Final Fantasy XII sucks. Period. Fact.

[Cthulhudrew]

I haven't finished it yet, but for the most part I really like XII. It's one of my favorite in the series. Visually, it's beautiful- the cut scenes are awesome. And it is, by far (IMO) the best voice acting in the series. There are still some translation issues, but far fewer than in other installments.

Balthier is definitely the most interesting of the characters, though I find Basch to be pretty intriguing as well (from what I've read, Basch was originally intended to be the main character, which may have something to do with Vaan's sort of bland personality).

The License Board and fighting aspects don't wow me as much as in some of the other games- the LB for purposes of customization (as others have said, it tends to make the characters a bit too similar, and given the way equipment becomes available, having so much of the board focus on arms and armor seems a bit redundant); I still can't quite get used to the Gambit system, but that's because I don't tend to think ahead too much in terms of combats- I'm a wade in type of game player, not a "buff" guy. I can see how the Gambits would be really useful if I put more thought into things, but I just haven't taken the time.

Story-wise, I think it starts out really strong, but at the point I'm currently at (close to the end- just going through the Pharos), things are a bit confused. There is almost too much going on in the middle, and it takes a bit longer to tie it all together than it should.

(One thing that has really bugged me is the contrived way in which they keep Balthier's airship from being able to take the party all the way to the Tomb at Raithwall. Mainly because the problem that causes it- I can't think of the name offhand for the stuff that blocks airship travel- doesn't consistently seem to do the same thing throughout the story.)

 

[jeffh]

Well, as an update to what I said before, I'm finding FFXII a lot easier to get into now. I've gotten a lot better at using gambits and status effects (positive ones, especially Decoy + obscene shield-blocking - the negative ones seem pretty useless, they never work on anything worth using them on) and gotten more willing to explore random corners of the game and go off on side quests. Now instead of being underleveled and underequipped I'm slightly overleveled if anything.

I've been having a lot more fun since I realized this is the first FF game in a long time to really reward the explorer mentality. I just returned to the main quest after finishing all the cactaur stuff and taking a stab at the secret part of Bartheim Passage (still not powerful enough for that, I couldn't win a fight without Quickenings in there!), and the only reason I'm back where the plot expects me to be is that I realized I'm so far ahead of mandatory NPC Larsa that he's actually become a liability - it's not that he makes no contribution, but he sucks back more still-semi-expensive Phoenix Downs than he's worth, against things my "real" characters have no trouble with. (I assume following the plot is the only way to get rid of him.)

I will always love the old-style Final Fantasy interface, but once you get used to the new MMO-like thing and become proficient with programming Gambits, it's okay. I still think the combat feedback is very poor, mostly due to the camera angles, and that's sometimes an annoyance, but I can live with it now. I do think there's too much wandering around on the world map and that the license board is inferior to the sphere grid in giving your characters individual identities and to the job system in flexibility, but I no longer want to rip the lungs out of everyone who had a hand in making it, as I did when I started posting here.

 

[drothgery]

I'm back where the plot expects me to be is that I realized I'm so far ahead of mandatory NPC Larsa that he's actually become a liability - it's not that he makes no contribution, but he sucks back more still-semi-expensive Phoenix Downs than he's worth, against things my "real" characters have no trouble with. (I assume following the plot is the only way to get rid of him.)

I still think you must be mismanaging the license board somewhere, because you ought to have a resurrection spell around and not be buying phoenix downs (and you don't gambit them except in boss fights until you're high enough level that the MP doesn't matter).

But yeah, following the plot is the only way to get rid of Larsa (who was marginally helpful for me when I played through). And you'll get another tagalong NPC later that sticks with you until just before the endgame.

Also re-iterating my 'get a 360 and Lost Odyssey' plug if you like old-school FF.

 

[jeffh]

I still think you must be mismanaging the license board somewhere, because you ought to have a resurrection spell around and not be buying phoenix downs (and you don't gambit them except in boss fights until you're high enough level that the MP doesn't matter).

But yeah, following the plot is the only way to get rid of Larsa (who was marginally helpful for me when I played through). And you'll get another tagalong NPC later that sticks with you until just before the endgame.

Also re-iterating my 'get a 360 and Lost Odyssey' plug if you like old-school FF.

What possible reason could there be for not having Phoenix Down or Life in your top gambit slot? That seems like a no-brainer to me.

From having Life, it doesn't follow that you stop buying phoenix downs.

• Phoenix Downs are much faster
• Life costs a lot of MP, which (in the fights where resource management actually matters) you either need for offensive and buffing spells or want to hold in reserve for Quickenings, depending on the character
• Once you have all the Phoenix Lore licenses, Phoenix Downs bring characters back with more HP

Bear in mind that I'm doing stuff like taking on the Earth Tyrant before level 30. You plan for the worst-case scenario.

(For the record, the only character who's paying much attention to Teckniks is Balthier, mostly because I earmarked the two Quickenings in the lower right corner of the north half of the board to him. My main focus on the board has been Augments, and to a lesser extent spells; that or beating a path to a Quickening without much regard for what else is in the way.)

 

[Orius]

I've gotten a lot better at using gambits and status effects (positive ones, especially Decoy + obscene shield-blocking - the negative ones seem pretty useless, they never work on anything worth using them on)

Negative status effects in general are often a waste of time in most games like this anyway. Haven't played FFXII yet, but I usually don't make much use of the spells/abilities in most of the other games in the series.

I will always love the old-style Final Fantasy interface, but once you get used to the new MMO-like thing and become proficient with programming Gambits, it's okay.

I certainly want to try it. Even though the old turn-based games have thier charm, they're getting a bit long in the tooth as well. Western RPGs have been doing real-time for years now.

 

[jeffh]

Negative status effects in general are often a waste of time in most games like this anyway. Haven't played FFXII yet, but I usually don't make much use of the spells/abilities in most of the other games in the series.

That hasn't always, or even usually, been the case in Final Fantasy, though. Off the top of my head, they were extremely important in FFX and quite useful in FF4 and certain battles of FF6, for example.

 

[Amellia]

What possible reason could there be for not having Phoenix Down or Life in your top gambit slot? That seems like a no-brainer to me.

I prefer life to Phoenix Downs in mid-game, until the end when speed in boss fights is more valuable than money.

As for Larsa -- instead of having Any --> Phoenix Down, try having each person responsible one or two other people -- like set a gambit for Vaan that's Penelo --> Phoenix Down, etc. Then you can just let Larsa die, and stay dead, and keep Phoenix Downs in your gambit system.

(It's a been a while since I last played, so I might not be remembering the exact gambit names correctly...)

 

[drothgery]

What possible reason could there be for not having Phoenix Down or Life in your top gambit slot? That seems like a no-brainer to me.

I was very short on cash until l started grinding through mark hunting late in the game. MP are a lot easier to get than cash, and you don't want to accidentally do something that costs a lot of MP. So I just kept resurrection out of gambits for the most part, and manually dropped in when somebody died.

Also, quickenings for me were desperation tactics; they didn't get used very much.

 

[Orius]

That hasn't always, or even usually, been the case in Final Fantasy, though. Off the top of my head, they were extremely important in FFX and quite useful in FF4 and certain battles of FF6, for example.

Haven't played the middle games, so can't speak much there. As for FFX, status attacks for a good chunk of the game usually involves bringing Wakka into the fight. I've often done that, blind or silence a powerful monster to protect the party, but a lot of the stuff Wakka's good for are also one-hit kills too. And later in the game, as the stat resistances build up in the monsters Wakka gets more useful for unleashing Attack Reels instead. The other major statuses in that game, Poison, Death and Zombie I don't really use that often.

 

[jeffh]

I was very short on cash until l started grinding through mark hunting late in the game. MP are a lot easier to get than cash, and you don't want to accidentally do something that costs a lot of MP. So I just kept resurrection out of gambits for the most part, and manually dropped in when somebody died.

Also, quickenings for me were desperation tactics; they didn't get used very much.

When I realized that you could and should explore for its own sake rather than sticking to what's strictly necessary for the plot as I was originally doing, money just stopped being a problem as a side-effect. Wandering through areas that were tough a level or two ago but are cakewalks now, you get a lot of loot. And poking into areas that are just over your head can be very lucrative [EDIT: Previous version of this sentence made no sense, the basic idea is that if, say, you're going into the secret part of Bartheim Passage as soon as it's possible to do so, remember that you have Quickenings as a get-out-of-jail-free card for one fight]. You can seemingly wander around and find sidequests anywhere (unless you're in Russia, in which case sidequests find you).

Rephrasing with a different emphasis: All you need in order to get money or MP (outside an emergency situation) is patience, but money you can also get as a side-effect of doing other stuff. So I'd actually rather spend money; you'd think it would be the less renewable of the two but that's largely an illusion.

Quickenings absolutely are desperation tactics. That's precisely why you hold your MP in reserve for them. The worst thing you can do to yourself is need them and not be able to use them. If that means some of your characters (the three male ones, in my case) have their MP sitting there doing nothing most of the time, so be it. One thing I started out hating but now quite like about FFXII is that it has Rare Game to keep you honest; you never know when an almost-boss-quality monster is going to just randomly wander in and hose you. (#^@&ing Cultsworn Lich...)

@Amellia: that's a smart setup (though I no longer need it, I got to the point where you ditch Larsa). The only problem is that it can take more slots than mine; some, though by no means all, of my characters are finding gambit slots quite precious (though that's largely due to buff routines I keep greyed out until I suspect a boss or mark is ahead). For other things I want on some but not all characters I simply use Ally: Party Leader and rotate leaders accordingly (much quicker than doing anything manually) but that isn't an option for raising because you can't make a dead character the leader!