![[Final Fantasy XII and the Illusion of Free Will-20241223182854064.png]] I am trudging through **Final Fantasy XII**, trying to figure out what makes it so hard to engage with on a personal level. In the meantime, though, I've been thinking about peoples' issues with the Gambit system, which is decidedly *not* where I've been encountering problems. There's a lot of discussion amongst JRPG fans about how **FFXII** is a game you "play on auto-pilot." This is because the Gambit system, if you haven't heard of it before, is a programming-lite feature in which you create If/Then statements that your party members act on in decreasing priority. Some examples: - Set Fran to heal a party member with Cura when they're at 50% > health - Set Balthier to use Thundara on a monster that is weak to lightning damage - Set Vaan to steal from any enemy with full HP, then switch to attacking an enemy after they're at 100% > HP. The argument I see is that "the game plays itself." This is extremely interesting to me as an argument when it comes to JRPGs, and particularly ones like **Final Fantasy**. If you've been around the block, you'll know that most **FF** games aren't exactly what I'd describe as difficult. They very rarely require strategy, and often amount to pressing the Attack button over and over again until everything in front of you is dead, barring boss fights. There are exceptions of course - **V**, **X**, and **XIII** come to mind - but otherwise you're there for the characters, music, story and general polish that the series is known for. ![[Final Fantasy XII and the Illusion of Free Will-20241223182932031.png]] With that said, I find the criticism of the Gambit system so fascinating because it seems to hinge entirely on the pressing of a single button. This is what I mean by "the illusion of free will." What is the functional difference between me setting a Gambit to attack the nearest enemy, and me mashing X 1 million times to do the exact same thing? Am I truly "playing a game" because I'm tiring my thumb out? The best combat systems in JRPGs, in my opinion, are ones that force you to make interesting choices. A cool game with a terrible name that I've recently started, **8-Bit Adventures II**, has a good, easy example of this. One of the main characters, Charlie, can either do a regular attack for full damage, or split his attack across two enemies for half damage. This simple distinction allows for some strategic decision making. Do I have him burn down multiple enemies' HP at once and let another party member clean up, or do I focus his attack on the enemy that's currently giving me a hard time? The more of those sorts of decisions I make in a JRPG's battle system, the more engaged I'll be. ![[Final Fantasy XII and the Illusion of Free Will-20241223183049408.png]] **Final Fantasy XII** takes those ideas and simply brings them "up a layer," in a more cerebral sense. You're just doing the thinking before the encounter starts. It's a nice blend of both worlds. When I'm cleaving through trash mobs, I just use my Gambit present that lets my party auto-attack everything that gets in my way. When I'm in a harder dungeon or fighting a tough boss, I adjust the Gambits accordingly. Maybe it's *because* I'm a tinkerer at heart, but I really don't agree with the complaints about the Gambit system. I just think it lays the fundamentals of the JRPG bare, and asks you to get your hands dirty and manipulate the game so that you destroy everything in your path. There is a certain joy in solving a boss with a solid set of Gambits - it feels like you're not so much a protagonist as much as you are a tactician, leading this band of would-be revolutionists through the world of Ivalice with your wits. All that said - hate hate hate hate hate *hate* that you have to buy all the if/then parts to make Gambits even worth using. If you're playing the Zodiac Remaster, I honestly recommend just using the infinite Gil glitch and buying them all at the start - it's made my most recent playthrough significatly more entertaining than previous ones. Maybe I'll even finish the game this time! We'll see. But as I continue to untangle why **FFXII** is so hard for me to finish, I'll happily plug away at the Gambit system. It's a blast!