Game

[Borys]

`

[Himu]

I definitely warmed up to it the more I played.

The story and characters suck, though. But the writing is so good it doesn't really matter. At least it doesn't have hair pulling bits.

License board is trash.

[Van Cruncheon]

i'd can see how ff12 would be a polack's preferred rpg :nods

[archie4208]

Etrian Odyssey is better.

[TakingBackSunday]

Worst Final Fantasy that isn't named Final Fantasy II

[Mr. Gundam]

Fuck the haters, I loved FFXII.

[Vizzys]

- battle system
- plays and looks like an offline mmorpg
- boring music that doesnt live up to previous standards
- dumb story
+ good voice acting

not a lot going for ff12

[MCD]

Viz once again proves that he is the perfect waifu.

[magus]

FUCK NO!
ff12 is the worst thing happening to rpg since... since ever!

1) This game is FUCKING MASSIVE.

okay but how is that a positive? most of the game is made out of empty desert,or empty forest,or empty mountains or empty what you want,dragon quest 7 isn't one of my favourite rpg but it still worked because it had the decency to throw you a lot of subplot to keep you interessed,there is NOTHING in ff12

2) The graphics are AMAZING.

couldn't care less 

3) Monster design is IMPECCABLE.

they are final fantasy monsters... if anything there are a lot of monster that look kinda banal,OMG IS THAT A WOLF? IS THAT A BAT? IS THAT A SKELETON? IS THAT A BUNNY? OMG A BUNNY!
apparently non-weaboo means "use shade of gray for colors" i mean both FF:TA and FF:RW uses the same style,does that make them weaboo monster or not?

4) Battle mechanics are INGENIOUS.

i don't hate gambit perse but combat in ff12 is still very very stupid,one guy distract the monster,the other buff the guy who distract the monster,game,set,match
remember in ffx when yunaleska tried to fuck you over with the zombie status? remember the entire fight on the airship where you had to call the ship to pullback at the right time or get fucked up? those were genius,ff12 in comparison is a fart!

5) Story and characters are GREAT.

oh good lord... i need to take a breath...
one... two... three... four... five... six... seven... eight... nine... ten...
ok i'm good to go! the character of ff12 are horrible! vaan serve no purpouse,ditto penelo,basch stops mattering as soon as the plot forgets the whole "war criminal" deal,similiar dial with princesswhatshername (asche) i think the only character who ever get to say something is balthier who basicaly just act like a smug (maybe jack sparrow is a better comparison) in the entire game,give me back my weeaboo character if these blank idiots are what i have to suffer instead
 

[Himu]

I think FF12 has a lot going for it and is the step in the right direction.

Shame they took that direction back a step for ff13.

[TakingBackSunday]

FFXIII looks shit hot, despite the massive uguu~ theme thats going on with it.  They seem to be doing some neat things with the battle system and it looks like its as fast and easy to get into as FFX's battle system, clearly the best battle system ever.

[demi]

No wonder Dragon AGe is garbage. It uses the same shitty fucking Gambits

[Third]

I think FFXII will be the last great FF fame. I'm just not feeling FFXIII.

I loved FFXII so much. Spent almost 150 hours on it lol.

[Jansen]

not only is xii shitty by final fantasy standards (lol) it's just a shit game in general.

[Third]

no u

[tiesto]

i'd can see how ff12 would be a polack's preferred rpg :nods

I'm 1/2 polack and didn't care for FF12 at all...

spoiler (click to show/hide)

still beat it, did most of the hunts, and put in 90+ hours tho

[close]

[Rman]

Could never get into the game.  The demo included with Dragon Quest VIII bored me, so I never picked it up.  XIII looks promising, though.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Isn't the only real "unfinished" part the section from Mt. Bur-Omisace to Archades?  Other than that (and the ending sucking, but I don't think that's a production issue), it seems fairly continuous.

[Don Flamenco]

what's the story with the game's development?  the original guy in charge got sick or something?  I liked the game, but the story did not make a lick of sense and the characters were so melodramatic that I couldn't be bothered to care when they talked.

[recursivelyenumerable]

There were apparently a lot of technical and project-management problems, which interacted with organizational problems.

[Trent Dole]

+ good voice acting

[youtube=560,345]tUYJZ3Odm7o[/youtube]

not a lot going for ff12

[recursivelyenumerable]

The lead programmer of FFXII did a postmortem for Game Developer Magazine that apparently focused on what went wrong in development, but it's not online, only this quote is:

Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix, Taku Murata) "During the development of Final Fantasy XII, the pressure to succeed was at such a high point that we were on the brink of losing control during even the slightest misunderstanding. What happened was our team was given the freedom to make changes at various stages of development, but the adverse affect of this freedom was miscommunication, confusion, and disorder. How work was to be distributed was also often ambiguous, which contributed to the problem."  

Maybe I should buy the magazine.  There's also an interview with Kawazu where he says that when he first came in the development team was basically split into two factions that spent a lot of energy fighting with each other.

[Vizzys]

[youtube=560,345]tUYJZ3Odm7o[/youtube]

[youtube=560,345]vSyfGm6wXgs[/youtube]

[demi]

Except critics dont play games

[archie4208]

Borys is quoting Play?  The same magazine that gave Sonic 2006 an 85?

[maxy]

Nope,FFXII sucks.

[demi]

I remember abusing Mist Knacks to defeat bosses in under 5 minutes. It was lol

[OptimoPeach]

Trying to decide whether I should download this or Wild Arms 3

[magus]

wild arms 3! wild arms 3! wild arms 3! wild arms! wild arms 3! wild arms 3! wild arms 3!
(don't bother with 4 or 5)

[Human Snorenado]

leper this filth

[Himu]

In all truthfulness, I think those reviews might be suffering from the same thing you possibly are: they hadn't finished the game at the time they gave the opinion.

FFXII starts out stronger than almost any other jRPG.  Unfortunately, when it comes unglued, it comes completely unglued.

Sad to hear. Oh well, I will enjoy the game as far as I can.

Story turns to crap, gameplay gets omfg. It's a tradeoff.

[Human Snorenado]

In all truthfulness, I think those reviews might be suffering from the same thing you possibly are: they hadn't finished the game at the time they gave the opinion.

FFXII starts out stronger than almost any other jRPG.  Unfortunately, when it comes unglued, it comes completely unglued.

Sad to hear. Oh well, I will enjoy the game as far as I can.

Story turns to crap, gameplay gets omfg. It's a tradeoff.

FFXII has gameplay???

[Human Snorenado]

I guess the water in Poland must have something in it that makes you guys insane.

[Himu]

What hunts/marks have you done Borys? Best boss fights in the series by a wide margin.

[Himu]

You haven't done the horse yet? Oh man, that's one of my favorites.

And no, the rare monsters are just that...rare. They appear depending on certain circumstances. For instance, on the Giza Plains, make sure it's rainy for the elemental to pop out.

Rocktoise

[Himu]

[youtube=560,345]-uFRlQzuLeI[/youtube]

[Himu]

Like, a job system or some shit.

I'd paid lots of gil to have that released in English, ported to wii/ps3/360.

I wish 12 got a directors cut.

[Himu]

I used to hate FF12.

And then it clicked.

Was it like that for you too?

FFvs13 reminds me of FF8. FF13 reminds me of FF7.

[Himu]

Borys:

The primary new addition--as the game's title clearly suggests--is the zodiac job system, which is more or less a fancy term for the game's new license board system. The boards come into play during character evolution. While the original FFXII had only one license board, FFXII International gives you a selection of 12 boards that you can set on each of your characters. Doing so will let you customize your characters into playing like a certain job, such as a knight, monk, time mage, breaker, archer, black mage, white mage, red mage, kikoushi (gunfighter), uhlan (spearman), shikari (a fighter that uses daggers), and mononofu (a fighter with a mix of Japanese-style attacks, including samurai and ninja skills).

It's completely up to you as to how you set the boards on your characters, and if you chose to do so, you can even set the same board on multiple characters. However, you can't change the board on your characters once you've picked them, meaning that you'll need to finish the game (or restart) if you want to change their boards.

RELEASE THIS SHIT OVERSEAS YOU HOMOS

[Himu]

I gave it two tries. First time, I hated it.

Second time, warmed up to it but it wasn't ideal. I "liked" it. But around 50 hours in, I decided to stop fighting the game (previously I didn't use gambits, made game tedious) and used gambits. Clicked from that moment. It took me like 2-3 years to get up to that point in the game (50 hours) and after it clicked, it took me a week after the fact to beat it.

[maxy]

Something just for Himuro and Borys,you two could easily fit in this video.

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[demi]

FF13 is gonna be so sick. Bets on when Borys actually plays it? 2020?

[maxy]

Probably.We are going to be drooling over FFXV and he will talk how great FFXIII looks on his antique SDTV.

[Damian79]

FFXII has to be the dullest FF to date.  Character sucked, story sucked, the interaction sucked.  After 14-15 hours on the game i just had no interest playing it any more.

[Phoenix Dark]

So yeah this will be long.

I am currently playing FF12 for the second time (never got far during my first playthrough and I *hated* it back then) and simply put I am in love. For those unwiling to read on: this game is the pinnacle of japanese RPG and Final Fantasy design. It cannot and will not get any better, ever, much like BG2 is the pinnacle of western RPGs.

First things first:

- I didn't beat the game yet
- I beat all other SP FF games in the past

1) This game is FUCKING MASSIVE.

I just got my first Esper (Gigas) after clearing Raithwall's Tomb and my in-game clock shows 42 hours ALREAD   So far it seems FF12 will be bigger than Dragon Warrior 7. There is a lot to do besides following the main quest. Hunting for Marks, filling up Bestiary by killing fixed amount of selected enemies, looking for unique fiends (Rare Game - I hope you get some kind of indicator later on that tells you where rare fiends are, I cannot imagine looking for 80 uniques that may or may not spawn by running through all the maps again) etc. Running back & fro is kind of tiring but at least there are Orange Crystals and besides imagine doing that with random encounters!

2) The graphics are AMAZING.

Best looking game on the PS2, bar none. Beats God of War 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3. The attention to detail is astounding. Every single map is gorgeous. From rolling Dalmasca Eastersand, through vast Ogir-Yensa Sandsea (there is a place where you climb high up to fight the Wyvern Lord, from there you can see the Sandsea flowing to the horizon - simply breathtaking), full of life Rabanastre to astonishing Raithwall's Tomb, each of those locales is everything but generic. You can see it was hand crafted by people with artistic soul. My favourite dungeon so far, Raithwall's Tomb is especially a sight to behold. It goes deep down into the ground, the stairs are awfully long and there is no fog or pop in for the environment! Same thing goes for each city you visit: Rabanastre, Bhujerba, Nalbina etc. Every one of them has its own soul, every one of them is full of people and detail. Even such earhtly things as shops (merchants) are unique to each city. This must have took hundreds if not thousands of manhours to create. Hats off to Square-Enix artists!

3) Monster design is IMPECCABLE.

Take every hallmark Final Fantasy monster like Bomb, Chocobo, Flan, Cactoid, Cockatrice, Malboro etc. Add interesting new monsters to the mix like Batteries, Mimics, Slavens, Sleipnirs etc. Design them for non-weeaboos, non-manchildren. You get FF12 monsters which are pretty much perfect to look at. Somehow Square-Enix artists refreshed them, made them interesting, beautiful and not embarrassing. Even the Bestiary art is marvelous.

4) Battle mechanics are INGENIOUS.

Much like FF8's Draw system FF12 Gambit system is a love/ hate thing. Either you love it like me or hate it like others. I cannot imagine going back to distinguished mentally-challenged old TBS with random encounters. It would make my veins explode from anger. Gambits are not WIN button. Gambits take strategy and skill to plan. Each area has different monsters that require different approach. Each Boss encounter pretty much forces you to play by hand and turn them off. Of course if you grind for 100 hours you would probably kill every monster, boss or not the same. Anyway Gambit system is a great idea. It helps a fucking LOT and speeds boring-ass actions that you had to perform in the past like using Potions, Ethers, Phoenix Downs etc. Would it work in a TB FF game? Hmm I think yes but I also hope we will never get a TB FF game ever.

5) Story and characters are GREAT.

No Wakka like idiots? No Rikku like distinguished mentally-challenged fellows? Is this a FF game? Yes it is and it has the best character cast in all FF games EXCEPT Final Fantasy Tactics and that is saying something. The whole story feels very epic and VERY similiar to Final Fantasy Tactics BTW. I love Balthier's personality, I like Basch's lines. I love Fran's voice. The *only* character that is very weak is Vaan. Too bad he's the main char. Other than him I cannot find a single fault in other PCs. Balthier is the best. There hasn't been such a great character in FF games since... like ever. Can't say much about the story as I heard it goes to shit later on but so far it is great. Typical FF "evil empire" crap but so well served that you forgive it.


demi once mentioned that the License system is broken in the way that every character can have every skill possible. There is no "uniqness" to the characters except cut-scenes. While this is a valid point the same could be said about FFX. You could also learn every sphere for every character but of course it would take longer for the spheres to overlap. In FF12 you can learn everybody the same exact skills from the very beginning. This is a blessing and a curse at the same time.

To sum up:

This is the best FF game ever created, bar none. The graphics are AMAZING for the PS2. Each area/ dungeon/ city is so wonderfully crafted that it makes my jaw drop. Unbelievable textures, architecture, monster design (!!!) and music. Raithwall's Tomb was almost as good as best dungeons from Baldur's Gate 2.
FF12 has succesfully merged the best of the jRPG world with the best of the WRPG world.

FF12 makes FFX look & feel like a PSX title.
FF12 makes all other FF games look like kiddie, Nintendo games.
FF12 makes all other jRPGs irrevelant.

I can only hope FF13 is the same --> no random encounters, absolutely huge-ass world, gigantic, full of life cities, impeccable graphics and monster design. I hope I am not mistaken.

[Human Snorenado]

The gameplay and story both fell apart near the end.  Not a big fan of this one.

You people keep using that word.  I don't think it means what you think it means.

[Damian79]

I got to take back what i said about FF12, FF1-3 had worse stories and characters and the interactions were nonexistant.

[Third]

I think I've completed all of the hunt quest. I love the fact that FFXIII will have hunts too.

Also beat most of the side bosses in FFXII. Except that boss who had like 50 life bars. I died at the last bar thanks to a stupid mistake. It took me forever to get that far. Never tried again.

[SantaC]

sadly the international version is even better which will never be localized 

[tiesto]

Hmm, Viera Village was one of my favorite areas in the game - loved the color palette and the music. Also loved the main Empire city. Actually that's one thing I really enjoy about XII, the great music and a few of the locales.

[TakingBackSunday]

the game is fucking horrid, come on

[demi]

[Himu]

BORYS

DID YOU FIGHT THE HORSE YET

[Positive Touch]

the hunts were awesome but without them this game is worthless

[AdmiralViscen]

In all truthfulness, I think those reviews might be suffering from the same thing you possibly are: they hadn't finished the game at the time they gave the opinion.

FFXII starts out stronger than almost any other jRPG.  Unfortunately, when it comes unglued, it comes completely unglued.

Yup.

I remember playing it for a good 20 hours, loving the fuck out of it, thinking to myself that all the haters were distinguished mentally-challenged fellows. Then I just stalled out at hour 24 or so and never touched it again.

[Third]

Yeah, the Licence board sucks so much. So easy to max and it just doesn't feel rewarding...
Sphere Grid is so much better.

And Bubble stat = 

I always used bubble magic to beat some of the tougher side bosses. They're way too hard otherwise.

[Himu]

Yeah, Trickster is the hunt I was referring to. I don't know why I filed the chocobo as a horse? It's been awhile.

[Powerslave]

Borys I didn't fully read your post because you're gay but I have a question for you. I played FF12 almost 1.5 years ago and I got really far. I enjoyed it and put a lot of time in it. But for some reason I stopped playing and now I feel like picking it up. Should I play from the beginning (really dont feel like doing this) or pick up where I left? How can I refresh my memory about the things I forgot from the storyline and gameplay etc.? I remember being at that one native village or something. After I got on the chocobos to cross some large green fields with black chocobos as enemies or whatever.

[Powerslave]

Heh, you're such a gay bitch Borys.

[TakingBackSunday]

2 pages later and this game still sucks