Final Fantasy XII Relesased in Japan (March 16, 2006)

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What was your first impression after watching the above clip of the final ads of Final Fantasy XII? If you're interested, please read my next review. Fans of the long-awaited latest installment of the famous Final Fantasy series can curb their enthusiasm in Japan. Square-Enix has finally released Final Fantasy XII (FFXII), which was originally scheduled in the mid 2004, on March 16, 2006 in Japan. Although sold during the weekday, die-hard fans started to line-up in front of Shibuya Tsutaya store at 6:00 PM, the evening before the official release date. The result was a queue of 70 people at 7:00 AM, right before the store opened.

Square-Enix president Yoichi Wada and FFXII Executive Producer Akitoshi Kawazu were on-hand at the event to greet consumers and answer questions about the release. According to Wada, over 2.3 million copies of FFXII were shipped for the launch -- more than that of the previous FF title (it is presumed that he was referring to 2001's Final Fantasy X.). He also mentioned that the U.S. version is currently in the process of being localized, and should see release sometime around Thanksgiving in U.S. One excited fan asked Wada to release a remake of Final Fantasy VII for PlayStation 3, to which Wada responded "We'll consider it."

The extra months spent in development may have caused some to wonder whether there is something wrong with FFXII. There isn't, if respected Japanese magazine Famitsu is to be believed. With the game finally nearing release, the magazine has doled out only its sixth perfect score, Next Generation is reporting. FFXII earns 40 points out of 40, which means that the four notoriously tough judges have rated the game 10 out of 10 for aspects such as graphic, story line, and game system. The clean-sweep 40-out-of-40 score puts Final Fantasy XII in an elite group of games that includes recent hits Soul Calibur (Dreamcast), Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64), Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GameCube), Vagrant Story (PlayStation 2) and Nintendogs (DS).

The game system itself has introduced something different from the previous installments of Final Fantasy series. You might have known the so-called Gambit system, which consists of an action and a target for that action. Actions can make a character use particular items, attacks, magic spells or skills. Targets can be set as enemies or party members and can even be specified with usage conditions. It's possible to set up a Gambit to make a character use a heal potion (the action) only on party members whose life has gone down by 70% (the target). You can also make a character attack (the action) the enemy that's currently engaged with the party leader (the target). The power of the Gambit system grows along with your characters. As you learn new spells and skills, you gain new actions that can be selected for a Gambit. New target types can be acquired at a Gambit shop in town. You can even increase the number of Gambits held by a character. These can then be ordered, resulting in priority for certain actions. For instance, you can make a character first attack the enemy currently engaging the party leader, then attack the nearest enemy. Each Gambit can be toggled on and off individually from the main menu.

The Gambit and battle systems offer a refreshing experience for the jaded Japanese RPG gamer, but FFXII goes much further in its attempts at twisting all the old formulas. Enemies don't leave behind gold anymore! You can find gold in treasure chests here and there, but the real way to get cash is to collect treasures, sometimes in treasure chests, sometimes being carried by enemies, and sell them at shops. This system has worked well over the first few hours of the game, and it has the benefit of actually making sense as opposed to having all these monsters running around with bags of gold.

Another cool, new feature of this game is the level-up feature using this so-called License Point (remember the creative level-up feature of Sphere Grid and Sphere Nodes on Final Fantasy X? But the License Point is totally different.). Players will be awarded with License Points (LP) and experience for defeating enemies that at least one of them doesn't carry any item. Experience is used just as it is in any other RPG. Your character rises in level when crossing a certain experience threshold and gains added HP, MP and strength.

The LP is used for one of FFXII's coolest new gameplay systems: licenses. In FFXII, as with most other RPGs, you have to buy or find weapons, magic spells, skills and armor. Here, though, a character can only equip weapons and armor and use skills and spells if he's acquired the appropriate license. Each character has a personal license board, which looks somewhat like an irregular chess board. Each square on the board corresponds to a single license for a particular set of skills or items. The board is split into six license regions: magic, skills, accessories, defense, options and weapons. As an example, in the magic area, you'll find one square, titled "White Magic Lv. 1," which allows the character to use a level 1 cure spell. Another square, titled "Black Magic Lv. 3" lets the character use level 3 fire, blizzard and thunder spells. In the case of accessories, defense and weapon slots, opening up a given license allows the character to equip certain classes of equipment. You can make a character equip bows, daggers or heavy armor, but only once you've acquired the appropriate license, even if you have the equipment in your possession.

Two special skill types appear on the license board as you advance through the game: Summons and Mist Knack (character specific special moves, remember Limit Break on Final Fantasy VII or Overdrive on Final Fantasy X?). As for summons, each summon beasts can be assigned exclusively to a single character; once assigned, the summon cannot be acquired from the license board of another character. Both of these skills, once they've been acquired, are selectable via a special command on the battle menu.

Well, it seems that it will take another half year for the U.S. release of Final Fantasy XII. Although there is no official release date, it is said that the U.S. version is set to be some time around Fall 2006, before Thanksgiving. I mostly copy-paste the review above, so just click the next bold words for more info on first impression review by IGN: Final Fantasy XII Playtest, Famitsu's game rating review Kikizo: Final Fantasy XII Scores Perfectly, and FFXII's first sale in Tokyo review by 1Up.com: Final Fantasy XII Launches in Japan. Below is the clip of Final Fantasy XII's opening movie.