Final Fantasy Xii Has Landed

[Guest Serenanna]

Just a generic question since everyone's been quiet about it. Anyone else playing it besides me?

Sere

PS. I'll go into detail in my thoughts on the first 6 hours or so of gameplay if I'm not the only one here even playing.

[Guest Big Samurai]

The game is going directly to my shelf for at least few months. If I play it right now, all of the anti-Square Enix hatred that I have been bottling up since late '04 will make it very hard to enjoy the game. For now, I am going to observe the resulting FFXII 'fic explosion from a safe distance.

For those among you who have been looking forward to the game, please enjoy. I am not here to rain on any parades.

[TerraBreaker]

The game was shipped out to me yesterday and is currently winging its way past SCEE's stance on importing and (hopefully) arriving in my UK based hands later this week - this import gamer is in no rush to play it - but I'd still rather have it now than wait until "early 2007" for the UK release.

I'd decided a long time ago that FFXII will be my last purchase of the series if Squarenix has continued down the wrong path so to speak. I'm really hoping for a return to the good days of Final Fantasy, before FMV's started popping up every five seconds. I'll leave my judgement until I've finished the game though - got to finish the Seraphic Gate in Valkyrie Profile 2 this weekend - which is much higher priority

[Guest Serenanna]

Well, gentlemen. I can give you hope. I friggen love it!

It is radically different than the rest of the series to date in combat which will be a sticking place with most people, faster, more complex in adjusting to the newness, but if you're familiar with MMORPG's it's easier to understand. On the other hand, you can turn it all off too, and go back to waiting and whatnot, but it's not as fun to me. No more random encounters, you see everything ahead of you or on the map. No waiting really unless it's a boss's entrance. No overworld map either, but I'm not missing it.

The plot is very much political and, well, it's giving me flashbacks to the original Star Wars so far. Balthier and Fran stick out the most, like Han Solo and a sexy, female Chewie with bunny ears. The dialog does not suck or go cheesy either, the acting is good too. I had a hard time also telling the difference between in game cuts and FMV's. If there were long FMV sequences, they didn't feel like long.

The prelude is back too, as well as the main theme. I got tingles watching the opening shots. There's a lot of references to Tactics and Tactics Advanced with Ivalice and what not, magicite, chocobo knights, Gilgamesh . . . just wow . . . I'll know more when I play again. The style of it just feels more high fantasy too despite the high-tech look to all the airships. In all, I love it. I loved Tactics to death so . . . maybe I'm a little biased.

Sere

[Guest Evil_Labs]

I really can't abide by the character designs and the things they've said about it during production, so I won't be buying it or playing it. X-2 was the last straw. Not to say I don't love VI, VII, and their ilk, but they really went overboard.

[Iggy_lovechild]

Got XII off reserve this afternoon. Haven't played it yet, but I watched my bf start his game. It's very pretty and looks interesting, tho the combat system looks a bit disorganized to me, but that's just first glance.

[Crazed Flow]

I got my copy of it yesterday at EB. I took home the Collector's Edition! It has a spiffy package!

I haven't tried it yet, but i will before I go to bed. This game looks so cool, and it will most likely be the first Final Fantasy game where I will play it completely. I have a few of the other Final Fantasy games. I only played a few hours of each one, then I put them away. I don't hate them. I thought they were pretty cool, actually. Though, Final Fantasy XII seemed to have made a connection for me. I am so drawn to it for some reason. The game just looks so cool.

I will definitely need to get the official soundtrack for this game, too. Tofu Records has released an official North American version of the soundtrack, which came out the same day the game did.

[Iggy_lovechild]

Well, I'm about six or seven hours in, and so far, so good. The combat system improves and becomes far less aggrevating once you have a full party and not just playin' it solo and having to choose your fights carefully. Balthier and Fran are awesomeness, the big thing keeping my attention right now since I'm generally indifferent to Vaan.

My only real issue is that sometimes the camera goes kinda wild and wonky on me.

[Guest Serenanna]

So, I finally have the full crew at about 11 hours in. I stand by my assessment of the makers of this one being heavily influenced by classic Star Wars. The story so far also makes complete sense with nothing being left to mystical machinations or concepts it seems, which is refreshing.

Combat isn't as mindless as the critics would have you think, nor as aggravating. It requires thinking and makes you work to get your characters in shape to face bosses. The sense of accomplishment from kicking the crap out of a boss fight is nice. Level and loot grinding seem to go hand in hand because whenever I need Gil, I need to level too it seems. The grinding isn't too bad either, and goes faster without having to wait for load screens even other minute.

I'm still trying to figure out what everyone is good at and setting them on their individual paths to pwnage. That seems to be the most frustrating part of the whole game. :\ But then again, experimenting doesn't seem to hurt since the licenses are mostly cheap but the equipment isn't. Oh well, I'll figure it out eventually.

Sere

[Iggy_lovechild]

I'm still trying to figure out what everyone is good at and setting them on their individual paths to pwnage. That seems to be the most frustrating part of the whole game. :\ But then again, experimenting doesn't seem to hurt since the licenses are mostly cheap but the equipment isn't. Oh well, I'll figure it out eventually.

Yeah, my boyfriend has had to restart the game twice now becasue he was having trouble with the liscensing stuff. He was finding himself getting his ass kicked hard as he went on in the game. It's pretty damned complicated, especially with the walkthrough imploring you to go after Quickenings ASAP....

[Guest Pink Lace]

I have mixed feelings. 12 hours into the game and I have no sympathy whatsoever for any of the characters. That parts sucks a lot. It seems to be all political maneuvering so far. No villian? I don't see any focus to the game, it's like the chars just wander around without any real goals apart from getting free of whatever temporary mess they are in. I can't seem to understand or appreciate the overall direction of anything so it's hard to get motivated.

Character design is just laughable. This is personal taste but it's hard for me to play when Fran's half-naked - she is wearing a black bikini thing and when I am controlling the characters I get to see a lot of her buttcheeks. One girl is supposed to be a princess but she dresses like a cheap hooker. Vaan has boobs - is he supposed to be a hermaphrodite? Penelo's outfit is extremely hard on the eyes, to me it looks like someone grabbed some random peices of cloth and sewed it all together without bothering with any real design.

Gameplay, on the other hand, is good. I like the new combat system as it is more realistic. No random encounters, yay! The fun seems to be gone though as there aren't any cool things like limit breaks or summons? Someone told me there are some but I am 12 hours into the game and there is nothing but the usual melee/range/magic combat actions. *pouts*

[Squallfan]

I haven't had the chance to purchase the game yet, though I will eventually. Everything I've seen about it so far looks cool, but the main character doesn't sit well with me. Honestly, he looks kinda wussy. I'm still hoping for the Final Fantasy 7 remake that will never happen. *sobs*

[Guest Serenanna]

::clunks her head on the desk:: So, I'm maybe half way through the game, and still in love. Balthier deserves his own game. He's just too cool to me, the gentleman rogue. Like Han Solo with an airship, though I'm waiting to hear his backstory to see what drove him to piracy. He seems like he's searching for something more than treasure. Still love him though.

Personally, this is my favorite cast of characters in an FF so far. Most of them are mature, sensible, but still with their own quirks and roles that stand out. Vaan, for an FF hero, is refreshing to me because for once he's a kid hero who's acting like an idiot, immature kid that's growing up and doing the right thing. He's brash, funny, stupid, but still good-natured without being well . . . emo. If they'd made his angst as bad as Cloud or Squall, I don't think this game would have worked.

The designs don't annoy me. But then again, as a designer, I'm looking at the details. Vaan's body shading could have been better, but the others I like, even Fran's ass-less outfit. She's supposed to look sexy but still covered. Most of the Viera seem to be designed like that. The princess isn't exactly the 'Princess' at the moment either, so it's kind of silly for her to be dressed like one. To appreciate Penelo's you have to see the CG in the artbook if you got the collector's book set. The details on the bodysuit make up for it.

I can understand some lack of apparent focus on plot, but then again, it is suppose to be all about the politics and conflict. I'm not sure what point you're at Pink Lace, but it's coming. There's also backstories coming too. Fran's is the first one you encounter, dealing with how she left the Viera village.

The main villian so far appears to be Vayne, but I don't know yet, and I love it. I guess it depends on how well you liked all the back-stabbery of FFTactics. It is not as cut and dry as some of the other FF's where the villain was important. Even in FFX you didn't really know the villain by it's real face till the end, so . . .

There are limits and summons. Assuming you haven't beaten the boss Belias yet, then you don't know about the Espers/summons till then. Limits are called Quickenings. They're on the license board near the edges. Pick them up as soon as you can, and plan accordingly. Each character can only get three and there's only 12 on the board scattered all over.

I hope this helps.

Sere

[Guest Evil_Labs]

That pirate gent was supposed to be the main character, and we'd all be happier if they'd used him instead of Lord Metrosexual Vaan. Really, I have other complaints, but when they specifically say they redesigned and changed the main character to fit their 'target demographic' I think it was the moment where I finally gave up on FF past maybe 8 or 9.

[StoryJunkie]

Daughter #2 is a couple days into it. I watched the opening fmv, and when the arrow hit the prince, I was like, well, that's the end of it already! Good game. Who's the bad guy? I prefered the opening fmv in FFX better, but this was good. Very good.

I wasn't sure I liked the character designs, the artwork reminded me of FFIX (which I adored), and I was being annoying: every five minutes: "Is that Sid? Is that Sid?" (since Sid has been in every game.) and "Hey, is Bahamut in this one?"

My daughter hasn't had a good nite's sleep for a few days. She looks more and more exhausted every morning since she's gotten it. It's Thursday? She's been playing since Sunday.

[Iggy_lovechild]

Buncha hours in now, just got The Dawn Shard. Liking the game, though I ran screaming back to wait time after awhile, just because I can't think quick enough on my feet for their little ADB system. The Quickenings are kinda cheap, tho'. I've gotten pretty good at chaining the mist attacks and re-charging them before time runs out. So I'm pounding on a boss with three party members, their Quickenings run out, I swap out for the other three, hit Quickenings,

boss pwned, I win. Now I realize I'm not that far in yet, but still....

Other than that, I'm liking the game, but then again I loved FF: Tactics, and the whole polical intuigue thing was huge in that game. It's nice to get genuinely surprised by a plot twist.

Ah but Gil is so hard to come by. *sighs*

<3 Balthier. Still indifferent to Vaan. The muscule shading on his abdomen makes me want to scream, "put on the shirt, you wanker!"

[Guest Pink Lace]

Yeah I am not expecting a tiara and long gown but she doesn't have to go to the other extreme and look so cheap. The other human women I've seen so far have not been dressed like that.

She must be flashing her panties everytime she moves, her skirt is that short - not to mention it's hot pink. Her neckline is also extremely low, I half-expected to see her nipples in the close-ups. The whole outfit annoys me because it's impractical, flashy and about as subtle as a sledgehammer. If she were out on a date or to a club, it would be fine but this is her everyday fighting outfit!

Apart from all that, the outfits should match the characters. Vaan looks the twit he is. Fran is sexy, I assume that's because she is. The other men look grown-up and wear their respective outfits with flair (Balthier) or sense (the others). The princess acts all "princessy" but looks like a streetwalker.

I echo the <3 Balthier. Cid had better be in the game! Been looking around for him all this time. Is the esper stuff cool? I only liked the limit breaks from VII and VIII.

[Crazed Flow]

Cid is in indeed in the game. He is the Doctor in it. He appears pretty early on, too.

[Iggy_lovechild]

Goddamn! I'm getting sick of having to buy every fucking thing in the game! Why are technicks so bloody expensive?! Why should I have to buy them at all??????????? I mean, I get the buying of the spells but why do I have to buy my skills, too?

Okay, I've officially discovered a majorly frustrating thing in the game. It was bad enough saving up the license points, but then to have to wait until a skill or a spell shows up in the shops (not to mention that nasty gil problem)...This is starting to seriously get on my nerves.

[Guest Pink Lace]

All right I'll just wait for Cid to appear sometime.

Iggy, yes it is frustrating. I've decided to stop and level for a bit, get a lot of drops through chaining and buy all those expensive technicks, gambits, spells and equipment. I also seem to be lagging behind on LPs...or (more likely) I didn't spend them the best way. I am just going through the game on my own without any guides so I probably made a lot of mistakes a long the way.

The first time through VIII I didn't even know you were supposed to "draw" the summons from bosses. I missed the first 3 and had to restart.

[TerraBreaker]

Sounds like this game may actually have some shred of difficulty unlike the last few outings, which can only be a good thing.

Cid is in indeed in the game. He is the Doctor in it. He appears pretty early on, too.

Just so long as he isn't a judge again - FFTA *shudder*

[Guest Serenanna]

Actually, there's two Cids, one on both sides, Dr. Cid, and, ahem, El'Cid. ^O^

And I think it's suppose to be this hard by forcing you to go hunting for gil and such. Personally, I like the challenge it adds, but I learned my lesson with Square games from FFVII on. ::waves a walkthrough guide:: I'm horrible, I know, but I can't play RPG's without them anymore.

Sere

[Iggy_lovechild]

And I think it's suppose to be this hard by forcing you to go hunting for gil and such. Personally, I like the challenge it adds, but I learned my lesson with Square games from FFVII on. ::waves a walkthrough guide:: I'm horrible, I know, but I can't play RPG's without them anymore.

Eh, the walkthrough was 20 percent off with the purchase of my reserve so I figured...ya know, I'm killing myself already, I may as well grab it since I'm sure it'll be useful.

I guess the loot thing makes a heluva lot more sense than random enemy monsters running around with x-amount of gil on them, but still.... I guess I'm trapped in the level-up, make money spiral. *sighs*

I dread having to buy the -aga and -aja spells when those open up....

[Guest Pink Lace]

32 hours into the game and I like it more. Things are heating up and I have a guest who uses hi-and -x potions a lot. Entered feywood and died within 3 seconds, same with the Zertinian caverns so I am level grinding again.

[Hiei]

Hey everyone, time for me to engender some more hatred I'm sure on this subject; which could also be titled WHY OISHIICHAN AND I HATE THIS GAME. Disclaimer, if you like this game, and wish to continue to do so, please read no further.

Characters: RPG live or die on their characters. Good characters will take an annoying system and save it (Squall in FFVIII for example, everyone but me seemed to hate him but his "I don't give a shit about the world or your stupid cause, give me back my girlfriend" attitude was agreeable to me) Weak or stupid characters will kill my interest in a game or book faster than sharp tanto to the medula. No I don't mean weak as in physical combat abilities, I liked Lulu, even though she had all the hand to hand abilities of a non-Monty Python lab bunny. I mean a weak personality or will (choughcoughCloudcough). But even Cloud had more guts and personality than Vaan. But here's a character by character breakdown of why I hate them

Vaan: ...right. First off, personality/character, where did I see this guy before? Hmm thief who wanted to be an air pirate... oh yeah FF9. Cept he actually WAS an air pirate not a wanna be. Monkey boy still annoyed the hell out of me. Physically? He wasn't a pasty faced white boy but the vest and pants with wild blond hair and a dagger thing was done in Suikoden 3, and least HE had something of a spine... and a really uber hot mom.

Ashe: Lemme see here, Black Trillium, FF9, more fantasy novels than I can shake a katana at, yep she's been there done that. Save most of them didn't have a Las Vegas street hooker butt skirt. Normally I'm all for revealing clothing, but she has managed to look... cheap and tawdry. She's got all the class of a Penthouse Forum letter and the same amount of believability. Lesee here, yep pasty faced blond. Hmm I'm noticing a trend.....

Basch: I'm okay with him. The "Evil Twin Brother" cheese factor aside (that is so 1970s soap opera) Basch has a decent code, honor is more internal than external, the easy diplomatic way is not the right way and evil must be opposed no matter the cost or method. Stereotypical maybe, but at least he's an archetype I can deal with. Physically: ......What THE FUCK is up with the rainbow happiness vest? And he has no muscle build, a person who's used to wearing heavy armor and swinging weapons a majority of his adult life wouldn't be Arnold, but he DAMN SURE wouldn't look like a boy band reject with a scar in a vague attempt to make him look tough.

...oh yeah... he's blond too. ....they bring Hugh Heffner in as a design consultant or something?

Penelo: ...Lesee here... Rikku, Selphie, the mini summoner girl from 9. We've seen this before. Clothes wise.... she's running around in a warm water wet suit. What, they couldn't take the time to animate any more clothes so they just colored her skin? &nsbp; &nsbp;....and again, despite being froma mostly arid, warm climate... another pasty blond. Someone ressurect Hitler while I wasn't looking and ask him what all the characters should look like?

Fran: .....hmmm let's see here. Let's take the archetypical Tolkeinian wood elf and give them... BUNNY EARS! YEAH! ....the fuck? Seriously, long life, communes with the woods, ignores the outside and very skilled at manipulating magic. If you haven't seen this before you haven't watched/read Lord of the Rings or any other fantasy novel that has elves. Even the "outcast because she leaves the woods" part has been done.

Physically: Dark skin... MY GOD! Something vaguely different! I can actually see this as a natural adaption to concealment in a shaded environment. ...not that it works that with humans but I can forgive it. ....white hair? Soooo we're ripping off dark elves now, spiffy. As for her outfit. If she was a mage, or a dancer, or a bloody stripper I could see it. ...but she's jumps around like Trinity without the benfit of being able to manipulate reality to a limited degree. High heels are an old and established "sexy character" custom. Again, nothing new there.

And now for the one person who has me turn off the PS2 and do something else more than anything in the game.

Balthier.

Okay, we'll assume for a moment that his voice actor didn't grate on my nerves enough to want to break a cinder block over his head and shove the fragments down his wanna-be-English-aristocrat-accented throat. It does, but we'll pretend for a moment it doesn't.

One, he's primarily a gun man, yes I know anyone can use anything, but he starts with guns and is best suited for them. Vincent recovered from my innate hatred of firearms (which is really weird for an armorer in the US Army I know but hey) by being so freaking cool in the way he did things John Woo would have been proud. Balthier is not. Balthier gets lumped in with people like Ivrine, annoying cowards who don't have the guts to fight face to face and get their hands dirty.

Two, his lines are obnoxious, the air of "I'm better than you are" reeks off every word he says. I've spent a better part of my life kicking the knees out of people like that. He's a fucking thief, and has no real reason to be. At least Han Solo just dodged an inherently evil Empire and smuggled goods to people, he didn't rip them off. Han also didn't assume he was better than people on the sheer fact that "Hey, I'm Han Solo!" Balthier obviously does. My general impression on people like that is that they are bound and used as beating therapy for people recovering from trauma. I sure as hell wouldn't feel guilt about breaking him in half.

Three. He's a fashion plate. "If we get caught they better provide a change of clothes." .....

....

....

STABBITY DEATH. You're a pirate, you live beyond the rules of those confined to the ground and bound by mundane rules, and you're obsessed with how you appear. I'm reminded of a line from Dennis Leary's No Cure For Cancer. "SHUT THE FUCK UP, NEXT!"

Four. He thinks he's Heaven's gift to women. ...Most women I know outgrew self obsessed narcissistic assholes like him when they were 13. He's got the attitude that made Sean Connery despise James Bond.

Actually that's a decent analogy, he's a vague attempt at mixing a mercenary James Bond with an Erol Flynn pirate from the 1960s. Except he's more annoying and can't use a sword.

As for the most recurrent NPC so far, Larsa... Oh fragging DIE already. The "noble prince struggling against the evils of his hereditary empire" falls into the same category as Ashe and Fran. Overdone, predictable, bloody fucking annoying. But he's not blond, so of course he can't be a main character.

Now, I could go into the fact that I first saw this system of combat in .HACK, save it was more intuitive in .HACK and didn't crutch on pretty graphics. I could say that if I wanted to time buttons with random occurrences in order to get a combo off I'd play Tekken 5. I could even go into that they have a huge range of races and people but you can only play a small group of Aryan Empire candidates.

But I'll just end with this, I'm going to play this through til I see the movie at the end. Then I'm going to go to the Trade 'n Game and get Guilty Gear like I should have.

...I'm gonna go watch Dead Like Me. And hope someone takes up my request to throw Fran and Ashe to the tentacle monsters in the FGLMM and feed Vaan to the moat monster.