To me the Gambit System is a FLOP

[Croyles]

I completed the game around the same time it was released. I thought it was good in some ways, but the story was boring. I like political stories, but you can make more out of them than FFXII did.

But most importantly, the gambit system made the battling horrible. Using gambits mostly meant having a fully automated battle movie, and it NEVER, despite how many different gambit combinations you used, fully suited the situation you were in. This is not so in past battle systems where you had full control.
So It comes back down to powerlevelling instead of complex thinking. Because if you overlevelled for your current boss, it really doesnt matter what you do in battle, you could just attack. I am not one who really likes to sit down for 6 hours a day and just level. I want to get on with the story and be able to keep up with the battles with my brain and not my patience.
You can, to a certain extent, forget the gambit system and do everything manually, but the battle menus are obviously just so designed that it makes it extremely annoying to do so. Having to press X to bring up the menu and skip through the characters is just one example.
Ive liked every Final Fantasy from IV to XI, Tactics and also Vagrant Story, so I am not usually picky, but this game was sort of dissapointing for me. It was still worth completing in my opinion, but I wasnt captivated.

What does everyone else think? And specifically about the gameplay?

[rubah]

I thought the gambit system was very clever. Just attacking has been my main strategy in previous final fantasies, and not having to pick up the controller to hit x all the time is very nice. Battles are often so chaotic that it's hard enough to understand who's hitting who without having to look down at the battle menu to tell them to keep hitting.

Having to redefine gambits is part of the challenge I think. If you run into a really big monster that looks like it's very capable of killing you, I definitely wouldn't want to just hit it, unless I was just hitting it with people that were berserked and hasted both. And probably bubbled I usually end up entering a lot of extra commands in those battles anyways, and no, the system isn't designed to do that. But ff8 isn't designed for you not to use the junction system, ff7 wasnt' designed for you to not use materia, etc etc etc.

Are you saying that you powerlevelled or that gambits make it easier to do so? Because I know that I am usually just under a good level every time I meet a storyline boss and then in the place you're supposed to go afterwards, horribly underlevelled xD

[McLovin']

I never used the gambit system. I prefer to do everything manually and also not waste money on those things just cause I am too lazy to press the X button a couple of times.

[Renmiri]

Hint: Turn gambits OFF if you don't like them

I loved gambits. It took all the boredom out of leveling up

[Bunny]

You are basically complaining just for the sake of complaining.

In the other Final Fantasy games, you never had "Full" control over your characters. The ATB system took that away, as you had to wait and just sit there until the gauge filled up and allowed you to pick your attack. In Final Fantasy XII, you can move around, plan for your next attack, etc. That is FAR more control than any other Final Fantasy game provided you with (barring Final Fantasy XI, never played it).

The battle system, menus included, was designed for either amount of game play. That you complaing about having to push the X button and then cycle through is ludicrous. In the other games, you had to wait for the menu to come up and then cycle through if you didn't want to attack with that specific character yet. Same stuff, different game.

Also: When hasn't a Final Fantasy game amounted to "hey just attack things if you are a high level. They'll die." I've had multiple game overs just from making mistakes because I didn't think ahead.

If you don't like gambits, turn them off. They are there to make it easier on the player. But they do not eliminate the difficulty completely.

[joshua2412]

Yeah, I'm going to have agree with those who are fans of the gambit system...i didn't buy a single gambit the entire game, i merely used the ones i came equipped with, and the ones that i found in treasure chests through out the game.

They made the game a lot more fun...levelling was not as monotonous as in past games, and it definitely doesn't make the game any easier...having to realign your gambits based on where you are and who your fighting is a major part of the game, and it makes it fun. I loved hacking and slashing my way through enemies and then having my healers heal automatically as the battle was going on/afterwards.

The game play in XII is definitely the most attractive and entertaining since Tactics (for me anyways).

I know being nostalgic is part of being a fan of the series, and i get nostalgic every now and again as well...but the gameplay and gambits of XII is definitely a step up and in the right direction for the series.

[LunarWeaver]

I just look at the Gambits as the choices from the menu, but you only have to pick it once for it to happen until you don't want to anymore. Something like that...

Er, anyway, I like the Gambit system. It's a nice innovation, and I feel it will be copied in many games to come. I don't really prefer it or not prefer it to the more traditional stand-in-a-line sort of thing. I would be happy if Square made another battle system similar later and happy if they didn't.

[Croyles]

Hint: Turn gambits OFF if you don't like them.

I already said why I didnt want to do that. Its possibly more annoying having to push x after every character has has done their attack/spell and scrolling through the characters, moreso if you like to play battles on a high speed setting. Theres more reasons why I wouldnt want to do this though, but id have to play FFXII again to relive what they were

You are basically complaining just for the sake of complaining.

Im complaining because the gambit system irritated me, not "for the sake of complaining".

Of course you never have FULL control, maybe I exaggerated in my statement. My point is that you just sit there and wait until the gambits do their job, instead of always rethinking your strategy during a battle if its your first time fighting whatever it is. With gambits I found myself trying to fight efficiently by going into a first boss encounter just to find out a boss' weakness, die, reset and then I can think up a strategy. Of course this is also partially true for other FF games, such as equipment, materia, etc.
You CAN redo your gambits during battles obviously, but this leads me to another point which I didnt enjoy: The gambit menu was horrible in my opinion

I dont want to ruin the game for other people, thats just the way I felt about it. It has nothing to do with nostalgia or the game "being easier" (which I never said) either, I just didnt enjoy it THAT much. There are other things that I definitely liked about the game though. The world, the dialogue, the epic vastness and some of the music etc. Oh yeah and the marks.

[Ogrius]

Ok, first off, overlevelling so you had to do little more than attack has been present in EVERY final fantasy game, hell every rpg game ever made. With the exception of a couple random bosses that require certain strategy, everything follows that.

The gambit system wasn't designed to take over 100%, just to kind of help. Seeing how everything happens in real time, it is hard to completely manage everything in real time, so this is what the gambits are used for. You can always turn them off, or only set up a couple key things if you want. Not being turn based is a great idea to me and this is true interaction. Honestly though, in previous versions, did you enjoy levelling up by fighting the same thing 1000 times and doing nothing more than pressing x constantly? Now the gambits mean you dont have to hit x a bajillion times.

[Croyles]

Ok, first off, overlevelling so you had to do little more than attack has been present in EVERY final fantasy game, hell every rpg game ever made. With the exception of a couple random bosses that require certain strategy, everything follows that.

But for me, in other FF's I only overlevelled because I chose to do so, not because it was a necessity. I hardly ever levelled up while the storyline was still continuing, and just tried to use everything I had and as best I could. I only overlevelled for the ultra hard bosses like Omega weapon and the dark aeons etc after I had beaten the game.
In FFXII ive had to overlevel at least 5 times while the story was still running, always sitting in one spot and not doing much for hours. But who knows, maybe if I play again, I'll find a way around that.

[Rodney]

I liked the Gambit system. It really is a brand-new way of playing the game, and makes for some great strategic possibilities. I use them all the time, only turning them off to avoid setting off (SPOILER)those terrible Magic Pots. I dig them.

[rubah]

I still don't get what you mean by overlevelling by necessity.

[Yliette]

IMO the Gambit system is both useful and irritating.

It hinders my patience when one of my characters have to stop and cast certain spells such as Protect and Cure. Plus in AI mode they don't know how to conserve MP.

Yet the License Board is a product of complete GENIUS!!

[chrisguapo69]

The gambit system adds a new dimension to the battle system which makes the game unique. The system is so versatile and you have the discretion to do whatever you want (inluding turning gambits on or off), you can plan out your attacks well, you can enjoy the battles more instead of having to pause every few seconds to go thru a list of menus, you can build different strategies depending on the situation at hand, you can fully think things through while the fight is going on.

It's almost like playing a real RPG game with not only 1 but 3 characters simultaneously especially when you set the battle mode under "config" to active instead of wait. When you get a hang of the gambit system and go on the hunts you'll fully appreciate the usefulness of the system. One tip, it's better to use items like echo herbs for silence, vaccine for disease etc, instead of having to cast spells which take longer.

Right now I'm playing FFX and I just hate the battle system, having mastered the battle system of FFXII, FFX's battle system is mediocre but the story line is so damn awesome that I can't get myself to stop playing.



Oh, I'm new to FF games and FFXII was my first FF game, FFX is my second.

[Bunny]

Ok, first off, overlevelling so you had to do little more than attack has been present in EVERY final fantasy game, hell every rpg game ever made. With the exception of a couple random bosses that require certain strategy, everything follows that.

But for me, in other FF's I only overlevelled because I chose to do so, not because it was a necessity. I hardly ever levelled up while the storyline was still continuing, and just tried to use everything I had and as best I could. I only overlevelled for the ultra hard bosses like Omega weapon and the dark aeons etc after I had beaten the game.
In FFXII ive had to overlevel at least 5 times while the story was still running, always sitting in one spot and not doing much for hours. But who knows, maybe if I play again, I'll find a way around that.

You were going way too fast for the storyline and should try to pace yourself next time. Either that or get better at the game. The only reason I have ever needed to powerlevel my characters were because the marks were, in most cases, many times harder than the storyline bosses. I have never, ever, had trouble with a storyline boss. And before you hit me back with "because gambits made the game easier" I'll just state that I didn't use the gambit system, aside from having a "Ally: Cure/Cura/Curaga/Curaja > 40%". I start using the system in full about 3/4ths of the way through the game.

As far as your boss strategy and gambit set up, well, that's really just a personal problem or preference. You could set your gambits up in a very different ways. You can focus them on all healing characters and status effects, damaging different bosses with an assortment of magic spells, or you could split it down the middle. If you have a problem with the amount of sitting around doing nothing that the game "forces" you to do, set it up whereas you are in control of attacking. It all depends on which argument is the greater: You having nothing to do with the battle or you hating the fact that you have to spend an extra 1/4th of a second pressing the X button to bring up a menu.

And, uh, that's a bad strategy. But hey, that's yours so I guess that makes it okay. Seems to me that you set your expectations for the game a little too close to "perfection" and should tone them down a little bit.