Final Fantasy XII: Preview

Last night I bought the video game goodness that is Dragon Quest VIII, which I'll mention later. But first, I'd like to mention the brief Final Fantasy XII demo that was packaged with it. This demo has an extended trailer to get psyched up about the story, but more importantly gives an introduction into the new battle system.

This game departs from the random-battles and fighting entirely with menus in a separate arena. This game is very similar to the fighting style of KOTOR. You have 3 characters fighting at a time, you control one of them. The "turns" are defined by a time bar very similar to the "Active Time Battle" of old, but this time the turns are decided when the bar is empty, and used after the bar fills. This way you can see the moves that your automatic allies are about to use, whether it be an attack or a cure spell. This helps you to plan what your main character should do. You can also quickly move between characters with ease, if you want to micromanage a little more. Little beams of light are visible to show who is targeting what enemy or ally, which helps with strategy, so you can make everyone focus on a single enemy or several at a time.

The demo featured some goals that must be completed before continuing to a boss-like enemy. I don't know if the actual game will be set up like this, but it reminds me a little of Crystal Chronicles' levels in multiplayer.

Overall, this got me really excited for a game which I knew I would buy, but knew little about. I mean, come on... it's Final Fantasy. They own a good percentage of shares of my soul, I must do as Square-Enix bids me.