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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.
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.
Console only?
Yes. RTFA.
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.
You aint played the game, yet you seem to have already judged it. You cant judge a game you have not even seen. at least wait till you see, play and experience the new game before decrying it. As for myself, the memory of final fantasy 7 and 8 (i liked those the most(no, this is not an invitation to berate me for my choice. i have my reasons. no. i dont want to know what yours is. everyones already read the "which ff is your favourite" reply's on slashdot) still resonates in my mind, and i believe that this new flow of gameplay may indeed serve to catapult the game to new heights. but, like anything, we must all wait and see.
"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"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
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.
You mean like every Final Fantasy game since IX, excluding the online game (which I refuse to give it's numbered name, Square really screwed up that naming system there.
I welcome the change. I have played only three FF games and I'm already tired of the repetitive formula. These days the bar for what qualifies as good combat is miles higher than it was back when FF first appeared. They've been changing the levelling system like mad to prevent the formula from becoming even more stale but at some point (eleven main games into the franchise sounds like a good point, even Capcom changed the Megaman formula quicker than that) the basic gameplay concepts need to see some changes. Since the story on japanese RPGs tends to be pretty samey overall and the number of worthwile variations on the same old "guy meets shy girl, fights villain, world gets destroyed, hero defeats villain and all is good" story that aren't done is rapidly shrinking there needs to be some focus on the other parts of the game.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Or they could come up with a more original storyline format. If they keep focusing on gameplay, pretty soon you might find you're no longer playing an RPG. I don't play RPGs for the gameplay, but rather the story. I don't care about the gameplay as long as it doesn't get in the way.
Let's also keep in mind that although the general story arch of most RPGs is fairly generic, it has been the reliable basis of countless successful stories for a very long time. There's much that can be done within that context. The overarching storyline is just a framework within which to do the really interesting stuff, like character development. The central themes of FF7, FF8, FFX (and from what I can see so far FFX-2) are about the person first and foremost. The quest is just a vehicle.
Anyway, I welcome the changes as well, but only if they make it easier to become immersed in the world of the game, to become one with the story and the characters. Random encounters and level-grinding definitely served to jolt me out of that in previous Final Fantasy games. Though they have been better about that lately. Unfortunately, the travesty of poorly-designed mini-games seems to be expanding. And those are waaaaay more annoying to me than random battles. I'm playing an RPG. Requiring strategy is one thing, because strategy can be integrated with story. But if I can't access a part of the story because my twitch reflexes aren't honed enough, the game designers need to sit and think about the priorities of the genre.
The bits you quote make it sound like it's going to be more like a Tales game or a Star Ocean game than an FF game =/ Not that those are bad, but i'd really like to play another _FF_ game.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
I don't play RPGs for the gameplay, but rather the story. I don't care about the gameplay as long as it doesn't get in the way.
In the case of Final Fantasy it got in the way quite often.
Regarding minigames, I onsider that one of the parts where Final Fantasy could learn from Anachronox:
"Oh dear, looks like you failed that minigame! Want to try again?"
[Yes]
[No]
[Can't we pretend I made it?]
Another part is handling the levelling of party members that aren't in the active party (I'd prefer if you could have all characters in play all the time), in Final Fantasy useless characters tend to be ignored and become more and more useless with each battle.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Well, your grammar and spelling were correct, I'll give you that.
Regarding levelling of non-active party members... I actually prefer that they don't do that. I think the appropriate solution is to make sure that every character is balanced and interesting enough that you want to cycle them into the party. Chrono Trigger did this respectably, IMHO. And I thought FF X did this spectacularly well. It was also really cool that, after keeping the skill trees separate for most of the game, if you gained enough levels you could eventually start to transcend that limit, and really round people out. For example, you could take Lulu, a powerful magic user, put her on Auron's skill tree, and with a little patience turn her into a super-powerful wizard/tank.
An great example of an utter failure at this is Chrono Cross. All of your characters levelled regardless who was in the party and who wasn't. But there were 45 characters, and at least half of them were largely useless once you got out of the scenario where you didn't have access to anyone else, because even with the free levelling, they were distinctly underpowered. 90% of my time with that game was spent with maybe 8 of the 40 characters I collected. One of them (Sprigg) I literally never put into my party after the end of the scenario where I couldn't remove him.
But on the bright side, there were really no minigames at all in Chrono Cross.
I dunno, minigames aren't a problem for me but too many are never good. The problem is that by adding more gameplay styles you need a player who enjoys all of them to enjoy the entire game. That's what I dislike especially about Treasure, they tend to throw in so many gameplay styles that maybe three people in the world will appreciate them all. Or take Battletoads for another example.
I still prefer levelling all characters. Sure, they have to be balanced but if there are one or two characters that I want to keep in the party all the time (usually the medic and the main damage dealer (who happens to be the plot's lead character often enough)) those tend to become way too powerful. Even worse if only those characters are strong enough to deal with all the enemies you encounter if you don't spend time levelgrinding.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.