Final Fantasy XII
By Will Bartos
Monday. Feb 06, 12:36 AM
(first impression of demo) SquareEnix gives you another reason to get DragonQuest VIII.

Surprise! It's Final Fantasy!

After waiting two years, players finally have a chance to get a taste of what Final Fantasy XII will play like… provided they buy DragonQuest VIII. However, fanatics of the series may initially be put off by this new world and gameplay.

Welcome back to the world of Ivalice. That's right folks, Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance graduate from older and portable platforms to invade PlayStation 2. While this is well known, the gameplay is not. Much like FFT and FFTA, the tactical element of fights rule the area.

The demo allows you to choose one of two gameplay styles in two different settings. The first mode, called Wait Mode, which is a slower paced battle mode, allows you to pause each time you want to make a decision to fight. This takes place on the Phon Coast, which is similar to the beach near Besaid in Final Fantasy X. The other mode, Active Mode, does not pause during the action, and you must react quickly in order to attack or heat. This takes place in the Stilshrine of Miriam, which looks more like a giant, dark crypt than a shrine.

Either mode gives you a glimpse of the action. No more random battles here, folks. These areas are actual battlezones, which allow you to explore, grab items, and fight enemies all at once. All leveling-up happens within these zones. Although borrowing heavily from the older Tactics games, Final Fantasy XII thrusts you into real-time 3D. Each zone gives you an objective, requiring you to defeat some boss. I have a feeling, like demos of older Final Fantasy games, that the characters are overpowered, just so you can get through the area more easily. The zones do make it seem like the characters are at a disadvantage: there are no rest areas, and although there are items there, they are not in unlimited supply. To balance this, walking around replenishes magic, so over time you can essentially replenish enough MP to heal. Also, enemies do not gun for you all the time. Usually, if you leave alone something you can attack, it leaves you alone. This is indicated by their life bar, either with a green (“don't hurt me!”) or red (SNARL ROAR) color. Also, to keep things Final Fantasy-ish, the monsters do respawn over time, unless they are objective monsters.

You still have a party consisted of a three-man team. The standard attack/magic/item options are there, along with a summon option I couldn't figure out, and something called "Gambit" which allows you to turn on or off the automatic play of the other characters. Literally, if you just move around and get attacked, the game plays itself. However, you have a much bigger chance of dying if that happens. The fun of the game, really, is in the tactical aspects.

Personally, I like Wait Mode better. I find Active Mode a bit too chaotic, and you have to think on your feet much faster. I see how it can keep players going, and yes, I'm sure people can think faster than me, but I like being able to plan out what kind of things I want to do to the enemy instead of frantically pressing the X button just to get someone to attack.

This brings up one other issue I don't like: the d-pad. Menu stuff is handled by the d-pad, including switching characters. I really like pressing the L1 or R1 buttons to go to the next menu, which seems a little more intuitive than using the d-pad. This might be just because I was using my $40 dollar slime controller, but I don’t see why this was done.

All in all, it's a pretty good first taste. I have a feeling this was the E3 2004 demo that was pulled and fine-tuned over the past year and a half, and I rather like the new feel. Hardcore purists will most likely be put off initially by the gameplay, but may be drawn in by the real-time tactics. I'm interested to see how SquareEnix integrates their incredible stories into the game, and how the final product will turn out in 2006.

Will Bartos

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