Final Fantasy XII

Anyone excited about this? I am.

I played it for about 30-40 minutes at E3. They had a nice setup where you could sit down on a plushy chair and put headphones on. Unfortunately, the headphones couldn't possibly drown out the entire show floor noise, but it was a nice gesture.

The game feels a little bit like FFXI. The same camera style prevails. However, I really like the character design and artwork. Vaan might look like some of the past heros but there are subtle character differences. The battles are what I mostly played at E3, skipping past story stuff (didn't want to spoil it). The battles are completely different; now the field is the field and there is no seperate battle 'scene'. However, this isn't a bad thing, IMO. You approach enemies on the field, target them and attack, like a faster FFXI. All of your party members are on screen at all times. I enjoyed the strategy of targeting an enemy with sleep or slow and engaging after. There is a new type of spell, 'green magic' which deals with buffing your characters. One thing that I did after watching someone play for a bit, is turn the battles from Wait to Active. Normally, when you open up the command box on the field to attack or do whatever, the game freezes while you choose what action the character will perform. However, I wanted to inject a little excitement into the play. On 'active' mode the game continues while you're commanding them so there's a little more urgency and everything flows a lot faster. FX wise the game is still very pretty. The characters have a lot of personality. The knight-girl was actually very impressive to me, she's very different from other FF heroines.

More than anything, I really enjoyed the flow of the game. I was just running around fighting guys, but it felt fun. I liked how you could circle around them, distract them away from your distance characters, take pot shots with magic at them. I got into a 'flow' after playing for a while. One thing is for sure, it takes more effort than other FFs to make the game look good. If you are used to just hitting X a zillion times to kill enemies, this is a bit more engaging, and in my opinion, more fun than getting disoriented by being flung out of the field into a seperate combat screen. =) My opinion of course.

Oh, and when you level up, it plays the fanfare.

 

I actually believe that this will be a great game, and I did not like FFX- I thought Tidus was a pussy. All the Freudian father son shit was corny. I hated switching the characters. Also, the love story was lame. All in all there was just too much story and not enough game for my tastes.

I think since the Ogre Battle guy is in charge, FFXII will kick ass. I still look forward more to Dragon Warrior VIII.

 

Im looking foward to 12, but the series has in my opinion been declining since 7. I brought 10-2 a month or so ago, and got 20 hours into it after a week and havent touched it since. Its so below par for a final fantasy thats its just stupid. They added in a few new elements that were good, like the dresssphere and the chain combo system, but having to listen to Rikku sing every time you want to strengthen your characters is just godamn annoying. Im expecting more from 12, but if all they're going to do is throw a shit character into a new magic system then i might finally give up on the series. Still cant wait for advent children though.

 

I played X-2 quite a bit. I was starving for RPGs, really.

I think that X-2 was a nice experiement, and that the battle system was really nice. Also, some of the costumes and spell FX were well done. Other than that, the story was pretty lame.

After playing XII, even for a little bit, the work of people from games like Vagrant Story and FF Tactics shines through. More importantly, the story looks like it'll be mature and political, which is a nice change. =) After all, I still think Vagrant Story's story is one of the best.

 

so, has anyone been playing this game? I've been playing it since it came out, and I think it kicks ass. It might be my favorite FF ever. The only think denying it that spot is the story ATM, which there simply isn't enough of. Otherwise, this game is really great.

anyone else playing?

 

"The only think denying it that spot is the story ATM, which there simply isn't enough of."

I agree. Story seems to be the only weak point for my tastes but I think it's just cause I want more of it, due to it being so good haha.

I'm loving the game. Like you, it may be on its way to being my favorite FF yet. Problem is, it just makes me want a remake of Vagrant Story to be made after seeing it.

 

YES!! I want one too, but logistically it seems very unlikely. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif

Edit: Oh and for the record, I sunk about 90 hours into the Japanese version of this game and loved it. The story does wind down near the end, which is a real shame, but it really evolved the RPG. An amazing game.

 

Yeah /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif though we are getting a remake of FFT =Q With new job classes and episodes. Also Vs. battle via wifi. That's just ... too good haha.

 

Did anyone find the Undying laughably easy compared to the last 5% of the Clan hunt monsters?

While I did find XII as an admirable departure from the series, the lack of story and character development as well as some of the chosen level design (ie. The Road to Archades anyone?) to be a continual test of my patience.

To me, it felt that a huge amount of unnecessary grinding is forced upon the player in particular dungeons made the game's battle system repetitive and not as fun as it should be. And how fast does your new and expensively bought armor become obsolete?

My two cents.

 

Yeah, I agree about the story bosses vs. the Hunts. But, in a way, I think that's kind of the point? The Hunts are for people who want an extra challenge (Yiazmat?) beyond what the basic game offers. I think there are thousands of people who'll play through the story of this game, never touching any of the side quests, and will just beat the last boss and be done. All the extra bosses are for people who want more challenge I think, so they're much harder.

In a way, it's nice to think too that mobs like Omega, King Behemoth, Fafnir, Yiazmat, Gilgamesh etc are these ancient badasses who are TRULY powerful, while someone like Vayne is basically a punk ass.

You are right about most of the normal battles being boring once you've seen the mobs if you're not out of your depth level-wise. I never really thought Grinding was necessary though, like it is in say, FFXI. In fact, I've been using the Firefly accessory for a while just to keep from leveling up, because even the Hunts have become too easy if I just level naturally (currently capping my level @ 43, 105 hours in, in the Pharos story wise, Hunt wise I'm @ Gilgamesh for Elite marks & Fafnir for normal hunts). I stopped using Quickenings & Espers as well long ago, Quickenings practicaly take the challenge out of the game.

I have to say though, this is the first time I've ever wished they'd make a new disc that changed some things, but added new content for your old save file for a FF game. This is on top of the fact that you can probably finish this game w/ out seeing about 50% of the maps in the game, not to mention Hunts, Rare Game, Hidden Espers, etc.

 

I actually felt like there was no grinding, save a little early on for gil (although I'm doing all the hunts as soon as I can access them). Once you beat the second gilgamesh battle, you basically get a win button for anything that doesnt have a paling, so . . . a little on the easy side, actually.

Still the best FF since VII for sure.

 

I never felt like it was grinding in FFXII.

I got the FFVI port for the GBA and I'm enjoying it, but now random battles bug me

 

FFVI = best FF ever IMO.

 

Agreed. The SNES era FFs (IV, V, VI) are where it's at and XII is up there with them.

I love the fact that the Vagrant Story team worked on this one. They took a lot of chances and it came out beautiful.

Also gotta love all the Star Wars refrences through out the game! /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif

 

I beat the game on monday it was awesome hopefully XIII is just as good