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The Final Fantasy For Playstation 2

DATE: -0/5-/2004
COMPANY: Square-Enix
PRODUCT: Final Fantasy XII

It?s been over two years since the last single player Final Fantasy game. That said, you can see how having Final Fantasy XII finally playable on American soil was a pretty big deal. We were told, or warned, that this latest installment in the series would take some radical departures from the previous games. They weren?t kidding. The development team for Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was given the keys to the kingdom, so to speak, being allowed to work on the next installment of one of Square-Enix?s two biggest series?.

The biggest change is the battle system. Rather than the traditional random encounter and turn based battle system, Final Fantasy XII?s battles are far more similar to an MMORPG?s. Battles take place on the normal field map. There is really no transition from normal field movement to a battle; it?s totally seamless. Monsters roam the field map just like citizens of a town would and will begin to attack you as soon as you get close enough.

In some ways the system is still like the Active Time Battle (ATB) system of past games. There is an ATB-like gauge that still has to fill up before you launch an attack, cast a spell, or use an item. You press the circle button and it brings up a battle menu that allows you to choose what action (attack, spell, item, etc?) you want your characters to take. The big difference is that movement is now freeform during battle. You can switch between characters and move around freely during a fight. Red and blue indicator lines fly across the screen showing you who is to attack whom. If manually controlling everyone on the field becomes too tiring, and it can, there are also things called gambits, which are basically AI instructions you can set for your characters.

Another major, and in my opinion irritating, change was that the square button now facilitates as the action/confirm button, while the button that formerly served this function (typically circle in Japan and X in NA) now brings up the battle menu. I found myself trying to talk to people in town and bringing up the battle menu nearly every single time. This will likely not be a huge problem since they?ve generally allowed you to re-map the button configuration in most of the latest Final Fantasy games. Another new addition is the ability to scroll back a textbox, in case you missed something an NPC said.

The team is also trying a different approach to creating the game?s graphics. The graphics engine in Final Fantasy XII uses roughly half the number of polygons than Final Fantasy X?s but has additional focus on lighting and textures. The end result looks gorgeous and moves the series even closer to realistic looking skin and clothing.

Final Fantasy games are famous for their epic story lines, and it looks like this is one area Final Fantasy XII is NOT making any departures from. While the premise is sort of clich?d, the evil empire is trying to take over the world, history would suggest that there will be even greater evils lurking in the shadows. The game itself takes place in the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance land of Ivalice. With 5 different races in Ivalice, race looks like it will play an important role in the story as well.

Expect to see Final Fantasy XII to hit American shores in 2005.

GameVortex :: PSIllustrated :: TeamPS2