Final Fantasy XII at E3

[Necronopticous]

I was fortunate enough to attend E3 a few months back and get lots of "hands on" with Final Fantasy XII. Most people had lots of stuff to see, but not me, I stayed at the Square-Enix booth about 98.7% of the time. I watched people come and go for their 15 minute plays on the Final Fantasy XII stations and then I got my hands on a controller and stood there for 2-3 hours doing everything the demo had to offer. I thought the guys were going to kick me off a few times but they never did, I pretty much got to play everything that was available at the time, I know exactly how the battle system is, and pretty much exactly how the game will play, if anyone has been curious about some certain thing I will happily answer the question. Sorry I didn't post sooner, I'm new to the EoFF forums.

[oloz]

How is the battle system exactly, Im not quite sure on what they are trying to do. I hear you only control one character at a time ala kingdom hearts and stuff.. So if you could clear that up for me Id appreciate it. If it is like that how good is the AI and are you able to make them do certain things and switch characters mid battle?

[Necronopticous]

Okay I'll give you the full run down, bear with me.

If you've never played an MMORPG the battle system is going to be really foreign to you, on the other hand, if you have played one, it's going to be VERY familiar to you. Needless to say, the battle system is obviously based on the MMORPG idea, that is, everything takes place on the map you run around on, there is no traditional "battle screen" anymore.

The way this works is like this: You control one character at a time, the common misconception alot of people got is that you have no control over the other characters in your party, this is totally nonsense, you have COMPLETE control, at any time you can press a shoulder button and switch to another character and preform actions with them. They will use A.I. when you aren't currently controlling them, but it's A.I. You yourself set, for instance, if you set a character as an attacker he'll follow you into a battle and begin attacking the enemy until you tell him/her to do otherwise.

From what I understand you will earn a certain type of item that will allow you to choose from more A.I. scripts, I.E. you will earn a "Black Mage" item of this type and it will allow you to make the character cast black magic. This is only from what I understand though, the demo didn't make it very clear, as some scenarios you were able to use different A.I. scripts.

A typical battle will be like this: You're walking down a path and you see an enemy ahead of you, all of the sudden, the enemy hears, turns around and starts running for you. At this point you use a button to target the enemy and then set your character to engage the enemy (Just like engaging in MMORPGs) you will draw your weapons and then be able to select commands, "Attack" is no longer a command because it is automatic if you are in distance and not doing any other action (Just like an MMORPG) At this point you can tap over to your magic user and have him/her start casting a spell, for instance Libra, which is otherwise known as Scan. This spell isn't very high level so it will cast quickly, you then learn the enemy is weak vs. fire. You tap to your attacker and have him use a potion on himself, tap back to the magic user and have him/her cast Firaga. Because Firaga is a high level spell it will take a few seconds before it actually activates. The spell goes off, killing the enemy, you sheath your weapons and your experience points and spoils obtained will appear in a little box at the top of the screen (JUST LIKE MMORPGs)

This system makes battles MUCH quicker, and thus makes the areas much more expansive to compensate for the time gained. The system is (and I stress this) VERY EFFICIENT. Many people get discouraged when they play games like Final Fantasy IX because you're going through a dungeon trying to get somewhere, and then you get into a 4 minute fight and totally forget which direction you were going, etc. This new system really makes the game feel seamless and it is nothing but AWESOME walking into a boss room and having a boss come out taking up the whole room, fully in motion, it is BEAUTIFUL.

The battle system was lovely, but then again, the entire demo was. This game is going to be straight up amazing.

[kikimm]

Ah, gotcha. I was curious about that whole thing-thanks for clearing it up!

(I'm jealous you actually got to go!)

[Necronopticous]

No problem! Sorry you couldn't attend =( I was really lucky to have gotten to go. I'm actually jealous of myself, I would have killed a man with my bare hands for the FFXII demo disc, that thing was loaded with material, I saw most of it due to standing there for nearly 3 hours, but I think I still could have had hours more fun with it. My legs got too tired from standing, there were stations with seats but I chose one of the standing ones to be a little less obnoxious since I knew I was going to be there for hours, and people were waiting to play the whole time. It's a wonder they let me be there for so long, they must have known I was their BIGGEST FAN, or maybe it was my Media badge. My buddy let me use his badge the last day of E3 =P I was REALLY lucky to go, I even got the media package from Square for having a media badge, that was truly a great day.

[kikimm]

Stop. Just stop.









Do you know where you where? Like what city? Or was it all battling, that you did?

[Necronopticous]

The demo was set up like this: When the game loaded there was a menu with about 7 different scenerios that you could choose. They were mainly to show you the different aspects of the game. For instance, the first scenerio was mainly to show you what the in-game cinematic stuff would look like, it also acquinted you on how to move around, activate things, etc. This was actually one of my favorite things in the demo, you play Reks, I'm not quite sure but I think he's Vaan's brother, he is some sort of young recruit for the knights of Ivalice or something, it appears that he is being mentored by Basch who seems to be a really high ranking knight on the kings guard or something like that. The mission you're in, you're supposed to be working your way from outside the castle to the kings room because he is supposedly being threatened by some force or army (it's not clear) Anyway, you are instructed to stay behind and Basch goes off by himself, when you get to the top you walk in the kings room to see everyone slaughtered, including the king himself, when you turn around Basch stabs you through the heart and explains that he pretty much flipped out when he found out that the king was actually going to sell off the kingdom to these people he appearantly thought were threatening him. Everything in this sequence are in-game cinematics and they are AMAZING, the visuals are unbelieveable, I literally could not believe it was PS2, excellent voices, although they were Japanese with english subtitles at this point, which was another reason I am sort of shady on the exact story, it was just a demo after all.

The second scenerio was a short cinema with Vaan and Penelo in the marketplace/town of the Ivalice kindgom. This scenerio is mainly to show you the way towns will work, talking to people, shops, etc. This is EXCELLENT, the town is so lively, it's really amazing, when you go to the marketstrip it's really an incredible sight, everyone is moving and interacting with each other, it looks great. Eventually you get out of the town and enter the desert outside, this sort of demonstrates the way outside battle is and the way you can have monsters "link" to you if you try to run from one and piss off a whole group (just like MMORPG again) At the end of the desert you fight an AWESOME dinosaur boss. This was so incredible I think Square could have released this one battle as a game and slapped a Jurassic Park title on the game.

Anyway, I'm typing alot, but another really really notable scene was where you wake to find yourself in a prison as Vaan. This sort of shows the dungeon / event areas and the way they will play out, again amazing... Basically you enter this area of the prison all the prisoners are scared of because of the crazy Bangaa prisoners. Okay what excited me about this part was the sheer brutality of this scene, it's unlike anything I've seen in Final Fantasy thus far, and I REALLY hope they don't censor this stuff for the American release, I will be SO pissed. It's SUCH an effective scene because it basically shows the mean bangaa prisoners mauling another prisoner, beating him to death and chucking his body off of the second level onto the floor in front of you, it's INCREDIBLY graphic compared to anything I've seen in the series yet, and I LOVED it. Call me sick, whatever, it made the scene effective, that's all I care about, censorship is bulltrout.

Anyway this scene eventually leads you with Fran and Balfear to escaping the prison through this sewer system (final fantasy cliché alert!) Anyway, as I stated in an earlier post, the quick battle system makes the game HUMONGOUS to compensate and it's SO awesome. I was literally covering so much ground in this place and it just KEPT going, it's a good realistic experience of dead ends and long expansive areas that are representative of how long I think they are supposed to seem. Anyway this scenerio ends at this room you enter, and fight an enormous boss that takes up the whole room and is again, awe-inspiring to say the least.

The last couple scenerios basically let you go through some beautiful forest and spring areas with the whole cast of characters, you can switch the characters out at any time and I HEAR you can't die until EVERY ONE of your characters is killed, although I didn't test this on the demo unfortunately.

Sorry for going on and on, what I said should be pretty accurate although it was a pretty decent time ago. Hope I answered your question and gave you a better idea of how the demo was and how the game will be.

[Del Murder]

Sounds like fun! Thanks for the info.

[Ferril Shadow]

Thanx for the 411 playa

[Necronopticous]

No problem.

[KentaRawr!]

Did you find out when its coming out? It sounds alot like FFXI except since its not online, you switch between characters. I'm not sure if I read it right ^_^; do the AI attack automaticly, or does everyone attack automaticly? me confused lol ^_^ if you can answer these questions I shall be greatful!

[Necronopticous]

Depends on what you set, you can only control one character at once, but you can switch between them easily, so you could, in theory control all three's every move if you were fast enough. When I fought bosses, I found myself controlling all three with constant switching, really fun stuff although not really necessary when fighting a regular enemy, where you would just control one guy and let the others use AI to hack away at it.

[KentaRawr!]

Depends on what you set,

So, I am able to change it in the main menu? So far this game sounds really good! ^_^ ty for all this info!

[Necronopticous]

From what I understand there will be a type of item called "gambits" that you can obtain that will allow different AI to be set for members who you aren't currently controlling. For instance, you could get a "black mage" gambit which would make the person you set it on constantly cast black magic on enemies you engage, or you could have a "warrior" gambit so they will attack engaged enemies. This is what I was told at least, I'm not sure if this will hold true in the actual final production copy of the game, seems about right to me though. In the demo, I heard a few townsfolk talk about "gambit" although I didn't get to use any in the portions I played... I guess the hours I spent on that thing still wasn't enough was it? bwahahahaha, I was too nice.

[Lon611]

for all the people who didn't go, do you feel this is worth tha wait?