With the wait for Square-Enix's Final Fantasy XII being so very, very long you'd be forgiven for having transferred your attentions to the myriad of other RPGs that have come out on the market. Every now and again we'd hear a little bit more about FFXII to spike our anticipation but with the game releasing in Japan over six months ago to critical acclaim, it felt like we wouldn't ever have the chance to play it for ourselves. However, all is not in vain, as the time has finally come. We've heard that it's awesome, the greatest, the best Final Fantasy yet, perhaps even the PS2's defining title, but is it really? With some amazing RPG titles out there, such as Oblivion and Dragon Quest, can Final Fantasy win back its throne?

Final Fantasy just wouldn't be the same without a cracking story and this one begins with an invasion. An evil and violent empire, the Archadians, have invaded the neutral country of Dalmasca. The King of Dalmasca, keen to reach a peaceful end for his people, has signed a treaty granting the Archadians occupational rights in return for the cessation of the war. On the eve of the signing of the treaty, the Kind of Dalmasca is assassinated and his daughter, the princess, commits suicide when she hears of her father's death. The game picks up the story two years later and Archadia still controls the lands of Damasca, much to everyone's disgust. Particularly unhappy is Vaan, a young store worker who sneaks out into the city streets to steal at night. His brother, a soldier who died during the King's murder two years before, has compelled Vaan to try and win back Dalmasca from the evil Archadians a little at a time.

You join Vaan when it looks like he's possibly taken on more than he can handle. He decides to break into the royal palace on the day a welcoming banquet is taking place for the city's newly elected Consul. By a stroke of coincidence, the Dalmascan resistance have had the very same idea, as has a Sky Pirate called Balthier and his comrade Fran. Naturally everything kicks off and Vaan makes some new friends with whom to embark upon his quest. I really don't want to give away any more at this stage, as the story in this game is so exceptional that I would ruin it for you all. Suffice to say, it's a fantastic beginning to the game and Final Fantasy XII is absolutely filled to the brim with spectacular plot twists and surprises, more so than any other game in recent memory.

You start the game on your lonesome as Vaan but the cast soon expands to include lots of interesting and varied characters. As you wander around the world it genuinely feels like a living, breathing place. Cities are vast and densely populated, countryside environments are sprawling and packed with things that want to tear you limb from limb. The NPCs, including enemies, wander around and do their own thing but you can interact with them all. Plus it's even easier than ever, as the game provides you with a brief but comprehensive tutorial on your controls, so it takes very little time to feel completely at ease and, before you know it, you're hooked into an awesome and hugely enjoyable journey.

As you progress on your epic adventure, like every Final Fantasy before this one, there are literally heaps of monsters and enemies between you and your final goal. Defeating these enemies is always a pleasure in any good RPG, but this game takes it even further by introducing a 'gambit' system. The gambit system allows you to set up preconfigured reactions for each of your party members to be used in battles. So for example, whenever a party member's health drops below 30%, you can set Vaan to always heal them instantly. Or you can set everyone to follow Vaan's lead, so whoever he attacks, they follow suit. This new system will likely receive a mixed reception, depending on players' preferences. Whilst the gambit system makes the combat run much smoother, eliminating a lot of the hard work and repetitive button bashing, it does also remove a little bit of the fun. It makes it feel more like an action game instead of an RPG and makes the player's reference point in a battle slightly less grounded, as your party can survive pretty much without you. You can actually play the whole game without using gambits, but this will likely add another twenty+ hours to your playing time, so it's advisable to use them to at least a minimum extent.

It's very easy to acquire a good command of the combat basics, which sets you up perfectly for taking on the more advanced stuff later on. You'll need to refine your gambit system if you're going to successfully take on some of the foes that appear later in the game. The breadth and variety of enemies here is truly spectacular and you'll need to have all your wits about you if you're to get past some of the bigger ones. A mastery of the combat system will determine whether you will progress, but the difficulty curve is nicely balanced, so you shouldn't find yourself too overwhelmed at any stage. By the time you reach the really big enemies, you should have perfected your gambits to create an ultimate, automated fighting force that could take on the world and his mates.

As you progress and take down successive foes, you can beef up your characters by increasing in level and boosting their stats, as well as unlocking new armour, weapons, spells and battle techniques. You can explore and define the abilities of each character as you see fit, refining your characters' skills in your own unique way. You do this by way of using Licences (aka skills) which you accrue for each NPC kill. Each character has access to exactly the same Licences, so it's up to you to choose what you'd like to buy for each character. This means that if you have a chap who specialises in kicking ass with axes, he can also be a specialist in healing, or your female mage can sideline her magic and get handy with a double-edged blade. This system even allows you to change the basic class of your character, so you can take a mage and instead train them up to be a warrior. If you really get a kick out of customising your character, FFXIII offers a vast array of possibilities, again more so than in any other RPG to date, in my humble opinion.

The storyline in Final Fantasy XII is extremely well constructed, with a plot that would be the envy of many a Hollywood movie, bolstered by a phenomenal musical score and some excellent in-game sounds and voice acting. The storyline is also very sweetly balanced, as you can veer off the main quest and do your own thing, still supported by just as much story as the main crux of the game. You can navigate around the game world to your heart's content, zipping about via a network of giant birds called Chocobos (a staple of previous Final Fantasy games), warp stones and airships, so you're very mobile and it removes the pain you often find in RPGs when you find out you have to travel back across the game map. The game also looks fantastic, particularly the cut scenes, which look almost like real life. I did say in my Okami review that I'd never seen such impressive visuals, but Final Fantasy XII just edges out Okami and stands as a portent of the graphical quality that the PS2 has still to offer. The environments are beautifully rendered and the draw rate, when you're outside the cities in the countryside, is very impressive. It's obvious that a lot of love has been lavished on the visuals and you'll feel almost obliged to stop as you explore, just to take in the sumptious vistas.

Final Fantasy XII is an exceptional title in every way. It has all the elements you need for a potential classic; massive production values, jaw-dropping visuals and sound, intricate and engaging storyline, fast-paced and immersive gameplay. That said, this game is still very much Final Fantasy, so if you're not a fan of the series then you likely won't get what everyone's raving about. For fans of the series and RPGs as a whole, I cannot recommend this game enough. With dozens of hours of gameplay on offer, it's well worth the asking price and is indeed one of the finest games ever made. For me, it's a perfect 10 out of 10 - need I say more?

Reviewed by Ross Alexander for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).