Final Fantasy XII "Remake?"

[shaffy_oppa]

While I would've liked Basch as the main character I didn't mind Vaan and Penelo, they represented us, the everyday person who gets caught up in all the drama.

[nakamura]

They were actually ok to be fair but clearly Square weren't brave enough to cast Basch or Balthier as the main characters.
I'd wager that is why Matsuno 'left'.

It also scored 40/40 in Famistu, the second Matsuno game to do so after Vagrant Story.

[boxhead]

Oh man! Please be on the vita!!!

[noobish hat]

Famitsu are the worst scorers on the planet.

[nakamura]

You clearly don't read some of the more modern sites.

[Asura]

Famitsu are the worst scorers on the planet.

Yeah; people often quote their scores but they're not like western publications, where their reviews fit on some kind of logical scale. Sometimes stuff with high reviews is just "we liked this a lot" territory. Personally, I really like that they do that, but it just means you can't treat their scores like other sources.

I thought it was supposed to be all automated or partially real time or something...

Few people have mentioned this, but yeah, it looks different but the underlying core is very like the ATB in something like FF7. What makes it different is that you can construct AI routines that make characters do stuff, or follow simple logic. It means in all the smaller battles, you can construct a healer character logic that is pretty solid, i.e. you can just let the AI worry about healing, for example.

When you get it just right, you can depend on it for a lot of grinding.

[noobish hat]

That does sound good, and, again, seems like an extension of what they were doing in FFX (which I'm playing for the first time now). Being able to heal everyone in your party to max with ONE button press is a God send (although this is done on the touch screen - was this in the original?). When I first played FF when VII was released, me and my brother played through most of the game without even realising you COULD heal outside of battle. Every time we wanted to use Cure, we got into a random encounter and used it from there (usually taking a lot of damage from the enemies in the process). Lol, what a couple of numpties. We also exploited the "run away" function in every single battle after finding out about it and ingeniously got ourselves into an unwinnable state.

[nakamura]

FFX doesn't have one button healing on the original game and it's nothing like FFXII or pretty much any other game in the series. Another top battle system though.

[Asura]

We also exploited the "run away" function in every single battle after finding out about it and ingeniously got ourselves into an unwinnable state.

This reminds me of why I never finished XII in the first place.

Back when VII came out, I was on the PC version, and I don't think the "run away" function was mentioned in the manual. As it isn't an option you can choose, I didn't even suspect it existed! I didn't find out until part of the way into Disc 3, so I was quite highly leveled and found some segments of the game particularly difficult.

Conversely, with XII, I played it in a very particular way. I avoided every sidequest, every "extra" battle, everything other than finding the shortest possible path along the main quest. I did really well, until this bit where I got a Chocobo and went out into the desert to some weird temple place (I may be mistaken, it was a long time ago) and discovered I was massively under-levelled. Realising I'd have to grind for many hours I ditched it and I've never played it since.

FFX doesn't have one button healing on the original game and it's nothing like FFXII or pretty much any other game in the series. Another top battle system though.

I hated the way X had that widget in the battles that would tell you the order of which character got to attack next, and after, and after that etc.

Not because I hated the idea - I love the idea. I hated that the bosses sometimes just ignore it and attack when they feel like it.

It's like giving you a map that doesn't show you where to go, or a phone that doesn't let you call anyone. A glass hammer. An inflatable dartboard. A chocolate fire-guard.

[nakamura]

I don't remember entirely but I think that was down to retaliatory attacks brought on by certain situations.
Might be wrong though.

[danholo]

I've been waiting for this, if anyone here has ever read my posts on the subject. Would be wonderful if this was indeed true!

Still annoyed the relegated Basch to a side character and put Vaan and Penelo as the mains even though they had nothing to do with the story- all so the Japanese had some little quaffed teens they could relate too...

True, they just should've made Balthier the main character, or anyone else for that matter. Vaan's dream of becoming a pirate was lost in the story and was completely irrelevant in the end. Actually the story was quite lacking altogether but love the battle system.

[Asura]

I don't remember entirely but I think that was down to retaliatory attacks brought on by certain situations.
Might be wrong though.

Even if that was the case, it wasn't clear - so it meant the widget still only gave you part of the information you needed.

For comparison, you could make it so character health bars, in some situations, showed the wrong values, without informing the player that something was wrong. You wouldn't do it though, because you use that information to make tactical decisions.

I suppose what I mean is that there are two forces at work. One type of gameplay is about making decisions based on limited information, and the other type is about making ideal decisions based on all the necessary information. The third type, that this FFX widget represents, is where you're given all the information to make your ideal decisions, but sometimes the game just backhands you.

[fuse]

This came at a bad time first time around, and I never made the time for it. But, it's always interested me, and I'd love for this rumour to come to something - much more so than VII, which I could take or leave.

[nakamura]

Even if that was the case, it wasn't clear - so it meant the widget still only gave you part of the information you needed.

For comparison, you could make it so character health bars, in some situations, showed the wrong values, without informing the player that something was wrong. You wouldn't do it though, because you use that information to make tactical decisions.

I suppose what I mean is that there are two forces at work. One type of gameplay is about making decisions based on limited information, and the other type is about making ideal decisions based on all the necessary information. The third type, that this FFX widget represents, is where you're given all the information to make your ideal decisions, but sometimes the game just backhands you.

Why should a boss reveal if he is going to do a counter? Surely it's something you learn with experience. It makes certain moves risky and keeps you on edge.

[Asura]

Why should a boss reveal if he is going to do a counter? Surely it's something you learn with experience. It makes certain moves risky and keeps you on edge.

That's true, but I'm not sure it was counter-based.