Got it at midnight last night, played it until 6:00 am. Woke up at 10:00 am and resumed. I’ll write more later, but based on the first ~6 hours it’s pretty much the refinement and perfection of everything that Final Fantasy has been working toward.
slight spoiler warning
Eh, I think that’s somewhat of a bold statement, however my impressions of the game have only been from the Japanese version my friend imported back in March. Make of that what you will.
It’s definitely a huge improvment over X and I think it will appeal to fans of IX, but “perfection”? Not so much, IMHO.
The music really is fantastic. Though the game suffered in the change of directors and it shows. Also, I think it would’ve been better had Ashe or Balthier been the protagonist. Vaan becomes so… unimportant in the latter half of the game that it left me wondering WTF he was doing still travelling around with the group. Penelo too, for that matter.
I’d almost forgotten this came out today. I am so there. If I don’t post for a few weeks, you’ll know where I am.
How is the masturbating battle system?
I see someone reads Penny Arcade. I’m curious too, how does it compare to the previous games? From what I’ve heard it doesn’t sound like something I’d enjoy (although I’ll give anything a try at least one)
This is a single player game, not like XI, correct? I may pick this up today on account of loving the rest of the series. Can’t believe I haven’t been constantly checking updates on it.
Well, I love - LOVE - the battle and gambit system. I think it’s the best thing to happen to the series since the ATB, and it is in many ways a refinement of the ATB and what the ATB intended to do, which is to break the player out of the boring turn-based system and to incorporate the statistics of timing, parry, etc. in a more natural way.
You and your party run around the battles “action style,” but you press a button to freeze everything “Matrix” style to input commands (you can actually turn this off and have everything go real-time, but I haven’t done that yet because I’m still getting used to everything). The action is then executed based on a bar that fills like the classic ATB.
But the gambit system is AWESOME - I just plain love it. When I first heard/read about it, I thought, “Why would I want to put the game on auto-pilot? I buy games to play them, not to watch them!” But having played the game, I’ve realized that you “play” the gambit system as much as or more than you used to “play” each individual character by inputting seperate commands for them; by configuring different behaviors and customizing different orders and chains of actions, you’re getting incredibly in-depth with the way that you automate the different characters. The gambit system isn’t just a “set it and forget it” sort of thing, either - in any given dungeon or battle environment, I find myself tweaking the thing every few minutes depending on the types of enemies that show up and the battle conditions. For example, in a dungeon with a bunch of enemies that are vulnerable to fire, I set one of my characters to always (First) physically attack the enemy that my main character is attacking for support, then (second) attack the closest enemy to her with fire spells, then (third) steal from the closest enemy. Superceding all of that is that if anyone drops below 50% health, she’s set to heal them with the “cure” spell, then secondly throw them a potion if she’s out of MP for the spell. HOT. And that’s only the beginning; as you progress in the game, you can get a million different gambit modifiers and add more and more gambit actions per person. For someone like me who loves this sort of customization (the materia system of FFVII was my previous favorite system like this in a Final Fantasy game), it’s just the greatest thing ever.
One thing that really irritates me that I just have to point out -
You basically have to buy the $20 guide to go with the game. RPG makers and the guide makers have been in cahoots for years, but there’s a particularly shameless thing in FFXII - in order to get the final ultimate weapon for your character, you must NOT grab four treasure chests throughout the game, and one of those is one of the very first chests you run into. The only way you’d know this is if you shelled out for the guide, period, and it’s just plain shameless to do something like that.
Even more evil - we don’t get it until March! Bah.
I’m now 2 hours into it and just got into the gambit system. I really like it thus far.
Where did you hear this? I’m shocked to hear that it’s impossible to get the ultimate weapon by grabbing one treasure chest early.
:eek:
I would not that, if true, it might also be a particularly pathetic attempt at adding replay value to the game. Because I don’t like to think that the game-playing public is now EXPECTED to read strategy guides before playing RPGs (which I think is “dishonorable,” the first time through).
Oh, and MHO: no FF game is “perfect” without Blue Magic. Having skills named after Blue Magic (which I see they have in the instruction manual) doesn’t cut it. 
Ooooh. I need to pick up FFXII… after I finish KH2 and the Ratchet’n’Clank games.
But I’d love to see a cite on that treasure chest thing. :eek: I still have PTSD from the 500 lightning bolts, chocobo race, and butterfly race thinger in FFX, and that was YEARS ago.
It’s in the guide, which I bought at the same time as the game. FIRST chapter in the guide introduces a little recurring sidebar - “Don’t grab these chests!” - that explains the whole deal. I’m glad I shelled out the $20 for the guide, but YEEESH, that’s a hell of a thing to spring on unsuspecting players.
Yeah, I don’t get the whole “replaying an RPG” thing when many modern games expect the player to log between 60 and 80 hrs to complete the main quest. I stopped playing and flat-out traded in the most recent Suikoden game when I found out that I had managed to lose out on the “good ending” early in the game by giving the “wrong” answer to a random question from a town citizen. Seriously, folks? (Although that game had copious problems and this was merely the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back).
Did they turn it into a reflex shooter game? They have trashed RPG s this way the last few years.
This Barheim passage part is giving me a huge pain in the ass. It’s all easy going until you get to the flans blocking you from one of the mimics.
You’re thinking of the sequel to Final Fantasy 7, which they turned into a first person shooter.
Set Fran’s gambit to cast Fire on the closest enemy.