Final Fantasy XII = Boring?

[antman]

OK, so I was excited by this game prior to release and bought it as soon as it hit the shelves. I rushed home to play and enjoyed the changes, such as the removal of random battles and the new fully 3D environment.

But, my lord, it was boring. In fact, I didn't make it anywhere near the end, giving up a little by halfway. The plot was tedious, the majority of the characters tiresome (and superfluous, given many had no reason to be there) and the locations all started to look and feel the same.

Did anyone else have this issue?

[Porslinsankan]

I completely agree with you. I kinda forced myself to think that's it was going to get better and just kept playing, waiting for the turning point. However, as I got to the place where the spear was supposed to be I just gave up.

There is really nothing that would make me want to continue, restart it or even touch it again.

[BZero]

Yes, I completely agree with everything you said, except the topic title. I wouldn't say FFXII as a whole is boring (gameplay is fun), just the story.

[Mig]

I do agree. Though I did kind of enjoy it in a way, the game's dodgy development shines through so easy. There's a lot of story at the start and then.. well, that's pretty much it. Then there's just tonnes of dungeon and vastly huge plains blah blah. Tedious, boring, it's true.

Shame really, you can see the story might have been going somewhere from the start, but at some point there was a change at the development team or something (I don't know the details, I'm sure someone does =p) and it all went down the shitter. Or at least I like to think that Squeenix has SOME excuse.. >_>

I liked the battle system though, but the game suffered heavily from pure repetitiveness. All the areas did look so similar - and oh god, the monster designs were recycled over, and over, and over, and over again. A few hours in, you've seen all the monster designs. After that they're all the same with different names, colours, and, uhh, HP?

Characters, awful. The only ones with any sort of story behind them were Ashe, Basch, and Vaan. And even then those were shittily shallow and so on. I mean, pretty much all three were told in the first hour or less. NO character development, no point in the main character being the main character (I quoth: "Hey, I'm just along for the ride" - and that's the MAIN character?)...

Yeah, that really annoyed me. No story or character satisfaction AT ALL.

Strangely, I did enjoy it. The hunts and trying to obtain the ultimate weapons and stuff are great cures for boredom - but then I'm only ever really playing it because I have nothing else that's decent which I haven't completely murdered already.

Nowhere near the quality of the classics, sadly. The opening cutscene was cool, though. <_<

[Sioux]

I'm the total opposite here.

FF XII is by far my new favorite as I absolutley love this storyline with the political intrigue and the large world of Ivalice to go through. Though, I was one of those crazy fans of the FFT so it makes sense.

And the art work for this game be it the 3D renders on the map screens or the places themselves just capture me for a couple minutes each time I look at them.

Though, that could just be the artist in me taking a moment to enjoy the masterpiece that is this game.

[The Dark Paladin]

Finally, people who share my opinion of XII. XII was boring, I can't seem to finish it. I was disappointed with XII; every FF from IV (maybe III, I haven't played it enough to say honestly) up had story that was captivating. Some FF games suffered in the game play, like VIII and X-2, but otherwise had good storyline. XII had crap. It was rushed. The staff change that was mentioned previously, was the director. He walked out on Square-enix when the President told him, within the last 6 months of development I might add, to incorporate a character, a teenage male, who was a thief into the game and make him the main character. Vaan wasn't even supposed to be in the game originally, he was just put in as a last ditch attempt. Basch was supposed to be the main character, but that all changed.

I love FFT, but FFT is not FFIX or X, it's a side game from the main-stream series. When I started playing XII, I remember thinking it was beautiful and the graphics were so great, less than an hour later I remember thinking "this story is kind of weak". 5 hours of game play in, the fighting style felt more like I was watching a movie than playing a game, and the story was boring, not good enough to carry my attention. I was and still am disappointed with the story of XII, though the game play has gotten better the further in I have gotten. I have already said to one of my friends from a different message board that if FFXIII does not reach my standards, which are eally low after X-2, XI, and XII, I am going to stop buying Final Fantasy games before playing them, and I'm going to start getting rid of the ones I can't stand playing, like II.

[MooglePeru]

I disagree will all you guys except Sioux. Although FFXII didn't have relationships between characerts and such (see the lack of Kitase?), the plot dealing about Empires, politics, rebbelion and tactics it's really darn great.

I think that it's the coming of age of the FF series. Now, if all the subsequent games games combine a great epic with emotional interactions, it REALLY will be the best ff ever. XIII it's going to do that.

Now, you can't discuss the battle system. And FFXII has so many things, so many references to call itself a Final Fantasy. Since I put my disc on the PS2, and the FinalFantasy Theme went out from my speakers... definitely I was in Love. There are at least 2 references to each FF game.

[Sioux]

Hrm, I must elaborate as my previous post didn't lay down why I liked it.

As I'm seeing it from all the grievances its turning into a either you liked it or you didn't type of situation.

I liked it. No, loved it and am still loving the experience so far.

I am really enjoying the plot line as it was so much like FFT but also more with the beautiful cut scenes backing up pivotal points in the storyline and the battles alone were enough for me to buy this game. I mean really, the inclusion of airship armada battles and a full scale fortress battle to start off the game. I was hooked as I like studying war and seeing how its translated in the various media avaliable to me.

The politically charged plot portions is what saved FFT for me because to tell the truth I don't like Tactics battles that much but, the interesting storyline with backstabbing and shifting political forces and people taking power by force or by subterfuge just captures my attention for some reason. And it beats the hell out of real life politics. And its what saved this game for me as the characters are indeed paper thin and rushed but, the mere fact that they are helping out in all this political turmoil just makes me like them.

The battle system albeit different is refreshing to me and I'm liking it. My only grievance there is that you can't have four characters working out on the field. Otherwise, I don't think it takes away from things at all.

The only real issue I'm having is that the Gambit system allows for one to become god. A good gambit with some decent leveling, or hell, just a really smart gambit for any situation beats that situation. Its ridiculous when I killed Trickster and it only used one Choco-comet and it was supposed to be hard. (I'm probably going to go back through when I murder this game the first time through and try a low level challenge to get more from this game difficulty wise.)

And as Moogleperu pointed out I loved all the references from other Final Fantasy games there are. And the fight with Gilgamesh was probably my favorite Mark so far, or hell, boss fight in the game so far minus Belias and the big fat Lucavi in the Garasmythe waterways.

Now that plot stuff is out of the way, the artist in me comes out which is what makes me give alot of games a chance once I find something I like, artistically.

These days after what art training I've had so far, I slow down when I play a game and look at a 3D model for hours sometimes. I will find polygon surfaces and notices things about. Not only that but, the atmosphere of a setting, the lighting quality, the texturing and material quality of an object, surface or character. Also, the digital painting side of things comes in to this as well.

I remember playing Halo and just sitting around looking at textures and effects and the character models for the human commandos and Master Chief.

And with FF XII having a zoom function, I'm done. I sometimes just sit and look around at all the diverse models of the people in each town and just look at them because right now in the industry Square Enix is one of the leaders in human model design and it shows.

Now the 3D still images on the World Map screen are my favorite portions as that is like concept art right there. I have a couple favorites, one being the Lhusu Mines screen. That perspective shot is dear to me now as I'm trying to emulate it right now and it is tough but I know it'll be a portfolio piece for me.

Don't even get me started on the FMV modeling and texturing and lighting. I'm so inspired by this game to do good art that its reason enough for me to play it. I just wish there was a feature where I could watch whicever FMVs I wanted to without going backthrough the game. :/

(This is also one of the reasons I love the three newest star wars movies, artistically, they are treasures to modern artists even with all their plot/continuity/acting problems.)

FF XII may not be the perfect Final Fantasy for everybody but it sure as hell is my newest favorite as it is doing things for me alot of the Final Fantasy games don't/couldn't(Not that its necessarily their individual faults but times have changed and so have I).

[The Dark Paladin]

I think I understand now. Sioux took the Artist route, I took the writer's route. The one thing I have said to anybody who asked about FFXII was "It feels and looks like they were more interested in what the game looked like then how the game felt while playing it." I just wish it was like IX, you know? Where the characters interacted with eachother, it has a good (I'd prefer great, but good is enoguh) plot-line, and graphics to boost it. Square-enix had FFXI to make a game that looked good and didn't need to have a storyline, I think that is why XII strayed from the FF path so much.

It may be a Final Fantasy, and don't get me wrong, I don't HATE it, I am just extremely disappointed in it. I've seen Revenant Wings in stores for like 3 months now, and I am still debating; should I get it, or not? I fell in love with Final Fantasy for 2 major reasons: Turn-based game play and storyline. XII did not have much of either.

[MooglePeru]

You guys took the critics route. I took the player's route. I really enjoyed it, as with every FF that I played (even II!!!!), I can't stop until I finish it. The story it's well written. The catch isd that you all are so acostummed to Kitase-esque stories, that forgotten about the rest of grand epics.

[CosmoKing]

I enjoy it when I have time to sit down and play it for a while, but for now I'm at this "blurgh" phase where I just can't be bothered to play it and get back into it, though I know once I DO get back into it I will enjoy it.

What I really miss are random encounters and having an overworld map. I'm not too happy with the battle system to be honest; I prefer the classic battle system(i.e FF X and before)

As for the story....well it's got everything there to make it work, but as people have said the characters dont develop an awful lot as you go through and the main character is an odd choice for a main character, one day hes Mr Joe Average and the next hes a world saviour, whose just there "for the ride".

The storyline is based largely on 15th century Balkan politics, events and wars-they've just changed some aspects of it to make it more original, but the story to me still isn't very original as it's very similar to what actually happened! Though I suppose that I'm the only one bothered by that, as no one else would know anything about the 15th century Balkans. :P But all the essential events and political happenings did essentially happen-if anyone wants me to elaborate and explain all the similarities I'd be happy to do so.

I also had a major problems with the gambit system-whenever I play the game I never really implement the use of gambits, but I still manage to advance ahead normally, so basically, I dont see the point of it. I much prefer controlling the characters myself rather then having it all completely automated.

Overall I'm fairly impressed-but I think that theres a lot of room for improvement in this game.

[The Dark Paladin]

You guys took the critics route. I took the player's route. I really enjoyed it, as with every FF that I played (even II!!!!), I can't stop until I finish it. The story it's well written. The catch isd that you all are so acostummed to Kitase-esque stories, that forgotten about the rest of grand epics.

I've never taken the "critic route". Every time I have ever played a game, I played it to enjoy it, to find what I like about it over what I do not like about it. That's the way that I am. But XII did not have enough things that I liked about it. The music was good in some places, great in some places, and in some places I could do without it; The characters never developed enough for me to have cared if one of them died or not, sounds cold but it is also true, and the fighting style was like a jarring note in a familiar song to me. I continued to play the game anyway, and I eventually grew to accept the battle-style, even like it in a non-final fantasy-ish way, but I am still disappointed in the story-line. After I first played this game, I ranted about my disappointment on the SG forums, and somebody's response was "Then I won't play it." My first response was, try it yourself, you might like it even if I don't. Critics don't do that.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mean it as an absolute, everything I ever post is an IMO thing, and I don't mean to offend anybody with it.

[MooglePeru]

You're right, DP, about the music and character development, but WTF with the battle system? I was really tired of exploring a forest, or a plain, and then a random enemy comes out and kills my beautiful forest for a screen with it, or something. It happende in X, it happended in IX, it happened always. Polimerizating battle and exploration in one was the best move that they ever had done.

And I miss Nobby. Kiss me Goodbye it's ok, but there's not love in the game. Maybe Rasler and Ashe, or Fran and Balhier, or even Penelo and Vaan, but nothing more.

[Shned]

I got the game last year. I've not played it since.

Don't get me wrong, I loved all the new features, environments, and whatnot. I just could not for the life of me stay focused on it. Did just feel like an arduous attempt for a deft gain. Couldn't bring myself to carry on playing if I tried, either. I'd just remember what I thought of it, and know I couldn't go through all that again.

[The Dark Paladin]

You're right, DP, about the music and character development, but WTF with the battle system? I was really tired of exploring a forest, or a plain, and then a random enemy comes out and kills my beautiful forest for a screen with it, or something. It happende in X, it happended in IX, it happened always. Polimerizating battle and exploration in one was the best move that they ever had done.

And I miss Nobby. Kiss me Goodbye it's ok, but there's not love in the game. Maybe Rasler and Ashe, or Fran and Balhier, or even Penelo and Vaan, but nothing more.

I disagree with the polimerizing comment, they could have easily made a battle-style that was still turn based but took advantage of the beauty of the surrounding areas, I.E. Chrono Trigger. I didn't dislike the freedom of it, I disliked the restraint in it. Yes, you were able to move freely in battle, but the whole gambit-system was built on AI, and that meant less interaction and more sitting back to watch the battles being fought themselves. I HATED that.

[Zeron]

There's a lot to read in this topic, I've just skimmed it so I may be repeating people here, but anyways.
I think Paladin's nailed it with his last post, the gambit system was a little atrocious. I went through the entire game with my only gambits being Attack and Cure below 50%. If you miss out on the battles it's getting a little too much like an interactive movie. I only started using Gambits at King Behemoth, with only Seer, Hell Wyrm, Omega and Yiazmat left afterwards I think (have only beaten King Behemoth and Seer of those five so far).

But I can definitely live with the battle system. The game had some major redeeming qualities, for me the biggest two were the explorability of the Ivalice, and the ever-present challenge. I loved that at any point in the game I could find one enemy or another (or maybe an entire hoard of them) who was able to utterly decimate me. It wasn't so great when it was a giant T-Rex who would kill me in one hit and would take around 1200 slashes of my swords to kill, but usually there was a Mark to keep me entertained -- the Mousse in the sewers and a snake in Zertinea caverns were a couple of my favourites in the middle of the game. And Zertinea caverns was great by itself, I kept returning there every time I passed an opening, and was slowly becoming strong enough to take on the enemies within.

I loved that there were these battling side quests throughout the game. Unfortunately when there are tough enemies in an RPG it should be time to use some strategy, but FFXII just doesn't offer itself to strategy. All the strategy you need to win can be done before the battle even starts (by setting gambits), and I just don't like that.

Like I said though, I don't think the battle system killed the game. What I will condemn the game for is the story though. And I've read a lot that people don't like the political side of story, that's completely the opposite for me. I actually loved the overall plot, which I think is why it's actually delivery bothered me so much. When I started I thought I was in for something that was just going to be epic, but it never came. I thought I was finally going to see a story that rivaled Tactics, but it just didn't happen. There really weren't any twists or turns, no backstabbing and betraying, not really any surprises. There really didn't seem to be much story at all, just a little bit more than enough to have the game make sense.

In the end, I liked FFXII. It was fun, but it doesn't have what it takes to be one of my favourite games. It wasn't a complete game, it just didn't have everything. Which is too bad, I think it'll be the last Final Fantasy I play for quite some time too. Well maybe I'll borrow someone's PS3 for week and beat FFXIII...we'll see.

[The Dark Paladin]

In the end, I liked FFXII. It was fun, but it doesn't have what it takes to be one of my favourite games. It wasn't a complete game, it just didn't have everything. Which is too bad, I think it'll be the last Final Fantasy I play for quite some time too. Well maybe I'll borrow someone's PS3 for week and beat FFXIII...we'll see.

That's the message I have been trying to convey. I liked FF XII, it just didn't have what it takes to be my favorite game, or even my favorite Final Fantasy.

[antman]

Since making this thread, I've started to replay the game in the hopes of actually completing it. This time through, I have realised that it is really strong plot and character wise until you leave for Bhujerba, at which point it all goes wrong.

[Mig]

I have realised that it is really strong plot and character wise until you leave for Bhujerba, at which point it all goes wrong.

Had potential, didn't it? It's a shame, really.

[The Dark Paladin]

Since making this thread, I've started to replay the game in the hopes of actually completing it. This time through, I have realised that it is really strong plot and character wise until you leave for Bhujerba, at which point it all goes wrong.

Agreed. And Bhujerba isn't even 20% into the game...

[_J_]

Awesome gameplay, dull everything else. Character development is almost non-exsistant, I ended up not really caring about them at all. And the story is just... well... bullshit.

I really enjoyed making my characters into whatever I wanted them to be with the licence board and gambits. I had Balthier as a Thief and he rarely got hit and Basch was a Paladin, with the Zodiac Spear and healing gambits. Towards the end of the game though, when you unlock all of the board with everyone, the individuality goes away, I think they should've limited it somewhat.

I'm right at the end and I just don't have the willpower to complete it, cause I don't care what the ending is gonna be.

[antman]

Using this thread as a means to keep you up-to-date on my progress, I am now over halfway, having finally beaten the boss that put to full stop on my first attempt at the game.

What do I feel now I am here? That nothing much seems to have happened for the last several hours. Everytime I turn on, I have to remind myself why it is that the party is one its way to whatever location is next. Even then, most of the time, it doesn't make much sense to me.

However, I am still enjoying most of the gameplay, perhaps more this time as I am taking any chance I have to train and attempt some sidequests, such as the hunts, because I have little to no desire to continue the story.

[MooglePeru]

Althought I liked it, the best description of XII it's a single player MMORPG.

[The Dark Paladin]

That would explain why I don't care for it too much. MMORPGs aren't meant to be played for story, and that is something I play FF for.

[Dr. Flux]

Ohhh what a terrible necropost. But i must defend Mr. Matsuno's honour.

Shame really, you can see the story might have been going somewhere from the start, but at some point there was a change at the development team or something (I don't know the details, I'm sure someone does =p) and it all went down the shitter. Or at least I like to think that Squeenix has SOME excuse..

Yasumi Matsuno; the mastermind behind Ogre Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story and his masterpiece FFXII.

http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/2007/matsunorv3.jpg

As you may notice as you watch the opening credits he's only credited for the concept and story. Originally Mr. Matsuno was director/producer but apparently (says the press release from SE) fell ill and was unable to stay on as the captain of the FFXII ship. And you do notice this, the shift in story, often taking the lazy way out or the more cliched scenario.

I suspect his leave of absence halfway through the game was the result of a disagreement he might have had with Square Enix. Pure speculation but a might suspicious at the fact that he left SE around the same time as his 'illness'.

Regardless, it's still a classic Matsuno storyline, deeply political, wicked twists, full of back-stabbery. I love it. Can't get enough. The thing that dissappointed me most was the ending however. I could tell it was not a Matsuno ending. It was way too amicable, way too complete and way too cliche.

Regardless, I stand on Sioux's side and believe it to be one of the best FF's made so far, in my personal view that is.

But here's some trivia for you, one of the bosses in FFXII is named after Yasumi Matsuno. At SE, Yasumi had the nickname 'Yazz'. The boss Yazmat (Yiazmat in North America) is a play on this: Yasumi Matsuno. The name of the hunt is "Farewell to a Legend".

Yiazmat's a bitch to beat too.

http://www.lostingame.com/img/soluces/ps2/ff12/screen/ff12_ps2_124.jpg
Yiazmat - Ridorana Cataract

[CosmoKing]

Ohhh what a terrible necropost. But i must defend
Regardless, it's still a classic Matsuno storyline, deeply political, wicked twists, full of back-stabbery. I love it. Can't get enough. The thing that dissappointed me most was the ending however. I could tell it was not a Matsuno ending. It was way too amicable, way too complete and way too cliche.

It's certainly not classic at all; as I said before it's all been copied from Balkan history, and it's almost exactly the same save for a few changes.....

Here are some very striking similarities for you in fact:

The two empires in the game are in the real world the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Also, note how members of the House of Margrace look and sound very Turkish; the ethnicity of the Ottoman's.

It was customary for the eldest son of the Ottoman Empire to kill his younger brothers, sometimes before the death of their father(hint hint Vayne)

Note how Vayne states early in the game that "the people of Arcadia choose their Emperor", yet when his father was killed Vayne instantlya scended the throne without opposition. This is exactly what occured in the Holy Roman Empire; there were official Imperial elections, but just about every single time(at least by the late Middle Ages) a Habsburg was elected onto the throne, usually the son of the deceased Emperor. And like Archadia, the Holy Roman Empire had a lot of powerful nobility-in Archadia these came in the form of judges. Such a powerful nobility was necerssary in a nation so vast with many different, sometimes semi-independent regions.

The kingdom of Dalmasca is in a very typical situation where many Balkan states at the time found themselves in; the Ottoman Empire crossed into Europe in the 14th century and immediately began pushing west, taking out every state they came accross.

The kingdom of Bosnia seems to have a very very similar resemblence to Dalmasca in many ways; the fall of Serbia in 1459 meant that there was now nothing in the way of the Ottoman invaders. The Bosnian capital of Jajce fell after a massive army arrived in 1463. The Bosnian king was told he would be permitted to rule his nation if he co-operated with the Ottoman authorities and signed a peace treaty, but as soon as his pen hit the paper he was taken outside and beheaded on the spot. Jajce was re-taken a year later and the exiled Queen Katarina was proclaimed queen.

The Gran Kiltias Anastasis is equivelant to Pope Pius II-and Anastasis' out of game equivelant also accepted a fair number of refugees. Pius was in the process of personally organizing a crusade to liberate Bosnia, but died before this could take place. (He wasn't murdered-one of the things the team actually managed to change)

I could go on, but I'm sure you all get the point. It shouldn't come much of a surprise really-the team visited Turkey for their inspiration and no doubt picked up on all of this in the process.

[The Dark Paladin]

Sounds a little too coincidental to be coincidence to me, but either way, I just didn't care for FFXII as much as I did for most of the rest of the series...

[Sioux]

Well, I wouldn't say it has no chance of becoming a classic outright as we all know FF VIII and its black sheepness was shunned at first and was said to be destined to be forgotten but, it certainly became a PSX classic as far as FFs go(And its better known for the gunblades and small additions to the Kingdom Hearts line).

And although FF XII does draw from the real world, its doesn't mean it isn't classic in its own way as far as coming from Mr.Matsuno and the way he does his stories and his methods and all that.

Now if one were arguing that it isn't original in content I could totally agree but, it was never original to begin with as they based their concept off from real world politics and kingdoms within the Balkan regions.

Anyways, FF XII is still a beautiful well crafted addition to the series that still gets my vote as one of their best FFs yet.

And whoo, one of those rare times when Flux and I are on some common ground and he isn't arguing me into a hole for all to see.

[Dr. Flux]

And whoo, one of those rare times when Flux and I are on some common ground and he isn't arguing me into a hole for all to see.

You injuns are strong willed, its a labourious task. So I thought I'd try a different approach this time.

It's certainly not classic at all; as I said before it's all been copied from Balkan history, and it's almost exactly the same save for a few changes.....

You're acting as though FFXII is the only story to have borrowed ideas from the pages of history. It's quite common, even in video games. What's really important is their ability to integrate these borrowed themes into their story and I think they managed it well.

I think one of the reasons why FFXII is either liked or hated is because of the attention to detail, story wise. Some people find that fascinating, I am one of those people. But I must digress, without the killer job Alexander did on the English localisation, the story would not've had the same affect. Some people get bored when the issues at hand are more grown up; more political, more real world, less fantasy.

And originality has never been high on Square Enix's priority list whenever they've made a Final Fantasy. They’re big fans of the 3 Rs, “reduce, reuse, recycle”. If you’ve ever played previous Matsuno games you’ll notice plenty of themes from previous titles. The final battle with Vayne is almost exactly the same as the final battle with Grissom in Vagrant Story. And we all know the whole Judge thing is not innate to #12.

XII is not original but its definitely the most inventive.


http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/1343/vagrantstory33zn5.jpg
Vagrant Story - Grissom (Dark Angel)

[CosmoKing]

You're acting as though FFXII is the only story to have borrowed ideas from the pages of history. It's quite common, even in video games. What's really important is their ability to integrate these borrowed themes into their story and I think they managed it well.


In my opinion the ideas have not even been intergrated into a story-practically nothing was changed from the actual history!
I am guessing that's because of the storywriter leaving halfway through fiasco; the new person probably didn't have a clue what to do and just copied the rest of it more or less exactly as it happened in history.
All speculation of course, but I bet something like that did happen...

[The Dark Paladin]

Well, I wouldn't say it has no chance of becoming a classic outright as we all know FF VIII and its black sheepness was shunned at first and was said to be destined to be forgotten but, it certainly became a PSX classic as far as FFs go(And its better known for the gunblades and small additions to the Kingdom Hearts line).

Point taken. I actually LIKED VIII though, and everybody else was all hard-assed about it. It still was far from my favorite FF, but I felt it was still good and I loved it.

I think one of the reasons why FFXII is either liked or hated is because of the attention to detail, story wise. Some people find that fascinating, I am one of those people. But I must digress, without the killer job Alexander did on the English localisation, the story would not've had the same affect. Some people get bored when the issues at hand are more grown up; more political, more real world, less fantasy.

Maybe that's why I don't like it as much. I have been all but diagnosed with Aspergers as a Fantasy division; in other words, I cope with daily problems in reality by sinking into a fantasy world. So you may have something about it being a little moer reality based being the reason why it was either liked or disliked...

I could have done without the more grown-up comment though. -_-

[ShimmyDylan7777]

I can not agree here.

The whole time I was playing, I thought the story line along with the environments and characters were great. The battle system was a little different but I got used to it. It's too bad when I was near the end my cat had to tear it apart denting it with teeth marks and the second time I bought it somebody stole it. Oh well, I'll have to buy it for a third time to actually finish it because I really liked it.

[Dr. Flux]

I could have done without the more grown-up comment though.

Did not intend it to insult. Twas more of an observation that the themes in FFXII are more adult. Other Final Fantasys have of course included such themes but never had the means to explore it in the depth FFXII has. That is, now that FF is a tried and tested brand name, there is a lot more time and money put into the games and therefore of the latest - FFXII - a much more focused view on the consequences of war, be it with imagery, atmosphere or story.

[Jules]

To be honest, the game didn't blow me away. It lacked something and I think it was that "deepness" that came with FFVII, VIII and IX. The characters weren't very deep at all and nor was the story.

The gameplay was fun but it was the first Final Fantasy that I enjoyed exclusively for its gameplay...

[seph]

It was a good game. The characters were decent of course balthier was the coolest. But I gatta say the gameplay did lack, but is any final fantasy perfect? I did like the live action battle system but it was way to easy to grind your abilities and levels. I know I had almost complete trees before I was even halfway through the story. The summons were ok, though I personaly though they were weak.

Thats my hip analysis on FFXII.