Final Fantasy XII

aka: FF12, FFXII, Finalnaja Fantazija 12
Moby ID: 21692
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/29 6:14 AM )

Description official descriptions

Two powerful empires, Archadia and Rozaria, are at war. All they care for is victory over the opponent. In order to achieve it more quickly, Archadia invades the small kingdom of Dalmasca. The young prince of Dalmasca falls in battle shortly after his marriage to the beautiful princess Ashe. The king is murdered under mysterious circumstances just before signing a peace treaty with Archadia. The iron rule of the empire is established in the small country.

The player takes control of a young thief named Vaan who lives in Rabanastre, the capital city of Dalmasca. Through a series of events Vaan finds himself involved in the political struggle, hoping to avenge the death of his treacherously murdered brother.

Final Fantasy XII is set in Ivalice, a fantasy world which also served as a setting for Final Fantasy Tactics. The game differs from its predecessors in several core gameplay-related aspects. The game world is composed of vast areas with visibly walking enemies. There are no separate battle screens in the game; combat takes place in the same environment as exploration. Player-controlled characters can freely move during combat. Actions are still selected by choosing commands from a pop-up menu, and each character has a traditional ATB bar that determines when he or she may act; however, overall the combat resembles the "real-time with pause" system of Western role-playing games such as Knights of the Old Republic.

The player can issue specific commands to the party members, or assign to them combat strategies (called "gambits" in the game). New magic, abilities, and equipment are bought from stores or found in containers in the world. Before a character can use any of these, the player has to buy a corresponding license by spending license points earned in combat. These act like skill points, and can be allocated by the player manually on the character's license board.

In addition to the enemies and bosses found by following the story, the player can also accept "Hunts" posted in bars or offered to the player in conversations. These are optional encounters where the player has to track down and either trap or lure a very powerful monster before defeating it.

Spellings

  • Финальная Фантазия 12 - Russian spelling
  • ファイナルファンタジーXII - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

637 People (606 developers, 31 thanks) · View all

Directors
Main System & Event Programmer Director (North American Version)
Lead Realtime Rendering Programmer
Programming Supervisor
Main Character Design & Background Design Supervisor
Art Direction
Visual Design & Character Texture Supervisor
Visual Effects Director
Background Visual Effects
Lead Motion Designer
Event Motion Designer
Hi-Polygon Facial Models & Textures
Hi-Polygon Facial Motion
Battle System Design
Event Direction
Scenario
Lead In-Game Event Designer
Lead Map System Designer
Lead Menu System Designer
Sound Effects Director
Movie Direction
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 91% (based on 102 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 95 ratings with 5 reviews)

Final Fantasy 12, good game, but not a Final Fantasy

The Good
The graphics of FF XII are... well... WOW!! This game is so pretty that you will want to run through it and keep playing just because it looks so cool. However, graphics are not enough to make a game truly great.

The character structure and development are also done very well, though Vaan isn't quite as "cool" as Squall or Cloud, he isn't a bad character, more of a Zidane then anyone.

The music isn't bad in this game, however eventually it does get old and annoying.

FF 12 offers countless hours of gameplay completing the sphere grid-like leveling system and hunting hours and hours worth of monsters.

Story - The story causes a lot mixed emotions. It has a very good story, but it does not feel like a final fantasy game.

The Bad
FF 12 seriously falls apart when the word tradition is applied. FF 12 gives up on the classic "romance" that most FF games have held in the past. Though there is a love interest, it's forgotten and overpowered by the rest of the story line. Actually there is 2 love interests, and neither of them matter.

Summoning is terrible. FF 12 requires the player to summon ONE TIME in the entire game. Aside from that one summon not only is summoning unnecessary, but ineffective. Let's face it, the summons suck. What happened to the much loved Shiva, Ifrit, Bahamut, hell even Carbuncle would be cool to see again.

As mentioned before the music isn't terrible, but there is no battle music, only boss battle music. This means that when running around exploring a desert or plain, leveling up and whatnot, the same cycle of music will play the whole time... and sadly, the music was not composed by Uematsu.

Gambits... many people would argue this point and say that gambits are amazing and fun, this unique system allows players to set up a system of equations telling the party to do what and when. Basically meaning the game can be played one handed... and that hand is used to control where players walk, not what they do.

The Bottom Line
FF XII is interesting, unique, pretty, fun, and exciting. but FF XII also tries to change way too much. Many FF fans didn't take too kindly to FF XI because it was TOO different to be taken as a 'Roman Numeral FF game" (It should have been called Final Fantasy Online) and in my opinion FF 12 would have been better off named something completely different.

------- Amazing, but not Final Fantasy amazing ----------

PlayStation 2 · by Ben Burdick (5) · 2008

It's too late to get serious

The Good
You have to admire Square for trying to find solutions to the problems of an entire genre. No other Japanese RPG developer (if we disregard From Software, which never really followed the canons of the genre) has ever felt the urge to experiment and reform as much as this one. There is a reason for the success of their flagship series in the West: the developers instinctively understood that the popular genre they worked in had some core issues, and went all the way with small inventions, gimmicks, and genuine artistic inspiration to make players forget them.

Final Fantasy XII innovates by borrowing vital gameplay elements from the West. Japanese RPGs have always suffered from limited battle systems that confined players to separate screens, artificially disrupting exploration process. Final Fantasy XII constructs a coherent world where action and exploration are seamlessly merged.

The game's battle system is, therefore, very similar to that of Knights of the Old Republic games: you attack automatically but are able to pause at any time and micro-manage your commands. The exact level of your involvement can be determined by pre-assigning the so-called "gambits" to your characters, monitoring their actions in advance for specific cases (i.e. cast Cure when any character's health is under 20%, etc.). The system was long overdue in a genre where combat boiled down to mechanical exchange of turns in a static environment.

I think the advantages of this system are obvious: you can try and lure an enemy by attacking it and running back; you can position your characters around the enemy in any way to gain advantage; you can have people use ranged weapons to avoid getting hit by area spells. Enemies will often notice you fighting and will come to help their friends. You will have to use ranged weapons or spells to damage flying enemies. You can cast any buff spells like Haste outside of a battle, and you can buff yourself before an upcoming boss battle to start it well-prepared, and so on. Not to mention that running around while fighting is simply much more fun than seeing the characters glued to their places, occasionally leaving it only to show you an automatic animation you have no control over.

There are some nice details in the regular encounters, showing advances in AI - for example, enemies may cast Oil on you, greatly reducing your resistance to fire, with which you'll be then blasted by their lurking comrades. Boss battles can get intense and dramatic: bosses would change attack patterns, buff themselves, inflict you with bad status, raise their defense when they are low on HP, summon regular foes, save their strongest spells for the final part, etc.

The first thing you'll undoubtedly notice when you fire up Final Fantasy XII is the size of its locations. Every city is composed out of several districts, each with a large amount of NPCs walking around. You'll visit cities bustling with activity, people talking to each other, buying and selling things, etc. There is no world map, but also no horrible linear dot-to-dot path contemporary Japanese RPGs seem to favor. Instead, there are vast areas you must travel through if you want to reach your destination. Wilderness areas and dungeons take a while to explore. There are a few optional areas in Final Fantasy XII, some of which can be discovered simply by exploring (like the vast complex of Zerthinan caverns).

Final Fantasy X looked like it was going to push the console's capabilities to a limit; but compare it to this game's visuals, and you'll see the difference. Final Fantasy XII has excellent graphics, and I honestly can't imagine anything better-looking on the console. And for the first time in the series, it is done in 3D, with fully rotatable camera. I could never understand why Japanese RPGs liked sticking so stubbornly to fixed camera angles. The game still has gorgeous pre-rendered movies, one of the trademarks of the series' visual style. Animations and facial expressions are also well-made.

The Bad
It is obvious that the designers were aiming for a more realistic, West-influenced experience with this Final Fantasy. However, Japanese designers are really better with cute and quirky stuff; their seriousness often deteriorates into stiff pompousness. The twelfth installment of the famed series sorely lacks the naive anime charm that made some of the previous installments endearing.

The story is fairly dramatic and complex, but it is told in a schematic way, lacking the vibrant energy that distinguished other Square plots. The acceptable writing and solid acting don't prevent the plot from suffering from typical RPG cliches we've seen countless times before. The main villain starts as a promising character, but in the end turns into a walking stereotype. Nothing in the story is really new; the character cast is also rather ordinary, and the game generally doesn't have the series' peculiar warmth that was last felt in the ninth installment.

The game's cities are very large and animated; but they aren't particularly interactive. You can't enter most of the houses you see, so the massive environments you'll be exploring are, in a way, just decorations. I missed the excitement of exploring every corner of a house and actually finding interesting stuff. Wilderness and dungeons tend to be somewhat symmetrical and rely on repetitive and fairly plain layouts.

Treasure in Final Fantasy XII is largely useless. I still can't quite fathom how they let such a flawed mechanic into the game. On a good day, you can expect to fight your way through a horde of status-changing enemies only to find 21 gil in the chest they were protecting. Even the supposedly better treasure is randomized, and the odds seem to be against you most of the times.

I wish I wasn't forced to buy spells in shops in addition to mastering the necessary "license" in order to learn them. At least, I wish high-level spells were available at the shops at all times. They could have increased their price or the amount of license points needed to master them to prevent people from over-powering themselves, but I felt cheated when I realized I couldn't buy that handy Haste spell anywhere, even though I sacrificed lots of license points to finally discover it on the board.

The new battle system is not exploited to the full. There aren't enough enemies that compel you to use positioning tactics - area attacks don't play much of a role, and most foes can be easily defeated simply by ganging up on them. Despite the absence of random encounters, the game still feels too combat-heavy. Overpopulation problems in the dungeons coupled with a low difficulty level tempt you to put the whole thing on auto.

The real problem here, however, is the fact that no amount of tweaks and updates to the battle system can radically reform a Japanese RPG if it keeps refusing to incorporate defining elements of true role-playing. The game tries to be expansive but is, at its heart, unable to break away from the overbearing formula. Its structure is still rigid and largely linear, there are no meaningful side quests, and dialogue choices are still unheard of.

The Bottom Line
The gameplay overhaul Final Fantasy XII attempted was much-needed and commendable, but its compromising nature only highlighted the fundamental weaknesses of the genre. It is by no means a bad game, and its developers should be applauded for their sincere effort; but there is only so much one can do with a stagnant and simplistic gameplay formula that relies too much on past successes.

PlayStation 2 · by Unicorn Lynx (181780) · 2016

The best of both worlds

The Good
There's a lot to write here...

The best thing is the battle system. I'm used to play online games, and this is very similar. This is a Japanese game, but the battles are like in an American game. I haven't completed another Final Fantasy game, but this one is really perfect for my taste. You can see the enemies on the screen. You shouldn't go into a "battle screen", everything happens just in the same world. And the battles are quick! No waiting for the turns.

The enemies are also smarter than usually, they will cast oil on you, and then another enemy will cast fire magic to make three times more damage! They also like casting haste, protect, and other buff on themselves.

There are some cool details in battles. Like those Mimeos who pretend to be treasure chests. Or fake save crystals who attack you when you touch them.

The graphics. They made it really well. Especially the monsters. I liked how they designed the bosses. Sometimes I even had pity for a boss after we killed him... There are also great animations. There was a fight against a big turtle, so after the fight he ran into the stone, just like a real turtle. And of course, Balthier has great animations. There are actually many handsome men in the game, like Balthier, Basch, and Gabranth. Basch looks especially handsome when he cut his hair. Looks a lot like my husband.

Some of the animations and the expressions of the characters were absolutely like real people. I had the feeling I was watching a movie, experiencing something from the real life.

The women in the game all have personality. All the three most important ones, Ashe, Penelo, and Fran. They are cute but still have their own personalities. Different men can like difference things about them. And they all looked sexy and beautiful.

The bad guys of the game are also very interesting. When I defeated them, I felt pity. This means that I had some sort of a connection to those people, even though they were bad.

In the beginning of the game there were a lot of surprises in the story. After that there was some time without much story, but the final part was great. Like a real movie, like something very realistic, taken from our world.

Even though the story is about politics, it's not a love story or something like that, there were still many touching and emotional moments.

The music was very good, there was some music that sounded like its was from American games, but also some music that I heard was from old Final Fantasies. This music was great, it's nice that they have such a long tradition.

I also like those special Final Fantasy animals. The chocobos are really cute, and also those little guys who say "kupo".

The Bad
Some of the bosses were very difficult, my husband lost (we were playing together, but he always took care of the bosses), and then he shouted at me. This was not good...

Bad things in this game? I don't think so, really. I think they made it perfectly.

The Bottom Line
The Japanese took some great ideas from Western RPGs and put them into their game. But there is still the typically Japanese story and many emotions, and this is a great combination. You really feel it is a "final fantasy" - a fantastic game.

PlayStation 2 · by Melody (48) · 2007

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Er. Indra was here (20756) Apr 10, 2013
EXTREMELY minor nitpick Simoneer (29) Nov 23, 2010
Who else likes the battle system? Unicorn Lynx (181780) May 24, 2007

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Final Fantasy XII appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

References

Gilgamesh from Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VII makes a cameo appearance in the game as a Mark. The music theme that plays during your fight is also the same. He still has eight arms and his personality hasn't change much either.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2007 – #3 Best PS2 Game of the Year
    • 2007 – Best Role-Playing Game of the Year
    • 2007 – #2 Best Story of the Year
  • GameSpy
    • 2006 – #3 Game of the Year
    • 2006 – #2 Console Game of the Year
    • 2006 – PS2 Game of the Year
    • 2006 – PS2 Game of the Year (Gamers' Vote)
    • 2006 – PS2 RPG of the Year

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Final Fantasy
Released 1987 on NES, 1989 on MSX, 2010 on BREW...
Final Fantasy X
Released 2001 on PlayStation 2
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
Released 2007 on Nintendo DS
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age
Released 2017 on PlayStation 4, Windows, 2019 on Xbox One...
Final Fantasy VIII
Released 1999 on PlayStation, Windows, 2009 on PSP...
Final Fantasy VII
Released 1997 on PlayStation, Windows, 2009 on PSP...
Final Fantasy IX
Released 2000 on PlayStation, 2010 on PSP, 2016 on Windows...
Romance of the Three Kingdoms XII with Power Up Kit
Released 2013 on Windows, PS Vita, Wii U
Final Fantasy
Released 2000 on WonderSwan Color, PlayStation, PSP...

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 21692
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Unicorn Lynx.

Additional contributors: Guy Chapman, Sciere, DreinIX, —-, Patrick Bregger, sgtcook, FatherJack.

Game added March 25, 2006. Last modified March 4, 2024.