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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. "
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...
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...
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
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.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
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.