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[Jackie Blue]

But I just now re-acquired a PS2 and am catching up on the games I missed.

And I am so cocking mad at FF12 because an otherwise nearly-perfect game is all cocked up by the fact that sometimes you have to play for 2 cocking hours between save points and WHOOPS check it out that bunch of blue jellies that fell from the ceiling when you pressed that switch and which were too numerous to run away from just KILLED YOUR WHOLE PARTY HA HA HA FUCK YOU, JAPAN 

Please tell me that this doesn't get any worse.  If you couldn't tell, I'm in the... whatever mines... the part after you learn that Viera are like tampons - stuck up bitches.  And I spent a whole cocking hour and a half getting near the end and had to go to work and was like "Well Christ on a pogo stick, surely there will be a save point SOMEWHERE in here, at least before the boss, right?"

Seriously no other Final Fantasy game has this problem, what the hell Square-Enix.

[Nodaisho]

I don't think I got anywhere near as far as you. I got through one mines part, where there are those things you have to kill that give the power back to the lights, but yeah, save points aren't really distributed all that well. Haven't had any problems yet, but haven't gotten far either... I know I got off of the enemy airship after a rescue mission which was really annoying because my teammates didn't get the idea we were on a time limit, so would keep fighting the constantly-spawning enemies until I switched off the automatic retaliation, which guaranteed that within about 30 seconds, I was going to need them to fight something. I think I might be about to go off in the airship doing something else, after going back to Rabanastre for a while?

[Jackie Blue]

I'm 30 hours in but am honestly considering starting over so I can properly use the License Grid.  I wanted to make Balthier basically one of my two main offensive magic users but his MP is just way too low for that, so for any real offensive magic I have to swap in Ashe, since I have Fran and Penelo dedicated to healing and support magics.

Also what the fuck is up with me finding a Katana that apparently requires the "Ninja Swords 3" license 20 hours into the game, but not finding a single Katana that is usable with Ninja Sword 1 or 2, never mind the fact that Ninja Sword skills are, inexplicably enough, located in the Polearm/Crossbow part of the grid, so you have to waste a bunch of LP on those to unlock them and just argh.

It's such a basically perfect game except for these occasional big glaring bad gameplay decisions (like the fact that it seems like most of the game is "you're going to not have access to shops or cities at all for 4-6 hours, mkay?" ).

[est]

I started playing it and got sick of all the cutscene bullshit, I think.  I got past the mines maybe?  I am not sure.  I killed some kind of big bird and went on a spaceship-like thing maybe.  There was a evil Judge in there at some point.  And a place on stilts in a desert.  I was enjoying it for the most part, but I have a feeling that is because I am in love with making numbers go up and collecting new abilities.

[Storm Rider]

I liked FF12, I thought it was the best game in the series in quite a long time. I think the gameplay needed to be shaken up, and though I don't know if the gambit system was the necessarily the right, I appreciate them taking a shot at it. The Japanese XIII demo is due out in about six months, so we'll see what they try next.

[snalin]

I got to a point where everyone was über in everything, and then the different characters didn't really matter. They looked different, and were all the same. It was kind of the loosing point of the game.

[Cartilage Head]

 It is kind of funny because I recently started replaying XII. Yeah, it is kind of hard sometimes, but that is a good thing. Also, I noticed no less oppurtunities to save than what is average in an RPG.

[imapiratearg]

Part of the reason I could never get into the Final Fantasy games was the incredibly slow pacing and the ass-backwards saving system.  They were fun to play other than those couple of things, though.

[Vendetagainst]

You have to think carefully when you first get the license grid, but after you acquire the entire top board you can just play around with it. I don't really remember where I am in the game, I think I'm just a couple hours from done and have just stopped playing either because I'm stuck or got bored. It's a cool game though, except I'm pissed off that I didn't learn about the zodiac spear until after I opened a dozen of the wrong barrels.

[Surgoshan]

I'm tired of androgynous 12-year-old heroes.  When's the last time Japan spawned a man?

[Dimmukane]

I blame Tetsuya Nomura for everything.  I hate that guy.  (This is to be spoken in the voice of the Abbot in RH:Men in Tights)

[snalin]

I'm tired of androgynous 12-year-old heroes.  When's the last time Japan spawned a man?

FF7:


EDIT: Seriously, this guy is more awesome than the Heavy from Team Fortress, since his gun is a part of his fucking arm.

[clockworkjames]

(not a furry)

OH HAI LADS!

[falandrew]

For the most part that problem never comes up again, although in the endgame dungeons there are often none, the worst there isn't even one  right before one of the harder bosses in the game, incidentally its in a secret area of Henne Mines, which is (I think) where you are. The secret area before it... its the same size as the normal side and its chock full of enemies that can kill you irritatingly easily even at level 99. Hello confuse and berserk... fuck you confuse and berserk, the endgame weapons do a lot more damage than you have health 

Also there is another area in the stillshrine (I think) area a little further than you are without a save point... it might look like there is one, but make sure you heal yourself before you try to save. There is eventually one there.

Lastly, if you want to do the secret stuff be prepared for mind numbing grinding, the best weapons usually require you to get them at the bazaar, and its only with very rare drops... for example the best sword, requires 3 types of loot that can (mostly) only be got by selling sub loot and the sub loot has something like a 5% drop rate, from an enemy that appears in one area... And you need three of the sub loot, plus two other sub loots three times to make one of the ingredients (out of three) also you need three of each ingredient.

Having said that for the most part none of that is necessary, even the lesser super weapons require limited grinding, just the best couple apart from the zodiac spear... but that is possibly even more annoying... yeah, why don't you punish me for exploring, contrary to every fucking rpg ever, I'd be suprised anyone ever picked that damn spear up without  having read a strategy guide first.

This game annoys the hell out of me but I can't stop playing it.

Oh, the key to the licence grid is to work what you want to do with each character and then just get the bare minimum of what you need in terms of equipment. The most important part of the board are the stat boosting things, get them as soon as you can, you will find your mp lasts loads longer because there are about half a dozen licences that help charge your mp up, like get mp for killing, get mp for taking damage, get mp for dealing damage etc. Also the quickenings double your mp bar so getting them is pretty useful.

The reason you may not have found one at level 1 0r 2 but found one at level three is because 1&2 may need to have been found or bazaared, or it may be you got lucky with a chest/loot combo, you can get some pretty high level weapons quite early on if you get lucky.

Katanas and ninja swords are separate entities. Katanas are on the same side of the board as swords, ninja swords are on the same side as daggers. The ninja swords are quite weak anyway, all of them are dark element and too many monsters are resistant to dark for them to be useful (apart from in a couple of scenarios) largely speaking the left side of the weapons grid is quite weak, its easier to stick with weapons to the right side that includes all the swords, bows spears rods axes and hammers

I know too much about this game... I don't even like it all that much. I'm just obsessed with making the numbers go higher, but they don't really even go all that high, stupid damage cap.

Oh God I am a fanboy 

[0bsessions]

The big trick on breaking this game is some accessory item. I don't remember what it's called, but it grants double license points to anyone equipping one, even ones not in your current party. Beyond that, focus on one thing for each character, at first. Don't try to do too many things or you're going to have a bunch of shit characters that can't really excel at anything and, as falandrew mentioned, ignore the equipment until you get something you need it for. You want to focus on stat bonuses to start with. Even spells are secondary early on with most of your characters and don't really become all that useful until mid-game.

[Phaedra]

Re: FFXII's character design.

[Storm Rider]

God, I hate Tetsuya Nomura. He's the reason I stubbornly refuse to play The World Ends With You, even though everyone says it's great.

[Jackie Blue]

The big trick on breaking this game is some accessory item. I don't remember what it's called, but it grants double license points to anyone equipping one, even ones not in your current party.

I found one of those.  Then the blue jellies killed me.

I haven't been spending LP on equipment at all until I get the items, yeah.  Most of my party has access to most of the top board, but even with all those "gain MP for striking a pose" etc. Balthier still runs out of MP really fast.

I still think I'm going to start over because I'm obsessive like that.  But oh God the first few hours are so boringly hand-holding.

And yeah, I don't really do the "optional secret extra-hard" stuff.  I played FF7 many times and still have never even SEEN Knights of the Round (I know I could YouTube it, yes, I'm not stupid).  I did get Yuffie's ultimate weapon, because it was really easy to find.  It made the end of the game hilariously easy.  "Oh hay Sephiroth, have you met my teenage death machine?"  *snicker-snack*  "Well, that was somewhat anticlimactic."

I'm pretty sure I hate the entire concept of "optional endgame bosses" because they always require you to be way tougher than you need to be to finish the game, which seems kind of ass-backwards to me.  I think it works a lot better when they remake a game and put in dungeons you can only access AFTER you beat the game.  That at least makes sense.

[Alex C]

EDIT: Seriously, this guy is more awesome than the Heavy from Team Fortress.

Fight you.

I've never really had any problems with FF games before in terms of difficulty. You see, I find most of the battles really fuckin' boring and I recognize that, generally speaking, it's better to build your characters towards virtually pure offense. It gets me through the easy bullshit battles that plague the series quicker (I also tend to flee A LOT just to preserve my sanity; not so much in FFXII thanks to the removal of the purely random battles) and because it tends to make the games stupidly easy. They already give you overkill survivability via items in most cases anyway, it's just that most gamefaqs nerds don't seem to pick up on this because they're too busy obsessing over whether they should hit the reset button because *gasp* they had to use a megalixir. God forbid you don't end the game with a full inventory. Every once in a great while a FF game forces me to grudgingly quit running away so damn much to catch up on the XP I'm missing (in FFX I was under leveled to the point where Seymour Flux's Cross Cut could one shot just about everyone in the team but Auron. Whoops.)

[Cartilage Head]

I have actually always liked the super-hard secret bosses in the Final Fantasy games. Trema in FFX-2 is a fucking maniac.

[Vendetagainst]

FFX's Omega Weapon literally did not last long enough to attack for me, that was my only complaint about that game (by the time you were near the end you were so ridiculously powerful everything died immediately).

[notselfcreated]

Hey, I am one of those GameFAQs nerds.

The worst thing about FFXII is the incredible amount of grinding that has to be done if you, like me, have to have the uber gear. Of course I suppose there's nothing wrong with making players work for their rewards. But the percentages on certain stuff is just ridiculous.

I also powerfully dislike the arrangement of licenses on the License Board, which forces you to buy useless licenses for characters you are trying to gear towards a certain strategy. FFXII International Zodiac Job System sort of fixes that, at the cost of customizeability.

But the way, if you don't want same-ish characters by the end of the game, I might recommend Skoobouy's FAQ on Neoseeker. It "translates" the IZJS license boards onto the US version's license board, so you can play with characters that resemble the IZJS classes as much as possible. Also keeps them from being too overpowered.

Also, I am Skoobouy.

[modern leper]

I thought the game was OK... until the end. It was absolutely the most boring end to a game. Ever. I just stared blankly at the screen and went, 'oh, it finished'. Other than that it's pretty damn good, I enjoyed most of the story, graphics are immense considering it's on PS2, and the battle system is a massive improvement on the FF games of old.

Oh, and the sidequests? Easy enough until the very last optional boss and then 'Oh my sweet jesus christ on a bike, I just died, sod this'.

[Nodaisho]

I'm kind of surprised nobody has mentioned the three completely unmarked chests that you can't open in order to get the uber-weapon, the name of which slips my mind right now, some kind of spear or something, starts with an H?

[Cartilage Head]

It actually has been mentioned a couple of times in this thread. The zodiac spear. H was pretty close though.

[Vendetagainst]

And it's not three chests, it's like twelve.

[Nodaisho]

Right, three locations? There is like four or five (or maybe just three) in the place where you get back your gear.

Must have been an H item in the line above the zodiac spear in the document I was reading.

[Roivas]

I fell asleep once playing the game in the first mines really early on. I had everyone but Pansy [main character guy{?}] and when I woke up I was lost but seven levels higher. I don't know what happened but I had managed to kill about a bazillion enemies in my sleep. After ten not involving me in the story process I was more taken aback that now Final Fantasy now left me out of the gameplay loop and I was actually just waiting to trip over the next cutscene to watch the pretty graphics.

Final Fantasy is dead to me because I'm now dead to it.

Then again I can't stand 99% of all MMO GUIs and violently protest WoW's "standard" of gameplay, which 12 was rife with. Maybe I'm not supposed to get why people like MMOs but to me, they are inferior methods of gaming which degrade the creativity of the industry as a whole. From what I've been able to tell 13 is looking more like a fancy cutscene that you occasionally should try pressing buttons, but I'm sure they're working that bug out before release.

Yeah, I'm bitter.

[Dimmukane]

No kidding.  I don't think MMO's degrade the creativity all that much, for the most part, all the major players are trying to make their own unique versions.  If it falls back on a formula, it at least tries to do new things with the community and universe that it has.  But I can see where you're coming from.

[RedLion]

I've got very mixed feelings on the game. I enjoyed the political storyline, but I missed the lack of any significant character development. I liked the battle system, because it requires you to use a modicum of cleverness in assigning the proper gambits and such. The license board is a neat idea, but a damn hassle in practice, as you have to BUY spells, even after you went through all the pain of getting enough points to unlock them on the board. Plus, near the end of the game, if you do most of the side-quests and level up a lot, there will be numerous characters who mostly own the entire board. Up till then it's a pretty good system making for diverse fighting styles: Basche was my "tank," Vaan my ninja-ish character (extremely fast), Ashe my white mage, Balthier my black mage, and then I never really used the other characters in combat.

My favorite battle-system of any FF, though, was actually in my least favorite of the series: X-2. The story was atrocious and all, yeah, but the battle system was really good. It was traditional but fast-paced and fun.

Anyway, it took me a few days to beat Yiazmat. And I don't mean I kept dying and re-trying for a few days. I mean I would play for a few hours, letting the gambits do the work, then run out to the save-point to heal, then run back...and just repeat that, for hours. Once you have the proper skills and gambits in place, that fight is only hard in that it's such a test of endurance. It just goes on, and on, and on, and on...

[Jackie Blue]

You didn't use Fran?

Fran is basically God.  In fact she's a bit overpowered, but then again, she is supposed to be like 300 years old.

[snalin]

You didn't use Fran?

Fran is basically God in a leather-thong-suit.  In fact she's a bit overpowered, but then again, she is supposed to be like 300 years old, like your mom.

Fixed. Thank you and good night.

[Nodaisho]

Hah, that is a point. I swear the Viera in FFTA dressed better than that, but then again, they weren't made with as much detail as the models for the PS2.

[Surgoshan]

The clothes in fantasy games have always bugged the crap out of me.

[Cartilage Head]

They do look really stupid most of the time. Some characters' clothes look okay though.

[Jackie Blue]

I think Fran's outfit is fine.  I also like Balthier and Ashe's character designs.  The others... well, they're not BAD, like Tidus, but they're not particularly GOOD either.

[Surgoshan]

Balthier is dressed in a sort of Victorian get up, and Ashe is, while trashy, at least not "look at me, I shouldn't be able to move in this outfit and there's no way it should stay on, given a reasonable physics engine" trashy.  It's just a stupid blouse and a hot pink miniskirt.

But then you have Fran in boots that go up absurdly long legs and a friggin thong, Penelo in a spandex one-piece with wings, Basch has the multiple belts and Vaan, the obligatory gynandromorph, is rocking it out with a vest that accentuates his complete lack of body hair/features and/or shoulders. 

Hey, at least s/he's wearing pants.

So Balthier, dressed like a 17th century English prostitute, is the only character in a post-modern Japanese fantasy who's wearing clothes that make any sense.

[Jackie Blue]

But see, that is precisely why Japan is so much more awesome than the rest of the world.  This shit makes sense to them.

Oh and yeah the Viera in FFTA/2 are more "cute" than "saw your own arm off to sleep with".

Also, why does Fran sound like Bjork when she talks?  Am I the only one who noticed that?

[Cartilage Head]

The voice actress has a crazy accent that is Austrian, French and Australian all mixed together.

[Fletch]

I have yet to work my way up to 12, but that just made sure I will eventually play it.
...Maybe after they remake it, like the first three.

[Jackie Blue]

You know, I really fucking wish video game developers would wrap their brains around the fact that people want the option to have the original Japanese voices.  I'm not a raging Japanophile (actually I kind of am, but not in a stupid way) but it's just an honest fact that at least half the time the Japanese VAs sound better.  Granted, FF10 and 12 actually have very good voice casts (ESPECIALLY Balthier, oh man, I keep rushing to get to cutscenes on the off chance he'll say something deliciously witty, he's like the fucking Oscar Wilde of video games) but I really wish that FF13 will have that option, since I'm guessing it will ship on a blu-ray disc, I have no idea how they could fit the insane amount of video content I'm assuming it will have on a DVD.

Oh and am I the only one who thought that Larsa was Ashe pretending to be male the first time he showed up?  I'll admit I'd had a few beers at the time but I was genuinely confused for a minute there.

[Cartilage Head]

 They only include features like that in games that are made by companies who care about their customers, so don't get your hopes up.

[Storm Rider]

To be fair, it's really hard for companies to fit both voice tracks on a DVD. The only reason NIS can do it is because they're still using the same kinda shitty sprites that looked dated in 2004. I mean, I like NIS games and all, but the visuals sure aren't taking up much space.

[Phaedra]

Granted, FF10 and 12 actually have very good voice casts

Oh my god you did not just say that. Tidus made me want to put my eardrums out whenever he opened his mouth.

Speaking of 13, is anyone else as excited as I am that it's not going to be a Sony exclusive? As for the Japanese track option, I have my hopes up as Squeenix have something of a rivalry with Mistwalker, who have so far consistently included dual language tracks on their Xbox releases. Perhaps my hopes are farfetched, but I'm sticking to 'em.

[Cartilage Head]

 See though, while the voices were awful, they matched the characters perfectly, because the characters themselves were awful in FFX. Tidus is extremely whiny and annoying, therefore a whiny and annoying voice matches him perfectly.

[Vendetagainst]

Compared to FFXII's Vaan, Tidus is the ultimate in masculinity.

[Cartilage Head]

 Man Vaan is so much more bearable than Tidus.

[Phaedra]

Vaan may have a prettier face than just about all the females I know, but at least his trouser legs were the same length.

[Vendetagainst]

But he was such a whiny, impotent little ass! Tidus was a putz, but he wasn't a thirteen year old boy.

[Nodaisho]

I noticed him not opening his mouth much, except for guilt tripping Balthier into helping save Penelo. Can the same be said about tidus? I honestly don't know, didn't play FFX