two
This time it's FFXII.
Name: Final Fantasy XII
Genre: RPG
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix
Basic Review
Graphics - Beautiful. Otherworldly. Gorgeous. Detailed. Jaw-droping. Drool worthy. Need I go on?
Playability - The controls are very easy to get used to, as is the battle system. SO. MUCH. STUFF. TO. DO. There are a TON of hunts to go on, not to mention rare game and side quests. It doubles the playing time from the main quest. And the hunts aren't a chore at all to do. Most are easy to get to, and if you follow them in the order given, you'll usually be the right level for it. Sidequests can be done at any time before the very very very end of the game.
Sound - Beautiful soundtrack, as expected of a Final Fantasy game. Goes back to more of the style from IX and some of X, getting away from the crap that was the soundtrack of X-2. The sound effects are very nice and just add to, rather than take away from.
Story - If I tried to do the whole plot to this game, I would drive myself nuts, so here's a rundown.
This kingdom forms an alliance with this other kingdom by marrying their kids off. The guy gets killed soon after and the king of the first kingdom decides to sign a peace treaty with the attacking kingdom cause he's a wimp. Only it's a set-up and Basch, main character 1, gets framed for the murder of the king from kingdom 1. It was really his twin brother Noah who did it, but as no one knew he had a twin, he was SOL. Basch is sentenced to death, your playable character, Reks, ends up dying, and life is bad for a few years. Then the real start of the game begins.
Vaan, an orphan and brother of Reks, likes to run around in vests a lot. The new ruler of kingdom 1 is coming in, Vayne Puffysleeves Floofyhair, and so Vaan wishes to go show him his awesome vest (and steal something, but whatever). Vaan has to do a bunch of useless shit that gets you used to the game and battle mechanics before, though, and you're introduced to his friend, Penelo, who is also an orphan and for some reason wears LEATHER in the freaking DESERT. I. Just. Why. WHY? Ahem. Vaan finally breaks into the palace and doesn't meet Vayne, but does find the sparkly jewel o' destruction. Someone else was also after the SJOD, two someones in fact. Not only that, but while you're trying to run away from them it seems someone planned a raid on the palace. Oh, wait, that's just the rebel army. For some reason, Vaan and the two thieves who were chasing after him, Fran, a viera with a wedgie, and Balthier, who is probably hiding something in his MC Hammer pants (his hair gel, most likely), end up in the sewer and decide they have to work together to get out of there. Why they didn't just knock Vaan out and take the SJOD, I'll never know. They end up running into the leader of the rebellion, Amalia or some crap fake name because it is OBVIOUSLY PRINCESS ASHE, and she joins you for a while. Except you all get captured anyway. Sucks for you. Amalia/Ashe is taken somewhere else to get a name change, while Vaan, Fran, and Balthier are thrown in prison. You escape, and find Basch on the way, who was in fact not dead but strung up for two years. Um, why? Did they keep him alive so his brother could go throw rocks at him on ocassion? Didn't they figure that if he ever got out he could cause all kinds of havoc? Sigh. Anyway, the four of you escape and head back to kingdom 1. Because the first place you want to go when you're a wanted criminal is the city where you got arrested. Basch wishes to go to the floating kingdom, and as you just now find out that Penelo has been kidnapped in an attempt to lure out Balthier (not the brightest bounty hunter in the world), you decide to go with him, cause that's where she's at. At the floating kingdom you run into a kid who dresses, looks, and speaks just like Vayne. He calls himself 'Lamont', because obviously royalty is crap at picking fake names. You get back Penelo, but hide in a corner while Penelo and 'Lamont' get stopped by his cortege. Cortage? Corsage? Er, anyway, Lamont turns out to be Laras Puffysleeves Floofyhair, brother to Vayne. I. AM. SHOCKED. Him and Penelo get whisked off to a honeymoon suite while you... stand there and watch. Right. You go visit the Mar Kwis (because they've never heard marquis pronounced in French before) and he sends you to the Imperial ship, where you meet Darth Vader. I mean Judge Ghis. Ashe and Penelo (and 'Lamont') are also on board, because they didn't have anywhere else to detain them...? You do battle with Darth Vader and then the ship blows up because of Vaan's SJOD. Good job, Vaan. Lamont decides you need to go to some mountain to get this old guy's persmission for Ashe to be princess again. It doesn't really make much sense, but as we're not doing anything else, might as well. Along the way you have to pass through the viera village, then go take a detour to rescue Fran's sister. You get to leave the village of the playboy bunnies after that and finally get to Mt. Burrontheass. You meet the old dude, who uses telepathy to talk cause he's too lazy to open his mouth. Damn, that's pretty lazy. You also meet your first Cid (because two Cids are better than one), who hits on Ashe and is pretty creepy. Er. Right. Anyway. No one wants war, and everyone wants Ashe to be queen, so the party goes off to find some sword. Like she doesn't have a perfectly good one at this point, unless you've been messing with the license board. You haven't, have you? Good. But we still have to go get it, cause it can cut the SJOD and there are no volcanos around to drop them in instead. You get the sword, but by the time you get back to Mt. Burritsfreezinguphere, the old dude is dead and you have to fight another Judge. Yay. Afterwards, you decide to go to Archades. Because the true ruler of kingdom 1 traipsing around in the capital city of the rival kingdom isn't strange. At all. You go visit Balthier's father, the second Cid, because we needed some daddy-issues in this game. It's also revealed that Balthier used to be a judge, but no one seems to care about that. Cid2 is obviously a nutjob, and takes off before you can kill him. Damn. You do meet the best side character in the game there, though. Reddas is awesome and cannot be made fun of, because his awesomeness would smite me before I could type the words. It all gets a little fuzzy after this, so bear with me. You travel to this place to find the source of the SJOD and instead encounter the Occuria, the real string-pullers of this little play. They've been messing with history, but you don't find this out until later, so shhh. They give you another sword and the location of the real source of SJOD. Yeah, thanks guys. Like you could have just done that before we went all the hell out here. Basch's brother, because he hasn't been in enough of this, stalks you all the way to where the real source is and gets in the way when Ashe decides to destroy it. We kick his butt, of course. Cid arrives and you have to fight him as well, but Reddas still ends up sacrificing himself to destroy the source. We will miss you, Reddas. Learning from Cid that there's a war about to take place, everyone hightails it back to kingdom 1, only to find Archadia already there and waiting for you. You go into Bahamut, because that's where Vayne's hiding and Vaan still wants to show him his vest. You fight Basch's twin YET AGAIN (but this is the last time, promise), then Vayne. After Vayne knocks 'Lamont' out for picking such a stupid fake name, you have to fight his uhhh... evolved form? Sephiroth on steroids? Kefka? Anyway, you have to fight it, and then escape Bahamut while it crashes to the ground. But wait! Balthier and Fran stay behind to make sure that it doesn't crash on the city. The game doesn't even give you a good 'what if they died' moment because it tells you right after that they're still alive. The epilogue takes place a year later in a letter from Penelo to 'Lamont', who is now emperor. Fortunately, he has Basch there to prevent him from naming anything, but Basch is dressed up as and has taken on the name of his dead brother, who died while you were escaping from Bahamut. Basch has issues. And he seemed so well adjusted before this. Anyway, Lamont is being the emperor, Basch is being is brother, Ashe is being crowned, Fran and Balthier are being skypirates, Penelo's being vaguely annoyed, and Vaan is still lamenting the fact that Vayne never got to see his vest. ZE END.
Enjoyment - Very enjoyable. I have wasted more hours of my life on this game than any other (besides possibly Ragnarok Online). It is awesome and win all wrapped up in a PS2 disc.
Name: Final Fantasy XII
Genre: RPG
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix
Basic Review
Graphics - Beautiful. Otherworldly. Gorgeous. Detailed. Jaw-droping. Drool worthy. Need I go on?
Playability - The controls are very easy to get used to, as is the battle system. SO. MUCH. STUFF. TO. DO. There are a TON of hunts to go on, not to mention rare game and side quests. It doubles the playing time from the main quest. And the hunts aren't a chore at all to do. Most are easy to get to, and if you follow them in the order given, you'll usually be the right level for it. Sidequests can be done at any time before the very very very end of the game.
Sound - Beautiful soundtrack, as expected of a Final Fantasy game. Goes back to more of the style from IX and some of X, getting away from the crap that was the soundtrack of X-2. The sound effects are very nice and just add to, rather than take away from.
Story - If I tried to do the whole plot to this game, I would drive myself nuts, so here's a rundown.
This kingdom forms an alliance with this other kingdom by marrying their kids off. The guy gets killed soon after and the king of the first kingdom decides to sign a peace treaty with the attacking kingdom cause he's a wimp. Only it's a set-up and Basch, main character 1, gets framed for the murder of the king from kingdom 1. It was really his twin brother Noah who did it, but as no one knew he had a twin, he was SOL. Basch is sentenced to death, your playable character, Reks, ends up dying, and life is bad for a few years. Then the real start of the game begins.
Vaan, an orphan and brother of Reks, likes to run around in vests a lot. The new ruler of kingdom 1 is coming in, Vayne Puffysleeves Floofyhair, and so Vaan wishes to go show him his awesome vest (and steal something, but whatever). Vaan has to do a bunch of useless shit that gets you used to the game and battle mechanics before, though, and you're introduced to his friend, Penelo, who is also an orphan and for some reason wears LEATHER in the freaking DESERT. I. Just. Why. WHY? Ahem. Vaan finally breaks into the palace and doesn't meet Vayne, but does find the sparkly jewel o' destruction. Someone else was also after the SJOD, two someones in fact. Not only that, but while you're trying to run away from them it seems someone planned a raid on the palace. Oh, wait, that's just the rebel army. For some reason, Vaan and the two thieves who were chasing after him, Fran, a viera with a wedgie, and Balthier, who is probably hiding something in his MC Hammer pants (his hair gel, most likely), end up in the sewer and decide they have to work together to get out of there. Why they didn't just knock Vaan out and take the SJOD, I'll never know. They end up running into the leader of the rebellion, Amalia or some crap fake name because it is OBVIOUSLY PRINCESS ASHE, and she joins you for a while. Except you all get captured anyway. Sucks for you. Amalia/Ashe is taken somewhere else to get a name change, while Vaan, Fran, and Balthier are thrown in prison. You escape, and find Basch on the way, who was in fact not dead but strung up for two years. Um, why? Did they keep him alive so his brother could go throw rocks at him on ocassion? Didn't they figure that if he ever got out he could cause all kinds of havoc? Sigh. Anyway, the four of you escape and head back to kingdom 1. Because the first place you want to go when you're a wanted criminal is the city where you got arrested. Basch wishes to go to the floating kingdom, and as you just now find out that Penelo has been kidnapped in an attempt to lure out Balthier (not the brightest bounty hunter in the world), you decide to go with him, cause that's where she's at. At the floating kingdom you run into a kid who dresses, looks, and speaks just like Vayne. He calls himself 'Lamont', because obviously royalty is crap at picking fake names. You get back Penelo, but hide in a corner while Penelo and 'Lamont' get stopped by his cortege. Cortage? Corsage? Er, anyway, Lamont turns out to be Laras Puffysleeves Floofyhair, brother to Vayne. I. AM. SHOCKED. Him and Penelo get whisked off to a honeymoon suite while you... stand there and watch. Right. You go visit the Mar Kwis (because they've never heard marquis pronounced in French before) and he sends you to the Imperial ship, where you meet Darth Vader. I mean Judge Ghis. Ashe and Penelo (and 'Lamont') are also on board, because they didn't have anywhere else to detain them...? You do battle with Darth Vader and then the ship blows up because of Vaan's SJOD. Good job, Vaan. Lamont decides you need to go to some mountain to get this old guy's persmission for Ashe to be princess again. It doesn't really make much sense, but as we're not doing anything else, might as well. Along the way you have to pass through the viera village, then go take a detour to rescue Fran's sister. You get to leave the village of the playboy bunnies after that and finally get to Mt. Burrontheass. You meet the old dude, who uses telepathy to talk cause he's too lazy to open his mouth. Damn, that's pretty lazy. You also meet your first Cid (because two Cids are better than one), who hits on Ashe and is pretty creepy. Er. Right. Anyway. No one wants war, and everyone wants Ashe to be queen, so the party goes off to find some sword. Like she doesn't have a perfectly good one at this point, unless you've been messing with the license board. You haven't, have you? Good. But we still have to go get it, cause it can cut the SJOD and there are no volcanos around to drop them in instead. You get the sword, but by the time you get back to Mt. Burritsfreezinguphere, the old dude is dead and you have to fight another Judge. Yay. Afterwards, you decide to go to Archades. Because the true ruler of kingdom 1 traipsing around in the capital city of the rival kingdom isn't strange. At all. You go visit Balthier's father, the second Cid, because we needed some daddy-issues in this game. It's also revealed that Balthier used to be a judge, but no one seems to care about that. Cid2 is obviously a nutjob, and takes off before you can kill him. Damn. You do meet the best side character in the game there, though. Reddas is awesome and cannot be made fun of, because his awesomeness would smite me before I could type the words. It all gets a little fuzzy after this, so bear with me. You travel to this place to find the source of the SJOD and instead encounter the Occuria, the real string-pullers of this little play. They've been messing with history, but you don't find this out until later, so shhh. They give you another sword and the location of the real source of SJOD. Yeah, thanks guys. Like you could have just done that before we went all the hell out here. Basch's brother, because he hasn't been in enough of this, stalks you all the way to where the real source is and gets in the way when Ashe decides to destroy it. We kick his butt, of course. Cid arrives and you have to fight him as well, but Reddas still ends up sacrificing himself to destroy the source. We will miss you, Reddas. Learning from Cid that there's a war about to take place, everyone hightails it back to kingdom 1, only to find Archadia already there and waiting for you. You go into Bahamut, because that's where Vayne's hiding and Vaan still wants to show him his vest. You fight Basch's twin YET AGAIN (but this is the last time, promise), then Vayne. After Vayne knocks 'Lamont' out for picking such a stupid fake name, you have to fight his uhhh... evolved form? Sephiroth on steroids? Kefka? Anyway, you have to fight it, and then escape Bahamut while it crashes to the ground. But wait! Balthier and Fran stay behind to make sure that it doesn't crash on the city. The game doesn't even give you a good 'what if they died' moment because it tells you right after that they're still alive. The epilogue takes place a year later in a letter from Penelo to 'Lamont', who is now emperor. Fortunately, he has Basch there to prevent him from naming anything, but Basch is dressed up as and has taken on the name of his dead brother, who died while you were escaping from Bahamut. Basch has issues. And he seemed so well adjusted before this. Anyway, Lamont is being the emperor, Basch is being is brother, Ashe is being crowned, Fran and Balthier are being skypirates, Penelo's being vaguely annoyed, and Vaan is still lamenting the fact that Vayne never got to see his vest. ZE END.
Enjoyment - Very enjoyable. I have wasted more hours of my life on this game than any other (besides possibly Ragnarok Online). It is awesome and win all wrapped up in a PS2 disc.