Official Final Fantasy XII (JPN) Thread (read RULES in the first post)

Okay! So, hopefully this works. I attached it over at another board, so here goes!

If anyone has an alternative, (or if the link dies), please let me know!

(Okay, so it's not working...)
 
I just finished FFXII. What a crap ending. It was all a dream of a book that was from the future and got flung into the past by the will of the planet that created avatars from prayers of those that believed in it. Boo.
 
duckroll said:
I just finished FFXII. What a crap ending. It was all a dream of a book that was from the future and got flung into the past by the will of the planet that created avatars from prayers of those that believed in it. Boo.
Click to expand...

:lol
 
I'm getting the song..I could put it up on a yousendit so more people get it, at least anyway until a regular place can be found..
 
Red Scarlet said:
Here's an alternate download URL:
http://s32.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=25090KYW1J50K0CMEDW4XNHB03

Maybe if people that get it can put it back up at a new url, everyone can eventually get it (until a more permanent link is created). I'll still record and put up a more direct version of it but that's still a few days away.

Thanks, Fiery.
Click to expand...

No, no. Thank you! It was the best I could do without actually having the game in front of me. I just wanted to do a rip for those who want to listen to it till the OST is released or if they didn't want to see the video till they get the game.

At the same time, just hearing the song got me really excited so I really wanted to do it anyways hahaha.
 
2 hours into the game, barely scratched the surface...

* The prologue/intro is amazing. The battles are like watching a mix of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Pretty fast paced too. Events happen one after the other, so not many long dialogues.

* Once you are able to move your character, the city feels big enough. There's a lot of people which you can't talk to and just standing there, but it gives you a sense that you're in a city. I like how there is an icon on top of NPCs you can talk to.

* Treasure chests, doors you can enter, anything you can interact with also have an icon. I don't know what other games do this, but I've seen it in Grandia III which I thought was a cool feature. Props to FFXII for using the same feature.

* The license board (to learn spells, equip new weapons/armor, etc) looks overwhelming at first, but like the Materia system in 7 and Sphere board in 10, it looks straightforward once you know how it works. However, I am being careful as to how I should raise my characters - might want a FAQ for this personally ^^;

* Battles feel like KOTOR and FFXI. I haven't figured everything out, but so far seems strightforward. The color of their gauge shows if you are strong enough to beat it, now this is pretty useful.
The first DO NOT FIGHT enemy would probably be the dinosaur once you go out the city. One hit, bam, you die :lol

* Not much complains for voice-overs so far...except Panero :-)

Overall so far, it doesn't feel like the traditional Final Fantasy, but I like the atmosphere so far. It's probably apparent with the previews you guys watched, not to sound like a broken record but...I'd say the architecture and mech design feel very much like Star Wars Ep 1-3...with characters coming from Vagrant Story.

Its still a long way, so its a very initial impression. Hope to add more in coming days....
 
Ok, I've played the hell out of it for most of today. Here goes my initial thoughts.

(I'll skip some of the details as to not spoil it for anyone. I'll just touch on the stuff that are already known.)

The game begins with probably the most action packed, visually stimulating intro in any Final Fantasy game. What surprised me even more is how sharp everything looks, maybe it's due to playing on vga display, but the video, the characters, textures, all look really sharp and colorful. Simply from the first few minutes you will be able to notice the amount of work that went into this game. The character models, their faces, their clothing, the texture, everything is overwhelmingly amazing. Right after the intro you go into the game, and immediately you will be introduced to the new splinter cell styled navigation system in FF12, which is basically straight from FF11. You can rotate the camera all around you, it's fast, responsive, and so far I haven't ran into any camera problems at all. The 3rd person camera combined with the fact that every area in the game is connected really conveys the feeling that you are in the world of Final Fantasy. It's a great feeling really, you won't be able to put this game down once you start.

The actual game starts you off
as Vann in Rabanastre
. The town is full of people, and as Troidal said, the game does an amazing job conveying the sense of a real city. There are areas where it's more crowded than others, which is a nice touch conveying the sense of different parts of the city like the market, the central square, city gates, etc. In many of the areas you will see more than 10 NPC's at once. Amazing feat that Square has done and keeping everything nice and smooth. I will also mention that the sound is equally impressive. Even in the intro, at the first few minutes, you can hears the clanking of sword clashes, the sound of the armor colliding as different characters walk, etc. All crystal sharp, and superbly combine with the animation and the amazing graphics to really give the sense of tangible objects in the game. This game is a treat both in graphics and sound. The only complaints I have about the game's technical merits is the loading and sometimes fairly bland environments. I am being very very picky here, the loading is probably about 2.5 seconds and environment wise, it's not bad at all. I'll clarify what I mean.

The environments are big. The first city spans multiple areas and multiple floors. Imagine sizes close to FF11 cities. The world map is comprised of cities and interconnecting regions. Each region is comprised of several areas. Each area or dungeon being the size of what you saw in the demo. Some of the areas I visited include a
desert and dry plains
, and they are pretty looking and wide open. The dungeons are basically intersecting hallways and stairs for the most part, and this is where I feel it's a little bland, but it's not a big deal since you will be worrying about the battles anyways.

Here is the good part. I love this new battle system. Gambit takes aways the monotony of mashing attack and otherwise boring fights with lesser enemies. You might think the game is too easy with the AI controlling the characters, and I'll now explain why you are wrong. Each of the areas I've visited so far host a variety of different types of monsters of varying difficulties. Like what Troidal said
the first world map area you visit contains a freaking dinosaur
. You can not simply run around and just let the AI attack, cause you will aggro too many enemies and make your life much harder. There are also times when the game throws groups of enemies at you, if you don't do a bit of micromanagement or set the Gambit options, you will be pretty confused at all the stuff going on. I'll say it again, Gambit is good, it makes the game more fun rather than taking it away. If you start playing the game and you don't think Gambit is important, wait till you get to the first big boss fight, or just try playing the game in ATB mode. It's very very easy to die if you are not micromanaging.

Character development is very streamlined and I'm sure you all know about licenses now. It really forces you to vary the way you develop each character because of the way it's laid out. I won't go into this since it's been done more than enough times.

Story wise, I'm not in noob land anymore, but there are alot of things going on in the story, and alot of characters. I definitely love the more serious tone and the political intrigue of the plot. Voice acting is superb imo, much better overall compared to FF10. To talk about this further would be more spoilers, so I'll stop here.

To sum it up, this is probably going to end up being my favorite Final Fantasy game. The mmo style gameplay (for a lack of better description) really gives you the sense of being in an open world and the sense of adventure. I do get a star wars vibe from this game especially
the first time you meet a judge
. I simply can't wait to start playing this again tomorrow.
 
duckroll said:
Ok. The time has come to reveal the masterplan. Check the first post in a minute or two. :D
Click to expand...

OMG, you wonderful human being! You completely justified my $100 purchase. I don't know Japanese at all, and here you come swooping in to save the day. :D I could kiss you!
 
Will have the Singaporean version in my hands by tomorrow (dependant on EMS of course :D)! Woop woop woop~

Won't understand a single lick of it since I have basic Japanese skills so I am relying on you fools to help me :)

edit: *looks at GAF gift and kisses ducky*
 
Small license/character question: I know that supposedly given enough time, any character can master any skill/spell/etc. but do certain characters start off as certain "jobs" ala FFX? I was always wondering this, hopefully someone with the game can answer, thanks.
 
duckroll said:
Ok. The time has come to reveal the masterplan. Check the first post in a minute or two. :D
Click to expand...

The gift is awesome, wow.

Srider: Aside from the Star Wars thing, sounds incredible. Soon confirmation of best FF ever!
 
So are any GAFers in Japan going to take the plunge and grab "The Best of Final Fantasy XII Original Soundtrack" off iTunes? Looks like it has 11 tracks in total. :)
 
Okay some Japanese guy encoded the FFXII intro in two parts in low-res mpeg. It's 7 minutes long. Looks pretty cool and is VERY epic.

Note: This is the CG intro that takes place after you start a new game, not the attract mode teaser that loops on the title screen.
 
duckroll said:
Okay some Japanese guy encoded the FFXII intro in two parts in low-res mpeg. It's 7 minutes long. Looks pretty cool and is VERY epic.

Note: This is the CG intro that takes place after you start a new game, not the attract mode teaser that loops on the title screen.
Click to expand...
Where can I get this? :)
 
Simo said:
So are any GAFers in Japan going to take the plunge and grab "The Best of Final Fantasy XII Original Soundtrack" off iTunes? Looks like it has 11 tracks in total. :)
Click to expand...

When you buy the game, the store gives you an iTunes card for free which allows you to DL 5 songs from the album. I'm going to do that later on..
 
I can't believe this game is actually out.

:O

The intro......................................... god damn.................................
 
duckroll said:
Yeah that's the one. But what's with Youtube's weird resolution display? o_O
Click to expand...

Yeah, hopefully Blimblim can mirror your vids because Youtube is horrid (and hopefully we get a full-res mpeg soon.).

... but my god. That intro is so beautifully paced and the characters seem so alive. I think it may have single-handedly outdone all the CG work Square has done over the years.
 
OMFGOMFGOMFGOMFGOMFGOMFGOMFOMGOMFOMDGOMASDMGLAKDGMDLGJAKLJDSJADSJGKAJGD

ITS THE FF4 beginning
music?? oh fkin shit yes! thank you lord i just splurged all over my keyboard
 
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