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In Defense of FFXII
Next Generation has an article defending many of the somewhat 'controversial' decisions made in the design for the newest chapter in the Final Fantasy series. While it recieved a 40/40 from Famitsu, Final Fantasy XII has recieved some harsh criticisms for straying as far as it has from the Final Fantasy norm. From the article: "With Gambits turned on (and configured with just five minutes of commonsensical thought), battles go at least twenty times more quickly than in any other RPG. At their best, Final Fantasy XII's battles resemble rollicking fights in fantasy movies. The player merely directs his party through an area, freezing the action when he sees fit to make adjustments on the battle plan (stronger enemies appear, et cetera). This alone should be enough to qualify XII as a 'videogame.' The controller's vibration, for example, provides wonderful feedback. Yet players feel betrayed. They say, 'I want to press buttons.' They say, 'I don't want to watch my videogame.'"
Square has made a few very good games in the past, few enough that they can be listed in their entirety right here:
1. Secret of Mana
2. Chrono Trigger
3. Final Fantasy 7
You should note that only *one* of those is a final fantasy game, and they have made 12 of them. The plots, dialogue, and characters generally suck. Essentially all most final fantasy games are is mindless mob grinding, and item collection. Sadly for square, this space has been taken over by MMORPGs, and arguably blizzard has taken the lead in this market.
What Square has shown in the past, is that they have the talent and raw resources to create really great games, but no real motivation to do so. Coming up with a good plot and dialogue that people over the age of 12 can enjoy is difficult and requires that they give someone smart a lot of creative freedom, which is always dangerous. It's easier for them to just throw lots of money at artists and developers to create a beautiful expansive world, to cover up how utterly mediocre their game is at its core.
My hope is that Blizzard now feels under a certain amount of pressure to buck their old demographic of obsessive compulsive gamers, and to appeal to an average joe like me who isn't really interested in random encounters, or ultimate weapons, but who just wants to play a genuinely enjoyable game with a cool story and interesting characters. I haven't checked out the latest final fantasy, but I'm hoping that all the whining I hear from the old guard suggest some improvements.