Best game ever

[Locke4God]

I love this game. I'm not really that far into it to be honest, but the license board, the ability to buy a variety of weapons, the voice acting, the characters, the hunting, the freedom to battle whenever you want, the gambits, the large scale of the cities, everything about this game is just fantastic. It's faaaaaaaaaar ahead of any of the others. VII is a distant 2nd at this point and I loved that game.

[Freya]

How can you possibly judge a game if you've not beaten it yet? Maybe there'll be some things bothering you in XII. There are some bad parts about EVERY FF, if you ask me.

I liked XII a lot, myself, but I wouldn't say it's the "best game ever". It was good, long enough, I liked the story, but there are other games that are even better.
As for the License Board, for me, it was a kind of improvement compared to the Sphere Grid. It was great all characters could learn the same things. You weren't bound to a job.
The voice acting... I don't know the original voices, but the English ones were quite good.

As for the bad part... I didn't like the fact that Vaan wasn't the protagonist although he was the one the story should've been about. Also, Penelo didn't get enough screen time. It was just sad that even in the end (I won't spoil anything!) you had the impression that only Balthier mattered in this whole game.
I had the feeling some characters got too much and some got not enough attention. :/

[Dodie16]

Best game ever

Wow. Really? "The best game ever"? Maybe a more appropriate title would be "Best FF game ever". I mean I like this game a lot too. In fact, I love the FF franchise, but there are lots of games out on the market that could really easily be called "best game ever" over any FF game. You ever play Shadow of the Colossus? Man, talk about an epic, beautiful and emotional game! I'm not saying it's the best game ever by any means, I'm just saying that maybe you should look at some titles that aren't so mainstream. That's where you'll find the most innovations and intriguing concepts.

I'm not really that far into it

I'm with Freya on this. You probably should wait until you actually finish the game before calling it "the best game ever".

I'm glad that you like the game so far though. It's one of my favorites in the series too. I place VII and XII on equal standing.

[Midnight Panda]

im with Dodie, i like final fantasy alot but not enough to name THIS particular game the best in the world. i would choose something more like, god of war or something very fun and challenging like that...

[Yesha]

For me.. FFXII wasn't the best FF nor the best game ever.. the graphics were good enough, of course.. it was reLeased for PS2 and much Latest than FFX and X-2 but! I must say.. I Like FFX and X-2 much more.

The story is quite short, and very boring.. I wouLd say that if it wasn't for the sidequest and jobs.. this game wouLd be a totaLLy waste of time. It Lacks, in so many exciting aspects, Like there's no Love story at aLL.. there's no specific protagonist nor Leader of the game, the history or Life story of each character is quite predictabLe or just pretty much not mention at aLL, except for Fran and BaLthier who has a very interesting background story.

of course, there's aLso great things about this game..

Characters have a great designs and graphics.. except for Vaan.. I reaLLy don't Like his physicaL appearance nor his cLothes.. and I think it's obvious why..

Each race (humes, Bangaa, viera, moogLes and seeq) that are in FFXII has a very great appearances and you can teLL the difference in each race, the cLothes they wear and aLso their bodies and faces..

Cutscenes and animations is very impressive.. and beautifuL, the opening (intro) is quite breathtaking!

Espers/Summons are quite useLess, except for BeLias which is needed in one part of the story.. they're not weak but, when you have LeveLed up to the max and got aLL strong weapons, you can aLmost equaL their attacks.. the animations when summoning them is awesome and aLso when they do their deathbLow is cooL!

BattLe system is awesome and usefuL, unLike from other FF you can actuaLLy choose which enemies you want to deaL with, aLso.. you can aLways run or fLee easiLy, except for boss battLes.. :-)

Ending is quite disappointing and boring.. I don't want to spoiL anything so.. I just won't say it!

FFXII has so many great things to offer, but.. of course.. there's many wrong things or not just so appeaLing things in it.. so I have to say.. It didn't gave me aLot of impact yet..

[Josh_R]

I have to agree with dodie..I am a fellow final fantasy lover but I have a xbox 360 and some of the games I own for it are pretty awesome....Like oblivion great game my fav for the 360 but I will certainly not say its the best..

[Seerax]

I have a confession to make xD

I've only played FFX and XII, I really want to play the other games as well.

As for the 360 I must say Assasins Creed!

[Josh_R]

Assassins creed was decent but there was tons of room for improvement and could of been ten times better than it actually was...In november Assassins Creed II comes out I am going to rent it not buy just in case it blows....

[Seerax]

There is truth in what you say, but I don't doubt that they ahve improved alot in the second game

[Josh_R]

from what i have heard it has improved drastically...like in the first you could hide in wagon with hay and the guards would ignore...but from what ive read intwo the guards will stab into the hay to see if youre in there...

[Seerax]

Really? o.O Something tells me the second game is going to be very tricky

[Belugn]

I don't really label games as best, because I'm not really that involved in games to well, be able to do that, but FFXII is sure one of my favourites. It had everything I wanted from a game, being sort of a like a book, with all it's hidden mythology. I'm really into world and story creation, so FFXII was a huge inspiration, and executed BEAUTIFULLY. I'm glad you enjoy the game, and I hope you'll be doing it through it too! Just try to get your own opinion about it, that's the way to go.

I have a confession to make xD

I've only played FFX and XII, I really want to play the other games as well.

As for the 360 I must say Assasins Creed!

FFX is my big nostalgic emotional favourite, being my (late) introduction to the series, but I've played lots of older titles now, currently getting my way through FFV.
Try to get your hands on FFVI! It's in my opinion one of the most enjoyable FF games, it's got such heart and spirit, and imo one of the best FF female character. You could try finding it for the PSX i guess, but what I've seen, it's expensive. There is a really good re-release of it to the Game Boy Advance though, with a rewritten script of high quality.

[loaf]

Oh I loved FFXII. Half way through the game was kinda just bland in my opinion. But once you got way into the game like around the time you get to Archades, I thought the game became way better.

[Locke4God]

@ Loaf - Glad to hear it gets better. I'm already loving it. Seriously it took me 17 hours to leave Rabanastre, and I'm pushing 25 hours and I'm still in Bujara (or however you spell that). I'm going to spend 200 hours in this game, and I usually finish FF's in about 90. It's a ton of fun.

@Belugn - Agreed on your take on 12. I love it for the sames reason you do. And I'm really glad to hear you liked VI. It was also one of my very favorites, even among the newer generation. You can find in by getting the Anthology collection, which has 5 & 6. I'm curious what version of 5 you are playing?

My first experience was 7, and 12 is the first game to me that I'm truly considering giving higher marks. 8 was very close to the best for me as well there's something about 12 that feels like they really put it all together. It's just everything I've ever wanted from a FF game. I love it.

[Belugn]

Locke4God: FFVI was just sheer enjoyment right to the end, the cast of characters was one of the most "colourful" and diverse so far. I don't know, but you can somehow tell when the creators of a game had truely fun creating, FFVI was one of those games.
To be honest, I think it's the revised GBA version, it's the only one I've been able to find. Is it very different from it's original form? It sure is revised when it comes to background graphics and colours.

[Josh_R]

FF VII is a great game....VIII is a decent one...IX is ok....X eh....X-2 boooo sucks....XII didnt really like it to much....and I played all the GBA remakes and I love them all they are all great...

[Locke4God]

@ Belugn - I've only played the Anthology version of FFVI. I don't know if it's very much different than the original version. From what I've read there's really no difference at all, some edits for nudity or some such thing, and that's about it. And I completely agree, it's really one of the very best games, and that's soley due to the depth of the many different characters who all have outstanding and unique reasons for participating in the game.

If I had to pick out a flaw of 6, it's that everybody becomes homogonized. There's really no need at the end to do anything more than cast ultima with everybody and the final bosses fall apart like leaves. BUT, i kind of stick to my theory that you shouldn't level up to much and the final battles, while harder, are much more fun.

[Belugn]

Locke4God: Yeah that's true. I totally overpowered the last of the warring triad with Terra and her ultima blade, in combination with the genji gloves and genji scroll. (I don't think they were called that in the original version of FFVI.) Eight slashes and she was toast!
Almost the same thing went for Kefka. When I replay it later I won't be a wuss and overlevel that much, as you said, the more difficult the boss, the more fun. And if you finish him off too quickly you don't get to enjoy the boss theme! I always look forward for the final boss' theme when I play FF games, so far they've never made me disappointed.

[Ether]

Actually this was one of the worst games I have played for Final Fantasy besides Dirge of Cerberus.... Its pretty and blah blah blah but I beat it in less than a week and i'm a most anal retentive player I max everything and get every item....It had no replay value for me and that makes it bad...but thats for me anyway...

[GypsyElder]

FFXII is kinda boring. Not horrible though. The least fun i've had playing any of the FFs were XII and X-2. XII not the worst but X-2 story line killed the whole thing....

[Belugn]

X-2 had a vibrant game play and soundtrack, but that was all really. Why didn't they do something EPIC instead now that they just COULDN'T leave X alone as it was, a perfect game. (Imo.)

..I keep forgetting that there actually is a Dirge of Cerberus game, I don't know like. ANYTHING about that game at all. Except that it's got Vincent in it, heh.

To me FFXII had lots of replay value, since I got really attached to Ivalice and wanted to learn more, and luckily there is more to learn about that world everywhere in the game! And the esper hunts were fun, even though the espers themselves perhaps could've been a little more useful than...just plain useless. That you had to summon Belias at a certain point in the game to get further was kinda cool though, it'd been fun if they could be used as "keys" at other places in the game too.

[Locke4God]

I'm going to go ahead and reassess my love for this game, and as you'll note at the request of several early posters.

I'm not going to call it the best game ever. I think I'll have to fall back to my personal ongoing debate between 7 & 8, although this one might still make that conversation by the end. I'm not quite done yet, but at the start of this posting I was about 18 hours in, and now I'm at 100. So pretty far along.

I still love the towns. I am so happy to have had a game with living towns with dozens and dozens of people running around and different things to do on occassion. I think the way the Hunts are orchestrated by the townfolk really help bring them to life as well, and there are little things you can do to help with various NPC's that are fun.

But the downsides are 2 fold. Every area is a 7-8 section map with more or less the same thing over and over in each area. I didn't mind any one section, but you walk into an area, and you know right off that you have to walk through 7 more areas just like it.

Second is the Espers & battles. Neither were very interesting. I have rarely, and I mean just once or twice found a battle that I actually had to strategize for. Most, even the big battles, you just let your guys fight with their gambits, and occassionally tweak one or two things. And of course the Espers aren't very useful in most circumstances, so I'm going to have to reconsider my overall score for this game, and it's going to slide a bit I think. We'll see.

[Sepiroth_Yat]

Well, if about graphics n' cutscene Final Fantasy 12 is the best for PS2. So it be the battle system, so awsome. We can leave the game it self to do their battle while we go to toilet or make some coffee. But, about the story I think it's worst ever. What a conflict ?? So simple n' easy to be readed. N' no love story. Main character developmental is so poor, no charism. I didn't sense the spirit of final fantasy here.

I think is more better if the prince ( who dead in the early game, I forget his name lol ) is made as a main character. How if he didn't die at the battlefield but just lost his consiousness in nowhere place n' woke up in amnesia condition. So the journey begin to regain his life. To make it more complicated, he was involved in love triangle with a girl who save his life n' his fiancee. Just my opinion.

[Belugn]

I agree about strategy. The only thing you need to take in consideration really when fighting harder enemies, is what status effects they'll inflict on you. Just equip your characters immune to them, or set up fast gambits so that they will remove the negative status effects immediately. Keep up strong cure gambits. Keep up protect/shell/bravery/faith. Add some haste, and your enemy is going DOWNNNNN. They should've spiced up the characters abilities. You either attack, or use magic in FFXII. Things such as delay attack and dark buster simply doesn't exist. No personal areas of expertise. The mists are all the same, espers useless. I still like the battle system however, but I agree that it does get monotonous; FFXII has been the easiest game so far in the series when it comes to battles.

@Sephiroth Yat: I for one, love myself some political plots. But it could've had itself some more original elements to it, this was pretty much the basics of the basic. More character interaction would've lifted the game to a whole new level, I found myself wanting to see more of the characters just having fun or just conversating. Penelo and Vaan's pasts. How Balthier and Fran met. Basch and Noah in their younger days. Princess Ashe and Rasler. Flashbacks would've been nice, but perhaps it would be asking for a lot. FFX managed so well with it's cutscenes. Everybody interacted with eachothers somehow. In FFXII, I think that sentences exchanged between some characters can be counted on one hand.
The characters had so much potency. Balthier being the dandy fancy archadian gentleman that he is, but still some of his spoiled brat attitude leaked out vaguely at some points in the game. They've could've played more on that. And how awkward Basch somehow is socialy, after being caged away for quite some time, his knight pride added to that. Vaan could've been a greater comical relief than he was, and they should've just..had..more..sky pirating business. At least some more Vaan nagging at Balthier about it. I don't know. I want another FFXII game with more character focus. Blablabla, sorry.

@Locke4God: What are you doing in XII right now?

[ffking997]

FFXII is definetly a great game... one of the best FF games i haver ever played... but VII in my opion is the best FF game... they made many sequels and its like the "original" FF game... they have made a FFVII game involving Vincent Valentine and the playout of his part... look it up "FFVII Dirges Of Cerebus" a great game.. but still not the best game in the world... there are indeed better games... but you can never really sayu a game is thebest... assasin's creed 2 is now out and im going to try it out... but still try other games NOT ONE GAME IS THEBEST. i hope you have fun playing the FF series and other games... ull find better ones. if u guys think there is no starategy needed for the battles u guys must still be behind the half-way point. after that the game gets much tougher... and envolves strategy....