All of this combat wouldn't be any fun it you didn't have great enemies to battle, and Final Fantasy XII has them in spades. Even the simple enemies you see around the world of Ivalice are well detailed and a lot of fun to do battle with. As you progress through the game the enemies only get bigger and more impressive, ultimately turning into enormous beasts that require a lot of patience and strategy to take down. Even more impressive are the numerous boss battles, all of which will wow you in one way or another. While not all of the bosses are huge, they do put up a good fight and will generally take more than one try to beat them. There are some bosses that are so large and menacing that you'll wonder if you will even beat them. Of all the Final Fantasy games, this twelfth installment has the best enemies you will ever see.
Final Fantasy XII seems a lot more open-ended than the previous entries; you can backtrack at just about any time and go wherever you want even if it's not part of the story. This means that you will be able to explore uncharted territory long before there's a reason for you to actually go there, and if you ever need to get back to the town (for supplies, weapons, etc.) you can take the time to retrace your steps and find your way back to the start of the game. The story itself is still linear, but the game gives you quite a bit of freedom to go around and do whatever you want to. While you shouldn't confuse this with a Grand Theft Auto game, Final Fantasy XII does offer a lot of reasons to backtrack and explore the world of Ivalice.
Since you are exploring a (mostly) open-ended world you will have to deal with the camera. Gone are the fixed camera angles, now you can circle around your character and see everything that is around you. There's no denying how cool it is to finally be able to have this freedom in a Final Fantasy game, but this also means that you are going to have to fight the camera more than you normally would. This is especially true when you're fighting in close quarters, if your character gets too close to a wall you are going to have a hard time seeing anything. For the most part this isn't that big of a problem, but Final Fantasy fans may get a bit annoyed at how unruly the camera can be at times. Assuming that Square Enix continues to build off of this game's formula, I can only hope that the camera problems are fully resolved by the time Final Fantasy XIII is released on the PlayStation 3.
The game's massive scope isn't the only thing that is impressive here; you will also be surprised by how good the graphics are. The Final Fantasy games have always had great production values, but Final Fantasy XII goes well beyond anything I was expecting. The pre-rendered cinemas are on the same level as real CGI movies, full of detail and cool effects. After the cut-scenes in Final Fantasy X and X-2 I never thought I would see a PS2 game with the same level of detail, but Final Fantasy XII blows them away. Better yet, there are a lot of these amazing looking cinemas.
There are also a lot of regular cinemas, which end up looking a little flat when compared to the pre-rendered stuff. But even then, the regular (read: more common) cut scene is still impressive looking. That goes for the in-game graphics, as well. While there are people that will no doubt complain that the game features some background pop-in, the graphics are actually quite amazing when you consider the game's massive scope. No matter what kind of environment you are in (be it the jungle, snow-covered mountains or the desert) there's plenty of detail. With a game this size it would be easy to skip some of the finer details and focus on the bigger picture, but Final Fantasy XII doesn't skimp. The in-game graphics don't look nearly as good as what we've seen on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but there's no doubt that the game looks stunning for a current generation PlayStation 2 game.
There has always been a lot of emphasis on the music in Final Fantasy. The music in past games has spawned CD soundtracks, remixes and even full concerts with orchestra arrangements. The music in Final Fantasy XII is good, but certainly not on par with some of the previous games in the series. There are a few songs fans will immediately recognize (such as when you first turn on the game, when you are riding a Chocobo, and when you defeat a huge boss), but most of the music here is brand new. Unfortunately the music in Final Fantasy XII isn't nearly as memorable as it has been in the past, but there's plenty of it and it rarely gets annoying.
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