Final Fantasy XII.
I beat the PS2 game and put over 100 hours in the Zodiac Age on PS4. I just couldn't get into it. Reasons why in no particular order:
1. The License Board isn't deep whatsoever. I'm still trying to figure out why they even bothered with this. You pick a class then you fill the board. You can pick a second class and do the same thing. Since you can't have multiples of the same classes anywhere, you have to think about how you want to set up your team. However, I don't think there's much consequence to just pick whatever class you want and figure it out later. That's what I got out of it anyway.
2. The story is extremely lackluster. I've been told for years how the political intrigue and grand Star Wars-like adventure makes this story epic. That's not my view on this after I beat it twice. The politics are barely in this game. The main characters have zero complexity to them whatsoever. I do like Balthier's quips though.
3. The battle system isn't fun. Setting up your gambits and going to town has never been fun to me at either regular speed or 4x speed. I don't want to watch the game play itself and then chip in with manual attacks every once in awhile if I screw up. If you don't know enough about gambits, you could spend a lot of time just figuring out decent combinations. I'd much rather engage in ATB or Action combat. Both are more fun and if done right, can offer strategy as well. Gambits are just never going to do it for me.
4, The graphics are bland as heck. I don't hate the art style but I really don't like the lack of good variety in locales. Most of the locations have such a dry feel to them. Made exploration less fun. You can say what you want about FF XIII but it's locales were much more cooler to look at.
5. The side quests were not all that fun. I really have no desire to fight a monster 6 times or so to fill up its bestiary. That is super duper over kill. Why wasn't 1 enough? The other side quests mostly involve finding stuff that barely relates to the lore. Some of them were good but I didn't enjoy most of them.
My overall problem with Final Fantasy XII is that not a single thing that this game tries to accomplish fits into my top 5 of any aspect of the Final Fantasy franchise. It's a bland game that's polished well but not that enjoyable to play. I just can't see why some other's rank it so high. I really can't.
I beat the PS2 game and put over 100 hours in the Zodiac Age on PS4. I just couldn't get into it. Reasons why in no particular order:
1. The License Board isn't deep whatsoever. I'm still trying to figure out why they even bothered with this. You pick a class then you fill the board. You can pick a second class and do the same thing. Since you can't have multiples of the same classes anywhere, you have to think about how you want to set up your team. However, I don't think there's much consequence to just pick whatever class you want and figure it out later. That's what I got out of it anyway.
2. The story is extremely lackluster. I've been told for years how the political intrigue and grand Star Wars-like adventure makes this story epic. That's not my view on this after I beat it twice. The politics are barely in this game. The main characters have zero complexity to them whatsoever. I do like Balthier's quips though.
3. The battle system isn't fun. Setting up your gambits and going to town has never been fun to me at either regular speed or 4x speed. I don't want to watch the game play itself and then chip in with manual attacks every once in awhile if I screw up. If you don't know enough about gambits, you could spend a lot of time just figuring out decent combinations. I'd much rather engage in ATB or Action combat. Both are more fun and if done right, can offer strategy as well. Gambits are just never going to do it for me.
4, The graphics are bland as heck. I don't hate the art style but I really don't like the lack of good variety in locales. Most of the locations have such a dry feel to them. Made exploration less fun. You can say what you want about FF XIII but it's locales were much more cooler to look at.
5. The side quests were not all that fun. I really have no desire to fight a monster 6 times or so to fill up its bestiary. That is super duper over kill. Why wasn't 1 enough? The other side quests mostly involve finding stuff that barely relates to the lore. Some of them were good but I didn't enjoy most of them.
My overall problem with Final Fantasy XII is that not a single thing that this game tries to accomplish fits into my top 5 of any aspect of the Final Fantasy franchise. It's a bland game that's polished well but not that enjoyable to play. I just can't see why some other's rank it so high. I really can't.
