[GAME] Final Fantasy 12 (2006)
This is one was a huge surprise to me - I thought I would like it based on the combat system, but I didn't expect it to be one of my favourite Final Fantasies by the end.
The first thing that immediately grabbed me was the writing. The story here is legitimately good - a political thriller about two warring nations using a small country as the arena for their war games. The localisation team here for some reason chose to alter the Japanese script and have the characters speak in this flowery, Shakespearean way, and it actually makes the game sound better in English than in Japanese (the remaster I was playing allows the player to toggle between languages). It gives the game a real identity and sense of style about its dialogue, and for a game like a JRPG where you are listening to characters talk a lot of the time this is a really important thing to get right.
In terms of characters, the cast are all really fun and likeable too, particularly Balthier, a Han Solo type that ended up being one of my favourite characters in the series. Some of the character designs of the rabbit people are a bit, uh, bizarre, and I'm still not convinced about making the protagonist just "some guy" without much agency in the plot, but overall this game is full of interesting people to interact with.
The combat system is definitely one of the more interesting aspects of this game. Instead of controlling the players directly, you set what are effectively macros on your characters. For example, "if ally's health is below 70%, cast Cure", or "attack party leader's attack target". This works unbelievably well, and not only short-circuits a lot of menu navigation busywork so common to this genre, but puts a focus on the actual important aspect of a JRPG - party composition and high-level strategy. I think the only other game I have played that tried this approach was Phantasy Star IV. It's a really interesting approach that I wish more JRPGs would try.
I have only a few criticisms - the story, due to its complexity, can sometimes threaten to lose the player by just barrelling on through the narrative by only briefly explaining who certain characters are or what the various factions represent. I'm no stranger to the fantasy genre, and I would rather take this approach over walls of expository text, but something like a glossary wouldn't go amiss in a game like this. The other major issue for me was the endgame, which started to throw some really annoying JRPG cliches at me, such as multi-stage boss fights and enemies that cast loads of negative status effects. Not a huge deal, given that by that point your party should be very equipped to deal with these, but annoying nonetheless.
It's remarkable how fresh Final Fantasy 12 feels today - I think it deserves a higher reputation in the context of the series, and it's certainly become of my favourites.