| KylieDog said: What was wrong? The final Fantasy series was old and outdated. FF XII dared to pumped some new life into it. I mean...how dare it improve the series. |
I applaud it for trying to update the series, but it failed in everything it tried to update.
- Battle System-- I think gambits are a great idea, they just made them so worthless at the beginning of the game that I didn't bother to use them. By the time I actually started getting good ones, I just didn't care about them anymore. If they started me with something better than Heal teammate when < 80% health I might have started using them, but they didn't so they failed.
- License Grid-- I really liked the way it worked, I think it was another fantastic idea but they made every grid the same. That means once you figured out the good weapons and spells, there was absolutely no reason to make characters any different. Stats didn't matter enough to care so everyone had the same spells and everyone had the same equipment for the most part. Why would I give them something other than the best?
I'll admit the game did a wonderful job at making me feel like I was in an MMO or living breathing world, but that's about where the praise for the game stops.
Other gripes (that I've made many times because this thread has been made many times):
Story--
God awful boring. I realize I only got about 16-20 hours into it on both playthroughs, but a game shouldn't take 20 hours to get good. I know it's supposed to get good around that mythical 20 hour mark but any game that takes that long to get my interest just fail miserably.
I'm sure someone like Khuutra will get all angry and talk about the complexity of the story, but just because a story is complex doesn't make it good. That's all I'll say on that.
Characters--
God awful, annoying, and not really a reason to be there. Character motivations were pretty much nonexistent and the ones that did have some sort of motivation I just didn't care about, which brings me to...
Didn't care--
none of the characters did anything to make me care about them. Supposedly the pirate guy and Fran become interesting but for the first 20 hours of the game they're pirates and nothing else. Who cares. Ashe could have been interesting but she was such a raving bitch that I hated her and didn't care. The supposdly dead soldier guy, he just wasn't interesting so didn't care about him. They worked so hard on Vaan and Pinelo but THEY HAD NO REASON TO EVEN BE THERE. That, and Vaan is one of the most annoying main characters ever made. Who would have thought I missed the silent main character like in FFVIII?
The game didn't do anything in the first hour to get you hooked--
What was the first hour of FFXII? You start of with princess Ashe, she dies (or so you think--OMG twist!). You're also treated to an insanely long cut scene where you really don't do anything for 10-15 minutes. You start off as some nobody soldier and he dies (or so you think-- OMG another twist!!) . You start off as Vaan. By this point I just don't trust the game so I already assume he's going to die so I already don't give a shit about him. So what do you during this time? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. You learn Vaan is a little shit and that's about it.
Look at a good game like FFVI, what did you do in the first hour? You were introduced to the story, you had the really cool cut scene of walking to Narshe (that was cool back then, standard issue now), you got to play with the awesome Magitek armor, you got some mystery with Terra, you met Locke, you learned of the Returners, and you had the multiple party battle with the moogles.
That's how you draw someone into the game, not keep introducing and taking away characters and then have them pointlessly run around the town.
