As anyone who has read a comic book or seen a movie based upon one will know, an extremely common theme is 'with overwhelming potential comes even larger expectations to use said potential for the betterment of the world.' In this case we have a videogame, Final Fantasy XII, with the potential to not only to revitalize the successful though stagnating RPG genre but to also alter our perceptions of the kind of experience we should expect our videogames to provide. 'Lofty goals' is an understatement; a more accurate term may be 'insurmountable hype'.

Much to my surprise, not only has Final Fantasy XII jaunted right past elevated expectations, it has actually surpassed them with a smirk that says, "…and to think that you doubted me!" In what will be the last holiday season where the PS2 will see heavy support, Square-Enix have put together a game so unbelievable that its impact will reverberate far past the PS2's retail life. Using a presentation that pushes the PS2 to the brink of what it can accomplish and a reinvented battle system that is mostly successful in combining the root series with its online spin-off, Final Fantasy XII gives a mature and tangible narrative about the effects of losing or taking one's sovereignty. This is the astronomically expensive, eight (ten if you're counting in yen) figure blockbuster done right.

Compared to recent entries into the main series, XII takes a couple of steps back in terms of the story. Instead of focusing on a young, effeminate male lead trying to discover himself and love in the process of a long trip to save the world, such as FFX's Tidus, FFXI's Zidane and FFVIII's Squall (he'd sure love the emo music that's a hit with all the kids as of late), we have a young, effeminate male lead named Vaan, trying to discover himself while... wait a minute! Okay, so there has been little change in the lead formula, but don't let that trifle of a detail cause you to write the story off - this Final Fantasy has grown up beyond teen drama.

The world in which Vaan inhabits, known as Ivalice, is currently embroiled in war, with the Archadia Empire - referred to throughout the game as the Empire - warring with the northeastern Rozarria Empire. Stuck between the warring countries are the neutral kingdoms of Dalmasca and Nabradia. But as Archadia made their way towards Rozarria, they did what any superpower would do - destroy and conquer to add men, money and leverage to their assets. They didn't bother to check in with the two countries before declaring war on them though (actually, they probably did and are just jerks), as the unprovoked, forceful capture of Nabradia's capital city happens on the wedding night of Prince Rasler of Nabradia and Princess Ashe of Dalmasca. Rasler teams up with the forces of Dalmasca in an attempt to stave off the Archadia invasion, but overwhelmed by the might of the Archadia Empire their forces suffer insurmountable casualties, including losing Rasler to a mortal arrow wound.

Realizing that further fighting would lead to unnecessary bloodshed, the King of Dalmasca throws up a white flag in surrender. On his way to sign a peace treaty in hope of holding onto some sort of sovereignty, the King falls prey to an assassination from one of his own men just prior to the signing. When news of the King's assassination reaches Princess Ashe, she takes her life, unable to deal with the loss of both her husband and her father, and the rulerless country is quickly occupied by the Empire.

Two years later, the actual game begins in Dalmasca's capital city of Rabanastre. Without a true leader, Dalmasca's empty throne has been selfishly abused by local Imperials, who with the military backing of the Empire have made life harder than necessary for Dalmasca's civilians. All of that is, supposedly, about to change, as the Empire is about to put the final piece of Dalmasca's integration into their empire into place - Lord Vayne, son of the Archadian Emperor and newly appointed Consul to Dalmasca. In his acceptance speech he says that while he expects to be hated, he plans on ruling with a fair and even hand, leading Dalmascaians back into a normal way of life.

Unable to forget the personal losses he suffered during the war, Vaan decides to get even by sneaking into the Palace during Vayne's dinner party and stealing something nice and expensive. Unbeknownst to him, this sets into motion the events that will push the story to its end. Without spoiling anything else, all I can say is that this story is as epic as they come, captivating and engaging players with its constant twists, excellent script and near perfect pacing. For movie watchers, think of a movie that combined the political turmoil and futuristic technology set in beautifully natural landscapes of Star Wars: Episode I with the 'same goal, different means' characters and sharp, passionate script of the Lord of the Rings movies. There is rarely a dull moment!

As exceptional as the story is, the amazing characters begin to actually overshadow it - in the best way possible. A phenomenal script and fabulous voice acting bring every character to life, establishing each person, no matter how insignificant, as an individual. In a full out war, there is always the good side and the bad side, but far too many games (and movies for that matter) fail to show not only the neutral parties but the different layers of good and bad. Throughout FFXII, characters make personal choices based on their experiences and how they feel their side should achieve their goals, sometimes regardless of the consequences. This leads to characters making polarized decisions, injecting their development with even more humanity and emotional tangibility. It's not very often you play a game where you need to keep tabs on every character because you never quite know what they'll do next - and I loved every tension-filled minute of it.

A brilliant script is not the only thing that brings this story to life, as the unbelievably high production values have allowed Square-Enix to create a presentation that is nearly unbelievable. By unbelievable, I mean that once you see it in action you'll begin to wonder if Sony made the next generation jump a year earlier than expected, as the PlaysSation 2 clearly did not reach its full graphical potential - at least until now. Every area is expansive and filled to the brim with details, so many that it'll require multiple visits to each area to take most of it in. For example, you have Dalmasca's huge capital city, Rabanastre, with its expansive skyline, varied districts each with their own look, crowds of NPCs hanging around every single area, slim alleyways at every corner containing shops and more people, plus a tightly packed underground slum. Every inch of this city feels alive, through the use of shadow, lighting and some of the sharpest in-game textures the PlayStation 2 has ever produced. There is some draw-in for everything that's not the ground, wall or ceiling, but this is a minor complaint. Awe only grows once you leave the confines of the city for the lush landscapes of Ivalice, to tromp through the desert rain, search a torchlit tomb and blaze around plains on a chocobo.

And if it were possible, the characters themselves look ever better than the world they inhabit; the amount of detail on each character, even the NPCs, is ridiculous. Each face has its own structure, hair has different cowlicks and hair clumps that move with each step and clothing is unique and layered. This is just playing the game, running around and battling; step into a cut scene using the same graphics engine and see how much further your jaw can drop. As was established in Final Fantasy X, fully voiced cut scenes are liberally used to tell the main story. Each one of these uses a slightly upgraded version of the in-game graphics engine (or at least it seems like it), professional directing and editing along with the previously mentioned stellar voice acting to bring the story alive. Every single one of these is an absolute treat to sit through, and at times had me forgetting I was playing a game and not watching a movie. When an actual CGI video came on though, then I really did forget I was playing a game - though not as impressive as what we saw in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the videos here are only a small step down. If you haven't seen Advent Children yet then consider the difference between amazing and super amazing - it's pretty marginal. And unlike previous installments, FFXII makes regular use of the videos instead of just one every once in a while. This one-two story-telling combination hands out KOs to not only every RPG on the PS2, but even overpowers the 'next generation' Xbox 360 RPG, Enchanted Arms.

The sound effects are excellent as always, as the clanking of swords, smashing of barrels, quirky sounds for magic spells and twang of arrows are reproduced with no problem, which comes as no surprise. The real stand out aspect here is Hitoshi Sakimoto's musical score, which has been compiled onto four CDs with over a hundred tracks (some not used in the game) on a separate soundtrack release in Japan, is much like the story itself - epic. Though, thankfully not epically over-the-top as we hear in Square-Enix's last really ridiculous big game, Dragon Quest VIII. Fans of the scores to the Final Fantasy Tactics games will instantly recognize Sakimoto's style, especially in the fanfare songs. Each song perfectly fits the mood and landscape it appears against, showing careful song placement and consideration. My only complaints with the score come with two reoccurring songs from the Final Fantasy series - Victory Fanfare and the theme song for those loveable birds, Chocobo. These songs have been rewritten, remixed and revitalized so many times that they were bound to slip up sooner or later - and they finally have; both are slower, less enthusiastic takes on the classics and both fail to impress. Sad, but far from detrimental.

Now it's time to jump into the battle system, the most talked about portion of the game and a subject of mudslinging and angry scowls from fans across the world. The battle system is basically a combination of the root series and Final Fantasy XI Online, with some new features added into the mix in the form of Gambits and License Boards. Square-Enix then poured the mix into a FFXII cake pan, baked it to a golden color and a satisfying taste before complicating its natural flavors with far too much frosting, sprinkles, hard candies, fudge, cookie crumbles, gummi bears, leftover pizza, egg rolls, a cheeseburger and a few more items I can't quite recognize. Sounds delicious, does it not? Now you can make your own - just follow these simple directions!

First, you'll need some preparation tools. Let's start with your party. You will need to pick out three members to be your active party (very few times do you not have at least three), one of which is the leader a.k.a. the character you directly control. Some of you may have access to a fourth non-controllable guest party member, who are a wonderful addition to any party as you can never have too much monster butt-kicking. Unfortunately, you have no control of when these characters come and go, nor can you use one of your permanent members in their place. And while you can swap out active party members with those on the bench at any given time, even if they are unconscious, the same cannot be said for guests - you have to work with what you have when it comes to them.

Now, take your party and put in them into an area that is populated with monsters. Watch as all active members of your party are on the screen at the same time! This is natural, as this Final Fantasy recipe has done away with random battles, replacing them with real-time assaults. Instead of running around until a monster flashes you with some random screen swirl move before showing up, every single monster can be seen in their natural habitat. Not only that, but you can fight them where they stand! This alone injects a much needed natural taste back into the Final Fantasy mix and you never need fear running into a random monster waiting to pounce upon you through an unheralded screen transition.

Now that you have your party and your monsters together, the next step is combat. First, start with the basic menu-based battle system that has become a staple for Final Fantasy games; you can bring this up with a button press. From here, pick between melee attacks, magic and skills, summons and items with ease! This is important, as you need to use the actions in this menu for step two - the monsters. Bring one of these monsters into close proximity to your party members, then bring up the menu and pick out an action; I recommend an old fashion melee attack or if you have the resources, a magic spell will also do the trick.

Once you have selected your action (or any other action if you are a rebel who makes own their own rules, directions and cake recipes), a line shoots out from your character to the target in question, which the selected action follows to its target. Monsters use the same system, so to keep confusion down, ally lines are blue and monster lines are red. All of this happens in real time, much like Final Fantasy XI Online, using the age-old Active Battle System. Another feature of this battle system is that once you choose 'attack', your character keeps attacking when their turn comes up without you telling them to do so, until their target is dead. This new system does a wonderful job of cutting down on time wasted watching screens blur, break or swirl and upping the immersion rate for the player. Nothing ruins that real world feel; there are no empty landscapes or cleverly masked loading screens.

With your party, monsters and battle system together, pour them into a bowl. With a fork, whip the three up real nice; there shouldn't be any lumps or clumps - everything should be silky smooth. You'll notice, as your party members tangle with and batter the many monsters, that they routinely drop item bags and rarely gil, as was the norm in previous recipes. That is because, this time around, your party earns cash by selling useless items found on the corpses of defeated enemies, such as hides, teeth, feathers and so forth. Do not worry about running low on saleable items, as they drop frequently, leaving little reason to spend unnecessary time hunting. As you sell these items back to vendors, they send them into the great void, where magic space vendors can access them. When a certain amount of each item is sold to the great void, the aforementioned space vendors put their item-crafting skills to work and create unique items for purchase, which are delivered to the nearest regular vendor for purchase under the 'bazaar' option, found just under 'sell'. While my made up explanation of how the bazaar items get there is pretty unreal, the idea of essentially poaching fallen monsters for item to sell again adds another realistic and welcome aspect to the gameplay.

With your cake batter whipped into submission, let it sit for a few minutes while we talk about what to use all your new found gil on. As you might image, you can use it to purchase equipment, weapons and items. Along with those standards, you now purchase all of your magic spells, skills and gambits, which upon purchase can then be used freely among all members of your party. But they can't automatically be used once purchased - each character must acquire the proper license from their License Board first, which is essentially a new take on the Sphere Grid found in Final Fantasy X. Instead of a plotting out a course that grants stat boosts, spells and skills as you cash in sphere points in a logical route for each character, the License Board is a giant chess board whose squares are in the same order for each character, giving everyone access to everything. This no longer exclusively includes spells, skills and stat boosts (of which there are very few) but now also grants the ability to equip all equipment. To obtain the license from each square you spend a set amount of license points, which are earned much like experience from defeated monsters.

I am not one to spit in the face of innovation, as well as in the hands of customization, but the License Board fails at both. After using the wonderfully paced, tailored to each character though still allowing for customization Sphere Grid system, this feels like a huge step backwards. Characters no longer feel like individuals while fighting, because with everyone's board sharing the same layout of squares, for a decent chunk of the game, most of your characters (if not all of them) have the same magic and skill squares unlocked. The only difference between characters might end up being only in weapons and armor. This is not completely the fault of the board layout though, as having each square's contents unknown until an unlocked one touches it is a fault as well. It is very hard to not waste your LP on squares worthless to certain characters while trying to find the square the unlock a useful one. The Sphere Grid had stat boosting nodes to act as filler between the important ones, another feature the License Board is lacking in. Sure, the License Board isn't broken and is fully usable with little frustration, it just ends up creating the same character, over and over, for most of the game.

So the License Board didn't quite pan out; how about those Gambits though? As mentioned above, all of your active party members are on-screen at the same time in areas where monsters are abound. Sure, you can still input commands via the menu for each character, but using the new Gambit system you can rid yourself of some of the monotony of fighting if you want to. Even if you have gambits activated, you can still input commands the standard way at any time and that action will override any activate gambit. By using the Gambit system to create macros for your characters, once a certain parameter is met, such as a monster coming into attack range, an ally's HP dropping below 30% or many other preset conditions, the macro automatically activates and executes the action connected to the parameter. Here's some of the ways you could use the above example parameters in a gambit - attach the 'attack' action to the 'enemy in attack range' parameter to have any of your party members begin attacking on sight. or attach a cure spell to the 'HP below 30%' parameter to have a healer cast spell.

This is very simple in theory, but that's where my main complaint stems from - the 'in theory' part. The Gambit system takes the control of fighting out of the gamer's hands, negating interactivity, although that was never a problem with me - having enjoyed World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XI Online I have become accustomed to a less than hands on battle system. The problem here is that what most likely started out as simplistic system quickly becomes blown out of proportion into a complicated mess. On paper we have just about every action and parameter you can think of, ready and available to be used in a Gambit, as well as multiple Gambit spots to be filled in for each character. Actions are added to the available list once they are unlocked, but the majority of the parameters have to be found or purchased. Yes, they are cheap and easily purchased, but unless you drop a small fortune to buy every single one of them every time one becomes available, you risk not having a parameter when you need one. Just thought up an awesome Gambit you'd like to make? Maybe you don't have the necessary parameter - strike one. Maybe you don't even know if the parameter you want exists - strike two. Before you find out the answer to either question, you forgot or no longer care about your made up Gambit - strike three.

Another problem with the Gambit system is that they are executed so methodically that it sucks all the humanity out of your fighters. With these activated, your party becomes nothing more than robots going through their programmed motions. This isn't helped by the lack of a 'do this command once' option. As it stands, the Gambit system is nothing more than an overcomplicated way of marrying MMORPGs with offline single player RPGs. Sure, it has its uses, but for the most part it ends being unnecessary garnish that overpowers what should have been a simple cake.

Oh, our cake! I almost forgot! Pull out your greased Final Fantasy XII pan and pour the batter in. Preheat your oven on to 450 degrees and pop that pan in once the oven is nice and hot. You might not find waiting for a cake to bake much fun, but you will enjoy waiting for this game to run its course. There is only one Final Fantasy game that has more staying power than Final Fantasy XII and that's Final Fantasy XI Online, which has had three expansion packs. Outside of the lengthy main story and character building, you will find a wealth of side quests to waste your time on. These include the wonderfully fun monster hunting quests where you're given marks to hunt by locals who post jobs at the pubs; upon completion of these you receive items and gil. What makes these special is that not only are the marks one-of-a-kind monsters, but they also will not appear in the world until the job is taken. The only thing that could have pushed the lasting appeal over the edge would have been some sort of party vs. party multiplayer, online or offline. With the relatively large level of party customization, being able to test your character building skills against other players would have been a fun distraction. But that's not what this game is about, so I can understand it not being here.

With the countless number of above average games coming out this holiday season, all vying for your cash or a spot on your holiday gift list, it could be hard to narrow down your choices. Final Fantasy XII made those choices a little easier, as there are few, if any, games that will fill you with this much enjoyment, especially for RPG fans. With a story worthy of a novel or Hollywood movie (where were these writers when Spirits Within was being written?), absolutely jaw-dropping presentation and a decent new take on a classic battle system, there is little doubt that this is 2006's top RPG... and cake recipe. So tuck in and enjoy, safe in the knowledge that this is one tasty treat that won't cause you to pile on the pounds!

Reviewed by Tony Peters for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).