Final Fantasy XII

[Archuka]

Vagrant Story totally didn't deserve a perfect score either.

Anyway, It's still good news to me. At least someone thinks the new FF is amazing, so it can't be very bad!

[SuperAsuradaGundam]

It should be a good game since the game took neary a half a decade to make

[celcius]

Hmmm, I loved Vagrant Story for the sounds (music and SFX were superb), the dark story, and the weapon customization. Plus the fact that you need some skill to pull off 30+ chains. ^^ Sad to see that not many share my view. Also, didn't Tekken 3 or something get perfect score at Famitsu as well?

Going back to topic, nice to know that FF got a good score from Famitsu. I just hope it really turns out to be good and match FF3/6.

[Eclipze]

I sincerly hope that the side quests are not a bore fest like FF X's...

And I'm a little concerned over the character designs, since I can barely see the "distinctiveness" of the characters (compared to FF7-10). Not forgetting the "Star Wars" vibe I keep getting from the screenshots...

[Daniel E.]

Originally Posted by celcius

Hmmm, I loved Vagrant Story for the sounds (music and SFX were superb), the dark story, and the weapon customization. Plus the fact that you need some skill to pull off 30+ chains. ^^ Sad to see that not many share my view. Also, didn't Tekken 3 or something get perfect score at Famitsu as well?

Totally agree with you there. Vagrant Story is, IMHO, the greatest game Square (now Square Enix) has ever made.

It's great to see FFXII got a perfect score. Now, if only I could play the japanese version, that would be even better.

[Komataguri]

With enough money even Zero Wing could get a 40/40

[Archuka]

Blah, Vagrant Story was a joke. I actually gave up on it and never completed it.

There is only one character so there is almost no strategy at all in the battles. Just try to gain as many attack turns in a row as possible by moving and spamming the attack button and you're set. The weapon customization was unnecessarily complicated and to me was more of an annoyance than a feature.

Not good, but maybe that's just me.

[Daniel E.]

Originally Posted by Komataguri

With enough money even Zero Wing could get a 40/40

Hardly the case with FF games. I mean, it took the series more than 20 years and twelve games to get a perfect score from Famitsu.

[celcius]

I actually hated VS for my first tries into the game, haha. But I stayed with it and eventually liked it. Anyway, enough about VS lol. The problem with FF is they tend to focus too much on graphics. Gameplay is somewhat, boring, to say. Alot of the FF's strategy consist of "HOLD O/X BUTTON". I actually saw some improvement in FFX, where they made some enemies really high RES or DEF, then you'd need to switch in somebody. Although FFX post-game was really bad.

[DarkWarrior]

Well, the perfect score is welcome news, but I still can't seem to get excited about FFXII. I mean come on, Nintendogs got a perfect score. I'll admit that it was pretty innovative and cute, but besides that I seriously don't see why it deserved the 40/40.

I'll probably remain skeptical until it's released in the US.

[Scribble]

Didn't Shadow the Hedgehog get a high rating in Famitsu?

I always used to hear things like "Famitsu are so strict with review scores" but every time I check magicbox for latest famitsu scores, it seems to contradict that statement.

But whatever, it's all just opinion....

[Eclipze]

Originally Posted by celcius

The problem with FF is they tend to focus too much on graphics. Gameplay is somewhat, boring, to say. Alot of the FF's strategy consist of "HOLD O/X BUTTON". I actually saw some improvement in FFX, where they made some enemies really high RES or DEF, then you'd need to switch in somebody. Although FFX post-game was really bad.

Spoiler for FF X:

While FF X provided some "strategy" in fights by having high def or magic res monsters, that apparently becomes a moot merit for the game once you start expanding beyond your own character's sphere grid. If you go through the trouble of maxing stats via clearing spheres and replacing them with +4 stat spheres, you can eventually get 255 of every stat except luck.

Oh, and leveling becomes a chore, because as you mentioned, every character at the beginning have different strengths and weaknesses against certain monsters, which means that all of them have equal importance. And even a simple battle against 1 monster would need you to switch in all 7 characters to benifit from the AP. Unlike FF VII/IX, you cant ignore any characters since they all "have a role to play".

At the same time, the amount of storyline is pretty linear: The plot twist with Seymor as the "bad guy" was pretty obvious, and Sin was no mysterious last boss...and thats it.

Need I say that they essentially made side quests/mini games a bore fest? Monster arena - right...more monster killing. Dark Aeons? Oh, you need at least like, 200 per stat in order to survive their attacks. Which means that you will have to do some max-stating - bore fest once again. Ah, lets not forget the chocobo minigame has the best potential for making every FF player hate chocobos for life.

Blitz ball is pretty subjective, but is just another "leveling" grind, with people who are proud of their lvl 99 tidus...just throw a goal, and its practically 100% sucess rate at a high lvl. Wheres the challenge?

Besides, I believe FF VII and IX have the same battle system as Wild arms(1/2), Chorno Cross and most turn based RPG. So how exactly does the "boring" part differ from these other RPGs then?

[brightman]

Originally Posted by Scribble

Didn't Shadow the Hedgehog get a high rating in Famitsu?

It got a 31/40... OK, but not high.

Famitsu is definitely not any tougher than, say, Gamespot or something. However, in 20 years, it has only given out 6 40/40's, 14 39/40's (5 were from the last two years), and 18 38/40's (3 from 2005)... Considering the fact that this is a weekly magazine, this is a very small number compared to the number of games they've reviewed throughout the years.

[Daniel E.]

Originally Posted by DarkWarrior

Well, the perfect score is welcome news, but I still can't seem to get excited about FFXII. I mean come on, Nintendogs got a perfect score. I'll admit that it was pretty innovative and cute, but besides that I seriously don't see why it deserved the 40/40.

I'll probably remain skeptical until it's released in the US.

This is a most interesting comment.

Perhaps we are getting confused with two labels here:

The perfect game & The game that does it's own stuff perfectly.

If we think FFXII is gonna be perfect because of this Famitsu review, we are only getting ourselves prepared for a disappointment. Instead, I'll try to believe that Famitsu gave FFXII a perfect score because it got it's own stuff (gameplay) right and not because it's a perfect game.

That's just what I think of course.

[celcius]

Spoiler for MORE OFF-TOPIC STUFF, just to answer ecplize:

That's why I said "postgame is really bad", exactly for the reasons you stated. I consider going to other sphere grids as a postgame thing, since most casual gamers wouldn't try going for 255 all stats. You can max out luck, although it's gonna take a ridiculously long time. Anyway, I got my characters' luck all the way to 150 I think, and I remember the grid still having alot of ugly spheres (anything below +4). I had more fun doing blitzball in that game, although blitzball was more of "control brother, pull everyone from the opposing team, and then pass to front shooter, sphere shot". Getting skills was sort of fun though, and denying the whole opponent team of any exp as well (except for catcher, who always had 2exp) .

Although most turn-based games are essentially the same, the games' systems differ. Whether it be stat growth, weapon leveling, skills equipping, whatever, these are the ones that make your characters. In the case of FF, the game allows you to beat the pulp of majority of the enemies with minimal effort. Hence boring. In FFVII, I remember taping down the O button during dungeons/fields. In VIII, I reached disc 4 with Squall at level 40, and the rest at 20; VIII was also the "press triangle until my limit break appears and HAHA LIONHEART death" and Zell's combo loop to death. In IX, I remember I could take 10-20 mins trying to steal everything and take everything the boss throws at me.

Nice point Daniel E. Although I'm not sure if this is the case for Famitsu's score for Nintendogs, but seeing as alot of games today are mostly same old stuff, Nintendogs probably got their score 'cos it was something fresh, which was also executed nicely (I guess, never seen Nintendogs lol)

[Eclipze]

Originally Posted by celcius

More off-topic stuff, sorry. Just gonna answer exclipze and I'll shutup.

That's why I said "postgame is really bad", exactly for the reasons you stated. I consider going to other sphere grids as a postgame thing, since most casual gamers wouldn't try going for 255 all stats. You can max out luck, although it's gonna take a ridiculously long time. Anyway, I got my characters' luck all the way to 150 I think, and I remember the grid still having alot of ugly spheres (anything below +4). I had more fun doing blitzball in that game, although blitzball was more of "control brother, pull everyone from the opposing team, and then pass to front shooter, sphere shot". Getting skills was sort of fun though, and denying the whole opponent team of any exp as well (except for catcher, who always had 2exp).

Although most turn-based games are essentially the same, the games' systems differ. Whether it be stat growth, weapon leveling, skills equipping, whatever, these are the ones that make your characters. In the case of FF, the game allows you to beat the pulp of majority of the enemies with minimal effort. Hence boring. In FFVII, I remember taping down the O button during dungeons/fields. In VIII, I reached disc 4 with Squall at level 40, and the rest at 20; VIII was also the "press triangle until my limit break appears and HAHA LIONHEART death". In IX, I remember I could take 10-20 mins trying to steal everything and take everything the boss throws at me.

[Me = Self-proclaimed FF IX fanboy ]

Spoiler:

Ah, but FF IX is the only "recent FF" game that didn't allow you to max out stats or break damage limit (not sure about FFVIII). And even if what you say is true, there are still monsters whom I cant have a complete survival rates with.

Yan (on one of the islands I think) can remove one party member from the battle, and Ozma (meteor, doomsday....I gave up trying to steal a 4th piece of pumice >.>) are the ones I can think of. Moreover, there isn't any cheap limit break or any skills (as far as I can remember) that can do beyond 9999 damage.

As for the challenge, it's kinda hard to talk about this...basically the same "boring" feel you described can also fit into the RPGs I've played, mainly wildarms (1/2), Chrono Cross(not so much since there isn't much leveling in the first place), breath(sp?) of fire 3/4.

In the end....aren't such games about the storyline? Its the storyline that attracted me to the RPG games in the first place, just like how eroge (where a "good" eroge has a good story, with the h-scenes just as the icing on the cake) attracts Otakus. As long as the battles aren't ridiculously easy like those in FF VII (granted, not-so easy), VIII and X, and there is the lack of cheap skills, then Im all for the game.

Though, how I wish cheap tricks wont exist in FF XII...

[celcius]

Spoiler:

The only game that I got into because of gameplay has got to be the Tales series, Star Ocean series, FFT, Nippon-Ichi games, and VS. The rest, I only played for the story and postgame for something to do when I don't have anything to do. =p I agree with you, IX is ranked as one of the better FF's in my book. True about them irritating Yans. When I go there, the only thing I do is Odin, Odin, Odin and hope they die xD Ozma, hmmm, I can't remember but I THINK I stole everything from him... Maybe I was lucky with my steal that time =p (I had a L.99 Zidane)

I hope they don't include re-raise/auto-life. =/, but then it wouldn't be an FF game without it.

[Eclipze]

Originally Posted by celcius

Spoiler:

The only game that I got into because of gameplay has got to be the Tales series, Star Ocean series, FFT, Nippon-Ichi games, and VS. The rest, I only played for the story and postgame for something to do when I don't have anything to do. =p I agree with you, IX is ranked as one of the better FF's in my book. True about them irritating Yans. When I go there, the only thing I do is Odin, Odin, Odin and hope they die xD Ozma, hmmm, I can't remember but I THINK I stole everything from him... Maybe I was lucky with my steal that time =p (I had a L.99 Zidane)

I hope they don't include re-raise/auto-life. =/, but then it wouldn't be an FF game without it.

Indeed, the trade mark of FF franchise.

[U<3Anime]

You can't really trust famitsu because seriously they gave nintendogs 40/40

[PEDOS_GRANDE]

Originally Posted by Archuka

Visually the fights look a lot like in FFXI, but I believe it actually works very differently.

The game looks great so far and my only complaint is that Vaan is just so damn metrosexual. They really need to stop creating those feminine male protagonists. They could just copy + paste Auron/Vincent/Cid(FF7)/Barret or something and nobody would complain. :P

The demo played very much like FFXI, which isnt a bad thing. The battle mechanics are not what made FFXI sucktastically unbearable.