Final Fantasy XII: The most underappreciated Final Fantasy

[Terramax]

No sorry but twelve wasn't underappreciated if it was anything i would say its overrated. Critics alike where giving the game high praise despite the game being a total shit stain to the final fantasy name...

What took so long for the hate posts?

Anyway, for me, it was the most enjoyable FF... the only enjoyable FF in the main series other than 7. No shoe horned, cliched, over-the-top love stories.

There are issues with the story as many are able to point out. But it's not as if you couldn't say the same for others in the series.

It's ironic that fans hated 12 for being completely different from the rest of the series, then criticised 13 for being too much of the same. Sometimes you can't win.

 

[Reverend Del]

I loved 12, 210 hours so far. Although the annoying uber bosses make me cry somewhat. Somebody should tell Square that 50 million hit points isn't difficult, it's just dull.

As for IX everything about that game was pretty awesome except Necrosis or whatever the stupid tacked on Boss is called. I still haven't played IX since I got all pissed off at his sudden arrival. No point to him, no reason for him.

 

[ScatterBen]

Oh for all of you saying that IX is less appreciated, IX is actually my favourite and I agree with everybody here. IX, however, doesn't get much in the way of criticism - most people seem to enjoy it, but it rarely gets up there in peoples top FFs, which I also think is a great shame. XII just seems way more divisive, but for the wrong reasons.

Also, anyone quoting critic reviews, since when did those matter? Final Fantasy has had fairly consistent reviews of above 90 on metacritic. There's no argument there, I am talking about amongst the fanbase where the most division occurs.

Edit: Also, just out of curiosity, did anybody read the whole thing? A lot of the issues being brought up I do mention, so I'm just curious about that.

 

[Red Albatross]

I loved FFXII, and I haven't been the biggest fan of the FF series, being more of a western RPG kinda guy. But the cast of characters was actually mostly likable, the battle system felt a lot less JRPG, and the world felt less linear than is usual with JRPGs. I know my comments have pretty much already been said in this thread, but I agree that FFXII is underrated. I think it's because people obsessed with the FF series were afraid of change, and people who don't like FF at all were afraid to touch it. Personally, I wish I hadn't sold my PS2 because I'd like to play it again. Like, right now.

 

[SpaceMedarotterX]

I loved FFXII, and I haven't been the biggest fan of the FF series, being more of a western RPG kinda guy. But the cast of characters was actually mostly likable, the battle system felt a lot less JRPG, and the world felt less linear than is usual with JRPGs. I know my comments have pretty much already been said in this thread, but I agree that FFXII is underrated. I think it's because people obsessed with the FF series were afraid of change, and people who don't like FF at all were afraid to touch it. Personally, I wish I hadn't sold my PS2 because I'd like to play it again. Like, right now.

If you had a PS2 and Swap Magic you could be playing FFXII Zodiac in english now


* The Zodiac Job System ? There are now 12 License Boards, each one representing a Job. Once a character chooses that Job however, they are stuck with it throughout the entire game. Isolated licenses can be accessed by unlocking espers and quickenings.

* Trial Mode ? The party must fight through 100 stages, each one containing stronger monsters. Completing this mode unlocks New Game+: Weak Mode.

* Controllable Guests ? Guest characters can now be controlled, and their gambits can be edited. Their equipment cannot be removed.

* Controllable Espers ? Espers can now be controlled once summoned, and their gambits can be edited. You can now use their ultimate attack whenever you feel like it.

* Speed Boost ? Pressing the L1 speeds up the game, making getting around much easier.

* Gambit Changes ? There are 16 new gambits. All the gambits can be bought upon leaving Barheim Passage.

* Item Changes ? New items have been added, and some of their effects have been slightly changed.

* Enemy Changes ? Enemies have been changed slightly, plus new enemies have been added. A battle against all five Judge Magisters is also included.

* Magick Changes ? Some magic has been renamed, while others have been moved to other categories; Brave and Faith are now White Magick for example. Not all Magick can be bought, and some must be found in treasure pots.

* Equipment Changes ? New weapons have been added, like the Excalipoor, while others have been slightly changed. Armor and accessories have also been slightly changed. Some weapons have different elemental alignments.

* Shop Listings ? Some shops have had their inventory changed.

* Mist Knack (Quickening) Changes ? Mist knacks no longer take up MP. Instead, they have their own Mist gauge.

* MP Changes ? Since Mist Knacks do not use MP now, obtaining Mist Knacks does not increase MP. Instead, characters simply get more MP as they level up. Max MP is determined by your job.

* New Game+ ? Two New Game+ modes are available. Strong Mode, where all characters begin at level 90, and Weak Mode, where all characters begin at level 1 and never level up. Nothing carries over into these new save files.

* Treasure Respawns ? Treasures pots now respawn by just moving one screen away.

* Treasure Item Changes - Some items inside coffers have been switched around, added, or removed.

* Break Damage Limit ? There is no damage limit any more. If a character does more than 9,999 damage, the game will show it. Against very weak enemies, it is possible to achieve over 100,000 HP of damage with a single attack.

 

[soulasylum85]

i couldnt get into the game because i thought the combat system was utter shit and i really didnt feel like i had control over my characters

 

[SpaceMedarotterX]

i couldnt get into the game because i thought the combat system was utter shit and i really didnt feel like i had control over my characters

Then turn off Gambits. Really this is the most common complaint and it has the simplest solution, if you feel like something is taking your control away, don't use it.

Control them manually the game played EXACTLY like other FFs except they got rid of random battles, oh and it's a bit faster. And if it's moving too fast, set the battle mode to Wait

 

[Akihiko]

Boils down to opinion I guess. The actual story wasn't that bad really, although I didn't like it that they suddenly introduced those weird entities nearer the end, one of which corrupted Cid, forget their names. What really bugged me was the lack of character development. Especially regarding Vann and Penelo, it really did show that they were thrown in at the last minute, they did try, but, it just went no where.

I really didn't like the open world. Trudging through many different equally gigantic areas with no scenes or anything to break up the monotany just to get to the next plot point or area just became annoyingly tedious. It would take hours just getting to it. Then the game would tell you to go all the way back again, meaning you have to trudge through it again. Pacing was just awful, XIII had the same problem actually, but there was atleast some cutscenes to break it up and I didn't dislike the combat. Sidequests were a nice touch, but they all usually required the same tasks being done, the same kind of tasks which I'd done to death in mmo's.

Which leads me onto the combat. The gambit system was nice in theory, however, the fact that you had to buy new rules to be able to make new gambits really annoyed me. You don't really have that much money considering you have to get it from selling items from mobs, and so you haven't really got the spare money to spend on buying every gambit. Consequently you either have to guess what you'll need on the next enemys or boss, or alternatively read ahead, spoiling it for yourself, that's ofcourse if you can even buy it from a shop. Or, you can just go along with your normal gambits, and just try and manually control your party members if something obscure happened. Which would be fine, in theory, if it wasn't a pain to cycle through your party members and then through different magic types, and then scroll down to the magic you want, or something. I honestly think Dragon Age Origins did it better in that respect, they gave you the tactics and you could alter them how you like not needing to buy them. Either that, or they should have allowed you to only control one character, and give the other ones an AI, which you could alter slightly with gambits, again, similar to DAO.

The license system was also good idea theoretically, but it removed differentiation between party members, like you could make anyone a beefy tank, even if it goes against their personality and what they look like. Much prefered the Sphere grid in that respect, where each character had their own path, and you could deviate to others when you're done. Also, I hated the fact that when I'd gone to the trouble of getting a new weapon, I would then need to grind to be able to get enough LP to be able to use it.

I honestly wouldn't say it was a bad game, it just wasn't for me.

 

[Crono Maniac]

Well, I'll take twelve over thirteen. Though that's not saying much.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

I'll tell why I didn't like FF12:

Seriously the licensing system did force unwanted grinding. I had to spend too much time doing dungeons runs to be able to use a sword.

That and Basch should have been the main character. That was the original plan by the scriptwriters but they stupidly went back to the standard "effeminate FF male character". The final boss was a letdown as well. Vayne's involvement in the story was minimal at best. I really enjoyed the story of Basch and Gabranth. The rest of the story was essentially the biggest Star Wars rip off ever. At least Baltheir was a good character, even though he had Han Solo written all over him. All in all the game wasn't unappreciated. It just wasn't that good.

P.S. :Someone please tell me how to post pictures in forum posts, the pic i'm trying to post really helps my point.

 

[GeneticallyModifiedDucks]

FFXII was nice. Gameplay was spot on, environments were extremely well done, it looks absolutely gorgeous. The only sad thing is that the writing is pretty terrible. And the worst thing about it is that it didn't have to be like that.

It started off pretty well in the beginning but then about halfway through, you start to notice some significant differences in certain areas. And that's the point where you go to wikipedia and find out that the lead writer got sick halfway through development and was replaced by another one... It could easily have been the best FF ever.

Not that writing in Final Fantasy has ever been what you'd call stellar, but XII had some really good potential on display. It was a shame.

 

[Feylynn]

XII was great, it's probably my 5th favorite after IX, VI, T,and X.

Loved the level progression, loved the battle system save for the annoyance of Scathe and Holy pausing the game making them dramatically less useful then weaker spells that all did 9999 anyways.
I ran a really fun Fran, Ashe, Penelo all mage party Gambited to auto-exploit every elemental weakness within spell distance. Funnily enough they were stronger then the Melee party the males formed as the Katana is governed by the magic stat.
The characters are some of my favorite in any final fantasy, Fran and Balthier specifically were just great.

The part that I fell out with is there huge expansive non linear world felt forced, empty, and far more linear then FFXIII was. 13 had a reason you were on a set path, 12 was just "Point a-b repeat" fueled by seemingly arbitrary story excuses and random chance.
summons seemed entirely useless and less interesting then other games, and the Story.
It was a compelling game but the story just felt forced and convoluted more then any other.
I admit I was playing on next to no sleep a lot of the end but I didn't quite grasp what the hell was going on beyond what I knew 2 minutes into the game: Political issues, Vayne is the final boss that's likely exploiting some ancient magic to acquire power and Vaan isn't much of a protagonist.

Only now there was magic rocks that omniscient beings wanted your non main character to cut with swords.

TLDR:

Yes I love 12, yes it had good level and battle systems, yes the characters and their progression formed a good experience and half of a great narrative, but the story was just so background to me I couldn't tell you why I was doing it. The first cinematic spoils the end in predictability.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

I liked 12. Admittedly it was the easiest Final Fantasy I'd ever played. I believe I finished the main story at level 65, I believe. I might eventually go back and do all the hunts.. eventually.

Agreed. In a game that features a boss with over 50 million health, I could set up the gambits right, grab enough recovery items and let the game play itself while I do my taxes THEN go out on a movie date. I came back and everything was fine. Honestly too easy of a game.

 

[Shameless]

This is comming from a hardcore FF fan, FF is not the worst in the series but it's probably the most boring, Vaan and Pennelo have nothing to do with the main story and the story itself is predictable with no real twists, there is a boss that takes you literally 2 hours to defeat ! (you know which one FF fans) that is just tedious and boring,

But FF12 is still better than 13

 

[kouriichi]

Is it just me, or did anyone else notice they kinda recycled characters from FF12 for FF13?
The two easyest ones are Vann and Ashe, but im sure if we flipped through the characters we could find more.

 

[Shameless]

Is it just me, or did anyone else notice they kinda recycled characters from FF12 for FF13?
The two easyest ones are Vann and Ashe, but im sure if we flipped through the characters we could find more.

Square have been using Archetypes characters since FF 1

 

[kouriichi]

Is it just me, or did anyone else notice they kinda recycled characters from FF12 for FF13?
The two easyest ones are Vann and Ashe, but im sure if we flipped through the characters we could find more.

Square have been using Archetypes characters since FF 1

No, i mean like, hardcore recycle.
Like they just ripped characters straight from FF12 and retextured them.
I mean, the first thing i see a picture of Ashe, im like, "Wow, she looks exactly like Lightning from FF13."
And with Vann its the same with Hope.

 

[Akihiko]

I'll tell why I didn't like FF12:

Seriously the licensing system did force unwanted grinding. I had to spend too much time doing dungeons runs to be able to use a sword.

That and Basch should have been the main character. That was the original plan by the scriptwriters but they stupidly went back to the standard "effeminate FF male character". The final boss was a letdown as well. Vayne's involvement in the story was minimal at best. I really enjoyed the story of Basch and Gabranth. The rest of the story was essentially the biggest Star Wars rip off ever. At least Baltheir was a good character, even though he had Han Solo written all over him. All in all the game wasn't unappreciated. It just wasn't that good.

P.S. :Someone please tell me how to post pictures in forum posts, the pic i'm trying to post really helps my point.

[ img]urlhere[/ img] Just remove the space before the img's. You just needed to get rid of the {}'s around the url in what you posted.

 

[Jaranja]

I would say FF9 is the most under-appreciated, but FF12 is second in line to that.

The difference being that FF12 is one of the worst, while FF9 is the second best.

 

[Okamipsychonaut]

I dunno if anyone said it, but Fran has an interesting voice. Oh, and yeah, the not being able to change character outfits blew.