Final Fantasy XII (PS2) features the best user interface I have experienced in a game to date. In fact, it is one of the best games to ever be released when considering the each of the aspects of game design covered this semester. Any Square Enix fan will appreciate that the development teams made significant advancements in interface design from Final Fantasy X to Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XI Online. Indeed, all Final Fantasy instalments have featured excellent user interface, with each new instalment only seeming to surpass the previous because the interface fronts a more complex game world each time.

We’ll start with NPC conversation. Speech is represented by large text sitting in the lower portion of the screen, much like closed captions. In fact, the captions appear even when the speech is voice-acted as part of a critical path-related conversation. Any important people, places or objects are highlighted in gold text, to stand out from the basic white text. Captions are shown on a transparent black background, so that environment elements do not interfere with the readability of text. Finally, when the player has read through a long passage of text, he (or she) can close the dialogue window, or scroll back through the conversation to go over parts he does not fully understand. This prevents the traditional RPG problem in which players who miss important parts of dialogue are forced to readdress the NPC and read through the entire passage of text for a second time.

The game world is not easy to navigate – but it is easy to find your way around.