What you think of XII

[DeadLegend]

It has some of the absolute best dialogue I've ever seen, the localization is just unreal. All the characters are honestly more 'real' than old ones. They feel real. Larsa is an amazingly full character.

All of this is epic truth. I was in awe of most of the dialogue, jaw agape through entire cutscenes. I just played through FF10 again a few days before getting this, so I had that fresh in my mind as I played this and I was blown away by the difference. This was like the Metal Gear Solid of Final Fantasies.

I always call that song the Hero's March because it sounds epic and I'm a dork.

[Kurohyou]

Before 12, 8 was my second favorite behind 6. It was always pretty meh in retrospect, but every time I played it I had a distinct sense of RPG nostalgia that I never got with 7, 9, or 10.

[Dion]

too lazy to quote slott about killing shit in 2-5 minutes, but Hell Wyrm took me about an hour and a half lol linkshells wiping to KB. Probably would have done it in 40 mins otherwise. Hell at level 85 it takes me 30 minutes to finish 1 of Yiazmats lifebars.

edit: ff12 best ff yet

[Slott]

i actually made a reply before but it didnt go through, anyway I was talking moreso about main stream story line bosses rather than hunts (hunts are fun and do take effort) was just dissapointed when i went through the big crystal thing and the bosses before/after it and they were super easy :/

[DeadLegend]

My favorite story boss was Elder Wyrm. Strong monster who could spam enfeebles and non-physical attacks, had directional shit to deal with, very very fun.

[Eaglestrike]

I'm a huge FF7 fan because the entire world just makes me ask questions about what is really going on. AC just made me have more questions lol It'll probably always be at the top, if it is beaten as 'best' sometime, because it was my first FF and such though.

FF12 is up there with it. But it's losing points because of this Danjuro NM. They took things from FFXI a bit too much IMO. I'm 0/7 and killed over 1400 PH's to pop this thing. I've gained 20 levels camping for a single drop. I'll soon cap out at 99 and start lvling my backup crew just to get this single dagger. Honestly...that's pretty lame.

But I agree with what most of what people have said. The characters in FF12 are AMAZING. They're far more realistic than any other game I have played personally, and I seriously could know people just like the ones in the game. Hell Penelo reminds me in many ways of my ex-fiancee in personality (good thing lol) and honestly Ashe could be a real person considering the circumstances she's in. She's probably the least believable character too. The dialogue was awesome, the story great, etc.

I was a huge fan of FF9 as well, but FF12 > FF9 by a good bit, even though I thought Zidane and Garnet and that final scene was rediculously cute.

I do need to play through the earlier FF's to completion though, I've never been able to get into it, I'm sure I would've had I played them earlier but I was Genesis, not SNES back as a kid >.>

[Slott]

the one thing about ashe I dont like is they make her moan/gasp/sigh too much, whatever you want to call it. rest of the storyline and cutscenes are all great.

[Charla]

To whoever was complaining it's too easy:
CRPGs are supposed to be really easy if you min/max and sit around powerlevelling. MMOs have spoiled us, with the 8 bazillion hours for 1/4 of a % character improvement.

Now, I agree that most of the hunts are extremely hard compared to the storyline at the time you can get them. But you can always just skip the hunts and come back later like I did.

[Takedown3]

FF12 > FF6 > FF7 IMO others were meh


as for ease/gambits if you didnt do good gambits you would get owned hard in active mode and mebbe even in turn based mode. sometimes i think that not being in turn based mode would make things ALOT harder even with good gambits.

and most of the bosses/hunts have a mode switch that you have to change your strategy/gambits to deal with in the middle of the dight so even then its not like u set your gambits and walk away while u fight

HOWEVER

hell wyrm was basically the easiest fight except that it took me about 3 hours, only reason it was easy was due to a good gambit setup

i think i did it just dinging into the 50's with no uber weapons, just had basch decoy/bravery tanking/DD with ashe and penelo curebombing with an occaisonal blizaga or attack

fafnir was harder imo

[Kaylia]

12 is fucking stupid imo, with the right gambits the game requires 0 effort.

People probably replied to that already, but I stop reading the thread there.


There is almost no RPG that require an effort to play, I'm not sure why you say that or what rpg you like, but there is almost always a loophole that make everything easy. If there is not, chance is it wont really be hard, just make you repeat simple and obvious task over and over.

Have you ever leveled your character in a rpg? You just walk for 1h in the same area, spamming "X" every fight, and going in the menu to cure your character once in a while (which is something I could easily live without). It's not really different this time, except battle happen at a faster pace, and you have to hunt for mobs instead of walking on a 2x1 tiles.


Boss fight in where you will have to use your strategy, and unless you are overleveled, those offer some challenge usually. Unless of course you are retarded enough to kill everything with vanish/doom, gengi glove offering/, 8 counter materia, aura and limit spam, and complain there is no challenge, I don't see why FFXII require "0" effort.

And seriously, complaining about something being weak when you arent forced to use it is retarded. You're the one who set your gambit, and no one force you to use them if you don't want. They are there for people who prefer avoiding to give obvious and retarded order to your character, when it's obvious you would do it

[Lbelle]

best dialogue, but one of the worse and most uninteresting stories. I didn't vote because I didn't like 7 that much, but I didn't think it was the worse FF ever either.

Great characters, graphics, and music, but overall I thought it was kind of boring with not alot to do outside of the main story and hunts.

edit: To Kaylia, I have to agree with the person that said the game requires very little effort if you set up gambits in such a way:

Party Leader: Target nearest visible
Everyone else: Target Leader's Target
Everyone: Curaja at less than 70%

I was having a tremendously difficult time with the game until I got curaja, and then even with underleveld characters I could one shot any boss, and any hunt, with that same gambit. I barely even had to use quickenings after curaja was available. I think that's what he meant by very little effort.

[Kaylia]

Would the action of casting curaja by yourself is really considered an effort?. The gambit help, but you could just pause the game every 3 sec to select it the same.

What I'm saying is no game require a large effort once you find some powerful move, and you can usually beat a rpg spamming the same button over and over. FFXII is no different in that domain.

Is curaja that overpowered? Maybe, but how is it any different than anything overpowered in previous game? The only FF where nothing was overpowered was FFIX, but this one had very little customization, and fight werent particularly harder (minus the random status).


Anyway, my biggest problem with FFXII is the quantity of story told. Story is good and I like the character and all, but it still feel too short so far.

[Kainen]

My order is:
7, 6, 10, 12, 4, 8, 9, 5, 1, 3, 2

12 battle system was very fun, but incredibly easy w/ the right gambits. Phoenix downs w/ Bubble Belts were overpowered as hell. Instant raises w/ 5000 hp. Penelo w/ Mage gear and faith did curaja for 9999 at like lvl 50... it was ridiculous. Just set up 1 tank, 1 attacker/healer, 1 support and the game is a complete breeze.

Vaan (Sword/Shield, Heavy Armor)
Ally: Phoenix Down
Fran: Esuna
Self MP<10%: Charge
Foe Lowest HP: Attack

Penolo (Ninja Katana, Mage Armor)
Ally: Phoenix Down
Ally HP<60%: Curaja
Fran: Esuna
Self MP<10%: Charge
Foe Lowest HP: Attack

Fran (Rod, Mage Armor)
Ally: Phoenix Down
Ally: Esunaga
Vaan: Decoy
Self MP<10%: Charge
Ally: Haste
Ally: Bubble
Vaan: Protectga
Vaan: Shellga
Penelo: Faith
Vaan: Bravery
Foe Lowest HP: Flare

I did basically every hard fight at 56 (reddas 58) w/ little difficulty including gilgamesh, fafnir, kb, etc. Did the uber bosses at 65-70. Did everything inlcuding Yiazmat and Zodiac w/ no player over 70.

Ultima was imo the funnest, most challenging fight cause of the constant ban changing and holyja (if you didn't have light absorb gear which i didn't)

This was the first FF where I never saw the 'game over' screen.

[raginbull]

The only thing that irks me about XII is that I really abhor Vaan and Penelo. It's like they are just 2 scrubs tagging along with the main group and contribute very little to the story. At least Ashe, Balthier, Fran, Basch and the guest characters are interesting. Not being able to stand the guy who is supposedly the main character is quite a big thing imo, but apart from that it's great.

[JoOeetheplatypuS]

The only thing that irks me about XII is that I really abhor Vaan and Penelo. It's like they are just 2 scrubs tagging along with the main group and contribute very little to the story. At least Ashe, Balthier, Fran, Basch and the guest characters are interesting. Not being able to stand the guy who is supposedly the main character is quite a big thing imo, but apart from that it's great.

I think its a great thing. For once the 'main' (not really any main character in this game really) character doesn't have the world revolving around him. He simply has a strong motivation and a personality that leads him to do these great things. It was kind of what Zidane was like the 1st 2/3 of the game. Very cool IMO.

[exceed]

8's plot is one of the best, i liked the game as a whole personally, i can just see how the junction system could piss off some people.

8's CARD GAME>>>>ALL!!!!

[DeadLegend]

I liked how vaan and penelo were always off to the side screwing around with each other while this huge crazy war story is taking place. I didn't like ashe's constant groaning and sighing but eh.

If you put the party leader's gambits on and have them autotargeting you only have yourself to blame for an uninteresting fight system. lol

[Kainen]

The story is very short, and yes... very very similar to 9's. Vaan is Zidane, Ashe is Dagger, Basch is Steiner. I wasn't a fan of 9 cause it was so childish. This is like a mature version of 9. It would have been a good story IF it had more to it, and if they developed the support characters more. It just so happens that the support characters are the ones that most people use (vaan being the best tank, penelo being the best mage) and therefore don't really build any personal feeling for the characters the plot centers around.

seeing as the last real installment of the series was 10 which had AMAZING character development, this one is very disappointing in that matter.

8's plot... was just wierd. I hated it for 90% of the game, but the end was really awesome and the fmv's still to this day are amazing.

[Kurohyou]

IMO, the reason 12's plot beats 7-10 is because there's no goddamn love story.

[SephYuyX]

This poll sucks, to me FFXII isnt the best, but isnt the worst, and compairing 7 to 12 is stupid, so I just voted for it being the worst.

I hold a grudge on FFXII as with most of the current RPGs, they suck because they are too easy.

FFXII has gambits, it has an icon and a noise when you approch an item that needs checking, its marked on the map, most maps you can find in the first area of the dungeon, you can have a 4th join the PT, and if they are the type to use potions, you are invincible, you have 6 members you can swap out midbattle, you can cure people in your reserve, the bosses are easy (so far, the last boss I fought was the elder wyrm and no one even came close to dying, and I havent died one any other), and there is probably one or three other things that I dont remember atm.

Current day RPGs piss me off, they are to easy; where is the fucking challenge any more? Where are the tactics? where are the puzzles? Where are the hard bosses? Older gamers always say that the 2D era of gaming was tougher than the 3D era, and so far that holds true in my book. FFI is a far greater challenge than FFXII. Shit, I remember taking paper and sketching out the world map and dungeons because they were so massive, and because there was no in game maps. FFXII is by far, the easiest FF game.

FFXII is a fun game, and I love the story, but it sucks in its own way. After Wii and Zelda comes out, im not sure when the next time ill play FFXII.