Final Fantasy XII is an interesting title with roots in change. Final Fantasy X was the last title that Hironobu Sakaguchi was part of as executive producer. Final Fantasy IX being the last title he had a hands on role in. In 2002, after his film debut of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Sakaguchi felt pressure to step down in the company as the movie was a complete bomb and the company suffered massive losses in capital. After Sakaguchi left the company, Square joined forces with it's long time rival, creating a new company called Square-Enix. Sakaguchi went on to form a new company called Mistwalker in 2004. The fact that he left Square kind of makes me sad. It's like Square going from Nintendo to Playstation back in the day, your loyalties are torn. After all he IS the father of the series.
The last title to appear on the PS2, the first title to be without Sakaguchi, the first title to be produced with the aid of Enix, and the first title to reinvent the turn based fighting system. This game came out in 2006, years after the release of Square-Enix's new MMO, Final Fantasy XI. The game developer took many aspects of the MMO and tried to transition them into play for their new single player title which the world had been waiting for, for four years. They wanted to give the single player game a more online or playing-with-friends feel. Or at least that's what I and many others felt.
The game was successful, but not as much as prior titles. For myself, it felt older than it's time. I had been used to playing online MMOs in FFXI and WoW and this was a definite downgrade in graphics when I expected better. That does not take from the game, it just was disappointing. The designers went for a more realistic look of their characters ALL the time. What this did was make the actual game play more pleasant by having the characters look better. But it also made the cut scenes less crisp or beautiful because the same lower aspect models were being used. If I remember correct, true CG movies are very few and far between in this game.
Also of note, this game again does not allow you to name your main character which I find frustrating. This was done before in FFIV for the DS where voice acting was used for that version. It allows them to talk to and about your character without avoiding using the name. I don't like it, as I've stated before, it takes something away from gameplay, makes it feel less personal, less heroic, and less of your story. It becomes more about the party and not a single hero you can identify with and build up as an alter ego.
Alright, alright, I feel like I'm bashing a good game here so I'll stop. It's time to begin the last leg of this awesome journey. Kind of sad that this is the last one I'll be blogging about... Let's begin Final Fantasy XII.
Edit at 11:24pm: I take back what I have stated about the graphics after watching the gorgeous cut scene opening up the game tonight. It looks really good on my PS3 with the graphics boost. Blows FFX, FFXI, and WoW out of the water. I still don't approve of the character models but I understand their transition in going from cartoon characters to real looking characters can be tough. I know they met much better success in FFXIII.
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