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Video Game Review: Final Fantasy XII

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Square-Enix has one of the biggest game franchises in history with the Final Fantasy series. The latest game in that series, Final Fantasy XII, came out in the United States this past fall – I got my hands on the game in early January and just finished up a 100-hour trek through the game this afternoon.

No, I didn’t play the game for 100 straight hours! I played an hour or two per day for about a month and a half until I beat it today. I have to say though, for a game that has some pretty innovative and fun game-play – the ending was a little anti-climatic.

Generally, a Final Fantasy game gets REALLY annoying towards the end of the game because you beat the final enemy and then you have a super-duper secret enemy that you have to beat…only to be followed by a mega-massive, super-duper, kill-your-face enemy that actually has the balance of the universe in its hands. Thankfully, Final Fantasy XII doesn’t have that type of a garbage ending sequence! Actually, if you’ve built your characters up enough, you can breeze through the end of the game. This is a nice, good change for the series. My take on it is that if you get your characters to a maxed out level (usually 99), then why should you NOT be able to destroy any “bad guys” in the game?

But in terms of the actual story, I felt like the ending was not what it could have been. That being said, it looked great! The graphics were just amazing for a PS2 (makes me want to buy a PS3 when the next Final Fantasy comes out). If only the story matched the graphics, this game would be an instant legend.

However, if you’re looking for a good way to blow some free time and about $50, I recommend going out and purchasing a copy of this game. When you come to the end of the game, though, don’t be surprised if the game is over before you even know it!

Nintendo Wins Off Sony & Microsoft’s Confusion

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The big story with video games these days is how Wii is dominating the competition. Sure, the XBox 360 is selling well and has sold over 8 million units, but Wii was launched only a few weeks ago and has sold over 1.2 million units worldwide.

That’s a crazy amount of Wii’s in a short amount of time!

These numbers, compared to the paltry 360,000 PlayStation 3 consoles sold show a very interesting story. With all of the horsepower and all of the hoopla around the PS3 debut, the system just isn’t that appealing to the gaming masses. But wait, you say. What about all of these people dying over PS3s and what about the fact that they’re sold out? Well, the biggest use of PS3s right now is NOT in people’s home – it’s reselling them. EBay is packed with PS3 packages and the game is sold out in the stores for this reason – people are buying the consoles simply to turn around and sell them.

While this is also happening with Wii, there are many more stories about how much fun the Nintendo system is – which means that people are buying the system and playing it, not reselling it. In any event, the recent surge of Wii sales shows the huge confusion that Microsoft and Sony have about video gamers.

Yes, there are gamers out there who will buy the PS3 and the XBox 360 because of the high definition graphics and the ability to watch high definition DVDs. And yes, there are people who will buy XBox 360 because of their enormous game library and who will buy PS3 just because it’s a PS3. But when you listen to what the marketing guys from Microsoft and Sony are saying to try to sell these systems, they’re completely confused.

Recently, one Sony employee said that the PS3 is on track to become so much more than a gaming machine. Well, that’s the problem! We don’t want to buy a video game system to do our daily e-mailing on – we want a video game machine that is a lot of FUN to play! Hell, we’ll even take graphics that aren’t that great if the game is fun! Don’t believe that? Go to any old-school arcade and tell me that you don’t love playing The Simpsons video game from the mid 1990’s. Or sit down with any PS2, GameCube, or XBox and tell me that playing a good Mortal Kombat or Sonic the Hedgehog or Final Fantasy game isn’t sweet.

That’s what gamers want – FUN! You can keep your “home entertainment centers” – we already have a desktop or laptop PC!

XBox 360 Holds Steady as PS3 Falters

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Some information was sent to me by the folks over at Compete.com:

XBox 360 is holding its own in terms of popularity despite the recent launches and abundant press for the other two next-generation gaming systems, according to the Compete.com blog. XBox was not left behind as demand spiked for the newer systems, and both the 360 and the Wii have recently passed PS3.

Interesting information, huh? Click on the link above to check out Compete.com’s numbers analysis.

Wii Sells 1 Million Units

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Nintendo said from the beginning of their international Wii launch that they wanted to sell 1 million units in a matter of weeks. After debuting in Japan (and selling out on day one), they’ve done just that.

It really is amazing, isn’t it? Sony has their entire company promoting the PlayStation 3, and the XBox 360 is pushed by the biggest brand in software, Microsoft. Yet, the Japanese company that defied the odds in the early 1980’s and fought against the industry trends in the 1990’s and early 2000’s is now the growing power once again.

So where does this leave the console wars? Is high definition gaming really a huge draw for today’s gamer? But the pressing questions at the moment are really: can Microsoft figure out a way to bust the Wii’s momentum? More importantly, with only 360,000 or so units sold, is the Playstation 3 a bust?

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