Final Fantasy XII

[CKN]

have someone cast Blind on him. Works wonders.

Also anyone mind telling me how quickenings work?

[apsham]

Some people explained it to me, but it confused me so here's my explantion in point form, how I use them:

* On the license board there's spaces called quickenings, find them and get them... you don't need to buy anything, you have it.

* A new option opens up on the battle menu, select it during a fight when you have full mana (whatever they call it this time around).

* You'll enter a sequence, and a meter appears at the bottom. Beside your name there might be a triangle symbol... if there if.. mash the triangle button, if not hit R2 and keep an eye to see if it's there... it's by chance, but if you get the triangle before the meter runs down, HIT IT.

* If you do it right, an animation will run, then it'll start over again only this time you have less time.

* If you do it three times in a row or more (that means only two button presses right) you'll perform a special move that's almost like a summon, all that I've got so far is something called Inferno, but I digress.

And it does major damage to it or any surrounding creatures. If you have more than one person with a quickening in the attacking party, they will automatically use it and all their mana as well. You can use it at your own disgression I guess, there must be benefits to having a character with multiple quickenings or more than one.. but I just personally use the method I listed above with only one at a time, to chance out the odds of a bad instance where I don't get to hit triangle once at all. Remember too that only one person can learn the quickening on a square.

[Guest Grapehead]

Quickenings only hit one enemy, but the special moves you trigger by combining 3 or more will hit nearby enemies as well.

PS- Ap, did you try the Werewolve trick, and did it help you out much?

Edited December 7, 2006 by Grapehead

[LL!]

Thanks to using both your guys help that fight lasted all of 90 seconds. Thanks guys, Blind and then Fulminated Darkness or whatever it's called (Quickening for Basch) really helped out.

[apsham]

Quickenings only hit one enemy, but the special moves you trigger by combining 3 or more will hit nearby enemies as well.

PS- Ap, did you try the Werewolve trick, and did it help you out much?

I think I got to about level... 14 or 15 or so and then decided to just carry on from where I was, I wanted to see what was going to happen next and such.

Right now I am friggin' stuck at a point I hate. I don't know whether to put just the best armour on everyone or keep people like Baltheir and Ashe with lighter armours that don't restrict their speed.

[LL!]

Can I come in here and say it's my turn to complain about the mother fucking demon wall mother fucker? QUIT BEING A BITCH!

[Guest Future Shock]

I'M CAPTAIN BASCH~!

[Vilge Duin]

Eh I beat the game a few days ago. Took a good month of sporadic playing. I still think the beginning is fantastic, but the middle sucks shit. From Bhujerba all the way to Giruvegen. Which is right near the end of the game. And that's when it gets fucking awesome again. The second to last dungeon (truthfully, the actual "last" dungeon) was long, hard, complex and just great. And Judge Gabranth is a total fucking badass.

That said, this is one of my least favourite modern Final Fantasies (not saying it's a bad game, I quite liked it and am actually playing through again just for the hell of it). The license board is too simplistic and easy to fill out. Quickenings are good in the early game but you're a moron if you use them later on. They can be life savers in the early game but just become too erratic and overall useless late game. Losing all your MP for an attack that you could do more damage with a couple sword swipes isn't worth it. Not as good as casting Bubble, Protect, Shell, Bravery, Faith and Haste on a party.

I like gambits but eventually you just let the game do its thing. I pressed one button during the whole end boss battle. Although seeing people in various other places using these "Auto Leveling Guides" that leave your Playstation on for 8-12 or more hours straight is... wow. Good way to wreck your system.

Summons are good looking, but like quickenings not worth it. You lose two party members and the remaining party member's MP is gone. Again, early on this isn't too bad, but later you can slaughter some things by yourself that the Esper's take awhile. Nothing was more amusing than summoning Belias the first time against a mark and to see him get one hit knocked out and my party come right back in.

The story also needed more fleshing out. What's here intrigues me. I just wish there are more of it. I feel like a carrot's been dangled in front of my face and I can only nimble on it. Especially near the end. The game should have definitely been like that. It seems the beginning and end were thought out well (storyline wise, gameplay wise, everything really) and the middle was just stretched out with long treks to and fro to pad the game length. Probably a result of Matsuno leaving halfway though.

And damnit, I wish there were as much enemy variety throughout the game as I was lead to believe by the beginning. You got T-Rexes, rabbit things, wolves, cockatrices, cactus dudes, werewolves, giant frogs, ghosts, flying demon things, little robot bug things, skeletons, and so on. And that's just the first hour or so. But you see variations of those things with very few "new" enemies throughout the game.

That all said though...

I absolutely loved the clan primer idea. Beastiaries are by far one of my favourite "extras" in any game. I only wish it showed how many of a certain species you've killed. But the little rewards, and the extra story added in for the different enemies killed, game notes that I actually found useful. Just great.

Like I said before the story is awesome. for what's there. I wish (very much so) that there were more. Vayne is one of my more favourite villains. I can see people hating him, but I preferred a more down to earth villain that had more... noble intentions.

The battle system is a nice change. I'm not in love with it, but it's nice. Reminded me of Knights of the Old Republic at first, then felt limited. I like how enemies can still give you a tough time if you're not paying attention, even if you're well above their level. Ah, getting a game over screen by being swarmed by zombies half my levels. Actually brought a smile to my face. However too much of the game plays like a MMORPG. "This rare item has a spawn chance of 20% in a chest that has a chance to spawn an item at 40%, with a 60% chance that said chest will even be there."

The graphics are absolutely splendid. Especially when you start getting more variety than "deep dark dungeon". I don't care about new systems abilities to bump map with HDR lighting with a few million polygons per coffee cup. Excellent art directions where it's at.

All the Final Fantasy Tactics references made me giddy. And I'll likely get back to playing that sometime. Haven't touched it in a couple years.

But regardless, it was a very entertaining and good game. Just the minor quibbles stand out to me. I may grow to appreciate it more in time, but I didn't get the blown away feeling I've gotten from every Final Fantasy when I first played it (from 1 to 4 to 6 and then all the way up - 2, 3 and 5 don't count since I played later and betters ones first).

However I absolutely would love to see more realistic and less fantastical plots like in this. Something is more appealing about "stop a war" than "save the world from blowing up".

Edited December 8, 2006 by Vilge Duin

[ClaRK! Kent]

Probably been asked already in this thread but what the Hell - anything further than "early 2007" as far as a UK release date yet? And any reason why, if the Yanks have had it for 2 months, we still don't? Surely with the translation done, it's just a case of porting the code from the North American edition over to PAL, right? It never usually takes 3-6 months.

[LL!]

The UK Version is getting some extra stuff.

HA HA JUST KIDDING!

[Hugar Twriker Eats Spam]

I thought they were going to make Ashe speak Cockney in the UK version.

[Guest Grapehead]

Rented it again(I'm hoping I get it for christmas, I asked for just 3 simple things, one of which was this). Started over, and decided to level up Vaan earlier this time, and something about a Zodiac spear, sounded worth skipping a few treasure chests. Anyways, I'm still in love, I hope the middle of the game doesn't turn me off too much.

[ZJ Penn]

So, this is out in the UK today, picked up from Tesco at 8am this morning.

My questions is, I'm really into Digital Devil Saga at the moment and would hate to quit it for FF12 and then run the risk of not being able to get back into it after I've finished FF. So to anyone who's played both...is this worth quitting another game you're into for?

[stokeriño]

I've only played it for a few hours thus far, but already I know that clearly Balthier is the fucking man.

[Momo]

Okay, it's been three days since it was released here and I have about 15 hours of game time so far. May I say that it can kiss my ass. The save points are way too far apart. Anybody know where to get much money quickly (preferably in an area near Rabanastre).

I've only played it for a few hours thus far, but already I know that clearly Balthier is the fucking man.

[Xand]

I've only played it for a few hours thus far, but already I know that clearly Balthier is the fucking man.

[stokeriño]

Also, Fran speaks oddly. It's almost endearing.

It would be if she could do it properly. She's sort of half-attempting a strange accent and ends up fluctuating between it and the voice of a blonde-sounding American woman.

I didn't like the new Moogles at first, but they're adorable! My favourite is Sorbet by the West Gate.

[Vilge Duin]

Okay, it's been three days since it was released here and I have about 15 hours of game time so far. May I say that it can kiss my ass. The save points are way too far apart. Anybody know where to get much money quickly (preferably in an area near Rabanastre).

[Robsturgh]

God this game is fucking hard if you're unprepared. I love it to bits though, the fighting is awesomely fresh, and I really do dig the characters even if the story is pretty solid to follow.

Edited February 25, 2007 by Robster

[Benji]

God this game is fucking hard if you're unprepared. I love it to bits though, the fighting is awesomely fresh, and I really do dig the characters even if the story is pretty solid to follow.

I like it, I'm bored of FF's you can just run through, the only real hard boss of the last load was Demon's Gate, 11 is a genuine challenge sometimes.