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Loved the analysis of it. I guess if you want to look at it, the story is a big metaphor, but that's just if one is willing to read between the lines there.

FF12...I did really enjoy it, enjoyed the combat system, and the story was amazing. I did enjoy the overall broad appeal of the story (lack of focus on the main characters and more on the political landscape of Ivalice). I agree with the poster who said Vaan could be taken out and nothing would change. I never used him anyways. My party consisted of Basche, Ashe, and Fraan.

What really hurt the game though was the uneven flow of the story, but if you managed to pay attention and play the game at a good pace (not put the game off for a week or two), you would follow along perfectly.

Another aspect that bothered me was the summoning system. Not able to control them, and the fact that they are pretty useless was a letdown, but thats another minor issue.

This really is a love/hate game. I think what turned off alot of players was that game has a very political storyline, mature characters (even though not developed well, Basche is my fav. though), and it was a complete departure from the typical FF rpg style. Glad square took a risk with it and it paid off imo.

Well, the only RPGs I have ever played are FF X, X-2, XII KH 1 & 2, SO 3, so I am not an RPG expert, but I really enjoyed this game

I thought that the battle system was excellent, and I did not use the gambits on myself, just put them on the others. Story weren't too good, but some of the cut-scenes were amazing, and I really liked all the enviroments

I would rate X higher, and put it at about the same level as SO 3 (though I am not very far through that, only like 10 hours in) because that game really pisses me off because the opening scene is so enticing, and then nothing is ever quite as amazing as that, and you seem to always be on backwards countries

I can understand people not finding the game to their tastes, but anyone who says it "sucks" doesn't know what they're talking about. FFXII is a masterpiece. It's simply one of the most elegant, confidently executed games ever made. Anyone with a brain ought to be able to recognize that, even if its style doesn't personally appeal to them -- sort of like I can identify a great crime drama when I see it, even though I'm not a fan of the genre.

I'll agree that the story doesn't hold interest very well. It has very few twists and turns, and not much of a plot arc (I was a little surprised to find I was in the last area when it came up, which isn't a good sign). Even so, there's never a sense that the writers are flailing about desperately for plot points, like in FFVIII, for example. There's a constant impression that the story is exactly what it wants to be, because it's delivered with such confidence. And the game's characters are probably the best in the history of the series -- not Vaan/Penelo, obviously, but Basch, Reddas, and especially Balthier are just incredible. And the script and dialogue are easily the best Square has ever done.

It's also got, in my opinion, the best combat system in the franchise. I never want to go back to random battles. The gambit system was just brilliant -- to take a great, underused design feature like programmable AI and turn it into a fun gameplay element: genius! I want to see it in more games, and not just RPGs: strategy games, FPSs, everything.

Just about the only other serious complaint I could muster against the game was the license board. The layout didn't lend itself to differentiating your characters very well, and it didn't proceed in the most logical way all the time. Still, the problem with the characters becoming too similar really didn't arise until about 80 hours in when I was polishing off the entire board, so I probably can't complain too much. And the JP Job System re-release sounds like it might have solved even this little problem... too bad we'll probably never see it here.

It seems you can never make FF fans happy. They either complain that nothing is changing, or that everything is changing. I just approach each game with an open mind, and what a ride it's been.

HATED: Final Fantasy VIII, X-2
LIKED: Final Fantasy IX, X, XII
LOVED: Final Fantasy VI, VII

ZenfoldorVGI said: The game is great. It lacks character development until the last 10 hours. It's still got one of the coolest battle systems in a FF game, imo. I give it 9/10, just slightly worse than The World Ends With You.

I agree its one of the best 3-D ff games

twesterm said: The license system: shitty. This was by far one of the dumbest leveling systems I've ever seen. Every character has the same exact grid so there's no reason to make your characters any different. Congratulations SE! You've managed to make your already boring characters even more boring by making them all carbon copies of each other. Sure, I could level them different through the grid but there's no reason to. License points are easy to come by so yeah, no reason to make them different.

 Your actually quite wrong, once you get the espers (summons) they take up spaces in the license system making it so that it is impossible for each character to be 100% the same.

The same could be said though about FFX's leveling system. It takes forever but each character can have every attack, stat increase, etc. At least the FFXII leveling system actually forces variety.

I have only played about 20+ hours of the game but it's really good so far. The battle system is great though I still don't mind turn-based RPGs(i.e. Lost Odyssey). The story is interesting and a good change of pace from the sappy love stories of pervious games(don't get me wrong though, I though FFX has a great story)

Foshoryuken said: C'mon guys.. When you played FF12, did it even feel like it was a Final Fantasy game? Let alone a game made by Square?

It felt very much like a Square game to me. It was an ambitious titles that really shook things up. Unfortunately most of those things we're executed poorly. The gameplay system of gambits in particular are a great way to play an RPG, but your inability to have access to gambits when you need them made no sense. The moment you acquired an ability, like say, fire magic, the gambits concerning fire magic should open up for sale automatically. You shouldn't have to wait fo certain story segments to pass fo them to open up. In fact, it probably would have been best to just allow you all gambits from the start and let you create your own well made AI scripts. I hope FF 13 keeps the gambit system, but implements it better.

 

ssj12 said: twesterm said: The license system: shitty. This was by far one of the dumbest leveling systems I've ever seen. Every character has the same exact grid so there's no reason to make your characters any different. Congratulations SE! You've managed to make your already boring characters even more boring by making them all carbon copies of each other. Sure, I could level them different through the grid but there's no reason to. License points are easy to come by so yeah, no reason to make them different. Your actually quite wrong, once you get the espers (summons) they take up spaces in the license system making it so that it is impossible for each character to be 100% the same. The same could be said though about FFX's leveling system. It takes forever but each character can have every attack, stat increase, etc. At least the FFXII leveling system actually forces variety.

Remember I only got about 12-16 hours into the game both times so I didn't have summons yet (or I had just gotten them, don't remember). Those may change the characters but up until then they were all the same. They all could do magic of all sorts and they could all use the same uber powerful weapons. I didn't have to use a crapload of potions because the game was easy. Grinding license points was a joke and just healing after an encounter made things easy since MP just regenerated itself.

And you could say that I didn't get far enough in the game to appreciate but 12-16 hours is a pretty good investment. Any game that takes even 10 hours to get interesting is a complete failure. FFXII failed to get interesting storywise, gameplay wise, and character wise that far in the game. If I don't have any feeling what-so-ever about the characters and apparently hadn't even met the main character yet the game just did a terrible job.

-edit-

And while I'm not a huge fan of the FFX grid (it definitely isn't bad) it at least encourages characters to be different since everyone but the blue guy has their own grid and you don't spilling into the other grids until much later in the game.  While you can get many of the same skills as the other characters they still wind up different especially since they all have their own weapons.  You don't even get varied weapons in FFXII since everyone can use the best ones without penalty. 

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I loved FFXII as well...not as much as FFX or FF6..but it was definetely better than the crap that was FF8 & the boring FF9