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注册时间 2005-11-7
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Electronic Gaming Monthly Review for:
Final Fantasy XII.(Typed by predator1015)
Shane:
At long last, Its finally here (some two years later than developer Square Enix originally promised, mind you) – Final Fantasy XII arrives just in time to close the book on current-gen role-playing once and for all. And after a string of add-ball FF offshoots (the largely recycled Final Fantasy X-2, the massively multiplayer online Final Fantasy XI, and the mouseketeer-approved Kingdom Hearts games), series fans have pined for an epic worthy of the hallowed FF name. Well, FFXII certainly has grand ambitions, and it’s easily among the most impressive titles ever to grace the PS2, but series vets should be prepared to be shocked by just how startlingly different this quest feels from what came before.
Of course, dedicated FF followers already know they’re in for a shock – Square Enix bravely handed the reins to a different development team for this installment, and it show. These guys had preciously made the Final Fantasy Tactics game (along with the Ogre Battle series and the PS1 cult classic Vagrant Story), and you’ll instantly recognize the distinctive look and feel of those games here. The story line, art direction, character designs, and music all adhere to a very specific artistic mold – it’s a highly refined, classical, and vaguely European vibe that feels completely unlike anything the series proper has ever offered.
Luckily, the fantasy realm of ivalice is a mighty welcoming place. An astounding amount of effort must have gone into rendering the colossal, sprawling cities, cast outdoor expanses, and labyrinthine dungeons. No modern Final Fantasy (save FFXI, which doesn’t really count) has offered such a realistic sense of scale, and it makes the whole experience feel totally fresh. You actually feel as if you’re traversing a very real world…it’s really quite compelling, and the breathtaking visuals will have you rethinking the limits of current-gen graphics.
Nobody really doubted this team’s ability to craft a beautiful world (Vagrant Story still looks sweet six years later), but penning a compelling entertaining, and comprehensible story is another matter altogether. (The team’s narrative track record ain’t so hot – FFT is borderline nonsense by its endgame.) Fortunately, FFXII’s plot doesn’t get too bogged down with confusing minutiae. It’s a largely straightforward tale, dense with political intrigue yet surprisingly easy to follow. Until the ending, that is – things fall apart a bit during the crucial final hours.
It’s vital that an RPG deliver cool character (cosplayers gotta dress up like someone, right?) and, compared to the colorful, diverse casts of recent FF titles, your party members in FFXII seem a tad…mundane. It’s tough to even pinpoint who the main character’s supposed to be – headstrong, fashion-forward orphanVaan seems the obvious protagonist, but it’s really all about Ashe, the feisty princess. Sadly, neither of them is particularly interesting, and the story as a whole lacks the emotional punch you’d expect. Uneven voice work (featuring some embarrassing mispronunciations – marquis is a French word guys) certainly doesn’t help matter…
So, the world impresses and the narrative suffices, but what about FFXII’s gameplay? Given the development team’s history of crafting encyclopedically complex game mechanics, the battle system feels remarkably simple. Instead of warping you to a separate battle screen for encounters, FFXII places all combat directly on the field. A enemies appear, your party engages, taking turns attacking as you run around waiting for your action meter to fill up. After FFX and X-2 took the traditional FF active time battle in clever new direction, this feels like a serious step back. If anything, it’s more like final fantasy XI’s online combat – shallow repetitive and dull.
Or at least it feels that way at first – as FFXII progresses, it introduces two gameplay systems, the license board and gambit systems that deepen the experience. The license board enables you to completely customize your fighters’ abilities, but it’s nothing more than a rehash of FFX’s sphere Grid, only far more vague and less user-friendly. The gambit system, however, feels very inventive – you’re more or less programming the A.I. for your entire party with exacting detail. It’s clever stuff: Once you’ve got the hang of the system, normal combat becomes a complete nonissue. Your preprogrammed party will barrel through enemies, stealing loot and healing itself along the way. You can quite literally put the controller down and watch your warriors plow a path to victory.
In a way that’s cool – but at the same time, so much of the strategy and challenge of the past FF encounters is surrendered here. Plus, the battle system’s crucial weakness becomes all to clear during boss encounters. Here you’ll generally need to turn your pressed gambit strategies off, as you’re again forced to micromanage your party members. And the unadulterated combat feels undercooked. Mist attacks, this game’s version of over the top limit break special moves, are terribly unbalanced: overpowered at first, yet far less useful later in the game. Likewise summon spells simply aren’t worth it – their massive magic point cost makes them pointless. A troublesome camera (a tragic FF first!) compounds matters further.
If this all sounds terribly negative, don’t get too discouraged. The wildly reworked combat may lack the depth of precious games, but it’s so innocuous (outside of boss battles at least) that you almost don’t notice it. Instead you can focus on spelunking the game’s mammoth (100 floors big enough for ya?) dungeons and dabbling in the seemingly endless optional quests. Ultimately no one will question the ambition that went into crafting FFXII – it’s a giant, beautiful game that takes a lot of risky chances. Most of them succeed. Some fans will love this new direction…but others will be rest assured that FFXIII (Playstation 3) will be a return to classic form.
Bryan:
Shane, you go right ahead and keep talking about how much you can’t wait for lucky number 13 – I’m perfectly content exploring Final Fantasy XII’s wonderful world of ivalice and everything it has to offer. And for me, it all starts with the game’s shockingly mature, politically driven narrative: Instead of focusing so much on your party members, this RPG concentrates on the bigger picture facing its feuding kingdoms and the struggles happening within them. Like so much else here, it’s quite a departure from the established series norm, as you’ll never connect with major FFXII players Vaan and Ashe to the same degree as with Cloud/Aerith or Tidus/Yuna, but it winds up being a much welcomed change in story direction.
And since these guys can’t stop discussing the games’ ever-controversial combat system, allow me to chime in: I guess I’m the middleman in thie depate, because on the one hand, I completely buy into this quicker style of play for the everyday skirmishes (plus I’m really glad to see FFXII ditch the whole concept of random battles). On the other hand during boss fights I kinda miss the slower paced, more methodical approach of the older FF games. Also Andrew’s crazy if he thinks that simply switching the system from “active” to “wait” does let you pause the action midfight, theseencounters can still get out of control in a hurry (especially if that particular boss brings some backup). But if the combat is gonna be speedy, I know that, thanks to the new Gambit system, party members will make smart decisions during battly (heal, attack the strongest enemy, and so on). Now as I’m sure that people will continue to have differing opinions of the combat, you can’t argue about damn amazing this game looks. From its lively outdoor backdrops to the striking architecture found on its citiesa and dungeons, this PS2 Title will even please – at least visually – those with next gen FF firmly on the brain. Ya know like Shan…
1up.com – Andrew P.
In the five long years since Final Fantasy X, I’ve gotten hungry. Sure, I sampled a little bit of the online time sink known as Final Fantasy XI, but its bland flavors weren’t for me. The wait for Final Fantasy XII, though, was like dangling a delicious steak just out of my reach for three years. Now that it’s been served and I have consumed, I can say that this is the most satisfying Final Fantasy Experience I’ve ever had.
Teeming with tact9ical brilliance, FFXII is a rigorous workout for your brain. I have to disagree with Bryan and Shane: By replacing antiquated random battles with a faster paced massively multiplayer online (MMO) style of combat, Square is finally taking the training wheels off the series. Everything still feels like Final Fantasy (Potions, Spells, Party Formation, Skill development and so forth), but combat is a much more complex – and consequently rewarding – experience. In the olden day, you could take your sweet time deciding what actions to take in battle. Now you and your party spot an enemy, advance to attack, and reap the rewards all without pause. A result, the pace of the game is more fluid and you’re always connected to the game world. The other guys might consider the gambit system the training wheels, but what Square is essentially doing is spreading around the strategy to include battle preparation as well as the actual battle itself. It’s not that your merely watching the game play itself; you’re analyzing your skills and gambits to look for weaknesses or inefficiencies plus, having additional enemies unexpectedly join the fight of bosses soling out unwanted status keeps you on your toes. Being as they’re not as much into MMO games as I am, A can see their argument. But by turning gambits off and switching the battle system from “active” to “wait” its pretty much just like the old FF again, and everyone can be happy. Aside from the camera issues and largely forgettable soundtrack, XII hits the spot for me. A well crafted cast of character and intricate and political charged plot, and a fresh take on combat…my compliments to the chef.
貌似赞骂很两极呀. 最关心的配音也有意见, 包括念错单词... |
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发表于 2006-10-15 08:39
