FF12 rat in a maze.

Being a big fan of final fantasy (I still have a playable version of the nintendo game which was just called Final Fantasy, and I finished all other final fantasy games except 11) I'm really trying to play this one. I know it's 6 years later, started it 6 years ago (bought a playstation 2 just so I can play it), but gave up. Started again recently, but after 60+ hrs of play I still have the same feeling:
Rat in a maze, Endless mazes (1HR plus) for 30 seconds of story line.
I'd really like to look at the bright side, like such a big world, but all I can think of is :"RAT IN A MAZE"

Indulge in it! Seriously, the world is beautiful! Try to appreciate it's design on both the aesthetic side of things as well as the challenge it poses! Feel the adventure, explore every nook and cranny and hunt those marks good! This is the beauty of the gameplay - the world and dungeon designs are incredible :)

To me this game felt more like it was designed for adventuring in than any of the others. I kind of like that. The Marks being basically the only sidequests was a little disappointing in that respect.

I can understand where you're coming from though. The game starts to feel more like a chore after a while. I never could bring myself to finish it.

If you are only in it for the story, you are probably better off just watching the cutscenes on Youtube, though you will lose a lot of the narrative from talking to NPCs cause they are actually pretty relevant and fill in details the main story tends to leave out. Yet, like Guardian XIII mentioned, the game is structured more as a well... game and not an interactive movie. If you prefer just having your story, the above suggestion is probably best cause XII has points in the game where you can go hours before seeing a cutscene, partly from getting easily sidetracked and the other cause the game is a bit more realistic about traveling on foot. Most people I know give up on the game by the time you have to go to Archades and Giruvegan.

Towards the end, the Mark Hunts become a bit more story focus, and some actually resolve most of the loose ends (The Kiltean Church, Ba'Gamman, Clan Centurio) but really the game is built around exploring a world and checking out its mysteries. If you don't explore you miss out on the Patient in the Desert Quest, The Seven Sisters quest, the secret of the Westersands Sandstorms, the Fishing Minigame, The Cactoid Family quest, The Hunt Club, the Espers, and of course Jovy :love:

None of these have to do with the plot but they make the world feel more real imo. Hell, several of the Mark Hunts in themselves are pretty fun, like Pilika's pets, unknowingly fetching Migelo some ingredients, Traditional Ivalice quest of hunting down "Carrot", and of course fighting some old school FF bosses like Deathgaze and Gilgamesh. :cool:

I agree with you, dejeud. I think one of my problems with this game is that its story inherently seems linear in nature despite the fact that the gameplay is decidedly non-linear for many parts of the game. Maybe a more open-ended story would have suited the game more?

You have to play this game twice to truly understand it. It might seem like there isn't a whole lot of story going on during the first play through, but that is because so much of the story is made up of foreshadowing. Beating this game, and then immediately playing through it again completely changed my perspective. I did not like it much at first.

I'm not complaining about the story line.
I'm talking about the endless mazes that do absolutely NOTHING for the game except be of awesome graphics.
Yes it looks awesome, but I don't feel anything from walking for two hrs from one place to another through 4 different mazes.
Not to mention in couple story lines you have to walk down same path twice.
And when you finally get to a new city the NPC's are bland, with long and uninteresting stories.

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Originally Posted by nik0tine

You have to play this game twice to truly understand it. It might seem like there isn't a whole lot of story going on during the first play through, but that is because so much of the story is made up of foreshadowing. Beating this game, and then immediately playing through it again completely changed my perspective. I did not like it much at first.

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The NPCs are actually a bit important cause they fill you in on information the main story will not speak about. Like the fact Vayne is actually making the lives of people in Rabanastre better while others unlock Mark Hunts like the one with Deathgaze.

As for not liking the dungeon crawl/long exploration, well... you might want to stop cause the game just gets worse. When you finally trek over to Archades, that's about a 3 hour trek for the party and while there are some story points and cutscenes involved, you won't be tripping over them like you would in FFX and XIII, where a cutscene can be expected every five minutes.

The "final" dungeon as most accept being the Pharos is massive (quite possibly one of the longest I've encountered except maybe from Arc the Lad 2) and the lower half is completely optional.

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

The "final" dungeon as most accept being the Pharos is massive (quite possibly one of the longest I've encountered except maybe from Arc the Lad 2) and the lower half is completely optional.

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I have not played Final Fantasy XII since its release, but I think of that long, tedious dungeon every time that I think of the game because of its expanse nature and the distinct lack of any character interaction or cutscenes throughout its duration. I cannot tolerate long dungeons like that without some sort of large gameplay reward or cutscenes to break up the monotony.

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

The "final" dungeon as most accept being the Pharos is massive (quite possibly one of the longest I've encountered except maybe from Arc the Lad 2) and the lower half is completely optional.

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I loved the Pharos :D Though I think the final dungeon in the first Digital Devil Saga game was longer. What was it called? Svadhistana, or something?