Game Reviews: Final Fantasy XII and Okami (As Promised)

So, I'm back to fulfill my promise.

It's review time.

Just as a disclaimer, these are my opinions. I know right now that there will be many people who will disagree with me.

Final Fantasy XII
If I had to review this game in one word that word would be "disappointing". I don't know why this game disappointed me so much, perhaps it was due to the fact that it was hyped up so much and didn't deliver or perhaps it was due to the fact that it was, to me at least, the worst Final Fantasy game that I have played. Here is why.

This game has had a really rough development and it shows. Half way through production the games original director had to leave the project due to health reasons and a new director had to step in to take over. Unfortunately the director that stepped in hasn't had the greatest track record in recent years. The game was also delayed several times. It almost seemed to me like one of those projects that you just want to get done and over with because of all the trouble it has been causing. I just hope that this was just a warm up for Final Fantasy XIII.

I want to tell you right now that by no means was this a terrible game, it just wasn't a fantastic game. It was also not quite what I was expecting, especially from a Final Fantasy game.

Here are some of the things that I didn't like.
First off, the soundtrack was terrible. For most of the game I was wondering when the music was going to get good. Not only did much of the music not fit with what was going on in the game, it was also too complicated for my tastes. When it is nearly impossible to pick out the rhythm of a song that sounds just like the one before it, there is something wrong. That and the fact that none of them were at all memorable (perhaps except for a few seconds of the Prelude when you first boot up the game).
Secondly, the battle system was very flawed. The gambit system was a good idea, especially with the new ways the battles played out, but I found that once you had a good set of gambits with a well balanced party you pretty much had to do nothing, and if you turned the gambits off, then the battles moved so fast that it was impossible to actually keep track of everything yourself. I also found that many of the special attacks and abilities were pretty much useless. When your party ended up attaining an Esper (summon) there was no point in even trying to use it. As soon as it was bring it out (especially in a boss battle) it didn't do very much except die and waste MP which was so much more useful when used for actual offensive and defensive magiks. The Quickening attacks were also pretty much useless unless you were able to chain them together and even then when you were done you ended up with inflicting a nominal amount of damage but were left with no more MP. Lets just say that if they plan on using this battle system for their newer games then they had better do some serious polishing.
I also really didn't like the fact that you didn't get any money for killing enemies, instead you got loot which then could be sold. The problem with this was that things in this game world are really expensive so I found myself spending most of my time "hunting" which is pretty much just running around killing enemies to get loot. The worst part about this is that with the gambits I really didn't have to do much so I felt like I spent most of the almost 70 hours I spent playing this game doing nothing. Which is a real shame. And don't even bother with the bounty hunting. Most of the marks are way too much effort for not enough reward, you make more money hunting normal fiends.
That is a shame really, considering that the bounty hunting is the ONLY thing to do apart from the main quest. Unlike most Final Fantasy games where you can spend hours picking up side quests, fleshing out the story and finding out more about the characters and the world they live in, this game is very linear. Heck, you can't even talk to everyone and there is probably a grand total of three actual dwellings you can enter, everything else is either a tavern or a shop, that's it. For a series that focuses a lot on exploration this game really didn't really feature much at all. That is quite sad really, this game had so much potential in that front. And the exploration that was done was done in areas that all looked the same. Seriously, I have never known mines to look so ornate and so bland at the same time. Perhaps that is the price they had to pay to implement a free swinging camera system.
Couple all of this with the not so brilliant Licence Board and forgettable characters (except perhaps for Basch and Balthier) and you have yourself a game that fell way below its potential.
It wasn't all bad however. The story was great. Unlike most JRPG stories, this one didn't focus on a young boy out on a quest to save the world and fall in love with the moody female lead character, rather it was a story of a fight for the freedom of a small country caught between the war between two empires. It was an interesting story, it was just too bad I had to slog through so much filler between story segments.

For those of you who have never played a Final Fantasy game before and would like to see what all the talk is about I would suggest not starting with this one. Try either FFVII or FFX. For those of you who are Final Fantasy fans, I'd say give this one a try, if only to see how different it actually is from the other games and to see the direction the series is headed in.

So, for the final verdict. Despite its many flaws, underwhelming music, forgettable characters, and unconventional way of doing things, it did have a great story with some memorable moments. All-in-all not a bad game, just not a great on either.

My score: B-

Okami

If I had to describe this game in one word it would not be the same word I used for Final Fantasy XII. This games' word would be "WOW".

People were right when they said that this game is as close to a Zelda game you are going to get on a Sony console. Clover studios did a fantastic job with this game, I'm just sad they went under.

First off, the graphical design was absolutely stunning. From the moment you boot up the game to the moment the credits finish rolling it look as though you are playing an interactive painting. Everything looks hand painted. There are many games out there that look like cartoons, but none, I repeat NONE, look anything like this. It was fantastic.
The controls were easy to learn and very responsive, the puzzles were clever and not at all repetitive, the environments were varied and filled with stuff to discover, animals to feed, trees to revive, and treasure chests to dig up, and the Celestial Brush techniques were well implemented. Almost everything was crisp, clean and highly polished.
I say almost everything because there were a few minor annoyances but none of them detracted from the actual game much at all. The problems were few but I feel I should mention them here. First off, not all of the Celestial Brush techniques were as useful as others. As with most games you use some abilities more than others and as a result I found that I even forgot that I possessed some abilities such as the ability to make a tree sprout out of the ground to fend off and enemy attack, yeah, that didn't happen much. I also found that as more techniques became available, it was way too easy to accidentally use one that you weren't trying to use. For example, I found that more than once, during a boss battle with a spider, when I tried to draw a line from a floating bud to a hook on the spiders back I ended up slashing the spider instead while at the same time cutting the vines that I had already hooked up. It was quite annoying but not detrimental. The final issue I had was with the camera. I the open environments it worked great but in the more closed in environments and in battles with enemies I found it slow and hard to control. Again, nothing too bad, mostly just annoying, especially when trying to jump from platform to platform in and enclosed environment. I also found that there were a few slow points in the action, especially in the very beginning and about halfway through when you finally get to the big city.
But these are my only real grievances and they are not too bad at all. Overall this game is great, one of the best adventure games I have played on any system ever. Great action, interesting story, annoying yet likable sidekick, great game play mechanics (Celestial Brush), stunning graphics and fantastic music. There was nothing not to love.
Be warned, however. If you are at all planning on playing this game, it lays the Japanese culture, myth, lore and legend on pretty thick. So if you are offended by other religions, then steer clear of this one, if on the other hand if you have a strong faith but are interested in Japanese mythology then by all means play this game and enjoy it as much as I did. Good painting.

My score: A

I hope you liked my game reviews. When I am done another game I will review it here. I'm not sure when I will get around to blogging again but I figured that this would last you a while anyway.

Later.