Final Fantasy 12 **** SPOILERS ****

[Woogie]

I did look for another thread on this game but only found the one with it getting an award..... nothing about the actual game as of yet.... im sure ill be corrected if thats wrong >.<

So how many of you have been playing this then?

i aquired my copy last night and started giving it a whirl.... its very pretty (for a ps2 game) and the cutscenes are rather nice as well :)

is it me or do the load times between areas and scenes seem longer than in previous games?

i wasnt too keen on the Freeroaming aspect of the battle system but im starting to take too it now, the whole game just seems like they want it to be a MMO as if they are trying to make up for the crappyness of FF11 by porting it to a single player version and giving it a storyline...

The game is very good mind with some very interesting concepts and new ideas..... ive only played about 3/4 hours of it so far but im actually finding myself wanting to play it more and more (which i havent wanted to do with a FF game since 9)

so.... what are your thoughts?

[Swyft]

I just hit my 40th hour at about half 5 this morning...

Loving it to be quite honest with you, loving the gambit system, I'm loving the hunts, the amount of sidequests, the last 10 hours of my playtime have me being bumming around instead of carrying on the storyline!

Load times, yea I noticed those, but I guess I've gotten used to them cos I don't notice it as much as I did at the start.

[Obi-Wan-Shinobi]

2 things that would make this game the greatest game ever.

1. Co-op
2. Keyboard and mouse support

[Neon]

This game is ace. I got it for Christmas from China. Currently about lv60 with plenty more to do. It's a great game, shame I don't really have time to play it as much as I'd like.

It is kind of like an MMO style of gameplay, but you get used to it after a while. I can't really level any criticism at the game so far either which is great.

[Dentist]

The thing i'm really loving about the game at the moment is the fluidity and the supposed intricacies of the story line, particually i LOVED

Fighting DR.Cid and the Draklor Laboratory

[Woogie]

what i dont get and maybe someone can clear it up for me...

is why sometimes you do multiple hits in 1 attack..... whats that all about?

[Dentist]

Theres a percent chance to do it with certain weapons with swords, the lower hp you are the higher the chance, and the higher max number of hits.

Some weapons crit instead, like guns.

[Woogie]

ive had crits with swords as well >.<

i swear i have...... O.o

im currently fighting a certain boss with Basch and hes at full health doing 5 hits s...... so whats going on there

[Siany]

Only played FF12 for about 3 hours so can't really say whether I like it yet. Gambits are certainly useful especially when grinding as you don't have to do anything; not so sure about the battle system - it's a bit like WoW in the sense that if you accidentally pull loads of stuff, you die :/

However as far as characters go, they all irritate me apart from that girl with huge bunny ears (can't remember her name) :p

[Neon]

Fran.

This biggest tip I could give to people would be to ignore all other Final Fantasy games when approaching this title. Don't think White Mage, Warrior, Black Mage etc when levelling your characters. Everyone can do everything in this game. So be sure to focus at the start, but aim to fill up the entire License Grid, I managed to fill the whole board for all characters by Lv40 :)

Also, Light Armour is the favoured set, it gives extra HP which even when you have Bubble, is a useful thing. Stick Heavy Armour on your tanking characters, or whoever has the gambit 'Self: Lure'.

The other sneeky gambits are ones such as,

Ally: Esuna - will clear any negative conditions on any ally automatically.
Ally: Raise, Life, Phoenix Down - will auto res dead characters.

I tend to run,
Self: Haste, Self: Bubble
on my characters at all times, as it makes things far easier.

For auto attacking, setup
Lead character with,
Foe: Attack Nearest
and then setup the other 2 with
Foe: Attack party leaders target

This will mean you can move your character near an enemy and everyone will attack it. This saves lots of time and button pressing when you are grinding out levels I can tell you ;)

You might find yourself short on cash in which case google for Lhusu Mines farming, or the like, as there is a great tactic for leveling and making 17k per run, as well as levelling your characters :) I also found a similar place in the Jungle later on for about lv35+, but you'll have to look it up, to avoid the people who don't mind spoilers, but don't want to kind of "cheat" as it were by exploiting the game.

Kill chains are win.

[s3phiroku]

I have to say, for me this game is dissapointing. The story is taking a backseat to the gameplay and even that sucks to me. The characters have no emotion and make the experience quite slow.I often skip videos as im just not at all interested which is a first for me.The whole idea of chance takes too strong a role in this game.If you want to get your moneys worth and fulfill certain elements of this game you are forced to leave and revisit areas repeatedly until a certain item or monster appears. For example in the great crystal it took me 2 hours to get the excalibur which really gave the final blow.I also miss the given roles of characters,i dont want to hav all my characters do the same thing and use the same weapons,by doing this i have less choice than in finl fantasy 9 which used quite strict classes.The only bit of entertainment i had here was the video sequences featured around gilgamesh which were quite hilarious.I do think ff12 is an attempt at centralising the game around a mmo which are often lifeless storywise but feature heavy gameplay. For me both story and gameplay were just average and think in the future square enix just concentrate on what final fantasy is about,its traditions.Mages,airships, a sword wielding bad ass main character,and an enemy which frightens even you.Some people would say these are dated elements but i say these are the reasons i have been coming back and buying final fantasy every new release since my first play of ff6.I just hope ff13 isnt the final blow to the greatest rpg series evermade.