Since it's tradition for me to get each new FF release, yesterday had me twitching back and forth. I was going to save for Wii but...it's FF! I money left over for my Wii + Zelda fund, but whatever. FF! The thing is, around the release for this thing, I wasn't particularly excited for it. I mean, I wanted it because it's FF, but in terms of "Oh man I need to play this now!" scale, it was probably 4/10, which is shocking considering it's FF!
I'm enjoying myself, but I'm definitely not having as much fun as I had when I played FFIV, VI - X for the first time. Still, it's definitely a good game. I think the over exposure of FF has nulled my excitement and love for the series, but whatever. It's FF!
+ The political/war story is traditional Matsuno at work here. Any fan of this man's work will instantly feel right at home: acroynms for almost every thing with a deep, twisted political / war plot leading the way. I just want to say that with this FF, as pre-release hype was hoping for, our baby has finally grown up.
+ In terms of presentation, I have not been this impressed with a Final Fantasy since my first one, FFVII. It truly feels like Final Fantasy recreated. From the narrator's voice with the history book looming in the background, to the size and scope of the capital Rabanastre, this is what I was hoping for a next generation Final Fantasy 5 years ago (damn!). Square Enix has brought Ivalice to life like no other world they've worked on before. I am really, really, impressed with the presentation.
+ While the music is generic, and Sakimoto can do way better, the music fits the mood extremely well.
+ The atmosphere, has been expertly crafted to a tee. Citizens buying goods in shops and buying their groceries; orphan children lying in dirty pavement; Rabanatrans chatting and mingling and doing just practically everday things. It's a joy, really, to experience mmorpg level scope in a console game. Hell, a Japanese rpg no less. If there's one negative thing I can say about the size of Rabanastre so far, it's that it's actually too big, which is shocking coming from me (I have a large city/town/world fetish when it comes to games like this). Actually, it's not the size per se, it's the fact that there doesn't seem to be that many important locations in the area, making a lot of the traveling through the city feel like dead time until you reach your next destination.
+ The battle system, as was presented in the demo, atleast so far, is pretty fun. The game is actually moderate in difficulty already. I found a T-rex out in the desert and it killed me in one hit!
+ The cutscene direction, and voice acting in general, are absolutely amazing. In fact, the entire localization for Final Fantasy XII should be praised as a new high standard when it comes to this stuff. The time and effort that went into making the dialouge full of so much life, is to be truly admired. Ofcourse, since this is Smith, the translator/localizer for Vagrant Story, Phoenix Wright;etc. this is to be expected. That guy is truly a talent.
- While the difficulty is already moderate, the need to grind is necessity as well. Items costs way too much. 70 Gil for potions? wtf maybe I'm off rocker but I swear that should cost..10-20 gill a piece? Bah. Gill is extremely hard to come by in FFXII, and in order to get some cash you're going to have to sell some loot, which is found by murdering animals in the area.
- The fetch quests. Okay, setting up the story is fine and all, but I don't really want to find this gem in order to get into a certain place that will not be mentioned for fear of spoilers.
- As was said before, the city can seem like it's TOO big. Wow, this city is so huge I'm sure it'd take atleast 2-3 more hours just to get used to it.
I prefer playing the game solo than with a party member. Wow, it's a drastic difference and playing solo with active mode is hectic sometimes. I don't get the complaints about the "game plays itself" just yet and I found the little that I experienced with the Gambit system so far to be really useful and it breaks down the tedium in a lot of ways.
What's funny is that I'm usually against grinding but grinding in FFXII is surprisingly fun. The battles are fast, and playing solo is so fucking fun. Exploring the enviroments and trying to fight every monster you see is half the fun. The werewolves killed me in one hit though!
The license board, while a good idea, is already starting to get annoying however. I really hate having to have a license to bear certain shields, swords;etc. I was hoping this would work via type, not the weapon/armor specifically. I had a Eschelon (or whatever) shield in my inventory for a long while and then I finally got the license. =/ It reminds me of DDS2 in that you can you completely customize your characters, and strategy in using the board is required, but I'm liking DDS2's take a lot more.
And wow, this game is hard already! I haven't had this much trouble at the beginning of an FF since the early ones. I've died about 5 times already. Those dino's with the big feet catch me off guard sometimes. Their stomp move will rape you, that is a given.
