Final Fantasy XII.




Posted by Fei-on Castor

Anyone else buy this yet? I bought it yesterday, as soon as I could.

And so far, it's pretty good. It's nothing the previous entries in the series, but I suppose each game in the series is quite unique.

There are somethings about it that don't seem "Final Fantasy" to me. The battle system, most notably. One of the things that interested me about Final Fantasy II for the SNES was the weird way you fought enemies. I was used to games like Super Mario Bros, where you move your character up and attack the bad guy directly. I thought it was neat to have a game where you select what you want your character to do. I know there were other games like that at the time, but I was pretty young, and I hadn't seen them.

But FFXII's battle is a lot more active. You still have the ATB gauge, but you move around. You have to wait about 7 seconds between attacks, just running back and forth, and your enemy has to wait too. So while you and your enemy are not attacking one another, you're just running back and forth waiting for your ATB gauge to fill up, at which point your character will automatically attack, unless you've given him a different command (like Item or something).

But aside from the adjustment to this new battle system, the game seems quite promising.

As of now, the story isn't anything too spectacular, but FF games have a way of twisting the story by the time you complete the game, so I can't pass judgement this early on!

The advancement system is neat, too. It's a mixture of FFX's Sphere Grid and traditional levels, using things called "Liscenses" to use new equipment or learn new techniques. It's weird because you have to obtain a liscense for anything you want to equip. If you want to equip a Mythril Dagger, you have to save up Liscense Points and purchase the liscense for Mythril Dagger, and then you can equip it.

And the graphics... Ha. In my opinion, the graphics have very little to do with how good any game is. I think of the graphics as something that is supposed to support the gameplay and interface, not dominate it. I think that if a game's graphics are sufficient to comprehend the gameplay, the graphics are "good". Like Tetris. Simple gameplay, simple graphics.

But this game is much more complex than Tetris, obviously, so the graphics are as well.

One thing that bothered me about FFX was the poor job they did synching the speech with people's mouths and faces. I figured if they couldn't do a good job at it, it would've been better to just go with text dialogue, like we did for so many years with every FF game before FFX.

But this game, they did a much better job with that sort of thing. The animation is top notch, and supplements the game very well.

So, as I am only a few hours into FFXII, I am enjoying it so far. And that's a big thing for me to say. I almost never have anything nice to say about newer FF games.

Anyone else pick this game up yet? What do you think of it?




Posted by Cloudstud

Ya I definitely picked it up as soon as possible too!

So far Im pretty much where your at, not really far enough into it to pass very good judgement.

It does feel very departed from the Final Fantasy series so far... Not sure if I like it yet but im sure with time it will grow on me. One thing thats taking a long time to get used to is how the controls are reversed to how most games are.

I wasnt to crazy about the battle system until I sped it up a bit. I configed it to take more around 3 or 4 seconds for the atb bar. It sped things up a bit so its not so boring... I like the combo system, where you get better and more drops with the higher the combo. I have taken advantage of this a couple of times and I think its pretty cool.

The story so far is kinda boring, but like any FF game its going to take a while to take off. I did enjoy how the beginning played out a little different than previous FF games. It was more of the story being told than actually being in it. More like a movie I guess you could say at the beginning. A little different but very cool.

The graphics arent that important to me either but I also noticed how the words actually appear to be coming out of their mouths now. Its a VAST improvement over FFX. Its also easier to read faces and see emotion that wasnt apperant in FFX. The enviorments are absolutely beautiful for a PS2 game, the problem is im used to WoW right now so the graphics are rather lacking.

Overall so far I guess you could say at times it feels almost too much like an MMO to be a FF game. With drops, you pretty much have aggro, and the real time battle. Ive been playing WoW for a while now and was hoping for somthing completely different in FFX12 and while it is, its pretty similiar in spots.

Hopfully the real time battle will grow on me and I can already feel the story doing so.

Let me know fei-on how you feel about it as you progress.




Posted by Zapper

I played the demo at Gamestop about a week ago. I still have to go and buy it.

The battle system is very different. I'm a fan of the turn-based systems used in the past games. I think this one will take some time to get used to. Other than that - it looks like a good game.

[quote]
The advancement system is neat, too. It's a mixture of FFX's Sphere Grid and traditional levels, using things called "Liscenses" to use new equipment or learn new techniques.


That's good. I loved the Sphere Grid.

[quote]
I almost never have anything nice to say about newer FF games.


Same here. I think i'm going to be happy with FFXII when I get around to buying it (which should be soon).




Posted by Jazz

I saw that game in a commercial it looks pretty good.




Posted by keyartist

Yep it costed me a little more than $50, So has anyone played it, I have yet to open it.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

http://www.vgchat.com/showthread.php?t=18647

cost*




Posted by Cloudstud

I love how original this thread is!




Posted by Arczu

I have obtained it, but I am not going to play it yet. The reason is because I'll be at the game constantly once I start playing, I just know it.

I'm pretty much going to start it, but after I'm done with Devil Kings.




Posted by Fate

It took me a few minutes to get used to the battle system, but so far I totally love it.




Posted by El Capitan

Yeah, the battle system is hard to get used to. I like how they are trying to mix things up with having liscense to learn spells and equip weapons, its really unique.

I also like the visuals very much and enjoying the story as it goes on.




Posted by Fate

I like how you can pretty much choose how your character is going to be from the very beginning. At the end of the boards, the characters are going to have the same abilities, but early on it's better if you choose different weapon types for each character to master. I really like how it's all set up.




Posted by Sapphire Rose

Alright, figured I'd take a break from this game for a second (have 67 hours clocked in).

Battle System is to die for. I was dead set on hating it too. But now I'm concerned with what my next Gambit is going to be set up as. Story is well done. And I loooove how they kept the world of Ivalice intact. I think the characters are well thought out, too (Vaan and Ashe can be pretty stupid at times, though).




Posted by Fei-on Castor


Quoting Sapphire Rose: And I loooove how they kept the world of Ivalice intact.


What do you mean? Are you saying that in my travels in this game I may end up visiting Goug Machine City or perhaps even Goland Coal City?



Posted by Sapphire Rose

No, mostly the Judges. And Monteblanc.

As in, they kept the crap that I didn't care about, but thought was cool.

So what I meant to say was I looooove Monteblanc.




Posted by Fei-on Castor


Quoting Sapphire Rose: No, mostly the Judges. And Monteblanc.

As in, they kept the crap that I didn't care about, but thought was cool.

So what I meant to say was I looooove Monteblanc.

Ivalice should never have been associated with Judges. Monteblanc was cool, but judges and the whole law system was lame x (Marbury v. Madison).

When I heard it was set in Ivalice, I was hoping for an FFT prequel to explain the airships and such under Muround and Ivalice. Kinda sucks that they're applying FFTA qualities to another game.

Meh, I guess I'll get my faithful FFT follow up another time. Maybe with hexagons on the battlefield, instead of squares. Yeah.



Posted by Akuji

OMG. I love this game! Though its not as cute as FFVIII was.




Posted by keyartist

So I finally started playing it just killed the Rocktortious and Got though the laviatien




Posted by Fei-on Castor


Quoting Akuji: OMG. I love this game! Though its not as cute as FFVIII was.

Which is one of its strong points. The only thing in an FF game that you can label "cute" are Moogles and Chocobos. And Onion Kids, from FF3. Can't forget them.



Posted by Cloudstud

Ya no offense or anything but im not huge on the cuteness of ff games. Its ok in imcorporate it at some parts but when the whole game is "cute" what a dissapointment.

I like a more serious story its much more involving. This one has plenty to keep you interested. Including lots of plot twists, your never really sure who is or is not on your team.....




Posted by Arczu

I am now playing the game and yeah, absolutely amazing. But it does kinda suck that I decided to explore these caverns because I ended up running into Adremaleck and he (along with non-stop Zombies) kicked m'ye arse good.

It's good... until you run into an Entite... I mean, dang.




Posted by Zeta

I don't have it, but I'd totally get this just for the fact that Gilgamesh is in it.




Posted by Angerion the Brave

Final fantasy XII is really cool. Vary much looks like a FF Tactics, but it plays like a KOTOR that doesn't handle like a turd.

The story is wicked, the cinimatics are to die for (AKA: plays like a movie which is interupted with hours of LONG walking.

I'm a demon with the Quickenings, I've already obtained the first Summon, and all the Quickenings for all the characters. My highest kill Combo was 106 and my longest Quickening chain was 12 and did about 39000 damage to the Ring Wyrm.




Posted by Zapper

I just bought FFXII last night. It's awesome. This is the first one i've been really excited about since FFX. License system is pretty cool - I liked the sphere grid a lot and licenses is very similar.

The battle system is cool too - it makes leveling a lot less tedious.
Gambits is another awesome feature. It makes battles much simpler.




Posted by keyartist

Yeah its a great combo, My highest chain was 165, and for my quickenings 18




Posted by Fate

I didn't go too far with Chains, my highest being 156, but for Quickenings I believe I hit 21. Or 22. One of those.




Posted by Arczu


Quoting Fate: I believe I hit 21. Or 22. One of those.

You must have been getting some lucky Mist charges. I haven't gotten better than Inferno from that thing...

I'm playing in that Draklor Laboratory and HORRIBLY lost unfortunately. I might have to actually make a map so I can remember wich rooms I've been into because I keep forgetting and ugh.




Posted by Fate

GameFAQs is your friend!

And yeah, those Mist thingies came up often in that set. I haven't been able to get over 16 since.




Posted by Aioros

[COLOR="Yellow"]I just started playing it yesterday for the first time, i bought the Collector's Edition awhile ago but haven't had time to play anything recently. Last thing i did was hunt and kill that tomato faced monster.

It only took me 5 minutes to get comfortable with the new fighting system but now that i got the hang of it, it's extremely fun and a step in the right direction for Final Fantasy and hopefully other RPG's in the future. Definitely beats the h[COLOR="Yellow"]e[/COLOR]ll out of random encounters.[/COLOR]




Posted by Angerion the Brave

I haven't tried for a longer enemy chain yet but I average about 16 to 18 on my mist charges and get either Luminessence and Arc Blast the most.

I'm only at the Bur Edies (What ever it's called) mountains, mostly because I've been traveling in all directions looking for stuff. I managed to find 2 espers though, Adramellach (big Lightning dragon) and Zelmar (the death guy, with the woman on his arm)

And yes, I'm well aware that I'm horribly sucking with the spelling of FF12 names from memory.:D




Posted by Arczu

Adramalech, what?!

Man, I ran into that thing in those caves, and it kicked my arse. It didn't help that all those unread zombies kept popping up. I was too busy fighting off those things to notice that he put up a Barrier, then I do a quickening for ZERO damage whatsoever and it was crazy. I was doing a hunt in there, and well... it was just one gameover I was hoping I wasn't going to see : (




Posted by Fate

I actually had to leave and come back later for that battle. I think I went in too soon when my level was pathetic.




Posted by Sak

I just got FFXII for Christmas, and I've been totally hooked on it! The characters are awesome and I have to say that I love the battle system.

As for my progress so far...

I rescued Ashe not too long ago. (That ship was annoying as hell. It took me at least 10 tries to defeat the judge dude, and I only had Ashe alive after I beat him.). Anyways, right now I'm at the tomb place in the desert, but the Garuda thing keeps killing me! Does anyone have a good strategy for beating it?