FF12... Opinions?

[Straef]

So FF12 got released last friday, tho it might've been released before in the UK, fuck if I know. Anyway, I bought it and played around a bit (14 hours played since friday evening, fair enough) and wondered what you lot thought about it, as it really is very different from the last few FF games (I'm mainly on about ff7-10 here, fuck the earlier games).
I was really bothered with the camera at first, as you can't turn off the inverted stuff, which is really annoying and takes me forever to get used to, and the combat system is very different from prior games, as it gets you to focus on one character more when fighting, rather than selecting individual actions for all your characters every turn, which I don't necessarily find an improvement.
The whole battle system, both when fighting and when configuring gambits/licenses, supposedly takes a while to get used to but, even though I don't mind it as much as I did when I first started, I still don't like it as much as the materia in FF7, GF's in FF8 or the learning system in FF9. I hope that'll come
The FMV's are ace, as expected from Square, and the story has been good so far, and it'll probably get better as the game progresses.
So, what do you think? Do you fancy the game, find anything particulary annoying or a great addition compared to the previous games, and do you think they changed the game too much compared to previous parts, or do you like the changes? Discuss!

 

[Manisch Depressiv]

Don't know, stopped to play the series 10 years ago.

Was good back then.

 

[Dakkath]

Bought it, sadly RL got in the way and I've not been able to use it yet :/

Will post my thoughts soon

 

[Alan]

Got it off eBay today should have it tomorrow now that Zelda is finished I can get stuck into another game.

 

[NavaloreShadowvar]

Well it should be arriving my town this week so ill see how good it is since ive played all FFs up to now

 

[Straef]

Well, I've gotten a little further into the game and, even tho I regret the way I spent my license points, it's getting a little more interesting
I've finally gotten used to the inverted camera stuff, and the story is about the same as it was before, decent enough.
I still don't fancy the gloomy atmosphere in the game tho, as I really fancied the happy happy graphics in FF8-10, and this seems more of a sequal to Vagrant Story than to the FF series.
It's still worth playing, though, and I'm still hoping the game gets a bit better, as I don't quite agree with the game getting 10/10's in all the magazines.
Anyone else got the game by now? ^^

 

[Funkdocta]

Clocked 12 last year, its pretty good. totally different battle system than the usual turn based stuff.

Story isnt too bad either. Although it isnt very long if you just follow the story.

Some really tough side quests. I liked it a lot although not as much as 10.

 

[vavires]

I got it at release date aswell, tho atm still daoc in the us is taking a lot of time, im really enjoying the game, tho i dint mind the random fight as some say is so irritating in the othe rff's, i dont think its that bad to have a change in that,

Not quite into the whole gambits thing yet , as i dont see to get something usefull to combine except the heal on first and attck in second slot.
But i expect that to change in the near future.

we'll see how it goes

 

[Straef]

I got it at release date aswell, tho atm still daoc in the us is taking a lot of time, im really enjoying the game, tho i dint mind the random fight as some say is so irritating in the othe rff's, i dont think its that bad to have a change in that,

Not quite into the whole gambits thing yet , as i dont see to get something usefull to combine except the heal on first and attck in second slot.
But i expect that to change in the near future.

we'll see how it goes

I didn't really mind random fights either, but rather the load times that came along with it. Whenever running into an enemy, you'd have to wait for the battle screen/music and such to load, the atb timer to fill up, after which you'd finish the fight in one shot/turn half the time, just to get the 'OMG we won!' animation, and the xp screen and some more loading time back to the world map. I quite like the way they dropped all the time spent waiting by simply running into enemies and having the xp/loot showing immediatly.
Also, I'm not all too familiar with the Gambit stuff myself, but I find it quite handy to have a target set for flying enemies combined with a damaging magic spell, on characters with close combat weapons, at least. It's pointless to have your close combat characters just standing about doing fuck all, when they can finish the fight in half a second.

 

[Ucallme]

I bought this last weekend and played it a few times over the weekend.

I think its pretty good, I like the way the combat is now, graphics i love and most importantly the story line seems good too. Im no where near started it yet as im upto the bit with the Sunstone (Just after).

The last FF I played was FF VII and that was damn good. The controls on this one are abit weird but im getting the hang of it.

Regardless of the controls everyone should get this game it rox...

Amphrax/Arauddry

 

[vavires]

I bought this last weekend and played it a few times over the weekend.

I think its pretty good, I like the way the combat is now, graphics i love and most importantly the story line seems good too. Im no where near started it yet as im upto the bit with the Sunstone (Just after).

The last FF I played was FF VII and that was damn good. The controls on this one are abit weird but im getting the hang of it.

Regardless of the controls everyone should get this game it rox...

Amphrax/Arauddry

hey amphy

Well ima real ff fan and enjoyed and replayed all ff's starting from 7. was to young for the others to have known them and they just look to old now. never seem to get a liking of FF11 but thats mainly caus eof daoc i geuss, 2mmorpgs is not good for yer social life.

Im just about to leave the main town i geuss (3extra companions) not much is revealed yet where i am, but as usual i got an ml6+7 raid to lead ^^

greets vav

 

[Cloudz]

Big ff fan as go's my name

But spoke to straef about the game abit and have to agree with so much of what he's said.

Gloomy has never been my thing in ff games, and the inverted camera sucked but i'm used to it now and its not so bad after all. although an option would of been nice.

Gambit system is nice but you cannot vary your characters much as you have to go the same ways as what magick/weapons you have etc.

some of the hunt missions can be pretty tough compared to the actual storyline itself, can be pretty good and easy to level by just chain killing some mobs which is pretty nice.

Only real things i'm not enjoying that much is the story line. Its to simple and seems abit plain. Politics...

Vann is a nobody in the game and just seems he doesnt have a clue whats going on really, Another Zidane from ff9 in some ways. A theif...

also the actual good graphics cut scenes seems dull and not much really happening.

Maybe I just expect to much as I really loved FF7 and I'm waiting for something to better it.

Still a good game though, worth the buy

 

[Darkmack]

haha im borrowing my mates ps2 just to play this - couldn't miss out played all of the FF's even the crystal chronicals on the gamecube which was kinda fun grinding out with my mate and his cousin ^-^

i think the problem with alot of FF games for me was that you didn't have specific people for specific abilities - healing, dmg etc. you could to a certain extent but still everyone could be as good as each other. the earlier games were better for specific character types.

but meh i do look forward to properly playing this

 

[Straef]

I've gotta say the game's getting better as I'm making progress, tho the story still doesn't do too much for me. People used to criticise FF games for always having similar stories and, judging from FF7 onward, I suppose they had a point, as it always came down to the world being at stake and the main character falling in love with some girl or another or, in FF8's case, some girl falling in love with the somewhat introvert Squall.
Anyway, they've finally got a totally different type of story this time, based on politics between two nations (the third nation pretty much having fuck all to say about what's going on) and not much of a romance going on between any of the characters, as far as I'm able to judge by my progress in the game.
It turns out I actually prefer the mushy romantic stuff and the all out battles to save the world, and I'm kind of disappointed that it's not yet another such story
I'm quite liking the battle system by now, especially now I've got some proper magic stuff to counter the negative status effects and such, tho it'd be worth restarting the game from scratch with this knowledge as the farther I progress, the more I feel sorry for getting certain licenses and spending money on certain items.
I wouldn't say the story is bad, by the way, but it just isn't really my thing, as I suppose it feels nice to have the fate of the world lying in your hands, even tho it may not be particulary realistic to have just your small bunch of characters saving the world from some nasty army.
Now I'm personally getting into the whole hunt system, as the rewards can be lovely and you run into some cool monsters. Yesterday, for example, I ran into some big ass monster with several level 40-ish guards, while my characters are in their low 30's and lower. I'm assuming the monster's one of those Espers, but there's no way I'll be able to kill it anytime soon so I'll have to take a look later on. That's one of those things I like about hunts tho, as they're optional and all, you might never have run into certain Espers without one of them official guides, so it's worth checking out.
Also, it's funny how my character setup is starting to resemble a small group of DAoC characters, as you pretty much get forced to have a combination of certain skills on your active characters, whereas you'd be able to just run with two pure tanks and a tank/healer hybrid in previous FF games if you fancied to. In FF8 for example, I didn't even have any healers or mages in the group but simply killed everything in melee, tho the game had a bit of a dodgy battle system making it rather easy to get totally overpowered characters
Anyway, keep on bringing your opinions, particulary if you progressed a bit.

 

[Raven]

played it when i didnt have the I-net (moved house 3 weeks ago) binned it now i have my internet/WoW back.

overall its pretty good, got to level 45ish. its a bit to easy though tbh, not really had any trouble at all from bosses. The gambit system, while fantastic could have been thought out better, for instance if you set up your support toon to steal every fight they will just keep trying, you should be able to have a command "steal until you get an item" at times there are to many cut scenes but then its always like that in final fantasy.

 

[Straef]

played it when i didnt have the I-net (moved house 3 weeks ago) binned it now i have my internet/WoW back.

overall its pretty good, got to level 45ish. its a bit to easy though tbh, not really had any trouble at all from bosses. The gambit system, while fantastic could have been thought out better, for instance if you set up your support toon to steal every fight they will just keep trying, you should be able to have a command "steal until you get an item" at times there are to many cut scenes but then its always like that in final fantasy.

Aye, good point. I hardly bother stealing at all because I can't be fucked doing it manually, especially since it takes several tries and you end up stealing a fucking potion or something. Tried sticking it on a gambit, and haven't really bothered since. The same thing goes for the charge ability, tho you might at some point be able to buy 'self: mp <20%' gambits, at least I bloody hope so, but I haven't seen any yet :<
The optional quests seem somewhat nicer than in previous games tho, as I never really fancied walking around getting this and that item before, tho that probably had to do with the random encounters

 

[Raven]

the best way to open up all the bazaar items (some are really nice) you have to get lots of equipment sold.

also a tip to get lots of teleport stones is to farm the sandsea, you can get mob chains of 100+ which results in loads of stones dropping, just watch out for the magic essences, piss annoying until you get 35+ and can kill them.

will pick it up again at some point

 

[Mckennitt]

Got it a week ago as i couldnt resist not playing it ( Played all others from 1-->11 )

So far seems good and I for once believe that the battlesystem is way different than what we've seen so far which personally i think its v good.

Although as much as i liked the junction system in VIII or grid in X i always supported that new systems are welcome and will always give a fresh look on this multiplatinum series.
I would prolly rate it - so far - 9/10 if the majority of PS2's rpgs out had its quality but currently everything else is crap so 10/10 for sure.

Will see how it goes.

Mck

 

[vavires]

Aye, good point. I hardly bother stealing at all because I can't be fucked doing it manually, especially since it takes several tries and you end up stealing a fucking potion or something. Tried sticking it on a gambit, and haven't really bothered since. The same thing goes for the charge ability, tho you might at some point be able to buy 'self: mp <20%' gambits, at least I bloody hope so, but I haven't seen any yet :<
The optional quests seem somewhat nicer than in previous games tho, as I never really fancied walking around getting this and that item before, tho that probably had to do with the random encounters

Foe 100% steal is best option,

My chars are at LvL 70 now. Think i got almost all done that i can do about now. at least as far as i know .

 

[Straef]

Foe 100% steal is best option,

My chars are at LvL 70 now. Think i got almost all done that i can do about now. at least as far as i know .

Heh, I've got Vaan/Fran/Ashe at lvl 3x at the moment, and I couldn't really be arsed leveling the rest Balthier is still like level 16 or so, so he usually gets twoshot whenever I'm in need of him
I'll give that 100% thing a shot, as I should be stealing some more stuff :|
I probably missed out on a whole load of important loot from bosses by now, but oh well

 

[Imgormiel]

Saw this game for the first time last night, ok some of it is real nice, but on the whole I thought it was rather average and same ole sam ole we have come to expect from games like this across the board tbh.

 

[Imgormiel]

Foe 100% steal is best option,

My chars are at LvL 70 now. Think i got almost all done that i can do about now. at least as far as i know .

And joO get /slap for not replying to my last post US indeed, such lameness, come home to Dyvet when u get bored >.<

 

[Chosen]

What annoys me, is that none of the characters is really speciall in something. They can all have the same equipment, and use the same magic.

 

[vavires]

Well now after finishing it, im left with an empty feeling kinda, its a good game, but not great.

There were some origonal settings in it, gambits are nice, but can be anoying to, anoying when vaan had to cast Decoy 8times to get it on him is one of them for example. Waiting to get all non elemental magic for just the last hour is kinda a shame to. Espers are "useless". Its not like u can summon an esper to get outof a tough situation, no espers are there for the decoration.

Im missing a big challenge in it. I remember when playing FF7, i had to fight and strugle to kill The Emerald Wep and Ruby, where ya had to work for hours and hours to get lvl 99 some mimics and knight of the rounds. As i like to explore, i already had all the licences like just past halfway the game on every1s board.

Then Storyline, I never had the feeling i got dragged in the story, i missed some emotion in it that was way present in most FF's. It "looks" nice, tho there werent that many cut scenes. All in all its a nice game, bu im afraid the replay value is low. While if i look to the last FF, had a nice Replay Value.

Hoping for a stronger next FF. Rather have 1.000.000 Random fights and a great story, then the gambit system with a lesser story.

Vav.

 

[Straef]

What annoys me, is that none of the characters is really speciall in something. They can all have the same equipment, and use the same magic.

Not to mention the main character, who's not really a main character at all. Leaving Vaan out of the story wouldn't have changed much at all :/

 

[BloodOmen]

Bit late on replies here didn't get my ff12 until last week (Slow train i know) still hammered the **** sideways raped it now lol.... done all you can :x killed yiazmat got the nice weapons from bazaar... one question tho! i went to get excalibur from the great crystal just for the sake of having it... had a diamond armlet on and jesus christ all the chests i opened not a single excalibur :/ i literally opened every single one of them

 

[Straef]

Bit late on replies here didn't get my ff12 until last week (Slow train i know) still hammered the **** sideways raped it now lol.... done all you can :x killed yiazmat got the nice weapons from bazaar... one question tho! i went to get excalibur from the great crystal just for the sake of having it... had a diamond armlet on and jesus christ all the chests i opened not a single excalibur :/ i literally opened every single one of them

Heh, no clue about that I've mainly been doing hunts, as the main story doesn't seem all that interesting, and the hunt sidequests are actually kinda fun once the rewards get better.
I've finished about twenty hunts so far, and how many are there supposed to be?

 

[Mordenaar]

its a top game, got it, im up to about 40-50 hours iirc, not played in about a week tho- up to Arcedes or w/e it was. Very fun, and love the battle layout, far better and more challenging than the usual turn taking way since FF10. Graphics are also very good. The fight scenes gone back to FF7 type really, where its more down to the speed you pick each attack and stuff (Gambits rock!) hehe.

imo could be the best one out yet, tho they'd struggle to beat FF7 and FF10! Two of my favorites.

Basch/Ashe/Vaan grp ftw!

 

[BloodOmen]

Heh, no clue about that I've mainly been doing hunts, as the main story doesn't seem all that interesting, and the hunt sidequests are actually kinda fun once the rewards get better.
I've finished about twenty hunts so far, and how many are there supposed to be?

Theres 32 ordinary hunts and 13 extraordinary hunts best part of the game is fighting with Gilgamesh (first fight 120k hp or so - second fight 500k or so) Hell Wyrm (9million hp) and finally the ultimate fun endurance fight! Yiazmat (50,000,000 hp) takes 1-2 hours to kill it... lol few pre quests needed to even be able to accept the contract for yiazmat tho

 

[BloodOmen]

its a top game, got it, im up to about 40-50 hours iirc, not played in about a week tho- up to Arcedes or w/e it was. Very fun, and love the battle layout, far better and more challenging than the usual turn taking way since FF10. Graphics are also very good. The fight scenes gone back to FF7 type really, where its more down to the speed you pick each attack and stuff (Gambits rock!) hehe.

imo could be the best one out yet, tho they'd struggle to beat FF7 and FF10! Two of my favorites.

Basch/Ashe/Vaan grp ftw!

gambits are good yes... I think the main problem with FF12 is the lack of story line.. it was way to short imo :/ if you miss out the side quests etc it only takes 19 hours to complete the game which is very disappointing considering the previous FF games take a little longer.


I ain't saying the story wasn't good or anything i'm simply saying it was way to short