QuickNavigation - FF Odyssey Final Fantasy XII Battle System (Last updated on 11/14/2007)

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Battle System

Overview

     FFXII presents many significant changes to the battle system that many gamers have familiarized themselves with the older FF titles.  Random battles are completely eliminated and like FFXI, enemies now freely roam in open fields for you to engage battle in.  There are no transitions to a separate battle screen and players can engage in battles as smoothly and as freely as those found in FFXI.  Monsters range from being passive to aggressive on the field.  Meaning, some would attack you automatically and others will mind their own business until you start attacking them.  Group mobs are commonplace and are prevalent throughout the game.  There are three playable characters that can fight at any one given time, with the exception of an extra guest character that can possibly bring the maximum up to four party members.  Players earn EXP and license points for defeating each enemy.  There is a wait-time gauge that represents the time taken before a character can perform a selected action.  Some can be almost instant, such as using items while powerful attacks and magic spells can easily take much longer.  Still, players can micro-manage their party and issue commands from a menu like the previous games in the series.  However, FFXII introduces a very interesting concept of artificial intelligence that will be explained in our next section on Gambits.  On a final note, characters can not be healed within menus this time around, they can only be healed in the open field or by touching save crystals.  Players no longer get money from monsters, rather they have to obtain loot by defeating monsters and selling them at shops to obtain gil.

Gambits

     The game introduces a form of artificial intelligence for your party members.  Players can purchase or find gambits, which are preset scenarios/actions which can automate some of the more common menu actions from past Final Fantasy games.  For example, it is possible to set up a gambit in which a character will automatically heal any ally whose HP falls below 60% of their max HP or perhaps use a remedy to cure status problems whenever a character is hit with status inflicted attacks.  The most simplest form is setting a gambit for players to automatically attack any enemy within sight.  This can save from a lot of tedious menu-based commands and have to keep pressing X to attack, for instance.  Players can also set the priority level of their gambits that they have set.  Traditionalists can still ignore the gambit system and play the game using the old menu-based method.  The choice is there.  But you should at least give the gambit system a try first.

License Points

     The license grid is similar to FFX's sphere grid in the sense that you can choose the path of each individual character and build them accordingly through upgrading magic, weapons and other battle stats.  However, there is more freedom in FFXII's license grid and players have the option of choosing the type of armor/weapons and magic/accessories that their characters are able to buy and equip.  Before being able to use a certain magic spell or perhaps piece of equipment, you need to spend your license points on the appropriate license to be able to even use the equipment, let alone buy it for that particular character.  Examples include mage armor, heavy armor, light armor and a wide range of different swords, daggers, guns and the like.  There are also other important upgrades found on the license board that increase your characters' attack power, HP and speed for starters.  This should provide a decent amount of customization with enough freedom to satisfy many gamers.  What was frustrating in the sphere grid was that many characters' paths were severely restricted at certain points of the grid itself.  The license grid is organized in a way where weapons/equipment are in the same general area, and magic is located in their own separate section as well.

Espers/Summons

     Summons are back in FFXII and are called Espers this time around, much like Final Fantasy VI.  To obtain Espers, characters must defeat them in battle to unlock them on the license grid.  Only one character can obtain a particular Esper and they can be purchased on the license grid.  Traditional FF Espers are now replaced by ones that were found in the FF Tactics games.  The system works similar to FFX in which players can summon an Esper and that Esper becomes an active participant in battle.  There is a set time limit for each Esper and once the time limit expires, they can perform a powerful attack before leaving the party.  Once summoning an Esper, the summoner still remains active in the party and can also heal their summon if they wish.  The Espers are computer controlled and cannot be controlled by the player.  There are a few summons that are named and originated after some past FF villains from the series.  However, the traditional FF summons such as Ifrit, Shiva, Bahamut and Leviathan now appear in the form of airships.

Quickenings

     Quickenings replace the ever popular limit breaks found in FF games since Final Fantasy VII.  In FFXII, they are indeed very flashy and over-the-top attacks that look extremely impressive.  However, I do not particularly like the quickening system and the animations get very stale and generic after awhile.  It is too bad that none of the quickening attacks are particularly unique to each individual character and they appear to be generic in my opinion.  Other than being powerful attacks, Quickenings also have an effect on your character's max MP count.  Each character is allowed to have a maximum of three Quickenings and the more Quickenings your character obtains, the more MP they are allowed to have.  The Quickenings rely on quick button presses, which results in a multiple-hit chain.  At the bottom of the screen, you will see buttons to correspond to a specific mist knack move which you are supposed to press to initiate the attack or action.  Occasionally, your character is able to refill their mist charge and continue the Quickening chain.  There is a set timer and once it expires then the chain ends.  Sometimes the buttons won't appear and you will have to press R2 to shuffle the commands.  Depending on your chain combo, there is an additional powerful attack sequence that follows-up the Quickening.  There are several in total, ranging from being quite weak to fairly powerful.  The one thing about the Quickenings is that your MP will be reduced to 0 if you use up your entire Quickening chain, so they should only be used as a very last resort.