Convince Me This Game Sucks

[Laddy]

I am appalled at how hostile people are with this game, so I ask you: why is it so bad? How are are the story and characters bland? Please, go on.

[Futan]

It's a good game, but I think it wouldn't have left with a sour taste in my mouth if it wasn't a Final Fantasy game. FF games always have those "save the world" storylines. And my first play through I kept waiting and waiting for that to come in, which of course never happened. Basically it felt like it ended half way through the game for me. So I guess it was anticlimactic based on my own expectations, not from anything the story foreshadowed.

I know a lot of people criticize Vaan and Penelo's role in the game. How they didn't really add anything to it and were just there. But I personally don't mind it that much. It's almost as if it was us there. I know I wouldn't add much if I was on some epic political journey. XD

[Bahamut2000X]

There was too much to do. They pulled a Dragon Age 2 before DA2 did. The focus was so much on the side quests and leveling up with those, that the actual story was few and far in between. The story itself was fantastic and many parts were amazingly done......for what little you got to see, because again, they focused on side content instead of main story content.

The characters were decent for the most part, but many don't do a whole lot or even show up very often (look at both Cid's, they have major story impacts yet appear so late and hardly get seen doing much while they are are around). It also doesn't help that you could drop out Vaan, Fran, and Penelo (also known as half the main party) and they game would be pretty well unchanged. It doesn't help they changed the main character of the game during production (it shows) then decided during the game to shift who the main character was at any given point during the story.

While the game started out really well, the later story ideas and many scenes were pretty cool (but very underwhelming in build up), it just fell flat, you can only visit a few areas (granted big and beautiful areas) as opposed to how in every (good) FF that lets you explore the whole world. Not to mention there was no real impending doom, every FF involves you saving the world in some fashion from some immediate threat, this just involved some politics and preventing some geopolitical upheavals.

It wasn't a bad game (there's far worse, and I'd argue those in the FF series that deserve to be ridiculed far more), but it wasn't a great game either. It had a lot of potential, but it failed to deliver.

[ShinGundam]

I don't hate the game but i really dislike the whole Matsuno fiasco, it is stupid to quit the biggest project of your company if you are on the verge of massive success at the last minute and he just opened a can of worms, Is this game set in FFT's ivalice? Is Basch the real main character? and whatever people been talking about for years without answers unless you expect the people who handled the project at last minute to give you satisfying answers.

Other than that i think it cool game but not for me, i don't like sidequests or focus on an empty region of nothing interesting but walking and fighting. I want one major quest, more story driven content, full mega cities rather than few zones of cities here and there to really like this game.

[Polnareff]

The battle system alone ruins it for me. It's so slow and tedious and plods along like nobody's business. It would have been more tolerable if the locales weren't so big, but they're so big and drawn out on top of the battle system being mind-numbing.

The license boards were really limiting and ensured that for like the first 30 hours of the game, you wouldn't have any fun experimenting with weapons. You had to walk around fighting the same crappy monsters over and over again for hours to get any worthwhile loot. The Gambit system and the fact that running from battle doesn't work basically just threw more wrenches into the works.

The International Job version was like 5 times better, especially with the new streamlined, specialized license boards and fast-forward button. But Squenix, in its infinite stupidity, didn't release that version here.

To tell the truth I couldn't even care about the story and characters. I play RPGs for the battle systems most of the time.

[Goldenboko]

The battle system alone ruins it for me. It's so slow and tedious and plods along like nobody's business. It would have been more tolerable if the locales weren't so big, but they're so big and drawn out on top of the battle system being mind-numbing.

Put the game on speed 6, active, and do marks ASAP and you'd take that back.

The license boards were really limiting and ensured that for like the first 30 hours of the game, you wouldn't have any fun experimenting with weapons. You had to walk around fighting the same crappy monsters over and over again for hours to get any worthwhile loot. The Gambit system and the fact that running from battle doesn't work basically just threw more wrenches into the works.

I really didn't find it that limiting - yes you had to choose who had what early on, but aren't RPGs always like that?

[ScottNUMBERS]

and the fact that running from battle doesn't work

Unlike other FF games you have to use the d-pad to run as well as pressing the flee button, they don't explain this well (or even at all?) and it has been a very common cause for confusion among veterans of the series.

After FFVI, FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, SE had set an extremely high standard - one that even they themselves would not be able to keep up for long. It's natural fans of the series would be dissapointed after they set the bar so high. I was one of these dissapointed fans at one point and I too, hated this game. Some time after I decided to stop being a little bitch and realise that the post PS1 era is over and quality like that would be impossible to achieve again. After this realisation the game was pretty awesome.

[Polnareff]

Put the game on speed 6, active, and do marks ASAP and you'd take that back.

I did that. It's still pretty slow for me.

I really didn't find it that limiting - yes you had to choose who had what early on, but aren't RPGs always like that?

Not to the point this game is. In other RPGs it takes maybe up to a few hours to start getting good/interesting equipment. In this game it takes hours upon hours. I remember I wanted to give Vaan a katana but couldn't until like 15 hours in or so. He was stuck with this crappy knife for all that time. All the other party members were the same way.

The license boards in the job version fixed this in a major way (by splitting them all into different "classes" so to speak), so the game became more interesting almost right away. I'm not saying I want broken equipment right away, what I'm saying is I want some interesting equipment here and there from the beginning to keep me enthralled in the battles. Kinda like how Final Fantasy V did it.

[Formalhaut]

There was too much to do. They pulled a Dragon Age 2 before DA2 did. The focus was so much on the side quests and leveling up with those, that the actual story was few and far in between. The story itself was fantastic and many parts were amazingly done......for what little you got to see, because again, they focused on side content instead of main story content.

The characters were decent for the most part, but many don't do a whole lot or even show up very often (look at both Cid's, they have major story impacts yet appear so late and hardly get seen doing much while they are are around). It also doesn't help that you could drop out Vaan, Fran, and Penelo (also known as half the main party) and they game would be pretty well unchanged. It doesn't help they changed the main character of the game during production (it shows) then decided during the game to shift who the main character was at any given point during the story.

While the game started out really well, the later story ideas and many scenes were pretty cool (but very underwhelming in build up), it just fell flat, you can only visit a few areas (granted big and beautiful areas) as opposed to how in every (good) FF that lets you explore the whole world. Not to mention there was no real impending doom, every FF involves you saving the world in some fashion from some immediate threat, this just involved some politics and preventing some geopolitical upheavals.

It wasn't a bad game (there's far worse, and I'd argue those in the FF series that deserve to be ridiculed far more), but it wasn't a great game either. It had a lot of potential, but it failed to deliver.

Practically everything I didn't like about the game is summed up there.

[Mirage]

Wait for the HD International Zodiac Job System version for PS360.

[Polnareff]

If they really did that, I'd pee my pants.

[Bolivar]

I'd piss my pants and cry and scream like a small child until I passed out

I'm not going to argue with you guys because that's not what this thread is about. Laddy asked you to convince us the game sucks and

Some time after I decided to stop being a little bitch and realise that the post PS1 era is over and quality like that would be impossible to achieve again. After this realisation the game was pretty awesome.

... wow, that almost came really close to convincing me.

I am gonna ask if any of you ever gave it a second chance. I totally hate when people say "you need to play it more to like it" and this is 1000x worse, but FFXII totally clicked for me the second time I played it when I realized just how good the story was, they're only giving you optional content if you feel like it.

[Polnareff]

In the original XII's case I tried to play through it about 4 times. The first time I actually managed to get about 35 hours in, mostly because it was one of the only games, besides roms, I had at the time that weren't in storage. I got so bored with it, though. Each subsequent time I tried to play it, I ended up just getting too bored to play for more than 10 hours.

The job system edition, however, I was able to actually get into. It figures though that my copy of the game had to break.

[Bolivar]

Oh man, well there goes my theory!

[Red Mage Coffman]

I loved this game... Given Vaan, Fran, and Penelo could have easily been dropped and have little impact, I thought this game was going in a fine direction from previous titles. I like to see renovation in RPG's and I thought 12 had a lot of good things.

I thought the story was good, not just saving the world from some random threat, but a political focus. The battle system was fine, and coudl easily be compared to other Final Fantasy games battle systems in terms of how tedious they are. I mean, aren't ALL the battle systems tedious in some way? The idea of getting loot and not just getting Gil was a nice change for me. For once I felt motivated to kill monsters cause the loot and the LP would add up later. As said before this is tedious, but it always is. I adore the characters, namely Balthier. Well, I hate Vaan, but thats a different story. I think this game was pretty good. I'm actually replaying it now