FFXII

[moonwise]

OK, I'm late to the party, but I have FFXII.

Am much enjoying the small resemblances to Vagrant Story, especially Vaan's spellcasting move (though, come to think of it, Squall did the same thing) and the little sparkles surrounding the spellcaster. I have noticed one glaring deficiency, though: NO ASS PANTS. We need a male character with Arseley-brand ass pants.

I'm not very far along in the game yet - don't even have Gambits yet - but it seems from many of you other players out there that Gambits seem to allow you to walk away from the game if you set them right. That's not very exciting. It seems like a complete 180 from FFX-2, where if you were not Button Masher Supreme, the monster would eat you before you got your Super Duper Mega Pretty Pretty Princess Attack off. (Though I am ashamed to admit that I spent a good portion of yesterday working through the FFX-2 Chocobo dungeon.)

Husband asked whether it's hard to go from a game where you have many of the good powerups back down to a game where you're still a rookie, and whether it was more fun to be the rookie. Nah, it's fun to have the powerups.

Comments

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Oh, no complaints about the battle system - so far I've only died once. I like that the game pauses to allow you to select your next action, which is - again - reminiscent of Vagrant Story, and also allows some thought about what you'd like to do. Again, with FFX-2, you had a lot of options, but you didn't always have a lot of time to think about what you might like to do with all those options. I found the Garment Grids frustrating, because you had to pass through nodes to get the good stuff like Flare, and I was usually too busy whomping on the monster (or having it whomp on me) to go through six outfit changes.

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

Again, with FFX-2, you had a lot of options, but you didn't always have a lot of time to think about what you might like to do with all those options. I found the Garment Grids frustrating, because you had to pass through nodes to get the good stuff like Flare, and I was usually too busy whomping on the monster (or having it whomp on me) to go through six outfit changes.

I agree. Completely. It's why when I went from X-2 to X, I was happier than a pig in slop. X actually PAUSED to let you roll through the kabillion moves/spells/techniques you spent a billion years acquiring through the Sphere Grid. I wasted three whole game play throughs with X-2, completing the Dresspheres and ended up never using any of the stuff. I button mash every time I play it. I button mash when I play VIII or IX,too.

And I hated the Garment Grids. A total rip off. How in the freaking hell did they expect you to pass through seven different Dresspheres to acquire Flare or Ultima before you were obliterated by whatever you were fighting?! Fucking ridiculous, I say. The only GOOD thing about X-2 was the option to restart the game with all of the stuff you collected in the previous run-through. I was knocking the shit out of stuff with one hit in the first mission because I had items that boosted my Strength +50.

And the Lady Luck Dressphere is one of the four I actually used. Double EXP is what made me max out levels before the third chapter. How many of those Dresspheres did you actually USE, anyway? I only use Lady Luck, Alchemist (which is freaking fantastic for the Angra Mainyu battle in the desert), Berserker and Dark Knight (also invaluable in the AM fight).

[arafel.livejournal.com]

The Garment Grids were one of the worst FF ideas to come along in a while. A lot of people complained about Junctioning in FFXIII, but I rather liked it - it allowed a degree of customization that I haven't found in any of the other games.

Dress Spheres... let's see. I mixed it up a lot, but I tended not to use the Trainer or the Berserker spheres much. Once I got strong enough not to need black magic, the White and Black Mage spheres dropped off the map. And I hardly used the Special spheres at all.