Did you like FINAL FANTASY XII?

[seiferalmasy2]

ahhh Shin Gouken, I am so glad you replied, because as expected you replied in the exact same way everyone else does about this game -with generic nonsense (as in summaries that we knew in the first hour of play and even before) which you have somehow convinced yourself is decent. Let me run through my problems with your replies, especially on the wafer thin plot. And no, that isn't an opinion, it can be plainly demonstrated with how much text there is for main dialogue (far less than VII-X and XIII) and by looking at what happens in the story and how much we actually learn about the characters during the game.

Story is a matter of taste and preference.

This is the ultimate cop out excuse that I hear time and time and time and time and time and time and time again. Story is not just a personal opinion. Yes to a degree it certainly is, but when there are real flaws and real gaps and bad pacing and much less actual dialogue and substance (all of these can be demonstrated), to say that "it is only opinion if you don't like that" is just a major cop out for the flaws.

Yes if you liked the story that is an opinion, however, if I can demonstrate that FF7,8,9,10 and 13 have much more going on and much more character devlopment (and they do, this is a FACT), then yes the statement that "The character devlopment was very poor" is completely true when comparing these games.

If you want "Got to run save the world from giant monster" go play FFX, this game has a more realistic tone (for the most part)

What was realistic about searching for nethecite (sp?)? What was realistic about fighting a random boss who had nothing at all to do with the main plot (see 7,8,9,10 where you are always coming across main plot battles, Rufus, Palmer, Edea, Seifer to name a few of dozens)? This plot was pseudo Political, it gives great orgasms to people who think they are intellectual if they enjoy it and anyone who doesn't isn't "deep enough". Well sorry, the story was poor, the pacing was a joke, the development was extremely poor and thus I don't think I am being unfair calling it crap overall.

What actually happens in XII? Well, the game manual actually tells you almost everything without you having to play the game. Yes it really does. A wannabe sky pirate called Vaan ends up in a quest to save a place from a take over. That is it. We learn nothing more about Vaan than "I want to be a sky pirate" Please tell me what else we learned about him during the course of the game that we didn't know from the first hour of play?

We have characters in this game that have absolutely no reason to be in your party. Fran and Balthier just tag along and so does Penelo. Penelo being the one who also has less character development than Gogo from VI. Ultimate insult coming with the pathetic narration job she does at the end of the game. Don't make me LAUGH.

Then we come to Ashe. And again we can sum her entire existence and plot up by "Her Kingdom is in disarray and she needs nethecite"

is any of this following a pattern yet? It sure as hell is with me.

Then we have Vayne Solidor...who is supposedly the baddie. He has less lines than an NPC (Hyperbole). And then at the end he suddenly turns into a big bad monster. We have no idea of his aspirations, his wants, his drives. Except of course "I want to take over X kingdom" and ...well that is it...

is this pattern becoming clearer?

Vaan has a score to settle because his brother was killed by the empire, Penelo's parents were also killed by the empire though she's mostly there to watch over vaan, Ashe is trying to reclaim her kingdom (pretty obvious that one), Basch swore to protect ashe and Balthier believes he must right his fathers wrongs. Leaving just Fran without a reason for being there so that statement is somewhat flawed i'm afraid.

and we learned all of this from the character summaries. This IS NOT CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. It is a brief summary which we learn in the first hour or from the game manual. Just READ BACK WHAT YOU HAVE JUST WROTE. IT IS ALL THERE IS TO SAY ABOUT THEM. WHAT MORE DO YOU LEARN? PLEASE TELL US ALL!

As for character development being non existent, it's certainly not as heavy as in previous FF's but but i myself find it refreshing.

You find lack of plot and development refreshing for a story.....can you run me through this immense logic?

Visiting Salika wood and learning frans past was a personal highlight, many things come to light concerning Balthier and his involvement with the empire and Basch's later scenes with his brother are very nice.

Fran was the 1 exception to the rule, it is the only character we learn ANYTHING about from their past (as in character development and not summaries). And as for the brother story....I am sorry but "evil twin" is a laughable plot device used time and again in bad fiction.

Go into the zertinan caverns and peer over the edges.

Exceptions do not alter rules.

I call bull

I call truth.

You didn't have to raise a KO'd party member once? Or cure status ailments? Or cast stat buffs? You didn't cast any magic? You must of had some pretty frustrating battles. Even if you were massively over levelled i still find this hard to believe.

The main bulk of the game I used cure and Attack. And at the end I learned about a monster which you could just leave your game machine on all night. Do you think I was stupid enough to level up by watching my character hack and slash needlessly for 20 hours? I would rather pull my teeth out with pliers! I think that is the biggest joke about this game, you could actually go bed overnight and let the machine fight for you without any interaction. That is how we best sum up this ridiculous little battle system.

They do not take control away from the player. You do that. Gambits can be switched off.

Which leaves you at a severe disadvantage and makes the game even more painful. So no it isn't an option. It is forcing you.

It's called customization mate.

No, it is called bad/lazy planning and design and a step backwards.

These at least were pretty

Graphics mean nothing when we are talking about game-play mechanics.

Didn't have a problem with the voice sound. Though i think the voice actors were the most talented of any FF.

I said the sound quality, not the acting.

If i remember, your quite a big fan of IX, am i right?

No, it ranks as my 4th fave but it is a damn site better than this.

Might i shove Excalibur MKII in your face or did you convenientley forget about it? FFXII is not the first FF to pull a stunt like the zodiac spear so it's quite redundent to even bring it up.

No, I didn't forget about it, that was a 1 off, and you can't use exceptions to break the rule. EX.II was a quest to complete the game in 12 hours, it was nothing at all to do with the main quest of ultimate weapons. And in XII as I said, all you do is find it by grinding. There is nothing clever to it like having to beat the game in 12 hours. That was a challenge, this was an excuse to make you buy a guide so you knew which chests not to open. That isn't the same thing.

I'm actually very fond of the random treasure chests. If you're like me and played a perfect game, you spend lots of times revisiting places that would be alot less entertaining if treasure chests didn't respawn with different spoils.

Which generally gave you a few gil and was an awful idea. Why on earth would it be good to have a few poxy gambits and gil out of chests and nothing of real merit?

instead of insulting everyone who enjoys it

I didn't insult anyone, I am afraid. I INSULTED THIS WORTHLESS GAME. It seems you took the attack on the game...personally. A typical flaw. But you can take this post for free and I won't be back to reply again as I feel my 3 posts stand up to scrutiny more than the usual and useless "he wants to be a sky pirate and has a bad brother" kind of responses....

Plus, we all know where this ends.... and don't take seriously my tone. It is always forceful to get the point across. I don't mean anyone any harm with it, but it isn't my nature to shy away from aggressive debate where it is needed, and especially when I feel points about something are being washed over. At the end of the day this is a game and so some perspective is always needed.