Final Fantasy XII (ファイナルファンタジーXII, Fainaru Fantajī Towerubu?) is a console role-playing game produced by Square Enix for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console. The game was released on March 16, 2006, in Japan and in North America on October 31, 2006. The European and Australian releases are scheduled for release in early 2007. On November 15, 2005, a playable demo of the game was shipped with the North American release of Dragon Quest VIII.

The story takes place in the world of Ivalice, where the kingdoms of Archadia and Rozarria are waging bitter war; caught in the middle is the kingdom of Dalmasca. When Archadia invades and occupies Dalmasca, the princess Ashe founds a resistance movement. During the struggle, she meets Vaan, a young adventurer who dreams of commanding an airship. They are quickly joined by a band of allies and together rally against the tyranny of the Archadian Empire.

On March 16, 2006, Final Fantasy XII became the sixth game ever to receive a perfect 40/40 score from the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, as well as the first Final Fantasy game and the first PlayStation 2 title to do so. The game has been critically acclaimed in several non-Japanese prerelease reviews such as Gamekult, GamesAreFun, Deeko, Eurogamer, PSM, OPM, IGN, and GameSpot.

To commemorate the release of FFXII, playable demos of the full English version were available at DigitalLife’s Gaming Pavilion in New York on October 11, 2006, a day dubbed "Final Fantasy XII Gamer’s Day". Also, Square Enix gave fans the chance to cosplay as their favorite character from Final Fantasy XII. Each person was asked to show Square Enix 3 photos of their costume, for a chance to win a trip to New York and participate in the Final Fantasy XII Gamer’s Day event.

In early October 2006, the North American version of the game was leaked out onto the Internet less than a month before the planned release date. Square-Enix has apparently taken legal action against the pirates as sites hosting the files and torrents are being removed.

Tofu Records has released an abridged version of the Final Fantasy XII soundtrack. The single disc release will contain 31 songs, including Angela Aki’s Kiss Me Goodbye. The 31 songs represent the 31 days of October, which led up to the North American release.

 

Like previous games of the Final Fantasy series, combat is menu-driven. However, it adopts a battle system similar to that of Final Fantasy XI where combat takes place on the same screen as regular exploration, with a seamless transition from exploration to combat mode.[7] Combat unfolds in real time, using a new battle system called active dimension battle (ADB). There is also not a different musical score during combat; the track that is played during exploration will be heard throughout the battle as well. The traditional fanfare featured in all Final Fantasy titles reappears after dungeon bosses along with a "Congratulations" text. The player may assume control of any of the three characters in the battle party at will and issue commands for the characters at any time. Battle commands include Attack, Magicks & Technicks, Mist, Gambits, and Item. The game also features a system of chain bonuses. If the party kills a particular type of monster multiple times, it will gain the chance to earn improved (or simply more) items after battle.

Chocobos are traditionally featured in all Final Fantasy Titles. In FFXII, whenever a player rents a Chocobo, he/she has a certain amount of time to make his/her travels through the wilderness. When the time is completely depleted, the Chocobo returns to its stall in the city and the player is left on foot. Chocobos now look more war-like and savage than in previous Final Fantasy Titles. While on a Chocobo, enemies ignore the player.

The game also features an extended Clan Primer, a summarization of the player’s progress so far, including detailed descriptions of enemies defeated, a catalogue of wanted monsters defeated, and other information. The section is reminiscent of the encyclopedias featured in Vagrant Story, as well as the bestiaries present in the Final Fantasy I-VI re-releases.

Battles are similar to those in Final Fantasy XI, except the game allows for single-player control of multiple party members. The battles are initiated in the field screen by engaging visible wandering enemies. There is no transition to a separate battle screen. Party members can move around freely during battle, allowing them to utilize the local terrain. The battle menu can be accessed at any time, but after commanding a character to perform an action, there is a wait time before the action is actually performed. Unlike Final Fantasy XI, there is a visible "Wait Time Gauge" which indicates wait time. Wait time varies depending on the action and character stats. A regular attack takes a few seconds, a powerful spell can take several seconds, and item use is instantaneous. The result is that it is fundamentally the same system as previous Final Fantasy installments (excluding XI). Battle flow is as follows:

    * Party engages enemy
    * Player both brings up the Command Window and selects an action (Attack, Magic, Summon etc.) or, if the player has set up a character’s gambits to cause them to react to the presence of an enemy, the character will select the appropriate action automatically with no need of command input
    * When the Wait Time Gauge fills up, the character performs the selected action
    * A chosen command can be cancelled by opening the Command Window and choosing another command before the Wait Time Gauge has filled up completely.

While the new system has greatly reduced the occurrence of "random battles," some random battles still occur in the form of surprise ambush attacks from unseen enemies suddenly springing from tall grass, water, sand, etc., or suddenly dropping down from above when the party is near. Enemies can now detect the party through several means, such as sight, sound, and smell. Some enemies are more hostile towards the party than others, and some can even attack other monsters rather than the party. Sometimes the player may even encounter citizens or monster hunters actively fighting, occasionally aiding the party with minor healing.

A maximum of three party members can fight simultaneously, and they are sometimes accompanied by a special guest character which temporarily joins the party. Guest characters cannot be designated as the party leader or controlled by the player in any way. When current party members get knocked out, the player is given the chance to reorganize the party in the Menu, substituting active K.O.’d members with other inactive characters. The player is free to switch between characters at any time, so long as the character is not targeted by an enemy attack or another character’s action (Their name will turn red if such is the case). The player can also limit their party to one or two characters if they wish. Guest characters cannot be substituted. Given the game mechanics, characters cannot be healed in the menu this time around.