Final Fantasy XII Discussion

[Kong Wen]

Now that at least a couple people on the forum have this game (me, Jelly, Kiwi—maybe eventually Share), I thought it might be fun to have a discussion thread where we can chat about what classes we assigned to characters, any effective gambit setups we might have designed, and what locked bits of the licence boards we've opened up.

#ClanCenturio

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

So...

I started playing FF12 a few days ago.
My first impressions were:
- The camera is a problem
- It's hard to tell what is going on in combat due to perspective and limited feedback
- The areas are huge
- Style and story are neat
- Aladdin, Lady Apu, Han Solo, Bunnygirl Wookie, Princess Leia and R2D2 with Sword are fun
- The speed-up option is a blessing

I played up until a bigger story fight shortly after recieving the dual class options.
While I beat the boss by blasting him with all special moves as his hp dropped, shortly before he buffs up and goes nuts. I stopped playing afterwards as I was unhappy with the classes and choices I made as I didn't really know what is good/needed. (I also made the guy with the worst stats for the job my Black Mage)

So I restarted the game, quickly played through it up until the same point with more exploring and grinding along the way and...
I am having a great time.

The game doesn't really do a great job at teaching you how to play or how things work in general (the PS2 game probably had a proper manual), once you get used to the possiblities, it's great.

My current setup (not using all classes, this time around)

Vaan Bushi/Shikari
Balthier Knight/Time Battlemage
Basch Foebreaker/Shikari
Penelo Red Battlemage/Black Mage
Fran Uhlan/Time Battlemage
Ashe White Mage/Shikari

In my last attempt, it turned out that the Shikari class is kinda awesome and goes well with a lot of other classes.

[Kong Wen]

I picked my classes based purely on nostalgia: I tried to give everyone more or less the same role they had when I played the game at launch. Obviously, I had access to the full licence board back then, but you still end up giving each character something important to do.

Vaan: Bushi, Monk
Penelo: Uhlan, Red Battlemage
Basch: Archer, Machinist
Ashe: Knight, Black Mage
Balthier: White Mage, Shikari
Fran: Time Mage, Foebreaker

These classes actually replicate what I used these characters for almost exactly. I can't wait until I start to collect some of their memorable weapons. My main regret is that, due to the nature of the new licence boards, I won't be able to give them each the espers they used last time, since I'll want to assign them more strategically this time.

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

After playing more of the game and killing another judge...

I really like the class grid systems, it is very similar to the systems found in Etrian Odyssey 3/4, where two classes can be combined aswell. Though I have to say that EO's version feels a bit more impactful, as FF12 contains more redundant stuff. E.g. why even having multiple single-target Fire spells if one (that can gradually increase in strength) could do the job just fine, especially with the Gambit system you will never use the basic version again once the stronger comes along.

Funny enough, this is not the only similarity to EO. The loot system where enemies drop stuff that you can sell (and make up your main income source) and causes special offers to pop up is very similar. In EO the sold stuff will cause the store to carry more/new items and equipment.

Playing this also gave be a good idea how the combat in FF13 came to be (I still dislike that game and the combat in it).
It's essentially a focused, automatised and much less flexible (though possibly a bit more balanced) version of this, where the classes were stripped down to the most basic combat roles.

As for my current progress:
I defeated another judge.
Witnessed the attack on a place that had a huge "Strike Here!"-sign in front of it.
Got my second Esper and found an optional third that I can't kill yet
Did some hunts, some very easy others very challenging. Generally harder than any story-boss so far.

[Kong Wen]

Funny enough, this is not the only similarity to EO. The loot system where enemies drop stuff that you can sell (and make up your main income source) and causes special offers to pop up is very similar. In EO the sold stuff will cause the store to carry more/new items and equipment.

It's certainly not out of the question that Etrian Odyssey stole this kind of idea from FFXII, given that mainline Final Fantasy series entries have always been somewhat influential on the greater RPG landscape.

Playing this also gave be a good idea how the combat in FF13 came to be (I still dislike that game and the combat in it).
It's essentially a focused, automatised and much less flexible (though possibly a bit more balanced) version of this, where the classes were stripped down to the most basic combat roles.

You can definitely see how it leans on this, but with all the most interesting stuff stripped out. Taking away your ability to strategize your Gambits removed too much player input, IMO. It was the least of FFXIII's failings, though.