My favorite game. That's coming from a completionist. The world building, exploration and side content (secret Espers for example) are some of the reasons. Also... "Too late and to their sorrow do those who misplaced their trust in gods learn their fate." Top tier dialogue. My favorite boss is Zodiark, the strongest of the optional Espers. Exciting battle, lore and Final eclipse looks epic.
I disagree strongly. The gambit system was very cool especially at the time. And having them all at the start is silly. Having to buy them felt like another layer of progression and I 100 percent agree with their choice and how they implemented it.
Good video, I do think that there is another point that should be mentioned. In addition to freedom being one of the major themes of the game, another theme (at least in my interpretation) is the struggle between humanity and the Occuria, who are essentially gods. I think a major point is the Occuria believed that humanity couldn't be trusted with the ability to make nethicite and use it responsibly, so they chose to only give the stones to humes they saw fit to lead (like Raithwall). The repeated phrase of putting the "reigns of history back in the hands of man" alludes to this. The whole idea of the Arcadian empire's and Cid's power was figuring out how to make nethicite themselves, putting the power of the gods in their hands (similar things were said about the advent of nuclear weapons in the real world). Venat choosing to rebel against the Occuria and side with Cid shows Venat as a kind of fallen god. Now what side you think is right I think is up to the player to decide, but those themes are definitely present in the game. I do think it would have been great if those ideas were explored a bit more in the story though.
flapperina floppington flopper literally made me laugh out loud. you deff made me want to replay thig game just on new job mixes i could do. great vid!
Very fair review! This was probably the first Final Fantasy game that I played that left me feeling disappointed and almost incomplete (though XIII and XV would do the same), but it's one of my absolute favorite to go back and replay for some odd reason. I haven't played the Zodiac Age version yet, as trying to choose optimal job combinations sounds so daunting, and I'm a little bummed that early Zodiac Spear acquisition has been removed since it's now a reward for those beach hunts. Manipulating the RNG through spells and punching yourself to get rare items from chests was a lot of fun. And of all the games that have had a Mark Hunting system, this was by FAR the best and I'm appalled that none of the later games were able to come close (FFXIII, FFXV, and FFXVI) - just talking to the NPC about the mark added so much to the game and the lore unlocked in the Bestiary was fun and helpful to flesh out the wider lore.
What the hell did I just watched????? Take it from me that I have played all Final Fantasies including side games and by far FF12 is my favorite final fantasy game of all time
I quit 3 times from being bored. Can honestly say this game helped me realize if you didn't play it back on the day then its not for you. It was fun at first but in 2024 it feels like one big chore.
I play FF for the story not the challenge, if I want to suffer in a jRPG I play SMT nocturne, digital saga, Earthbound or Dragon Quest. FF game has been always on the easy side. Now I replaythem with the boosters because on my PS2 playthough took me like 200hrs to get the Zodiac spear and beat Yiazmat.
Great review, I like this game but the memories come from the battle system, hunts, challenges you can impose and MMO aspects and unfortunately not for the story and characters.
Hard disagree, literally the best FF character is from this game, and the story is better than 8, or anything pre 6. It may not be the best story but every story since has been far far worse.
I played FFXII long time ago in my PS2 and it felt super boring at the time. Just completed the main story and never played it ever again. After watching your challenge I decided to buy and play the Zodiac version cause it was cheap and oh boy. How wrong I was! Game is a big improvement from the original. I still dislike the gambit system (I understand is necesary in a "fast" paced game like this) but the job system is excelent and makes for it. Story and characters are still a bit dull (except Ashe Balthier and Fran) but tried the hunts and optional quests and they are very enjoyable. For me. FFXII zodiac age is a 7/10 game
I hope you will play the spin off revenant wings one day. Is really good and Penelo and the others characters has a lot more screen time. If you're a fan of this game i highly recommend It. (Sorry i'm not an english speaker)
Ff12 s about letting go Vaan lets go of his brother Balthier his father Fran her village Ashe her love Basch his honor Even larsa has to let go of his brother
I respectfully strongly disagree. Replaying XII as an adult was a completely different game and it’s now my favourite in the series. Also, it became my most replayed entry in the whole series. I ended up replaying XII: TZA 6 times! Each time with new job combinations and team setups, new challenge runs, etc.
Some of these ratings don't make sense. As annoying as the chops section is, it's not significant enough that it should get its own score. The hunts are mini games as well. A solid cast of characters, but one brings it down that much? Penelo isn't significant enough to bring it down like that. The music is great, but I can agree that it doesn't have tracts that stand out like in previous games. It's better than a 5, though. To be honest, though, ff12 is one of my favorite games, so I am biased.
It is weird how you pinpoint a lot of qualities that have strong value, but gives a score of 3 or so. I mean, despite understanding and agreeing with your opinion, the final score seems off most of times. But good video though, FF XII is one of my all time favorites.
You miss so much and it’s so sad that you played this game but missed so much of the key story points. Love you and love your opinion which is valid but I in my opinion think you’re wrong about some of the characters and their development and the story. Thank you for enjoying one of my top three favorite FF games.
you know whats ironic about Penelo... She is so inconsequential and unrelatable to the plot... but she's so easily remembered as being the most useless character (plot wise) in FF... like, irony.
How is this irony? You would expect her to be easily remembered as the most useless character (plot wise) due to the fact that she is so inconsequential and unrelatable to the ploy. That's like the opposite of irony my dude
Man, I hate FF XII and I'm so glad it wasn't my first because this is exactly the type of JRPGs I always thought of when thinking about the genre. Because of JRPGs like this one I haven't even tried the genre for years and even doubted if I should play FF 7. Thankfully, Persona 4 and FF 15 proved me wrong. I'm happy you've given it 5.5/10 instead of 9/10 people tend to give it for some unknown reason. They always speak of some deep battle system and unique plot. I guess we've all played different FF XII...
What a dumb take. If you would actually dive into the gambit system and world... And especially, if you would do the side content... Youbwould see why it gets so much great reviews.
@@Vayne_Solidor I've suffered this game up until Tomb bosses. It's constant deserts, bland mines, catacombs, corridors of nothingness and e.t.c. I've seen on UA-cam some snowy and forest locations but am I really that wrong if they consciously put beautiful locations just for the second part of the game? And this battle system does it no good. The game encourages you to play through gambits which is like saying "we couldn't do interesting battle system so we decided to make your life easier by giving you these AI scripts so that you would have no need to make decisions during battles". Like, for the first few hours you just constantly press Attack and watch these "awesome" battles in catacombs. Then you get enough gambits and magic to just literally do nothing during battles because AI will heal you if need be and spam attack for you forever. Peak gameplay. Ok, first Judge boss is kinda cool because it's the first somewhat hard fight but... Mist, guys. Mist is the cheapest way to kill bosses but I don't really think that watching AI fight for you is any better way to waste dozens of hours of my time. Like, you use Mist, gamble these skills and if you get at least 5 in a row then it's already minus 50% HP or even more. Prior to the first Judge I'd even one shot some bosses with Mist. And do I really have to mention licenses? It's dumb. Not only you have to wait rather long time before you can buy various spells, you have to get licenses for it! Even for your equipment! You just constantly look at the board and search for these "Swords 4" just to find out that you have to get like 6 more licenses before you can use this shitty sword and by the time you get enough LP you'll probably find a new one or maybe a new armor-type item which also requires corresponding license. So not only you basically grind LP just to equip something(and some weapons don't appear for a long time so you're mage will practically have no new weapon and everything like that) but you also need to find money to get these items or spells. Like, yeah, I get it, FF prologues are always pretty boring gameplay-wise but they usually end after like 5-10 hours? Reaching the Tomb is not 5-10 hours, it's literally like 1/3 of the game I guess? Perhaps even further in. Also the music is just bland. It's just... some epic fanfares? And not in a good way because SMT Strange Journey battle theme is an epic fanfare but it doesn't feel like just background ambient or something. Even ambients can get memorable and I've wasted dozens of hours on this game, like, I tried it not once, not twice and not even thrice. Also the plot gets just stupidly hilarious at times with these Vann mood swings. Like, one mineshaft corridor and he starts to trust his supposed brother's killer. And a few hours later happens the infamous "I'M CAPTAIN BASCH" scene. So, the game encourages you to use gambits not to engage in it's battle system most of the time, it's plot is about a stupid child preventing war along with some kind of a suicide squad, it's music... exists(sometimes), and it's level design get ok only in the second half (maybe). Surely it's 9/10, no doubt. And I have a problem with it's job system. Characters love to come and go in the first half, especially Penelo or whatever she's called. What if I wanted her to be my white mage? Should I really just suffer without a white mage or do I have to go and change my job? Well, the moment you step on Castle grounds you can't go back IIRC. I don't quite understand what boards characters had in the original PS2 version but I've heard that the original ps2 Zodiac had no option of changing one's job after selecting it which I think might end up pretty bad. Btw, it's not even that I hate MMORPG-like battle system, ironically I like MMORPGs including FF XIV but this game doesn't want to engage in it at all. You just... Watch. Yeah, I know that it gets more engaging by the end, obviously, but I repeat: do you really think it's wise to waste 60 hours of your life until that one game "engaging"? Ok, let's pretend it's not 60 but 20(literally just after the Tomb). Is it any better? Should I remind people that FF 13 almost killed the series because not so many people like it's corridors(which are beautiful) and because it takes like 10 hours before it gets engaging? I also heard that people think FF 15 is "empty" because it has nothing but beautiful open-world, hunter contracts, one button battle system and corridors in dungeons? Yeah, never happened before.
We’ll see maybe Jamsac has a low threshold for disliking. He might score FF7 a 6/10 for all we know. Generally I think most FF fans would score a bit higher.
I think it is just shows that you not interested in learning mechanics. Because ff15 is very easy game from gameplay perspective. Persona 4 is also more friendly experience in compare with SMT
@@Yuri-fs3es I'm the only man who thinks that FF 8 has the best yet unpolished battle system in the genre. So, no, the problem is not that I don't want to learn mechanics, they're just bad. The game urges you to use Gambits, so you can play without pressing buttons except for movement. That's just awful. I've wasted 70 hours on FF 13 just a week ago and I can say that it wasn't AS bad thanks to constant need to change paradigms if you want to speed things up. I'm not saying that FF 13 is good, perhaps 13-2 or Lightning Returns are but definitely not the first one. It's just that it has less battles in the first half, better art direction(why would you even like deserts, blank mines and catacombs?) and the OST is much-much better objectively. The story might be worse, not gonna argue but I can't say FF12's first half is any better. I mean, even FF 1 at least had a time loop and a paradox like in Terminator, pretty origin for a fantasy game in 80s.
![How GOOD is Final Fantasy X? [JamSac REVIEWS]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hCt6E0t8-Xs/mqdefault.jpg)
![How GOOD is Final Fantasy X? [JamSac REVIEWS]](/img/tr.png)
My favorite game. That's coming from a completionist.
The world building, exploration and side content (secret Espers for example) are some of the reasons.
Also... "Too late and to their sorrow do those who misplaced their trust in gods learn their fate." Top tier dialogue.
My favorite boss is Zodiark, the strongest of the optional Espers. Exciting battle, lore and Final eclipse looks epic.
I disagree strongly. The gambit system was very cool especially at the time. And having them all at the start is silly. Having to buy them felt like another layer of progression and I 100 percent agree with their choice and how they implemented it.
The gambit system is still cool to this day
XII had my favorite battle system and I wished they'd go back to it
It was a cool idea setting up in advance but the combo system to get items was tedious and the 6 hour boss fights were boring
Its amazing, one of the GOAT games ever made
Good video, I do think that there is another point that should be mentioned. In addition to freedom being one of the major themes of the game, another theme (at least in my interpretation) is the struggle between humanity and the Occuria, who are essentially gods. I think a major point is the Occuria believed that humanity couldn't be trusted with the ability to make nethicite and use it responsibly, so they chose to only give the stones to humes they saw fit to lead (like Raithwall). The repeated phrase of putting the "reigns of history back in the hands of man" alludes to this. The whole idea of the Arcadian empire's and Cid's power was figuring out how to make nethicite themselves, putting the power of the gods in their hands (similar things were said about the advent of nuclear weapons in the real world).
Venat choosing to rebel against the Occuria and side with Cid shows Venat as a kind of fallen god. Now what side you think is right I think is up to the player to decide, but those themes are definitely present in the game. I do think it would have been great if those ideas were explored a bit more in the story though.
flapperina floppington flopper literally made me laugh out loud. you deff made me want to replay thig game just on new job mixes i could do. great vid!
Very fair review! This was probably the first Final Fantasy game that I played that left me feeling disappointed and almost incomplete (though XIII and XV would do the same), but it's one of my absolute favorite to go back and replay for some odd reason. I haven't played the Zodiac Age version yet, as trying to choose optimal job combinations sounds so daunting, and I'm a little bummed that early Zodiac Spear acquisition has been removed since it's now a reward for those beach hunts.
Manipulating the RNG through spells and punching yourself to get rare items from chests was a lot of fun. And of all the games that have had a Mark Hunting system, this was by FAR the best and I'm appalled that none of the later games were able to come close (FFXIII, FFXV, and FFXVI) - just talking to the NPC about the mark added so much to the game and the lore unlocked in the Bestiary was fun and helpful to flesh out the wider lore.
I love Final Fantasy 12.
I play it on the Nintendo Switch.
What the hell did I just watched????? Take it from me that I have played all Final Fantasies including side games and by far FF12 is my favorite final fantasy game of all time
Such an in-depth review! Good work! 🥳
Great video! Would love to see a review to every game you make/made a challenge run :3
5/10 is horrifically low for such an incredible game. It’s at least an 8.
Great analytics of the game. I like gameplay mechanics, style and story that more fouces on politics and Ashe's story.
I quit 3 times from being bored. Can honestly say this game helped me realize if you didn't play it back on the day then its not for you. It was fun at first but in 2024 it feels like one big chore.
Thanks for the Review.
I play FF for the story not the challenge, if I want to suffer in a jRPG I play SMT nocturne, digital saga, Earthbound or Dragon Quest. FF game has been always on the easy side.
Now I replaythem with the boosters because on my PS2 playthough took me like 200hrs to get the Zodiac spear and beat Yiazmat.
I have been waiting for this video 😊
Great review, I like this game but the memories come from the battle system, hunts, challenges you can impose and MMO aspects and unfortunately not for the story and characters.
Hard disagree, literally the best FF character is from this game, and the story is better than 8, or anything pre 6. It may not be the best story but every story since has been far far worse.
@@Someguyonline7732 except FF14
I played FFXII long time ago in my PS2 and it felt super boring at the time.
Just completed the main story and never played it ever again.
After watching your challenge I decided to buy and play the Zodiac version cause it was cheap and oh boy. How wrong I was!
Game is a big improvement from the original. I still dislike the gambit system (I understand is necesary in a "fast" paced game like this) but the job system is excelent and makes for it.
Story and characters are still a bit dull (except Ashe Balthier and Fran) but tried the hunts and optional quests and they are very enjoyable.
For me. FFXII zodiac age is a 7/10 game
I hope you will play the spin off revenant wings one day. Is really good and Penelo and the others characters has a lot more screen time. If you're a fan of this game i highly recommend It.
(Sorry i'm not an english speaker)
I played it years ago but I don’t remember too much about the story
The gameplay was fun thought from what I remember!
I hardly if ever used quickenings haha felt it was more of a gamble
Ff12 s about letting go
Vaan lets go of his brother
Balthier his father
Fran her village
Ashe her love
Basch his honor
Even larsa has to let go of his brother
Uhm what about penelo
I respectfully strongly disagree. Replaying XII as an adult was a completely different game and it’s now my favourite in the series.
Also, it became my most replayed entry in the whole series. I ended up replaying XII: TZA 6 times! Each time with new job combinations and team setups, new challenge runs, etc.
Why complain about easy bosses or the quicking😊 dont use if u want a harder fight whats the issue ? Just dont use it
Some of these ratings don't make sense. As annoying as the chops section is, it's not significant enough that it should get its own score. The hunts are mini games as well. A solid cast of characters, but one brings it down that much? Penelo isn't significant enough to bring it down like that. The music is great, but I can agree that it doesn't have tracts that stand out like in previous games. It's better than a 5, though.
To be honest, though, ff12 is one of my favorite games, so I am biased.
It is weird how you pinpoint a lot of qualities that have strong value, but gives a score of 3 or so. I mean, despite understanding and agreeing with your opinion, the final score seems off most of times. But good video though, FF XII is one of my all time favorites.
When’s my girl coming back ?
You miss so much and it’s so sad that you played this game but missed so much of the key story points. Love you and love your opinion which is valid but I in my opinion think you’re wrong about some of the characters and their development and the story. Thank you for enjoying one of my top three favorite FF games.
Honestly, a mediocre review at best.
you know whats ironic about Penelo...
She is so inconsequential and unrelatable to the plot... but she's so easily remembered as being the most useless character (plot wise) in FF... like, irony.
totally fair, but she is kinda cute.
How is this irony? You would expect her to be easily remembered as the most useless character (plot wise) due to the fact that she is so inconsequential and unrelatable to the ploy. That's like the opposite of irony my dude
Man, I hate FF XII and I'm so glad it wasn't my first because this is exactly the type of JRPGs I always thought of when thinking about the genre. Because of JRPGs like this one I haven't even tried the genre for years and even doubted if I should play FF 7. Thankfully, Persona 4 and FF 15 proved me wrong.
I'm happy you've given it 5.5/10 instead of 9/10 people tend to give it for some unknown reason. They always speak of some deep battle system and unique plot. I guess we've all played different FF XII...
What a dumb take.
If you would actually dive into the gambit system and world... And especially, if you would do the side content... Youbwould see why it gets so much great reviews.
@@Vayne_Solidor I've suffered this game up until Tomb bosses. It's constant deserts, bland mines, catacombs, corridors of nothingness and e.t.c. I've seen on UA-cam some snowy and forest locations but am I really that wrong if they consciously put beautiful locations just for the second part of the game?
And this battle system does it no good. The game encourages you to play through gambits which is like saying "we couldn't do interesting battle system so we decided to make your life easier by giving you these AI scripts so that you would have no need to make decisions during battles". Like, for the first few hours you just constantly press Attack and watch these "awesome" battles in catacombs. Then you get enough gambits and magic to just literally do nothing during battles because AI will heal you if need be and spam attack for you forever. Peak gameplay. Ok, first Judge boss is kinda cool because it's the first somewhat hard fight but... Mist, guys. Mist is the cheapest way to kill bosses but I don't really think that watching AI fight for you is any better way to waste dozens of hours of my time. Like, you use Mist, gamble these skills and if you get at least 5 in a row then it's already minus 50% HP or even more. Prior to the first Judge I'd even one shot some bosses with Mist.
And do I really have to mention licenses? It's dumb. Not only you have to wait rather long time before you can buy various spells, you have to get licenses for it! Even for your equipment! You just constantly look at the board and search for these "Swords 4" just to find out that you have to get like 6 more licenses before you can use this shitty sword and by the time you get enough LP you'll probably find a new one or maybe a new armor-type item which also requires corresponding license. So not only you basically grind LP just to equip something(and some weapons don't appear for a long time so you're mage will practically have no new weapon and everything like that) but you also need to find money to get these items or spells.
Like, yeah, I get it, FF prologues are always pretty boring gameplay-wise but they usually end after like 5-10 hours? Reaching the Tomb is not 5-10 hours, it's literally like 1/3 of the game I guess? Perhaps even further in.
Also the music is just bland. It's just... some epic fanfares? And not in a good way because SMT Strange Journey battle theme is an epic fanfare but it doesn't feel like just background ambient or something. Even ambients can get memorable and I've wasted dozens of hours on this game, like, I tried it not once, not twice and not even thrice.
Also the plot gets just stupidly hilarious at times with these Vann mood swings. Like, one mineshaft corridor and he starts to trust his supposed brother's killer. And a few hours later happens the infamous "I'M CAPTAIN BASCH" scene.
So, the game encourages you to use gambits not to engage in it's battle system most of the time, it's plot is about a stupid child preventing war along with some kind of a suicide squad, it's music... exists(sometimes), and it's level design get ok only in the second half (maybe).
Surely it's 9/10, no doubt.
And I have a problem with it's job system. Characters love to come and go in the first half, especially Penelo or whatever she's called. What if I wanted her to be my white mage? Should I really just suffer without a white mage or do I have to go and change my job? Well, the moment you step on Castle grounds you can't go back IIRC. I don't quite understand what boards characters had in the original PS2 version but I've heard that the original ps2 Zodiac had no option of changing one's job after selecting it which I think might end up pretty bad.
Btw, it's not even that I hate MMORPG-like battle system, ironically I like MMORPGs including FF XIV but this game doesn't want to engage in it at all. You just... Watch. Yeah, I know that it gets more engaging by the end, obviously, but I repeat: do you really think it's wise to waste 60 hours of your life until that one game "engaging"? Ok, let's pretend it's not 60 but 20(literally just after the Tomb). Is it any better? Should I remind people that FF 13 almost killed the series because not so many people like it's corridors(which are beautiful) and because it takes like 10 hours before it gets engaging? I also heard that people think FF 15 is "empty" because it has nothing but beautiful open-world, hunter contracts, one button battle system and corridors in dungeons? Yeah, never happened before.
We’ll see maybe Jamsac has a low threshold for disliking. He might score FF7 a 6/10 for all we know. Generally I think most FF fans would score a bit higher.
I think it is just shows that you not interested in learning mechanics.
Because ff15 is very easy game from gameplay perspective. Persona 4 is also more friendly experience in compare with SMT
@@Yuri-fs3es I'm the only man who thinks that FF 8 has the best yet unpolished battle system in the genre. So, no, the problem is not that I don't want to learn mechanics, they're just bad. The game urges you to use Gambits, so you can play without pressing buttons except for movement. That's just awful. I've wasted 70 hours on FF 13 just a week ago and I can say that it wasn't AS bad thanks to constant need to change paradigms if you want to speed things up. I'm not saying that FF 13 is good, perhaps 13-2 or Lightning Returns are but definitely not the first one. It's just that it has less battles in the first half, better art direction(why would you even like deserts, blank mines and catacombs?) and the OST is much-much better objectively. The story might be worse, not gonna argue but I can't say FF12's first half is any better. I mean, even FF 1 at least had a time loop and a paradox like in Terminator, pretty origin for a fantasy game in 80s.
1:30 a lot of what made it into Ff12 was actually originally developed for 11 and then scrapped or changed.