Final Fantasy XII

Final Fantasy XII (ファイナルファンタジーXII Fainaru Fantajī Tuerubu) is the twelfth installment in the Final Fantasy series. The game was released on March 16, 2006, in Japan and in North America on October 31, 2006. The game was released in Europe and Australia on February 23, 2007.

Final Fantasy XII spawned a direct sequel, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, for the Nintendo DS.

Development
Developed from 2001 to 2006, Final Fantasy XII cost approximately 4 billion Japanese yen (35 million USD) to produce with a crew of more than one hundred people. Yasumi Matsuno, originally announced as both producer and director, was forced to bow out of both roles midway through the creation of Final Fantasy XII due to health concerns. In his place, Hiroyuki Ito and Hiroshi Minagawa took over directorial duties, with Akitoshi Kawazu assuming the role of the executive producer. Matsuno remains credited for "Original Work/Scenario Plot/Supervision". Hitoshi Sakimoto was the music composer for the game, and Nobuo Uematsu contributed one new composition — the vocal theme, "Kiss Me Good-Bye", performed by Angela Aki. Renowned violinist Taro Hakase provided performances for Symphonic Poem "Hope", which served as a promotional theme along with "Kiss Me Good-Bye".

In early stages of development, the main character was to be "big and tough", but as development continued and targeting demographics were considered, he became more effeminate. With the casting of voice actor Kohei Takeda, who also did motion capture for the part, he became less so and more "active, upbeat bright and positive".

Veteran translator Alexander O. Smith was involved with the English localization of the script. Smith had previously worked on the localization for Vagrant Story as well as several other Final Fantasy installments, including Final Fantasy X. The voice overs were directed by Jack Fletcher, who had previously directed the voice overs for other Final Fantasy games as well.

In North America, the game was available in two versions — the stand alone game with a suggested retail price of $49.99 and a "Collector's Edition" for an additional $10. The Collector's Edition is an exclusive title offered only by GameStop or EB Games. This edition includes the original game packaged in a tin case along with a special bonus disc, which contained Final Fantasy XII developer interviews, an art gallery, four U.S. and Japanese trailers, and a "History of Final Fantasy" featurette, which gave brief chronicles on all released and upcoming Final Fantasy games.

Changes to the North American version of the game include the addition of widescreen 16:9 support and additional scenes that were left out of the Japanese version due to rating issues.

An international version of the game, titled Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System, is set to be released on August 9, 2007 in Japan as part of both Final Fantasy 20th anniversary and Ivalice Alliance campaigns. The game will include a new take on the License Board system, with twelve grids available instead of one, each corresponding to a different Zodiac sign and job. The battle system as a whole will also be tweaked; guest characters will now be controllable by the player, while pressing the L1 button will accelerate the game's speed. Additionally, the game will feature the English voices and the widescreen 16:9 ratio support of the North American version, as well as a bonus disc based on the one initially released with the North American version. Finally, a new mode will allow the player to hunt monsters and Espers in several series of small maps, to gain items and gil.

Story
Final Fantasy XII takes place mostly in the kingdom of Dalmasca, a small city-state in the world of Ivalice. A neutral party in the past wars between the neighboring Empires of Archadia and Rozarria, Dalmasca was ultimately conquered by Archadia and reduced to the status of an occupied state under Archadian rule. Vaan, a street urchin living in the Dalmascan capital of Rabanastre, the Royal City, is stealing some treasure from the Archadian Consul's residence in the old royal castle of Dalmasca. While looting the castle's safe Vaan meets Balthier, a sky pirate bent on stealing the Consul's treasures and his companion Fran, a Viera warrior. By coincidence the underground Dalmascan resistance movement assaults the royal castle on the same night, to depose the Archadian Consul. Vaan's looting gets noticed and he, Fran and Balthier are pursued by Archadian soldiers, along with the insurgents storming the castle, making them seem to be involved in the attack. This eventually brings the three face to face with Ashe, the deposed princess of Dalmasca and the leader of the resistance faction.

Balthier, Vaan and Fran are sent to a dungeon from where they escape bringing Basch, who had been in the dungeon since the war, with them. Ba'Gamnan, and his group of Head Hunters, are looking for Balthier, so they kidnap Vaan's best friend Penelo in the hopes that the always-gallant Balthier will try to free the girl. Vaan, Fran, Basch and Balthier head to Bhujerba to free Penelo and meet Larsa in their adventures there. Larsa is traveling under the name "Lamont" and is seeking what eventually turns out to be manufactured Nethicite. Larsa is revealed to be a royal heir, the younger brother to Consul Vayne, so immediately is the second in line for the throne of Archadia. He helps the party rescue Penelo and later keeps her and the party safe from the Archadian troops. At Bhujerba the party meets Ashe again and she requests Balthier's aid to retrieve a proof of her royal blood: The Dawn Shard.

The party heads to the Dynast King Raithwall's Tomb to retrieve the Dawn Shard and are subsequently captured by Judge Ghis upon leaving the tomb. A large, mysterious explosion provides opportunity for the party to escape. During their escape they witness - to their horror - that Judge Ghis' Ship and the Entire Archdian 8th fleet was destroyed by the power of the Dawn Shard, which is composed of a powerful substance called Deifacted Nethicite. Bent on wielding that power to free Dalmasca and avenge her fallen comrades Ashe heads to a place where she can learn more about the Stone. By chance they meet Larsa again, who persuades them to join him and another mysterious enemy/ally at Mt. Bur-Omisace to plan on how to stop the imminent war.

Disgraced by the 8th fleet's destruction, Vayne is called back to Archadia and starts suspecting that his father and the Archadian Senate will bypass him for Emperor, giving the throne to his brother Larsa instead. Unwilling to risk being bypassed to the throne Vayne murders his father and dissolves the Senate and immediately sends a ship to Mt. Bur-Omisace to capture the Dawn Shard from Ashe. His envoy, Judge Bergan, arrives too late: Ashe and Larsa heard of the events and Ashe has obtained the Sword of Kings (which has the ability to destroy Nethicite). An enraged Bergan kills the holy man Gran Kiltias Anastasis and bombs Mt. Bur-Omisace but is unable to get the shard or the sword. Larsa is taken back to Archades.

Ashe and her party decide it is time to destroy all the Nethicite available in Ivalice and head to Draklor Labs at the heart of the Archadian Empire, where the last shard is, to destroy it and the lab where Dr. Cid is successfully using what he has learned from that nethicite shard to manufacture artificial nethicite.

They are unsuccessful in destroying the Nethicite in Draklor Labs, and are instead left with information pointing them to the ancient city of Giruvegan. Dr. Cid is supposedly going there to retrieve more Deifacted Nethicite. The party enters the city and fights to the center of the Great Crystal, an incredibly large and powerful piece of Nethicite in which the Occurians live. There, the history of Raithwall and Nethicite is revealed. Ashe is given the Treaty blade so that she can carve out additional pieces of Deifacted Nethicite from the Sun Cryst, source of all nethicite's power, in order to achieve greater power and use it to destroy Archadia and its benefactor, the rogue Occuria Venat. She is conflicted as to her course of action.

Ashe and the party leave Giruvegan with the knowledge that Dr. Cid has used them to retrieve the Treaty blade, and had no intention of traveling to Giruvegan. They return to Balfonheim and Reddas joins the party to travel to the Ridorana Cataract, where the Sun Cryst is housed in the lighthouse Pharos. In the lighthouse Ashe realizes that all of the appearances of Lord Rasler are images constructed by the Occurians. Judge Gabranth arrives and briefly fights the party. Upon his defeat, Dr. Cid appears and banishes him back to the fleet. Cid wants to use the power of the Sun Cryst to make himself a God before Ashe destroys it. Upon defeating Dr. Cid, the Sun Cryst begins generating so much power that there is no way that the party could survive, until Reddas sacrifices himself to destroy the Sun Cryst with the Sword of Kings.

Vaan's party travel back to Balfonheim and learn that the discharge of power activated the largest airship ever built, the sky fortress Bahamut, and the resistance armies are staging a battle in the skies above Rabanastre. They travel to Bahamut to land and kill Vayne before he can destroy the country of Dalmasca, and all of the ships in the fleet. Before they can reach Vayne, Gabranth arrives to stop them. This time, Gabranth appears to have given up everything except his need to destroy his own brother. The party defeats Gabranth and leave him beaten in the elevator. Vayne attacks, and Larsa helps the party to fight him. As Vayne is beaten down, his Manufacted Nethicite sucks power from Larsa, and the ship around him. Gabranth joins the attack against Vayne, but is struck down, just as Vayne is mortally wounded. However, seeking for a continuing purpose, Venat grants Vayne possession of all of its power, using it to transform him into a monstrous being, the Undying.

Vayne is eventually defeated by the party, and, unable to control his new powers now, explodes into a cloud of mist. Before the party can relax, they must stop the two warring factions from killing each other and damaging Rabanastre. Boarding the Strahl, the party makes its escape, and using Larsa, Ashe and Basch, manage to get both sides to stand down. Just as everything looks like it's going to be fine, the Bahamut starts to fall from the sky, onto Rabanastre. Judge Zargabaath starts to put the Alexander on a collision course, hoping to ram it out of the way. However, Balthier manages to stop him. To the party's surprise, Balthier and Fran are still on the Bahamut. While Ashe tries to convince him to get off the falling fortress, Balthier reminds her that he's the leading man, and the leading man can never die. Managing to restart the engines, Balthier starts to leave, with a wounded Fran in his arms. Before communications with the Strahl dies, Balthier tells Vaan to look after the Strahl while he's gone. Vaan assures Balthier, before the Strahl flies away.

A year later, Penelo is writing a letter to Larsa. There is no longer any war, and Archadia and Rozarria are currently at peace. The party split apart, each living their own separate lives respectively. A month from now, Ashe will be crowned Queen of Dalmasca, so they won't be able to see each other anymore. A few months prior to this event, the Strahl was stolen. Of course, Penelo notes that it isn't really stealing if it was the original owner taking it back. Basch is now a Judge Magister, wearing his brother's armor, and is in charge of protecting Larsa. The final scene shows Vaan flying his new airship to Archadia, to pay Larsa a visit.

Characters
Final Fantasy XII has a cast of six main characters. Unlike other Final Fantasy games, this team, once formed, is never changed at all. However, there are also three special guest characters, and the player plays a different character during the prologue.


 * Vaan is the main character, but not in the traditional sense. While he is the character the player is first introduced to, he is actually just caught up in the events of the game, thus the story been told in the eyes of Vaan. A street rat, he lives on the streets of Rabanastre with his friend Penelo.


 * Penelo is Vaan's closest friend. Like Vaan, her involvement is very limited, but she is still important to the team none-the-less.


 * Balthier, real name Ffamran Mid Bunansa, is a cool and sophisticated sky pirate on the run from his past. He was once one of the Empire's Judges.


 * Fran is Balthier's partner, and the only non-Hume main character. Like Balthier, she is trying to shake off the past. She rarely speaks, but she usually has words of wisdom to offer.


 * Basch fon Ronsenburg is a disgraced knight, who wants to protect his surrogate homeland of Dalmasca at all costs. He has a twin who hates him for what he does.


 * Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca is the princess of Dalmasca. She is doing everything in her power to rebuild her fallen kingdom.

Locations
The World map of Ivalice actually does not appear to cover the entire world. Instead it shows an area roughly equivalent to the Mediterranean in a world map. This map shows the area once under the control of Raithwall the Dynast King, but now under the control of the Archadian Empire.

On the map are the kingdoms of Dalmasca, Archadia, Bhujerba and the area once controlled by Nabradia including Nalbina Fortress. The player can also visit ancient temples like the Stilshrine of Miriam, Mt. Bur-Omisace, and Raithwall's Tomb, as well as the village of indigenous peoples like the Garif and the Viera. Between all of these civilized locations are the zones patrolled and populated by various monsters. Each location is separated into zones, to allow players to elude monsters, and to allow for variations in terrain even in the same area.

Gameplay
As with each title in the Final Fantasy Series the specifics of each aspect of game play are different. Like all of the other games in the series the player characters will level, gain skills, cast magic, use Summons, Limit Breaks and fight Monsters. There are also some fairly obvious differences in the game play of Final Fantasy XII.

Gaining levels and skills
Levels are gained through Experience points. These points are all earned through battles with monsters, but never through battles with a boss or an Esper (only License points are gained in these battles). Only characters in the party who are active will gain Exp after the battle. Exp appears to be divided amongst active party members.

Skills (called Technicks), abilities, magic, accessories, weapons and armor upgrades are all governed by obtaining Licenses. Like the Sphere Grid in Final Fantasy X the player has complete control over the character's development via the License board. The player can use license points to purchase whatever ability or item they want the character to be able to use. License points are earned through killing all creatures, bosses and Espers in the game. Most creatures provide 1 LP, whereas rare monsters, mark hunts, bosses and Espers provide 2 or more LP. All conscious characters whether in the active party or in reserve will gain LP from the victory.

Magic
In Final Fantasy XII magic is purchased from vendors, similar to earlier installments. The magic is learned and can be utilized by all characters that have paid the LP to gain that level of magic. MP or Mist points are restored through movement, or activating a Save Crystal. Some abilities allow a character to gain MP through causing or receiving damage. Some items also restore MP.

Summons/Espers


Summons, called Espers, are obtained through battling and defeating them throughout gameplay. There are 13 Espers in the game. 5 are found through normal game play, and the other 8 can be found in hidden areas after completing specific actions in the game.

Each Esper can be purchased on the License Board after the player has defeated them. Only one character can purchase any specific Esper, and that Esper is then linked to that character, effectively removing its square from the License Board of the other characters. When the character summons the Esper, it takes the place of the other 2 members of the party. The Esper will remain and fight independent of the character for a short amount of time, as long as the summoner is still conscious. Once the time is up, the Esper will unleash a special attack, given that the requirements for the attack are met, and disappear. The Summon uses up a full segment of the MP bar.

Quickenings / Concurrences
The Limit Breaks in Final Fantasy XII are known as Mist Quickenings in the English version, or Mist Knacks in the Japanese version. Each Quickening is available on the License board for purchase by any character. Once a character has purchased a Quickening, that space is removed from all other character's boards. Each character can purchase up to 3 Quickenings. There are 18 Quickenings on the board. When a character uses a Quickening, one segment of their MP is completely used up. Upon purchasing the second Quickening the character's MP bar doubles and is segmented in 2, and finally another segment is added, tripling the available MP when the character purchases their third Quickening. You can create a specific combination of Quickenings to open a Concurrence, which deals heavy damage to the target and all those nearby.

Battle
Final Fantasy XII is similar to Final Fantasy XI in that there are no longer random monster battles. Instead, monsters move freely across the landscape and battles are conducted on the field map without any transition. Enemies will only rarely surprise the party, although flying creatures will often attack from a higher elevation, and other creatures will spring out of the water or grass to attack. Additionally, monsters will become aggressive toward the characters as they move past, or if the player decides to attack other creatures of the same genus.

Combat can be controlled manually or programmed via the use of Gambits. The gambit system is used for the first time in this game. It is slightly similar to the Macro system found in Final Fantasy XI. Like simple computers, the player can create a list of commands and dependencies to be carried out automatically by the characters to simplify the combat system. All commands relate to the character itself, the character's allies, or the enemies on screen.

Glitches
One of the known glitches in the game can cause enemies to disappear in the field. The method is to create a party of two party members. Cast Immobilize to one of the party members, and then use the other character to explore the field, at best as faraway from the Immobilized character as possible. Whenever an enemy appears, let the character engage into battle mode, and then quickly switch to the Immobilized member using the "switch leader" command. After that, switch back to the other party member, and the enemies engaged will disappear from the screen. The radius of their disappearance is as large as the on-screen map. This is useful especially when wanting to fight Zodiark in Henne Mines without having to fight other enemies on the way.

Another glitch is the "flapping hair woman" in Rabanastre, close to the bridge near the Sandsea.

Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System
The International version of the game was released on August 9, 2007 in Japan. The game has a whole number of new features:


 * The Zodiac Job System - There are now 12 License Boards, each one representing a job. Once a character chooses that job however, they are stuck with it throughout the entire game. Isolated licenses can be unlocked by obtaining espers and quickenings.
 * Trial Mode - The party must fight through 100 stages, each one containing stronger monsters. Completing this mode unlocks New Game+: Weak Mode.
 * Controllable Guests - Guest characters can now be controlled, and their gambits can be edited. Their equipment can't be removed.
 * Controllable Espers - Espers can now be controlled once summoned, and their gambits can be edited. You can now use their ultimate attack whenever you feel like.
 * Speed Boost - Holding the L1 speeds up the game, making getting around much easier.
 * Gambit Changes - There are 16 new gambits. All the gambits can be bought upon leaving Barheim Passage.
 * Item Changes - New items have been added, and some of their effects have been slightly changed.
 * Enemy Changes - Enemies have been changed slightly, plus new enemies have been added. A battle against all five Judge Magisters is also included.
 * Magick Changes - Some magic has been renamed, while others have been moved to other categories; Brave and Faith are now White Magick for example. Not all Magick can be bought, and some must be found in treasure pots.
 * Equipment Changes - New weapons have been added, like the Excalipoor, while others have been slightly changed. Armor and accessories have also been slightly changed.
 * Shop Listings - Some shops have had their inventory changed.
 * Quickening Changes - Quickenings no longer take up MP, instead having their own Quickening bar.
 * MP Changes - Since Quickenings don't use MP now, obtaining Quickenings don't increase MP. Instead, characters simply get more MP as they level up. Max MP is determined by your job.
 * New Game+ - Two New Game+ modes are available. Strong Mode, where all characters begin at level 90, and Weak Mode, where all characters begin at level 1 and never level up. Nothing carries over into these new save files.
 * Treasure Respawns - Treasures pots now respawn by just moving one screen away.
 * Break Damage Limit - There is no damage limit any more. If a character does more than 9999 damage, the game will show it.

Also, unlike Final Fantasy X-2 International, which supported old Final Fantasy X-2 save files, this game does not support save files from the old Final Fantasy XII.