Final Fantasy XII

Prufrock

So do you like it? Do you like the changes? The characters? The story? Does it all come together to make a good game? Yes or no.

funky penguin

I likes it but its far from the best ever.

Icarian

yeah, its definitely a good rpg, but I wouldnt expect a storyline, graphics (yeah, FFX were better, but you can control the camera now...) or music in the same leagues of FFX.

The characters are good, but again theyre not the most interesting the series has ever seen

the story is still decent if unspectacular so far (im 15 hours in) and a couple of characters (Balthier and Basch) are reasonably interesting. It doesnt feel as epic to me as FF VI, FFVII OR FFX though (never played FFIX, and i never finished FFVIII)

yeah, thats a pretty mediocre verdict i suppose, i mainly play for the story, but FF fans probably will enjoy it, but just not as much as previous series entries

super_furry

Definately the best since VII and a great way to end the PS2 era. With this, Dragon Quest and Project Sylpheed, Square Enix have really come back to form after a few years in the wilderness.

shockwave

I think its pretty good, but money is scarce in this game and upgrading weapons etc is expensive, also im not that keen on the licence system kupo!

Orizio

I like it, certainly it seems better paced and more interesting then ten.Saying that Balthier and Penelo are the only characters I really like and I don't particurly see how the battle system has significantly changed.

Plus why no card games...:(

eulrin

i like it, not as engaging or as addictive as previous installments in the franchise but the plot of political drama and subterfuge is certainly intriguing and makes for enjoyable gameplay.

Battle system takes some getting used to and the gambits have to be constantly rearranged :mad:

And that DAMN camera!

steviec

I'm liking the story although it took some time to grow on me - its very different to previous Final Fantasies.

But I'm having one big problem with the game - the pacing. Maybe I'm just rubbish but it seems like I only manage to get a little tidbit about the story and then it's time for another boss my party are hopelessly underpowered against so off I go for a few hours levelling up with no actual story advancement whatsoever. The mindless grinding is reminding me of World of Warcraft and that's not a good thing.

However, so far I'm still willing to put up with it because I am liking the characters and I do want to see what happens next, if this came out a few years ago when I had more time to invest in it I'd probably have loved it but right now it feels like I have to spend far too much time going through the motions of levelling up and not enough time actually enjoying the juicy bits.

CodeMonkey

steviec wrote:

But I'm having one big problem with the game - the pacing. Maybe I'm just rubbish but it seems like I only manage to get a little tidbit about the story and then it's time for another boss my party are hopelessly underpowered against so off I go for a few hours levelling up with no actual story advancement whatsoever. The mindless grinding is reminding me of World of Warcraft and that's not a good thing.

What mindless grinding? I really don't understand this. Are people playing this like the old FF games and are just trying to overpower the bosses with brute force? Have a read at my post on http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=52856837#post52856837

Retr0gamer

steviec wrote:

I'm liking the story although it took some time to grow on me - its very different to previous Final Fantasies.

But I'm having one big problem with the game - the pacing. Maybe I'm just rubbish but it seems like I only manage to get a little tidbit about the story and then it's time for another boss my party are hopelessly underpowered against so off I go for a few hours levelling up with no actual story advancement whatsoever. The mindless grinding is reminding me of World of Warcraft and that's not a good thing.

However, so far I'm still willing to put up with it because I am liking the characters and I do want to see what happens next, if this came out a few years ago when I had more time to invest in it I'd probably have loved it but right now it feels like I have to spend far too much time going through the motions of levelling up and not enough time actually enjoying the juicy bits.

Thats exactly what put me off the game. Really annoying and boring.

CodeMonkey

Retr0gamer wrote:

Thats exactly what put me off the game. Really annoying and boring.

Yeah but I spent absolutely no time so far grinding the levels to play through the story and killing the bosses. This could change as I get more into the story but people are complaining about this from the get go and I don't see it. Plus many reviewers have praised the new battle system. It sounds like people are just no used to the new battle system and are playing it like the old FF games.

sme

i'm loving the battle system, its perfect fighting crappy annoying fiends with low exp (theres no wait for battle screen). the gambits are really handy also, unless you have a guest, your team won't run around getting killed unless you get them to.

although one thing that annoys me is when your into sandsea or lushu mines or whereever the treasure in the barrels is always crap. only once have gotten a weapon from a barrel and that was -20 strenght for most of my characters.

funky penguin

oooo i got a battle harness from one of those treasure thingies. Automatic counter attack. Aw yeah.

de5p0i1er

Its good but its no FFVII.

CodeMonkey

Quickenings are overpowered....

Here's information for people who are having problems with bosses. Learn how to chain quickenings. You should find all the info you need on a quickening faq on the internet. No idea why the game doesn't provide the basic training and explanation for it. I had a look cause it looked like it had potential and my low level characters had problems killing the marks in the mines in the sky city.

If a good quickening chain doesn't kill the boss straight off then it should at least take a huge chunk of the bosses hp off and makes the job a lot easier. You'll just need the gambits in place to cure and toss potions long enough to kill the boss. That is unless you are so underpowered that you need better gear/hp/stats.

A multi-hit quickening chain also does area damage. My level 13 Vaan and party members basically one shot the 2 judges and gang on the airship (3 hit quickening that does ~2500-3000 damage) and then one shot judge Ghis...

You're clearly not meant to level like crazy to kill bosses and my guess is later bosses won't go down that easy but it'll help. If people don't learn how to use quickening then maybe boss fights are near impossible without spending hours leveling.

Gizzle

One thing that piddles me off is that the monster ranking system is totally unreliable, y'know where the text colour their name is in ranks how difficult they are (blue = easy, red = hold R2)? In ten minutes I went from trouncing a rake of Black Chocobo's (red name), to being eaten alive by a Malboro Overking (blue name)...

CodeMonkey

Gizzle wrote:

One thing that piddles me off is that the monster ranking system is totally unreliable, y'know where the text colour their name is in ranks how difficult they are (blue = easy, red = hold R2)? In ten minutes I went from trouncing a rake of Black Chocobo's (red name), to being eaten alive by a Malboro Overking (blue name)...

I think the text colour determines their aggressiveness. Red means aggro, if you are in range they will attack. Green means they'll only attack if provoked but i'd expect malboro's to be always aggressive. I could be talking about something completely different.

I suspect if you look up the stats for these monsters that you'll find the malboro overking to be a much tougher monster. Malboro's always were a bitch and this one sounds like a malboro boss. Blue could maybe mean boss/special? Dunno.

SeantheMan

Bought it there the other day, only started playin it so cant really comment as of yet...seems ok though:rolleyes:

Just 1 or 2 things..

1.When my man is fighting something i have the ability to run in circles around him or back away, but even at a distance he still hits me....so whats the point ?

2.In regards to levelling to kill bosses, i know that in FF8 and i think maybe 10, that the bosses went up as you did. Ie they had a certain HP for level <50, then <70, then <100. So it could be the same here :eek: :rolleyes:

And finally, and just a silly observation from the start sequence.
You see these amazing technologically advanced ships in the sky, firing lasers and rockets and all manner of forcefields.
Then they put their troops on the ground with swords...and bow'n'arrows

CodeMonkey

SeantheMan wrote:

1.When my man is fighting something i have the ability to run in circles around him or back away, but even at a distance he still hits me....so whats the point ?

It depends on how far they really are. Try using a range weapon if you really want to kite stuff or run in a wider circle.... Or make use of the imobolize spell but I don't like that cause it's too random.

2.In regards to levelling to kill bosses, i know that in FF8 and i think maybe 10, that the bosses went up as you did. Ie they had a certain HP for level <50, then <70, then <100. So it could be the same here :eek: :rolleyes:

All monsters seems to have set levels and don't scale with character levels (unless things changes later on, i am not too far into the game). Use Libra on your guys to see basic monster stats. Plus you'll notice high level monsters roaming around the same zones just like a mmorpg so you're meant to come back later to kick their butt.

And ff8 level scaling was broken anyway. The enemy level might match yours and so does the difficulty if you are naked but with the powerful equipments and spells you get later on it makes things easy even with the level.

Retr0gamer

Why oh why are the dungeons ao bloody long in this game. It takes hours to get through them. To make matters worse they are all made out of repeating sections which coupled with the pathetic battle system makes the whole process a dull chore.

CodeMonkey

Retr0gamer wrote:

Why oh why are the dungeons ao bloody long in this game. It takes hours to get through them. To make matters worse they are all made out of repeating sections which coupled with the pathetic battle system makes the whole process a dull chore.

Lol, the battle system is not pathetic, I think you just personally don't like them. I do agree that some of the areas are unneccessarily big like that trek to sandsea past westersand. Maybe they are looking for a mature, realistic atmosphere so they scaled everything accordingly...who knows.

You don't have to fight everything though, just flee and run through them. Fights are done like in a mmorpg, that is in the open and not in a virtual arena, so it's easy to just run for it. Monster will only chase you for a shot while and get the occasional hit in. That's also how I got to that snake boss and the turtle boss in the mines without fighting more skeletons and later to sandsea.

Anima

Yeah Retro that pisses me off as well. As soon as you enter a dungeon its like "Here we go again....". Plus theres only like 2-3 save points in them which means you basically have to have 2-3 hours to spare or else you're just not getting past that dungeon. Bollacks I say. If its not fun, why is it there.

steviec

Anima wrote:

Yeah Retro that pisses me off as well. As soon as you enter a dungeon its like "Here we go again....". Plus theres only like 2-3 save points in them which means you basically have to have 2-3 hours to spare or else you're just not getting past that dungeon. Bollacks I say. If its not fun, why is it there.

Definitely agree. I love the setting and characters but I'm just sick of the fighting.


I know Final Fantasy has an 'epic' reputation to live up to, but I think FFXII would be a much better game if they cut all of the dungeons by 50% and gave us a more focussed story driven game even if it could no longer claim to last up to 100 hours.

CodeMonkey

What's the alternative? Make levels as short as previous FF titles with the new game mechanics? Imagine how quick you can finish all those other FF games if you can ignore random battles from the get go which is what fleeing in FF12 is allowing you to do.

The way I see it. It's optional if you rather run ahead and get on with the story and stay a while and fight. If you are sick of the fighting because you are grinding levels then again, you are just playing the game wrong.

Prufrock

It's starting to grow on me. I was undecided but now I like it. The quickenings make life a bit too easy....

Retr0gamer

I'm going to have to read an faq about the quickenings. Haven't a clue what I'm doing with them but they are making things easier.

As for the dungeon length I really think it's excessive. Most FF games are beaten in about 45 hours but this game seems like an absolute beast. I've heard people say it's about 80 hours without excessive levelling up and side questing. I'm some one who likes to explore every last nook and cranny so at times I'm in a dungeon over 2 hours before I reach a save point (and getting killed by some of the high level enemies wandering around is really annoying after 2 hours without saving). I wouldn't mind as much if there was some variety in the dungeons but they just seem to be copied and pasted from set tiles from a level editor

Anima

The quickenings are alright if you have 3 for each person. I think its suicide to waste all your MP on them if its not gonna kill the boss though. Having said that though, I usually just put my 3 rubbish characters in and quickening the boss then swap them with my main 3/4.

They do fairly decent damage if you string 8+ but my characters are really strong anyway from grinding in the Feywood for ages. They take 2k each and that usually brings any boss down so far in about 5 mins, especially if you have haste on them.

Also Dispel has to be the one of the best spells in the game. Each boss seems to always start with Shell, Protect or Haste on them and Dispel always works, which is nice .

CodeMonkey

Maybe the later mark bosses are much tougher. The story boss and marks I've seen so far I can take down with quickening chains. I just make use of mist charges. (in case people doesn't know, during that quickening screen, R2 reshuffles the options and you can get mist charge option to appear)

Really tough battles usually goes like this:
- main characters in play
- start quickening, try to get long chain using mist charges
- swap in one of the subs
- use the sub to initiate quickening and chain again using mist charges
- swap another sub make another chain with mist charges

Only 5/6 of my characters have quickening at the moment so I can make 3 chains. Leaving 2 main characters in the later chains means more damage cause quickening damage scales with power of character.Seems to do the job for me.

You should check out if the 3 main characters do more powerful quickening chains than your rubbish one. The faqs says it makes a big difference, that is unless they're pretty similar. And thanks for info on dispel

steviec

Are people going straight for the quickenings?

My party are all around level 23 now, one of them has 2 quickenings and none of the others have any. I picked them up as a character got near them on the license board. To pick some up for all my characters I think I'd have to make a complete beeline for them and ignore what I'm getting along the way.

Speaking of 'all my characters', 3 of my party are still under level 10 because I've had no reason to use them, I hope that's not a problem because I don't fancy going and levelling up a second group.

I've just got Decoy so I thought I could finally employ a WoW style tank but I find the effect wears off way too quickly and the character I have recasting it ends up out of MP a minute or two after a savepoint so that's not much good.

CodeMonkey

You're probably better off setting a gambit to cast decoy on your tank if any allies hp<50% or manually cast it before a boss instead of trying to have that on the tank all the time.

And I didn't go straight for quickenings. Only got them cause Fran was near one (top of group of black mage licenses). Once I found out about how useful they were I tried to pick up useful licenses along the way to the other quickenings for everyone... Guess I was lucky to find out early.

I didn't want to use Penelo or techniks so I made her go straight through those techniks and got her those quickenings. Balthier which I am also not using is sitting on a couple of hundred LPs and has no quickening. Ashe took a while to get her first one cause I wanted to make her a white mage fighter so she went all across the board picking up all the top white mage licenses. All the others were near enough to some cause I was always trying to make them specialise a little.

My highest level characters are 21, 20, 21 and the unused ones are 13, 16, 15. Not sure I'll bother leveling the unused ones but sometimes I swap one out just to spam steal and soak up exp when wandering the world. I tend to kill stuff along the way from point A to point B cause it's usually quick, I get exp, items to sell for gil and everyone gets LP. You could do something similar to that too. The low level tag alongs should level quickly if mobs gives good exp.

Orizio

Even if you chain the quickenings(I have 8 altogether and all my characters are lev 26) together against bosses the complete loss of MP leaves you pretty limited for the rest of the battle.Not worth it in my opinion.

BTW if you have an esper on one specific character can that charcater not use quickenings or what?

The lack of money in the game is annoying as hell and the rewards for successful hunts are a little meagre imo.