Well, the official demo is out. I played it at Game Stop. The demo was rather short, and just give a brief idea into the combat style and so forth.
And I thought it was pretty good. It's not nearly as charming as FFVI, but it's a HUGE step up from FFX, I think.
The deom isn't that lengthy. It consists of a bit of walking around, and a few fights, then one boss fight, that I found rather easy (as demos often are). They say that there won't be a world map like we see in other FF games (FFIX and back), but rather, it will be a full environment. That's a shame, because for me, the world map became a staple of FF games. The combat style is quite fresh, though. I mean, all of your characters are on the screen on the field (as opposed to older FF games that only show one party member representing the whole group). And when you get into fights, the screen doesn't swirl or anything. You simply begin fighting. It has a typical menu system, but you don't have to use it. At least, not in the demo. If you want, you can simply sit back and watch as you characters do the fight without you giving a single command. I believe they even heal one another when their HP is running low.
I have to say that I don't like that feature. I don't like the non-involvment. FF games have always been about the one or two really tough bosses that you have to strategize for. But now, you can simply watch the battles being done for you. Ridiculous, if you ask me.
For those of you who have played //.Hack Infection, the fighting style reminded me a lot of that.
But, I am looking forward to FFXII. I've been playing FF games since Final Fantasy II came out for the Super NES, way back in the day. I will buy it and play through it when it comes out, but I'm not expecting to be blown away.
Have any of you ever played a game that you just get engrossed in? Like, every second, you wish you were playing it. When you're not playing it, you humm the tunes from it and think about what you've played so far? Yeah, I wish that Square-Enix would make a game that would do that to me again. FFXII looks good, but not that good.
Yea, a lot of 'em were Square games too. Though I dunno ... I just can't really get plugged into the new-gen RPGs that Square, or many other companies, make anymore. It's just so ... drab.
I played it back when Dragon Quest/Warrior (whatever) 8 came out. It seems to me to basically jsut be the FF11 battle system, only without the social interaction. I didnt really like it at all, not to mention that it rapes the world of my favorite FF (FFTactics).
I might play it if I can borrow it from someone, but I doubt I'll be buying it. Not only do I not feel the need for epic RPG accomplishments, bnut I dont really play games enough to be able to sink the time needed into it.
Yeah, I played through the FFXII Demo when I got DQ8. Like Fei-On said, the lack of interaction is a bit of an odd choice for an FF. But then again, it was just a demo, so hopefully much more will be available by the time it hits shelves. I do love the character design so far (not the lead character, I grow tired of teenage blonde-haired pretty boys). From the opening movie of the demo, the story looks to be intense and brings alot to the table. The different races of the tactics world show liven everything up as well. Hopefully there will be alot of involvement with the airships that are shown and that Air Pirate character reminds me of Setzer (be sweet if they made an ode to him by making a similar character randomly in the game).
It's been awhile since the last FF so I'm expecting the quality to be pretty high. I just hope they don't stray to far from the things that make FF what it is.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6145598.html
pff, I doubt it's that great, but I'll give it a whirl next year.
Same here. No transition in the music when you start fighting enemies was a downer for me (wait, I haven't even played X11 yet so I don't know about that yet). It looks like there is some fun factor in there.