Final Fantasy 12

[Atmos Duality]

The story is shallow and completely predictable, the characters have the emotional presence of a glass of water, the combat is extremely repetitive and grindy, and the License Board system continues that stupid Final Fantasy tradition of making all the characters exactly the same.

(Seriously. What the hell was so wrong about each character having a unique ability? Your characters are already boring to be around when they're talking, now you want to deprive them of any further defining characteristics they might have had in the gameplay? Are you TRYING to create the blandest characters ever?)

BUT...

The environments are marvelously well done, the world feels like it has continuity, and some of the hunts are fun and interesting. Also, the musical score fits each location nicely.

 

[Treeinthewoods]

K so i have had this game for a couple of years now and when i first got it I got a good many hours into it (you know how long these gamees are). But, as i do with so many games and books, i put it down and tried to return to it later to pick up where i left off without much success.

I have read a few threads where people slate this game as being awful.
What is the general consensus?
Do you like this game?

I like the game a lot but I keep doing the exact same thing. I end up hunting marks for some ridiculous number of hours then I get distracted by some other game or something else and forget what the hell is going on. I've started it three times now but still haven't finished it.

Good game though, just really long.

 

[Flamezdudes]

I absolutely loath Final Fantasy 12. It is, in my opinion the worst in the entire series. The characters were unlikeable, the gameplay is uninteresting... just everything.

Also... I'M CAPTAIN BASCH!



EDIT: Damn, Ninja'd. Onyx Oblivion you ninja!

 

[binvjoh]

I've never played it myself, but from what I've seen it doesn't look half bad.

 

[greyghost81]

I enjoyed FF12 for the most part. Vaan was a total waste of a character, and the leveling-up system would have been better if it weren't just that universal license board. Those concerns are pretty minor, though, and don't detract much from the whole experience of the game.

 

[Jesus Phish]

I enjoyed it for a while. Until I noticed how far into it I was, but how little I was caring about the story or the characters. I didn't really know what was going on. I stopped playing for a while and never went back. I might take out my ps2 and try and finish it, but it did a very bad job at keeping me wanting to play.

I didnt hate most of the characters, but I didnt like any of them that much either. They didn't make me want to explore their back stories like characters of other games in the series (Vivi, Vincent, Wakka).

 

[RandallJohn]

For me, the gameplay is meh, and I hate Vaan, but I LOVE the world of FFXII. Absolutely love it. I wish I could live in Rabanastre.

 

[Space Spoons]

The horrible battle system and license board killed it for me. It's a real shame, because I really loved XII's art direction, and I've enjoyed the other Square games set in Ivalice.

 

[Dr. Paine]

I love FFXII- maybe not quite as much as I do X-2, but then I'm a sucker for standard ATB.
People typically seem to say it is awful because

1. It is very different to most of those before it. Forgetting the different battle style, I've heard people complain about only controlling one character in combat (Which is weird, because you can change party leader *during* combat
2. The characterisation was lacklustre (Except for Balthier, obviously. Even straight guys love Balthier), and Vaan was (as well as kinda annoying) more or less a superfluous character, despite being set up as the protagonist.

But, of course, your opinion on a game is your opinion; no one can tell you if a game is worth playing through except yourself (And, apparently, Yahtzee. But he's a charismatic British fast-talker, so that's a given, no?)

... holy crap, I'm not alone in loving FFX-2 and XII?

Anyway. I don't get all the hate for XII either, it's actually one of the only real 'high fantasy' things I enjoy. Sure, Vaan and Penelo were flat, but they were tacked on- the main character(s?) were originally Basch and/or Balthier, but fears that the target audience wouldn't connect to them as viewpoint characters made them add on the kids.

To the combat point... it can be true. Or, you can micro-manage everyone in battle. Or do both. Or none at all. I loved the combat style, especially after slogging through the wreck that was FFX.

Funnily enough, when it came to XII, I had the opposite problem as the OP- I got it for my birthday, threw it in, got bored with all the cutscenes, and stuck it on a shelf. A while later, I put it back in for the hell of it, and have now logged well over 150 hours into it. Good writing, 'ye olde english' that actually WORKS, lovely scenery, and just all-around fun. Sure, the story itself is cliche, but that's what the Final Fantasy series is built on. Hating XII because it had a predictable story is like hating the sky because it's blue.

Anyway, yeah. I can see how people would dislike XII (some flat characters, somewhat jumpy story, massively different combat), but it's still a fun game to play.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

its not a horrible game per say, it just had a few bad things going for it that are normally what people like FF games for

the battle system - personally, i didn't mind it at all, hell you could cheat the gambit system with the infinite zombie glitch thingy, that was awesome, but otherwise i do miss the turn based awesomeness =\

the characters - the characters are pretty boring and aren't strongly held together by anything. ESPECIALLY the main character vaan...him and penelope...wtf. highly unneeded.

most plot points are huge but with little connecting them, the hunts and all the stuff are awesome but when you go back to the main quest its a massive "uh lolwut? what was that i was supposed to be getting again? and who are you?"

otherwise i loved the judges, loved the summons and stuff, and the equipment wasn't bad (ugh i really wish the equipment made a difference visually though..some of that armor would look freaking sick on basch )

for an FF game its definitely better than some i have played, but its nowhere near my favorite. i'd give it one playthrough and thats about it.

 

[Diligent]

FF12 was ok, I can certainly think of worse FF games.

- No specialization, any character could have any skill or weapon so who you put in your active party is irrelevant. If you wanted character variety you had to intentionally build your characters differently. This was also my main issues with FF7 & 8.

The international version, which I tried a little bit of, adds the "zodiac job" thingy, so when you get a character you have to basically pick a class from the FF classics like black/white mage, archer, knight, etc. Each one gets a unique license board. I really wish I had played through that version of the game instead, because it would have fixed that #1 gripe I had with it.

Also, I found most of the world too bland and brown.

I wouldn't say its an awful game, I just found it extremely mediocre.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

K so i have had this game for a couple of years now and when i first got it I got a good many hours into it (you know how long these gamees are). But, as i do with so many games and books, i put it down and tried to return to it later to pick up where i left off without much success.

I have read a few threads where people slate this game as being awful.
What is the general consensus?
Do you like this game?

The level design is great the game play is ok the characters are so so the skill system is the worst yet and items/equipment are boreing siding to MMO style of load outs rather than FF 1-9.

The story is a bit bad but all in all it felt off, the skill and equipment systems just maybe the game laggy and boring, I loved the level design but square didn't put alot of heart into it and even less into ff13

 

[ramboondiea]

i bloody loved it, it was hard but fun, theres a lot of it that woul need a guide (i mean that whole spear thing!?)
i really enjoyed the story...once i figured it out (about halfway thro it) the side quests where fun, if not ridiculously hard ha
the problem i had was when i stopped playing for a while (that damn wraith thing!) then went back to it but couldnnt get hang of it and had to start it again