Final Fantasy XII

[Seven]

I've put in about 30 minutes into the game so far and I'm very impressed. This is in comparison to FFX, where I fell asleep 10 minutes into it and never had interest to pick it up again. The "square dance" fight mechanics turned me off or maybe I was dead tired from work. FFXII's new system manages to keep my attention with full 3D movement during battle. The graphics are incredibly well done, but you can see where the PS2 has reached its limit graphicwise. The levels feel expansive and Matsuno really outdid himself with creating a whole world that is immersive and very unique. The amount of detail explodes everywhere from every nook and cranny.

In true Matsuno fashion, within the first few minutes there are corpses everywhere and daggers in people's backs. I always thought it was funny how the death tally just kept going up in Final Fantasy Tactics as the story progressed and quite a few by dagger stabbing or impaling in some fashion. Matsuno hasn't changed that. I just wish I knew what the hell was going on given the amount of menus and political dialogue being thrown about.

One thing that pops into my mind is how the "different" Final Fantasy games tend to come to consoles only when impetus has switched to a new upcoming console. FF9 went old school and was the last FF for PSX, while FF12 will be the last for PS2.

[wolfx]

Images of FFXIII out.....

http://www.the-magicbox.com/0605/game060512c.shtml

[JB0]

One thing that pops into my mind is how the "different" Final Fantasy games tend to come to consoles only when impetus has switched to a new upcoming console.  FF9 went old school and was the last FF for PSX, while FF12 will be the last for PS2.

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And FF6 basically eliminated character class, and it was the last SNES game.

The pattern fails on the FamiCom, though. There's no real correlation between those 3.

[Seven]

Images of FFXIII out.....

http://www.the-magicbox.com/0605/game060512c.shtml

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If it weren't for the boobs in the pictures, I'd have thought we had another slightly androgynous male main character.

I don't know why, but the girl reminds me of Terra for some weird reason.

I'm wondering if they are going to change up the battle system for FF13. I'll bet that they won't keep the battle system from FF12. IMO, it would just seem weird to go back to an antiquated ATB type system with random encounters on the new console.

[chrono]

At first I thought it was a guy also, but then I saw the tail and thought that's a differently dressed Yuna clone from FF10. But what I didn't see was what system it's for....

Hey I thought that they dropped the Random Encounters in 12!?!?

[Seven]

At first I thought it was a guy also, but then I saw the tail and thought that's a differently dressed Yuna clone from FF10. But what I didn't see was what system it's for....

Hey I thought that they dropped the Random Encounters in 12!?!?

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They did drop them for 12. I prefer the system in 12 in every way possible. I always did find it silly for the characters to not see anything on the screen but then have a monster pop out of thin air.

What I was saying was that since Matsuno is probably not going to be involved with 13, seeing as how Uematsu and Matsuno seem to be on different internal teams, I doubt they will keep many of the advancements in 12 to roll over into 13. If anything, another new system will probably be implemented.

[chrono]

Well the random battle system had it's merits and probably would've lasted longer if they had simply did what they had in a few of the old NES Zelda games.

But anyways have they increased the summoning speeds any more???

[Seven]

Well the random battle system had it's merits and probably would've lasted longer if they had simply did what they had in a few of the old NES Zelda games.

But anyways have they increased the summoning speeds any more???

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I can't say first hand, since the Espers (summons) are pretty difficult to get and I am still in the relative beginning of the story. The Espers are all based on the Lucavi from Final Fantasy Tactics so you have Queklain, Hashmalum, etc which are basically analogs powerwise of the same old summons from past series. People have said that the summoning movies are much shorter and some complained about this. Its funny - some people complained about the incredibly grand and long summons in FF7 and FF8, so they shortened them or gave the user the ability to turn off the long movies, and now some people complain about the short summon movies in FF12, so its a case of a damned if you do and a damned if you don't. I personally love the espers and the summon movies for FF12, as I spoiled myself and watched a few on YouTube.

Here's some things that I have read about the summons though:

- They are difficult to get with prolonged sidequests to get to them followed by a battle that has difficult conditions (no weapons, poison effect on all allies, etc) ala the conditional battles in FFT.

- The summons themselves become useless since your main party will outclass them in damage by the point you get them. This is of course all hearsay since I haven't gotten there myself yet.

[cyde01]

hey they have a trailer for FFXIII up on IGN:

http://media.ps3.ign.com/media/826/826843/vids_1.html

my first impressions:

absolutely amazing graphics + (although they look like pre-rendered movies)

the main character looks really cool with clothing that is not waaay over the top + (at least I think so)

no metro-sexual male characters so far + (although that could change between now and the actual release date)

main character uses guns, including another gun blade thingy -

the balance between sci-fi and fantasy looks heavily biased toward sci-fi -

the pre-rendered movies have a total matrix-like slo-mo action movie look to them -

the actual in-battle footage looks insane +

the forest stage looks absolutely gorgeous +

music sounds great + (although they never use the same music in a trailer or commercial as they do in the actual game)

yeah, so i'm a bit let down by the strong sci-fi feel to the game as well as the matrix-like action sequences (how many can you see before it gets played out??) but the graphics themselves look so stunning and that combined with a character design that's actually likable and the great trailer music has actually made me look forward to a new final fantasy game for the first time in a loooong time. (and i mean, long. the last ff i played was ff7, skipped the rest based on bad character designs and bad word of mouth from people that played the games)

i'm already pretty sure i'll skip ff12..

[wolfx]

FFXIII looks AWESOMEZZZZ. Thanks for the link. I prefer it to be sci-fi personally.

I swear i designed a gunblade similar to the one she has. Damn you Square ENIX!! Not sure if the battle is turn based or real time, but the main char looks like she's capable of matrix-like acrobatics. Her armour sizzles with energies as she does flips....so i'm assuming she has some kinda anti-grav device or something.

[cyde01]

FFXIII looks AWESOMEZZZZ. Thanks for the link. I prefer it to be sci-fi personally.

I swear i designed a gunblade similar to the one she has. Damn you Square ENIX!! Not sure if the battle is turn based or real time, but the main char looks like she's capable of matrix-like acrobatics. Her armour sizzles with energies as she does flips....so i'm assuming she has some kinda anti-grav device or something.

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oh how quickly your tune changes..

you didn't seem too excited when you posted the screenshots.

i know you can't argue taste but my taste is definitely more towards the old school games, with characters based on traditional ff classes/jobs and worlds that were much more fantasy like and enchanted, rather than the cyber punk look this brief trailer seems to have.

and i really think the matrix "slo-mo floating in the air action scene" has been done waaay too much in games and movies/tv. just as the late director john frankenheimer did, i always thought action scenes should be quick, jarring, and violent, like action is in real life. not slow and graceful and extremely artificial like the matrix.

what i do want to note though is the battle system looks very much action oriented rather than turn-based. and what's really stunning is, it's almost impossible to tell the difference graphics-wise between the battle sequences and the pre-rendered movies. the only way i could tell was that some scenes had the menu screen super imposed over them, while some didn't. that's how action-packed and graphically amazing they were.

"A collective gasp was heard in the audience when the movie went from what appeared to be pre-rendered footage to a full set of menus indicating that nearly everything we saw was made using the in-game engine." that's a quote from the article on IGN about the demo at E3.

as far as her armor "sizzling with energies," i thought that was her casting the spell haste, shell, or float on herself, and not an anti-grav device. but then again, i'm probably wrong. people don't seem to think old school anymore, including the game designers.

it's probably way too early to critique anything tho and i'm sure square-enix is not gonna release anymore details until after ffxii has been out for a while. we're probably not gonna see the release of xiii for over a year.

ps: apparently xiii is gonna be part of a collection of 3 games called Fabula Nova Crystallis. this will include another PS3 game (with a character that looks a lot like one of the Sephiroth clones from Advent Children) and a game for mobile hand held devices. i'm not sure if that means portable game systems or cel phones and PDAs. the 3 games aren't gonna be sequels or prequels to each other but are related in "mythology" only.

edited grammar and added quote from IGN

Edited May 17, 2006 by cyde01

[wolfx]

oh how quickly your tune changes.. 

you didn't seem too excited when you posted the screenshots. 

Oh come on. What can you tell from the screenshots? Practically nothing except that the main character isn't a metrosexual male.

The trailer was really jaw dropping. In one scene, she anti-gravs the "dogs" that were pouncing on her, slowing them down, then proceeds forward to slash a few soldiers and then she fires a spell/explosive behind to where the dogs were then the explosion damages all the units on the screen.....this can mean some things.

Its still ATB turn based but with a limit of more enemies on the screen? (in contrast with the traditional 3-4 enemies on screen at any one time)

3rd person real time but able to do special moves ala Kingdom Hearts 2?

I am quite sure the armour is some form of anti grav cause everytime her armour has that blue sizzle, she appears to be weightless.