“It’s a Final Fantasy, so why do I feel like I’m forcing myself to play it?” I asked myself this question because I’ve been avoiding my PS2 like the plague lately. I claim that I’m really busy, but playing games is something I usually want to do for fun. In all fairness, I similarly avoided playing FFX during the first ten hours, but at least I knew I could get a great gaming experience out of it in less than 100 hours. I keep hearing horror stories about FFXII:

“My friend has been playing it for 200 hours and she’s still not done…her boyfriend goes to bed each night and she stays up, playing for hours…”

“I spent four hours wandering around Rabanastre, just trying to figure out where to go…”

These are not the kinds of comments that make me want to play a game. While I love the immersive environments of RPGs, I am simply having a hard time getting into FFXII. I really want to like this game. It has good graphics and an engaging new battle system…but is it really that engaging? I decided to take a look at my last play experience and see if it would provide any clues as to my lack of motivation.

I sat down on a quiet weekend night to play FFXII, prepared to play for several hours. I usually can play a game like this for about three or four hours without a break. Sometimes I’ll return to a game for another session. However, I mostly play for an hour or two at a time due to time restrictions. That night I had no time restrictions, but I only played for two hours. Why? It was simply too repetitive.

I began in a dungeon prison and had to go through a quick scripted fight sequence to get out. Then there was a ridiculously long cutscene involving politics, the military, and a bounty hunter. I can’t remember much more than that because there were a bunch of characters talking in different dialects and some were monsters, making it very difficult to understand some of the antiquated terms. If I had to sum it up in a few words, I would simply say that it was too long! Even if I’m playing a game for 70 hours, I don’t want all the details about politics. It’s just plain boring.

After the cutscene, the repetitive pattern was set into motion. It went something like this: run, fight, run, fight, watch a cutscene, repeat. I was running around in dungeons fighting monsters for at least an hour even though I had a guide to streamline my treasure hunting. I think the repetition becomes even duller because of the fighting system.

FFXII’s fighting system has been teased online since before it came out. The most common criticism is that the game “could play itself.” While I once thought that it required at least a semi-conscious player to program in the most advantageous automated commands, I was soon proved incorrect. I witnessed first-hand how the game can take care of itself. I got a cell phone call while I was stuck in a dungeon and my players were in the middle of a fight. As that monster was dying, one character ran ahead to the next monster and began attacking it. The rest of my party followed suit and soon that monster was defeated. They kept going, fighting all monsters in their path until the area was clear. From that point on, I was convinced I could get up and make a sandwich and my characters would still be there, hacking away at the next monster.

Even more shocking was the boss fight in this dungeon. It was a gigantic spider creature. I had been fighting more than my fair share of monsters in my quest for treasure and figured this would be an easy kill. Unfortunately, low MP recharge rates and a couple heavy-hitting attacks from the boss took out multiple party members. I soon got a “game over.” I sat there in disbelief for a couple of minutes – I had a strong party – and then gathered my wits and got back into the fight. I realized that a big factor in my downfall was the fact that one of my characters was set to automatically steal every turn from the boss. While this is very advantageous in short battles, boss fight strategy requires more characters as healers and attackers, not thieves. With this simple change, I beat the boss in no time.

I wish I felt more motivated to play FFXII. It seems like a well-crafted system and has so many beautiful details. However, I can’t get past the repetition and the way I left out of my own fights. These characters don’t need me. Perhaps that’s why I feel I don’t need FFXII.