Before I say anything I have played every game since Final Fantasy VII, apart from FFXI I personally dislike Final Fantasy XII and I might as well right why. Battle System The new battle system seems repetitive. You just whatch the same command over and over, with cure or esuna every now and again. You can't even run from enemies anymore. The stupid "elementals" are annoying too. Someone told me they weren't agressive, and one started attacking me because I cast cura! Tactics seemed to be a major part of the battles in erlier Final Fantasy games (when at low levels), but that seems to have gone here, partly because you are forced to do a lot of leveling up just to get enough Gil and LP to equip better weapons/ The ATB style was great in the older Final Fantasy Games (although I didn't like the ATB style in FFX-2, I would have preffered a CTB style in that). Tales of Symphonia (GameCube) is still the game with the greatest battle system for me. Customization & Licenses I'm sure you've all had a time in the game when you've got a really powerful new weapon, get ready to equip it, and find that you can't because you haven't got the right "licence", it sounded like a good idea at the time, but with 1LP per enemy, it's not that helpful. Also, with the licences, everyone can do everything. You could make Basch a deidcated healer for example. I miss the old Final Fantasies like IX and VII. In IX, the way everyone had certain skills that only they could learn was really good. Even the way of being able to use certain weapons to activate certain skills (sorta like KHII) until you gain enough AP for the was good. At first I thought that getting only AP for bosses was stupid, but now it all makes sense. One of the things that really annoys me is how people say the Soul Cage (disk 2, near the end) is the hardest boss in the game. It has zombie status, so use life or a pheonix down on it. In Final Fantasy VII, while anyone could do most things, only certain people could weild the weapon types (unlike XII), and certain people were suited to magic, while others were suited to physical attacks. Storyline The epic tales of Final Fantasy VII and VIII are gone from this game, (IX was okay, but doesn't match the standards of VII and VIII). The characters seem to hav almost no reason to go trying to stop a war. Vann's only reason is Reks, and that's only touched upon slightly towards the beginning. He even, forgives Basch right away near enough. Panelo doesn't even have a reason from what I can see. The characters also seem to have no storyline involvement at all, nor does there seem to be much character devlopment. Compare that to Final Fantasy VII where a main character dies, then a whole load (okay 4 isin't a load but...) of massive monsters created by the planet threaten the planet (ironic huh?) and over all that there is a threat that a giant metor will hit the planet and wipe everyone out. They save the whoole planet! Cloud's progression is good too, how he talks with his Jenova cells in his dreams (that's how I saw it) and Sephiroth's control over him is quite cool too. In Final Fantasy XII I just thought, "oh, running an erand for yet another person, great". Sidequests The only real sidequest in Final Fantasy XII (to me) is the hunts. Which adds to the battle system I hate so much. It's also annoying that you can't even find the petitioner sometimes. In Final Fantasy VII, there was a wider range of sidequests, from chocobo breeding/racing to digging for burried treasure. Of course there were sidequests that involved fights too, but I enjoed the challenge of them fights in Final Fantasy VII. Music What happened to Nobuo? Owning the "Final Fantasy VII Original Sound Track", I'm quite a fan of Nobuo's music, I know the tune from every location in Final Fantasy VII, and most of them by name. From "Tifa's Theme", and "Final Fantasy VII's Main Theme" (FFVII) to "You're not Alone" (FFIX), I have remembered pretty much every tune in Final Fantasy. None of the songs in Final Fantasy XII are memorable, I'm trying to remember the music for the Sandsea now, and all I can think of is the Hyrule Field music for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Graphics The only thing I do like about the game. Although I do slightly miss the sprites in older Final Fantasy Games, I can say that this is the nicest looking Final Fantasy ever. When I first played Final Fantasy X (three years after release) they really impresssed me, and still do today, along with Zelda and Final Fantasy XII. But, graphics mean nothing if they forget to put a game on the disk. Anyway, if the Final Fantasy series keeps up like this, Square Enix are going to loose a fan. Unless the keep up the good work with Kingdom Hearts and make another kick-*** storyline like the one in Final Fantasy VII or VIII. Thanks for reading my rants. I would like to see other peoples opinions on Final Fantasy XII.
Honestly, I think you're being too critical about the game. Okay, so maybe the story isn't as good as other FF's, but I think hte story of X was better than ANY FF before it. You'd obviously disagree, with shows the real point I was trying to make. It's a matter of opinion on how good the story was. In every FF there are characters that doens't reall have a reason for joining the party. Tell me I'm wrong. Also, the battle system on this game is very fun. I really enjoyed it. The fact that you can go from walking around into a battle then to walking around again with no loading screen or change in screen is awesome. In terms of the music, okay, so maybe Uematsu DIDN'T do the music for it, but that doesn't make the music not good. You are right when you say the music isn't as memorable, but it's still enjoyable. So yeah, that's what I think. And just so you know, FFXII definitely isn't my favorite FF. That would be FFX.
FFX didn'r have the best story. But it was one of the better stories. I really liked all that sending to the farplane and unsent stuff.
just press R1 or 2 (cant really remember) and Fleeing will show up on the screen. then you can run from battles you dont want to fight.
I actually like the fighting system. Also like the no random encounters anymore. But the story just wasn't as strong as the other one, but still good overall. Maybe ff versus XIII might have a great story.
I won't say that I liked FFXII, mostly because my idea of an RPG was not 40 hours of hack and slash dungeons to get to the end, and I won't say it's a horrible game. However, I will say that they focused way too much gameplay hours on dungeons that were repetitive and redundant and that more should've been spent developing some of the characters because they had a lot of potential. The story-telling was very sloppy, which took away from the game's flow and fluidity. The last good FF title Square has made is still X in my opinion, and that was made almost 7 years ago. FFXIII better knock my socks off, honestly. Last thing, for characters that had so much screen time, Vaan and Penelo sure didn't seem to have a purpose being one of the main characters, let alone in the game. Penelo could've been taken out of the game completely (or just left at Rabanastre) and I'm pretty sure the game would've flowed exactly the same as it did with her in it.
