Mark It!

Well, Final Fantasy XII is letting the fun keep rolling.  All sorts of elements are acting like curveballs, even when they're very much not curveballs.  I've already sunk so much time into messing around with the hunts and farming for shinies that I keep feeling underpowered from a skills/spells standpoint.  It's telling how much fun you can have in a Repeated Prolonged Grindfest and suddenly registering that the big story is hanging out in a corner and you still haven't unlocked the -ra series offensive spells yet.


It's also a refreshing surprise how much world-building and detail has gone into things.  The windy trails are actually windy trails, with little switchbacks and gullies and dead ends.  The items have wonderful little snippets of information; the equipment lists are about the only thing without any real details, which it kind of a letdown.  But all the 'loot' materials have nice little flavor texts, and combined with the bestiary can give you the chance to glean useful information and add to the immersion.


The bazaar system is still a pleasant surprise.  I've gotten used to direct, intricate, fiddly crafting systems, with indirect 'ordering' systems having a habit of being too damned obtuse to be fun (Tales of The Abyss is loads of fun, but the trade shop is horrible, as I've stated ad naseum), but this actually a lot of fun.  It's rare that I get a feeling of contributing to an actual economy; that all the pelts and magic rocks, and freaky monster parts are actually filtering down to the craftsmen, who make all sorts of useful things for the city's trade, meanwhile offering my team of adventures special deals as a sort of thank you.  The whole concept is very refreshing, and goes well with my material hunter mindset.


One more unexpectedly fun thing is the Mark system.  Bounty-oriented sidequests can be a tough balancing act, and things can be exacerbated by JRPGs' habit of making things infuriatingly obscure, but so far so good.  The idea is simple:  Find a job at the bounty board, kill the offending critter, get goodies.  There are little details that add to the immersion that I like, for example actually going out and meeting the client to seal the arrangements, and getting little snippets and clues about things.  Like the bazaar, it can help make one fell like an actual adventurer getting to do adventurer things while making a positive contribution to things.  Gripe all you want about Vaan being a glorified sidekick and not having much plot relevance; he's a perfect fit for all these little missions and errands that the hunts and bazaar revolve around.


Oh, and whoever made undead mooks vulnerable to Sap is freakin' awesome.  The Harvest Never Rests!