posted 2006/12/31 at 21:51
First of all, since I believe in reciprocating these things, for Don ... go Jets.
Anyway, I only left myself a couple of hours to go, but I did finish Final Fantasy XII before the end of the year, just a few minutes ago. I don't know if I even want to mention how many hours a day I've been spending here working on the game and getting it finished up. Then again, the way I see it, once I get a job here, I'll probably never have the opportunity to sink just that much time into an RPG like that ever again. I could do that when I was younger, but I just don't see myself doing that any more. (Not that I'm going to stop playing RPGs, but I can't devote huge amounts of time to them like that anymore.)
I may give a fuller review later when I've had some time to distance myself from the game (and more time to write), but for now I have to say that while the game is gorgeous and the story is great, I have a couple of small problems with the game. First of all, although the story is very well-written, I didn't really feel myself getting involved and caring about the characters like I do in some of the other Final Fantasy games. (I'm not talking like Final Fantasy VIII where I actively loathed most of the cast, but at the same time I couldn't plug into the game like I can with IV and VII just to name two.) Secondly, and perhaps this is to be expected given that Uematsu Nobuo only contributed one song to the game, but the music, for the most part, failed to grab me as well. The music is good, but it just kind of fades into the background and doesn't stand out like Uematsu's best efforts do.
It was a tremendous playing experience and sixty bucks well spent to be sure, and I'll probably play it again at some point (albeit in much smaller doses than I've been playing these past couple of weeks), but I don't think I can put the game in that same rarified air that I put Final Fantasy IV and VII.
Anyway, I'm off to ring in 2007 or something like that. More on the new year later.
copyright © 2008 Sean Shannon