9. Final Fantasy XII – PS2

The Final Fantasy series is known for a lot of things – a rabid fanbase, a consistent level of quality, memorable worlds, beautiful graphics – but a word not often associated with the series is “innovation.” Final Fantasy XII is the first game in the series in a long time that does anything to challenge that notion. By distilling the long-running series’ essence into its best elements, and dramatically improving and streamlining some of the more tedious elements of the genre, Final Fantasy XII came out at the tail end of the PS2’s lifetime and breathed new life into a tired genre.

I’m going to cut right to the chase – FFXII has the best combat of any role playing game I have ever played. The designers of the game finally realized that, even in the best RPGs, the vast majority of battles are redundant and easily won, usually just by repeated tapping of the “X” button. The new Gambit system, which allows players to program each characters behavior using a simple interface, means that most combat progresses automatically and extremely rapidly. It’s not the first time such a system has appeared, but it’s the first time where the system actually worked, without characters constantly running out of mana or making extremely illogical choices. For more complex battles, a simple push of a button pauses gameplay and allows players to issue specific commands when more sophisticated strategies (aka boss battles) are required. Combat is fast, it’s clean, and for maybe the first time ever, it’s actually a lot of fun.

Ability development is handled through a new system, the License system. Players spend AP gained in battle on abilities, and each ability purchased unlocks the option to purchase different, more powerful abilities. It’s a simple system that provides a very high level of customization. For example, it’s easy to give your heavy hitters a few healing spells, in the event your healer falls in battle. There are a huge number of them, making it near impossible for a character to cover even half the board by game’s end. The licenses are inexpensive though, meaning characters will aquire new ones rapidly, which provides a great sense of progression and achievement while playing.

Aside from these wonderful improvements to the battle and level progression systems, this is very much a Final Fantasy game at heart. You play an unlikely band of heroes who have to save the world, the game looks wonderful, the voice acting and script are top notch, and there’s a slew of side missions to complete both during and after completion of the game. When I purchased this game as a fan of the series, I expected more of the same. What I got was more of the same, but made using far better ingredients. If you’ve found Final Fantasy games to be tiring and tedious before but always wanted to tackle one, this just may be what you’ve been looking for.