Haven't read part 2? Do so here.

Hey guys. Welcome back to part three of our Final Fantasy Retrospective. Today we will be covering the rest of the main series and soon, collecting our scores from all of them and seeing how this all plays out. So let's get to it.

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Lantis: So it seems by this point, Square was putting out three titles per generation. I-III on NES, IV-VI on SNES, VII-IX on the PS1, and now they've moved on to the PS2. Final Fantasy X was the next evolution which featured, among other things, full voice acting and such.

SK: Yep. Good-looking stuff according to the TV commercial at the time, from what I remember. I was hyped, but figured I'd never play it because college would put me out of the console-owning game, and I'd never go beyond the PS1/N64 generation. Boy am I glad I rethought that and bought a PS2 only a year or so later, because FFX is good, although not one of the all time greats. Graphics were amazing even for the PS2, I thought.

Lantis: I generally think they still hold up today. It's still very visually appealing. The cast of characters this time around, I believe are much better.

SK: In comparison to ...?

Lantis: The past like... three games?

SK: Oh, I thought VII had the best of VII through X, really. I hope this doesn't mean you like Tidus in particular, now, does it?

Lantis: The only ones a really didn't like are Tidus and Rikku. Everyone else was either alright or awesome. Specially Auron.

SK: I generally agree with that. Now, if we're starting on characters, then let's get this one out of the way right now. Tidus seems to be regarded as one of the most annoying protagonists in all of the Final Fantasy series, and with good reason. He's got a terrible voice, he's dressed like a moron (and that's saying something when you look at everyone's general dress style in the FFX world of Spira), and you can't possibly begin to empathize or identify with him. Suffice it to say that, at least with me, Square has struck out on main characters for the last four games in a row now.

Lantis: Who's worse to you, Tidus or Zidane?

SK: ... Zidane. But REALLY only a personal level with me, because Zidane seems to strike at me - considering my SK-ly attitude - with his heroic mockery. But, if I had to be real, and conform with the seeming general opinion of the FF gamer populace, it would be Tidus. Tidus is a whiny little douche.

Lantis: You know, I actually hate the emo/angst persona more than the goofy/retard persona.

SK: It's understandable.

Lantis: Neither of which existed as a main character before VII.

SK: At least, as I've said before, in comparison to Cloud and Squall, Zidane is more interesting. And Tidus, while uninteresting, is at least more cheerful than the brooding heroes of VII and VIII. But enough of him. Like in IX, we have a very likeable supporting heroine for X, a demure and spiritual summoner named Yuna.

Lantis: There's not much to hate about her. Other than maybe her taste in men.

SK: Hah, hey, just like with Dagger and Tifa. You like them themselves, but wonder why they give these horrifically bad main characters a second glance. Yuna doesn't, thankfully, spend the whole game macking on her love interest, Tidus. Other than with one cutscene in which they are - *feels gorge rise* - implied to have had intercourse after a tear-filled reunion. Yuna's one-course purpose in the game's story is to save Spira from its monstrous tormentor - an entity knowingly named Sin - and she's very admirable in her self-sacrificial attitude in doing so.

Lantis: Honestly, like the next game in the series, I think that maybe the heroine should have been the main character. But unfortunately, Tidus does play a huge role as far as the story is concerned. And aside from Rikku, the rest of the character are all pretty cool in my book. Wakka barely sliding in.

SK: Yeah. We have our share of party members in X that you would expect a lot of gamers to be annoyed with, such as the stoner with a hilarious cowlick named Wakka, and the all-too-obvious cutesy jailbait female of the group, Rikku.

Lantis: She's 15, and just look at that opening cutscene she gets...

SK: But they are made up for by the resident badass character, Auron, and the reticent but coolly stoic Lulu ... and her awesome breasts.

Lantis: Right. And I think that the game's story is about on par with the quality of the characters this time around.

SK: Here's the thing, and if you don't mind I have something to say about the story and by extension the game as a whole.

Lantis: Well, I mean, that's why we are here... so by all means.

SK: Okay, well, with the story in particular, and, it seems, with FFX as a game, you either loved it or hated it. It seemed to be one of those games where gamers would not universally agree on whether something about it was stupid and annoying, or really cool. Not most of the things you could comment on with FFX, anyway. The story with FFX isn't as obviously good or bad as, say, whether bad controls in a game are good or bad, you know? This one really comes down to what personally tickles your fancy. Take Spoony as an example of the direct opposite from me; he hated the typical "J-RPG" plot of FFX, and its linearity, where really nothing changed from the beginning of the game to the end, in terms of who the ultimate bad guy was and the purpose of the protagonists, who from Tidus' first meeting with Yuna had set out to save the world from Sin's random acts of destruction. Also, Spoony seemed to find plot holes where I either didn't think they existed or just weren't nearly large enough to bring about
my ire. In other words, with me, I loved FFX's plot and its sentimentality. It was a simple quest to save the world from beginning to end, hardly every detouring off the main path, and it totally worked for me.

Lantis: Honestly, I don't think I fell in love with it or really hate it. It's good, sure. But there are parts that I find a bit much to take in. You know, like the whole Tidus is a dream thing. That's dumb no matter how you cut it.

SK: It took me by surprise, but I think they managed to explain that one particular plot point well enough to where it actually didn't sound stupid to me ... to ME of all people, so I gave it a pass. So, basically, all that happens in FFX's story is that Tidus' home city is suddenly attacked by a giant beast named Sin, when he awakens from a huge fall he finds himself in seemingly another world entirely later to revealed to be called Spira, from there he meets a summoner named Yuna and her personal protectors and she invites him to go on a pilgrimage with her as her new guardian to defeat Sin once and for all. So the party travels all over Spira, collecting summon beings like Shiva and Ifrit who assist Yuna in battle, and ultimately they fight the beast in a huge multi-faceted battle, bringing everlasting peace once and for all. It hardly ever veered off course, but it was delivered well in my opinion, so I liked it.

Lantis: I liked it as well. I'm just saying that it had its faults.

SK: Here and there. Actually, I will claim one fault. Although the writers at least had the courtesy to mention his name before the final battle (*glares at Necron*), I hated the concept of Yu Yevon and the battle itself. Yu Yevon was a stupid idea. All you guys need to know is that Yu Yevon just so happens to be some unnamed god hiding inside the monster known as Sin, ultimately controlling everything.

Lantis: Oh, right... the tick. Know what else was dumb? Taking away world maps. Because, who has the time to explore world maps anymore?

SK: This time not having one did not bother me. THIS time.

Lantis: And why not?

SK: In FFX's case, it was fine. You see, the roads in between major dungeons and towns in FFX became dungeons in themselves, where you had to make it from point A to B with random encounters and a boss at the end, and Boom!, you are now one step closer to your next major destination (usually a temple where Yuna receives her next Aeon i.e. summon being). So to me, it was as though the outside world in Spira was being shown in greater detail this way. Most of the outside areas were beautifully made.

Lantis: Okay, and? I mean even after you get air travel, exploring the "world map" is literally just picking a name from a list. That's the world map now. A list. I don't know about you, but there was always something special about an RPG when you finally get the ability to fly and just going sailing around the world you've explored thus far. Can't do that anymore. And that sucks.

SK: I didn't even care by that time. That happens at the tail end of the game where there's no sidequests remaining to my memory, so to me the means of air travel and the existence of a "map" were nonexistent to me. Not that I'm disagreeing with you on being able to explore a world by air as being a special occasion you always looked forward to. It's just that, to me, in this game they made up for it. But again, this isn't something I would be glad to have as the norm.

Lantis: It's not often you are more forgiving than I am, but I guess this is just one of those times. But you know what's something we can both get behind? The battle system.

SK: Oh, you know it, dawg. In FFX, the battle system was the fastest-paced and most enjoyable yet, although not with a necessarily good learning system, but we'll get to that.

Lantis: Right. This time around there are no time bars to fill up. Everyone just has good old fashioned turn order. On top of that, they have the actual turn order listed on the side of the screen. So you knew exactly who was going when. You could even see how the turn order would change when casting slow on enemies or haste on allies. Since you aren't waiting for bars to fill, it just goes by so much quicker.

SK: MUCH quicker, might I say.

Lantis: Also, this is the first battle system to have mid-fight switchable party members. And it was very important too. Because each character was VERY effective against a certain enemy type. So you'd be switching them out based on what you were fighting. The entire system just felt so right.

SK: Pretty much everything you said, man. And I agree totally. Really, guys. If you are looking for an RPG that is "fun" to play at least in terms of fighting, go for FFX. HOWEVER, let it be made known, as for how you level up and learn new abilities, well ..... not so great, but not terrible, either, especially when you compare the sphere grid system of FFX to its evil twin brother, the crystarium system of XIII. Explain, please, Lantis.

Lantis: SK's talking about the sphere grid system. And the way it works is that there is a huge map. And all the playable characters are in a certain location on it. As you level up, you will be able to progress across your grid picking up skills and abilities.

SK: As well as stat increases.

Lantis: Half the game, it's fairly linear and you can't really do much customization with it. But by the end of the game, you will be able to jump around the grid and pick and choose from pretty much anywhere. So by the end of the game, it's not so bad. But early on, it's fairly lame. One thing worth noting in battle is that Yuna isn't your normal summoner. In this game, your summons actually replace your party. Each summon has its own HP and attacks. And it was really amazing to actually be able to control these creatures. Like Bahamut. And what was really awesome was this was the first in the series that allowed for dealing over max damage. Of which was 9999 for the past nine games in the franchise.

SK: Yeah, these super attacks were usually achieved by filling the Aeon's own personal limit gauge. And oftentimes, it's what barely got me to outlast a boss with high max HP in battle. They were very impressive looking, too. I liked them all, although I guess it was kind of a bummer that Yuna only claims about five different Aeons in all in the story. But, lastly, here was another new thing in FFX, and a FANTASTIC idea: How you do limit breaks.

Lantis: Right.

SK: Basically, each party member had their own plethora of limit breaks according to what kind of fighter they naturally are, much like in FFIX. So, for instance, Lulu as the resident black mage gets to cast multiple magic spells in one turn (according to how often the player can rotate the analog stick in a certain amount of time), and Auron had devastating physical attacks with his sword, while Rikku as a sort of alchemist could throw unique items to do special kinds of damage to the enemy or heal herself and the party from a critical situation that wouldn't be easily remedied otherwise by Yuna's cure magic. And finally, here's the really cool idea FFX included this time: you as the player have the option to choose the method in which a character's limit gauge will fill, allowing you to take great advantage of the system. For instance, you can choose to have Auron's limit gauge fill a bit with each physical attack he does, or have Yuna's gauge fill every time she takes damage.

Lantis: As far as battle is concerned, the sphere grid is easily overlooked compared to the rest of combat. It's really that good. And with that, there's really not much more to say about the game. The first game on the PS2 and it was a good one.

SK: Overall, I personally really like this game, and think of it as a classic that will be well remembered by RPG fans for a long time, although, to be honest, I cannot say FFX is an "essential" for the ol' RPG collection.

Lantis: As for me, I think it should come recommended to any real Final Fantasy fan. The story's good and the combat is great.

SK: FFX was a big leap ahead with the graphics, battle design, and the addition of voice acting.



Final Fantasy X final scores:

SarahsKnight: 7.75 out of 10
Lantis: 7.5 out of 10


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Lantis: The first direct sequel in the Final Fantasy franchise also leads to probably the most ambivalent of the series. The game had a lot going for it, but got so much wrong. And you can see that much just from starting a new game. The main menu has one of the best tracks in the series: Memories of Lightwaves. And then is followed by one of the worst: What Can I Do For You.

SK: But the opening scene, ... not so much .... I was immediately turned off after seeing it in the commercial. What can you do for us, Yuna? ... Go back to being the likeable Yuna we once knew you as!

Lantis: Right. And that's one of the bigger flaws of the game. What they did to Yuna was appalling.

SK: The Charlie's Angels thing they got going was such a turn off.

Lantis: The personality swap for Yuna from a humble summoner to a pistol wielding pop singer was just awful.

SK: I mean, in a sick way we could have expected something like this of Rikku, but Yuna?

Lantis: Actually, Rikku went unchanged. And I still don't like her. Also, Payne was such a throw away character. Did ANYONE actually like her? Rule 63 Squall.

SK: Payne, such a pretentious name. Really, Square? But, yeah, you all know the general direction that FFX took with its sequel, so let's get on with the battle system and story.

Lantis: Battle system? Holy crap.

SK: Awesome from what I could tell.

Lantis: Imagine Final Fantasy style job classes. In a classic turn-based FF battle system. Where you can swap your job classes on the fly. Each character had their own grid were you can select which job classes you can switch to. And as the game progressed, you get new grids that allowed for larger number of jobs. Widening your range of abilities in battle. And what was really awesome was that if you managed to visit all the job classes, you went into this game's limit break mode. Where you access this, like, ultimate job class.

SK: Which was?

Lantis: It's different for each character. It's actually kind of like summons from FFX actually. The other two characters duck out, while the character who transformed gets a few turns in this over powered state. It was awesome.

SK: Sounds convenient, and variable. In other words, stuff you want in battle.

Lantis: It's kind of like Final Fantasy V if it were on crack. In fact, out of all the combat system in the series, this is one of my favorites.

SK: I can agree with that from at least what I know about it. It just kind of sucks that the system lies beneath the warped and silly idea of the dress spheres, which as you all can probably guess from the name alone, is what our three heroines Yuna, Rikku, and Payne use to transform into one of their many ridiculous costumes representing their job class.

Lantis: Call it what you want. It was a great system. The label of "dress spheres" was lame, but when you get down to it, it's good old fashioned job classes. And changing outfits based on job has been in EVERY FF that features job classes.

SK: So, what do we call this battle system, anyway? The dress-like-a-certain-fetishist-slut system?

Lantis: Come on now, be fair. A lot of them were a lot more modest than you give credit for. It could have been MUCH worse.

SK: Bah. It does not belong in a Final Fantasy, although you're right in that it could be much worse. After all, we have the promo picture of Lightning from FFXIII-3 to go by.

Lantis: But unfortunately, this is as far as I can defend the game. From here on out, it's all downhill. And it's a very long hill.

SK: So, what was the story about, anyway? Something about finding clues all around Spira having to do with an ancient war between Bevelle and Zanarkand?

Lantis: Yes. That's pretty much it. Payne, Rikku, and Yuna form this group of sphere hunters while they uncover the truth about Tidus' home world or some crap. That ultimately results in you being able to revive the bastard.

SK: Because, yay! Who wouldn't want to do that?!

Lantis: Nothing is really ever on the line, really. It's like, there's nothing to actually be invested in. And once again, no world map. And you get an airship at the very beginning. Which you just point and click where you want to go.

SK: Well, according to Spoony's review, didn't the party actually prevent the ghost of the dude who Tidus was supposedly modeled after from reviving an ancient weapon to destroy the world because he's all emo and stuff like Seymour was?

Lantis: There was something like that. But they didn't really hype it up. Most the time it's this happy-go-lucky "let's get'em girls" pep-rally as they search for random spheres. Which are used to unlock the jobs for the awesome battle system. It wasn't until the VERY end where they tried to build up this fake threat.

SK: Well, me personally I can appreciate the more childish tones such as the one you mentioned put in a game about saving the world in some way, but that depends on how it is delivered, and here, it didn't seem appropriate.

Lantis: I can't think of a time it was ever okay, honestly.

SK: I guess that's why you didn't like Wild Arms 4 and 5 as much as I did, then.

Lantis: It just comes off as the characters not even taking their own game seriously. But yeah. Bad characters, bad story, no world map, What Can I Do For You, and crappy reward for playing the game of reviving Tidus. As much as I love the battle system, this other stuff just ruins it. And that sucks really bad.

SK: Yes. This is by a good bit the worst FF installment in the series we're covering so far, and in my opinion the only one so far that's actually truly bad at all, although, with the battle system, and some familiarity in locations and characters from FFX, it seems like a game maybe worth playing at least once.

Lantis: Once. And only for the battle system.

SK: And it's worth playing in that case, I guess.



Final Fantasy X-2 final scores:

SarahsKnight: 4.5 out of 10
Lantis: 5 out of 10


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Lantis: Like Final Fantasy VIII, XII is another in the franchise that catches a lot of crap where it isn't deserved. But also like VIII, it does have some glaring issues.

SK: On the whole I actually disagree with that, as FFXII is personally my fifth favorite in the whole series. Ever since X came out it's as though Square started taking longer and longer periods of time to release the next game in the main series. XII did not come out until 5 years after X, but to me, it was quite worth the wait.

Lantis: In light of that, how about we touch on the things that you liked about it. So how about characters, since that's usually what we do first?

SK: Yeah, to me, XII has some of the coolest characters in the party out of the whole franchise, notably the dishonored but good-hearted soldier Basch, the beautiful and stoic viera maiden Fran, and the super-suave air pirate Balthier. Holy crap, do I as SK ever look up to Balthier. That, my friends, is a man.

Lantis: He's not Galuf or Auron, but he's still awesome. But what's a bit unfortunate here is that while yes, half the party is very likable.... the other half, not so much. Ashe for the most part of the game is nothing short of a bitznatch.

SK: See, the two "main characters" are two orphans named Vahn and Penelo, and, well, see, they're not the main characters. But the game pretends they are.

Lantis: Oh, Vahn is most definitely the designed main protagonist. And honestly? I might hate Squall's emo nature and Tidus' retardation, but there's just something that drives me up the wall about Vahn and Penelo. And you already explained it. It's that they are the game's focal point as the main characters. You see, Tidus in X was directly involved in the story. He had a very good reason to be there. As are majority of the main characters in the game. At no point was Vahn a key anchor for the game's plot. He was just kind of... there. Not doing anything. And Penelo is even worse. She's just there 'cause Vahn is.

SK: She's there because she didn't want Vahn getting into danger alone.

Lantis: I think they were trying to introduce a character that we could project ourselves, the player, on. But that's been done in fiction so much better. Like, say Luke Skywalker. You kind of learn the rules of the world with him, but he's at least integral to the story. Vahn, however, is like a ragdoll tied to the end of a stick and just dragged through the story for no reason other than to be there.

SK: As you can tell from the past few paragraphs, this is more of Lantis' rant. I see the problem - and it is one because the story is clearly mostly about Ashe and her Dagger-ish quest as a noble princess to right the wrongs done to her homeland and liberate it from a tyrannical grip - but for me personally I care more about whether a character's personality is annoying or not, so it doesn't bother me as much. Overall, I really liked the party. And I disagree now with Lantis about Ashe being in the manner of a female dog. She was standoffish at first, but you learned more about her tragic back-story as you go on, and in the end, she made a very wise decision when given the reigns as to how to deal with her enemy The Empire that I really admired her for towards the end of the game.

Lantis: Standoffish, bitznatch. Tomato, tomahto. Anyways, you mentioned the story. And it goes back to the tried and true empire vs rebellion layout. And it still works.

SK: Yup. Simplicity is often our friend.

Lantis: While VI, VII, and XII have a similar theme, they are all told dramatically different. And that's why it works being re-used. And it makes plots like VIII's look even worse. I mean, it really is impossible to explain. Not without it coming off sounding like complete BS.

SK: In FFXII, the direction or plot focus never seems to really change, but in this case, it's a good thing. The party is generally working towards driving away the marauding Archadian empire from their homeland the entire game, albeit taking it step by step in such a way as to travel throughout all of the world (called Ivalice in this game) in doing so - from finding a sacred ancestral relic as proof of Ashe's authority as the Princess of Damalsca (the "good" territory that was invaded by Archadia in the story), to seeking out a land of mystics who will give Princess a sort of political blessing of authority to start calling for diplomatic action against the empire on behalf of many conquered territories, to an invasion of the empire's capital itself.

Lantis: And it's good stuff too. That's the kind of stuff I can get behind.

SK: There was never a moment in the story when I was like, "this is stupid; what's going on again?"

Lantis: And a lot of the setups for the fights were really good too. Like Basch vs Gabranth. I felt invested.

SK: Yeah. Also, you FIGHT the Espers you're given in the game, in an almost always difficult but intense boss battle. It's sweet. Too bad the Espers themselves are almost worthless in battle. But shall we get to battle mechanics, now?

Lantis: As good of segue as we're going to get.

SK: So, battle-wise, for the first time in the main series (not counting XI, of course, being an MMO), Final Fantasy has stepped away from tradition, by not being so much turn-based as it is controlling the actions of a party leader while the other two members operate on auto-pilot. Now, this sounds lame and grossly undesirable at first, but allow us to explain the use of the gambit system.

Lantis: Literally, you have the power to program the AI you aren't controlling to act exactly how you want them to. Using the code logic of If/Then. In this game, they are called gambits. You can decide to kind of gear one of your AI as a healer. And in that case you could set up the gambit by choosing the If statement of if a character's HP drops below a set percentage (let's say 30%), Then cast Cure. And from that moment on, the AI will cast cure on any character who's HP has dropped below 30%. Assuming the AI has the MP for it of course. The combination of these are limitless. This gives you absolute control over your party. So you can have them act exactly how you would.

SK: Gambits come in nearly all specific scenarios for every tech and spell. It's great.

Lantis: And to be honest, it's the best AI I've ever dealt with in a RPG.

SK: The thing is, the system has been designed in such a way as to make it so that your AI members can act intelligently enough on their own to where you're not CONSTANTLY having to worry about them and pause the battle to readjust their patterns of attack, while at the same time not making them so efficient that you never have to step in at all (and it would get boring that way if you were sitting there watching them attack while only periodically worrying about the leader you've designated - and can designate at will, might I add). I am very surprised and pleased with how balanced between the two undesirable extremes of being too out of your control and having too much micro-management that the gambits provided. I really enjoyed fighting in this game.

Lantis: So how about the license system?

SK: Unfortunately this also seems to be a main reason for FFXII's hate. Now, the license board isn't so great in this game. And it isn't the mechanics of it so much as the ridiculousness of the concept. In FFXII your capacity to take on new spells and other battle-related abilities are laid out across a huge chess board-looking thing known as the license board. Much like your typical ability or job points in past Final Fantasy titles, you gain license points (LP) with every enemy you defeat, and then decide on how to spend them on the license board. It's just a different way of looking at a skill tree in most other RPG's, but it's the concept of it that trips me out. It's like saying that some sort of faceless governing agency for monster-hunters and soldiers in the land of Ivalice actually has to give you the permission to start using new spells and weapons in battle, according to how much experience you've put out in the wild frontier towards getting the "license" for something. And that's what
really makes it go south for most players. The new weapons and armory you buy in a shop are only available for use on the license board - not just spells and augments - down to the very name of the sword, staff, helm, etc. There's a wide variety of equipment, so you can imagine that the board is extremely huge, and will take a very long time to completely fill out for a party member. I can understand needing a special type of point requirement for using Flare or being able to augment your max HP rating with 50, but to use equipment? Bah!

Lantis: To be fair, it's not like the Sphere Grid was ever explained either. Or the Crystarium. They are just kind of... there. And that's it.

SK: Oh, give me the license board over Crystarium ANY day, though. No lie.

Lantis: Like, maybe half the time the learning system isn't logically explained. Though, I do agree with you ultimately. It's very awkward.

SK: So, to conclude, the fact that the license board exists in itself isn't really a problem. It's just that, the idea of needing a "license" to use even a unique one-of-a-kind legendary holy sword that you went out of your way to a dark corner of Ivalice and fought some monster with 300,000 HP for, it's just weird.

Lantis: Honestly, they really shouldn't have blocked you from seeing all the items on it too. I don't see the harm in seeing something you really want towards the end and just working your way to it.

SK: Yeah, that was a completely unnecessary inconvenience. Now for the Quickenings.

Lantis: Also weird.

SK: But cool.

Lantis: Eh... They looked cool I guess. But the process of doing them made no sense. As far as the game's "limit break" it's just not as good as previous installments.

SK: So, the Quickening moves are XII's version of limit breaks. You can learn three for each party member from the license board, and the process of activating and using them is very ... foreign to us, shall we say. You see, it turns out that a party member can use Quickenings any time they want, provided - I believe - they have the MP for it, and thus begins a potential chain of special and really awesome-looking attacks that all three party members chime in with. I never quite understood how the capacity for a longer time limit to link attacks one after another worked, but apparently the more MP the overall party has, the greater the potential. It can be really useful towards rapidly draining the HP of a hard-to-kill boss, but be ready to restore everyone's MP from the brink with ethers no matter what.

Lantis: There's no limit bar this time. It's all based on the amount of MP you have. Which is already pretty bad. So during the start up animation for the first characters attack, a roulette wheel of the rest of the part will start spinning. And sometimes you can select another character, sometimes you can't. Sometimes you can do only 3 in a row. Sometimes 12. Honestly, I think this is the worst part of the battle system.

SK: Nah, I thought Espers were.

Lantis: Oh right. The summons. It's a lot similar to Final Fantasy X in the fact that the party vanishes while a summoned creature shows up. It's only there for a little bit, and sometimes does its actual signature attack. Most the time, they aren't out very long, don't do their best attack, and aren't worth summoning.

SK: I think you could keep the Esper out on the battlefield as long as its HP lasted, actually, but the problem was, it never seemed to be significantly more powerful than your current party's level and it just didn't have the sturdy amount of HP to last against multiple monsters for long at all. The fact that you had to fight the Espers first to gain their power was cool and all, and we had a very unique and well-themed variety of them, but after that, they really don't provide any real advantage to the party other than a temporary damage sponge. My final thoughts on battling in FFXII was that, while licensing, limit breaks, and Espers were small negatives in themselves, the overall gambit system worked so well that dungeon-crawling and fighting in the game was very fun and challenging. Considering the fact the party defeats monsters in active time on the dungeon map without shifting you to a different screen for random encounters, I especially loved how they made the victory fanfare a special
occasion which occurs in full orchestral glory after every boss battle, with every party member doing a unique battle pose according to what kind of weapon they were using at the time and a huge "Congratulations! You win!" kind of message flashing across the screen. Minor point, but it was a nice touch of decor to make you feel at home.

Lantis: I agree. This was the first Final Fantasy in the core series to use an active time battle layout, and for what it's worth, I think they did an overall good job with it.

SK: If we've covered all of the main subjects, both positive and negative .... I'd like to also briefly mention the music and the ending. The thing with the music is, it's a very rich-sounding soundtrack that gives you the feel of sitting right there in a fancy theatre watching a professional symphony perform the hell out of a soundtrack while the game itself is being performed onstage. I liked that fact, as it made it so that I can't think of a single track that was really dull or annoying to listen to. At the same time, though, other than XII's version of the series' core theme that plays in the starting menu screen and the ending's vocal theme, I can't think of any track that stands out.

Lantis: Nothing really that memorable. Like, to have pieces of real note, I'd think you should at least know the name of the song. Which we've called several by name throughout the retrospective.

SK: True. And I don't know of any by name except the ending's "Kiss Me Goodbye". And I'm not even positive that's what it is titled.

Lantis: I can at least say that the soundtrack wasn't bad.

SK: Still, I'd like to note the game's ending. I really liked the way it played out, with the scenes of the party's narrow escape from the exploding airship where the final boss fight took place (typical, I know) and Penelo's personal narration of what the she and the rest of the party were up to since, and she does so if I recall in the form of a letter she is writing to a peripheral character she befriended in the story named Larsa (or was it to someone else in the party? Don't remember for sure). And this is all to a really good vocal song - better than "Eyes on Me" in my opinion - as an emotional accent in the background. It was one of my favorite endings in the series, although I've only played FFXII twice ever since it came out seven years ago, so I may not be remembering it very accurately... Oh! Crap! Dude, we forgot one pretty big thing.

Lantis: And that is?

SK: The Hunts.

Lantis: Oh, I never did them. So this is all you. I have no idea how "big" it really is.

SK: As far as sidequesting goes, FFXII has a LOT to offer, and there's hardly any task that's boring or seemingly pointless to do. The majority of the sidequesting occurs with monster-slaying tasks known as Hunts, and they were all very fun to do. The party can visit a guild set in every town where, according to where you are in the storyline and some various prerequisites are necessary, they look on a bulletin board that gives them the name of a monster target and the client to go to for specific directions on the job being requested. So, you seek out the client (you are given directions to him or her), and they exposite a bit on the monster that is giving them trouble. You seek out that monster, sometimes to the far corners of the land - which becomes a nice little quest in itself - defeat it in a usually very challenging battle that you really need to strategize for, and collect a reward of some sort. The Hunts vary from mere pesky monsters that disturb sheep fields and the average wandering
warrior can take care of it easily with a little street smarts, to the monsters known and feared by hunters throughout the ages for their extreme brutality with hundreds of thousands - even millions - of HP. EXCELLENT idea for sidequesting. FFXII would have been a perfect candidate for collecting XBox achievements had it been released on a higher console.

Lantis: Weren't there even bosses that you could run away from and come back and retain their HP level were you left it? And was needed because of just how hard they were?

SK: There's only one monster I haven't taken on yet - the mythical godlike demon known as Yiazmat, with 53 MILLION HP to wear down. And yes in answer to your question. I look forward to it, still.

Lantis: So it's basically just finding and fighting stronger monsters one after another.

SK: Yes, if you want to make it sound BORING. *intentionally taking it wrong*

Lantis: I'm just saying, you're hyping this up a lot for just fighting monsters in sequence. Maybe I'd share your excitement had I done it. So I'm not going to be able to really weigh in my opinion.

SK: I enjoyed it thoroughly. That's all I can say. So, if there's nothing else, I'd like to conclude that FFXII seems to be the second game in the main series - the first being VIII - that got openly mixed reviews with the haters being more vocal about their opinion than the fans who liked it, and that's unfortunate, because I really got in tune with the game's battle system and enjoyed what I felt was a very memorable throwback to the earlier games with atmosphere and storyline, as well as good old-fashioned enjoyability and challenge in dungeon-crawling, where you felt you truly had to play it smart and take special care of your party and their inventory in order to make it through the treacherous monster den alive and with cool new weapons to use. My gripes about the game are very minute in comparison. Making XII one of my favorites.

Lantis: I don't think I quite fell in love with it like you did, but I by no means didn't like it. Story was great. Battle system was fun despite license board and crappy limit break system. And the cast of characters were more good than bad. So ultimately, I think this is a good game that fans of the series should enjoy at the very least.



Final Fantasy XII final scores:

SarahsKnight: 8.75 out of 10
Lantis: 7 out of 10


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Lantis: If you are around the Mag at all, you are probably aware of what SK and I think about this game. So I think what might be a little better for this retrospective is to, instead of just bash it up one side and down the other, just step back and judge it based on the content presented.

SK: *sigh* I'll try.

Lantis: But we'll still do the breakdown as we have for the past several entries. So I guess let's hit up the characters. And looking objectively, it's not like these are the worst in the series. Squall, Cloud, Zidane, Tidus... There are several black sheep.

SK: I disagree. As a party I think the FFXIII characters are the worst by a wide margin. If you know me I hate Zidane as an individual more than any other character in all of Final Fantasy history. He annoys the piss out of me. But here, I just don't see how anyone can like most of the protagonists in XIII. At least I could sort of sympathize with some of Zidane's plights, or the plights of other FF protagonists I personally dislike, but Lightning as a female lead role (really only the second in all of the main series) is unrelatable to me, and obnoxiously spends nearly every conversation complaining and being mad at everything.

Lantis: You aren't going to get much argument from me. But they weren't all bad. Sahz was a character that I actually kind of liked. And I didn't hate Fang. I didn't really like her either. Her personality was an ever changing accent and that's about it. The rest of the characters though, are pretty insufferable.

SK: True. I really latched onto Sahz out of the group because he gave us a nod to the more innocent days of the franchise with the baby chocobo he keeps in his hair. And it was about time Square made another attempt to have a black character, but that's small potatoes for finding positive aspects of a group that's very, very largely annoying and unempathiable ... because that's a word now.

Lantis: Right. But the rest? Remember how I called Ashe a biznatch?

SK: Yes.

Lantis: She is an angel in comparison to Lightning.

SK: You bet.

Lantis: I freakin' DELIGHT to be around.

SK: I mean, the FFXIII party at least has pretty much all of the personality archetypes you'd expect to be in an FF game by now - a reticent, gloomy main protagonist, the lolita character that's there just for upbeat cuteness that generally annoys most gamers, a child dragged reluctantly along for the ride, the tough-as-nails warrior out for justice or personal vendetta, etc. But they are just personally very unlikeable to me. Many of the names are either so uncreative they're just seen as lame, or, very out-of-place. Lightning, Snow, Hope .... And the kid named HOPE is the gloomy child who can't stop griping about his problems, much like Lightning.

Lantis: Though I will say I do share something with Lightning. I wanted to be there just as much as she seemingly did. Though the fact that we can admit the quality of Sahz as a character should at least clear up any bias as far as the characters go at least. The whole thing with his son felt pretty legit. That's actually probably the best plot point in the entire game, honestly.

SK: And dude, you know me. I almost always personally go for the all-out cute and cheerful girls in the party, but Vanille .... If she's too over-the-top even for me, that's a real problem. Her accent sounded so phony the way it seemed to keep changing, and her choice of attire just put the fan service meter way too far over the roof. I mean, it at least took me a WHILE before I noticed how Yuffie's shorts were unzipped. Not that Vanille's were; I'm just using that as an example of how quickly the fanservice is obvious.

Lantis: But speaking of the story...

SK: Ohhhhh boy.

Lantis: They kind of went full stupid this time. The general idea is this: You live on a small planet by the name of Cocoon hanging over a much larger one. The party gets targeted and are marked as L'Cie.

SK: Which are sort of cursed beings the rest of the human race fears greatly.

Lantis: As a L'Cie, you are given a task. If you do not complete it, you will be turned into a monster. The thing is, L'Cie's are never told exactly what it is they need to do. Which, doesn't make a lot of sense. So half the game, the party is fighting with each other about what their true mission is.

SK: CONSTANTLY.

Lantis: You eventually find out that if they fail, Ragnorok will be summoned and destroy Orphan, Cocoon's life source and what holds up the planet. Towards the end of the game, they finally decided that their mission as a L'Cie is to prevent this and save Orphan at all costs. Only then, the final boss of the game, Barthandelus reveals himself to actually BE Orphan. Which you would think would throw the party into a state of question. Because the thing they have sworn to protect is now their enemy. But without batting an eyelash, they destroy him. Which means that Cocoon will fall and Ragnorok will destroy everything. Well? Cocoon does start to fall. And Ragnorok is summoned. By Vanille and Fang... Who instead of destroying the planet, saves it. Deus ex machina. Roll credits.

SK: On a minor side note, all this time the party is generally being chased across Cocoon with a group of soldiers on their heels known as Psi-com, whose mission is to isolate L'Cie from the rest of the populace so that they can do no harm. Without much opportunity for careful segue Lantis just gets straight to the main point of how the plot is so terrible, with the betrayal that occurs at the very end. None of it makes any sense.

Lantis: Part 3 of this retrospective has already gone on for a very long time, so I've had to cut out a huge bit of this story. But trust me, there is very little of this game that makes legit sense. The game does provide for you an entire library's worth of content to read optionally. And maybe some of the answers to the several plot holes lay within. But the story failed to get me invested enough to look.

SK: I looked, actually, for the time that I played. I wanted to understand all of this better, and I have no trouble reading up on side stuff if the in-game plot can't easily resolve every little term, but it really didn't help.

Lantis: Besides, I don't remember the last time I played a RPG and had to read an entire book's worth of reading material to GET the story.

SK: And for the most part, we still don't get it!

Lantis: I think it's time we talk about some of the more modern changes to this edition of the series. Such as the hallway. 95% of all RPGs feature a fully explorable world. Several places to visit, treasures to find, and things to see. But in this one, you are quite literally on rails. There are no towns.

SK: Ahhh, the hallway. No exploration period in this game, folks. In FFX you were often moving mostly forward with no side paths, but at least then the scenery was aesthetic enough, and the intervening dialogues weren't teeth-grindingly tedious all the while.

Lantis: No places to really explore.

SK: None.

Lantis: Towns are gone. And have been reduced to being a function in the save points.

SK: You shop at save points. That's it.

Lantis: Now, I know people who honestly don't have a problem with this. And fine. If that doesn't bug you, more power to you. But I believe that there's a huge importance to having a truly explorable world. The world that is presented to you just feels so less real when you can't explore it. And I kind of blame the loss of world maps for this. First the word maps are gone. And now, multi-branching areas. It feels... I dunno... claustrophobic. Like I'm restricted. And it left me not liking it and wanting more. I really don't know how else to explain it.

SK: Most of the world in FFXIII is really futuristic, techno, post-apocalyptic looking scenery, too. It doesn't feel right in an FF game. I hate it.

Lantis: Honestly, the theme is fine. I don't mind the theme. I would have felt the same regardless of the theme, really. But overall this just seems like a terrible idea. Not as a Final Fantasy. But as a RPG in general.

SK: And that's probably mainly due to ... the "fighting" in FFXIII, which is about as boring a battle system as the one-on-one turn-based fighting in Thousand Arms is.

Lantis: Right. I can genuinely say that even after hearing about the hallway and the exclusion of towns and exploration, I was still interested in the battle system. And it's the sole reason I bought it day 1.

SK: So was I.

Lantis: Because they brought back job classes. That could change on the fly. I thought it was going to be like Final Fantasy X-2. And that's enough for me. But what we actually got was far from it. Firstly, yes. You can change job classes on the fly. But you have to change the entire party's job class. You can't control them individually. Now, I was told that the game would be impossible if you could... at least post game. I didn't play anything post game, nor did I want to. Nor do I think it's much of a point when you think about it.

SK: Shoot. I didn't even want to finish the core story, much less do sidequests of any sort. ... And I didn't.

Lantis: It's like me expecting people to play Devil May Cry on Dante Must Die mode before I believe they can talk about the fighting mechanics. It's not fair, nor should be expected. Which is why I would think using post game content as an excuse for things I didn't like pre-ending to really hold a whole lot of water. But back to the system. This time around, job classes were handled pretty poorly. You are again awarded ability points for doing well. And you spend those points much like you would in the Sphere Grid of the License Board. But unlike those two examples, and much like the game, you are stuck on a single track to learn things individually and in order. It would be like Final Fantasy Tactics if you couldn't save up points and pick and choose abilities. And had to learn them in the order they were listed. Which would have been a terrible idea. But that's essentially what XIII does.

SK: I think the general picture of the Crystarium (your character's learning path) at a glance gives the impression of your being able to do a lot with how you learn new abilities and level up, with its shiny and mystical look and theme, but it really is just a straight path 99% of the time.

Lantis: Right.

SK: And if I recall, you can reach the end of most of them in a pretty short amount of game time.

Lantis: Oh, no. That couldn't be farther from the truth. You will most likely not master a single job class with any one character before the end of the game. Even with excessive grinding. Specially if you put ANY points into another job class. Which you will most likely do since it would render switching job classes useless. This is probably because of the 200+ hours of post game content. Which by then, you would probably be able to fill out multiple job classes. But again, that's post.

SK: I could swear I reached a dead end in one or two of them before chapter five. Isn't there a break that occurs a few times in each job that you can't progress on until a certain point in the game or something?

Lantis: That dead end you hit? Was actually the storyline limit. At certain points throughout the game, the next levels of each job class unlocks. If you hit the end of a level before you get to a certain point in the story, you'll have to wait.

SK: Oh, so that was it. *rolls eyes*

Lantis: And even if all this stuff wasn't an issue, it's all rendered pretty moot by the auto battle function.

SK: Yup. We have auto-pilot in TURN-BASED combat this time.

Lantis: 99% of all battles can be finished by just mashing X on auto-battle. Some bosses too.

SK: That's how I did it.

Lantis: So the entire battle system is setting up Paradigm Shifts to switch between and just mashing X. Like, a lot of RPGs eventually get to the point where you are powerful enough to just mash the attack button to handle fights.

SK: Well, when you're grinding on generally lower-level monsters anyway.

Lantis: But XIII is like this right out the gate. And even if THAT wasn't bad enough ... SK, I would love for you to explain something for me. How summons work in this game.

SK: ... Oh, this is where I was the one whose gears really got ground by the direction XIII took on everything. The summon beings? Magical, ethereal, regal creatures? No, sir. ... In XIII, they are Transformers. When one of the party members gets into a personal one-on-one matchup with Shiva, Ifrit, etc. you generally have to do some specific and unorthodox function in the fight to win them over (such as, in Snow's case when he faces the Shiva sisters, he has to employ a new command he's given to act as the party's Asgard and defend strongly against the sisters' attacks for a few turns before they deem him worthy of donning them), and they morph ... oh god ... into a vehicle of some sort. The Shiva sisters became an odd-looking ice-brimmed motorbike for Snow to use to get away from the soldiers who'd had him surrounded at the time.

Lantis: Being as nice and forgiving as possible, that's weird. Very freakin' weird. I mean, Ifrit is a hotrod.

SK: That was Sahz's, wasn't it?

Lantis: Yes.

SK: And then Vanille at least got a shout-out to the old days with her summons turning into Magitek Armor.

Lantis: And all of them morph into some kind of form of transportation. Also, no limit breaks this time around. Because those apparently aren't cool enough to be in XIII.

SK: You know, I'm guessing the answer is no, since I think I would have remembered if it were, could you even use the summons for anything in battle?

Lantis: Well yeah. Of course. They worked a lot like they did in XII. Just in a turn based system.

SK: Ah. Well, at least there's that. I must have fallen into a coma of stupidity or something after seeing the scene where Snow got his first summon, and don't remember anything I did in battle afterward.

Lantis: But that pretty much covers everything. The characters, the story, and the battle system. There's not much else to cover.

SK:[/b] Well, there's one more. Music.

Lantis: I just kind of look at it like Final Fantasy XII. There's not a whole lot that is super memorable. But for what it's worth, I don't remember anything being bad. I kind of remember the battle theme. The one that utilized a violin mostly.

SK: Well, from my vague memory, XIII's seemed to be forgettable more due to the fact that they were nearly all pretty dully made, not even pleasant to listen to, unlike XII's, which was simply forgettable more to the fact that almost nothing stood out as one of the best in the series. But that's just me. I can't really count it too much against the game. I'll at least say the ending vocal theme seemed nice enough, "My Hands", it was called? And was performed in English by a currently fairly well-known pop artist, I believe. Haven't seen that before.

Lantis: Right.

SK: Now, what you as the reader must understand is that Lantis and I didn't go into this game with a defeatist attitude just because of some of the suspicious things we'd heard about XIII before it came out, such as the elimination of towns. I, for one, was still expecting at least a decent if not very good game. Because no FF game in the core series had ever disappointed me before, and I saw no reason to start being negative now. But, alas, this one let me down big time. Thus far, XIII has proved the only game in the main series (I don't count X's sequel among them) that I think poorly of, unfortunately representing the worst of the series in every major aspect we've been covering - likeability of characters, quality of music, enjoyability of battle, plot, etc. I was aghast at seeing all of my hopes slowly crumble with every random battle and every dullard conversation I heard between them. And shortly after my first viewing of the ultimate series treachery in what Square did to piss all over the dignity of the summon creatures, I just gave up. I couldn't lie to myself anymore. Hope no one who likes this game takes it personally, but XIII just wasn't for me. I'm too grounded in the "old ways" of Final Fantasy, I guess.

Lantis: I share your sentiments, buddy. Not even as a Final Fantasy... or even as an RPG. But as a game, it just failed to provide what I needed to be able to enjoy it.

SK: Wrong turn for some of us gamers, Square. Wrooooong turn.




Final Fantasy XIII final scores:

SarahsKnight: 2.25 out of 10
Lantis: 2 out of 10

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And with that we finish up all the core games in the Final Fantasy series. This was also an extremely long one. So for those of you who read it all, thanks so much. Next up we go over Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Advance. After that, we tally all our scores and come up with a final verdict for the series in general and share our final thoughts. So I'll catch you there.

Link to part 4