Final Fantasy XII

[Kawaiikneko]

ugh, steve I got hit by that one too.. except I actually (stupidly) attacked it. Baad idea... I ended up fleeing through the whole area to the next one where I healed myself and ran in circles to bring my mp back up XD I felt like a real wimp.

[Stephen]

So how is everyone doing in the game? (No spoilers) I think I am around half way done. Maybe more. I look forward to playing through again somtime using a guide so I get all the nifty hidden stuff. I know Azier has finished it. Anyone else?

[Cognitive Gear]

I haven't had alot of time to invest into it. I've only gotten to the Giza Plains. I'm going to have to spend some time leveling; I can only take on 2 of the enemies here at once.

*wonders how far into the game that actually is*

[Stephen]

Well, I am like 28 hours in. But about 8 of those were spent with me face down in my pillow with the Vaan and crew standing there. Serves me right for playing tired. I woke up to the music...and was like... "Oh junk...glad nothing killed me"

[Nate]

I spent FOUR HOURS today in that stupid Ogir-Yenser Sandsea...because I'm the kind of guy who has to check every single nook and cranny.

I've snagged seven bounties though, including two Elites. But I won't be able to take that Wyvern Lord for a while. Having Vossler in my party as a guest helped tremendously for those two Elite bounties, as well as getting Mist Knacks for Basch and Vaan.

My biggest complaint is that the license system did exactly what I feared it would. It removed originality from each character. This is like Final Fantasy VII all over again, identical characters that only differ in their desperation attacks and stats. Granted, the stat differences are way more noticeable...I've seen that Fran can't cast a Cure spell but about half as well as Ashe can. Even so, they're all still pretty much the same when it comes to what they're able to do in battle. This makes me sad.

[TriezGamer]

At least they fixed the retarded aspect of it -- You can develop the character any way you want, but unlike FFVII, you can't just unequip your licenses and hand em to someone else. The characters are as original as you want them to be until you finish all of the (mage/fighter/thief/etc.) oriented licenses.

[Omega Amen]

Wow.

I was very excited and planning to purchase to this game... said that publicly on the Gamecast for months....

And Nate... Nate... of all people... is playing it before I have even purchased it.

*feels like he is in the Twilight Zone.*

Anyways... Nate, it looks like TriezGamer has got a solution for your complaint. Show those FFXII license designers what leveling up is really all about, and make those characters specialized as you progress through your license boards!

[Doubleshadow]

Yay! I go home tomorrow! Which means I can finally play this game! I intend to play it until my thumbs fall off! During this time, school will be nothing more than an unhappy and ugly figment of my imagination, which will come back to bite in the butt I'm sure but I'm going to do it anyway.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

I picked it up today! Go me! My ps2 library needs to expand a bit ^_^

[uc pseudonym]

So, for those of you a fair bit into the game, I have a question: what do you think of the plot so far? I don't want spoilers, but if possible give me your thoughts as to the quality overall (including characterization). At the moment I'm trying to decide if this is a game I'll want to pursue later when I have time, and though I have a good feel for what the gameplay will be like story is one of my higher priorities for rpgs.

I've seen the opening sequence, but that's about it (I have resisted the temptation to watch everything on YouTube). Though I wasn't terribly impressed with the opening, it felt like just a launching point. So can anyone offer their thoughts on the plot as it develops?

[TriezGamer]

I am personally finding the story to be wonderful. It's quite politics-heavy, and feels quite a bit like Final Fantasy Tactics in that respect.

The characters are not developed completely right off, though, which seems to annoy some people. All of the characters DO get development, but you are left with very little to go on for a while with some characters.

I dunno if that helps :p

[Nate]

Yeah, I'm finding this to be one of the best Final Fantasy games, plotwise. Almost as good as Tactics. I agree with you about some of the characters. You don't find out a lot about Balthier until way later in the game, and Penelo and Vaan have pretty much no character development at all, which disappoints me. Vaan is possibly the lamest main character in a Final Fantasy game. He doesn't do ANYTHING. So far the only remotely interesting thing he's done is tell off that one viera in their village.

[Kkun]

I've just gotten into it, really. I'm not far at all. I'm about to head for Raithwall's Tomb. Did you know that slaughtering those two Werewolves on the Giza Plains if you teach your characters Quickenings early is a really fun way to level up? >_> It's kind of satisfying hitting one of them eight or nine times and then having a Cataclysm or something kill the other one, too. I want to do more cool stuff like that.

[Kawaiikneko]

I love all of the characters except Vaan.... my wordm he's a whiny little thing so far. Why is he even tagging along?

Still loving the game though. =]

[Stephen]

Got past that stupid boss I was stuck on. I had to gain like 5 or 6 levels and world travel getting the right spells and stuff. Annoyance. I am in Archades now.

[Kkun]

I'm playing this game so slowly, it's ridiculous. I've been levelling up a lot and just learning to use Quickenings and Gambits and all that. I just got to the Ogir-Yensa Sandsea but I have to put the game up again because school starts back tomorrow for a few weeks. Sadness.

[Doubleshadow]

Alright, after playing intensely all break, I got in 117 hours worth of playing time in. I'm at the lighthouse.

Yup, I love this game. I have two complaints: some characters could be wearing more, and the story progressing sequences move a little fast. The story itself is so involved if you quit paying attention you'll miss something.

And, I was right about regretting playing that much; I have a biochem. exam Wednesday I completely forget about. Oh, dear.

[Tommy]

I'm playing this game so slowly, it's ridiculous. I've been levelling up a lot and just learning to use Quickenings and Gambits and all that. I just got to the Ogir-Yensa Sandsea but I have to put the game up again because school starts back tomorrow for a few weeks. Sadness.

I'm playing slower but that's because my RPG interest has dimmed. I'm currently playing Metal Gear Solid 2 and the Splinter Cell games not to mention because of work and school I have next to no time to play video games.

[uc pseudonym]

Alright, after playing intensely all break, I got in 117 hours worth of playing time in. I'm at the lighthouse.

Not knowing what you mean by at the lighthouse, I have to ask: you aren't still playing the game at 117 hours, are you? That would make finishing it on a rental slightly difficult.

[Doubleshadow]

Yes, but I am very close to the end I understand. I would hazard a guess of perhaps five more hours? I'm factoring in time for goofs up in that number.

[MasterDias]

Well, I've seen people who say they have beat it in around 50 hours, so I doubt that the plot is that much longer than the average RPG. Side-quests and such can probably pad out the playing time quite a bit.

I'm only a little ways into the game myself...

[Azier the Swordsman]

You can beat it in 30-40 hours if you are like me and tend to ignore side quests. The plot, in my opinion, felt relatively shorter than the average RPG.

[Yojimbo]

Ok so I got this game yesterday and I'm about 4 hours into it. I'm liking it so far wel as much as I can not being that far into it I guess. The most glaring thing visually I'm not liking is the lack of progressive scan. I bought PS2 component cables for this so it would look nice on my TV but dang is it jaggy. It's not too glaring just a slight annoyance.

[Stephen]

I got tired of boss fights taking too long (I got stuck on one about 25 hours in) So now I am nicely leveled up, but over 50 hours into the game. Not done yet. And I have left the side quests alone. (I guess I am just the slow level up type)

[Solid Ronin]

I beat it, just in time for Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops!

I had a hard time paying attention to the story so I have a question.

[Spoiler=Venta] Was it just me or did they never say why Venta did what "s/he" did? My only theory is that She was doing what the Geruvagen wanted all long.[/spoiler]

Favorite Character: Balither, I think It has something to do with him having a personality, He's like Han Solo and James Bond fused together.

I also liked Fran, there wasn't a thing about her that wasn't sexy!

[everdred12a]

So, I've been playing this game for about 40 hours now, and I love it. The gambit system took awhile to grow on me, but this game is definitely one that's tough to put down. I've been neglecting it a lot because of the oncoming finals I have for school, but I'm indulging myself and takin' today off to play it XD

So, is anyone else as addicted to the license board as I am? My main party (Vaan, Balthier, and Ashe) all have what I'd predict as close to 2/3 of the license board covered each, with most of the augmentations and magicks unlocked, as well as a few of the skills and accessories (Vaan and Ashe motored for Telekenesis as soon as we got Golden Amulets). My fighting party is level 39 now, and we're just about to go rough up Adrammalech.

[Nate]

I'm still in Giruvegan. I got bored of this game in favor of FFV.

*reposts what he said on Arlong Park*

It is so frustrating to CONSTANTLY have to go into the Gambit menu every four minutes to change something. I'm sorry, but getting wiped out because I have a Gambit set to "Enemy weak: Ice" and then getting killed by my OWN SPELLS because the enemy puts up Reflect, and my magic user won't stop casting the spell, is ridiculous.

Also, combat messages go away WAY too fast. I didn't even KNOW that enemy had cast Reflect because so much crap was going on I never saw the message. It wasn't until I went, "Hey, it's like the spell isn't even hitting him!" that I realized what had happened. THIS SHOULD NOT OCCUR.

They should at LEAST have had a shortcut button for the Gambit menu, but I guess that would have been useful, so they didn't do it.

The Gambits system is a double-edged sword Greg]

In between that you have your other characters doing a ton of gambits you don't want them to do if you take your eyes off 'em for two seconds which requires you to do more tedious menu tweaking and if you remove them, then you have to manually control which would be GREAT if when you input actions, they stuck and every time you hit X it didn't take you to the leader while having to scroll left or right to get to a character.

I guess my point is, there's just so much tweaking in the game for tough fights, that I personally am less concerned about what I should be doing and strategizing, but just trying with all my might not to die because so much crap is going on at the same time.

Which....has been my fear from the very start.

Of course this is different for everyone. I mean technically this is more 'involved' but how 'involved' do you feel when you're navigating menus back and forth instead of selecting actions and thinking about how to form an attack rather than twitch-gaming.

That about sums it up for me. Combine this with the fact that characters with a "Steal" Gambit CONTINUE TO STEAL even after there's nothing to steal.

I hate the Gambit system. I want it to die a horrible bloody death. I probably will never beat FFXII because as much as I like the game, I hate the combat engine.

[everdred12a]

It is so frustrating to CONSTANTLY have to go into the Gambit menu every four minutes to change something. I'm sorry, but getting wiped out because I have a Gambit set to "Enemy weak: Ice" and then getting killed by my OWN SPELLS because the enemy puts up Reflect, and my magic user won't stop casting the spell, is ridiculous.

Alot of that can be remedied if you know how to use the gambit system. For instance, just don't make an Enemy weak: Blizzard gambit. No offense, but that's not a very good gambit at all. The point of the gambit system is strategy, and the gambit system doesn't really get good until you get Basch in your party (just making a reference to the point of time surrounding that event in the game, not saying that Basch is what makes the gambit system good). Fortunately, that's not too long into the game. The way the system is, you really shouldn't have to go into the menu and tweak anything, ever. I've made it decently far in the game without having to do much tweaking, save in one area where I couldn't use my ninja swords due to enemies that absorb dark damage.

As you progress, you shouldn't have to cast magic to kill enemies. In fact, save for fliers, bosses, marks, and Elementals/Entites, you don't really need magic to get by. In fact, I don't use attack magic much at all... most of my combat is attacking, healing, and the occasional Quickening/Esper.

To give an example, I'll put up my gambits (going from memory here):

Vaan:
Ally=HP Critical: First Aid
Ally=HP<40%: Curaga
Ally=Dead: Phoenix Down
Any Ally: Esuna
Enemy=Flying: Thundara
Enemy=Undead: Cure
Enemy=HP 100%: Steal
Enemy=Closest Visible: Attack
Self: Libra

Balthier:
Ally=HP Critical: First Aid
Ally=HP<40%: Curaga
Ally=Dead: Phoenix Down
Any Ally: Esuna
Enemy=Flying: Attack
Enemy=Closest Visible: Attack
Any Ally: Haste

Ashe:
Ally=HP Critical: First Aid
Ally=HP<40%: Curaga
Ally=Dead: Phoenix Down
Any Ally: Esuna
Enemy=Flying: Thundara
Enemy=Closest Visible: Attack

Pretty basic stuff. We have a great healing force, and my party members don't usually die, unless an enemy uses cheap tactics on us (one mark I fought, when he was in HP critical, spammed Waterga on us). As soon as Telekinesis become available in shops, the Thundara gambit will be changed to use Telekinesis. The only reason Vaan has a Undead: Cure gambit is because he uses ninja swords, which are all dark element.

In short, Nate, just keep playing around with the license board and the gambit system. It can be really useful once you find a set of gambits that works, although it took me a lot of experimenting to get this setup to be what I wanted it to be.

To comment on Phoenix Downs vs. Raise:
I find Phoenix Downs to be much more useful. It may not be the same case for you guys, but I'm constantly UNABLE to pick up Phoenix Downs from chests. I always find 'em, and have 99 in stock. That being the case, Phoenix downs are just much more useful, since they don't use MP. My MP is more reserved for healing, Quickenings, and Espers.

[Azier the Swordsman]

Honestly, Nate, I made it through the game using virtually nothing but physical attacks. If I ever needed magic, I decided to do so as an enemey by enemy basis and did it manually.

The only times at any point in the game I ever tweaked my gambits was during boss battles.

And I never used most of the gambits in the game at all.

But, then again, that's just my particular game play style.

[Nate]

the gambit system doesn't really get good until you get Basch in your party

Considering I'm 70 hours into the game and in the Crystal, I think I'm well past that. :p

The way the system is, you really shouldn't have to go into the menu and tweak anything, ever.

I don't see how.

"Oh look. Elemental. Better take off my Cure gambits. Oh, they're gone. Better put on my Cure gambits. Oh, this enemy causes Sleep status, better put on an Alarm Clock gambit. Now they're gone, and this enemy causes Blind, better put on an Eye Drop gambit. Oh, now they're casting Protect, better put on a Dispel gambit. Now they're casting Haste, better put that on a Dispel gambit."

And on, and on, and on...twelve slots is far too limiting. They promised this was going to be "Deep and extensive." Unless there's a "Ally: Negative Status = ANY" or "Enemy: Positive Status = ANY" gambit, the system is broken.

I just thought this was going to add a whole new level of strategy to Final Fantasy...but it didn't. I had far more strategy going on when I fought the enemies in the old ATB style Final Fantasy games.

More than half of my fights with marks are me using tons of Phoenix Downs to revive my party members because they got wiped out by a spell. And granted, that happened sometimes in the old games...but never THIS often.

Speaking of which, that's ANOTHER thing I have to keep going in the Gambit menus for, because I have them set up to constantly have Protect (or Shell), Regen, and Haste cast on themselves...so then they die, and I use a Phoenix Down on them, and they start casting those spells again, so I have to go into the Gambit menu and turn off those Gambits so that I can attack the boss again...

I just really hate the Gambit system. It was awesome when Vahn was alone. Then the party came in and messed it up.