knock em down, picking this up tonight

11/1/2006 5:46:22 PM

I want to get this game, but won't have time to play it

11/1/2006 6:24:01 PM

battle system is a little iffy, I kinda miss turn based

but this game is good so far

11/1/2006 7:04:25 PM

The game has a really cool beginning. It slows down a bit with Vaan, but I really like the war theme. I'm looking forward to see how the combat system works when you get in a group.

11/1/2006 7:08:51 PM

Fighting in a party in XII >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> fighting by yourself early on.

About 8 hours in now, really fun time I'm havin with this. And Belthair sounds like V, which is badass.

11/1/2006 9:42:40 PM

I just met this Princess Ashe and I like her already. Shit's getting wild.

11/2/2006 12:36:27 AM

Grrr.....must play FFXII but must watch Adult Swim...

11/2/2006 12:39:14 AM

Quote :

"And Belthair sounds like V, which is badass."

Totally.

11/2/2006 6:48:28 AM

Man some of the boss fights are so freaking hard. Took me about 2 hours to beat Vosseler cause he just combo wacks everyone to death towards the end. I went Heavy armor with both Vaan and Ashe and primary healer with Ashe.

For hard boss fights, it's a good idea to get a Quickening with each character so you can rotate them in and pull off a mist combo.

11/2/2006 1:15:00 PM

Going to pick this up tomorrow. Most places have it in stock still? Sears will never have shit for games and I have a $60 gift card

11/2/2006 2:05:55 PM

lots of em at Best Buy


any way to block or does it just happen randomly?

same for when you get 3 hits in a row...random or can you control it?

11/2/2006 2:09:23 PM

circuit city i think is the best place to get it

37.99

11/2/2006 2:12:00 PM

random and random

there are certain things that you can do building your character to make it happen more frequently, but thats about it

11/2/2006 5:59:45 PM

I am following through the guide and it talks in four places about not touching four treasures for the best spear in the game later on, but I can't find the place where the spear is actually found nor any mention of it in the side quest section.

Also, previous Final Fantasys have had ultimate uber weapons for each character, does this one have something similar that anyone has found?

11/2/2006 7:57:46 PM

GamesnFlix just shipped mine..

I might be outta commission for a lil' bit..

11/2/2006 9:14:51 PM

[quote="MunkeyMuck"]Going to pick this up tomorrow. Most places have it in stock still? Sears will never have shit for games and I have a $60 gift card [/quote]

We do get games, at least the crabtree one, you just sometimes have to wait 'til its been out for a week-plus since no one cares about stocking them on time XD

11/3/2006 12:52:36 PM

for each character??

considering you can have any character use any weapon, id say no

11/3/2006 3:48:19 PM

It probably has an ultimate version of most of the classes of weapons.

11/3/2006 4:31:54 PM

For those of you who have yet to pick up a copy, I just got back from Circuit City where it scanned for 37.99 at register. Looks like I'm not going to bed tonight...

[Edited on November 3, 2006 at 9:05 PM. Reason : ]

11/3/2006 9:05:34 PM

so far this game feels totally different from any ff game I've played, maybe its the the fact that you can move the camera

11/3/2006 9:49:58 PM

This is the way I wish FFXI was. I'd probably still be playing if it was.

As for the weapon thing, you are right. I am used to uber weapons by character. Who else is crazy enough to go and max out the lisences of all six characters?

11/4/2006 8:22:45 AM

I'm really liking this so far, except for the loading issues, the ff11 battle system makes it feel much more adventerous

11/4/2006 3:42:47 PM

but have you SEEN the strategy guide for this game. I saw it, picked it up, and it instantly fell to the floor... it was so thick and heavy. 1-inch thick strategy guides are a sign of ULTIMATE PWNAGE on your life.

I've had classes with thinner books than this game.

OMG. I can't buy this game, strictly on the fact that it would consume me. Oh, other than the fact that they've sold the franchise down the river since VII. IV is still my all-time favorite.

11/4/2006 4:37:17 PM

this game is awesome! Challenging too.....got to Bhujerba mines and the bosses there kicked my ass all over the place. And I never ran from any battle.

It's nice to have some challenge and modest grinding to the game, no random battles FTW for all future RPGs please!

11/4/2006 5:21:32 PM

^^agreed, I think random turn based rpgs should go extinct

11/4/2006 8:25:48 PM

Quote :

"As for the weapon thing, you are right. I am used to uber weapons by character. Who else is crazy enough to go and max out the lisences of all six characters? "

The same wackos who deleted +1 and +2 nodes on the sphere grid and maxed out their characters' stats in X.

11/5/2006 10:07:04 AM

is there any reason not to give every single person heavy armor (except casters)

11/5/2006 10:14:35 AM

OKay, does anyone else feels like the inspiration for the plot and many of the scenes are from Star Wars.

11/5/2006 12:25:51 PM

the demon wall was seriously pissing me off for a while

11/5/2006 12:30:46 PM

^^you mean like leaving the desert area with a ship run by pirates?

11/5/2006 2:33:19 PM

It wouldn't surprise me if it were. Speaking to all those Bangaa and other creatures already gives it that feel.

BTW, has anyone met characters named Biggs and Wedge? That used to be a FF tradition, but I can't remember them being in FFX either.

11/5/2006 2:42:38 PM

fucking brilliant game

11/5/2006 3:14:43 PM

To the poster that is missing Biggs and Wedge:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biggs_and_Wedge

Hard to believe they only mention them from VI on... and that they missed IX, I'm pretty surprised. But I did remember them in X in the minigames.

11/5/2006 3:40:40 PM

Been playing it since release. Got about 35 hrs in it. A few things have impressed me while at times I've been annoyed.

The Good:
1. I'm pleased so far that none of the characters have annoyed me. In most of the earlier FF games there has been characters that I couldn't stand to watch/listen to, either cause they were annoying or cry babies or someother reason that eludes me.
2. The world seems more like an MMO's then a traditional RPG's. I take this as a necessary step in the evolution of the genre. It doesn't feel like levels or areas as much as zones, making for both a more realistic feel and sense of continuity.
3. The game is definately challenging at times. So far I've got all my characters with 3 quickenings each so thats makes a few things easier. What has taken the majority of my time in the game so far is going after the bounties. I've prob spent the last 10 hrs of game play leveling or attempting to collect on the bounties.
4. The active dimension battle system doesn't seem as mentally exhausting as traditional turn base systems. Fights can be over in seconds and I can continue moving on to my destination. Walking around and exploring isn't frustrating because of random battles either.

The Not so Good:
1. The camera is prob the worst thing in the game. Its reverse axis gets me everytime. Also in tight spots it will bug out.
2. Both the voice acting and the storyline text could use some improvement. Its sad when someone says something that makes no sense and I have to read the text to figure it out. It seems like some of the wording is screwed up, almost like bad bits of translation. I could understand one way or the other if they were trying to put on accents or dialect, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
3. Loading times are disappointing. I understand the game is at the end of PS2's lifecycle so its tapping all it can from the system. Mostly not an issue but if you have to zone into an area with a specific weather pattern for an enemy to spawn it can be fun trying that half a dozen times.
4. Minigames? So far I haven't came across any minigames. I expect there will be some later on but at the moment I'm not using a guide so I wouldn't know.
5. The music feels rather stale. I'm used to the music in the series being power and emotional, but so far the music doesn't feel very FFish.

11/5/2006 6:58:23 PM

I think the voice acting is excellent for the main characters, on par with the Metal Gear series. Lines that might sound melodramatic are delivered well. The dialogue is consistent and never takes me out of the moment. I do have the subtitles on, but only because they kept talking about places with weird names. The animation deserves attention on this point too. So much subtlety is there and it works.

The music is great IMO. The only sore point to me is that it lacks the character-specific themes that made the others so fantastic. Otherwise, it does its job very well and is infinitely better than the soundtrack for IX.

11/5/2006 8:42:18 PM

this game is fucking HARD

11/5/2006 10:49:26 PM

yeah, either I missed it or they don't explain quickenings early enough. it helps alot when you realize how to use them

11/5/2006 10:51:58 PM

Quote :

"on par with the Metal Gear series."

AHAHAHHAAHAHHHAHAAHAHAHAHA.

11/5/2006 10:53:59 PM

Whatever you meant by your usual assholishness, the voice acting for the main characters definitely fits the part IMO.

11/5/2006 11:13:08 PM

that camera is FUCKING ANNOYING

but all in all, definitely seems pretty fun. Reminds me a LOT of FFIX.

11/5/2006 11:27:52 PM

The camera angles give me headaches and is a pain in the ass.. it will come with time tho.

I bought the guide and read thru a lot of the instructional parts (not the storyline stuff)

- It gives you a better understanding of Licenses, quickenings, gambits, etc
- THERE IS A FUCKING MARK AT THE END OF THE GAME WITH 51 MILLLION HP!!! omjesus, the guide says that the battle can take upwards of 10 hours... but you can save in the middle of the fight and the boss will not regen all its health.

Also, anyone else a power gamer and level up anytime they get a chance (i.e.- anytime there is a lot of monsters and a savestone near.. kill monsters to half life, then get all HP/MP back) I was level 5 before I stopped killing the wolves, cactaurs and cockatrices in east desert. I'm filthy rich early in the game. I enjoy going to places and spanking the bosses, not just barely getting bye.

One question - How do you get combo hits? The guide doesn't really mention it, just says that you can get up to a 10 hit per swing. I got a 3-hit on a cockatrice ONCE. Several two hits while making my sunstone, but no more than that. Is it random?

11/6/2006 10:05:30 AM

From what I understand combo hits are totally random and stack up to 12.

11/6/2006 10:09:10 AM

I noticed that I got most of mine when I would flag on an enemy FIRST and the first hit would be a combo.. Just wondering if thats a pre-requisite.

11/6/2006 10:10:40 AM

I adapted to the camera pretty easily.

Yeah quickenings aren't explained very well. I had trouble with Vossler until I pwned his punkass with quickenings after he used Enrage.

Sometimes after I used a combination of quickenings and additional attack called "Inferno" would take place. Any explanation in the guide on that or is it just random?

11/6/2006 10:29:06 AM

Quote :

"THERE IS A FUCKING MARK AT THE END OF THE GAME WITH 51 MILLLION HP!!!"

That's riduculous. I hate mindlessly grinding for hours to boost stats. I really liked the structure of Final Fantasy 8. After thoroughly exploring everything and unlocking all the secrets, you were pretty close to being maxed out. I did some grinding towards the end, but not alot.

11/6/2006 10:57:45 AM

ff8 didnt need any grinding

you just had to gather up 99 of every spell and you character was basically maxed out

11/6/2006 10:59:36 AM

It was a long time ago. I just remember Squall was a one man wrecking machine on his limit breaks towards the end.

11/6/2006 11:03:25 AM

Quote :

"Sometimes after I used a combination of quickenings and additional attack called "Inferno" would take place. Any explanation in the guide on that or is it just random?"

I have yet to get to quickenings.. I am still working on my sunstone right now.. only got like 3 hours of gameplay yesterday (which I spent most of it leveling)... but here is a video of one that ends with Inferno

http://www.gametrailers.com/cgplayer.php?id=14527

11/6/2006 11:26:21 AM

I loved Squall and his gunblade

11/6/2006 11:51:22 AM

→

11/6/2006 12:04:56 PM