These are my thoughts:
Overall I liked the game. It is not going to replace FFVI or IX as my favorite but it's a great follow up to Tactics. I love the world of Ivalice, every time I visit, I immerse myself in the design and settings. I know that the main character was intended to be Vaan but I refuse to play as another whiny brat. Though to Vaan's credit, even though his voice is whiny, he has mostly positive things to say instead of Tidus who was in his entirety a complete whiny bitch. From the moment you can play as Ashe, I did. This is Ashe's story anyway, even at the ending of the game, Vaan has a very minor role. That being said, I really love Ashe, while the rest of the cast I didn't care for or didn't mind, Ashe is what pulled me into the game. She easily is one of my all time favorite FF characters. I've played almost every FF game there is and have enjoyed most of them, VII and X being the exceptions. (I've yet to play XIII) This one clearly has the best combat system out of the series. I wish it was a little deeper, perhaps with the ability to bind espers to certain characters to improve their stats. I heard that this game was massive and towards 80 hours on a first play through, I finished around 57 and could have easily cleared it in less than that. Tactics was a hard game, Vagrant Story was challenging, XII was a bit on the easy side. You can brute strength your way through most of the game and if you actually optimize use of the gambit system you can fly through with little to no challenge. It was still an enjoyable experience, I would have liked to use an airship and fly from location to location versus using the save crystal teleportation system, but that is minor complain. The art in this game, staying true to the word of Ivalice is simply awesome. I love the aesthetics. One thing setting this game a part was the lack of human boss battles. Almost every boss in the game is some sort of monster or dragon. I am fond of the dragon battles. Another item separating this rendition from previous installments is the lack of love theme. I think it worked out quite nicely. In the end this is a nice addition from the series and I would love to see a XII-2 or any other return to the world of Ivalice.
Overall I liked the game. It is not going to replace FFVI or IX as my favorite but it's a great follow up to Tactics. I love the world of Ivalice, every time I visit, I immerse myself in the design and settings. I know that the main character was intended to be Vaan but I refuse to play as another whiny brat. Though to Vaan's credit, even though his voice is whiny, he has mostly positive things to say instead of Tidus who was in his entirety a complete whiny bitch. From the moment you can play as Ashe, I did. This is Ashe's story anyway, even at the ending of the game, Vaan has a very minor role. That being said, I really love Ashe, while the rest of the cast I didn't care for or didn't mind, Ashe is what pulled me into the game. She easily is one of my all time favorite FF characters. I've played almost every FF game there is and have enjoyed most of them, VII and X being the exceptions. (I've yet to play XIII) This one clearly has the best combat system out of the series. I wish it was a little deeper, perhaps with the ability to bind espers to certain characters to improve their stats. I heard that this game was massive and towards 80 hours on a first play through, I finished around 57 and could have easily cleared it in less than that. Tactics was a hard game, Vagrant Story was challenging, XII was a bit on the easy side. You can brute strength your way through most of the game and if you actually optimize use of the gambit system you can fly through with little to no challenge. It was still an enjoyable experience, I would have liked to use an airship and fly from location to location versus using the save crystal teleportation system, but that is minor complain. The art in this game, staying true to the word of Ivalice is simply awesome. I love the aesthetics. One thing setting this game a part was the lack of human boss battles. Almost every boss in the game is some sort of monster or dragon. I am fond of the dragon battles. Another item separating this rendition from previous installments is the lack of love theme. I think it worked out quite nicely. In the end this is a nice addition from the series and I would love to see a XII-2 or any other return to the world of Ivalice.
