Wada Discusses the future

[Wolf Kanno]

Yeah, that whole high school-sim was the reason it wasn't higher on my list to begin with. Having a game world I don't like is a major cause of me not finishing RPGs, I hear FFX-2 had a good battle system but I couldn't even get an hour into the game. I barely got through KH even though I really enjoyed the game, just because I was grating my teeth every time a Disney character was speaking. (except mickey, having him jump off a roof in a black costume and kill a whole bunch of heartless was pretty cool.)

I wouldn't knock it til you try it actually. j/k

This is why I would suggest P4 (going into my other minor complaints with the game) cause its story is the main focus and often you actually need to finish story dungeons before the game will let you fully partake of the high school elements. The amusing thing is the HS sim is probably more comical and fun than I feel detracting and often the Social Links you engage in are actually well thought out especially when start to get into some of the minor depth to the SL system.

P4 is not as involved with the SL system like P3 was, but its no less important which is kinda where I start running into faults cause once again I found myself having the storyline interfere with gameplay and mechanics but I can at least forgive the title cause the plot was very good. Overall, P4 was really built around its New Game+ feature whereas P3 has one but it doesn't serve much of a purpose unless your playing the FES version.

I agree that FFV-FFX didn't offer much of a challenge in item management, I thought about addressing this in my post but decided it made my thoughts wander. The thing is, I played these games like it does matter. I barely use items in my play throughs, so in a way it could be considered an artificially added challenge. As I have said before, if I wasn't aiming for overkills and item/mana conservation in FFX I probably would have found it as boring as you did.

So you "handicapped" yourself

I've remarked in other threads how I really didn't like the enviornments created in FFXII (or the whole world or story for that matter), so I'll just say that gambits allowing me to focus more on exploring wasn't a big draw for me.

Been there, done that, I got your T-Shirt I'll simply agree to disagree and just stick to the fact that we have very different tastes in RPGs.

The thing about the overpowered set ups you described for FFT was that they were all end game set-ups. Having the end game unbalanced is something I am far more forgiving of than having it unbalanced at the beginning. As I have mentioned previous, it is when I don't have to tweak my party anymore that I lose interest. (I've also thought up a LOT more OP [MMO shorthand for overpowered] setups than the ones you mentioned. I find thinking of builds that surpassed even the traditional OP builds to be an enjoyable pursuit.)

A) that is not terribly difficult to accomplish that set up especially in the original with the JP trick, with the exception of the equipment but even then, its not like this build isn't terribly overpowered even with sub-par weapons. Considering the high level increase you would get as well, you could easily waltz through the story mode.

B) If you thought up the builds, why not actually pursue them in the game? You say you enjoy experimentation and building powerful set ups for the title but it just seems to me you played the title, got a bad taste in your mouth for it and refuse to play anymore despite still thinking of ways to utilize the system properly. This is kinda confusing cause you basically say there is no need cause its got one perfect set-up but then say you thought of better set-ups and then go on to say how this is how you've always approached FFT? Once again I feel you are not giving XII a fair chance.

I found offensive magic to be completely useless in FFXII, with the spell que and all. Whenever I watch a spell being cast all I can think of the 6 auto attacks I could have landed in that time period and done more damage. And couple that with the fact anyone wanting to heal or buff is put into a holding pattern, every time I used magic it was an un-enjoyable experience.

The funny thing is that I feel the same way about mages in FFT but it doesn't stop me from trying to make them good and have fun with them. Especially since magic has so many factors to deal with, such as Zodiac affinity, weather, equipment, and Faith. There is no point in using them until you get Calculator and even then why waste your time learning the majority of spells when all your really need is Flare and Holy?

The other problem is that a party of Knights is all you really need to get through the game. You don't need to even bother with most of the other classes. Sure there are better builds but Knights are all you really needs cause they have high attack power even at low levels and shields combo with their class specific Reaction command allows them to block most physical attacks, their high HP allows spells to not really be an issue as well most of the abilites high level classes have are either too slow or too weak to deal with. Knights are ridiculously easy to unlock and they just keep getting stronger as you progress. Once you get Running Shoes their is very little the game can throw at you to beat them. Not to mention when Ramza learns his Brave raising ability you can make them even more lethal but you don't even really need that either.

This is of course also ignoring how overpowered half the story characters are who seriously don't even need the job class system to make it through the end of the game.

I also feel you are exaggerating a bit cause most of the spells have fairly decent cast times with exceptions of end game spells like Flare/Holy/Scathe you also forget Magic has the advantage of hitting multiple targets at once and their are enemies that are much more difficult to kill without magic (Elementals anyone?), a well placed fire spell can clear a room of zombies and XII likes to throw full rooms of zombies at you. Granted, XII is not ridiculously hard but its difficulty is a step up from its predecessor.

I feel XII does offer you a min/max paradise, you just need to look beyond your normal train of thought and experiment, much like you would in Tactics.

Much more to say on this, but leaving for work is a higher priority at the moment.

I look forward to it since I basically gave you examples about how FFT suffers from the same pit falls you've been attributing to XII

Seriously, everyone should play but especially you and Bolivar.

awww, that's so nice!!!

It's been on my list but like VeloZer0, I just don't know about the high school thing man. What if my girlfriend walked in on me playing that, and I specifically use the term "walked in on" because it might be an awkward moment where I would have to explain (not really she's actually into japanesey stuff like that). I think that's a pretty shallow reason so I should at least give it a shot, what's 30 minutes of my time, right?

Actually I'm gonna check if there's a demo up on the PS Store right now b/c I just got a PSP...

Its not really that bad and the beauty is that it actually all builds into the combat system cause you raise certain social stats in the HS parts which allow you to get access to different social links, which grant you powerful EXP. boosts to your Personas when you create them in the Velvet room as well as maxing out the Social Links unlocks powerful Personas to use. Almost every game mechanic in this title goes back into the others, its one cohesive system though its not obvious til you are a ways into the game. As I also said, the stories the SL give you builds a better world and P3 is probably one of the few RPGs in recent memory that made me want to save the world.