Final Fantasy XII Demo Preview

Kiith

just to let you all know, a demo was released recently with the U.S version of Dragon Quest VIII.

heres a preview
http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?pager.offset=4&cId=3145629

My thoughts?? well, first off, the missions thing from FFX-2 is a total bull****. i absolutly hated it, and it better not be a main point of the game. i do like that random battles are gone, since they could be annoying at time.

cant really say if its gonna be a proper ff yet, since the demo is very basic, but we can all hope.

also, why do all the main male characters in ff games, look like such girls??

evad_lhorg

I am more interested in Dragon quest VIII tbh.

Retr0gamer

Same here. It's not an internally developed Square-Enix game either. FFXII on the other hand just looks odd. Battle system looks rubbish. It's a MMORPG battle system. For feck sake you don't even have to press attack. I hope i'm proven wrong.

The Free Man

Retr0gamer wrote:

I hope i'm proven wrong.

hope you are too. i mean, what was wrong with atb/turn based battles

grimloch

I think I posted some similar yokes at some stage.

Personally I'm optimistic about the game but won't be too surprised it it's crap. For god sake they've been making the thing for long enough, it would take new levels of incompetence for it to be a poor game. That being said it could be filled with useless annoying crappy quest type thingies.

I certainly hope it turns out well because I've been rather unimpressed with anything bearing the Square-Enix" mark recently.

Retr0gamer

If you want high levels of incompetence play FFX-2 and the disgracefully disappointing FF tactics advance and Front Mission 4. However I did enjoy Vagrant Story and the same team is behind this, although I hated the battle system of VS.

hope you are too. i mean, what was wrong with atb/turn based battles

Never really liked ATB. Thought it was a terrible stab at a real time slant to the combat. The combat in FF3 (japanese FF3) was far more tactical than any fight in a game afterwards which usually degenerated into trying to select your moves before the CPU atacked you. Just look at how much better and tactical the turn based systems in Grandia and co. and the sublime system in FFX are compared to ATB. The MMO styling of FFXII is a major step back for me. It seems like Square wanted to promote FFXI and forced the developer to use a similar system. This system is used in MMO's because it is the only one that works not because it is tactical and fun. Diablo and WoW are fun with lots of players but dull as ditch water if you are dungeon crawling on your own.

miss_cheif

I completely agree with you on the whole, boys look like girls thing, (whats up with the main character in XII. In a funny way he reminds me of Michael Jackson.)

The ffx-2 mission based story line was really really bad too.

I've heard about the demo for VII spinoff, but I read in a PS2 magazine a while back that the game itself was meant to be out in august. Is this true?

The Free Man

Retr0gamer wrote:

Never really liked ATB. Thought it was a terrible stab at a real time slant to the combat. The combat in FF3 (japanese FF3) was far more tactical than any fight in a game afterwards which usually degenerated into trying to select your moves before the CPU atacked you. Just look at how much better and tactical the turn based systems in Grandia and co. and the sublime system in FFX are compared to ATB. The MMO styling of FFXII is a major step back for me. It seems like Square wanted to promote FFXI and forced the developer to use a similar system. This system is used in MMO's because it is the only one that works not because it is tactical and fun. Diablo and WoW are fun with lots of players but dull as ditch water if you are dungeon crawling on your own.

yea turn based is better, i loved the system in X. but when you get used to an atb system it almost becomes a turn based system, because youre entering commands so quickly.

i asked what was wrong with it because i still think atb is better than an mmo style, for the same reasons you gave about mmo fighting.

Kiith

ok, so i played through the demo last night, and its totally different to any final fantasy so far. it looks similar to ffx, but the combat is completly new. it doesnt seem like a turn based fight system at all, and i kind of like it. the magic is also good, with white, black, blue and green magic. the first summon also looks pretty cool.

as for the missions, it seems ok, but they better not be a main part of the game, but instead just a way of getting money.

so im more interested in it nowm and will keep a closer eye on it.

ps. also played some breath of fire viii. seems quite good...if a little wierd.

The Free Man

giz a lend of the demo

grimloch

Kiith wrote:

as for the missions, it seems ok, but they better not be a main part of the game, but instead just a way of getting money....

On no, mission based games....

Are they missions in the sense of FFX-2 or was it like the first mission you have in FFVII?

Kiith

grimloch wrote:

Are they missions in the sense of FFX-2 or was it like the first mission you have in FFVII?

they seemed more like the x-2 ones, where you have a set task, and you get a mission complete when you do it, which will annoy me to no end.

The Free Man wrote:

giz a lend of the demo

ah, im afraid i couldnt do that...its illegal to give out games. as for where i got it...well thats for me to know and the *internet police* to find out

*who actually enforces copyright protection of computer games?