Final Fantasy XII

[Evi]

I was going to sell my PS2, but...


I HATE YOU ALL! >_<


I gotta go get this game now. =\\

I rented this game and 15 hours in I am glad I didnt buy it.  Heres why:

- LAME hero

  if you can even call \'it\' a hero.  I\'m talking about Vaan.  I want to vomit every time I see those fake abs.  Vaan makes Tidus of FFX look like a stud.  Wow,  I\'m tired of all these weak main characters.  The main character should be the leader,  not a stupid punk follower like Vaan

- Star Wars ripoff

More then anything this game reminds me of some cheap star wars ripoff.  Space ships looking things and talking reptiles?  Even that little land speeder or whatever Fran and Balthier were on early in the game looked straight out of star wars.

- Save points in wrong places

This is what probably pushed me over the edge with this game.  Too many times I will spend 2 hours in a dungeon opening doors and leveling up to not have a save point within 15 minutes walking distance only to get jumped by a boss in a weakened state which leads to my death and the loss of 2 hours worth of work.  BS

-  Difficulty,  good and bad

The game is a challenge,  which is good,  BUT,  too often I find myself curing my party after nearly every single battle.  This is time consuming and annoying

-  Stupid tasks

I hate RPGS that have the \' I would let you in,  but I lost my key.  Could you go find it?"  FFXII has plenty of that crap.  At least they made fun of it in the game when a character joked about sending you to get his tools...

-  Too much dungeon crawling

Dungeon crawling is boring,  to say the least with no real puzzles

- Character stereotype

Baltheier...oh my.  If I hear another wise crack from this guy..The characters dont feel real to me,  they feel like stereotypes.  I am not emotionally connected to them at all unlike pass FF games

At this point what really got me mad was spending 3 hours dungeon crawling and opening doors and leveling up only to be jumped by a boss and killed with no save point within 15 minutes of walking.

I need encouragement to get back to this...

The story is much less focused on a single character.  Ashe gets more story time than Vaan, then there are the secondary characters who get quite a bit of camera time as well.  It\'s a huge story that involves many characters.  It takes a while to get in to all of this though.

I thought about Star Wars at first, too.  40 hours in, however, and I really can\'t fathom a comparison.

I think the save points are well placed save for a few occassions.  You should keep your characters in an optimal state of health at all times.  Explosion traps can wipe you out if you\'re not careful, and there are some nasty enemies in a few places.  I\'ve kept a gambit of \'Ally: HP < 70% ---- Potion (or Cure)\' at the top of my gambits and I\'ve done rather well.  This game is about defense more than anything, and then attack power.  Buy new armor whenever available. Use license points to obtain more HP, better chance of avoiding/blocking attacks, and increased swiftness.  It is a challenging game, but not impossible.  

Sounds like you need to learn about Gambits.  They are wonderful.  If set up properly, you don\'t have to do much except direct your characters\' path.  Just keep a healthy supply of potions, ether, and rememdies available for consumption.

I will also suggest saving every opportunity you get, even if it means backtracking.  The dungeons are not that big, and you\'ll get to level up on the way back.  I usually save every 30 minutes or so.

The bosses are relentless.  They don\'t play nice.  Level up.

If the tasks bother you then I can\'t help.  The game is full of those objectives.

Balthier is a badass.  

If you don\'t mind me asking, which dungeon were you in that you spent so much time in and got killed?

i\'m at 86 hours, and not far from the end i suspect.

my only complaint is all the bosses can be beaten with the same tactic.  berserk a "tank" type character and just keep healing the group.

i havent used any mists/summons either.
rather useless.

I\'m loving this game. The only complaint I have is that I want more than 3 party members at a time. I don\'t want to have to wait for a "guest". I\'m loving the leveling and liscence system though.

Gotta say, Everquest actually helped me understand how to use gambits in this game.

I will also suggest saving every opportunity you get, even if it means backtracking.

Alot of back tracking...At some point do you get the opportunity to save anywhere,  like in a highwind?

If you don\'t mind me asking, which dungeon were you in that you spent so much time in and got killed?

I was in the Tomb of King so and so to get Ashe\'s proof.  It may have only been an hour that was wiped out when I was killed by a boss but it ticked me off big time,  considering I was so close to beating him too.  But I am encouraged again to move on and try again.  Thank you.  Will add 70% cure gambits,  that should help

mm I\'ve noticed that about the battle system.  I like the direction they are taking the series but the battle system feels like it is in the early stages.  Experimental I think is the word.  I suspect they will make advancements with it in FFXIII,  just like the rather basic battle system of FF7 advanced all the way to FFX before being rehauled in FFXII

So far the story is rather generic,  I\'m hoping there will be some big plot twist soon.

Oh and thank you for braving my rant,  just had to blow off some steam.  I\'m trying to beat FFXII in 14 days so I am under pressure

Yeah, the tomb was the longest distance I think you encounter from save to boss.  That said, Ifrit should go down pretty easy if you heal first, and aren\'t underleveled too bad - just make sure you are healed before the battle... once you leave your gambits set to keep healing everyone not in a battle below 80% your life gets much easier.

I currently have autocasting (when not in battle) heal < 90%, shell, protect, and bubble (2x hp)... when I got a few of those spells a while back, it made my decently levelled characters into uber-group.

I cut right through ifrit and I\'m out of the tomb now and 10 hours deeper into the game.  I\'m leveling up like a madman to try and prevent something like that from happening again.  I now have my allies gambits on curaga <80%HP

More thoughts 25 hours into the game,

- Vaan
Vaan has become to me one of those characters that you love to hate.  He is a dork,  and most of the party can see that which makes it even funnier.  I wanna be a sky pirate! LOL this guy is so lame,  funny how even makes fun of himself about all the \'i wanna be a skypirate\' crap.  Love it when he tries to fly the airship and they say \'are you out of your mind?!\' lol

- Ashe
The most realistic character in the game imo.   Though her voice sounds like she is 30 rather then 19

-Larsa
Couldnt tell if this was a boy or a girl until they called it a he

The plot has gotten better,  which is a pleasant surprise.  right now im at the playboy bunny city.  

-

[clips]

methinks i\'ll pass on this one...i\'m not really that much of a rpg fan....and if i do play \'em i\'d like for the system to be user friendly...not all of this strategic combobulated s**t.....yea i know some like for their rpg\'s to be challenging in that sense....but when i first played ff7, it took me awhile to understand that materia system!.....and that was fairly simple....only other rpg i played before that was cosmic fantasy 2 on the turbo graphix 16!........i\'am interested in Rogue Galaxy and ff XIII tho...

methinks i\'ll pass on this one...i\'m not really that much of a rpg fan....and if i do play \'em i\'d like for the system to be user friendly...not all of this strategic combobulated s**t.....yea i know some like for their rpg\'s to be challenging in that sense....but when i first played ff7, it took me awhile to understand that materia system!.....and that was fairly simple....only other rpg i played before that was cosmic fantasy 2 on the turbo graphix 16!........i\'am interested in Rogue Galaxy and ff XIII tho...

I\'ve played every Final Fantasy from 6 thru X-2.  Final Fantasy XII is the easiest to pick up out of all of them.

[clips]

I\'ve played every Final Fantasy from 6 thru X-2.  Final Fantasy XII is the easiest to pick up out of all of them.

really?....hmmm, maybe i\'ll give this a rent to see how i like it...

Status report!!

I\'m at 60 hrs, with most of my characters at level 55 or there abouts.  I think I\'m nearing the end of the game, I just finished up in Giruvegan.  

I\'ve explored as much as I can at my current level, and I\'m wondering about a few places (sorry for the spelling errors):

-Zertinian Caverns: I haven\'t bother going back to explore since I left it back when I was first exploring the sandsea.  Is it worth going back in?

-Hennes Mines, part 2: When you come in the back entrance from Feywood.  It\'s quite a difficult place what with the bats doing 900+ damage to me.  Anything worthwhile in there?

-Necrohol of Nabuduis: It just looks and sounds like a place with a few really tough enemies, probably some bosses, too.  Is it worth going in and exploring the whole thing?

-Nabrius Deadlands: Same thing, the enemies were dealing out some significant damage so I left.  Anything worthwhile?

- Lhusu Mines:  I never figured out how to get in to the second part of it.  How do you do it, and is it worth it?

How are people doing on their hunts and rare monster hunts?  I just started on the rare monsters...I\'ve only found one by complete accident, that is besides the one they give you.

Espers?  I only have three.  I don\'t know if it\'s worth getting the optional espers since I don\'t use them in battle.

I finally beat it.  The best Final Fantasy yet!

This has become my favorite of the series.  There was only one low point and that was the extremely long dungeon of Pharos.  If there\'s any reason I won\'t play it again, it\'s that dungeon.

I can\'t wait for the DS sequel, Revenant Wings.