Square Enix 2005: Final Fantasy XII Playtest
FFXII debuts in Japan, and we play it for an hour.
July 30, 2005 - It's been nearly one and a half years since Final Fantasy XII saw its playable debut. Following an appearance in America back at E3 2004, the biggest international jewel in Square Enix's PlayStation 2 grand finale of titles would go into hiding, skipping out on a Tokyo Game Show, a Jump Festa and even this year's E3.
At long last, the game has resurfaced in playable form. Final Fantasy XII was undoubtedly the most popular title at the Square Enix Party 2005, a two day event now in progress over in Japan. Despite the availability of a couple hundred playable kiosks, lines to play the game were so long that I decided to use my press privileges to cut in front of all the Cloud and Aerith cos-players (those press credentials aren't just good for sneaking into swimsuit exhibitions... I can cut in line at game shows, too!). When my play time ended, I'd managed to play FFXII for an hour (a surprising thing, considering the demo had at most thirty minutes of gameplay on it).
The Square Enix Party demo consisted of two separate play sections: Fone Coast and Miriam Ruins. Both are pure gameplay sequences featuring lots of enemies to kill, but none of those lovely cut scenes that the Final Fantasy series is known for.
Miriam Ruins takes place in an underground dungeon environment. When you begin play, an instruction screen appears, suggesting that you to kill a character called the Ring Dragon. The game lets you in on how to make the Ring Dragon appear -- by collecting the Dragon Key, which is being held by a large, multi-part creature called Adamantai. The game also gives you a hint as to how to progress: Adamantai is blocking the road somehwere.
Fone Coast, in contrast, takes place above ground, on a beach, complete with beautifully rendered sand and water. This mission requires that you kill a boss called Rock Eater. To make Rock Eater appear, you have to kill 3 "Slavunell" creatures. The game gives you the hint that the Slavunell creatures aren't too friendly with the puny Mandragora creatures (from Final Fantasy XI) and suggests that you let the two creatures fight each other first and then go in for the kill yourself.
As they were at the game's E3 2004 debut, the similarities to Final Fantasy XI are clear here, even beyond the presence of the Mandragora beasts. Compared to most traditional Final Fantasy games, FFXII offers a surprising amount of freedom, giving you vast environments to explore and full camera control as you move about. There's no switch to a battle mode in this game -- battles are intermixed with dungeon crawling, making for a seamless experience.
The game also includes an interesting dynamic involving enemies. As the Fone Coast hint suggested, you're not the only one fighting the creatures of the FFXII world. They also fight amongst themselves, and you can see this as you move around (and take advantage of it in the Fone Coast demo). Just like in FFXI, once you've engaged an enemy, other creatures will take notice of this and will come in for attack, adding a new dimension to the closed battle systems from previous FF games.
In case you didn't read through IGN's E3 2004 coverage, here's how FFXII's basic gameplay system works. You have three characters in your party, with the Miriam Ruins stage defaulting to Fran, Balfre and Ashe and the Fone Coast stage letting you play as Pannero, Bash and Vaan. You control one of these characters, moving him around the field, with the other two characters following behind, controlled by the computer. You can toggle on and off an AI routine, called a "Gambit," for your allies, and can also switch control between party members by cycling through the characters using Up/Down on the D-pad.
The fun begins when you engage an enemy, or find yourself engaged by one. In Final Fantasy XII, enemies are visible on the screen ahead of time -- so, no more random battles, although the enemies to seem to replenish randomly throughout the stage if you wait long enough. Some enemies, the Mandragora for example, are content with just going about their own business. They won't even attack you if you run right into them, only fighting back if you're the first to attack. Other enemies will charge at you if you come in too close, forcing you into battle.
FFXII is still menu based, but it's in the Final Fantasy XI sense of the word menu. To bring up the battle menu, you press square. This gives you access to commands for item use, attack, magic use, summon and toggling your characters' Gambit setting. To attack an enemy, either one that's currently attacking you or one that is wandering around in the distance, you select attack and choose an enemy from the available enemies in the area -- enemies that are within range of your attacks. Your character is then locked in battle with the enemy and will continue automatically attacking until you give commands. You can also select commands for the other characters in your party without switching control to them.
When you're locked in battle with an enemy, the game displays a blue "Target Line," connecting you to that enemy. To switch targets, you simply select attack again and choose a different enemy. Enemies that are attacking you, but aren't necessarily being attacked by you, are connected to you via a red line. This information is visible for all party members, meaning you can get a fix on who's attacking who and who's being attacked by what.
You have full freedom of movement over your playable character during battle. You're free to move close to an enemy or run away. Let go of the controller and the computer will take over your character's movement, moving in for an attack at the right moment.
Your characters can only attack from a fixed distance, dependent on the type of weapon the character uses. Vaan uses swords, for instance, so he needs to be close. Pannero uses arrows, so she can attack from farther away. If you force your character out of range of attack, he won't attack until you allow him to get back in range. You can also unlock yourself from an enemy and run away from battles by holding down R2 as you move.
Magic and item use are done in the same way as standard attacks, by bringing up the battle menu and selecting the commands. Magic is split into groups. There's the usual White and Black magic, with white focusing on cure spells and black giving you access to heavy attack spells, but I also noticed a couple of other mysterious groups.
The demo at the Square Enix Party gave access to a summon attack. Once I'd advanced far enough, I noticed that my summon meter had maxed out, and I was able to call upon a powerful beast to help out in battle. Expectedly, a summon spell results in a flashy call routine. However, the actual summon takes on a different form than in previous FF games. In FFXII, following the call spell, the summon beast appears in battle alongside you, with your two allies disappearing. He then follows you around like a body guard, taking out enemies using powerful attacks, until time runs out. Your character also gains power for a limited time, making walking through the stage a breeze.
With this direct battle system, Final Fantasy XII feels like a completely different game when compared to pre Final Fantasy XI entries in the series. The game almost feels like a real time simulation, where you can micromanage three characters. While the battle system feels more real time than the active time battles that the series is known for, it's worth noting that the action actually pauses in FFXII when you bring up the command menu, so there is some time to catch a breath during the action.
I'll have to play more of FFXII to see how much I truly enjoy the game, but this twist in gameplay is one that's sure to split the series' hardcore fans. As I waited for our chance to play, I noticed some rumble amongst those lined up that the game looks totally different from previous titles. It should be interesting to see how the game buying public, who help make every main Final Fantasy game sell two million copies on the day of release, accept the game.
Of course, IGN could have shared a similar impressions piece with you back at E3 2004 (and, in fact, we did). FFXII hasn't changed all that much since that time, despite the silence from Square Enix. Even outside of the battle system, the game looks about the same -- a good thing, since it had a solid look back then. You won't be blown away by the visuals in FFXII, but then again, this is the PS2.
The game is clearly nearing completion, though. Outside of the demo area, Square Enix unveiled a new trailer, showcasing the close relationship between Ashe and Vaan, some massive air battles, and what appears to be a city floating in the sky (we even caught a glimpse of what appears to be a dance number involving Ashe). The potential for a dramatic storyline is high with this one! Square Enix also announced the Japanese release date for the game, 3/16/2006, and gave a sneak peak at the game's theme song.
Yes, it seems that Final Fantasy XII is at last nearing completion.
