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Final Fantasy XII U.S. Demo
Tim Butler writes "1UP has posted a massive blowout on the U.S. demo of Final Fantasy XII that ships with Dragon Quest VIII next week. They're definitely impressed, saying 'This is not the old-school Final Fantasy action you've come to expect -- but the trade-off is a fast-paced, combat-intensive game with a vast, contiguous world and danger on all sides.'"
As much as I'd like a FF XII demo, I won't be buying it _because_ it's bundled with the Dragon Quest VII game.
I played the demo of that one, and it sucked. A lot.
e2 | LJ
I haven't worried about Final Fantasy in a while. I played FFX, and got tired and bore of the whole thing. A long gaming experience shouldn't be that way because one has to walk mindlessly through the one path available for number of hours. FFXI was better in terms of a game experience, but then it has to be because it's a MMORPG. If FFXII is going to be the worst of both worlds, I don't need it. Without more information, I just don't care.
It's probably great if that's the kind of game you like to play, but I like the illusion of having some choices on how to proceed in a game.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
Is it just me or are the main characters in each new FF slowing morphing into a single gender?
(maybe with exception to FFIX, which had a conquistador and a rastafarian it it)
Yeah, from what I played in the pre-order freebie demo, Dragon Quest VIII's voice-over work sounds abysmal, as far as the "acting" goes. Then again, the over-the-top cartoonish acting somewhat matches the purty (IMO) cartoonish artwork, and totally boring by-the-book save the princess storyline. I've never played a Dragon Quest game before, but it's my understanding they are no Xenogears.
I guess I'll see when I receive my FFXII demo. Err, uh, I mean, umm, Dragon Quest VIII.
A B A C A B B
Remember, the whole reason why RPGs had battle transitions in the first place is because the technology wasn't there for them to make the battles look as pretty as they wanted to on the same screens that the players explored (imagine FF1 if the battles took place on the map screens. Now imagine FF1 if you walked on the map with the same character sprites you had in combat. Get the idea?) It's an abstraction that we don't need anymore, so they got rid of it, since keeping tradition for the sake of tradition is just retarded.
Console only?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
What the heck is a "massive blowout"? Did 1UP explode? Argh ... let's use words with meaning, Slashdot editors.
He who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
Why is everything starting to go to quick, action based, gameplay? When i play an RPG, i want to be able to sit down, have fun, relax, and follow the storyline while (slowly) leveling up my characters.
"No question about it, Final Fantasy XII is radically different from its predecessors. The days of random battles, isolated "drama stage"-style combat arenas and lining up politely to take swings at bad guys are gone. This is not the old-school Final Fantasy action you've come to expect -- but the trade-off is a fast-paced, combat-intensive game with a vast, contiguous world and danger on all sides."
This is suposed to be Final Fantasy, one of the oldest, most loved rpg's in america, why exactly does it need to change so its more like other rpg's where you can see your enemies? I lived for random battles, random battles MAKE a final fantasy RPG.
"Battles now take place on the main exploration screen. You can see enemies from an impressive distance; when you're far away, they wander around on their own paths, doing their own thing, even getting into skirmishes with one another. There's no transition to combat, no change in music or scene as you engage the foe. Enemies can sneak up on you from behind, and likewise, you can get the jump on foes by initiating combat before they see you."
So now there stripping something else that Final Fantasy is known for? No random battles and now we dont even get a catchy little battle tune to initate combat? What the hell were they thinking?
"Oh, and all your party members are visible at all times; you only have direct control over the party leader. The others are computer controlled. You can, however, change your party leader on the fly by pressing Up on the D-pad and toggling through your active characters. (If you prefer, you can turn off Gambit Mode to prevent your team members from auto-attacking, allowing you to control their actions.)"
Well now it seems like they stripped the RPG element out of the game, no longer are we playing a role, but were controlling an entire team. Are we god now?
It looks like they took a mediocure MMO (FFXI), a mediocure strategy game (tactics) and ripped off a little bit of Chrono Cross and KOTOR and mixed them together to make a hopefully (atleast) mediocure RPG. They really need to stop trying to change the mechanics of the game each time around and try to worry about the storyline a little bit more. It seems sad, but i think the last good Final Fantasy was on the original Playstation.
This is really scary... Five pages about a "30 minute" demo? I suppose we haven't seen FFXII in a long time so people might need reminding... The DQVIII demo was hours long...
I'm still more concerned about Dragon Quest VIII though. FFXII was a good play according to a DQer at E3 2004 so I don't think the demo will be abysmal. DQVIII, however, adds mismatched voices, poor button layouts (try using L1 and L2 as yes and no and then go to the menu where L1 becomes page left) and *shivers* the menu... Bundling the game with the FFXII demo is a good idea for sales, but combined with the localization itself, seems like SE has their own idea of what Dragon Quest is. It's almost as if they are forcing it to sell by changing what was good about it before (spell names, sound effects). Remains to be seen this month though and I still can't wait.
And for those of you interested in DQVIII, you should take a look at slimeknights.com. Square Enix IS pushing the game like never before. (Ok so they aren't arranging with Sony to give out copies in OPM, but all sorts of merchandise [just not Japanese merchandise] and a big community of fans there)
[FriNov11:10:51:59] !dq8
[FriNov11:10:52:00] DragonQuest 8 will be released in the US in 3days 21hrs 9mins 19secs
As someone who's been lukewarm on the Final Fantasy series, this may be the game that gets me to believe that maybe the beatings will stop. Honestly, a lot of this sounds like the influence of Enix over the company - the loss of random encounters, a faster-paced battle system, and a system based on player timing are all traits more associated with Enix games. Which I've mostly though superior to Square games over the years, so this works well from my perspective.
Philip Sandifer's academic website
I don't care much about Final Fantasy, so I hope Square/Enix will do something with their better (IMO) but less known property, the Soul Blazer trilogy - Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma. A visually improved re-release would be great.
Circumcision is child abuse.
"In fact, all the skills featured in the demo should be familiar to FF veterans. The one exception is the summon Hasmal's groaningly named skill Roxxor, about which the less said the better."
That's priceless.
"I only speak the truth"
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ZOMG H45ma1 15 t3h |_337!!1 H3 PWn2 t3H 3n3N\y n00bz w1t t3h r0xx0r!! w00t!1!eleventyone--what? They're saying it's not good? t3h SUX!!
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.