Final Fantasy XII

[Endo]

Carb try not to be to hard on this game without being open minded. It has a lot of new concepts as someone mentioned and definatly steers away from the traditional ff random battle sequences. You can basically develop any of the characters however you see fit and totally engross yourself and allign with one or three. You can tell by everyones support for diffrent characters being the best. You can easily beat the game at your current level, but for me the hunts and side quests were the greatest part of this game not to mention everything was real time. I really am excited to see them build on this concept (although I tend to agree the gambits, although a good idea, were poorly implemented) maybe have all the NPC like they are in oblivion, on a schedule individual voice's ect. The story you can tell was rushed at the end. It started off great but just felt rushed as it closed. Anyway I cant play it out here so I am only going off memory, but give it a chance and stop focusing on the negative so much, and email me you whore!

[Vinen]

Carb pretty much summed it up. FFXII blew... it's kinda funny seeing some people realzing this a few months after they played the game when they got over their ff fanboism.

[Ferien]

fucking hated roblon hunt... just to get to him i had to kill like 70 skels THEY NEVER END!!!!!

i think i gained two levels walking up there. it's stuff like that which makes active leveling unnecessary. i gained like 10 levels killing everything in the Great Crystal looking for Ultima and the Excalibur chest.

Have you ever played a previous ff? You know...when monsters would randomly attack you? The method of leveling is pretty much the same as that, it's just hte battle system that's changed.

[Carbon]

It's all good. Like I said, I liked the game, just don't like the end game all that much. I'm taking some advice here and giving it another shot and so far so good.

[Elcura]

fucking hated roblon hunt... just to get to him i had to kill like 70 skels THEY NEVER END!!!!!

i think i gained two levels walking up there. it's stuff like that which makes active leveling unnecessary. i gained like 10 levels killing everything in the Great Crystal looking for Ultima and the Excalibur chest.

Have you ever played a previous ff? You know...when monsters would randomly attack you? The method of leveling is pretty much the same as that, it's just hte battle system that's changed.

except, you don't have to wait upwards of 10 for the fight to start (while doing nothing) and upwards of 10 seconds for the fight to end (looking at the stupid fanfare and after battle screen, yawn).

Hell, the longest you wait is a second to draw your weapon and a second to holster it. Making travelling to places so much easier and more fun while continually fighting.

Hell, you don't even have to wait a stupid amount of time to run away from battle. God the old FF games were tedious like that.

[UnclePhil]

It's all good. Like I said, I liked the game, just don't like the end game all that much. I'm taking some advice here and giving it another shot and so far so good.

Opposite for me, I hated the storyline but some of the later hunts are awesome. Gilg V.2 was one of the funnest fights I've done in any game.

[-Omni]

The hunts are fun, but The Seer is taking for fucking evarrr.

Most of my characters are 70-ish, but I just cannot sit down and plunge into the Pharos descent. It takes forever to get enough black orbs.

But yeah other than hunts there's not much endgame to do. So, it's alright I guess. I like the battle system but the storyline is kinda hard for me to get into. I feel detatched from the main character(s), nadadamean?

[MisterBob]

The hunts are fun, but The Seer is taking for fucking evarrr.

Most of my characters are 70-ish, but I just cannot sit down and plunge into the Pharos descent. It takes forever to get enough black orbs.

But yeah other than hunts there's not much endgame to do. So, it's alright I guess. I like the battle system but the storyline is kinda hard for me to get into. I feel detatched from the main character(s), nadadamean?

There's a trick to the Pharos Subterrain. I thought it was going to take forever as well, until I realized this. With this trick I cleared it in about an hour:

When you first enter a floor, search each of the four side rooms for a Massive Black Orb. Kill anything on the way, but do NOT pick up any Black Orbs. When you reach the massive orb, don't touch it. Simply remember its location, and now run to each area, killing all the mobs. Never pick up any black orbs.

After one cycle through the area (killing every mob in each of the 4 side rooms), return to the Massive Black Orb, and this time pick it up. You'll get an obscene amount of orbs, since every Black Orb you didn't pick up will teleport to the Massive Orb, and be worth 3x as much.

On Abyssal, I did one cycle, and ended up getting 261 orbs. Too bad you only need 70-something, and you can only hold 99 :P

[Elcura]

The Seer hunt is indeed painful, I remember getting owned on the floor with a mimic because I got too caught up in trying to steal my Megalixer back and before I knew I had 5 ghosts and 10 zombies raping my face, couple that with no map and darkness means I can't even run away and I got owned.

Fucking hunt was a pain until I realized what MisterBob said, couple of rounds and you'll max out on orbs really easy, just make sure you use your reserve party to set of the traps outside the doors, because it's a real pain having to cast float everytime you wanna enter the door.

[theo]

Hate management in this game is also pretty fucking sad. There is no provoke of any sort, only a half-shit spell that doesn't even work 50% of the time, and even then it's not guaranteed.

Yeah, I know those provoke spells always came in so handy in older FFs... oh wait, they didn't have it either >_>;

As far as I recall, in FF 1-10 the mobs attacked whoever they felt like with no provoke abilities to speak of. The only exception that comes to mind is the "cover" or "true knight" type of abilities, but even those don't work 100% of the time. It wasn't a problem then, I don't see why it should be a game-breaker now.

[layoneil]

Have you ever played a previous ff? You know...when monsters would randomly attack you? The method of leveling is pretty much the same as that, it's just hte battle system that's changed.

umm... what are you talking about? in what other FF (besides XI) could you have dragged all those skeletons with you and not kill them while killing Roblon. as long as you're high level enough you can do that in this game.

[Exoduso]

Carbon, the Bahamut sequences is the only thing I liked in FF12 (that, Yazimat, and the entire Pharos stage because the storyline actually had glimpse moments of a Final Fantasy...) The entire Bahamut-end of game sequence is pretty good, filled with story (which the game had a lack of imo..) and twists, and I loved it tbh.

Oh, and your major mistake was leveling up all your people... Everyone can pretty much do anything, which is why you should just keep a party of 3 and level those for the entire game, avoiding using the other guys COMPLETELY (you never have a split or anything of that sort, so there's never a need to have other leveled characters.) I just used Basch/Balthier/Fran for the entire game, and it worked wonders. You're always at a good level to kill whatever you're fighting, and never have to grind whatsoever..

This was on my 2nd playthrough, after I tried leveling all the characters at the same time on my other save (which took MUCH longer to go through various parts of the game, and in the end I got to Giruvegan and was just way too pissed to keep going when enemies in there were able to 3-shot any party member of mine WITH protect..

[BarthelloSylph]

Carb pretty much summed it up. FFXII blew... it's kinda funny seeing some people realzing this a few months after they played the game when they got over their ff fanboism.

Isn't it awesome how when you are a fan of a particular popular series, and you happen to like a popular game in that popular series, you instantly are slammed with the label "fanboy"? That term is getting pretty old, pretty quick.

It's been several months since I beat FFXII. Everything about this game was different from old FF's. The expansiveness of the world, the focus of the plot (on war and its devastating effects, not two lovers fates intertwined and whoa let's save the world), the quickness of the battle system - no FF had seen these before. I thoroughly enjoyed the new elements, as well as the SOLID character development of Balthier, Fran, Basch and Ashe. I am looking back at this game, and hoping they keep soem of the elements for the future entries -including the battle system and the character development. Sure, the plot development in the middle dragged a bit - not a problem uncommon to the FF series. It was disappointment, but hardly a deal-breaker: FFXII rocked.

I can honestly look back at the game and say it was a great game to play, not just a great FF. It felt like the moment I was placed in FFXI - there was an incredible world out there, just waiting for me to explore it, with barely anything holding me back. I'm sorry that you didn't enjoy it (go back and play 8, that'll give you a better appreciation) but I defintely don't get the feeling that many people are saying it's a crappy game. This thread is sufficient evidence that a fair majority of the people who initially were head over heels with the game are looking back fondly at it months later. While I respect your opinion, I believe that you are in the significant minority with it.

[Tomodachi]

I still need to finish XII, but I haven't really liked the story at all, that LP systems cool, I don't really like gambits either, and I <3 random battles old school style ;x.

[Exoduso]

We only like the battle system because we played FFXI and it felt very friendly in that regard... but i'm sure regular fans of the series that never played XI would have rather seen a turn-based, random encounters game.

[Elcura]

random encounters and turn based battles are so ick...people are so afraid of change.

[Ferien]

Have you ever played a previous ff? You know...when monsters would randomly attack you? The method of leveling is pretty much the same as that, it's just hte battle system that's changed.

umm... what are you talking about? in what other FF (besides XI) could you have dragged all those skeletons with you and not kill them while killing Roblon. as long as you're high level enough you can do that in this game.

You know what, I apologize. Misread what you said. You're right, specifically leveling (for the storyline, at least) is pretty useless, as you'll just end up leveling as you progress, as long as you don't flee through everything.

The whole "endgame" argument is kind of silly...FF12 probably has the most extensive "endgame fights" of all (excluding XI). There's so much extra shit to do in this game it's unbelievable, as opposed to what...maybe 2 super-bosses per game in the 3d generation (Emerald/Ruby in 7, U/O in 8, Ozma in 9, *shrug* in 10, couldn't stand playing through that game)? Sure, the hunts aren't repeatable, but nothing in any of the FFs before XI was.

[mandoo]

TOURNESOL WAS WORTH THE 3 DAYS STRAIGHT THAT I FARMED

[Carbon]

There is a lot to do at the end, I'll give it that. idk I was just pissed because I was getting fed up with a few things. I'm through it and over it now so it's not so bad. I sure as fuck wouldn't do it again, but it's not so bad now. I think more or less I just wasn't playing it right, but I think I did pretty good considering I hadn't used a guide or gotten assistance once up until recently.

[BarthelloSylph]

Have you ever played a previous ff? You know...when monsters would randomly attack you? The method of leveling is pretty much the same as that, it's just hte battle system that's changed.

umm... what are you talking about? in what other FF (besides XI) could you have dragged all those skeletons with you and not kill them while killing Roblon. as long as you're high level enough you can do that in this game.

You know what, I apologize. Misread what you said. You're right, specifically leveling (for the storyline, at least) is pretty useless, as you'll just end up leveling as you progress, as long as you don't flee through everything.

The whole "endgame" argument is kind of silly...FF12 probably has the most extensive "endgame fights" of all (excluding XI). There's so much extra shit to do in this game it's unbelievable, as opposed to what...maybe 2 super-bosses per game in the 3d generation (Emerald/Ruby in 7, U/O in 8, Ozma in 9, *shrug* in 10, couldn't stand playing through that game)? Sure, the hunts aren't repeatable, but nothing in any of the FFs before XI was.

10 had Monster Arena... it took awhile.