Okay, I don't know how most people feel about Final Fantasy XII, I know a lot of people consider it to be the turning point of the franchise where things went downhill, but for me this game was pretty awesome, some of the best graphics, a fairly smooth interface, and a good story, and my favorite part it takes place in Ivalice. For people who don't know, Ivalice is where the Tactics spinoffs take place, so this marks the one time the setting is used in the numbered series and makes it canon. But back to the story, it is pretty cool, but it seems that they pretty much ripped off Star Wars, one of the best rip offs I've ever seen, but...okay, let me just use the next paragraph to describe the story purely in the form of similarities.
The main character is a blond orphan living in the desert who gets mixed up with a rougue with a non-human companion who co-pilots his ship and an old veteran knight mentors the hero while they protect a princess who leads a rebellion against an evil empire. The rogue is pursued by a bounty hunter and at one point a major villain reveals himself to be the father of a main character. Did I mention the ship looks suspiciously like the Millenium Falcon? Or that the desert looks like Tatooine, especially when you run into guys who look and sound like Tusken Raiders? Oh and I almost forgot, the evil empire's plot includes a giant ship that can blast away an entire kingdom, and theoretically the entire planet if not kept in check. And boy does the final dungeon inside of that ship look an awful lot like the Death Star.
Despite the obvious influence suggesting a complete ripoff (and no, it is most definitely not a coincidence, ever since FF6 Biggs and Wedge revealed that Squenix are Star Wars fans) This is still a solid game. Now, let's review the story a bit more objectively.
The game revolves around the conflict between the kingdoms of Dalmasca and Arcadia. It begins when Princess Ashelia of Dalmasca is going to get married and live happily ever after, but then the invasion begins and her wedding is ruined, not only because of the worst party crashers ever but also because the groom is a casualty. This prologue focuses on a soldier who fights to protect Princess Ashelia, and he's successful in saving her but dies in the process. The story picks up with that soldier's brother Vaan, the main character of the game a few years after the invasion. He's grown up as an orphan street rat, trying to act tough, but he's been in the care of a Bangaa merchant along with his best friend Penelo, so he's had a relatively comfortable life for a peasant and Penelo sees right through his tough guy act. As Vaan tries to prove how awesome he is, he manages to get into the palace and gets mixed up with Balthier and Fran a couple of thieves who were stealing a priceless royal treasure. As they attempt to escape, they meet a girl who needs help getting back to her allies in the resistance, who later turns out to be Princess Ashelia. Meanwhile, Vaan, Balthier and Fran get into more trouble and end up in prison and as they make another escape, they meet Basch, a former Dalmascan soldier who's been put away for treason, only it wasn't his fault, it was his twin brother. All six characters end up working together to help Ashe reclaim her legacy. Apparently the Dalmasca legacy is divine and includes magicite, not one but two mystical swords and most impressive, the espers, which are not quite gods, not quite demons, they're just really powerful beings who have been bound into service first to the gods who created them and now to whoever can overcome them where they were left, meaning Ashe is now capable of commanding them. Some of the espers will be out of the way, but five are completely unavoidable(don't worry, these five aren't much harder than any other average boss) and one, Belial actually has to be summoned in order to open a gate in a required area (again, don't worry, this is all pretty easy, they won't give you any required stuff that's really borderline impossible). Along the way, the group meets a few allies that work as temporary party members, the most significant being Larsa, the brother of the emperor of Arcadia who is against the violence and wants to end the war. Eventually they find out that the emperor has been influenced by a rogue god who is basically trying to destroy the world.
You can pretty much guess how this one ends, the same way every Final Fantasy ends, with our heroes engaging in a final battle with a god of destruction wannabe. Mechanically, the definitive traits are the gambit system and the license system which are both daunting until you figure them out then they are ridiculously easy to make the entire game simple. The battle system doesn't involve the usal turn based freeze frame of other games, but rather allows you to move around like an MMORPG. This is confusing until you realize most battles can be handled by allowing two characters to use gambits to auto attack with at least one tanking the target and you just take control of the healer/buffer to hold him/her back and use whatever spells are needed. The license system is ultimately very simple and user friendly so I wouldn't bother wasting my time on explaining it, there are plenty of help guides, but often just tracing the abilities the characters already have by default do the trick.
I highly recommend this game for any FF fan, especially Tactics fans, but you probably already played it, and ifyou haven't you should.
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