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What was the consensus on FF XII?

 
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Ebrey



Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: Los Angeles

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 8:53 pm    Post subject: What was the consensus on FF XII?    Reply with quote

I never checked the old FFXII thread because it was long, and I wasn't buying any games at the time. I might be ready for a new RPG in the coming months, however. So what was the OVERALL opinion on FFXII? Not your opinion, but something like this:

Everyone liked the story, but people were mixed on the gameplay. Those who liked number crunching loved it, but those who wanted varied level design grew bored.
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SplashBeats
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 8:57 pm        Reply with quote

Actually, it was more some people liked the story, a lot of people liked the gameplay.
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BalbanesBeoulve
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Joined: 04 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:07 pm        Reply with quote

Everyone liked it except extralife.
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Toups
tyranically banal


Joined: 03 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:31 pm        Reply with quote

BalbanesBeoulve wrote:
Everyone liked it except extralife.

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nothingxs
various methods of escape


Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Location: Miami, FL

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:19 pm        Reply with quote

Mister Toups wrote:
BalbanesBeoulve wrote:
Everyone liked it except extralife.

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Gin
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Joined: 05 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:31 pm        Reply with quote

It was very good, but somewhat lacking in content in retrospect.


It was extremely pretty. The designs for the Espers, for example, were fantastic.

The plot was refreshing, and pretty good, but it was immensely thin.

In fact it was a lot like originally it had as much content as FFT or Vagrant Story, and the about 75% of it was removed and we were left with a skeleton of a plot, with your main characters tacked on and sort of shoehorned into the game, so you had a sort of flimsy cast of heroes, along with a lot of other far better designed villains and side characters, whose character developement no longer fit into the game.

As a result, the entire passage through the game, a lot happens without a lot of you causing anything to happen, a lot of characters have incredible emotional moments without us knowing a damn thing about them.

Everything aside from the plot though, the gameplay, hunts, sidequests and stuff, were pretty great.

They would be a lot better with some motivation, or any sort of sense of plot progress.
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Gin
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:33 pm        Reply with quote

Also, it did a lot to remove the bullshitness of RPGs, most of which will be completely ignored in future games.
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gooktime



Joined: 04 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:05 pm        Reply with quote

Gabranth was a pretty cool character
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haze
la belle poney sans merci


Joined: 04 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:08 pm        Reply with quote

Final Fantasy fans will hate it.
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Felix
unofficial repository


Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Location: vancouver

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:08 pm        Reply with quote

gilgamesh fight was about as far as i cared to go with the super duper optional stuff, made my gambits nigh-useless about fifty percent of the time no matter how hard i refined them (and oh how i refined them - the fifty percent they did work i was grateful for and proud of, let me tell you), and in general was the most fantastically challenging thing i have done in an rpg in a long long time.

but, uh, yeah, they did kind of streamline the plot along with the gameplay. for whatever reason. ging.. hit it spot on (?!).
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Agent Orange



Joined: 05 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:19 pm        Reply with quote

Sucked!





Hint: Go read those threads, really, there's some good discussion in them.
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108
fairy godmilf


Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: oakland, california

PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 2:02 am        Reply with quote

my SPOILAR-FREE REVIEW will be up pretty soon.

toups has read it.

right, toups?
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inmatarian
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Joined: 04 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 2:11 am        Reply with quote

Zodiac Spear + Self:Haste + Self:Bravery + Self:Berserk = AND YOU WILL KNOW MY NAME IS THE LORD WHEN I LAY MY VENGEANCE UPON THEE.
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RecessRapist
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 2:25 am        Reply with quote

Its great and all, but I personally think there's too much to do :(

Like I really want those secret espers but I'm still far from being done with the other hunts and stuff. And these days I really can't find the motivation to play it. Like I got the game the day it came out and I just recently made it to the phon coast and I'm almost 50 hours in the game.
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special blend



Joined: 06 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 4:19 am        Reply with quote

WTF is up with some of those puzzles? It took me forever to figure out the "Dusty Letter" one, and I've pretty much given up on the optional ones in the Sochen Cave Palace.

Also, the one with the zodiac-named switches and gates gets a thumbs down.
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special blend



Joined: 06 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 4:29 am        Reply with quote

if anyone can point me in the direction of FF12 developer interviews, that would be great

also, was the EB bonus disc any good?
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another coma
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Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: the wrong museum

PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 4:44 am        Reply with quote

special blend wrote:
WTF is up with some of those puzzles? It took me forever to figure out the "Dusty Letter" one, and I've pretty much given up on the optional ones in the Sochen Cave Palace.

Also, the one with the zodiac-named switches and gates gets a thumbs down.


yeah, I'm not going to feel bad in the least for using an FAQ with those.
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Pijaibros



Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Location: Casino Night Zone

PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 5:06 am        Reply with quote

I didn't even bother using a FAQ. I just ignored them! If they can't make it solvable by my standards of logic, screw it! I'm an adventurer, not a scholar! Besides if all they unlocked were Espers, it's not worth it. Unless someone here found a proper use for them?

Instead my team just went to clean up all the hunts that were available at the guild. Good fun, big prizes!

All that is left is to go up to the battleship and perform the final story portion. I know there's probably some bonus things after the game, but I have no motivation to go up there and do it. Those final fights against Pandemonium, Fafnir, and all those other Rank VI and VII marks just took it out of me.

Still, a fine 120 hours that was. I may want to replay this like 5 years down the road so I keep it around still.
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special blend



Joined: 06 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 5:42 am        Reply with quote

Pijaibros wrote:
I didn't even bother using a FAQ. I just ignored them! If they can't make it solvable by my standards of logic, screw it! I'm an adventurer, not a scholar! Besides if all they unlocked were Espers, it's not worth it. Unless someone here found a proper use for them?

Instead my team just went to clean up all the hunts that were available at the guild. Good fun, big prizes!

All that is left is to go up to the battleship and perform the final story portion. I know there's probably some bonus things after the game, but I have no motivation to go up there and do it. Those final fights against Pandemonium, Fafnir, and all those other Rank VI and VII marks just took it out of me.

Still, a fine 120 hours that was. I may want to replay this like 5 years down the road so I keep it around still.


Yeah, those high rank marks totally sour you on playing through the story portions.

Who here would buy an expansion?
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negativedge
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Joined: 04 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 5:46 am        Reply with quote

nothingxs wrote:
Mister Toups wrote:
BalbanesBeoulve wrote:
Everyone liked it except extralife.


Yeah, I sold my copy. Worst twenty dollar net loss ever :(
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Mr Stegosaurus



Joined: 05 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 7:45 am        Reply with quote

Pijaibros wrote:
I didn't even bother using a FAQ. I just ignored them! If they can't make it solvable by my standards of logic, screw it! I'm an adventurer, not a scholar! Besides if all they unlocked were Espers, it's not worth it. Unless someone here found a proper use for them?.


Yeah, a couple of the (hidden) Espers were really good -- Zalera and Zeromus.

Zalera: two things. First, Zalera just casts Kill all the time if he's got nothing else to do, so he's good for walking through a dungeon, killing every enemy as it appears. Second, Zalera's final attack's only requirement is an enemy with 25% HP, and it does an unblockable 9999 damage. Most enemies will take LESS damage when they get low on life, but Zalera is strongest when all of your other attacks are weakest. Only one mist charge, too! I cheaped my way through the end of quite a few otherwise too hard boss fights, throwing ethers at my Zalera caster. I summoned Zalera more than the other twelve espers put together.

Zeromus: Zeromus has two (Max HP - Corrent HP = damage) attacks, so cast Bubble, hit him with a stick, and watch him do 15,000 damage every couple seconds.
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Agent Orange



Joined: 05 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 9:14 am        Reply with quote

Ging wrote:
Also, it did a lot to remove the bullshitness of RPGs, most of which will be completely ignored in future games.


I keep hearing this and it's just WRONG.
The game doesn't remove the worst bullshit, it keeps it, stresses it even.
Beacause you don't have anything to do besides fiddling around with the gambits before a boss, all the games and the genres flaws become painfully visible.

So I picked up the game again yesterday and went through Giruvegan. It was disgusting. The storytelling and leveldesign in this section are of the worst I've ever seen. And most parts of the game were pretty similar to it.
What you get there is: An extremely boring dungeon made up of 2 different floor-tiles, stretched over 2 maps, filled with 3 kinds of enemies (in no way a challenge to beat, they just take a lot of hits) and fucking switch-"puzzles" (To make sure the player doesn't rush the area, he's forced to walk around and hit 3 switches before the force-field to the next section lowers). Then, a boss appears. Completely unmotivated, just for the sake of being a boss. He's not some animal-like beast living there, nor a keeper of some sacred item, not sent after you by the Archadian Empire or anything. Just "Booh, Bossfight. Bring It On! Okbye..." What follows is another switch-maze and another boss (an esper this time, whose presence throughout the game is never explained either, despite the party having to fight several of them).

If Squenix left away the bullshit, then what do you call this? Were it not for the more or less pretty graphics, this fails even the most basic requirements I could come up with for a videogame. It's repetitive, doesn't have any challenge and is barely motivated by any kind of storytelling.

If I hadn't already sacrified 70hrs of my life to FFXII I'd delete my savegame now, but I keep heraring the last few hours are better and I don't want those 70h wasted for nothing.

Hell, Kingdom Hearts 2 was crap but at least it wasn't 70h long.
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Intentionally Wrong



Joined: 05 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 9:27 am        Reply with quote

There's a surprising amount of depth to the gameworld hidden away in the bestiary and item descriptions and such. The espers are just another fact of life when your reality came about from supernatural origins. The fact that the party encounters several of them demonstrates how significant the party is in terms of the world's powers, as a counterbalance to the way others always dictate exactly what the hell it is you're supposed to be doing. Wheels within wheels, so to speak.
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haze
la belle poney sans merci


Joined: 04 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 10:11 am        Reply with quote

i think it did a good job eliminating RPG bullshit! okay i'm just kidding, "eliminates RPG bullshit" has been credited to every single RPG that does the slightest thing different since Dragon Quest and I'm sick of hearing it.

now if they'd just get rid of the FF bullshit it'd be awesome. IT WOULD BE VAGRANT STORY 2.
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Agent Orange



Joined: 05 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 12:36 pm        Reply with quote

Intentionally Wrong wrote:
There's a surprising amount of depth to the gameworld hidden away in the bestiary and item descriptions and such. The espers are just another fact of life when your reality came about from supernatural origins. The fact that the party encounters several of them demonstrates how significant the party is in terms of the world's powers, as a counterbalance to the way others always dictate exactly what the hell it is you're supposed to be doing. Wheels within wheels, so to speak.


If only this demonstration weren't so vague/hidden in the bestiary!
The game doesn't in the slightest way engage the player by, say, presenting these facts in an interesting manner, embedded in the plot or the narration.
This bugs me a lot. There's so much stuff there in form of textfiles in the bestiary, just no one ever put any effort into the presentation.

The game expects the player to read through all this in between grinding levels? That's ridiculous, Squenix better does it's homework next time. I seriously doubt it though.
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Triton



Joined: 05 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 1:56 pm        Reply with quote

haze wrote:
now if they'd just get rid of the FF bullshit it'd be awesome. IT WOULD BE VAGRANT STORY 2.


FF12 practically already is vagrant story 2, stylistically at least. In terms of design it is in certain ways as well. Status effects are useful on bosses? Thats something from VS, not FF. The level design is also much like VS, very mechanical and incredibly thorough, with tons of little details that could easily pass your eye. I like that they kept the story light and simple, i was afraid it would be over-wrought like VS or FFT.

Agent Orange wrote:
The game doesn't remove the worst bullshit, it keeps it, stresses it even.

Well I get that you don't like the game, but I think you're talking about a totally different type of tedium here. For instance, in FFX, by the 30 hour mark, i had what I called "The Magic Machine" basically it was a sequence of commands that simply let me nuke forever, without ever running out of MP, the only real choices i was making during battle was just appealing to the weak element of whatever monster i was fighting. I usually come up with a similar 'system' in most RPGs I play. Just a self-sustaining strategy that would allow me to continuously kill monsters. For me, the fun of an RPG is coming up with a strategy given the choices that the game offers me, and I derive satisfaction from watching said strategy work smoothly. I also enjoy tweaking this strategy, expanding it as the game offers new options, and sometimes throwing it all away and coming up with a new one, just to see if it works.

Pressing X over and over with memory cursor is not the gameplay, it's a requisite to see if your strategy works, The gambit system completely removes what I considered to be the most tedious facet of RPGs. The gambit system IS the gameplay of FF12, if you don't like it, you won't like the game.

Intentionally Wrong wrote:
There's a surprising amount of depth to the gameworld hidden away in the bestiary and item descriptions and such.
Yes the game does have a very complete mythos, but the entire game is very intricate. It gives you a vast array of options. There's a faq at gamefaqs that purely discusses the game mechanincs and it's a really interesting read as long as you skip over the huge charts. There's a ton of stuff going on behind the scenes that I didn't overtly notice until i had read it. Did you know that the current weather affects which black magic is strongest and can lower the accuracy of ranged weapons? If you want to buff your whole party with multiple buffs, cast them all on one character, and then have that character use the stamp tech to clone the buffs on to the others. Here's another good one, reverse+stop makes an invincible tank that can't die until it's ohko'd or dispelled. I won't even get into the massive amount of options the Nihopalaoa gives you. This is the kind of stuff that makes me play RPGs.

Agent Orange wrote:
grinding levels?

As long as you use quickenings on the bosses, you don't have to grind a single level in this game. Many people have beaten it this way. So yeah, you're grinding levels, and then complaining how the game is too easy...
Agent Orange wrote:
That's ridiculous

Seriously, you sound like you really hate it, don't suffer through it just because other people say it "gets better".
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icycalm
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Joined: 17 Dec 2006

PostPosted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 5:50 pm        Reply with quote

108 wrote:
my SPOILAR-FREE REVIEW will be up pretty soon.

toups has read it.

right, toups?



Can't wait for those new Tim Rogers reviews.

It would have been nice if the sekrit IC subsite was launched to coincide with them, but whatever, I'll take what I can get.
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