Hmmm, not very positive comments about the game so far. It seems Graphics > Story over all now. I wish that they would make another FF7. It was faultless in every way. They really have so much ammo to work with, but they choose to make the games they make, and X-2 was a huge let down, and now im hearing all this negativity about FF12. Im worried that they may be giving up on the FF series........ noooooooooooooooooooo!

Sounds more like Gameplay>>>Story which can't be bad thing and isn't in my book. The majority of people I've spoken too love the battle system and agree the story kind of faulters 60% in but that's probably when Matsuno "left" the project. Either way it doesn't dampen my anticipation for the title and I can't wait to tinker with the Gambits, LP and so on in just over 3 weeks. :)

Incidentally my trip to the local EBgames store on Wednesday didn't bring up much. I asked about any push ups in release date which the manager responded with a negative and said they'd either get it the day before or after October 31st depending on shipment. I looked and found no sign of the LE case on display except the one for Gears Of War so I ended up dropping a preorder on the LE guide, what with the 20% discount and all and left with a Rinoa Heartilly Play Arts figure. I saw the Kingdom Hearts Play Arts stuff was also out too so not all a wasted trip.

My copy of OPM arrived yesterday as well so I got a chance to read their review that has me more pumped for the title. Oh, here's 1UP's account of the Wednesday's "FFXII Day" event in NYC:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3154366
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/8855/mediaoi5.jpg

Dude! So they have a SKU for the LE guide then? better make my reservation!

The Penelo FMV was only seen in one of the trailers from E3, try finding the 2005 E3 trailer, when Penelo pops up the words "A girl who wants peace" is right next to her dancing with a cloth thats like a veil.

I really don't want another FFVII. It was a great game but it did have its faults. The storyline is political and mature (as opposed to the last few games) and will be dry at times. : /

Cool, thx Kairi:), i'm gonna look for it ^^

Yeah the gameplay is better then the story IMO but the story is still great! It's just the gameplay is so damn great and fun that it overshadows the story. The story is still really good though.

The new battle system and gambit system brings a fresh breath of air to the genre.

Out of 5 people I asked so far, only 1 disliked the battle system. I think I adapted pretty well to the battle system although it's pretty new to me, no thanks to my under exposure to online games. I currently have my lead without gambit, and other characters on gambit..I do agree that it gets pretty easy after a while since the AI is controlling everything...I do miss the old turn-based system. But I can't say this is bad, it really depends on how you see it.

About 11 hours into the game and there's nothing much to the story yet, so maybe the story will be one of the weaker ones among the rest.

Agreed, I think the battle system is good but damn some of those long runs through places suck.

I think this is a mix of FFVIII and FFX, maybe a splash of IX.

It's more like FFXI mixed with Vagrant Story.

I've realized the only problem with the game: the dungeons.
They're MMORPG-style dungeons. Meaning vast, open areas with little storyline relevance or things to "check."

So, basically this is a game where the structure is: Storyline --> Dungeon --> Storyline --> Dungeon --> Storyline --> etc...

The two don't really blend together. At least in other FF games, a lot of the dungeons would be closely tied with the storyline and you would learn things as you went along. This is more like the older FF (1-5) or Dragon Quest games in terms of structure.

Yeah and I have the SKU number, if I'm correct in thinking it's on my receipt, if anyone needs it.

US TV commercial:
http://www.myspace.com/finalfantasyxii

Pretty decent actually aside from the corny voiceover.

LOL I like how a quarter of the commercial is basically the opening CG, but hey, that's still a great opening scene. They needed the late-Robert Frost for that. He does it so well, that "elderly" voice.

This thread went from praising the game to disliking it. For example, the initial comments were "The story is awesome!" Now it's "the story isn't that great." Hmmm....well I never usually pay much attention to comments anyway, so I'll judge for myself when I play it.

I found much of VP2 to be "dungeon-story-town dungeon-story-town dungeon-story-town" and from what I'm hearing, FFXII, (besides plenty of other RPGS out there), is also following the same pattern. I guess it's to be expected right? I really hope it doesn't fall into a pretty much a pattern of FFX (which was enjoyable, but felt more of a drag at some points) of constantly driving forward without much time of a "breather". I guess what I mean for a breather are things that stray away from the main story line that you can do, which may or may not be side quests. Basically what I'm trying to get at is interactivity with the environment, especially from the short game play footage I saw with Vaan in the first city.

Even still it's an exciting trailer with the footage and music especially for non-fans of the series. I noticed the beginning of the commercial seemed to focus on Ashe so I wonder if there are 5 more variations, 1 for each character..?

GameTrailers has a nice preview of the NA build as well as an interview with FFXII's producer at the "Official FFXII Day" event:
http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=1684

So I was checking out some stuff at the mall, and I saw some dude walk up to the counter at EBG with the display case of the collectors edition of FFXII, along with FF Origins wanting to buy it. That made me go :tpg:.

Man oh man, if the clerk actually wiped out the actual game for that, I'd probably just die right there.

Any chance that was the mall you preordered your copy of the game or to see if they had any info on the LE guide up there?

Oh and FFXII won the category for "Best Gaming Software" at the DigitalLife event. :edgarrock:
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/8318/img1433ig7.jpg

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/6894/img1436cu3.jpg

Credit to Y2Kevbug11 for the snaps.

Yeah, I was there. Everyone and their mother was taking pictures of the armor even though the booth staff were a bunch of fucking losers telling them not to. The only ones in the entire place, something about marketing folks don't want unofficial pictures roaming around.

Anyway, I got the play the game each day I was there and it was pretty fun. Reached the part where you get your first taste of Gambits, though I can't say much about it since I stopped to let some other folks play.

BTW, how do you switch team leaders?

Yes that's the same mall. Actually thinking about it now I really didn't need to, since I'm guessing the guide is coming out beforehand, and picking the game and the guide up at the same point is moot. I originally thought the guide would be released the same day as the game, but oh well, it's the nearest EB from my house.

I want that armor, or at least a 1/6 figure of it, along with Lenneth Valkyrie.

You just press up/down on the D-pad when not in the attack menu (just running around).

Ah, thanks. I was confused because all she did was come up to me, tell me about Gambits and... that was it. I tried to find the menu, but had no luck there either.

Yeah Y2Kev mentioned the same thing but it's still pretty fucking stupid...
"Hey there, this our lifesize display of a Judge that's featured on every possible promotional material for the game that's been released....Just don't take any pictures though".

Hopefully some more photos of the armor show up, it'd be great to get a closer and detailed look at it.

Yeah but remember you also get 20% off the guide if you buy the game the same day unless there's some other promotion with it.

Fortunately Koto has you covered for both. :)

Whoa son, links please. 1/6 Lenneth, oh my god.

Actually you don't need to buy the game and the guide the same day. I've bought the Okami walkthrough guide 1 week after, but I brought my receipt and preorder slip to prove my purchase.

Bah! Sorry about that but seems I got my wires crossed. I could of swore I saw some VP prototypes on display somewhere but I guess they must of been the trading figures..
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/...00/lenneth.jpg

Here's Judge Gabranth though by Koto:
http://www.re-community.com/host/ffxii3.jpg

I have better images of the figure if necessary.

Would they acknowledge that though if you bought the guide before the game?

Some more photos from DigitalLife thanks to Katya at FFXII.net:
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/2126/5az7.jpg
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/3415/1md4.jpg
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/1220/2jg7.jpg
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/4347/3de7.jpg
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/2371/4ju5.jpg