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User:Crazyswordsman/Reviews
From Final Fantasy Wiki
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Contents |
[edit] Final Fantasy
The game that started it all! There's no person in this world who wouldn't pay homeage to this masterpiece that saved Square from ruin. Unless you don't know anything about FF and grew up on FFVII. I pity you if you do. And you HAVE to play FFI.
[edit] Plot: 5/10
Four Light Warriors, each carrying an ORB, set out on a journey where they're sworn to save the world from the evil Chaos, Garland, and the Four Fiends. That's pretty much about it, but back in my day we didn't need stories in our games! We loved our games because they were GAMES, not because they were interactive movies like that FFX game. Unfortunately, it's hard to find out what to do next because of the lack of cutscenes, but we liked it that way back then, too.
[edit] Gameplay: 7/10
Frankly, I'll say this: if you played the Dawn of Souls release, you haven't played FFI. No, the ONLY way to play FFI is on an NES or an NES emulator. THAT'S the way the game was meant to be played, and I guarantee you most of the people on this Wiki will beg to differ. But the DoS game is much, much different from the NES game.
Gameplay is pretty simple, you level up as you gain EXP. All equipment and spells must be purchased with G (no, not GP, just G). However, spells work differently in this game than a way you may be used to. Instead of MP being used for your spells, your spells are divided into 8 levels. Each level has a certain amount of "charges" which increase as you level up. A charge is depleted every time you cast a spell, and you can only recover them by using Tents or Houses or by staying at an Inn.
A lot of people put this game off because of it's slow pace. But I say you dumbasses are impatient little children who need to appreciate the way WE played games back in the day. The party starts out VERY weak and equipment is VERY expensive and it takes a LONG time to level up. But by the time you reach Elfland, you'll notice your characters are starting to become stronger, and you'll probably spend hours and hours here getting everything. But once you get past Elfland and to Melmond, your patience will be rewarded. The fun factor REALLY picks up at this point. It's a challenging game, probably one of the hardest in the series. But this is a good thing, as many of the later games become so easy (hell, after FFIII, the challenge doesn't really pick up again until FFXII).
I still have yet to beat it, and I still love it!
[edit] Characters: 10/10
No named characters in this! Just lots of job classes which are very unique in their fighting styles! Fighters, Black Mages, and Black Belts, oh my! And there's Thieves, White Mages, and Red Mages, too! Each has their own strengths and weaknesses that are very apparent (although you'll probably breeze through the game with a party with more than one Fighter in it...) and you get an upgrade. Although be smart about who you want to take, because once you pick a class, you're stuck!
[edit] Graphics: 10/10
We didn't need fahncshy shmahncshy graphics either back then. We loved our sixteen color landscapes and we still do. With character designs by Yoshitaka Amano, you also know that it'll be a good game.
[edit] Sound: 7/10
It's not the sound quality. Hell, the sound quality's great for an NES game. But as this is Nobuo Uematsu's first work, he needs some time to develop. Mind, there are some great tracks (the Town Theme, for instance, is the best in the series in my opinion, and the Temple of Fiends and Earth Cave also have great themes).
[edit] Fun Factor: 10/10
This game is a lot of fun to play. It's a great challenge, and if you have patience, you'll get to witness some of Final Fantasy's defining moments. Of course there's the noglastia factor too!
[edit] Overall rating
8/10.
[edit] Final Fantasy IV
This game was my introduction to the series, and I can tell you it went off with a bang.
[edit] Plot: 9/10
You are Cecil, a Dark Knight and captian of the Red Wings, who has sworn servitude to His Majesty, the King of Baron. But you don't want to do anything that may harm the innocent. As a result, you are discharged from your service and forced into exile. Meanwhile, a new, greedy, evil man named Golbez has taken over the Red Wings, corrupted your best friend Kain, and kidnapped your girlfriend Rosa. You travel all over the world and meet lots of characters, such as an overprotective grandfather, Tellah, a brash young prince, Edge, a set of twin wizards from Mysidia, a master karate fighter named Yang, and the last surviving Summoner, Rydia. Soon, Cecil will pass major trials and try to prevent Golbez from gathering the Crystals, and will soon learn the truth about his origins by travelling all over the world, underground, and even into space.
This is definitely one of the better storylines. This is mainly because the party is forced throughout the entire game, so it allows characters to develop extensively. I'm also a big fan of the medieval style settings in the series, as this is what opened me up to it.
[edit] Gameplay: 9/10
Simple and functional. You level up and learn new abilities. You buy weapons and armor from shops. This game introduces the ATB, but it doesn't show up on the screen. Mind the game will be difficult for awhile, as Cecil will be your only physical fighter, whereas most of your other characters will be mages, and the Level 1 spells are VERY weak in this game. But as the game progresses, you'll gain lots of powerful abilities, and by the time you reach the end of the game, you'll be unstoppable. There are still some challenging bosses which you'll have to figure out how to beat on your own, but they're still very fun.
[edit] Characters: 10/10
Like I said, you have up to 12 different characters, each one with his or her own unique skill(s). Each of them will have to be managed differently, so you won't be able to make character clones. Many of the fighters can't use Magic, and most of the mages are stuck with weak weapons (although Rosa's bow and arrow can be very effective physically).
I also enjoy watching the characters develop, as Cecil has to start over because of his tarnished reputation around the world, Rydia transforms from a scared, bratty little girl into Final Fantasy's most powerful and strong-willed Summoner, and Kain's transformation from an easily manipulated man into a free spirit. The love triangle between Cecil, Rosa, and Kain is also very powerful.
The design is flawless. This is some of Yoshitaka Amano's darker work, but it still has a great mystique to it. The poses Cecil and Kain make just make you look frightened, and the artwork of the enemies such as the Four Fiends is great as well.
[edit] Graphics: 7/10
There isn't much change here. The only real improvement in this over the NES games is the addition of another 240 colors. But graphics don't make a game, stupid kids.
[edit] Sound: 10/10
This is easily one of Nobuo Uematsu's finest works, as usual. There are many captivating songs in this game, such as the memorable battle themes, and all the character themes (except Edward's), and even the game's main theme.
[edit] Fun Factor: 10/10
Frankly, this is one of the best games in the series. The only thing bad about it is the translation, which needs to exist so I can make fun of it.
[edit] Overall score
10/10.
[edit] Final Fantasy V
This was a very fun game to play. It wasn't tops, but it was still a really, really good game.
[edit] Story: 8/10
This game is like FFI but with an actual plot this time. It's a pretty good plot. You are Butz, a kid from the town of Lix (just think of all the innuendo that'll cause), a traveller who meets up with a lot of royalty and discovers he has to save the world from the evil X-Death. He and his friends then take their places as the second generation of the Warriors of Dawn.
Like in FFIV, the party is forced throughout the game, which gives the characters a lot of time to develop. Although there isn't much emotional development in this game, there's still some great stories interlinking the characters.
[edit] Gameplay: 9/10
This is probably my favorite incarnation of the Job System. It has lots and lots of jobs, more than any other game. And the characters all have their own unique costumes ranging from the badass (Butz's Dragoon costume, Faris's Thief costume) to the ugly (Lenna's Monk and Ninja costumes), to the adorable (anything Cara wears) to the downright outrageous and weird (Butz and Faris's Dancer costumes). Spells are bought at shops, but other abilities are learned through other means. This game has lots of abilities to go with the jobs, so your characters can do lots of different things. You can change jobs at any time, but just be aware that many of the jobs alter characters' stats drastically. It's still a very fun game, and has two superbosses for you if you don't think it's challenging enough. This may be the only game I actually consider getting the GBA version of, if only for that awesome looking Necromancer job.
Also, this is one of the few games with both a great linear portion AND a vast array of Sidequests for you. This means it's going to be a lot of fun.
[edit] Characters: 7/10
Well, I can tell you right now that Cara is the most adorable little girl I've ever seen in a game (no, I'm not physically attracted to her, I just think she's one of those little cute cartoony girls, even though she's FOURTEEN), and Lenna is one of my favorite females. Other than that, well, there's Butz, Faris, and Galuf, who I don't really like that much. But the best characters are the NPCs such as.... Gilgamesh! This is his best appearance in any incarnation and he has the coolest theme. Also, the original Warriors of Dawn (besides Galuf) are really awesome to watch, as are Cid and Mid.
[edit] Graphics: 3/10
This is basically FFIV with new sprites. Not much going on here. But like I said, GRAPHICS MEAN JACK SHIT TO ME.
[edit] Sound: 7/10
There are a few tracks that stand out in this one, such as Clash on the Big Bridge and the various themes for the Warriors of Dawn. But most of the tracks really dissapoint.
[edit] Fun Factor: 8/10
If you're not used to the Job System, this game may take some getting used to. But when you get used to it, it becomes a lot of fun to play, what with hunting down all the secrets.
[edit] Overall score
9/10.
[edit] Final Fantasy VI
The best game in the series hands down. It just about outclasses almost every other Final Fantasy game in everything you can possibly think of. It's so much fun to play and it has the best one liners of any game ever made.
[edit] Story: 10/10
You are Terra, a brainwashed weapon of mass destruction used by the Empire to conquer the world. But you are saved by an Esper and wake up knowing nothing about yourself. A valiant adventurer named Locke takes you away to help you find your true self, and you become involved in a massive war against the Empire and the evil Kefka who is bent on complete destruciton.
Now THIS is what a story should be. A struggle against an Empire which has a greedy power-hungry general ready to overthrow the Emperor. And it has some of the best one liners in the game.
[edit] Gameplay: 10/10
The basics that have run most of the Final Fantasy games is back, but for the first time Magic is learned from means other than purchase or levelling up. This game utilizes the Esper system, where you equip Espers to learn spells. This can be fun, but at the same time it can be time-consuming, especially because everyone knows every spell. But fear not, there are plenty of other skills too! Lores, Dances, and Rages are all fun to hunt for and learn, especially Rages, which basically gives you a nice little mini-bestiary which is fun to have around.
[edit] Characters: 10/10
This game features the largest cast of player characters in any game thus far, at fourteen, not including temps. And the best thing? ALL of them (except two secret characters) get FULL development and a major role in the story! There's Terra and Locke, the Figaro brothers Edgar and Sabin, the assassin Shadow, the machine hating Samurai Cyan, the wild child Gau, the rebellious general Celes, the gambler Setzer, and the ancient magical family of Strago and Relm. You also get to play as a Moogle named Mog, who is just about the cutest thing this side of Cara. And he's damn badass.
The NPCs are also really, really great. You have Ultros the octopus who never seems to give up, Leo the loyal general who is also very badass (and you get to play as him, too!) and Arvis the man who starts Terra out on her journey, and many more as well!
But most importantly is the villan Kefka, who is just about everything you love to hate in a villan. His motives are by FAR the most evil of every villan in the series. Most of the villans have personal reasons for what they do, such as vengeance or they believe it is their destiny to rule the world. Kefka, however, just hates and hates and hates, and likes nothing more than the suffering of others. This is what defines true evil: the enjoyment of suffering.
[edit] Graphics: 10/10
This is Yoshitaka Amano's finest work. Not only do the characters look beautiful (and again, a lot of people hate him because they don't appreciate art), but the SNES was pushed to its limits in this game. For the first time, we see the evolution of a three dimensional world, and the graphics in this game remind me of artwork by Paul Cezanne. This is truly a magnificent graphical thing.
[edit] Sound: 10/10
Another fine job by Uematsu-san here. This is one of the few games where each and every character has his or her own theme. And they are all extremely powerful and moving. The battle themes are rockin' as well, and so are many of the other themes in this game. The Final Battle music, Dancing Mad, is one of the most powerful themes of the game, and its Uematsu's first foray into a Sonata.
[edit] Fun Factor: 10/10
This game is such a blast to play and to cherish. Just about everything was right with this game, and this truly is the apex of the Final Fantasy series (not of Square in general, Square got to be at the top for one more lovely year following the release of this masterpiece). If you haven't played this game, you should go and play it right now. Square has yet to realize that this is one of their most loved games, and should start releasing the Settei Siryous for this NOW.
[edit] Overall Score
10/10. I wish I could go higher.
[edit] Final Fantasy VII
This was a great game, but of course it had to follow in the footsteps of FFVI, which means it was a very dissapointing game. It still is very, very fun to play and to follow.
[edit] Story: 6/10
You are Cloud, a spikey headed ex-SOLDIER who is now rebelling against his former employer. You join the terrorist group AVALANCHE in hopes of bringing down a major conglomerate. But in your struggles, you find the man who destroyed your hometown, Sephiroth. You learn that he has ambitious plans that could rock the world as you know it, and it's up to you to stop him.
There are two main story arcs in this game. One of them is probably one of Square's best ideas. The other completely sucks. The good story is one of my favorite topics: a group of concerned citizens trying to bring down an oppresive corporate entity: the Shinra. I LOVED it when I got to fight the Shinra and it was one of the best gaming experiences I ever had.
The crappy story is the whole Cloud/Sephiroth arc. This is one of the most overhyped stories in existance, and it basically is a battle of prettyboy versus prettyboy.
[edit] Gameplay: 7/10
I look at this game and wonder how the hell people complain about having to stop and level in the original Final Fantasy while praising the system here. Basically, the system here is run by a Materia function, where you equip "Materia," or little pearl like things onto your equipment and you learn abilities from them. But the abilities aren't permanent. They're learned by the Materia shards which you can transfer between characters. The equipment is also butchered here. There's no more shields, helmets, and armor. Just a piece of "Armor" you attach to yourself. And the Materia takes a long time to master completely that you'll eventually wind up with so much Materia and have nothing to do with it all. And the superbosses require you to spend WEEKS levelling up your Materia which takes so damn long to do. And when all is said and done, characters are like clones of each other. No differences at all.
[edit] Characters: 8/10
Most of the characters in this game.... kick ass. But the ones everyone is a fanboy of suck. You know who I'm talking about. Cloud, Sephiroth, Aeris, and Reno. Those characters really, really suck (Yuffie and Cait Sith suck too, but everyone hates them). No, the GOOD characters are the likes of Barret, Cid Highwind, Tifa, and Red XIII. And so many of the NPCs rule too. Nearly all of AVALANCHE and all of Shinra, especially Hedeigger and Scarlet. It all just seems the wrong characters are loved here and the right ones aren't.
And no, Seph sucks. He's a gothic prettyboy. Gothic prettyboys suck. He IS a very powerful villan, but he's a gothic prettyboy.
[edit] Graphics: 4/10
Not much to say here. This is supposed to be Square's first big 3-D game. You'd expect so much more out of this than what you get: blocks. N64 graphics are better than this. And they tossed out the genius and starvin' artist Yoshitaka Amano (them bums) for a man who is now a professional prettyboy: Tetsuckya Nomora.
[edit] Sound: 9/10
This is another powerful soundtrack. Once again, the great Uematsu-san wrote powerful themes for all the characters and some rockin' battle music and a main theme.
[edit] Fun factor: 3/10
This game used to have a fun factor of 8/10, but all the fun got sucked out of playing this game when Square made all those damn spinoffs such as Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus. They have TEN of them planned right now. This sucks all the fun out of what otherwise is a great game. And the fanboys. So, many, fanboys. And the fact that this had to follow the far superior FFVI.
[edit] Overall score
7/10
[edit] Final Fantasy VIII
There's not much to say about this game. Square hit a rut here and fell into it. This game was a major indicator that Square's taking itself in a different direction than the one they started ths series out with.
[edit] Story: 6/10
You are Squall, a lone wolf who has to perform various missions as a SeeD, an elite mercenary who basically does contractual work.
The story starts out great, and it's pretty good for the first few hours. Then it starts to suck. Things go downhill when they start focusing on a love relationship between Squall and Rinoa. This becomes the entire point of the game starting about 1/4 of the way in. Bad idea.
[edit] Gameplay: 5/10
The only thing that remains here is the ATB. Everything else is taken out. No more MP to cast spells with. Instead they have the stupid Draw system which basically makes character clones once again. Not fun. And there's no treasure chests with hidden items here. Bad.
[edit] Characters: 1/10
Okay, there's only a small number of player characters here. Not only do they all SUCK, but only two of them get ANY development period. Four of the six main player characters have no development or past (or, rather, they share the same past. Not cool). And they all suck. Zell and Selphie are too hyper, Quistis is a nerd (on the moon, nerds get their pants pulled down and they are SPANKED WITH MOONROCKS), and Irvine is a wannabe Edgar. And Squall is an emo bastard and Rinoa is annoying as hell. This is easily the worst cast of characters I've ever seen.
One last note about Selphie: She is THE WORST character in the ENTIRE series. She's annoying and is so high on sugar. I'll give her one plus: she likes trains.
[edit] Graphics: 8/10
The graphics weren't bad. The backgrounds were pretty well done, but I find facial details better on sprites. And the character designs are even worse this time. Tetsuckya Nomora gets worse and worse.
[edit] Sound: 6/10
The battle tracks were really, really good. Besides that the soundtrack sucks. Too much lovey dovey music and a crappy J-Pop single. Once you put J-Pop singles in games you lose a lot of respect. Because J-Pop is the worst music genre this side of country.
[edit] Fun factor: 3/10
Do you like interactive movies? Because that's what this is, an interactive movie. If you want to play a game, stay away from this one.
[edit] Overall score
4/10.
[edit] Final Fantasy IX
Here, Final Fantasy returns to the way it should be: a medieval game with Amano as the designer.
[edit] Story: 7/10
You are Zidane, a young flirty Thief and a member of Tantalus. You have to kidnap the beautiful Princess Garnet of Alexandria and take her to safety in Lindblum. But the queen of Alexandria, Queen Brahne, gets mad and tries to shoot down your airship. Now, when Zidane finally gets to Lindblum, he learns Alexandria is starting a war for world domination. A man named Kuja gave Alexandria the power of Black Mages and Eidolons to conquer their continent. Eventually, Kuja and the queen turn on each other, and Kuja summons his airship to kill her. Now, you have to stop Kuja before he destroys the world.
This is basically the FFVIII story but done properly. There is a love plot, but it's really a side thing as the main issue here is stopping the war. The story was done very well in this.
[edit] Gameplay: 7/10
The gameplay here is VERY basic. Real equipment is finally back, and you learn all your abilities from what you equip. And there are lots of abilities to learn. Fun but easy. Still, there's lots of sidequests to take advantage of, and a lot of minigames here. Tetra Master is better than Triple Triad in my opinion because it's a lot harder.
[edit] Characters: 9/10
Once again, most of the characters are fully developed here. You have a forced party for half the game, so it gives you a lot of time to develop the characters. And this game makes the best use of that time. Besides Zidane and Garnet, there's the always loveable and adorable little Black Mage Vivi, the torn between his concience and his country knight Steiner, the loyal Burmecian Dragoon Freya, the clumsy Qu Quina, the young survivor of the Summoners Eiko, and the lone wolf Amarant. All the characters are developed cleanly, and I like all except Quina and Amarant.
But that's not all! There's lots of temporary characters too! Beatrix is easily one of my favorite characters in the series (and her theme kicks ass). Blank, Marcus, and Cinna are all really cool.
A lot of people put Zidane off because of his perceived whininess. He only whines in one scene which plays to a really good song. All the heroes after this (and the one right before) are much, much bigger whiners and no one seems to care about that. Zidane is kind of in the same vain as Locke (which is ironic because both are Thieves).
[edit] Graphics: 6/10
A lot of people put off the designs for this game. And frankly I don't blame them. They redesigned all of Amano's hard work and completely butchered it. Some of it still looks good (Vivi and Freya's designs mainly, and Beatrixes).
[edit] Sound: 10/10
This is the last game Nobuo Uematsu composed all by himself. And he knew it and he made one of his best scores to prove he loves his job. Every character has his or her own theme once again, and most of them are really, really good. The battle theme is good, as are some other themes, most notibly "Vamo Alla Flamenco," "Protecting My Devotion," and the song heard while Zidane is whining "You're not alone!" This song is one of Uematsu's finest single compositions. This game's score is truly unspeakable, and next to FFVI may be the best single score.
[edit] Fun factor: 9/10
This game is a lot of fun, and despite its short length it's still a lot of fun to go through again and play all the sidequests, Chocobo Hot and Cold is probably my favorite Chocobo sidequest (FFVII Chocobo Racing was one of those things that makes you lose it completely). And this game is horribly underrated. A lot of people skip this wonder in the series and go right from FFVIII to FFX. You people missed out. FFIX is truly a masterpiece. So if you haven't played it, buy it!
[edit] Overall score
8.5/10
[edit] Final Fantasy X
This game is a very fun one. The main problem is the huge departure from what Final Fantasy should be with this game.
[edit] Story: 6/10
You are Tidus, a star Blitzball player and local celebrity who gets blown away from his homeworld by a strange creature named Sin and travel to a new world called Spira. You have no idea what's going on, but the people seem to be nice to you anyway, despite the fact that you're ruining their peace and quiet. You meet a man named Wakka, a Blitzball player and devotee of Yevonism, the religion that governs Spiran customs and law. He signs Tidus up for his Blitzball team and takes Tidus with him on a journey with the a Summoner named Yuna to try and defeat Sin, who is actually Tidus' father, and topple the Yevonist theocracy which secretly supports Sin.
This story sounds pretty cool, doesn't it? Well yeah, it does. But this isn't the first time it was used. One of my favorite games growing up was called Breath of Fire II, which used a similar story involving fighting against a religion with a very similar name (Evan) and overthrowing it and destroying its God. Yeah. Complete ripoff, Square. Also, the story is too linear with very few opportunities for sidequests, and they tossed out the World Map in this, which is also very bad.
[edit] Gameplay: 10/10
Now THIS is where innovation works right. The Sphere Grid is your level up system, where you get to move your players around a board and increase their stats each time they level. Mind this sounds like character clones, right? Well, not until the end of the game really. It's fun to tinker with. The ATB is also gone, and replaced with a turnbased system that is dependent upon what moves you make. You also get to play Blitzball, which, again is fun.
The only drawback, and it's so minor it should probably be avoided, is that the game's Weapons and Armor are completely custmoizable.
[edit] Characters: 6/10
Not the best cast. Most of the characters are ripoffs of Breath of Fire II characters. Besides Tidus, Wakka, and Yuna, there's the resolute and emotionless Black Mage Lulu, the mute (or so it seems) Kimahri, the completely badass veteran Auron, and the ragtag bubbly young Rikku. The characters do have some development, but not as much as in the past. And if you played BoF II, you'll know that Auron is a rip of Rand, Yuna is a rip of Nina, and Rikku is a rip of Katt ("Kitt" was actually Rikku's prototype name. Bad Square).
[edit] Graphics: 8/10
The backgrounds swing now, but the environment isn't 3D. They got Tetsuckya Nomora to design the characters again, and they suck as usual.
[edit] Sound: 5/10
This is the first game Nobuo Uematsu had to get help. And it shows. The soundtracks at this point start to take a huge dive from what they used to be. A lot of the tracks are really background music at best, and although there are a handful of decent tracks, none of them measure up to what the series used to have. A lot of the recurring themes such as the Prologue are absent for the first time.
Also, this is the first game to introduce the thing that should never have entered the realm of gaming: voice acting. And bad voice acting. The dialouge is very choppy and not smooth, and doesn't flow naturally. So many damn pauses. Although I can kinda blame that one on the voice direction. But the voice acting itself was very, very not cool for a fantasy, with the exception of the lovely and talanted John DiMaggio who did Wakka and also did Bender on Futurama. The rest of the voices, particularly Tidus and Yuna's were very poorly done (Tidus=HUGE WHINER. Remember what I said about Zidane, so *points up*, and Yuna sounds like she has tourrette's.)
[edit] Fun factor: 8/10
For all I said that I didn't like about it, the game is very, very fun. Sure, it's a bit of an interactive movie, but that's why I didn't give it a perfect score. Everything else about the game is really bitchin'.
[edit] Overall score
7/10.
[edit] Final Fantasy X-2
This was Square's first attempt at a spinnoff. The biggest mistake Square made was actually deciding to make said spinnoff. But it's a shame that the spinnoff just sucks in general.
[edit] Story: 0/10
So it's two years after Sin is dead. You are Yuna who is treasure hunting (if she brought Locke along it would be a lot more fun, but she did-ent). And she found an old sphere that looks like Tidus. Uh oh...
So the plot is like Square's equivalent of "Calvinball." In other words they just make stuff up as they go along because they obviously don't have any good ideas left (they seemed to use up those back in the SNES days).
[edit] Gameplay: 9/10
Yay! The Job System is back! Too bad it's completely butchered. When Tetsuckya Nomora is involved in the game you know it will be. In fact, it's not even called the Job System anymore. It's the "Dress-up" system. As if they couldn't use a more girlier name. And throughout every battle you hear the characters making girl talk about how "cool" their costume looks it completely makes me embarrassed as a fan of the Job System. Oh, and the ATB is back.
[edit] Characters: 2/10
Throughout the entire game you only get to use three characters. Our old "friends" Yuna and Rikku, and a new girl named Paine who would be cool if she hung out with a cooler crowd, maybe... Rydia? Or Terra? Or Beatrix? Or little Cara? But no. She has to hang out with a skanked up slutty Yuna and Rikku who have barely any clothes on. There's only one person in this world who could like Yuna and Rikku's new clothes and that's Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, because obviously he's never going to actually get laid. Thouoght Shana from Legend of Dragoon was slutty? Well Yuna and Rikku are like Shana times a million.
[edit] Graphics: God it doesn't even fucking matter/10
It's the same graphics as FFX anyway.
[edit] Sound: 0/10
Yeah. They ditched Nobuo completely and hired two J-Pop musicians and a J-Pop singer to do the music for this, so naturally everything is J-Pop, J-Pop, J-Pop. If you're intelligent you'll hate the soundtrack. And you know FFX's voice acting? Well, this has it even worse. ALL of it sucks, and I'm not making any exceptions this time.
[edit] Fun factor: 1/10
The one point there is because it's the Job System. Frankly with all this other crap going on and with you having Betty Boop and Betty Butt in the same bimbo you're not going to have a fun time. You're going to want to have your hands gnawed off by Uga VI, the mascot of the University of Georgia. And you'll have wasted fifty bucks too. Go do something better with your time. Go look at Tera Patrick if you're that horny and want to look at a slut. Yuna and Rikku are, in the words of Meat Loaf, "Barely seventeen and barely dressed."
[edit] Overall score
2/10.
[edit] Final Fantasy XII
It was a dark day in the world of Square. Chrono Break had officially been cancelled. The previous game in the series was an MMORPG. Final Fantasy VII spinoffs were running like the plague. Kingdom Hearts 2 and Advent Children became Square's biggest focuses. But amidst all this turmoil and chaos, one star shined bright. It offered hope to a company that seemed to fall into the bowels of sucking. A game that shines brighter than anything seen in over ten years. That game was Final Fantasy XII.
[edit] Story: 9/10
You are the leading man, Balthier, a cunning man from the world of Ivalice. You somehow got distracted and are now training a new successor, a street rat named Vaan. You are taking the sky by plunder, you are Pirates, Sky Pirates, just think of all the people you can cheat! You got caught up in a huge mess and now you have to save the world from the evil Empire of Archadia and the dangerous Vayne Solidor, who wants to "give history back to the hands of man," or more specifically, himself.
This would have been the perfect story for a near perfect game. And in fact, it's one of my favorites. Its only problem is its poor execution. I honestly thought a story like this deserves the best execution money can buy, but it wasn't executed well. Other than that, I'm thrilled with the fact that there's no love story, all war.
[edit] Gameplay: 10/10
The Gameplay changes dramatically in this. Random battles are all gone now. You now control your characters directly and can move them around. The system used is similar to the ATB in that battles are in real time. Only difference is you can only control one character at once (but you can choose what the other characters do without controlling them). You can have all your characters also follow a predetermined action sequence by equipping Gambits.
The level up system in this game is called the License Board. In addition to gaining levels traditionally, you have to learn ALL your abilities from the License Board. But that's not all. You have to get Licenses for equipment as well! And you can increase your stats there.
Wow. What an awesome game. For once there's an actual GAME in the series that relies on having hardcore gamers as supposed to people who want to watch an interactive movie! This kicks ass. Lots of sidequests (the Clan Centurio Hunt is really fun), too.
[edit] Characters: 7/10
Well, there are several characters who suck in this: Vaan, the character they want you to think is the main character (when he clearly isn't, Balthier is), and Panelo, who is the most pointless character this side of FFVIII characters, Umaro, and Gogo. Larsa sucks too, as this is a prettyboy who LOOKS like a girl. Fran is also pretty bad and annoying.
BUT, the rest of the characters are some of my favorites. I think they wanted us to fall in love with Balthier, because he's the man. He gets all the good one liners in this. Basch is badass, too. Ashe is like taking all the good out of Beatrix and Celes and combining them into one great character. Reddas is so cool, he sounds like Patrick Stewart!
And the villans are some of the best of the post-VI era. They're not prettyboys or transvestites. Instead, they're real people who are greedy with power. AND they wear cool stuff, too.
[edit] Graphics: 10/10
The best graphics in this era by far. The whole world is 3-D now, so you can look into whatever corners you want. And there's a new character designer for this game: Akihiko Yoshida from Final Fantasy Tactics. And he did a pretty good job outside of Larsa.
[edit] Sound: 5/10
No more Nobuo Uematsu means very, very few good tracks. There were only three good tracks I can remember from this entire game, and one is the Prologue and one is an arrangement of "Clash on the Big Bridge." The voice acting, though, was much, much better this time around. Aside from Fran and Vaan's voices, everyone was stellar and perfect. And the directing was done really well so that the dialogue now flows much, much more smoothly.
[edit] Fun factor: 10/10
One of the few games of the post-VI era that'll score this high. This game is truly a masterpiece and is a lot of fun to play. And unlike many of the newer games, they focused completely on the game here. I guess this has to do with the fact that they combined the best of the Fianl Fantasy Tactics team with the best of the Final Fantasy VI team to make this!
[edit] Overal score
9.5/10