FINAL FATASY 12: Look at me, i have pretty graphics and a pretend intricate political storyline that has empty fun...come on kids.

(played about 6 hours in the game, so this just a preview review, which i will never do a real review)

Ok, lets get this puppy poppin' I didn't have high expectations for the game. They've been delaying it for like two years, but i pre ordered it anyway, heck the battle system looked fun, especially from the demo they let us have with dragon warrior 8. I got home, put it in, and sat back and was ready for a real adventure (cause there's been a lack of good rpgs lately).

Graphics: probably some of the best on the ps2, a decent bump up from x-2. It's just that the ps2 can only go so far, and once you hit that point, you just gotta work with what you got. The in game characters have good detail, nice hair blowing inthe wind etc... The movie are pre rendered like always, but this time they are so good, it's like they lost something inside them. like they don't have a soul anymore.

Atmosphere: Okay, the main pple doing this was the main men of the psx final fantasy tactics. I found the atmosphere to be a dead on accurate with the characters especially from 'final fantasy tactics advance' from the gba. The character races are the same from both games as well. it's just odd seeing little rabbits as 'moogles'. Right off the bat, after the first couple of medieval kingdom, knights and stuff. but then the game feels like they took phantom menace from star ep 1: the planet and that kingdom from where natalie portman was in charge of (honestly i dont' remember or care because those movies are a disrepect to all star wars and dont' diserve the right of that title). Then take that world and mix it together with the Disney movie 'Aladdin'. The main town and deserts just makes you feel like you have a monkey as your pal and the stupid pple are about to bust out into song. Don't get me wrong, the towns and areas are vast and fun to look at, but theres just too much comparison with the fact is it just feels gay.

Storyline: not much has developed but it seems pretty predictable. kingdoms battling, men in power , crime and treason, a rebellion and revolution undertaking at hand, not much of a love story. With how many characters there are is seems to spread kinda thin. but since i've only played a few hours, this doesn't have any merit, but the politcal complexity pple are bragging about, is so overrated. it feels like shakespeare, which is overrated. yes, overrated, i said it.

Characters: This is where i feel like squre enix is fallen off the deep end. This time the characters are even more less personal. I couldn't connect with any of them, mabye the sky pirate and his chick, or the rebellion chick. but the main characer makes you wanna vomit. i'm fine with characters not being cool, but this guy is just annoying. he reminds me of ff9's main characters, except without the tail. put that with aladdin, you got the main teenager dude, 'va'an'. he lost his brother to an odd conspiracy off the battle with the kingdoms. oh joy. feel sorry for him, he's confused. The other characters didn't develope, which is fine, because 6 hours in is barely even touching the story. Everybody has their way to relate, and mabye todays younger teens can totally relate with the cast of characters, i just wish i could do the same.

Music: alright, we all know we had to say goodbye to nobuo uematsu. the main dude who popped out the best soundtracks in video game history arguably. im pretty sure the only thing he made on this game was the main theme. but he's busy doing his own this with his band, and his own stuff now. farewell buddy. enter, Hitoshi Sakimoto! he's worked on various titles like ff tactics, stella deus, and vagrant story, and now ff 12 under his belt. So hes definately not brand new to the industry. However, i don't know if the advisors wanted him to play it safe or what, because of the tracks i've heard, cause there's a ton, are very ff generic. nothign pushing, or taking away, playing it completely safe. there's a few tracks that stick out, but the rest just fall into ,"hey try to copy uematsu's old stuff dude'', it's sad. but this is his first with a the final fantasy rpg that's not a tactical genre. so we'll see if he stays and continues to branch out as a main artist in the next ff's. hey it's hard to come in and do something under the shadow of the best in japan. good luck to em, i'd just like to see his true colors soon in music.


Overall: i'm not evening gonna waste my breathe or time on this game, the characters are shallow, the graphics are a sad excuse for a suck fest storyline. give us back the 2d games where storyline is the reason you play and graphics didn't matter. i'm still a kid, and i feel like i'm out growing these games, what's going on?? Go pick up ff4, ff5, and the soon ff6 advance for the gba, thats where the real stuff is at in today's world. FF 13 has way cooler character btw, very much the designs borrowing from final fantasy: advent children. will just see if the games keep going down hill.


(eye candy anyone? she looks better the yuna, and the ff pple never fail in the babe department or the dudes either, but it's not enough to save, the japanese are perverts. nice mini skirt hooker)