Frome the very first trailers I knew that Final Fantasy 12 was going to be another of those games that people either loved or despised. I never would have guessed that for a lot of people it would be both. I`ve never experienced a game that is so spectacularly good and terrible at the same time.
First the good. In terms of graphics, this is one of the best games on any system period. Not only does it eclipse anything on the current generation, it shines well above most next gen titles as well. Every detail of the massive environment is intricately detailed and perfectly animated.
The game play mechanics are also superb. The new battle system works great and the previous drudgery of mindless random battles has been replaced. Enemies can and will crush you on a regular basis, not becuse they have massive hit points or attacks, but becuase they fight smart, exploiting weakness you didn`t even know your party had until it was too late.
Now for the bad news. First, the music is average at best. In a series known for sweeping symphoic sound tracks, the music is this game is little more inspiring than elevator music. Most of the time you will find yourself tuning it out entirly.
The license system is ok, but not what I expected. Fans of FF 7 and 8 will feel right at home with the blank slate characters who are all pretty much equally good at everything. Personally, I prefer characters who have unique strengths and weaknesses rather that cookie cutter clones.
Perhaps the most disspointing is the story line. While there are plenty of twists and suprises, the characters are so 1 dimesional that you just don`t care most of the time. I`ve been playing for nearly 40 hours now. Vaan is still the naive youth, Ashe is still the snoby princess, Basch is still the grizzled veteran. The only characters with any life at all are Fran and Balthier. The rest could be trampled to death by a chocobo and you really wouldn`t care.
What I would like now is some feed back.
K
KusariOP