Re: Gift

Final Fantasy XII

Square Enix

$49.99

Sixteen hours, 13 minutes, and 27 seconds later, and there's no sign this is going to end soon. The depressingly precise clock, arguably the worst development in the Final Fantasy franchise, ticking away perfectly good game time. But then again, what are a few days when war looms on the horizon of Ivalice?

And so enters a world of hit points, "magick," and other D&D-inspired accoutrements. By popular demand, Final Fantasy XII varies little in terms of gameplay from its predecessors: Come across an enemy, kill enemy, gain money and experience to make your characters stronger, kill bigger enemy. Crowd-pleasing FFXII's slight variations on this theme consist of a system of licenses that require that you pay a certain amount of dues before you can wield the mystical battle-axe you've been eyeing. This can be viewed as an impediment to the action or another way to obsess over the minutia of your party of characters.

Therein lies the difference between an RPG and an action game. Any RPG worth its salt rewards, if not insists on, some amount of repetitive character-building. Don't be fooled when an ally says, "We must hurry," for the exact opposite stands to be the best course of action. Why else would the game offer greater rewards for killing the same enemy over and over. The beauty of RPGs and FFXII in particular? Giving you variously sized senses of accomplishment every step of the way. Thank God, because there are a lot of steps.