Final Fantasy XII

Four years of waiting, several delays, and quite a few changes once hindered Final Fantasy XII from reaching North America, but now the game has been flung to the public to be picked apart and devoured. At last, RPGamer hands down the verdict on Ivalice's Judges.

Final Fantasy XI, by Square Enix, has enjoyed a successful run over the course of the last three years; four years if you were playing the imported Japanese version. The game has changed dramatically during this time, with the addition of three expansion packs, and numerous content updates provided to the players for free. Bringing in an approximate 500,000 subscriptions a month, FFXI has proven itself to consistently please its old player base, while continuing to draw in new customers to th...

So in the end, Final Fantasy XII–while totally undeserving of many game of year awards it received after it was released–is not a complete failure. It retains a solid battle system, excellent voice-acting and gorgeous cutscenes with top-end graphics that we’d expect from industry giant, Square-Enix. It’s just a shame that for an RPG, where story and characterization are pivotal to the game’s success, Final Fantasy XII delivers on the extras while failing to provide the fundamentals. On an aesthetic and mechanical level, it’s certainly a step forward as XII becomes the most customizable FF titl...

With its newest MMO in its flagship franchise, Square Enix delivers a gigantic, beautiful fantasy world to explore. The flexible class system means you'll be able to mix and match abilities from many different roles so you can change your specialization at will. Much of the promise of the combat system and depth of the crafting mechanics are drowned, unfortunately, under a sea of interface and performance issues that hinder the experience at nearly every step. While there's a lot to consider when building your ideal class, there's far too little interesting structured content to chew on, resul...