I dont know. I straight up do not know what to say about this game. The treasure system is criminally bad and the game literally plays itself. The characters are hard to care about and the story has so many moving parts you cant keep up with any of them. None of the party matters except for the last fucking character you get. Vaan’s character arc is nonexistent. The parallels with ix and x are absolutely insane in number but without half the emotional payoff.
But I genuinely cannot say i disliked it despite having nothing good to say. This is definitely the game most deserving of “The twelfth game in the series”. Its forgettable and uninspiring, despite being so inspired. I cannot recommend or not recommend this game to anyone you seriously have to play it yourself. Its also the most expensive FF by a long shot on pc for some reason

great story and, at times misunderstood why vaan deserves to be the protagonist.

Some of if not the best world building in a Final Fantasy game and along with the gambits system some of the most fun to be had in a "turn based" RPG gameplay-wise.

All in all an amazing and impeccable experience.

Played it on the ps2 originally when i was very young and absolutely loved it, got it again on pc with the zodiac age upgrade and fell in love even more with it

O jogo envelheceu extremamente bem, é de se surpreender que o jogo original foi lançado em 2006, a historia é basicamente um Star Wars. Senti que a progressão do meio pro fim do jogo da uma desandada, em algumas áreas os inimigos são muito difíceis e em outras muito fáceis, o sistema de batalha baseada em gambits é bem diferente e infelizmente esqueceram desse sistema nos jogos posteriores, seria bem legal ver esse sistema de uma forma melhorada. A cutscene final fecha o jogo com chave de ouro, eda o toque que precisava pra você ter a certeza que toda a jornada valeu a pena.

One thing that I can always say about Final Fantasy games is that, for the most part, they always try to move the series in new and interesting directions. This stands out among not just many JRPG series but also massively successful game series as a whole, and 12 is no exception.

The often visually stunning and more than spacious areas are an immediate indicator that this will have a much different feel than the more confined level design that previous 3d ones had used. This really meshes perfectly with the gameplay of 12 as well, as entering combat within these environments feels as seamless as possible. The gambit system feels like it was tailor made for these wide areas as well, combining a satisfying element of strategy when your commands really begin to click as well as a great sense of flow as you mow your way through areas. The amount of customization and class building that the license boards add is another element that contributes to an overall sense of freedom that the game has to offer. Even the side content is no exception. At least a couple of the FFs I've played have been abysmal in this area, with frustrating button mashing minigames being a staple. While I wouldn't say the hunts in 12 are always a success, it's an approach I appreciate a lot for how they play to the strengths of the gameplay and how they never seem to put too much pressure on the player at an individual level. I can't help but appreciate the details and small stories that so many of these are packed with as well.

Unfortunately many of these elements that strengthen the gameplay also lead to its most frustrating flaws. FF12 seems to have hit the barrier that most PS2 JRPGs seem to have as well with some truly awful barren or empty stretches at times. Even at its slowest I would never say it gets to the level of something like FF9 but some of the padding really is blatant at times. The guilt I felt for using 2x speed so much at first began to wash away as I couldn't bear to watch Vaan slow jog through blank areas anymore. It gets particularly nasty in the last 3 dungeons in the game which just feel like a dev team running out of time. In order they go from frustrating, to tedious, to nonexistent.

While the padding is certainly annoying in a gameplay sense, complaining about it too much belies the real disappointing part of 12 which is the story. I can't help but point out that it really starts strong. We instantly get layers of various political conflicts and an interesting stage is set by the opening. Unfortunately the mid game almost entirely abandons this for a really meandering quest where the party goes from one shitty magic gem to the next, and such sporadic bites of the politics that it's hard to get really invested in that side. For a game that is noted so much for having these elements, it ends up about as political as any other FF in a lot of ways. At worst I can say it was always functional and I never found it dull enough to stop paying attention, but it felt like a letdown nonetheless. It definitely begins to pick up at the end again, though the extremely one note main antagonist made me wish some time had been set aside for him or other character earlier on.

Speaking of characters, the cast settles into the "okay" spot as well. Vaan and Penelo are not all that interesting but serve as good stand-ins to view the story through and have some nice moments together. Fran is a bit of a missed opportunity, any exploration into her backstory feels too obfuscated by the flowery script and I feel like it was some sense of insecurity that made the devs just kinda turn her into a walking encyclopedia towards the end. I do appreciate her chemistry with Balthier though, who of course is the leading man after all. Balthier absolutely steals every scene he's in with the way he oozes charm and charisma and brings a good sense of levity, as well as some interesting underlying story points that I wish had been explored more. While Ashe lags behind him due to her lack of a real personality, I do think she has the most compelling internal conflict out of the group. It just didn't need to take up, yknow, the whole middle part of the game. The character who is utterly baffling to me is Basch (Lives!). At first I saw a good amount of truth in the rumor that he was the original protagonist, but his role in the story just falls off a cliff after the beginning to the point of where I just can't believe he ever was the protagonist at any point. This guy goes so long without talking or contributing sometimes that I just straight up forgot he was there. It feels like any internal or external conflict or motivations he has sort of die after the first part and it's beyond frustrating watching him stand there making Kimahri seem like a chatterbox.

I've probably sounded harsher than I mean to but it's just the consequence of the fact that I have high expectations for these games. I still would call 12 a worthy experience and I can't say there wasn't any passion in the ideas on display and it definitely offers an experience that is both enjoyable and distinct from other JRPGs. Outside of Giruvegan I can't say it ever reached the level of something like FF9 in terms of making me disinterested. So long as Basch lives, 12 will be able to stand on it's own among FF games.

"Who shall be next?"

Final Fantasy XII's a game that seems to be less discussed when it comes to games in the upper echelons of the series mainline games. I think that's a mostly fair way to place this game, as I don't think that it really has much to make it stand out on its own. Final Fantasy XII is a game with a lot of great ideas - some incredibly well executed like the Zodiac Job System and the Gambit system - but its plot feels like it lacks a lot of oomph that some of the more impactful games in the series have in spades. Final Fantasy XII has a lot of what makes a good Final Fantasy in it, but it fails at executing a lot of it. A game ultimately worth playing and still really fun but if the plot doesn't grab your interest - and it probably won't - then I'd keep away from this one if you can't find something to like in the first 2-5 hours.

Final Fantasy XII is a game I slept on for far too long and am so glad I finally got around to knocking it out. It really shook up the formula once again and almost every thing was a hit with only a few misses.

The main strength of this game is the world of Ivalice. The world is beautifully crafted with different races, beautiful cities, rich history, power hungry empires, many wars, and political intrigue. Like every other Final Fantasy game for me, the story had me excited and engaged from beginning to end. While still fantasy and over the top, this one felt more grounded than most of the series due to much of the plot being about war and politics. I loved the cast of characters in this game with Ashe and Balthier being the obvious stand outs. I also loved Larsa. Larsa is far and away my favorite Final Fantasy character of all time that wasn’t either a main villian or main party character.

I’ve said this in pretty much ever Final Fantasy review and this game is no different, the music is sublime and the art was outstanding for the time of release.

I wanted to rate this game as a five star and wouldn’t question anyone who does but there were two obvious flaws for me. First is this game is painfully easy. Once you get enough levels and gambits the game can quite literally play itself even being able to defeat almost every boss by itself. I only had a game over once and it’s because I fought the T Rex in the first level thinking I could kill it being as it was in the first level. Other than that I breezed through everything. My only other problem and admittedly this isn’t a huge deal to me but the job classes felt to similar and I was hoping for more of a variety than there actually was.

Another absolute home run in the series that I would recommend to any RPG fan.

Embora a narrativa seja pouco cativante, com uma progressão que te deixa apatíco e se questionando se o jogo esta mesmo avançando em algo por falta de um melhor direcionamento narrativo e o jogo careça de um(a) protagonista mais presente e que englobe os temas e coloque seu arco na frente da narrativa de forma mais tematica e acessivel, mas ainda assim as coisas ainda são estranhamente bem escritas e bem dirigidas com picos onde voce ve bastante alma naquela historia, e principalmente nesse mundo que exala personalidade, me fazendo ficar até emotivo no final, apesar de eu não chorar como eu esperaria de um Final Fantasy. entretanto, tudo em relação a sistemas do jogo é divino, tornando o combate em basicamente um jogo de estrategia em tempo real com uma profundidade de possibilidade que eu nem me atrevo a tentar destrinchar, em questões sistemicas de um RPG ele deve ser o mais profundo que eu joguei, e sem falar de outras partes do jogo que fazem voce se questionar se isso era realmente possivel no ps2, e em um final fantasy singleplayer ele tem de longe as melhores dungeons em um nivel que eu nunca esperei que a franquia tivesse, ele ao seu proprio modo é um dos jogos mais unicos e especiais que eu já joguei, apesar de sim faltar a alma que eu esperaria de um dos melhores Final Fantasy, mas é sem duvidas o melhor Star Wars.