Final Fantasy XII: First Impressions

Kiith

Ok, so a copy of FFXII recently came into my hands, and i figured i'd give you my first (19hrs played ) impressions. I'll try keep it spoiler free, and will use tags if necessary.

Story: So far, i really like the story. Your main character is Vaan, a young thief who lives in Dalmasca, which has been conquered by the Empire of Archadia (All in the intro). He's a decent character, similar in looks to a younger Tidus, just less annoying. You also get Penello, Vaan's childhood friend early on. All the voices are done quite well imo. Some of them are quite different, but they all seem to fit the characters well.

Combat: This is a major change from previous Final Fantasy games. Anyone who's played the demo knows what i mean, bye bye random combat Its an easy enough system, but some of the Mist (special) moves are a bit confusing. Summons are done similar to FFX, where the Summon (or Esper) fights beside whoever summons it. It lasts a certain amount of time (or when it gets to low health), then casts its Super spell. Only have one of these so far, but it looks pretty cool. Some of the fights can be tough at times. I've had to do a bit of levelling (it is final fantasy after all), which can be annoying.

Overall: I really like it so far. I'm enjoying the fact that there's no random battles (even if enemies do tend to appear out of no where), and i really like the story (still pretty sure we dont have the full story, which again, is typical of a FF game). The FMV's are amazing, and the voice acting is great. All in all, i'd say its a good step for the series, and will keep my entertained for at least another 30-40 hrs (hopefully )

Retr0gamer

I'm still waiting no my copy to, eh, arrive. I'm quite worried about the combat in this game. From the demo it seems that there is absolutely no skill involved. I feel it's a step backwards from the FFX battle system which was immensely enjoyable and strategic despite the random battles. It felt like a poor mans KOTOR and I hated the battle system in KOTOR.

Ho-Hum

Is this out yet in Ireland? If it is where can I get it?

Retr0gamer

Not out until March here.

Kiith

Ya, the combat seemed a bit strange at first. But after a bit of time with it, and realising that i can change my characters during a fight (as long as they arent currently being targeted) like in Final Fantasy X, i came to like it. I still probably prefer the combat in 10, since it seemed quite fluid.

Stoichkov

What's the difficulty level like? I found that FFX was horribly easy, especially with the way save points replenished your hp/mp.

I hope they've made it more challenging than the cakewalk that X was.

grimloch

Stoichkov wrote:

What's the difficulty level like? I found that FFX was horribly easy, especially with the way save points replenished your hp/mp.

I hope they've made it more challenging than the cakewalk that X was.

By and large, the FF games haven't been even remotely challenging since the 2D days.

Retr0gamer

The FF games have been very easy except a few titles were there was a massive difficulty spike for the last boss. I found FFX very challenging and also rewarding but then again I didn't spend anytime levelling up. Think it was a much better experience since the bosses really took a lot of strategy to beat.

You mentioned that you had to level up a few times in the game. Don't like the sound of that. I hate being forced to level up, it just seems like an unnatural way of lengthening a game with something tedious and unconstructive rather than fun.

Vokes

I must be getting old, I found one or two the bosses in FFX quite taxing

Kiith

Well, i had a dungeon type place that really, really annoyed me, so i tended to run away alot. They say there's no random battles, but there's still plenty of random enemies appearing out of no where. That might be why i have to level up a bit. The boss i'm on now is bloody tough, so i have to do it again.

One problem i found, is that if you summon an esper, only the person who summons him will get any exp, which is why Vaan (who i gave the first summon to) is about 5 levels higher then anyone else.

grimloch

Allegedly there were one or two difficulty spikes in X alright, I personally can't say one way or the other as my characters were almays much stronger than they should have been.

Thankfully for anyone who found things hard, the system permitted you to see exactly when the boss was going to attack, provided he/she didn't have the ability to counter-attack, and then allow the player to summon an Aeon and use it as a meat shield if things were going badly.

Retr0gamer

FFX had some really tough bosses if you didn't waste your life levelling up. Every boss from Seymour in the snowy mountain place onwards provided a tough challenge but if you used the right tactics it was never impossible. The only boss I needed to level up on was the final boss since it was a huge dfficulty spike there. I necer level up in games unless absolutely necessary and when it is I'm not happy about it. I find level grinding monotonous, tedious and totally unnecessary.

DarthWraak

Solution to all of FFX's difficult parts...

Yojimbo's overdrive FTW!

That is all

Nehpets

this is a totally new storyline right?

not another x-2 thing?

DarthWraak

Well of course it would be a different storyline, it is called FF 12..

Kiith

Well, its a totally new storyline, in a world called Ivalice, which is where Final Fantasy: Tactics was set. Since i never played it, i can't say if theres any similarities, other then the world/different races etc...

Can't play it for a few days, as my housemate took his "special" ps2 back home for the weekend

nix

I myself love the FF series and cant wait to sink my teeth into this one, however i fear i wont play it all the way through as im just a multiplayer whore now. Games like CSS and WoW are played at a consistant level, ive bought many single player games over the last few years only to toss them aside and never get around to playing them, that didnt happen with FFX, however its been a long time since that was released and i fear my addiction to multi gaming has increased and may prevent me from enjoying this one.

Anyway enough of my random babble, whats the magic system like in your opinion?? I hope the spell system is something simular to the Materia system, as i prefer to discover my skills rather than gain them automatically. I'll even settle with something as simular as the ****ty draw system

Kiith

nix wrote:

Anyway enough of my random babble, whats the magic system like in your opinion?? I hope the spell system is something simular to the Materia system, as i prefer to discover my skills rather than gain them automatically. I'll even settle with something as simular as the ****ty draw system

Afraid you'll be dissapointed then. Its fairly similar to X, except that you have to learn the skill ability (like White/Black/Green/Time Magic) to different levels, and then go and buy the spells themselves. So you learn White Magic 1, then go buy Cure. You learn them in a similar way to X, with a type of grid that you spend license points on. You get you upgrades there (like Swords 2/+50 health etc...)

edit...and yes, i realise that was a pretty bad explaination...i'll do a better one later.

Retr0gamer

Alright here are my initial impressions. Now these are from the first 2 and a half hours of play so they are quite rough.

CGI is stunning but not full screen which is a disappointment. There is widescreen mode support and pro logic which is nice. First thing I noticed is that it feels nothing like a Final Fantasy game. It feels far more like Vagrant Story. Everything from the art, character models, complicated politics and the fact that it is much darker and violent leads me to believe this. Not surprising considering it came from the same team behind Vagrant Story. Even the playable prologue part is very vagrant story. In terms of the feel the game is closer to FF tactics (the PS1 game not the disgraceful GBA one), another vagrant story team game. The battle system also is completely different and still. Real time battle systems have never worked the best systems from Grandia, FFX and Dragon Quest have all been turn based. This one feels a bit like Diablo or and MMORPG. Usually the bad battle systems in these games are cancelled by the social element which isn't present in FFXII. the Story seems to be rather good. At least there are no random battles. don't like the overly complicated license system and the towns can be a little bit too big. Voice acting is of a very standard.

Despite my greivances about the battle system the game is very enjoyable over all and the plot seems to be a good one.

Now I'm off to beat the last boss of Dragon Quest VIII who is giving me an awful pain in the arse before I play FFXII again.

Vokes

Retr0gamer wrote:

Voice acting is of a very standard.

Very good or very bad? Better or worse than X ?

Retr0gamer

Oops. It's definitely better than FFX but it's no Dragon Quest VIII. The european voice actors are wonderful but Penelo and Vaan are a little too american but nowhere near as bad as Tidus was.

DarthWraak

James Arnold Taylor should have stuck to the platformers :rolleyes:

Retr0gamer

Never mentioned the music. You won't be missing Nobuo Uematsu that much. hitoshi Sakimoto is a fantastic composer and his music is excellent. however it's also very similar to the music he did for Vagrant story and FF Tactics which doesn't help with the similarities between the two.

Retr0gamer

Right this game is annoying me now. I'm not very far in at all and I've exhausted all my pheonix downs and am being forced to level up. This is bad in itself but made even worse by the fact that the battle system is dire and the dungeons boring and samey. Boss battles are a joke, involving looking at the health bars and throwing a cure or potion to however is in need of them. Take your eyes off this and you will end up with a dead party rather quickly. Gambit system makes the game even more boring. You basically set up the characters AI and sit back and watch them take care of themselves with very little input from you.

Vaan is also really annoying.

Nippon Ichi games looking very tempting at the moment. Will give this to the 20 hour mark before I give up completely. Shame since the story and characters other than vann are rather good.

-Kosh-

Vaan annoying? Did you play Final Fantasy X??? Vaan is not only relatively palatable as a character, but he's also not so pivotal to the plot, which means he takes a backseat to all the cooler characters, like sexy sexy Balthier.

Retr0gamer

At least Tidus had his head screwed on properly. Vaan mills about moaning about everything and really hasn't the foggiest about what is going on. He's like a spoiled brat. I'd love to give him a slap.

Niall - Dahlia

Retr0gamer wrote:

Gambit system makes the game even more boring. You basically set up the characters AI and sit back and watch them take care of themselves with very little input from you.

The Gambit system is completely optional though isn't it? Or would the battles be even more of drag without it in your opinion?

Retr0gamer

It is entirely optional but it is necessary. Inputting each command would be an absolute chore and it does help when you want to heal.

Retr0gamer

Okay I amit I was a little bit harsh. Most of the problems I had are fixed once I read the IGN review and figured out some of the features I wouldn't have known unless I had the manual. Lack of money isn't a problem anymore and this in turn gets rid of difficulty spikes. Battle engine still sucks but frustration is now negated.

Anima

Is anyone having the skipping audio problem during CG scenes?

Retr0gamer

Only if I'm playing it off the hard disk. It's a problem everyone is having. There is a patch out that I tried but it didn't help. Playing it from a disk instead.