Anyone played yet? I just finished it now and I think it took the best of the first two and slapped on some really neat new stuff. I particularly loved chapter 5. There were a few real surprises here, and the story is finally wrapped up satisfactorily. Very much looking forward to number 4!
Having finished it, I just picked up FF12:RW. So far it’s intriguing - a great mix of the styles of FF12 and FF Tactics. I’ve never played an RTS before, so it’ll take some getting used to, but I hope to be able to hack it.
I absolutely thought the third game was the worst. The first case was alright, the second case was AMAZING…but the third case started strong and dwindled…the fourth case was boring, and the last case, while also starting off really cool, had such huge plotholes in it that I deem it totally unforgivable. I think the worst part of the game, too, is that everyone thinks it’s the best. Epic does NOT equal best.
PW3 is my favorite in the series. I really enjoyed it, minus the fucking french chef at Tres Bien. Whoever designed him needs to be fucking shot. God damn.
And I wouldn’t call FFXII / Heroes of Mana RTS. Faaaaar from it. I have yet to pick up FFXII RW yet though, but I’m highly looking forward to it. That and FFTA2.
Yeah… I changed the topic and forgot to put back the name of the game I was talking about. 8p
I dunno, while the chef was amazingly disturbing, at least the other people realized how disturbing he was. This doesn’t often happen in anime.
I liked how most of the chapters connected with each other; they weren’t disjointed cases like in previous games. I also loved having Maya back with me for most of it (that was the bit I disliked the most about PW2). She’s nuts. 8p
My understanding is that FFXII:RW is indeed an RTS, though not perhaps on the scale of stuff like Warcraft. But like I’ve said, I’ve never played another one, so I may be wrong. The graphics are astounding for a DS game, and the music is quite nice (though it’s all remixes of the original FF12 so far). The sprites seem a little on the small side though.
I’m starting to really get into FF12:RW now. I miss the Shakespearean lingo of the original, though… Vaan and his friends are hardly Balthier. But the gameplay is starting to get quite fun (and still challenging) and the interface is far better (and quite a bit simpler) than FFTA’s was. Definitely enjoying it so far.
I was loving the game until that stupid mission where you have to sneak around and not fight any guards ('cause you might be able to kill one, but not two), which the game control does not lend itself to at all. It never fails to amaze me how the Square side of the company always manages to throw at least one thing in that spoils a perfectly good game.
Edit: In continuing news, I’ve failed the stage 10 times as enemies aggro from retarded distances. Fuck this shit. Buy yourself some Metal Gear if you want a stealth game.
I got stuck there once or twice, but then I realized that if I just don’t try going for the middle item, and have Vaan with the Sprint gambit, I can sneak down the bottom, up the left side, and then just go for broke towards the exit (and STILL grab two items). Vaan’s strong enough to survive a few attacks, and (as I eventually found out) you can stop him attacking an enemy near him. All you have to do to move him is keep tapping his tab at the top, then the spot you want him to move to, rinse and repeat.
Reminds me of FF12, where you can override your gambits just by shaking off the enemies’ attacks and running. You don’t even have to keep him onscreen, just look at the map.
BIG TIP: When you start getting Rank II Espers, make sure you have a Rank II Water Melee, Ranged, and Flying Esper. Once you have those you can spend your Auracite on others. Mission 4-5 was insane even though I had two out of three of those. More tips for that, by the way: Forget about the monsters along the side, just go up the middle, and when the only group left is the one around the boss, have Penelo buff your party, then target the boss and ignore the small fry. It seems Squeenix is determined to make sure that Belias is always a pain.
OK, now I have a question. I just started chapter 6 and I’m getting majorly pwned. I managed to beat most of the hunts (if only by sheer luck) but I can’t even touch Ultima. And in the very first story mission, I’m getting murdered. X-X I can’t figure out why my rank III Espers won’t show up in battle. There’s a slot for them, I put them in it, but they won’t come. Maybe they can only be summoned via a gate…? That’s annoying as all get-out if so.
I think I may have to do some level grinding to be able to survive… going by my enemies’ levels, I’m between 2 and 5 levels too low. >_<
Yeah, they can only be summoned by a gate. Have you been synthing items? I’m nowheres near where you are, but in chapter 4 the items I make myself with high-quality ingredients have half again the stats of their equivalents found on the battlefield.
I got it into my head to save up the high-quality ingredients for the last chapter. I’d feel silly if I used them all up for equipment which was later superseded anyway. ^^; I’m only synthing using low-quality ingredients (they’re still stronger than what I can buy). Cu Sith’s questions are… really strange. O_o
If they can only be summoned by a gate… first off, that means they’re useless in non-gate battles, and second off, it means I’d have to battle it out without them until I reach a gate, and then dismiss some of my current Espers to make room. I also couldn’t have three Rank II espers in the meantime. -_- Strategy, yes, but pretty annoying artificial limits here.
Except that I’m sure that the last equipment available isn’t going to need every high-ranking material I have, so I know I’m making things harder on myself. I guess I could grab an FAQ to see which ones to save, but I’d prefer not to if I don’t have to.
EDIT: OK, I found out what I was doing wrong and feel very silly. -- In Mission 6-1, the enemies you see in the preparation screen all have Water weakness, so I was loading everyone up with that… but the really tough enemies are actually the ones who are already in the field and aren’t attached to a leader, and who don’t show up in the preparation screen - and they’re weak against EARTH. >< Once I switched my elementals I was pretty much fine.
Enemies are still about six levels above me, though.
EDIT 2: I take back what I said before about artificial limits of Rank III Espers. Even with those limits, they absolutely rock. Shiva and Belias are the ones I’ve used so far, and they’re destruction machines.
OK, public service announcement: Mission 8-4 will rape you if you try to take it head-on. There are two bosses in it; the first one is a pushover, the second one will kill you. The only way to beat it that I’ve found (and I tried over 10 times) is to have Mateus and Llyud with you, kill all the regular enemies, then congregate at the northeast gate. Put Mateus with Llyud and as many other L.2 Water Flying Espers as you can, buff them, then have just that party attack the boss. Keep summoning new Espers as they die and they’ll head for Llyud.
Chapter 9, by the way, has three fights so far which have made quick work of me, so I’m trying to see if there’s a better way around them, too. My average level is 41 and the regular enemies in these fights are 55 (bosses are 65). X-X
Could anyone throw together a quick list of good DS rpgs? I had no idea that the DS was the best system for rpgs right now, and I’m in need of a few good long difficult ones.
There were a few real surprises here, and the story is finally wrapped up satisfactorily. Very much looking forward to number 4!
