Pleasurable distractions, and gambits

I haven't blogged for several weeks now.
.
.
It's not that I don't have anything to write about.
It's been a very busy period. There are lots of things that I have intended to write about, but have now faded from memory.
It's just that, whenever I've had any free time, whenever Rumi isn't around, I play Final Fantasy XII.
This is the first Final Fantasy game that I've played in six years - since FFVI. The series has doubled now, so I guessed it was time for a revisit.

The reason that I haven't played any FF games in so long is quite understandable. Firstly, the games are utterly long. When you start playing, you know that you will end up parting ways with some 60+ hours of your life. That's a lot of time for an adult. Luckily, I certainly have time these days. I've put on an excellent display of restraint in the past to avoid these games, but now was a good time to cave in - media reportings suggested that this was the best FF since VII, which, having never owned the original Playstation, I kind of missed out on. Game of the year in EDGE too.



What makes this game so compelling? Sure, level grinding is kind of fun, but it's much less of a chore than in other RPG's. One part of this is the beautiful visuals and emotive music - I could spend hours in the Ozmore plains - but FFXII also has several areas of true innovation, which is refreshing to see from a franchise which is in it's twelfth installment.
The most noticeable is in the new combat system - gone are the frustrating random battles, replaced by a more fluid natural live system, which is also much better to look at.
But the innovation that has truly impressed me are the 'licensing' and 'gambit' systems. The developers have basically taken some standard RPG aspects... and then they make you pay for them! Yes, you actually have to use your in-game money to buy AI commands for your team members! Whilst it may sound like a cynical move, it is actually a move of genius that empowers the gamer - instead of just waiting for your character to level up until you can use a new weapon, you are now in control. You choose the direction of your characters development. And as for AI, in previous RPG's, there were always three styles - you could either painstakingly enter every individual command for each command like in existing FF games, memorize a large range of keyboard shortcuts like in Neverwinter Nights, or you could allow the CPU to control them for you like in Secret of Mana. In FFXII, by making you pay for the 'gambits' (basically AI commands), you are getting a gradual trickle, which stops you from getting flooded. The level of control and involvement is phenomenal.
Switching to the new live-action style, I imagine that the developers were faced with a difficult design decision. How do you keep the action flowing without either overloading the player, or grinding the game to a crawl with constant menu interaction? The answer, of course, is AI. The developers made a brave decision - to give the common gamer the ability to make low-level programming decisions (eg, IF hit_points<30% THEN cast cure). Making the players invest in the gambits, by making them slowly available throughout the game, and presenting them in a way that is both fun and easy to understand... this, I believe is game design innovation at its best. Finding an entertaining solution to a boring/complicated problem. The beauty of FFXII is that you may not be realising it, but you are actually just programming a database. It's Microsoft Access with glorious, shining bells. Hopefully they can tinker it a little for the next FF - personally, I think that the Gambits are too cheap, and the ones that you really need aren't available soon enough (MP<7p, please, I'm sick of casting charge after every battle!). They should make these available but make them real expensive - make players realise that this will be as valuable as, say, the next sword.
My main criticism of the game is that, except for Balthier, the characters are... boring as hell. And practically indistinguishable from each other. I'm pretty tired of playing brave boys in action games. Give me a real man!!

Anyway, I've wasted enough time typing. I have another 30 hours or so of FFXII to go.
Purest joy.