Final Fantasy XII

Reviewed by Rob Hamilton (October 15, 2008)

After beating the game's final boss, I remembered a fight with one of those trophy enemies — a zombie mage named Disma. That dude was rough, able to take off obscene amounts of hit points with both his physical and magic attacks while getting far tougher as you close in on killing him. It was a fight only a masochist could love and winning it gave me more of a sense of accomplishment than I received from the final boss or any other storyline encounter. And that's considering my "Disma-killing" tactics would likely be looked at as cowardly and cheap even by the hardcore fans who've dedicated an ungodly amount of time to figuring out the most efficient tactics for virtually every battle in the game.

Reviewed by Zigfried (November 24, 2006)

Final Fantasy XII was an unusual experience. At first, I hated it. After trudging through several hours of playtime, I learned to tolerate it. Eventually, I came to enjoy it. This wasn't a fast process — were it entirely up to me, I'd have stopped playing early on.

Reviewed by bigcj34 (May 22, 2013)

FFXII is robust from a technical standpoint, it's enjoyable after acquiring a working knowledge of the game mechanics, and there’s a plethora of monster and item hunts to embark on. FFXII at least deserves some respect for what it has attempted, but it’s disappointing it isn’t better than it is

Reviewed by carcinogen_crush (July 16, 2007)

Progression is a simple concept, I thought. You give me money for every hour of work I put into your company and eventually, there may come a day when you decide to give me more money. . . for whatever reason.

Reviewed by jerec (July 24, 2010)

World-building is a very important aspect of the fantasy genre, but many works fall into the trap of making world-building the most important aspect. This typically happens when a constructed world is so deep, so immense, and so full of history and culture, that the writer hasn’t spared enough attention to address the other important areas of the story, such as the characters that inhabit this world and their personal growth. In the case of Final Fantasy XII, the characters and the plot only exi...

Reviewed by PAJ89 (October 25, 2007)

The original Final Fantasy launched in December of 1987 in Japan, and was expected to be SquareSoft’s swan song. Twenty years and a merger later, Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy has become one of the most successful and inappropriately named franchises in gaming history. As the Playstation 2 enters its final months, Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy XII is undoubtedly one of the biggest games at the tail-end of the PS2’s life. A significant switch in tone and game play provides the series with a breath of...