Final Fantasy XII

[Skull Leader]

I'm already a couple of hours in and I'm loving just about everything about the game.

It operates a lot like Final Fantasy XI (only without annoying and impatient players that sometimes don't even speak your language), taking a lot from the graphics/gameplay engine. The new battle system is pretty cool, it takes a little of the rampant button-pushing out of it (basically, your players will continue to do what you tell them to do until you tell them to do something different). Seeing all the enemies on the map already (another thing they pulled from FFXI) is also cool.

I can kind of see the "license" method providing the means for a lot of replay value, since you can basically tailor all of your characters in different ways (IE, all balanced in every field, or specialists in combat, magic, etc). That's just an initial observation though... hopefully after playing through the game it will continue to hold true though.

The graphics and music have been excellent too. The environments are completely flushed out with detail, and the amount of people running around towns gives you a serious MMORPG feel. The cutscenes are pretty much on par with "Advent Children" (ok, MAYBE a notch down, but still really good). The music fits the mood, nothing has seemed out of character so far!

All of my initial impressions have been really good. It could be that this is the game that revives the Final Fantasy series amongst hardcore RPGers (instead of being just incredibly good eye-candy with weak or non-existent story and game play)... the potential is certainly there, at least. I'm cautiously optimistic, as I haven't fully enjoyed a Final Fantasy game since FFVI (others since had their good points, but lacked a great deal in some or many areas). Here's to hoping I continue to be impressed as the game wears on!

I know some of you have probably jumped all over the Japanese release (seeing as how they got it way back in march), but for many of us, the US release is the first we really see or hear of it. Did anyone else gear up for the midnight release? "Project Phoenix" and I stood outside in the freezing wind while the costumed "freaks, geeks, and weirdos" got to go in a full 20 minutes before us... we both got what we were after though, since we pre-ordered (mine was fully paid already, I just had to pick it up) Both of us got the Special Edition of the game, He also got the special edition of the strategy guide with the art book in it, I settled for the regular strategy guide... almost second guessing that one though!

Edited October 31, 2006 by Skull Leader

[Macross73]

I totally forgot that this was going to be available.

Now i have to go out and get my copy

This is gonna be fun

[Project Phoenix]

It was friggin' cold last night while we lined up. The 'freaks' were all exciting about it, spouting crap, showing off their trivia knowledge about videogames and anime (which half of the time, they were wrong).

But me and Skull Leader got our games and I must say it was worth it. I didn't have time to play it but from what I've sampled in the opening stages really made me almost regret putting the controller down.

BTW, did any of you who bought the LE Strategy Guide had someone offer to exchange yours with a different cover for $1? Ours does, and he was looking for Ashe's version.

[Hikuro]

Yeah I'm still kicking myself in the ass for selling my PS2......

[Seven]

Heh, I finished the Japanese release months ago. I've heard some of the English voices and I can't help but be disappointed in how annoying some of the voices are. The good thing is that they added 16:9 support and a deleted cutscene.

You guys are in for a treat, for the ones that want to enjoy a Final Fantasy with a different approach to things. The ones that hate change will probably despise this game like no other and continue lamenting the passing of the old times with FF7.

A lot of people have been complaining how it has thrown every FF convention out, but thats not true. For example, people state as their biggest complaint that it is real time, when really the difference is that you can select any command at any time, but the time bar still needs to fill before the action is performed. This is in contrast to the old method where the time bar needs to fill prior to you being allowed to select an action. Either way, the filling of a time bar is still there for actions.

Another complaint is that they do not like how you have to control the characters movement during battles, which also is not true. The characters will mill about the enemy as in a real battle as opposed to standing there single file like some dumb country square dance or Asian aunty line dance, but you can either move them yourself or not, as they will automatically move around anyways. The moving around an enemy has little effect on the battle per say since enemies will just move closer to you if you move away.

The other complaint some people have is the Sakimoto soundtrack, which frankly I am thankful for. I was tired of Uematsu and his synth-rock soundtracks, and a return to a FF Tactics/Vagrant Story symphonic-style soundtrack is awesome. The soundtrack fits the story very well. Just wait until you encounter your first Esper battle - that song is INCREDIBLE, like Duel of the Fates ala Final Fantasy.

People also complain about the art style. I'm glad for the more Euro/medieval/Arabian realistic art style. I was getting tired of Nomura's rehashing. The artist (whose name escapes me for the moment) is the same artist who gave us the great designs from FFT and Vagrant Story, so if you like those, you'll like them here.

One last other thing is the AI system called Gambits which is really misunderstood. You could program it so you never have to control your characters but that is if you choose to do it that way. You could also turn Gambits off and have to select every action every time, but you will find that gets tedious. You will still find during a hairy battle that letting the AI control your character is not good and there were many times I had to override it to counter an enemy tactic.

Finally, some people decry that the license board can lead all the characters to be homogenous in skills and abilities, but like Gambits it is all in how you set them up. If you restrict certain characters to having skills that certain traditional roles like healer, fighter, etc, then you won't have that perceived problem. If you go ahead and give everyone the same skills, then of course they are the same.

I do have some criticisms about the game, but I'll save those for later.

My tip to you guys as you start out is - you get money from killing enemies and selling off the drops, so sell frequently and don't squander your money. Alternate between the story and going on mob hunts and you'll have a ton of fun.

Oh, and stop looking up Ashe's skirt or focusing the camera on Fran's ass.

[Eternal_D]

cant' wait to get mine...my sister put it on preorder while I was in Bali. hope she got me the limited ed one like I wanted.

[Murphy]

i been an avid FF player since 1 on the nes, hell i even beat ff5 on the super famicom and i dont know how to read japanese, i love them all. FF6 (3 for us snes) is my ultimate favorite, but with FFx i thought the game was horrible so i didnt buy FFx-2, im not a mmorpg fan so i skipped FFxi, i played the demo of FFXII and i thought it was ok. From the demo the characters to me seem cooler than the chatacter in FFx. my question is it is free roam like previous FF or linear like FFX?

[Lonely Soldier Boy]

Can anyone post some screencaps?

[David Hingtgen]

Huge FF fan (I like JRPG's, should be obvious by now), but I skipped 11. Saw 12 tonight when I was preordering CV: Portrait of Ruin. Will probably pick it up sometime in next 2 weeks. (Still have to finish Okami, which went on hold for Valk Profile 2).

[eugimon]

I was super excited for this version of FF... but I've sold my PS2 and now it looks like I'll have to miss out.

[Skull Leader]

Murphy, if you've at all played FFXI, the travel system is similar to that in many respects (in that you can travel from one area to another), I haven't gotten to a point yet where I move from one large area to another, so I don't know about that yet.

[Duke Togo]

The Orge/Tactics/Vagrant team is gold. My copy arrived this morning, and I've played an hour or so, and its everything I would want it to be.

[Seven]

i been an avid FF player since 1 on the nes, hell i even beat ff5 on the super famicom and i dont know how to read japanese, i love them all. FF6 (3 for us snes) is my ultimate favorite, but with FFx i thought the game was horrible so i didnt buy FFx-2, im not a mmorpg fan so i skipped FFxi, i played the demo of FFXII and i thought it was ok. From the demo the characters to me seem cooler than the chatacter in FFx. my question is it is free roam like previous FF or linear like FFX?

It is free roam, meaning you can at most points of the story decide to go off the story route and do mob hunts which are side quests. There are points in the story where you are locked into a course, but for the most part, you are free to roam about. The regions are quite large. Some regions are blocked off until later in the story, but once they are unlocked you can travel from region to region without any hindrance.

That's what I love about FF12, it is all about giving the user the most freedom in choices - freedom to customize as they wish, freedom to roam, freedom to stay on story linearwise or break off to do quests.

And to tell you the truth, the demo that was included with DQ8 was a bad representation of the final product.

Edited November 1, 2006 by Seven

[David Hingtgen]

What's with all the people selling their PS2's? Yeesh, I still have my PSX. (you never know when a backwards incompatability may crop up--and the amazing fact that sometimes the fast-loading is actually slower)

[Chowser]

I still have my launch PS which I use to play IQ and IQ Final among other things.

I still have a PS2 (one old, one slim) and will probably keep them both once the PS3 gets here in November.

Still can't figure out which launch game to get, I will still probably be playing FFXII.

two more days of school and I will be back home playing!!!!

my FFXII is waiting for me 157 miles away....

[Beltane70]

I finished the Japanese version last week. Just in time to start the US release which I bought last night. I'm still debating if I want to spend over 300 hours on this version or not. I probably will, though, since I'm strange like that.

[Seven]

I finished the Japanese version last week. Just in time to start the US release which I bought last night. I'm still debating if I want to spend over 300 hours on this version or not. I probably will, though, since I'm strange like that.

Hey Beltane, did you beat the last clan mob hunt? I put a pretty big amount of time into the Japanese version as well, but left quite a few things for the English version, but who knows if I will have the same interest to keep going to the very end plus all the sidequests.

[Duke Togo]

Well, i'm just about 10 levels in now, and not really liking the License Board. I spend way too much time staring at it instead of playing the game. The only clear choice I've made at this point is not to put points into any weapons or armor until I have them or can buy them. I haven't put a single point into magic yet, and I haven't needed it. Between Fran's Cure, Balth's First Aid, and the never ending stream of Potions, I've done just fine. I end up sitting on chunks of LP for long stretches of time because I just don't know what to do with it. I really miss well defined characters.

[Skull Leader]

Well, i'm just about 10 levels in now, and not really liking the License Board. I spend way too much time staring at it instead of playing the game. The only clear choice I've made at this point is not to put points into any weapons or armor until I have them or can buy them. I haven't put a single point into magic yet, and I haven't needed it. Between Fran's Cure, Balth's First Aid, and the never ending stream of Potions, I've done just fine. I end up sitting on chunks of LP for long stretches of time because I just don't know what to do with it. I really miss well defined characters.

I don't think there's been a really "set and defined" character in FF since FFIV. Starting with FFV, some or most abilities are entirely interchangable between characters. (FFVI tried to fight this by giving each character specific unique abilities, but all of the characters (except for Umaro) could still carry ALL of the espers and learn ALL of the magic... by the time I reached Kefka for the final battle, I had literally every character slinging "Ultima" like it was cheap magic... this totally broke the game, as the fight was over in no time)

Ever since, it's been up to the player to define the character roles. I guess that could either be a good or bad thing. I choose to look at it in a good light, because I think it provides a great degree of flexibility and a considerable amount of replay value. However I can also somewhat see Duke's point, it does kind of homogenize the characters (unless you set your own goal to keep each character with certain capabilities only). It also takes away some of the challenge. In this particular case, beyond the fact that some characters come and go, play-wise there is nothing to distinguish one from another (MAYBE that they start with different stuff on their license board...). I can see it being a small sticking point to some, it doesn't really bother me though.

[Seven]

Well, i'm just about 10 levels in now, and not really liking the License Board. I spend way too much time staring at it instead of playing the game. The only clear choice I've made at this point is not to put points into any weapons or armor until I have them or can buy them. I haven't put a single point into magic yet, and I haven't needed it. Between Fran's Cure, Balth's First Aid, and the never ending stream of Potions, I've done just fine. I end up sitting on chunks of LP for long stretches of time because I just don't know what to do with it. I really miss well defined characters.

The key to the license board is to concentrate on the skills (such as the ones that add HP, MP, or add offensive magic strength first), then only magic and armor/weapons/accessories when you have those items. As for Mist Knacks or Quickenings, at level 10, you should try for having at least one of your characters learn one level one. Techniques aren't incredibly important, as I finished the game without using many of them. The most useful ones that you will need at your level is Steal and Library. You can conserve your LP as much as you want, but I strongly suggest to at least get the ones that add HP, they will make it much easier in the long run.

I suggest you set a gambit for one character to steal from an enemy when that enemy is at 100% HP, that way that character will steal from the enemy then the other characters will deal damage to it thus ending that gambit for the stealer. You will build up a lot of drops and hence money this way.

[Skull Leader]

I suggest you set a gambit for one character to steal from an enemy when that enemy is at 100% HP, that way that character will steal from the enemy then the other characters will deal damage to it thus ending that gambit for the stealer. You will build up a lot of drops and hence money this way.

... that's a good idea! Never thought about that one...

[Duke Togo]

I suggest you set a gambit for one character to steal from an enemy when that enemy is at 100% HP, that way that character will steal from the enemy then the other characters will deal damage to it thus ending that gambit for the stealer. You will build up a lot of drops and hence money this way.

Yeah, I've been stealing from every mob I have faced since level 1. Gil flows like water in this game. I had something like 20,000 Gil at level 7.

Edited November 2, 2006 by Duke Togo

[Beltane70]

Hey Beltane, did you beat the last clan mob hunt? I put a pretty big amount of time into the Japanese version as well, but left quite a few things for the English version, but who knows if I will have the same interest to keep going to the very end plus all the sidequests.

Yes, I did. It took me about 6 to 8 hours over a couple days to beat Yazmat. With about 50 million HP, he took quite some time to defeat him.

[Akilae]

License Board: What I did was make a straight dash for Mist Knacks for my characters, each spreading out into areas I think I'd want them to go into. With 3 mist knacks to chain, it makes boss battles much easier.

[Seven]

Arrgh, not again... I'm addicted to this game again. And just in time seeing as how I had begun to cool off on Guitar Hero.

It is nice to know what everyone is saying without having to look at a translation guide, especially when dealing with the license board. This time through I think I will mix it up a little and try to restrict certain skills, spells, and techniques to certain characters to make them a bit more varied and along class types. The first time I played through, I pretty much gave everyone everything and ended up with a very powerful team, which truthfully was useful IMO since some hard boss battles will require you to trade characters in and out, and if you have some weak secondary characters, you'll be hurting.

So what does everyone think about the art design and music so far?

[Duke Togo]

I've level 14, and I'm running with 2 teams currently. Vaan/Balthier/Ashe are Team 1, while Basch/Fran/Penelo are Team 2. I alternate between the two of them for leveling purposes. I have the characters split up along the lines of tanks/support/casters. Vaan and Basch are my tanks, and I load them up with offensive, defensive, and HP Licenses. Balthier and Fran are given White Magick Licenses for the purpose of dispelling status effects. I'll eventually give them some Green Magick Licenses for buffing. Otherwise they are ranged attackers. And, of course, we have Ashe and Penelo as my casters. Right now they are mostly White Magick with some Green, but eventually they will branch out to cover all Magicks (to add in offensive casting). Currently, they are all about the healing, while whacking stuff with their staffs now and then.

Right now each character has 1 Mist Charge. Eventually, I see the License Board being filled out for everyone. I have fond memories of maxing out my guys in FFX, and watching Yuna do 99,999 damage with every hit. Ah, I do love overkill.

[Seven]

I've level 14, and I'm running with 2 teams currently. Vaan/Balthier/Ashe are Team 1, while Basch/Fran/Penelo are Team 2. I alternate between the two of them for leveling purposes. I have the characters split up along the lines of tanks/support/casters. Vaan and Basch are my tanks, and I load them up with offensive, defensive, and HP Licenses. Balthier and Fran are given White Magick Licenses for the purpose of dispelling status effects. I'll eventually give them some Green Magick Licenses for buffing. Otherwise they are ranged attackers. And, of course, we have Ashe and Penelo as my casters. Right now they are mostly White Magick with some Green, but eventually they will branch out to cover all Magicks (to add in offensive casting). Currently, they are all about the healing, while whacking stuff with their staffs now and then.

Right now each character has 1 Mist Charge. Eventually, I see the License Board being filled out for everyone. I have fond memories of maxing out my guys in FFX, and watching Yuna do 99,999 damage with every hit. Ah, I do love overkill.

Sounds great. Although the max damage per hit in this game isn't anywhere near 99,999.

Yeah, Basch and Vaan were my tanks with two handed swords. Ashe and Penelo were my healers, but Ashe was armed with a sword and shield, so she also melee. Penelo and Fran were my ranged attackers with Penelo using a gun and Fran using crossbow/bow. I eventually switched Fran to using spears. Balthier was basically a support tank when I needed him. My teams broke down into Vaan, Basch, and Ashe on team A, and Balthier, Fran and Penelo on team B.

I know some people will just level up only 3 of their characters and basically ignore the others, but I made sure to devote time to leveling everyone to the same degree.

[Duke Togo]

Correct me if I am wrong, but the only "Loot" I should not sell are Teleport Stones, Gryshl grens, and the Great Serpentskin, right? I've also read that Black Orbs, Dark Stones, Arcana, and the Soul of Thamasa should be kept.

[Akilae]

Correct me if I am wrong, but the only "Loot" I should not sell are Teleport Stones, Gryshl grens, and the Great Serpentskin, right? I've also read that Black Orbs, Dark Stones, Arcana, and the Soul of Thamasa should be kept.

What I did, since you get so much loot it's not even funny... is to simply sell anything I had twenty of... plenty of clash inflow, and almost no need to worry about selling important items.

[Batou]

My thoughts so far:

I'm about 22 hours in, and so far this is the best one since FF7. It may even supplant FF6 as my all time favorite, provided no "jump the shark" moments surface. My life has been put almost entirely on hold since loading it up the first time. It clearly has that "just one more level/turn/check point" quality that the triple-A titles have ... you just can not put it down, sleep be damned.

I haven't read through all the previous posts, so this may have been mentioned: Is it just me, or are there some serious nods to the Star Wars series to be found at every turn? I found myself making the Vader-breathing-heavy noise when that one judge got off the transport ... not that this is a bad thing (the story is better so far than the new SW trilogy, IMNSHO). I mean we have a Han Solo and a wookie with rabit ears flying around in an airship Millenium Falcon who help a blond-haired orphan rescue a princess from an evil empire ... join the rebel alliance ... Again, not a bad thing, but still a bit obvious.

It has gotten rid of nearly all of the annoying aspects of the past titles, like:

1. No annoying side games to get those last summons ... I mean c'mon: chocobo racing? stupid card games? blitz ball fer cryin' out loud???

2.) Crappy voice acting. Maybe this just applies to X, but I wanted to strangle half the characters. The voice talent is really just superb this time around and I've yet to come across a Reba/MinMei level annoying voice actor so far.

3.) Pesky random battles when you're trying to get somewhere. I was a little pensive about the new combat system having never played XI, but I have to say I like this a lot. No more annoying random battles to deal with is very welcome.

Anyway, color me impressed so far. Square has seriously outdone themselves this time around. The only pity I can think of is that you have to wait so long between these titles ... I might actually fork over the $600 for a PS3 if they had one of these on deck for the launch (or even the first year ...).

I haven't fired up the old PS2 in ages and it takes me a lot to get into a console game these days. FF clearly isn't for everyone, but you can't deny the imagery and story is just stunning. Wow.

[Skull Leader]

I picked up on the star-wars similarities pretty quickly (you forgot to mention the presence of a "cloud-city", lol) I agree though, it's not over done.

I'm thoroughly enjoying this one so far... they even have the presence of mind to tell you when you're saving that it may be a bit before you get back to a free-roaming time again, which is good to save on a second slot (until you complete that section)

LOL, to be fair, blitz-ball was one of the few things I actually enjoyed about FFX (you know it's bad when you play FFX more for the blitz ball than just about anything else)

Edited November 6, 2006 by Skull Leader

[Seven]

Yeah, I brought up all the Star Wars references months back when I first started playing the game. Some are really obvious like you guys listed:

1) Evil empire/good rebellion

2) Princess fighting an evil empire

3) General thought to be a loonie

4) Roguish pirate/smuggler flying a fast ship with furry sidekick (although Fran is a lot more attractive than Chewie )

5) Impetuous naive blonde kid wanting to explore the world

6) Mist = Force

7) Judges are similar to Stormtroopers/Darth Vader

Bounty hunters on the trail of the roguish pirate

There are more but some are spoilers.

[mister_e]

I had no interest in this game before its release. I had no intention to buy it either. However, I was a Circuit City this Saturday and they had it on sale for $37.99 and, on impulse, I went ahead and bought a copy. Boy am I glad I did. I'm only about 9-10 hours in, but so far I've loved every minute. This game is very addicting. I'm also really digging the Gambit system. It makes it more about the strategy than the actual button pushing. The Gambit system can be a bit of a double-edged sword though, as I have already caused many deaths due to poorly thought-out Gambits. To be fair, the game warns you that such danger exists, but you can't always know if a Gambit is going to work out or not until you try .

Oddly enough the least interesting character in the entire game (thus far) is Vaan. Why is this brat the main character when there are other more awesome characters like Balthier and Basch? To add insult to injury, I also think Vaan has the poorest voice acting in the game (again, thus far). It's not terrible, but it just annoys me a tad.

[Duke Togo]

The best thing that can be said about this game is that its just flat out fun to play. Besides the storyline, the music, the graphics, its just plain fun.

I'm level 24, around 31 hours in, at the Dragon in Golmore Jungle.

[Duke Togo]

Oh, now this isn't fair. Level 26, 3 Quickenings each, and Dragon Mail and the Deathbringer on Vaan and Basch. Can you say "zero damage"? Nevermind I put out about 1300 a hit!