Since my connection went dead for a few days, I had a chance to log an extra 20 hours on this and overall, I think I'm liking it. It definately has some improvements to help overhaul the series. The biggest of which is that I'm finding it's far less linear than previous games. Granted it still is somewhat (has to be), but once I got the Dawn Shard, I'm finding I'm pretty much able to go most places on the continentlong before I'm supposed to. (Heck, I even beat the Bomb King in the Salikawood and still haven't headed down towards the Giza Plains during the Rain, and that was with an average party level of 19-20.) Also, the Battle System is better, even if (while in Wait mode) it plays like the older games. The main difference thugh is thta since I see the mosnters, I'm not being hit with a random battle every few steps. I can fight or run ahead of time. Graphically, it's the most beautiful game in the series (though admittedly that wasn't a hard feat to achieve) and the sound is as lush as ever. Lastly, they give you a WHOLE lot of side quest adventures and hunts to complete (good luck beating Yiazmat and his 50,000,000 hit points). That alone can keep you going for weeks/months. Oh yeah, Balthier has replaced Celes as my favroite character in the series (again, not quite fair since in one case they only gave you text to base her persona on while here they have the full voice and mannerisms too but damn if his attitude is not just perfect). And doesn't Dr. Cid seem like he should be played by William Shatner? He feels like the evil Captain Kirk there.
All that being said, there are a few things that so far I'm finding lacking, story-wise and gameplay-wise. Story-wise, the problem is well... the story. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad and has been interesting enough for me to keep playing. However, the main players are rather weak and lack any sort of emotional attachment. Start with the 2 de-facto "main" characters, Ashe and Vaan. Ashe is the weakest female lead they've had since Tifa back in FF7. She's rash, impulsive, and is fighting not to show weakness. Even Basch made similar comments. Further her own comments during her Quickenings ("I must be strong!", "I must endure!", "I must believe!") shows her more as someone fighting a losing, desperate, hopeless battle rather than someone who knows her strengths and weaknesses and confidently works within that range. To me, this was most glaring also when they got the Dawn Shard and she says that she must use its power to fight against the Empire and Vaan takes the air out of her balloon with 1 simple question: "Do you even know how to use it?"
And speaking of Vaan, why is he there? He's the game party leader but (again so far) now just seems to be along for the ride. Penelo has a similar problem but she was never portrayed as a game lead. Ashe's motivations are at least clear. Basch has his duty to protect Ashe. Balthier is in it for the money. Fran goes wherver Balthier goes. All of that seems well and good. Vann though? If anything he seems to want to follow wherever Balthier goes. While I could accept that were Vaan a secondary character (like Fran and Penelo), as someone who's supposed to be a main character and drive the story, Vaan falls way short. Granted, I know I have a whole lot more of the game to uncover (where things can change) but after completing 1 main section of it so far (when characters usually have their personalities developed), that is how they all come across. Lastly, (the fascination with "Crystals" aside yet again), the plot seems to feel a lot like Final Fantasy II's plot (which considering it was a NES game was quite detailed for what they had to work with). Rebels vs. Empire isn't exactly a "new" theme in general, but it's not new to the series either.
What further hurts the lack of emotional connection to these 6 is one of the gameplay flaws: The License Board. Not a bad idea in theory and more flexible/interesting than the Sphere Grid in 10. But there's nothing at all distinguishing any of the characters from each other. Final Fantasy III and V had the same issue in that every character could learn every ability and thus be a clone of the others but that could be excused to a degree with the engines that those older games were based upon. Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and X are almost as bad as XII in this regard (with VIII being far moreso) but at the least the Limit Breaks were different for each character and provided different effects. However, each character in the older games were unique enough to start with and you had to work hard at making them all similar. Not so in Final Fantasy XII. Since items and abilities are released at specific times throughout the game, each character builds out on the License Board at pretty much the same manner. Some may argue that having the choice is good, that you can specialize 1 in magic, 1 in techniques, 1 in weapons, etc. But that choice leads to identical characters. Even the Quickenings just feature different animations, but have no gameplay distinction.
Oh man, the Quickenings. The very mechanic of them are more broken than FFVIII's Aura + "Keep pressing Square until I can Limit Break". Remember that I said my party beat the Bomb King? They can barely survive 1 hit from monsters out in those areas with the levels they have now. Yet by the time I'm done exhausting everyone's Mist Power, I've dropped between 60,000 and 100,000 damage on everyone. You don't even need to make sure everyone has a full MP gauge (though it certainly helps). Have the main party exhaust through what they have. Swap in 1 person and have that person start with the L1 Quickenings. You'll notice that you'll get Mist Charge on the other 2 at least once before you empty out the meter on the new person. Wash, rinse, repeat with each character that still has Mist Charges. If you want to just level up, get out to one of the "high" monster areas (like where they're average of LV40), find a Crystal, and just start killing. When you're all out, go back, save, and go out again. Lately, bad chains for me have still gotten me about 8 hits while the furtherst I've strung it out so far is 22 hits. (Only missing the Whiteout Concordence for the Spy Pirate Trophy). This really does take the challenge of the game down so far that I can wipe out some of the strongest monsters so far before they can even get a Red Light on one of my characters.
So far these are my not-so-early impressions of the game. I'm still having fun with it (which obviously is the most important thing) but still waiting for something to grab me like the other games have. So far it's solidly in the middle.
