Final Fantasy XII

Alright, my brother just so happened to have imported the twelfth game in the opulent Final Fantasy series, and it was my distinct pleasure to have the first run through the game. 

What caught me by surprise at first was the opening.  Full CGI, with the beautiful Prelude piano playing in the background.  Just a simple selection of "New Game" and "Load Game" not too obvious located, lest it distract one from the gorgeous visuals. 

You've heard or read of the new fighting system, so I won't go into too much details.  No more transitions from adventure to battle screen, and no victory music after the conclusion of said battle (although it still plays it after a boss fight).  Characters are no longer limited to a certain weapon archetype, so the main character, who typically wields a long sword and shield, can also wield a crossbow, magic rod, or even a two-handed mace. 

I'm about 30+ hours into the game, although this is a bit misleading since most of it is spent farming for money.  Yes, I said farming, since certain monsters drop valuable loot and respawn (although in limited numbers).  Almost every action except traversing on foot and basic fighting needs to be bought, from weapons and items to even special moves and magic spells. 

That axe look appealling on your character? Well, assuming you have the money, your character will still be unable to use it unless he has a license for it.  Licenses are bought using license points, which you earn through defeating monsters (thankfully enough).  All the skills you need, as well as general stat buffs (such as 10% less energy spent on magic), magic spells, and weapon and armor proficiencies need to be bought through licenses. 

Another interesting twist to the battle sequences is something called "Gunbit".  This is basically the AI of the members of your party you do not have direct control over (this includes guest characters that occasionally join your party).  You can actually, in a very simple manner, program your partymates how you want them to act in a battle situation.  For example, you can tell a healer to cast a cure spell on an ally whenever his HP goes below 50% of his max.  Another is when "blind" is cast on an ally, either use an item or cast the appropriate spell to cure the blindness.  I even have a setup where I have an ally attack another ally who is under the effects of "sleep".

And for the last bit, the story.  For those of you who have played Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced, FFXII is set in the same universe.  Even with 30+ hours invested, it seems there's still quite a bit to explore, and I don't think I've even explored a tenth of what this game offers.  I'm surprised they even fit all this content on a single disc (seeing as Xenosaga III took up two discs), and I'm excited to see what else there is.  The story itself isn't so much romance, since the main character already has a girlfriend at the beginning of the game.  The story is more focused on personal ambitions and vendettas toward the beginning, and becomes much broader as it goes along. 

Whew, well there's my bit of extrapolation.  I'll answer any questions I can, and I hope it wasn't too confusing of a read.
 

CnC

Ad Oculos
I didn't realize it was out in japan. well thats good, I guess.

Can't say I'm all too enthused about it. Hows the story? If I'm going to be playing 80~ hours on a game it better be pretty damn gripping.

Final Fantasy X's story really burned me on the series.
 
CnC said:
Hows the story?  If I'm going to be playing 80~ hours on a game it better be pretty damn gripping.

Final Fantasy X's story really burned me on the series.

yota821 said:
The story itself isn't so much romance, since the main character already has a girlfriend at the beginning of the game. The story is more focused on personal ambitions and vendettas toward the beginning, and becomes much broader as it goes along.

Other than that, one of the focuses of the story is [hide]anti-magic stones (Hamaseki), which absorb magic.[/hide]
 

CnC

Ad Oculos
The story itself isn't so much romance, since the main character already has a girlfriend at the beginning of the game. The story is more focused on personal ambitions and vendettas toward the beginning, and becomes much broader as it goes along.

yea I read that but its kinda vague. What do YOU think of it? cliche? broader = gooder?
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Great post yota, thanks. I've heard good stuff about that game but didn't really take any interest in it so far, except for the fact that the hero looks more androgynous than FF characters ever did before. So I have a few questions if you don't mind (no spoilers please):

yota821 said:
Characters are no longer limited to a certain weapon archetype, so the main character, who typically wields a long sword and shield, can also wield a crossbow, magic rod, or even a two-handed mace.

That's pretty cool (like in Secret of Mana :chomp:), but are there still some form of "classes" of characters or some specificity to each beyond the weapons, or can they all follow the same template? Also, is the number of Licenses limited or can you just buy everything? And are the fights more fast paced/dynamic in regard to the changes you hinted at? It's real time and not turn-based anymore?

yota821 said:
Yes, I said farming, since certain monsters drop valuable loot and respawn (although in limited numbers). Almost every action except traversing on foot and basic fighting needs to be bought, from weapons and items to even special moves and magic spells.

Hmm, that sounds scary in a "offline MMORPG" way. Is this running around to level up similar to what we've seen in previous FF games or is it really farming random drops on randomly spawning monsters? Because that sounds like no fun to me.

yota821 said:
Licenses are bought using license points, which you earn through defeating monsters (thankfully enough).

Ok, so is this parallel to classic experience points, or is it replacing it, or what? Are there still levels or is it fully skill-based? I'm not looking it up just so you can explain it to me. :void: It sounds refreshing anyway, breaking away from the other overused patterns.

yota821 said:
Another interesting twist to the battle sequences is something called "Gunbit". [...] You can actually, in a very simple manner, program your partymates how you want them to act in a battle situation.

Wow, now that is great. I'm going to say "at last" because it's really something that we should have seen implemented long ago. I'm curious though, how many members of the party do you not have control on?

yota821 said:
And for the last bit, the story. For those of you who have played Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced, FFXII is set in the same universe.

Wasn't that universe set in some kid's dream or something and destroyed at the end of the game? Is there any mention of these events in the game or are they related at all to the story of FFXII?
 
i played the demo many many months ago and was sorta dissappointed... the thing that really bothered me was the camera... it follows the character 3rd perspective style... the rest of the games, with the exception of XI, did semi static backgrounds which, in my opinion, allow for greater detail and awe at this stage of technology... think back to 7; when walking around the characters looked like total shit, even for the day, but the enviroments made it fantastic...
 
The game is still ATB based, its just no more random battles, you can move, and there is a ton of options.

YOu like taking control of one character, well then you can use the gambits you've acquired so far to craft your party member's AI and how they'll act (heal you a lot, fight a lot, and more specific things like using limits etc.).

Not to mention there's a ton of options just how the battle plays out such as a speed gauge which can make things close to the point of seeming real time as actions have little to no wait unless very costly. Not to mentoin you can tinker with things such as if you want the light arcs that connect enemies and hero's together, and so on and so forth.

Not to mention there is the whole choice between active and wait modes with active being constant action while wait, allows you to pause the game and choose what you're going to do (like in Baldur's Gate and such).

As to the story, its a Matsuno story, its gonna be more political, more mature and doesnt tend to revolve around "super evil villian arrives to destroy the world, good guys must fight"

I was losing hope in FF but with the choice of Matsuno and his preferred developers to make FF XII, it looks like the series might have a chance of regaining some of its past glory.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
HawaiianStallion said:
The game is still ATB based, its just no more random battles, you can move, and there is a ton of options.

Well, the end of the random battles system is certainly an improvement. I just hope it doesn't amount to a mere offline FFXI.

HawaiianStallion said:
YOu like taking control of one character, well then you can use the gambits you've acquired so far to craft your party member's AI and how they'll act (heal you a lot, fight a lot, and more specific things like using limits etc.).

That means no more individual control on each member but only on the main character? How is their evolution handled?
 
You can still override their normal gambit AI manually, but after a while it gets tedious (but is sometimes necessary, especially against specific foes or boss battles).

Certain monsters only drop certain items (or treasure), so no, they're not completely random. There is something called "chains", where when you kill a certain type of monster (for example, "undead") consecutively, you can increase the chance you'll get rarer loot with higher chains. The chain is then broken when you kill a monster of a different type. The highest chain I've gotten so far is in the 80's.

Gah, I said "gunbit", instead of what HawaiianStation used, "gambit". I was in total brain-fart mode there..... :schierke:

Anyway, you can only have 3 party members on the field at any given time. You can control any of the characters in the party you want to (not just the main character). Another twist is that, let's say one of your on-field guys gets incapacitated, you can switch that person out even during a battle with a reserve character, and then either use a raise spell or a phoenix feather to revive said person. You can even cure the character while he's in reserve, and get him ready to switch back out.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
yota821 said:
You can still override their normal gambit AI manually, but after a while it gets tedious (but is sometimes necessary, especially against specific foes or boss battles).

Ok, that's cool with me. Having the possibility to do it is nice, I wouldn't like to be unable to choose.

yota821 said:
Certain monsters only drop certain items (or treasure), so no, they're not completely random. There is something called "chains", where when you kill a certain type of monster (for example, "undead") consecutively, you can increase the chance you'll get rarer loot with higher chains.

Sorry, what I mean by random is "random drop rate," meaning that there's a percentage for items to drop, some being common and some being rare. That can be a pain in the ass from experience, but that chain system probably makes it less frustrating.

yota821 said:
Another twist is that, let's say one of your on-field guys gets incapacitated, you can switch that person out even during a battle with a reserve character, and then either use a raise spell or a phoenix feather to revive said person. You can even cure the character while he's in reserve, and get him ready to switch back out.

Sounds pretty cool, some kind of turnover basically.
 
Its a much more intuitive system and a very well thought out one as you cant power level nearly as easily in other games, and even doing so doesnt matter as things like licenses and such can restrict you from using more advanced weapons and spells meaning you might be a powerhouse but have no real extra abilities to use such power with.

Not to mention its probably the toughest FF game in a while, and while that's not saying much, I know that many Japanese players were frustrated with the fact they couldnt breeze through it, even after trying to power level as many of the bosses will kick the crap out of you.

There's even the now normal super boss, something like a ten hour affair for the truly hard core, though you can save during the battle from what I've heard.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
I can't give an educated reason why, maybe it's the new direction the franchise is taking, but I'm strangely compelled to try this game out. And I'm normally first in line to pre-emptively shit on Square-Enix, so that's sayin something.

That and I haven't played even a halfway-decent RPG in years.
 

CnC

Ad Oculos
Walter said:
I can't give an educated reason why, maybe it's the new direction the franchise is taking, but I'm strangely compelled to try this game out. And I'm normally first in line to pre-emptively shit on Square-Enix, so that's sayin something.

That and I haven't played even a halfway-decent RPG in years.

I'm in the same boat. I'll wait for the general concensus and then decide (FF generally gets good reviews, but I'll hold out). Plus it looks like unless you're getting a 360, Wii or Ps3 there's really not going to be much to do this holiday season, game-wise
 
S

Some Guy

Guest
How much free roaming is in the game? I was severely bummed out at how extremely linear FFX was.
 

Morgen

De Arimasu !
Anyone saw the collector edition of the game ?
http://www.ebgames.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=281613

Beautiful...but it don't worth the plus 10$...well not for me, i'll stay with the regular edition (even if its a little ''star wars like'' for a boxart.
 
Knight  o' Skeleton said:
How much free roaming is in the game?  I was severely bummed out at how extremely linear FFX was.

Its probably one of the least linear in a lot of ways. Your characters arent restricted to one type of weapon or anything like that anymore and traveling is a lot more diverses, as you'll get an airship early on in the game.
 

Uriel

This journey isn't ov--AARGH!
I must have Final Fantasy XII.


I'm stopping there, because if I start on the topic of this game I won't ever stop :puck:
 
I'm a little late on this, but I've beaten the game already, with about 75 hrs or so of gameplay time. I was taken aback by how quickly the game wrapped itself up, as it seemed to me there was so much more to be done. Bah, oh well, I was only level 48 when I beat the last boss :p .

There is still quite a bit of content that I haven't done yet in the game, such as the mobs (specific monsters that you can seek out contracts for rewards), rare monsters (who drop items which you could trade into certain people so you can get better equipment), unexplored maps, and just little sidequests here and there that I left hanging. I might go around to finishing them (the game doesn't allow you to continue after the credits, so I'll have to start from the last save), but for now I'm gonna take a break.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
75 hours sounds plenty long to me. I haven't played an RPG that long since Xenogears. Anyway, uh, did you like it? (crosses fingers :judo:)
 

Pesmerga

This is going to be one hell of a party
Personally, I finished the game in 63 hours. and my total playtime with all side quests done is 167 hours.
the game is very long, much more than xenogears for me (i finish it in 47 hours)

For me it's a great game, the battle system is very original and you can evolve the characters the way you want.
Of course the game is extremely beautiful, the songs are good.
The story is not like the story of Xenogears but it's a good story like the other FF.

But the most important thing is the immersion in the world, the cities are full of peoples, it's very animated and impressive.

Sincerely it's a great game, and you will have some for your money. :guts:
 
just beat it... under 60 hrs... the game was one dungeon crawl after another... get this item, to do this thing, to get another item that can do that other thing... still, a great game... cg was epic... it did kinda wrap up a little quick with a few cheap heart sting tugs and left little more to be desired; not as much as FFIX though... the gambit system was really interesting; although there were a few bosses i was able to beat without touching the controller but twice to select a new party leader while the one i was playing was being fully revived... the game seemed to borrow a bit from a few classics; star wars, lotr, aladdin and... treasure planet?... style wise, it also felt like a merging of X and VIII... gameplay wise, it felt like a mmorpg... the voice acting was really well done and frequent... some cut scenes must have lasted near 15min... one problem i had was(maybe a spoiler?)












no free roaming airship?!? this game is about sky pirates and you never control an airship...
 

Uriel

This journey isn't ov--AARGH!
I just beat the game.

After years of waiting, I can say that it did not disappoint me in me in any way. The whole thing about the lack of character development is apparent, but it didn't distract me from the overall story. I'm sure a few more cut scenes that explained the characters entire lives would have made all those fans who cannot think for themselves happier, but, like Steve said, the atmosphere of the world and the people who live in it are more important than 6 people you play as. Lord knows there are many NPC's that would have much more interesting stories than, say, Penelo or Vaan.

The ending boss fights were not as tough as some of the other games marks, but they were still challenging. Beautiful ending sequences, good acting and more enough closure make this fanboy happy. I'll treasure it! I can't wait to start again and do a Perfect Game... but I think I should re-familiarise myself with the real world before I do :p
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Uriel said:
After years of waiting, I can say that it did not disappoint me in me in any way. The whole thing about the lack of character development is apparent, but it didn't distract me from the overall story. I'm sure a few more cut scenes that explained tes happier

After years of not waiting, it's good to know that even the game's deficiencies are really features!? :guts:

Yes, good characterization is for idiots; this promotes the power of imagination! The only way to improve on it is to have fans eventually program the games themselves in addition to having to make up their own stories and characters.

It would probably be better to activate this plan sooner rather than later.

Uriel said:
the atmosphere of the world and the people who live in it are more important than 6 people you play as.

There's actual PEOPLE living inside this game!? :isidro:
 
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