It's accepted that every new installment of Final Fantasy will not be like the one that came before it. Characters change age, gender, appearance, and race. Themes jump from survival to love to betrayal -- and sometimes all of that at once. The turn-based combat system is tweaked and modified so that the initial, fumbling "getting to know you" process eventually gives way to complete mastery and a powerhouse battle party by the game's finale. Every time, the experience is fresh, but ultimately familiar (except maybe in the rare case of Final Fantasy X and X-2 -- and even that had some significant changes).
But it's never been this different.
To many fans of the series, Final Fantasy XII will not be true Final Fantasy. But after 12-plus installments, numerous spin-offs and remakes, and the explosive growth and popularity of massively multiplayer online RPGs -- most obviously in the case of Final Fantasy XI -- the changes ushered in by FFXII represent what Final Fantasy needs to be going forward.
The impetus for FFXII's significant changes is real-time combat -- all the new systems and mechanics come from the abandonment of the series' trademark random encounters and Active-Time Battle (ATB) system in favor of the MMORPG style of fighting; visible enemies will randomly spawn in the environment and, unless they're blocking your current path, you can choose whether or not to fight. Everything happens in the same mental and visual space: There's no jarring loading screen of a random encounter, and the action doesn't jump from an overworld map into a stock battle background. FFXII is cohesive and consistent, and your sense of immersion in the game world is better for it.
But it's also more complicated than that. Much more complicated.
With MMORPGs, you are one character playing on a team of other players, each with their own specific role. In a single-player RPG, you are in control of the entire party during battle -- in a system that's based in real-time, keeping track of what each of your party members is (or is not, but should be) doing can quickly become overwhelming. This is where Gambits come into play. Gambits are essentially simple, premade scripts that allow you to tell each character what they should automatically be doing under certain conditions. For instance, should the HP of Balthier fall below 20 percent, Ashe will automatically cast a Curaja, and then resume what she was doing. These Gambits can also be turned off -- individually or as a whole -- and also prioritized, so that watching over your party's health can take precedence over combat targeting and status effect management.
Admittedly, this sounds like "gameplay via spreadsheets," and that all you're doing is programming the game to play itself. But this is where the true depth of FFXII is found: coming up with the most efficient and destructive plan before the battle begins, instead of during it. But you still have to pay attention to what's happening during the battle, because enemies -- especially some of the nastier bosses and optional "hunt" monsters -- like to change attack styles and throw tons of status effects at you. If your Gambits aren't prepared, you have to adapt on the fly. Essentially, the Gambit system spreads the game's strategy evenly across preparation and execution. It might not be as flashy as combining materia or as user-friendly as drawing and junctioning, but it's every bit as deep, and when you eventually do "get to know" it, it's very rewarding.
It would seem that the developers conceded that this would be difficult to adapt to, which can only explain the inclusion of the "Wait" option. Should you find the fighting to be too fast to keep up with, turning on "Wait" will make things more like the Final Fantasy of old. You'll have time to think between battle actions, and can individually select party members and give them specific commands. You can even turn everyone's Gambits off entirely, putting you firmly back in the driver's seat for the whole ride. This shouldn't be interpreted as the development team lacking confidence in their idea, because it works well both ways.
Once the challenge of the Gambit system is overcome, there still remains the difficulty of the game itself, character skill development, and how they both relate to another staple of the MMORPG: grinding. This is where the game hits an uneven spot. Any RPG fan is used to the concept of level grinding -- if an area is too difficult to pass, spend some more time getting experience points and learning new skills until your party is ready. But FFXII varies its difficulty level in unusual ways. Weak- and equal-level monsters often share real estate with devastatingly powerful ones (the random appearance of elementals, even early on in the game, can quickly cause the entire party to wipe), and because bosses are so reliant on afflicting you with status effects, you really have to be on your toes throughout. This also leads to another minor frustration: the return of the three-character party limit. You can swap all six of your characters at any point in the game, but you can only have three of them actively fighting and performing their roles at a time (what's worse is that the game taunts you at certain points by introducing a fourth "guest" character into your party -- but once the guest is gone, you can't replace them with a fourth of your own).
The game's skill system -- the License Board, an enhanced version of FFX's Sphere Grid -- allows you to spend skill points on new abilities and character upgrades. But unlike the Sphere Grid, each character isn't set on a specific class path: It's much more flexible in that any character can learn any skill, and you're free to choose whatever path you please from the beginning. The potential for all of your party members to be hybrid classes -- battle mages, quick attackers, ranged healers -- compensates for the three-character limit. But then again, the Mist and Esper summoning system isn't integrated very well into the rest of the combat system. There's a slight disconnect between what the game's asking you to do and the tools it's giving you to do it with.
From beginning to end, this is the most complex Final Fantasy game yet, and it's just as evident in its plot as in its mechanics. For the first time in what seems like a long while, the story doesn't revolve around a troubled young man on a journey to save existence and the people he meets along the way. Sure, the cast of characters is certainly involved with the story and affects change in the world, but ultimately the story is of a much bigger scale. Dense and often gravely serious, Final Fantasy XII's story is actually a refreshing change of pace for a franchise so heavily reliant on unexplained mystical energies as plot devices. There's still much of that here, too, as a kingdom seeks to expand its empirical rule through the use of powerful magic, but the paranormal how takes a backseat to the political why. The dialogue is intelligent, subtle and sharp, and the best of the writing shines with the best of the voice acting. The "Han and Chewie" characters of Balthier and Fran, especially, are far more interesting than anything Square's put out in the modern FF era. The entire cast works well as an ensemble, and Vaan -- the "angsty teen" everyone expected to get under their skin -- is tempered by the presence of Balthier and Basch. Call it an "older brother" effect.
So yes, much of this is new. And complicated. And scary. But despite the new presentation, new characters, and totally new way of fighting, it's still very much Final Fantasy. Things will assuredly change again with the next game...that's to be expected. But after the forward progression Final Fantasy XII has begun, it would behoove Square Enix to keep the same attitude.
(macht das vieh nämlich im moment noch mit mir *g*)
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