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In Defense of FFXII
Next Generation has an article defending many of the somewhat 'controversial' decisions made in the design for the newest chapter in the Final Fantasy series. While it recieved a 40/40 from Famitsu, Final Fantasy XII has recieved some harsh criticisms for straying as far as it has from the Final Fantasy norm. From the article: "With Gambits turned on (and configured with just five minutes of commonsensical thought), battles go at least twenty times more quickly than in any other RPG. At their best, Final Fantasy XII's battles resemble rollicking fights in fantasy movies. The player merely directs his party through an area, freezing the action when he sees fit to make adjustments on the battle plan (stronger enemies appear, et cetera). This alone should be enough to qualify XII as a 'videogame.' The controller's vibration, for example, provides wonderful feedback. Yet players feel betrayed. They say, 'I want to press buttons.' They say, 'I don't want to watch my videogame.'"
Maybe it's time that the mainstream Final Fantasy games take a cue from FF Tactics, and add a little more strategy to the game. I wouldn't mind seeing a Zelda style, action oriented Final Fantasy game either.
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Disclaimer: I've only ever played Final Fantasy VII, and I don't generally like RPGs.
So, I was thinking about the gambit system, and I have come to the conclusion that it sounds great. RPG combat (from what I've seen, and the games I've seen other people play) is not really a battle of brains, but situational timing. And so being able to program how I would play ahead of time, sounds pretty cool.
I wondered how much this would translate to MMO play. I decided it would make for a horrible game, where you just continually ran forwards and hoped your gambits didn't suck. But what if the gambits were perhaps meshed to a trading card battling type thingy? Maybe that's too geeky.
But if you could program a gambit system for World of Warcraft... I think it would be worryingly simple for some classes like the Rogue. This makes me question my whole love of WoW: why do I love something so very... repetitive? Guild chat and stuff is why I keep coming back, so maybe gambits *would* be better, then I could just sit in the chat room and see whether I live or die.
It's an interesting system, and I'll definitely give the game a rental when it arrives, just to see how it all plays out.
I don't know much about XII, but in previous games there has been very little roleplaying. One just watches the story unfold without any input into how it progresses.
While I certainly find the series to be enjoyable, I never get the sense that I have any real control of the character outside of combat and exploration.
...I have to say, the gambit system is just a little bit of genius. The thing is that, to maintain an active, well-paced battle system, you have to have some automation. That said, the people who see the gambit system as some huge, new, radical thing are complete idiots. This is the exact same way you've always played an FF title. You make your choices in advance, then your characters follow through on those actions. Honestly, did you need the freedom to tell your mage to cast ice on an ice elemental? No. Set that shit up in advance and control the less tedious actions of the game. I usually don't even use gambits on whoever is my lead character at the time and let the other 2 rock whatever we're fighting however I told them to. And if you really wanted to go the tedious route and tell your character "use a regular attack" or "steal" or "cast fire" or "heal me", the option is still there, it just slows down the gameplay back to those FF7 and before speeds. Every round would require you to input your commands. They didn't take anything away from you. This article is just shouting for the sake of shouting. Just like this comment.
Or you know, maybe they DID think that DQ8 was a good game? Just because you find something boring doesn't mean other people will.
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