Gambit? You mean that guy from X-Men?

So, Final Fantasy XII. There is a lot to say about this one since it has the most radical departure from the previous Final Fantasy games since FF7 went 3D. I will try to break it down by its parts.

Combat: The most controversial change is the gambit system. Basically, you don’t have direct control over your characters and let the AI do most of the actions. For example, Ashe has 4 Gambits set up.

If Ally’s HP <60% Cast Cureaga
Attack Leader’s Target
Attack enemy targeting Ally
If Ally’s HP <80% Cast Cure

So she is set to attack my leader’s target, and if the leader has no target, she will attack an enemy that is going after a friendly. But should an ally fall below 60%, she immediately begins casting a heal. And after the battle is over, she will use Cure to get party members above the 80% marks. You can also change these on the fly, even in the middle of battle.

Overall I think the gambit system helps reduce the micromanaging of your characters, and helps save controllers in dealing with all the trash mobs fight(although this time you see those fights coming). When dealing with bosses, however, you need to actually manage your triad of team members since those fights are actually tough and usually throw enough at you that even the more complex gambits can’t handle the fight alone.

My complaint with the gambit system is twofold. First, you only start with the basic gambits. Other ones are either bought from stores, or found in the field. It’s rather silly. The second problem is that the system is a tad simplistic. I can tell it to cast Blizzard against ice vulnerable targets, but I can’t tell the system to do that, and to stop once the character’s mana level drops below a certain point. Despite these problems, I feel Square did a rather good job with the gambit system.

Travel: The world feels big, and zones feel very MMOish as opposed to the classic moving on the world map. Generally there are more than one correct path between points A and B. There are teleport crystals you can use in exchange for a teleport stone. Balthier also has an airship, but what do you know, it breaks early and you can’t use it for a very large majority of the game. He should have signed up for AAA.

Story: Ah yes, the story. As many have said elsewhere, it feels very epic as the two largest military powers in the world prepare to duke it out, and you are the monkey in the middle. You will need to be patient, because when the game starts off, it is a bit slow until you run into Fran and Balthier. While the story of what is going on around you feels very well done, your individual characters feel 'meh'. Save for Ashe or Balthier, little to none is a good description of how in depth the story goes with each of them. Also, no one actually wears a full shirt, except Balthier, but his shirt is puffy.

In the end, despite all the changes to the standard fare of the series, this still feels like a solid Final Fantasy game.

I'll give my bitch about the magic system some other time, however.

Now if you excuse me, I need to take pics of those losers in front of Best Buy. Also, it has been raining all day, which makes me happy. Good 'ole schadenfreude in action.