get flocked by mobs a lot in this game. It becomes tedious to level up and impossible to kill a boss, which also caused me to send this game back. I may try out another Final Fantasy game in the future, but I'm definitely disappointed with this being my first choice.

Music: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Gameplay: 4/10
Story: 2/10