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Final Fantasy XII Details Leak Ahead Of Unveiling
Thanks to GameSpot for its coverage of pictures and details of Square Enix's Final Fantasy XII, as a Japanese print magazine released a very short preview ahead of "an official presentation of the game" on November 19th in Tokyo. According to the piece, the game "...will take place in a fantasy world where there are other races aside from humans, and flying vessels fill the sky", and "main characters in Final Fantasy XII are a boy named Van and a girl named Arche." The available media also contains a CG shot of "a soldier riding on a chocobo", for those worried their favorite winged creature would be excluded from this instalment.
Next they are going to tell me that there is a character named Cid! Or the money is called Gil?!!! Magic with names like Fire and Firaga?!!!!!!!! Bombs as... monsters??? Seriously, this is a one page age that tells us teh characters names, and gives us an idea of their costumes...
Final Fantasy XII takes place in a magical fantasy world, where humans co-exist with beasts. Mysterious rocks will power spells, summon monstrous beasts, and boost either HP or SP.
The Hero is a young man, just heading out into the world with nothing to his name but a sword and a bad haircut. Soon, he will discover the truth of his origins and the love of a childhood friend. He will form a rag-tag band including a fighter, a healing spellcaster, a criminal with a heart of gold, and a cute, semi-coherent, bumbling creature. But the forces of the Dark Empire are looming, and must be stopped from destroying the planet in their mad quest for non-ecofriendly power.
In their quest players will join the rebellion, ride on Chocobos, and fly in Airships. They must defeat the underworld people, release the spirits on a haunted boat, visit the tree of Mana, and discover the power of love.
The game is roughly 40-50 hours long, though much longer if you want to complete all of the side quests. I don't want to give away too much here, but lots of mini-games will be involved.
All in all, another revolutionary game from the greatest game company that ever lived. The only problem is that those random enemy encounters are just too frequent, but that will probably be fixed for the American release. 9.5 out of 10.
The ______ Agenda
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the Final Fantasy heroes to be made from a generic template? While I do appreciate the costume design creativity, the actual characters themselves seem to fit in the "so cute I just want to punch them" mold. And yes, the males are so de-sexed there's not much difference from the female counter-parts. Take for instance Square's upcoming FFVII CGI - Sephiroth wasn't supposed to look like a deranged female supermodel. I realize that we are a deeply vain culture and if something looks prettier we're more inclined to lay down our cash, so from a marketing perspective it does make sense to have uber-hot people as the protaganists.
:)
I'm not the biggest Final Fantasy fan although I loved VII to death I've become less and less excited about the series, I seriously just looked at those pictures and went "meh".
Cool Game Character Design 101:
1. White Hair is all the rage these days.
2. Definitive scar over the eye.
3. Big Hair is Better.
4. Women's cleavage makes sense no matter what situation.
5. Only those with ~6% body fat need apply.
6. Sketch a woman, remove the breasts and makeup = instant male hero.
Anyone care to add to the list?
Just a quick bit of info, that little pirate is the logo of all the various Jump magazines... So, not surprising that it's there, and it has nothing to do with FF 12.