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Squeenix Final Fantasy XII remaster

Hyperion

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Jul 2, 2016
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The new orchestrated soundtrack is amazing and the dual board system adds more fun depth into the character building
This can't be stressed enough. Dual Boards add so much character customization. If you obsess over min/max'ing characters, and chargen in general, this change will cause agonizing fun for more than one playthrough for sure. Some of the boards have changed slightly from the original Zodiac release from my recollection. Started as Hunter with Vaan, and noticed the Koga Blade node is in a different spot. Looks to be intentional to create some synergies with certain class combos.

Oh and other YUGE news. Spell Queue is gone, so combo spam is not necessarily the be all end all for DPS. Casters rejoice! Spam Ardor and Scathe to your heart's content.

I'm gonna try to use 1 of every class and see how it works out.
 

iZerw

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When folks are more excited about the remaster of your 10 years old game than about the recent entry in your main series you do something wrong.
 

Abu Antar

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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
When folks are more excited about the remaster of your 10 years old game than about the recent entry in your main series you do something wrong.
FFXV was has the best opening numbers thany any other game in the series and because of it, they had one of their best financial report in the history of the company. Even if a lot of us don't care about the game, they did something right.
 

Hobo Elf

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Wouldn't want that even for free. Especially Zodiac edition

Why is that?

Because original game is "hey we fucked up HP system in game and players need 24/7 healing with all their characters !.

No it doesn't. The Protect / Shell spells are actually useful now so those should be used, there's a spell called Decoy which forces all enemies to attack a single target of your choosing and a spell called Bubble that doubles your max HP. There, you just made yourself a tank who will take all the punishment while the other guys rain death on the enemies.
 

Falksi

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Such a shame about those large, boring, repetitive areas because there's potentially a great game in there.
This FF was actually a real sign of the shift in focus of RPGs, and the horrendous filler-based shit which has swamped the market since.
 

Perkel

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Yup if you would cut down every area in two aside from few smaller ones, remove van and panelo make mc Bach and rebalance a bit it would be amazing game. Unfortunutelly lead designer Matsuno who designed FFT and Tactics Ogre got booted out from project midway and someone else took over
 

Falksi

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Yup if you would cut down every area in two aside from few smaller ones, remove van and panelo make mc Bach and rebalance a bit it would be amazing game. Unfortunutelly lead designer Matsuno who designed FFT and Tactics Ogre got booted out from project midway and someone else took over

Yup, agreed. Didn't know about the lead designer getting the boot, explains a fair bit though. I really enjoyed it until about halfway through, but after 3 attempts to finish it there was just too much dragging it down.

This MMO/Open world obsession is a fucking blight on gaming.
 

Perkel

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Yup if you would cut down every area in two aside from few smaller ones, remove van and panelo make mc Bach and rebalance a bit it would be amazing game. Unfortunutelly lead designer Matsuno who designed FFT and Tactics Ogre got booted out from project midway and someone else took over

Yup, agreed. Didn't know about the lead designer getting the boot, explains a fair bit though. I really enjoyed it until about halfway through, but after 3 attempts to finish it there was just too much dragging it down.

This MMO/Open world obsession is a fucking blight on gaming.

Yeah main story was about Bash and his conflict with judges. And if you look from that point of view story is actually very good. SE at the time (Enix just swallowed Square after FF movie disaster) wanted main mc guy to be teenager because kids play games so playing old guy was for them no no and due to that they butchered rest of the game.

Ashe was supposed to be main heroine but as you know half way through the game she just stops being involved in everything and she just hangs on like Vaan and Panelo.
 

Hobo Elf

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So what teams are people running? I have Vaan as a Monk / Shikari, Penelo as a Black Mage / Time Mage and Fran as a Red Mage / Knight. It's a pretty decent team setup that covers a lot of bases, although by no means optimal as I just picked what I liked. The only thing that's slightly disappointing is that I accidentally locked Fran out of a +435 HP Node by taking a Quickening in an earlier part of the board and locked myself out of that one that was hiding behind another Quickening node. Doh.
 

Jick Magger

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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Bubbles In Memoria
Yeah main story was about Bash and his conflict with judges. And if you look from that point of view story is actually very good. SE at the time (Enix just swallowed Square after FF movie disaster) wanted main mc guy to be teenager because kids play games so playing old guy was for them no no and due to that they butchered rest of the game.

Ashe was supposed to be main heroine but as you know half way through the game she just stops being involved in everything and she just hangs on like Vaan and Panelo.
Not quite true. Vaan was always intended to be the protagonist, it's just that early concepts for the character caste him as being an older, more cynical and world-weary character, which was changed due to Square-Enix being too scared to rock the boat with genre expectations given their precarious financial situation at the time. It's theorized that some of the early concepts for Vaan wound up being integrated in to Basch's character, which along with them shunting the 'new' Vaan in to the background, was the writer's way of giving the higher-ups the middle finger.
 

Hyperion

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So what teams are people running? I have Vaan as a Monk / Shikari, Penelo as a Black Mage / Time Mage and Fran as a Red Mage / Knight. It's a pretty decent team setup that covers a lot of bases, although by no means optimal as I just picked what I liked. The only thing that's slightly disappointing is that I accidentally locked Fran out of a +435 HP Node by taking a Quickening in an earlier part of the board and locked myself out of that one that was hiding behind another Quickening node. Doh.

Vaan - Hunter / Breaker. Natural 3 Swiftmess. Saves an Esper. Awesome natural stats for light / heavy armor mixing. Scorpion Tail F available early.

Basch - Knight / Samurai. Favorite character gets favorite class combo. Life. Support magic. Holy damage extraordinaire.

Balthier - Uhlan / Time Mage. Diesel. Fast. Hastega. Hits fliers. Causes disable later. Holy Lance rocks. All my man needs.

Penelo - Monk / Black Mage. Incredible synergy. BLM gets 2 Swiftmess nodes, frees an Esper for Monk's 3rd. Monk gets good White Magic plus HOLY. On the best Black Mage in the game. Monks HP makes up for BLM weakness. Plus Battle Lores and Rods for hitting fliers. Rods also do damage based on MDef. Fitting.

Ashe - Red Mage / Archer. Red Mage is a staple. Archer kinda sucks since Uhlan and Monk both hit fliers and have better support. Only thing is...Burning Bow and Ardor mesh well. BLM would be better but we're going for all 12 classes here. Archer gets decent life, 3 Swiftness. Ashe has great stats to take advantage of bows and magic. Esper later gets her Magepower Shishak and Grand armor. Nice!

Fran - White Mage / Machinist. Let's face it, Fran sucks stat-wise. But that's ok. She brings the intangibles, like a great ass. And guns don't meed stats. But Aldebaran Y, Dark Robes, and Dark Shot is gonna blow Yiazmat a new asshole. Fuck yeah! Oh and she has innate Steal. Make an, " Enemy HP = 100% - Steal" gambit and enjoy all the bonus loot. Not to mention Espers get her Daggers, and Hastega. Great, great support for the Codex's favorite.

Diesel party. All classes used. Oh, and Trial Modd loot carries over to the Main Game. No more Cerobi Steppe farming?!?!?
 

ilitarist

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No PC version?

I hoped Squarenix had ascended above this BS. FFX HD remaster was OK and the only version I've played to completion. Eh. Eh.
 

tet666

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Apr 13, 2012
Messages
396
They pull this shit every time i don't even know why, if the success of Nier:Automata wasn't enough to show them why releasing pc ports close to the console release pays off i don't know what to say, these japs are really weird in this regard.
 

PirateScum

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Mar 20, 2015
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Bought the steel book version while slightly inebriated (damn rum). Ivalice setting and Frans ass will make it worth, I hope.
 

Hobo Elf

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Ivalice is the greatest thing that happened to Square. All their memorable and good games are set in it. FF Tactics, Tactics Advance, Vagrant Story and FF12. Then there was the unfinished sequel for FF12 where you play as Basch that sounded pretty cool.
 

Blaine

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The other day, it came to my attention that Dark Cloud 2 and Final Fantasy XII had been re-released. That finally tipped the scale for me, and so I purchased a PS4—new, because I don't trust anything that's been handled by unknown retards. I'd been wanting to play Nioh, Bloodborne, and a couple of other PS4 games, but I have a strict "bare minimum of 5 worthwhile exclusive games before buying potato" policy. It usually takes 3-5 years for a potato to qualify, if it ever does.

I've long maintained that FFXII is the best mainline modern Final Fantasy title. I certainly enjoyed it far more than the relentlessly linear, sappy, goofy FFX. FFXIII was even more relentlessly linear than X, while its characters and story were demoted from sappy and goofy to mediocre and forgettable. I'm pretty sure FFXV is also shit, although I don't know much about it; all I really know is that I find the main cast repellent. I realize that metrosexual fruitcake hairdos and bizarre fashion-disaster emo fad clothing is all the rage in Tokyo these days, but I hate it. Also, the concept of driving around in a car and snapping smartphone pictures is suspect at best.

If I want to play a Millennial simulator, I'll just browse Reddit for a few hours.

Overall, I agree that Ivalice, the Zodiac motif and aesthetics pioneered in Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story-esque themes and aesthetics, and especially the job system collectively represent the peak of the Final Fantasy series. The original Tactics doesn't quite live up to Tactics Ogre in all areas, but the story of political intrigue and betrayal is excellent and it makes up for its few shortcomings in other ways; Tactics Advance/A2 faltered in story and characterization, but still maintained good gameplay, concepts, and aesthetics; FFXII isn't the objectively best mainline FF of all time (I still believe VI holds that honor), but it's in the top third, depending on personal taste; and Vagrant Story was cool. It's been ages since I've played Vagrant Story (the year it was released and never again), and I suspect I'd find it to be a little datedly edgy these days, but I still remember it fondly.

Actually, my memories of both Vagrant Story and FFXII are pretty damned vague, which is increasing my enjoyment of Zodiac Age since I have only an unspecific familiarity with most of the stuff in it. I haven't played it in 11 years, after all. The new two-job license boards are no doubt a great improvement over the generic catch-all boards of the original (and outside of Japan, the only) release.

The aesthetics and art direction in XII are perfect. The characters' faces are clearly Vagrant Story-esque, the espers are Tactics Zodiac-themed, and the costuming and hairdos and whimsical, elaborate, and elegant without being too fruity (XV) or edgy (also XV, Squall, Seifer, Cloud, etc.).

Even at the time XII was released, the Gambit system, partly real-time combat, and other aspects of the game's mechanics reminded me of an MMO, but in reality the game is still essentially turn-based and overall it's fine. The two-job license board system, the hunts, some non-linear segments, quite decent exploration, and the story featuring political strife and intrigue (which falters later on, but is still far and away better than many FF storylines; also it's strangely similar to Star Wars, as many have pointed out) all comes together to create a well-rounded and enjoyable weeaboo potato thingamajig.
 
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Beastro

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But the last non retarded Final Fantasy was Final Fantasy 3...

I'd rather say FFT by introducing Ivalice and hinting that the series should go for a more Western inspired take on things to suspend the typical Oriental oddness within

IMO your opinion though only reinforces that since FFIII was the last really heavily Western inspired main line Final Fantasy before FFVII began injecting more of the the modern world into everything. Even FFIX was a sporadic mix of reintroducing the High Middle Ages/Early Modern Era feel of the older games with the newer crap, but it really runs out of it once you leave the Mist Continent (and soon after the good parts of the game largely ends after you defeat Soulcage).

I've been replaying FFVII and I can see why it's both so loved and hated when it's a mix of really good bits (as much as Cloud seems to be hated by most, replaying and seeing all of his psychological problems in retrospect while Tifa keeps her mouth shut is one of the more interesting bits, too bad it and other things got side lined because awesome Sephiroth needed to take up most of the game) shoved into a really terrible matrix. The main quest reeks the most where it's fine until you get out of Midgar, then it falls apart as you just travel from place to place going after Sephiroth until the Black Materia BS comes up and the game finally regains a sense of focused motivation to be working towards after the events at the Forgotten Capital.

Barret's shit with Dyne and the Golden Saucer is the worst part. It's clear they had a bunch of concept stuff they'd thought up that they refused to get rid of. Suddenly it had to have the story work around it that makes that entire part of the game from North Corel until you get the car and leave into a series of nonsensically contrived story twists, focused around Barrets town being burned down by Shinra over a flimsy reason, then the Golden Saucer being built on top of it while the entire area somehow became turned into a desert, all of that taking place within the span of four years (and all done apparently because the Golden Saucer had to be put in the game for coolz and they couldn't find a better place to put it than that).

The same is how they worked in getting Cid and the Tiny Bronco, which doesn't make given the resources Rufus has at his disposal. He didn't need to commandeer the Tiny Bronco and it only serves as a means of motivating Cid in a way that results in him joining you while the premise of his ruined space travel is only there because they decided they wanted a space bit as as something to do in the second disk between losing and regaining Cloud.

and the story featuring political strife and intrigue (which falters later on, but is still far and away better than many FF storylines; also it's strangely similar to Star Wars, as many have pointed out)

FF has always been heavily inspired by Star Wars and in more than just the repeated use of Biggs and Wedge. Given the series odd way of being repetitive with things while putting them in a different setting, it's why the protagonists are always built into a team the way they are, with FFVI being one of the more blatant with the Returners, an organization the heroes fight with, but at the same time aren't completely a part of as they do their own things that aren't fully a part of the rebellion going on against an Evil Empire.

It was ok while Final Fantasy was built around simple stories of derring do much like the original Star Wars trilogy, but they beat the prequels in working towards overloading simple stories of action and just plain fun with heavier brooding and a more "adult" take that was immature and something that reeks of what a teenager would produce.
 
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Matador

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I've played Vagrant Story (the year it was released and never again), and I suspect I'd find it to be a little datedly edgy these days, but I still remember it fondly.

Actually, my memories of both Vagrant Story and FFXII are pretty damned vague, which is increasing my enjoyment of Zodiac Age since I have only an unspecific familiarity with most of the stuff in it. I haven't played it in 11 years, after all. The new two-job license boards are no doubt a great improvement over the generic catch-all boards of the original (and outside of Japan, the only) release.

.

Good post. Tactics Ogre, Vagrant Story, Tactics anf FFXII systems and World should have been the path to take by the FF franchise. Unfortunately they took the J-Pop one. It's no casual those games are the best games of the franchise and the company. They had nearly perfect games thanks in part to Matsuno, only improving some things and iterating they would have make the perfect:

- JRPG. (Based on FFXII)

- Tactical Fantasy RPG (Based on Tactics Ogre and FFT)

- Single Player Dungeon Crawler (Based on Vagrant Story), with interesting combat and a compelling and fun crafting system taking the weight of the character progression (I hate crafting systems in games, but the Vagrant Story one is almost compelling, polishing menu interaction and design would leave it perfect). Also streamlining some of the more complicated puzzles, and deleting some clunky platforming sequences at the end game would make. a perfect game.
So yes, I think Vagrant Story holds up us a great game, but it has some very frustrating elements like the menus, and platforming and puzzles in final areas. I would pay a lot of money for a spiritual continuation.

All with great plots and world building also.
 
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Beastro

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Good post. Tactics Ogre, Vagrant Story, Tactics anf FFXII systems and World should have been the path to take by the FF franchise. Unfortunately they took the J-Pop one.

Final Fantasy has always been the most popular JRPG series (and if not that, it's always at least been the flagship series). It's no surprise the "mainstream" in JRPGs eventually decided to go hand in hand with the mainstream in Japanese culture.
 

Blaine

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I'm pretty sure Dragon Quest gives Final Fantasy a run for its money in the popularity department in Japan, although Squeenix is also the publisher for Doragon Kurestu.

Whereas Square always insisted on trying to do something innovative or dramatically different with each iteration of FF (which, in these latter days, is producing increasingly disappointing shovelware), Dragon Quest sticks mostly to its familiar conceits and traditions.
 

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