Final Fantasy XII

[Magnakai]

I just started this a few days ago and have managed to clock up 10 hours so far.

What a curious game! It has the intense stat-juggling, vast world and random side-quests of an MMO but with single-player! At times it feels a bit like a cross between Diablo II and FFXI...

A note to those just starting - your first three to five hours (depending on how many side-quests you chase) are, for the most part, rather tedious. It's only when you get your first proper party and can edit your gambits that things take off. Vaan also becomes infinitely less annoying once he gives up the perky teenager act.
I don't know why Square makes you go so far on your own, as the entire system seems to be oriented around having a party to manage.

Anyway, I'm just up to the

->Open Spoiler<-

Lhusu Mines to rescue Penelo

and I'm really enjoying it now.

The only issue I have now is that I'm totally overwhelmed by the amount of options you have. There are an obscene amount of weapons and armours, and figuring out the benefits of everything in combination with the rather expansive license board is a bit much right now.

[112]

yeah thats one thing that confused me because you constantly had to check what shops had for sale so you dont needlessly waste LP's on Armour of Weapons you probably wont get till the end of the game lol!

112

[Magnakai]

Actually, I've got a question.

Is it worth hanging onto any of the loot you get? The various elemental stones sound like they have a purpose, as do some of the other things, but I'm not aware of any crafting mechanism in this game. I've just been selling everything so far.

[C']

Based on the information I’ve unlocked in the Bestiary, the way I think it works is that the loot you sell to vendors is what determines what becomes available in the bazaar.

This does work as a behind the scenes crafting mechanism I think, but for me so far I’ve not found any instance where holding on to elemental stones/magicite would have been beneficial.

[Concept]

A note to those just starting - your first three to five hours (depending on how many side-quests you chase) are, for the most part, rather tedious. It's only when you get your first proper party and can edit your gambits that things take off. Vaan also becomes infinitely less annoying once he gives up the perky teenager act.

I don't know why Square makes you go so far on your own, as the entire system seems to be oriented around having a party to manage.

Cheers. I might restart this again - three hours in and I was left scratching my head as to why people have been raving about a return to form. Floppy haired teenage whinging makes me lose the will to live, but if the narrative progresses to something more substantial I'll give it another go.

[Magnakai]

Yeah, there seems to be something more substantial. I (think) it's nothing mind-blowing, but there's definitely a level of uncertainty about certain characters.

As for the gameplay, I was feeling exactly the same way as you until it finally clicked. Just press on with the story for now. Once you get your party going it becomes much more fun. There's plenty of time for the side-quests later.

It's extremely refreshing to set up some instructions, and then sit back and have a Final Fantasy game win a fight on its own. The new system really is a breath of fresh air. It's also a nice change not to have to hit Attack a thousand times for all the random battles everywhere you walk.

-Snip-

Thanks, that's what I figured. I've already unlocked a few handy things in the bazaar (plus one ridiculously expensive item) but I don't understand why they don't just give you the gil for the loot straight from the monster. The extra step seems a bit unnecessary. I do appreciate all the descriptions though. The bestiary ones are particularly great.

Edit: Oh wait, do you mean that depending on WHO you sell to, you'll unlock different items? Cunning! Reminds me of the system in Hardwar...

Edit edit: Scratch that last bit. I just went and looked at an FAQ. There are recipes and stuff... I just skimmed it to avoid spoilers, but I don't think it matters who you sell to.

[revlob]

Thanks, that's what I figured. I've already unlocked a few handy things in the bazaar (plus one ridiculously expensive item) but I don't understand why they don't just give you the gil for the loot straight from the monster. The extra step seems a bit unnecessary. I do appreciate all the descriptions though. The bestiary ones are particularly great.

I've always thought it odd as to why a slime/goblin/whatever would carry human currency, but I suppose arguing over realism in fantasy games is a lost cause.

I think the main reason for having monsters drop loot items is to add a layer of obscurity to item discovery. As the treasure chests are all pretty much random, you can't just find a secret passge in the palace and open the chest on your left for a guaranteed Ultra Sword anymore. So to give you some concrete goals to work towards, there are clues left in the bestiary as to what loot items may yield useful gear when sold.

Reading up a bit about it, the loot system works on recipies, so earlier mentions of "crafting" were quite accurate. To get item X, you'll need 3x pelts, 2x Crystals and a Shoe, for example. The format is usually "rare item mentioned in bestiary plus a few stones/crystals/magicite", with better items needing drops from harder monsters, higher quantities, and more ingredients.

The bestiary items are usually secondary rare drops or steals, and they aren't very common. Looking at some recipies, if you're going farming it's probably better to work towards getting more than 1 of a rare drop before selling it to see if anything new appears.

Edit: Oh wait, do you mean that depending on WHO you sell to, you'll unlock different items? Cunning! Reminds me of the system in Hardwar...

Nope, doesn't matter who you sell to or where you buy your items from, the bazaar is a sort of global thing.

[C']

I don’t think it matters who you sell to, just WHAT you sell. The right combination of items sold will lead to certain things becoming available in the bazaar.

I think it is done this way (opposed to gil directly off fiends) as bazaar items are often a bit cheaper than standard vendors so if you were after a specific sword for example, and knew exactly what combination of loot was needed for it to become available in the bazaar, you could hunt those items and the resulting sword would be cheaper than if you purchased it from a regular vendor.

Also, again from the extra Bestiary information, I think there are certain items (ammo specifically) that are not available via standard means and instead are only available when you sell the correct loot to the bazaar.

[Briareos]

I know there was one loot item that helped with a sidequest, but it wasn't really clear you should keep hold of it. If I hadn't spotted that titbit while skimming a power-levelling faq i would have sold it straight off. So now I'm actually (probably foolishly) holding onto any loot i only have one of...

[Gaol]

I finished FFXII last week and was a little disappointed.

Not by the new combat, which I thought was terrific; but in the areas FF normally does better: plot and music.

The plot is OK for the first 10-20 hours; and also great in the last 5-10 hours; but theres a massive gap in the middle where not a lot happens. There needed to be more flushing out of the characters, and a few more interesting diversions in the plot. No sequence of events stands out as particularly memorable after the intro.

As for the music, Nobuo Uematsu is sorely missed. Its not all bad, some of the boss fight tunes are pretty decent; but in general its missing the catchy melodies and other worldliness that Final Fantasy has had as long as I can remember.

These are the negatives, theres a lot of good stuff in there too, namely the terrific combat system; the character customization, the world design and the graphics are all top notch. Its still a great game, just not quite as good as previous ones.

[Xhorder]

As expected, I've got it in the mail yesterday. And I've been playing it for around eight hours now and I agree with most of you. This one is pretty good! :-)

About the loot, I've been keeping one of every item I've found so far. I haven't read any faqs, but I knew I should keep some items. The story so far is nice. And I'm hooked to the battlesystem. It's so nice not to press X all the time and let the game do it for me. Also no more frikkin' random battles. Finally!

I also liked one of the inside jokes. At some point, after I've been running around finding that sunstone thing, you're directed to a door to get into the sewersystem of the castle. Your friend is there and he says it might be a boring task, but I have to get some tools for him, so he can open the door. Right after I thought: "another damn fetch task" he says it's a joke and he has the right tools to open the door.

I like it how the designers tricked me by letting me think I'll be doing another fetch quest. They know people hate them and all they do is stretch the game a little. I noticed they left out some backtracking as well. At some point I thought I would have to backtrack all the way back, but they directly skipped to the right location where I could go on with the story.

So far I'm hooked!

[Ryo Saeba]

I like it how the designers tricked me by letting me think I'll be doing another fetch quest. They know people hate them and all they do is stretch the game a little.

The amount of fetch-questing at the beginning was still annoyingly high for my tastes.
I tried this new RPG blockbuster (after reading some reviews) and I can't get into it, it reminds me why I haven't played a FF game after the 8th installment (which bored me to tears).

One of the most annoying things has to be the hideous charartwork, where the only difference between those shallow and bland faces is their hairstyle. When I opened up the menu after getting my first teammate, I really couldn't say which one of them is the girl.
These designs are just geared towards the wet dreams of 13 year olds and are destined to spawn an obnoxious amount of hentai dojins.

But yeah, no more random encounters amd therefore no more loading times is definately a step in the right direction.

[dataDave]

I'm looking out for the Japanese version so wish me luck, that should take me 50hrs longer than expected.

[Magnakai]

Can you read Japanese, Dave, or are you just being pedantic?

Cause the translation's suprisingly good, and the voice acting isn't that bad. In fact, it's actually outright good on at least one character.

[112]

yeah the translation as magnakaii says is pretty spot on, the only annoyance ive found is Vaan coming of age voice, but theres a good blend of european voices in there, plus Frans voice has a certain sex appeal to it lol!

Dave are you still high? The story is essential in all RPGs!

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