I managed to do a bit of digging, and I wanted to talk about the 'lineage' of Final Fantasy XII. This game has some very interesting roots, and it shows. Yes, there is the obvious Final Fantasy and Ivalice Alliance, but I want to talk about the other, deeper line that started it all: Ogre Battle: March of The Black Queen.
Long ago (by gaming standards) a small studio under the leadership of one Yasumi Matsuno created one of the most unique video games ever encountered. It combined turn-based RPG mechanics with classic real-time strategy machanics against a gritty, medieval fantasy backdrop with links to astrology and tarot fortune-reading all over the place. Ogre Battle also has the interesting twist of letting your actions and tactics influence the story and ultimately the final destiny of you and your faction.
The actual gameplay can be best summed up like this: You lead an army composed of individual squads (much like RPG adventuring parties) that go forth from you base to liberate cities and temples. While you direct where these squads go, and what characters they contain, combat is primarily automated, with a simple list of preset tactics. Micromanagers might be turned off a bit, but there are plenty of things to do for the aspiring fantasy general here.
Fantasy RPG elements are very abundant. You've got classes like knights and wizards alongside things like ninjas and samurai. Interestingly enough, there's also paladins and black knights/evil ones (blackguards), and liches, and you can have them all in your army and even in the same unit! The big 'flavor' classes are the doll mages (casters that use mini-golems and acid clouds in battle), classic-style angels and devils, and the unexpectedly epic princess class. I'm not kidding; princesses are hard to come by, but are both high-end casters and can double their unit's attacks per battle.
You've also got plenty of storyline events and encounters, most of which are tied to the other big mechanic of the game, the reputation system. The short version is that you have an ongoing karma meter that tracks your reputation. High reputation enables heroic events and nets you the characters and items you need for the best ending, while low reputation enables stuff like bandits paying you tribute, evil creatures offering evil stuff, and being spurned by everybody else. There are all sorts of factors that play into the reputation, some random, some not, but the overall best way to maintain a high reputation is to keep liberating towns and temples with high-alignment characters, using your lower-alignment dudes to handle garrison and field combat. It's a bit more intricate than that, but the gist is there.
One other interesting aspect is the tarot card system. Whenever you liberate a location, you have the option to draw a tarot. It's a bit of a gamble, with each card having an effect, from giving little bonuses to the liberating unit, changing the time of day, or raising/lowering you reputation, etc. But even the 'bad' draws can be useful, because tarots also act as the 'summon' spells of the game. They can be very handy, especially in tight spots against bosses. This is one of the more interesting ideas I've seen presented in an sRPG, and I'd like to see it or something similar in other games.
Overall, Ogre Battle is one of the most unique and fun games I've encountered, and if you have the chance to try it, do so, especially if you can hunt down the slightly more common Playstation version, which has better production values, an tweaked script, and much better names for all the items and equipment. It also has the distinction of laying the foundation for Matsuno and company to bigger and better things, eventually resulting in the wonderful Final Fantasy Tactics games, Vagrant Story, and of course Final Fantasy XII. Fight it out!
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