So I'm in the minority for the plight for Valkyrie Profile 2 respect over Final Fantasy 12's success. It's not that I thought FF12 was a bad game or that I didn't get any enjoyment from it, I just didn't think was the best I played this year. On the other hand, IGN named Valkyrie Profile 2 their "Best game that no one played" this year. I put about 40 hours into each so far, I just preferred VP. Below is something that I wrote in response to someone commenting on the FF12 Gambit system, which also delineates why I didn't enjoy 12 as much as I could have: "The gambit system basically allows you to set up a macro for your party so that you don't have to choose the same options from a pull down menu over and over and over.... My problem with 12 was that if I did turn the gambits off, the action was either too constant for me to make individual choices per character (if the gambits are off, the game doesn't prompt you to attack), or if I had the gambits on I felt they took the experience and control of my party out of my hands. Imagine a racing game with auto steer and auto break; would you want to play that? Or a first person shooter with auto jump and auto aim/fire -- doesn't sound like much fun to me. I still can't think of a solution in my mind that would allow the number of real-time encounters but wouldn't leave the player basically steering the party leader. I set my gambits to 1) Attack party leader's target, 2)attack nearest foe, and I always had one party member set up to heal first, then attack second. Once I set my gambits like this, I never really had to do much other than heal my party manually during boss fights (because they were so fast paced). Like I said I felt like I was just steering the game, not playing it. And just for the record, I think it was really cool of Square to try something new -- I'm not faulting that -- my hesitance rests with the execution." On the other hand I really liked the creatures you fought, the music and the way it brought out the flavor of the environments without beating you over the head with a melodramatic melody line that seems out of place, I liked the licence board and obviously the visuals were well done. And there was something intangibly addictive about it, I just couldn't shake the feeling I was steering the game, not playing it. On seperate note, I'm kind of surprised that more of the online sites didn't give Okami the game of the year: it was an original idea and so many publications -- on line or not -- gave it such high ratings. I'm dually surprised because so many of these same publications have complained at some point or another that the industry is "loosing its creativity and is too sequel driven." At the same time I am coming to realize that I have a tendency to gravitate toward games that are not really big sellers. Oh well....
ps. I apologize to anyone who had to endure my bad spelling before I spell checked this.