yEAH SHEESH
I didn’t finish it. The time proceeding and in the tomb of the king or something bored the controller out of my hands and I haven’t picked it up since. Forst hour and a half was interesting, then bleh. I’ve been told it gets much better after where I left off, however.
The gambit system was sweet. I don’t have to know exactly where the antidote/eyedrops/ect. is in my items. This left more time to focus on movements on the party leader, which reminded me of Kingdom Hearts battles, only without the horrible rotating camera angles.
It’s the first game promoting cross-stitching and this is how it’s treated by the gaming community. The gall!
I found this game to be funny, idiotic, fun, boring, and awesome. I really liked all the monster hunts and such, but I hated how big the areas were. The game play was great, I really liked the gambits, they at least made one part of the game fast.
I just hated the plot entirely, it just sucked. Vaan has barely anything to do with the plot he’s just along for the ride so he can get to be a sky pirate. Penelo’s only real importance is her connection to Vaan and Larsa liking her. Ashe was okay except for that short pink skirt that made her look like a whore. Balthier and Basch kicked ass, the only characters in the entire game that were actually good. Vayne was one of the worst protagonists I have ever seen, who doesn’t kill family to rise in power, it’s been going on since the dawn of government, and picking a fight with a religion is basic politics. Larsa just completely sucked.
The enemies were not diverse at all. Other the monster hunts it was basically higher level creatures with palette swaps, gray wolf, black wolf, white wolf, orange wolf, flaming wolf, ghost wolf, normal wolf… Ugh.
It was an okay game. Rent it, don’t buy it, you could buy a much better game.
This was the only FF game that I was unable to finish. This isn’t because of difficulty; this is because it bored me out of my fucking skull. Either I could follow the insipid main story (the fucking writing is almost as bad as FFVs for fuck’s sake!) that ahem “borrowed” many of its elements from Star Wars (who borrowed from westerns, space opera and samurai films… they’re borrowing from fucking borrowers!), or I could traipse around on a bunch of meaningless, unfun side quests. Honestly, I hate this game more than FFIX, which has a special place in my heart for hatred.
I don’t believe that I will ever get another FF game again, even if I was stupid enough to purchase a PSIII. The series has been going down the toilet ever since IX (I enjoyed VIII), and I just don’t find it fun anymore. If it had any even vaguely interesting characters or gameplay, then I’d probably at least finish it. As it stands, it’s the dog turd of the FF series.
“borrowed” many of its elements from Star Wars (who borrowed from westerns, space opera and samurai films… they’re borrowing from fucking borrowers!)
Umm, GAP? EVERYBODY does that, intentionally or not. We’re all biased. The trick is, doing it either intentionally (as homages or parodies) OR doing it so subtly it isn’t obvious. I guess FF12 failed in that…
OK, MY opinions:
Story: Ehh, I’ve seen better. The fact the main character was almost incidental to the plot was annoying (I’m inclined to believe the rumor that someone else (Balthier?) was meant to be the star, but that they shifted the focus to Vaan out of fear it would not be a hit with the younger crowd.)
Game system: I hated the whole License Board system. It made no story sense, it was too hard and it didn’t allow for specialization. And since when are Summons useless? Bah!
On the other hand, I loved the Gambit system; playing around with combat combinations was one of my favorite things to do. Though I was annoyed that I would get certain abilities before I would get the Gambit to use them. WTF?
Graphics: As expected, the graphics were impressive, especially the vistas of places such as the Sandsea. Strangely, I found the design of the characters themselves rather dull. Where was the eye-catching style and/or oddness that has been a hallmark of the best FF games? FFX this was not.
Music: Umm, as usual, I tend to forget a game’s music after I’m done playing it… but I do recall I found it OK. Not great, though.
In conclusion: a good game, but could’ve been better. And yeah, it was too long for its own good.
::doh::
And since when are Summons useless? Bah!
Uh, like 75% of the time? They were useless in 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, and there were only three in 7 that were halfway good, one of which was KotR.
Only 10 really forced you to use them, and if you realllly wanted, you could probably get away with not.
And T, if you count that as a legitimate FF. I don’t.
There is one cool use for them in 6, too. I use Shoat or Raiden on Wrexsoul for a 1 hit K-O.
Disagree on that one very vehemently, but too tired to say why. Is that evil, or what? >-)
I have no idea how anyone could insult FF12’s writing unless all der big words confuzzled them. I thought it was absolutely brilliant.
Actually, I take back 5. I killed Exdeath by X-summoning bahamut over and over again haha
Any summon not named Bahamut, Bahamut ZERO, or Kotr (and maybe Phoenix) is generally considered useless.
Unfortunately, this is Square’s greatest problem is that they make the solution to every problem that they make is to “hit it with a bigger stick”. Seriously Omnislash, Lionheart, T.G. Cid, and even Yizmat. Amirite?
I found the writing pretentious , partly because of the superficiality of the story.
I thought the script was really well written. Doesn’t change the fact the plot was boring as fuck.
Something can also look good on paper and still just not have… mojo.
For example, team Canada in olympic ice hockey.
The story wasn’t superficial; it just took some digging to get at the depth. And I admit that not everyone has the patience (or attention span) to do so.
What I did like about the story was that they showed the villains’ side now and then, which made things more greyscale than just Good Guys vs. Bad Guys With Too Much Makeup.*
Also, towards the end I kept thinking that the fact that Cid and Vayne (you know, I had to look up what his name was just know. That says a lot…) were, with the help of a rebel god, rebelling against the gods controlling the world and humanity. Now… isn’t that usually what the good guys tend to be doing? How many times have we gone up and killed the gods of an RPG world, because they’re dictator assholes?
Sortof like, in Shadow Hearts 2, the final bad guy is trying to go back in time and create a better timeline for the world - preventing World War I for ever happening, as it were. I sat there with the controller in one hand and using my other hand to scratch my hair, wondering aloud “Why am I trying to stop this guy, again?”
*And on that tangent, Kefka better make an appearance in a Kingdom Hearts game at some point or there will be… trouble. RAR. Setzer was a nice touch, but who cares about him when they could have had Kefka in there? 
No, please no. Every bit of hair will have been made spikey and bound with chains and belts if he shows up in the game. They did an awful job drawing Setzer in KH2, and I would expect no less for Kefka.
Yeah, they totally ruined Setzer; they completely changed his character. Kefka doesn’t deserve that treatment. I’m concerned enough about how they’ll show him in Dissidia; he won’t make a good brawler either. Neither will most of the final bad guys, to tell the truth. Cloud of Darkness? Ultimecia?
Re the Summons, in my experience they’ve never been useless. Sure, they’re not always “I own your ass with it!” but that’s OK to me as long as they’re of at least some use. I couldn’t kill a single Boss or Mark in 12 with the summons I had, or even cause major damage. That is a letdown to me, especially given how hard to get they were. After a while I just stopped collecting them. Also, these are the UGLIEST versions I’ve seen. I know, they’re fallen angels/demons, supposed to look evil, blah blah. Just give me my shiny Ice Goddess already. 
Re: Summons, FFIX was the only game where I never used summons. I jsut disliked that system they used.
I liked using them in every one except 12, if only to watch the animations. 