The Final Fantasy XII Thread!

[ahoythematey]

You are the one that plays UO, right?  The one with the effeminate paper doll.  I'm not claiming Square (and the rest of Japan) doesn't have a problem with girly men, but I'm just sayin'.

[Signe]

Saves me the trouble.  I'll play a Square game again when they learn what a male human looks like.

The really famous ones... you know, the ones who get all the pretty girls... look like this:

[Morfiend]

Fuck. I agree with WUN.

[Jain Zar]

So so so so so so so, who else is spending Monday/Midnight til Saturday night playing FFXII? I am. First time I've been excited for a Final Fantasy since 7. And if I don't finish it before Guitar Hero 2 it'll never get done. SO! Who's with me? Who will be playing this game regularly enough that we can actually talk about the content (even if we have to put absolute spoilers in black)?

And yes, I've had enough "hands-on" time to be this excited... and if you're thinking what you're thinking than you're probably right.

ROUND 1! DISCUSS!

"Engage utter asshole mode"
I'm not only not buying it, I will in spirit if not voice be making fun of any sad person who spends Halloween playing yet another railroaded anime teenaged shitfest instead of having some form of a social life.  Though I would most likely be making fun of anyone playing it anyhow.  Not the kind of abuse and hate I reserve for people buying EA sports and GTA games, but more of the piting kind.

I will be spending Halloween with alcohol, bonfires, and nicely grilled food.  And Airsoft weaponry with glow in the dark ammo.  GLOW IN THE DARK.

"Asshole mode disenaged"

But this will be the second Final Fantasy game I have skipped on.  FF10 was nothing special.  FFX2 was by all reports stupid, and FFTactics Advance made me sad because it was sucky.
Outside of the FF3 remake for the DS I simply don't give a shit about your standard Japanese Console RPG.  The genre can frankly go fuck itself and go play some good Ultimas and the 2 main Fallout games until it learns how to behave.

[schild]

Hey, Jain. This is the first FF I've looked forward to since 8. Considering I lasted less than 3 hours in 8, that's something. The opening alone in FFXII is one of the finest things I've seen in gaming. Also, "railroaded anime teenaged shitfest?" Please to know more about game before you open your mouth and look like an asshole. 

[Scadente]

I'm trying not to buy the hype, FFX left my crying on my bathroom floor after 40+hrs of NOTHING.

But, but it's looking fantastic, and from what I've been reading.... Can't wait really. Must not buy hype. But must wait untill Q1 2007 :(

[gimpyone]

I'll be buying if I can figure out how to hook up my ps2 to my pc, no room for a tv in my dorm.

[Jain Zar]

Hey, Jain. This is the first FF I've looked forward to since 8. Considering I lasted less than 3 hours in 8, that's something. The opening alone in FFXII is one of the finest things I've seen in gaming. Also, "railroaded anime teenaged shitfest?" Please to know more about game before you open your mouth and look like an asshole. 

You do realize I was trolling right?  I pretty much said it right in the post.
And I have pretty much ignored the game anyhow.  To the point of not even playing the year old demo that came with Dragon Quest 8.
But if the game actually manages to have the sorts of near sandbox freedom of an Ultima or Fallout I will stand corrected.
Its already got the bishonen brigade in it so that part isn't going anywhere however. 

[Velorath]

Saves me the trouble.  I'll play a Square game again when they learn what a male human looks like.  I liked Square's stuff back in the SNES era, but as soon as technology improved enough for the characters to go from little squat pixel-dudes to fruity femboys, I was out.

And I suppose putting braids on a lot of the Jedi (especially the young boys) in the prequels just screamed masculinity to you...

[Rasix]

This midnight release thing could work out pretty well.  I don't like driving at night during Halloween and have no time to pick it up during the day.

[WindupAtheist]

I like how chucklefucks who take umbrage at my ripping something they like will automatically leap to talking about UO and Star Wars, no matter how irrelevant the topic or how tortured the attempt at comparison.  Listen, Hayden Christensen at his emo-whining braid-having wussiest is a god damned bear-killing lumberjack compared to the average Final Fantasy protagonist.  Seriously, go look at that box art again.  If I hand a game to someone who's never heard of it before and ask them what it is, and their first guess is gay porn, I'm not buying it.

[stray]

Hey y'all. Braids are cool.

[Velorath]

I like how chucklefucks who take umbrage at my ripping something they like will automatically leap to talking about UO and Star Wars, no matter how irrelevant the topic or how tortured the attempt at comparison.  Listen, Hayden Christensen at his emo-whining braid-having wussiest is a god damned bear-killing lumberjack compared to the average Final Fantasy protagonist.  Seriously, go look at that box art again.  If I hand a game to someone who's never heard of it before and ask them what it is, and their first guess is gay porn, I'm not buying it.

When you champion an MMORPG that's years past its prime, and a series that had 2 and a half good movies out of the six that were made, expect some backlash any time you attempt to criticize anything.  Especially when your criticism boils down to "lol this series is teh gay".  Despite prevalent jokes about effeminate characters I could probably count on 1 hand the number of main FF characters that sport an androgynous look (maybe more if you count some of the FFXI male hume characters), and people who like to exaggerate that amount probably spend too much time surfing the Internet for gay FF fan-art.   Jesus, I hate that I'm even bothering to defend the FF series since I really haven't liked much of anything Square has done in the past several years, but then I just didn't like the games they were making.  I wasn't scared off by boarderline homophobia.

[Strazos]

Signe, are you trying to disparage Johnny Depp in some way? I certainly hope not.

[Trippy]

Okay who the fuck decided that moving the right analog stick to the right should rotate your view to the left? That backwards from pretty much all other games and there doesn't appear to be a way to flip the behavior.

Edit: Argh! How could they fuck up something so basic? This is far worse than my joystick/mouse thumbstick problem. I don't know if I'm going to be able to play this game.

[schild]

I already got over the camera a while ago. It becomes second nature after a few hours. By the way, best FF since 6. Easily.

[Trippy]

I already got over the camera a while ago. It becomes second nature after a few hours. By the way, best FF since 6. Easily.

Right, causing pushing the stick left to turn right is totally intuitive.

Given how brain damaged console cameras are I'm thankful for those that allow "dual stick" moving where the movement thumbstick is held up to move forward and the camera thumbstick is used to actually turn with pushing the camera stick right meaning turn right and vice versa. This is now PSU works, for example, and is just one of many 3D console games that allow this (again cause the console developers are too fucking lame to allow for a fixed camera).

Unfortunately swapping left and right in brain at my age is just too difficult a task. With FF XII, as long as I don't care that I can't see where I'm going everything is fine. Unfortunately if I do need to see then I'm always rotating the camera the wrong way before rotating it the other way so it's always a two-step process.

[schild]

I do not buy into it being that much of a problem. I mean fuck, I think people who use inverted cameras in flight sims are crazy.

[Merusk]

Just keep reminding yourself that you're moving the camera, not the view.  It's apparent from your description that was the programmer's thought process, and nobody else pointed out the flaw in his logic.

[Trippy]

Just keep reminding yourself that you're moving the camera, not the view.  It's apparent from your description that was the programmer's thought process, and nobody else pointed out the flaw in his logic.

Yes, it's clear that the camera is set on a circular dolly track with the camera pointing "in" at your character so pushing the stick right moves the camera right along the circular track which means your view moves left.

Also are anybody else's sound channels swapped? I had to swap the left and right audio connectors to get the stereo sound in the correct ears. It's like my damn DVD is upside down or something.

[WindupAtheist]

When you champion an MMORPG that's years past its prime, and a series that had 2 and a half good movies out of the six that were made, expect some backlash any time you attempt to criticize anything.

I love it.  Do continue.  I can tell, one of these days I'm going to see this.

"Man, I love the Yankees!  They're the best!"
"Meh.  They spend so much cash, and haven't even done that great the last couple seasons."
"Oh yeah?!  Know who else didn't win the pennant?  Ultima Online!"
"Huh?  What the hell are you talking about?"
"That's right motherfucker, and Star Wars never made it to the World Series EVER!"

Especially when your criticism boils down to "lol this series is teh gay".  Despite prevalent jokes about effeminate characters I could probably count on 1 hand the number of main FF characters that sport an androgynous look (maybe more if you count some of the FFXI male hume characters), and people who like to exaggerate that amount probably spend too much time surfing the Internet for gay FF fan-art.   Jesus, I hate that I'm even bothering to defend the FF series since I really haven't liked much of anything Square has done in the past several years, but then I just didn't like the games they were making.  I wasn't scared off by boarderline homophobia.

Dude, I've seen clips and stills from Advent Children and screenshots from FFXI.  Apparently creating Barret for FFVII consumed Square's small quota of masculinity for the rest of eternity.  In the interest of fairness, I hit Google and looked for the most masculine non-Barret FF character I could find.  The best I could do was this guy.  He's no lumberjack, but he does have his head almost in that girl's cleavage.  And he's at least identifiably male, unlike a certain someone.

[Rasix]

Last night I arrived at my nearby EB games around 12:05am to pick the game up.  I fully expected to be the only person there with me giving some sheepish excuse to the sales clerk as to why I'm making him work at this hour.  I mean, hell, this is Tucson; northwest Tucson at that. Nope, line out the door.  Line filled with pimply, fat teens (shouldn't they be in bed, it's a school night), goth kids, tragically nerdy looking adults (someone had a members only jacket on) and cosplayers.  A few normal looking folk looking bewildered or amused; I had to chuckle at the obsurdity of it.

Luckily I've never seen the local clerks at the EB games work that fast, ever.  Maybe selling only one game allows for greater efficiencies.  See, living in a world where EA takes over might not be that bad.  10 minutes through a line which would have taken hours under normal EB working practices.  I picked up my regular version (am I the only person that never watches extras on DVDs?), although I was tempted to pick up the collectors edition for the tin covering up the stupid looking cover art (wish we could pick the Japanese cover art). 

Ohh, and the strat guide is goddamn huge. Bigger that some of the college text books I had back in the day.  The size was so intimidating that I picked it up.  Leafing through it, I'm glad I did.  This game seems a bit complex on the surface and I forgot how much I hated having to go upstairs to check gamefaqs on my PC or bringing my laptop to the living room when I was completing the Shadow Hearts games (thanks Merusk). 

[Signe]

The strategy guide also comes in a collector's addition as well.  Evidently it has an art book with it.  It's exclusive to EB/Gamestop and it's 20% off, bringing it down to something like $25.  I only mention it because I know some of you are suckers for art books, if not strategy guides.

[Riggswolfe]

Saves me the trouble.  I'll play a Square game again when they learn what a male human looks like.  I liked Square's stuff back in the SNES era, but as soon as technology improved enough for the characters to go from little squat pixel-dudes to fruity femboys, I was out.

Unfortunately I agree with this. I love JRPGs and most FFs are pretty good. However, this main character is following this latest androgynous trend which I hate almost as much as the "hand-held" camera work in movies. (Steadicam was invented for a reason you artistic wannabe motherfuckers!)

Besides, I still need to finish Xenosaga 2, then force myself to go through 3.

[Trippy]

Isn't this the game that plays itself?

If you mean configuring your party members to fight on their own including the party leader (the one you are moving around on the screen) then yes it is.

[Oban]

Isn't this the game that plays itself?

If you mean configuring your party members to fight on their own including the party leader (the one you are moving around on the screen) then yes it is.

Ah, I will wait for the movie based on the err.. movie then.

[schild]

Missing this game should be a fucking crime. I don't care if the lead characters were outright gay and made fun of Jews as side banter. This shit rocks.

[Trippy]

Also, I am wondering if the action timers are based on weapon speeds? That would be pretty nice, such that people with daggers are much quicker than people with bows/2handers.

Yes your attack speed is dependent on, among other things, the weapon you are wielding. E.g. daggers attack faster than 1H swords.

ALSO - probably a stupid question, but any chance this will have any sort of 2-player functionality? Sort of like back in FF3 (US) a 2nd player could control some of the party members? That would be neat, but unlikely.

No.

[Merusk]

This game seems a bit complex on the surface and I forgot how much I hated having to go upstairs to check gamefaqs on my PC or bringing my laptop to the living room when I was completing the Shadow Hearts games (thanks Merusk). 

Hey I helped!  Crap, now I have to wash. I feel unclean.

Like I said, professional stuff > ASCII charts.  :-D

[Jain Zar]

Missing this game should be a fucking crime. I don't care if the lead characters were outright gay and made fun of Jews as side banter. This shit rocks.

You said that about Disgaea 2 as well.  I found it to be merely pretty decent and that's because I like SRPGs.

Why should we believe you again?

What makes this game so great?  If your only answer is story then no, its not a crime.

[schild]

I can't account for your bad taste.

[Margalis]

The game is getting pretty rave reviews everywhere.

[dusematic]

I already got over the camera a while ago. It becomes second nature after a few hours. By the way, best FF since 6. Easily.

best since 6?  you DO believe that 6 was the best, correct?  shit i might have to get this.

[schild]

Six was the best. I love 4 because of how young I was. But six is the best. This one may succeed in being better than 6 though.

[dusematic]

 Apparently creating Barret for FFVII consumed Square's small quota of masculinity for the rest of eternity.

LOL.