Halloween the U.S. Release Date for FFXII

Along with trick or treat candy, gamers can look forward to Final Fantasy XII finally launching here in the states on October 31st. 1up has the story: "What better way to enjoy left over Halloween candy than by digging into an epic RPG adventure? Additionally, Square Enix will be releasing a Collector's Edition for $59.99 via EB Games and GameStop websites and retail stores featuring special packaging and a bonus DVD with Japanese and American trailers, developer interviews, an art gallery and featurettes on the Final Fantasy series. "

Comments

It should come with some older ones too

[192939495969798999]

When you're talking about a special edition, why not include some of the older versions running on the (available) emulators? I guess it's hard to get the PS2 to do emulation, but at least including some of the low-selling older PS1 FF versions would be a nice gesture to long time fans of the series.

Re:It should come with some older ones too

[oahazmatt]

Personally, I think one of the better bonuses could have been the inclusion of FF7, now on one single DVD. Advent Children sold quite a few copies, so I'm sure there are some people who would enjoy playing the game for the first time and not need to cycle through numerous discs.

But, back on topic, yeah, I'll get this.

Re:It should come with some older ones too

[KDR_11k]

Considering it seems to be a trend lately to throw in the first few games (emulated) from a series with a new release that would sound appropriate but S-E is remaking the old FFs game by game so they might not consider that profitable. I have a hunch we'll see a FF7 remake within a few years because it's a guaranteed moneymaker. They're currently working on FF3 (DS) and 5 (GBA) remakes IIRC and 1, 2 and 4 already saw remakes (GBA) so 6 and 7 will probably be next. Perhaps a simultaneous release of FF7 remake for the PS3 and an enhanced port of the original for the DS.

Re:It should come with some older ones too

[SuperMog2002]

6 for GBA has already been announced and is due out by the end of this year. No word on 7, yet.

Re:It should come with some older ones too

[DrEldarion]

They'd never do that, because they know they can update the graphics and sell it for $50 and people will still swarm to buy it.

Re:It's not really the Final Fantasy, is it?

[heinousjay]

I liked playing the games, but when they turned into movies with occasional interludes of random encounter action I stopped buying them.

Imagine the box art...

[Doches]

_______________
/...............\
| Final Fantasy |
| I, II, III,.. |
| IV, V, VI,... |
| VII, VIII,... |
| IX, X, XI,... |
| ..And........ |
| XII!......... |
\_______________/
No wonder they won't do it, the ink alone would drive them bankrupt!

I might actually get this one

[ClamIAm]

The thing that's usually turned me off from FF games (and other series, like Dragon Quest) is all the random battles. The new battle system in FF 12 certainly has its detractors, but I think it's a good thing. Maybe I'll rent it first...

Re:I might actually get this one

[aichpvee]

Have you played it? If it plays like the demo they shipped with Dragon Quest 8 it's going to be one of the worst games ever released. Maybe I'm just biased because I don't like the boring gameplay of most MMORPGs even when there are other people playing and the thought of spending 40 hours playing one by myself isn't very appealing. But I couldn't even get through the second demo (the first one lasts like 2 minutes) because after about 7 minutes I was falling asleep.

Sure Square's ATB (and FFX regression) combat systems have gotten stale, but this was a horrible, horrible move. Maybe if their stories were good enough to stand alone I might put up with it, but they're not.

The FFXII combat system is definitely not a good thing.

Re:I might actually get this one

[ClamIAm]

Yeah, I also heard that the demo was pretty crappy, but others claim that the demo is not representative of the game at all. So that gets me back to "I'll rent it first".

there's not a lot of hype about this

[cascino]

but trust me, it's a GREAT game. i've played through the japanese import, and it's brilliant. combat, storyline, pacing, environments, battles... all well done. it's not dumbed-down like many of the recent games have been either. if you have liked any of the previous ff games (especially those prior to the playstation era) it's worth checking this out. i personally loved it.

Re:there's not a lot of hype about this

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a reason there's not a lot of hype about this. They released a demo with DragonQuest 8.

We've played it. It sucked.

About the only thing worse than being placed on the strict rails that Final Fantasy games always enforce is having the battles stuck on rails too. The characters play the game for you - there was an article on Slashdot a while back about that when the Japanese version was released.

Based on that demo, there's no way in hell I'm getting Final Fantasy 12, and I expect that anyone else who played the demo would agree. The fact that a few people apparently enjoy barely interactive movies where your entire contribution is walking the characters between cutscene points does not make it a great game.

I played the demo, there's no need to listen to hype.

Re:there's not a lot of hype about this

[KDR_11k]

Is the main character whiny or does he have a tendency to act without thinking?

Re:there's not a lot of hype about this

[cascino]

Okay I realize you have already made up your mind at this point, but I hope you can read my comments below and see why things may not be exactly as they seem.

There's a reason there's not a lot of hype about this. They released a demo with DragonQuest 8.
We've played it. It sucked.

Yes the demo is a piece of shit. I should've prefaced my comments by saying that I too hated the demo. I came into FFXII with very low expectations for playability. Trust me there's simply no comparison between that and the final version.

About the only thing worse than being placed on the strict rails that Final Fantasy games always enforce is having the battles stuck on rails too. The characters play the game for you - there was an article on Slashdot a while back about that when the Japanese version was released.

But what you're overlooking is that the battle system has been redesigned to fit a paradigm completely different from the traditional FF battle system. In old games, your characters would line up on one side and the enemies on the other and you would choose the commands they'd execute. This is no longer: the player is now completely responsible for every action and movement of all characters during battle. FFXII plays like an MMORPG - without the online component. Each character requires the same amount of attention and thought and interaction as a single character does in a traditional MMORPG. The amount of control added to the battle system means that there needs to be some way to step back and not micromanage every character's actions, especially when they often are repetitive.

What Square did was to invent a system of "if...then" statements that are extensively customizeable to allow the player complete control over the party. These rules can be changed on the fly and take the tedium out of playing a game with as much control as FFXII. I would think the addition of a "programming language" of sorts into which battles can be streamlined would appeal to the average /.'er and FF fan.

Give the final game a shot... rent it or something... because I know that your concerns will be alleviated. FFXII is one of the most foreward-thinking FF games released, and it's mostly in part due to its battle system which is as innovative as it is fun to play. There's a reason Famitsu gave it a perfect score, and most industry magazines/websites have given it high scores as well. I say from experience that it's among my 2 or 3 favorite FF titles (FFVI will always remain highest on my list, but that's another story...).

Re:there's not a lot of hype about this

[Fallingcow]

Hell, X was pretty popular but its battles were completely mindless. If there had been an "auto calculate" option, I'd have used it 90% of the time and been fine with that. Beats smacking the "x" button 30 times in a row to get the same damn result.

XII's handling of this is exactly the same most of the FFs, just with a slightly less-insulting battle system, as they assume that auto-fighting is preferable to hitting the same button a bunch (true). This is an improvement... kind of.

To make it not be insulting to the player at all, they'd have to make a battle system that's fun and interesting to begin with, but that hardly ever happens in any JRPG, not just the FF series.

Re:there's not a lot of hype about this

[KDR_11k]

But what you're overlooking is that the battle system has been redesigned to fit a paradigm completely different from the traditional FF battle system. In old games, your characters would line up on one side and the enemies on the other and you would choose the commands they'd execute. This is no longer: the player is now completely responsible for every action and movement of all characters during battle. FFXII plays like an MMORPG - without the online component. Each character requires the same amount of attention and thought and interaction as a single character does in a traditional MMORPG. The amount of control added to the battle system means that there needs to be some way to step back and not micromanage every character's actions, especially when they often are repetitive.

In other words it's like Baldur's Gate and its ilk in that respect.

Re:there's not a lot of hype about this

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope, sorry, I read the previous Slashdot article, "in defense of FFXII" and I've already heard the arguments for it. They weren't convincing then and they're not convincing now.

The game plays itself for you. I've seen the type of stories Square-Enix creates (thanks to the Final Fantasy movie and Advent Children), and "playing" a 40-hour long movie of that quality would almost be physically painful.

FFXII plays like an MMORPG

That, right there, is more than enough reason never to touch it. I played WoW briefly, and even that was too much grind for me. I hear most MMORPGs are even worse. If FFXII is anything like their MMORPG (which I've heard called "Final Farming") there's no way I could imagine playing it.

I've played the demo, I've read excuses for it before. It's simply not worth playing.

Re:It's not really the Final Fantasy, is it?

[frosty_tsm]

They thought it was going to be the Final one back when they almost went out of business.

Turned out people loved it, and it became not so final.

Re:It's not really the Final Fantasy, is it?

[brkello]

Ha! Don't touch Xenosaga then. The game has come a long way from the first one. I enjoy getting to the movies as it continues the story and plot. While the last few have been a bit weaker, they are still decent and fun. Oh yeah, I forgot, it's cool on here to pretend you hate anything popular.

Re:It's not really the Final Fantasy, is it?

[ReverendLoki]

There have been 11 other ones

I see a comment like this in just about every FF thread anymore. It's the stock response for someone who doesn't care for the FF series and wants to make a witty remark on /. I'll repeat what I said in the last one:

Like most things, there's actually a reason and a story why they name a seemingly unending series "Final". Wikipedia has a nice summation, which can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_fantasy#Overvie w

Or, for those who don't feel like following a link:

Square Co., Ltd. first entered the Japanese video game industry in the mid 1980s, developing a variety of simple RPGs for Nintendo's Famicom Disk System (FDS), a disk-based peripheral for the Family Computer (also known as the "Famicom," and known internationally as the Nintendo Entertainment System). By 1987, declining interest in the FDS had placed Square on the verge of bankruptcy. At approximately the same time, Square designer Hironobu Sakaguchi began work on an ambitious new fantasy role playing game for the cartridge-based Famicom, inspired in part by Enix's popular Dragon Quest (known to some in the United States as Dragon Warrior). (At the time, Enix and Square were separate companies; they did not merge until about 17 years later.) Sakaguchi had plans to retire after the completion of the project so he named it Final Fantasy because it was his final game, although it was also going to be Square's final game. In fact, it's commonly believed that the game was named Final Fantasy because of Square and not Sakaguchi, although Sakaguchi himself has confirmed it was named because of his plans for retirement. Either way, Final Fantasy turned out to be far from being Square's or Sakaguchi's last game. Final Fantasy reversed Square's lagging fortunes, and became their flagship franchise.

Oh, great...

[Xaroth]

They're just giving the FF cosplayers an excuse to go out and stand in line in full pseudo-FF regalia.

EU Release Soon I hope.

[assassingod]

I'm glad the release date has been announced. However I am focusing on the EU launch, as i'm fearful we won't receive it until mid-2007 considering FFX took 1 full year to be released from Japan launch to EU launch. We did get a crapload of extra featuers, Dark Aeons. Hoping we'll get the same treatment, but it's still along time to wait.

Pfft...

[TheNoxx]

Still waiting for those guys over at Square to stop dicking around and get the Vagrant Story team back together and make the bloody sequel. Enough of this rinse and repeat crap.

Re:Pfft...

[Yosho]

Enough of this rinse and repeat crap.

You realize it's a bit hypocritical to say that after you say you're hoping for a sequel to VS, right?

By the way, FFXII and VS have the same director and composer (and I believe they share a few other team members, too, but I can't recall off the top of my head). They've got quite a bit in common, stylistically.

Re:Pfft...

[TheNoxx]

Not really; I'm asking for more in line of an RPG that was remarkably different in plot, execution, content, maturity, art direction, and gameplay. The reason they call it Final Fantasy XII is because they've already made eleven others of the same kind.

While I haven't, of course, had a chance to play it, the art direction does lean toward that of VS, but I'm unsure about the everything else. The characters seem to have the same structure as the last few in the FF series; and while those characters have been good, they are nothing compared to the depth offered in VS (I'd go into more detail as to why, but obviously, that would ruin the plot for any casual reader... something I hate doing on posts as that's the same way a few plots have been ruined for me). Let me be clear though, I'm not insulting the FF series; it is by far one of the best creations in the gaming industry and has had tremendous influence on me... but because of my love for it, I'm fairly critical when I see bomb-ombs and chocobos for the twelfth fucking time.

Re:Final Fantasy 12 Collector's edition Special Bo

[entmike]

Funny how this release is by Square/Enix, and it has nothing to do with SONY except that the platform it's being released on is PlayStation 2. Even then, even if your statement made any sense, it's still unfunny.

Re:It's not really the Final Fantasy, is it?

[PhoenixFlare]

If you don't like them, don't play them. I don't think anybody at Square will lose sleep over it.

Cool!

[Anonymous Coward]

But is this another one of those FMVs where I have to hit the square button periodically? Can't they simply do away with the button-pushing nonsense so we can enjoy the movie like we did with Advent Children? :-)

Seriously, I appreciate plot, but I honestly liked ye olde sprites better. FF VII still had a good story (albeit a confusing as hell one thanks to those mako hallucinations) but it's slowly evolving into little more than one long FMV where all you have to do is follow the neon signs on the map and press [] or () or X or /\ every so often to get to the next FMV segment...

Oh, and I'm kinda sick of the gaia hypothesis thing already. Yes, Japan got nuked, and we've seen the world get destroyed enough times in thinly veiled references to it, TYVM. I'll forgive you for the "swords are the best weapons, ever, period" bits, though, because they really are cool.

Re:It's not really the Final Fantasy, is it?

[7Prime]

Not half as bad as Xenogears though, where you literally go from "Do you want to Save?" to "Do you want to Save?" without ever being in control of the game!

God I wanted to like that game, but the story becomes ludicrus, you realize that the only "character developments" are sudden and unrealistic, and the second disk mostly consists of 6 hours of watching characters sitting in an arm chair TELLING YOU THE STORY: "And then we went through this cool dungeon, and then we fought the boss, and then we went to this town, and then we were betrayed by X, and then we fought him." I know it was a rush job, but I wanted to throw the game at the wall. Xenosaga (the first one) and FFX don't even begin to compare, and I thought those games were cutscene heavy.

My favorite story revolving around the game is that my friend (who had already played the game) was watching me go through it. There's a scene where the main character and the romantic lead are in the main character's room, talking. This extremely sappy, cringingly over-the-top dialog goes on FOREVER, so after a while, my friend starts saying, "just press the 'fuck button'", "just keep pressing the 'fuck button'" (refering to the action button), at the end of the scene, the screen fades to black, and then fades back in again, and it's the next morning, and you see the female lead in his bed with obviously no clothes on, and the male lead in his boxers. I suddenly yell, "holy shit, you really did mean the 'fuck button'!", and we just started laughing at how rediculusly bad it was. Oooh, sex in a video game, that must make it, ya know, all "adult like". Pleeeease...

Can't happen...

[7Prime]

1-6 will be completely out of the question by that point. When the Wii hits, Square will probably release 1, 4, and 6 on the virtual console. Nintendo will most likely want exclusive rights back for those games. Not to mention, IV was just re-released on GBA, and V and VI are soon to follow, not to mention the remake of III... that leaves I and II, which were just re-released 2 years ago for GBA, and then 2 years before that for PS1.

With all of this, there's even a good chance that Nintendo won't release 1-6, even for the Wii, as all of the games will have been released for updated systems fairly recently. I'm hoping this isn't true, but I could well imagine it happening.

That leaves VII, VIII, and IX, which I deffenitely wouldn't mind having all on one DVD (all great games IMO, 3 out of 4 of the best games in the series, not including VI), except that the original versions of those games are actually still selling. The addition to these games being added to FF12 probably won't sway too many people in their decision to buy it, so they don't stand to make any money off of this venture. I could understand Square putting together a "Final Fantasy Collection" DVD at some point, which would be extremely cool, with games 1-9 on them, along the same lines as Nintendo's "Zelda Collection" (which was greatly appreciated, btw). But bundling them with FF12 is probably not a good idea.

Re:It's not really the Final Fantasy, is it?

[drinkypoo]

I suddenly yell, "holy shit, you really did mean the 'fuck button'!", and we just started laughing at how rediculusly bad it was. Oooh, sex in a video game, that must make it, ya know, all "adult like". Pleeeease...

I first saw that in Golgo 13 on NES.

When I finally saw a Golgo anime (years later) I laughed my ass off, it's got enough sex to qualify as hentai :P

Who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wake me when Eternal Arcadia gets a sequel.

Re:better way?

[WreathOfBarbs]

The phrase "left over Halloween candy" clearly implies post halloween enjoyment of the game. So you would obviously have done one or more of the above in order to have left overs. Time to take Reading Comprehension 101 again.

CG looks good

[strider2k]

Watching the opening CG animation on my 52" TV looks good (measurements are + - 10" since I don't remember the exact size of the TV).

After watching the imported FFXII, I can't wait to hook up a PS3's HDMI port and put in FFXIII. Probably some wonderful [eye] candy even snickers can't even satisfy.

Re:better way?

[AcidLacedPenguiN]

well actually, the course is Reading Comprehension 1023.

but you're implying that said person hasn't gone to the mall and waited in line the entire night to get his copy.

Re:better way?

[WreathOfBarbs]

Touche!

They's have to offer a whole lot more...

[wilgibson]

They's have to offer a whole lot more than a special DVD and packaging for me to buy FFXII. I wasn't impressed with the demo packaged with DQ8, and even though finished game was a whole lot better than that demo ever was I don't see myself buying this game. I got to play it for a while when I was in Tokyo at the end of March(I actually got there the day after it was released) and it just didn't seem fun. I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy FFXII, but unfortunately I won't be purchasing it. Quite sad given that I've been playing the FF series ever since my parents bought me the original for NES way back in the day.

Of course, Square-Enix will still be getting money from me this fall. Children of Mana is on the horizon as well as FFII DS, and Seiken Densetsu 4 will come stateside eventually.

My feelings on this..

[Mr.Madsen]

Anyone share my feelings when it comes to FF?
http://little-gamers.com/index.php?comicID=1385 [Depend on where you work, NSFW]
(Since FFX it's been getting more and more like Xenogears)

Too bad

[HalAtWork]

This is no longer: the player is now completely responsible for every action and movement of all characters during battle. FFXII plays like an MMORPG - without the online component. Each character requires the same amount of attention and thought and interaction as a single character does in a traditional MMORPG. The amount of control added to the battle system means that there needs to be some way to step back and not micromanage every character's actions, especially when they often are repetitive. What Square did was to invent a system of "if...then" statements that are extensively customizeable to allow the player complete control over the party.

This is what I find has broken the game, you mostly watch the battles unfold. I don't mind inputting repetitive actions, at least I get to choose everything for every action in every battle. It seems that this is out the window with FF12. I also don't like that it's similar to MMORPGs, I don't like them at all, yet I'm a big Final Fantasy fan. In fact, not much of the gaming population plays MMORPGs, and definitely not all RPG enthusiasts even like MMORPGs. To make FF12 more similar to MMORPGs is going to reduce the amount of players happy with this style of play.

I felt that the typical MMORPG battle system was designed that way because it's impossible to halt the entire world so that one character can input their command and then the world would resume. It was a limitation of the MMORPG, that it has to be realtime. On a single player game there is no such limit, which is why the battle system is the way it is. It's not that I feel that there is less strategy in such a battle system either, it's just more hectic if everything is realtime, and then I just don't ENJOY playing, I just feel pressured.

Re:Too bad

[Anonymous Coward]

The thing about this battle system is that you have the option to pause everything and essentially play it like a turn based game. One of its strengths is that it's extremely flexible. You want stress free micromanagement? Then just turn off the Gambits(character AI) and input every single action.

Re:Too bad

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, that's good, thanks for letting me know about that. The demo seemed more like an arcade style RPG (if there ever was such a thing) so I'm glad to hear. I did hear a lot more about the final game but not what you mentioned, so I guess I'll wait for that and see how I like it. Personally I'd prefer they go back to the style of FF9 but I'll see what this is like. Anything is better than FFXI for me :)

Re:Too bad

[Gnostic Ronin]

I agree -- if the battle system of the olde games was so bad that you don't think players want to play them --FIX THE BATTLES. Don't throw an autobattle system in there. Make them strategic, make them use a different magic/skill system. Give the enemy an ability to adapt. Have a new battle machanic. Be creative. Just. don't. fix. bad. battles. by. making. me. sit. and. watch.

It's really the cheap and easy way out. You don't have to figure out WHY you think the battles suck (CF Matsuno interview), you just need to have the "player" not touch the controls. I can't wait for the "genius" who decides platform games have boring jumps, or the FPS maker who thinks shooting is boring. At least if they follow the SE lead and decide to automate the "boring" bits. I play RPGs for the battles (well story too), which means that I should play the battles.

Re:Too bad

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't agree more. Even the MMOish elements of Final Fantasy X (kill X of monster Y with weapon Z; iterate Y) were obnoxious.

Head to head with the Revolution?

[Daetrin]

There's a pretty much totally unsubstantiated story that the release date for the Nintendo Revolution has been leaked and it's coming out at the same time. If true that will be a bad week for many gamers' pocketbooks :)

Re:better way?

[AcidLacedPenguiN]

to be fair you got me pretty good with that one.

on another note is it just me or is my first post missing?

Re:better way?

[WreathOfBarbs]

If I climb up the Parent links I can get to it still. It's at a -1 though so perhaps your threshold is too high?