[PS2] Final Fantasy XII

Beating a dead horse here, but I really can't wrap my head around how anyone could hate Quickenings or define them as "useless." A decent Mist Chain means this: You don't have to worry about any sort of setup on certain battles. You don't need to worry about whether or not you have your tank in place, whether or not you're going to have a decent survival ratio with mobs dropping around you and a boss that puts up some fucked up field that penalizes you greatly. You can literally just run in and perform a Mist Chain and clean house. I've killed things I probably wouldn't have won a traditional battle against because of Quickenings, they are the great equalizer and MP booster.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

IIRC the pattern is that as soon as King Bomb is at about 1/4 HP, he creates a bunch of normal Bombs as a distraction and then heals. When I fought him recently, I don't believe he stopped at three, I didn't bother to use a Mist Chain at first because I was pretty much kicking his ass. The distractions and running away and "Restore" had me throw a Mist Chain at him, regretting I hadn't done so in the first place.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

So... basically it's Final Fantasy XII - "Sorry, We Fucked Up the First Time" Edition. Not to be snarky, I just hate Japan's habit of "Final Mixing" shit. It's the opposite to most people's gripes with PC games and patching.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Leknaat

No, basically it's "We planned this from the start to make money."

Well... interesting, the ol' "jump your shit." Let me address both of those posts.

First of all, forgive me for not clarifying. Apparently, though I see that people would just love to jump my shit, I misjudged how most people look at FFXII. Somehow, trying to convince me that the License Board is a fundamentally complete idea, that magic was worth a shit as the game progressed outside of healing gambits, and that Balthier and Fran were the worst at what they were supposed to be great at (guns and bows)... you know what, fuck ALL of that.

Of course I could say it was planned from the start, but that would throw in some kind of assumption that I felt that FFXII was a completely flawless game. You see, I don't. It isn't like Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix is something I would use to point out that the original Kingdom Hearts 2 should have had a remake of a Gameboy Advance game.

A more focused license board, faster gameplay, more (and hopefully better/useful) spells... extra modes, incentives to replay the game. At least when Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne was released, it was what we got here in the US. I'm not terribly fond of not only getting a seemingly half finished product, but Japan gets the improvement and I'm left sitting here not wondering about money mongering so much as "stuff I would have liked to have seen in the original release."

This new game is way more than "Oh, you get a special battle against Sephiroth." I can make the distinction between Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy 7 International over Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne and Star Ocean 3 of all things.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Leknaat

Oh. Grow up. I wasn't jumping your shit. I was making a joke. If anyone got jumped on--it was me.

I missed it... I could pull out a "hard to articulate that on th--", but I'll just say this:

My apologies.

Quote:

And, yes, you CAN say it was planned from the start:

"We only have so much money--we have to cut something."
"Okay, if we sell a bunch of these things, we can put in what we left out and sell it as an 'updated' version."

You may be tired of Japan getting all the "good" stuff, but I can't do anything about it. Try contacting SE and complain to them about the practice.

I just want to clarify, my intent was to say it was "bullshit", and whether or not it was intentional isn't really what I'm getting at. If I could clarify, I say "We fucked up" because there's shit I feel is wrong with XII that this International Version fixes. I wasn't getting at "oh god they're price gouging", I was getting at "This is the game we should have received first."

There are things about XII that are being fixed in the "International" release that really make this update a big tap upside the head. At least, to me. Magic is useless, money is hard to get without running around in circles grinding in nearly every area. It's practically a game of attrition. The License Board feels like an incomplete concept... and here we are at International.

Yeah, it's probably not that big a deal at the end of the day to most people. I really like the game, and this stuff would have probably made me enjoy it a great deal better. It's a shame, it's bullshit, it's all I was getting at.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Shin

... that takes some time.

The game did accomplish integrating exploration and combat into one nice package. I already said "hard", though I'd like to semantically spin it to be some other word. Eh, getting to the point, I'm hard pressed to say that it couldn't have done a few things to be less time consuming. I'm obviously not a real fan of grinding, something this game will make you do. Pretty spiffy way of edging it in there, though I did find item chains to actually get me more money in less time, as I'm clocked in at 60 hours trying to fight fucking Zodiark and Yizamat(sp?) of all fucking things.

Originally Posted by Leknaat

I've always felt these "International" games weren't meant to "fix" games, but were, rather, what the creators wanted to put in the original game, but couldn't for one reason or another.

Almost like a Director's cut of a movie having the deleted scenes that weren't shown in the theatre.

That is kind of a gray area of thinking, at least to me. They are similar, but very different types of entertainment mediums. I know that the Director's Cut of Kingdom of Heaven made it a much more palatable and enjoyable movie, and I could try to superimpose its situation over Final Fantasy XII's. Its "Director's Cut" being a "It should have been this way the first time, why'd none of that stuff make it to print..."

But, I see your point as well. They were facing deadlines and pressure on this project. It's no secret the original Producer for the game had opted to leave due to stress of some nature. It's just hard for me to see the way the game is now, and see Japan get the game I very well might have rather seen. I've been spinning it around in my head for some time, looking at the positives and negatives. I understand the reasoning, I'm tracking with you there.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Kuhazan

yeah but with every turn I'm reminded of Star Wars

Considering this is Final Fantasy, the Star Wars stuff shouldn't really bother you.

FELIPE NO