Archadia and Rozaria, both extremely powerful empires, are currently engaged in combat. They are only concerned about winning at the expense of their rival. In order to accomplish this goal in a more expedient manner, Archadia invades the relatively little kingdom of Dalmasca. A short time after his marriage to the lovely princess Ashe, the young prince of Dalmasca is killed in combat. Just prior to the signing of a peace pact with Archadia, the king is found dead under unexplained circumstances. In the relatively minor nation, the repressive authority of the empire is firmly established.
The player assumes control of a young thief by the name of Vaan who was born and raised in Rabanastre, which is Dalmasca’s capital city. Vaan becomes embroiled in the political conflict as a result of a chain of circumstances, and he does so in the hope of exacting revenge for the murder of his brother at the hands of treachery.
Ivalice is a fantasy planet that was also the background for Final Fantasy Tactics, and it serves as the backdrop for Final Fantasy XII as well. There are a number of basic gameplay-related features in which this game is different from its predecessors. The gaming environment is made up of enormous areas that have opponents that can be seen strolling about in them. The game does not feature any screens that are dedicated solely to battles; instead, all of the action takes place in the same setting as exploration. During battle, the characters controlled by the player have complete freedom of movement. The actions are still selected by choosing commands from a pop-up menu, and each character still has a traditional ATB bar that determines when he or she may act; however, the overall combat system is similar to the “real-time with pause” system found in Western role-playing games such as Knights of the Old Republic. This system allows the player to pause the action and then resume it at a later time.
The player has the ability to provide specific commands to the members of the party, as well as assign them different fighting techniques (called “gambits” in the game). You can acquire new magic, talents, and equipment by shopping at various businesses or by searching for containers hidden across the environment. Before a player’s character may make use of any of these abilities, the player must first earn license points through gameplay and then use those points to purchase the appropriate license. These are analogous to skill points, and the player can manually assign them however they see fit on their character’s licensing board.
In addition to the foes and bosses that are discovered via following the plot, the player has the option to participate in “Hunts,” which are challenges that are either posted in bars or offered to the player by other characters during dialogues. These encounters are completely optional and require the player to track down a particularly formidable foe and either entice it into a trap or track it down on their own.
