Seriously. I think its stunning that this game came out and nobody seemed to care. Is it really that bad? Or have I just been out of touch with the gaming community?
I thought it was effing sweet.
Just read a missables guide.
One of the most boring games I have ever played in my life.
SG speaks true.
While not the best FF game it not unplayable.
Here’s some of the more complaints I have with the game. First it gets slow. REALLY SLOW!!! In fact this game gives new meaning to the pharse “Let’s mossy!” As in not only are many areas almost needlessly massive (the sandseas among other areas is a good example of this), but you’ll be doing alot of grinding for both cash and experience as well. The one thing you’ll never need to grind for though is LP. You’ll have enough to buy every non-equipment slot for everybody by endgame (if you use the LP doubling accessory for a significant amount of time you’ll have more than enough for the entire board and then some). And speaking of which everyone uses the exact same board with differences in only Mist Knacks (the limit breaks though they all do the same thing, doubles and triples total MP with the second and third Knack respectfully, and there’s enough for everybody) and Espers (i.e. summons and utterly usless) the rest of the differences come from equipment which in of itself is a rare commodity (and the good stuff requires an MMO level of dedication and immediate access to a guide or a faq to accquire). The story itself is pretty forgetable too (not that it doesn’t try but by the time you reach the next piece of plot development you’ll have mostly forgotten what happened during the last piece of plot. It also felt like Vaan and Penelo were simply tacked on somewhere during themid-to-late development period of the game.
There some good things about this game like the Gambits and the size and detail of the world (though its hard to find a cave or mineshaft that doesn’t look like the same one you’ve trudged though a dozen times before). Also the story does get deep sometimes too (at least when it’s not about one of your characters, or telling you to go on yet another fetch quest, or when it doesn’t make you feel like you’re watching a Star Wars flick). At least the voice acting and dialog are good. They even got the game to feel like a real MMO (though whether that’s a good thing or not is debatable).
So while it’s not a great game you might find that there’s some milage to be had with the game overall.
I’ll give it points for introducing the gambit system, which I consider a long-needed solution for getting rid of the need to input commands for monotonous repetitive menial tasks every five seconds. Sadly, to balance out, whatever amount of tediousness is alleviated by that is outset tremendously by how boring… everything ELSE ends up being.
By the time you hit mid-game, you’re wondering where the plot went and everything of importance happens elsewhere off-camera while you’re dragging ass through a forest in the world’s arse.
It’s an Off-line MMORPG, and not in the way .hack G.U. is supposed to mimick one, they actually forgot to include the part that makes single-player anywhere near wortwhile… except the whole game is single-player.
Fucking Zodiac Spear. What the fuck.
The gameplay is great, the graphics are nice. The music seems a bit off at first but it grew on me in the end. The major problem is the story (or lack thereof). The story took a hit when Yasuno Matsuno, the brain behind the Ivalice games (FFT / VS) left in the middle of the production and its obvious when you see the lack of story and character development, but realize where they were trying to take it.
FFXII is a great virtual world. It just needs something to happen in it.
Are you fucking shitting me Sin?
Games that play themselves don’t have great gameplay. It was fun to set up strategic gambits, but in the end, it was more a movie than a game. And sadly, it had about as much development as a 2 hour movie too, only… stretched across about 65.
Also, imo it was WAYYYYYYYYYYY too easy. I think the last time I did it I only used daggers and maces, no espers, no quickenings, not even for the mp boost… and I still killed every mark I knew how to unlock, although I think I did finally put some swords on for Ixion. If you can play the game in such a skeletal way and still own the shit out of it, it needs to be harder.
Nice music though.
or when it doesn’t make you feel like you’re watching a Star Wars flick
This guy’s not kidding. Listen to the music in the Mosphoran Highwaste and you’ll probably feel like you should be watching your back for tie fighters. It’s uncanny.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s worth playing, twice even. I just don’t know WHY. I guess I really liked the atmosphere. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything in a game as beautiful as the Cerobbi Steppes.
My main problem was with the combat, which is so far removed from what I’m used to in Final Fantasy it felt like it was a completely different series altogether.
Balthier was badass though.
When I think of the way the gameplay works, I think of how RPGs have evolved.
When you think about it , its hard to find a better way to translate an ATB based combat system and world. Its not realistic to have random encounters, so you run into monsters constantly in dungeons, like an FPS or a 3rd person RPG like diablo. Instead of point and click like diablo or aiming like in an FPS, you have the opportunity to tell your guys what to do under different conditions. You don’t need to tell your guys to do the same tasks over and over. No more “attack” a million times, if you need to revive someone immediately, it gets done. The automation is the natural evolution of the atb system to reduce repetition and maximize immersion.
As you can tell from the discussion, FF12 is far from perfect, but it has enough good aspects to it to warrant a try. In point form:
Pros:
-Excellent dialogue, very poetic.
-Some great characters.
-Emotional depth is much more visible here, just by watching characters’ expressions.
-A complex plot involving a lot of political intrigue and villains which aren’t just “destroy the world” evil.
-NPC dialogue and Clan Primer entries open up much more interesting aspects to the story; it’s almost as if Ivalice itself is a main character.
-Gambit system allows for a lot of flexibility in battle; it allows you to give specific commands via AI without micromanaging every single command.
-Generally challenging without being frustrating.
-Beautiful graphics and quite nice (though not very memorable) music.
-Lots of sidequests and monster hunts.
Cons:
-Way too much time between cutscenes, and subsequent lack of deep (or at least broad) character growth.
-Many people hate the fact that Vaan and Penelo don’t play a major role in the story. It’s not 100% true, but it certainly seems that way. Also, Vaan’s abs. Ech.
-Two or three too many giant open areas to explore.
-RANDOM CHESTS. URGH. Awful disincentive to explore.
-License grid ends up making every character a carbon copy of every other character.
-Too much randomness in terms of enemy drops, etc.
-Too many things which nobody could ever know except via an FAQ - Zodiac Spear, most of the Bazaar goods.
-Some people are turned off by the gambit system and perceive it as “automating” battle.
It was delayed to death, and by the time it came out, the next gens were coming out.
It had a promising story, but lack of character development and poor pacing dragged it down. It’s fun. I hadnt been that engrossed in side quests since FFVII
I was psyched to play this then my PS2 stopped reading the disc :\
It was fun from what I remember, but I could see it as being slow.
Well, being the only game I own which I can play perfectly fine with my toes - I only needed to nudge the left analog stick with my big toe and the characters would take care of the rest - while busying myself with my cross-stitch… uhm, no. Not very exciting.
I think it would have been loads better if they had slashed Vaan and Penelo completely and gone with Balthier as the main character. Balthier was awesome.
I dunno, I didn’t hate Vaan as much as everybody else. He had potential to become something, except that once you rescue Ashe, he basically dissappears from the game altogether along with Penelo and Basch, leaving Ashe and Balthier to occasionally remind us what we were doing and Fran to say “The Misht ish thick in thish place” once every couple of hours.
One more thing:
Was anyone else shocked when they found out Larsa was a boy? Bad move giving him a female voice, a female body, and a female wardrobe imo. Seriously, this was just really badly executed. No matter how many times they refered to him as “him” or “prince” or “brother,” he still only ever registered as a chick to me. Fucking get it together SE
No, I can’t say I ever thought he was a girl.
Playing the game I had no trouble knowing he wasn’t of the fairer sex. Outside however is a different story (I’ve made that mistake once so far).
Irronically I had a similar problem with FFT’s Ramza (at least until I reached Chapter 2 when he lost the ponytail which thankfully I haven’t repeated since). Oh and don’t even get me started on TO. Yeash!
FFT was just a bad game. Wow.