They Made Grinding Fun

You know, I've had a copy of Final Fantasy XII for quite some time.  I forgot the details of the original provenance; suffice to say that at some point I wound up with one, then traded it to a friend for my old copy of VII back, then somehow got a second copy (both copies were the steelbox Collector's version even), and that second copy has been hiding among my gaming artifacts for years now.  I had this notion that somehow XII was too different for me to be much fun, or had some abstruse mechanics that would require some head-on-wall action to take place before I found the secret to enjoying the game properly (post-SNES Square games are bad about that).


I was an idiot.  Screw what the nostalgia-drunk fanboys have been braying; this game is frickin' awesome.  Most JRPGs just pay homage to the tradition of grinding and farming as a necessary evil.  Final Fantasy XII embraces grinding and made it enjoyable. 


Yes, there is something of a learning curve, especially if you jump straight in from an 'old school' FF  game, but nothing a bit of action RPG experience won't cover.  Once I got over the initial hurdles and got my feet wet, things started clicking along pretty well, and now the Harvest has been properly unleashed upon Ivalice.  The decision to update the combat to allow free-run and working area-of-effect mechanics, combined with a consistently challenging difficulty curve, adds a layer of strategy and tension to things, giving some much-needed emphasis on risk mitigation and resource management.  On top of all that, stepping away from FF's long tradition of constant cash drops in favor of the material hunting/bazaar system gives a sense of purpose to all the random monster-mashing going on. 


In most games, I tend to have a fairly impatient "plow through the story" mindset.  Here I am actually fiddling around, eschewing direct plot progression and fast-travel in favor of wandering around and collecting all the goodies I can, and it's paid off splendidly so far.  I can't claim I've over-leveled, but I feel that my plucky group of adventurers actually have the skillset, power, and experience to waltz in the next Evil Dungeon of Plot Progression and take on The Horrible Denizens That Guard The Important Relic without the distinct impression that I brought a rubber knife to a chainsaw duel.  It's a powerful feeling for a gamer.


Oh, and I really like how the 'mine' zones give a whole visual reference to Vagrant Story's Lea Monde.  That was a nice touch.