Current Events > IMO, FFXII had the best aesthetic of the series.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Beautiful locations, character design and all the in-game menus/HUD were so smooth and crisp.
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Yeah it's too bad about the rest of it though.

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Rabanastre might be my favorite starting town ever in an RPG, combined with the music and general feel of everything it just feels like a place thats full of wonder and opportunity. And the fact that its surrounded by big, beautiful desert canyons as your first area to explore just puts it over the top.
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FabIe posted...

Yeah it's too bad about the rest of it though.

Im playing it now via Zodiac Age for the first time since 2006 and my opinion has greatly improved.

Im enjoying the story/characters much more this time around and I always loved the gambit system.
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FabIe posted...

Yeah it's too bad about the rest of it though.

Cringe

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i think if i were to score each game by its locations ffx would get higher marks on a couple of them but ffxii has consistently higher marks overall, and more over average.
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The one thing I remember is that it seemed like Basch stopped talking after the first 20 hours of the game once his initial key involvement in events finished.

Ive kept track, the last time he spoke was just before entering Golmore Jungle and im now in Phon Coast, which is a pretty goddamn long time later, and he still hasnt spoken yet.

Ive gone through all of Golmore Jungle, all of Henne Mines, all of Paramina Rift, all of Stillshrine Of Miriam, all of Mosphoran Highwaste and all of Salikawood without a word from him.
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Good aethsetics but dull game

I came in to argue that FFT deserves this award, despite having never played FFXII

But if its in Ivalice, safe to say they have a similar art style?

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Slayerblade11 posted...

Good aethsetics but dull game

They absolutely shouldve had Larsa be in the main party, the most interesting story parts were when he was traveling with you.

Having the heir to Dalmasca and the heir to Archades in the same group was an interesting dynamic.
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FF12 was always my favorite in the series. Put hundreds of hours in that game. I hated the hallway design of 10

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Agreed. The gorgeous, expansive, and painstakingly-detailed world of FF XII's Ivalice helped me look over much of the game's other flaws. And the lovely soundtrack rarely gets the credit it deserves for enhancing this sense of wonder and exploration.

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Paramina Rift might be my favorite music and location in the series, it was actually a pleasure to grind there.
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EffectAndCause posted...

Paramina Rift might be my favorite music and location in the series, it was actually a pleasure to grind there.

That's one of my top picks as well. I'd even go so far as to say that the Great Crystal theme is so nice to listen to that it helps mitigate the mind-numbing frustration of navigating the Great Crystal.

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When I played this many years ago, I mostly wished there were more "character" moments, if that makes sense. Idk, at some point late game it felt like I was hitting the cliff notes of a JRPG rather than a full JRPG with all its bull shit, you know?

But I did like the game. Wasn't really interested in the side content though.

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Jabodie posted...

When I played this many years ago, I mostly wished there were more "character" moments, if that makes sense. Idk, at some point late game it felt like I was hitting the cliff notes of a JRPG rather than a full JRPG with all its bull shit, you know?

That was probably my first and biggest criticism of the game as well; that we get little 3-5 minute cutscenes with these characters weighed against hours of combat and exploration. The overarching narrative was probably doomed to be a wash no matter what, but that could have been more easily forgiven if we'd just had more time to let the characters actually develop in their own right. Balthier's the only character to come out the other side of the game with any semblance of arc and growth (unless you believed even for a second that Ashe would actually end up choosing to use the magical equivalent of atomic warfare to smite her enemies.)


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Anybody here play the DS game?

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I'm going to agree with OP. I played through The Zodiac Age kind-of-sort-of recently and had a blast with it.

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EffectAndCause posted...

Paramina Rift might be my favorite music and location in the series, it was actually a pleasure to grind there.

omgosh, that's the snow region right? if we're thinking of the same track i love it. it's sensitive and melancholy with this wintery melody... it's wonderful

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okay i was actually going to mention the snow area as one of my faves, too. it's great.

i liked the feywood too.
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EffectAndCause posted...

and I always loved the gambit system.

Yikes

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Jabodie posted...

Anybody here play the DS game?

I did, but never finished it - RTS's are a tough genre for me because I have trouble focusing on too many different things at once, and I hit a wall difficulty-wise in the endgame that I didn't have the motivation to get past. Can't really remember too much about it tbh. I do remember quite vividly that Vaan had transitioned into full-blown Diet Coke Balthier by the time he appeared in FFTA2, so maybe he was starting to show signs of that in Revenant Wings?

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SevenTenths posted...

Yikes

Was it too complicated for you to choose a target, choose a situation and choose an action?
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EffectAndCause posted...

Was it too complicated for you to choose a target, choose a situation and choose an action?

Don't take this the wrong way, but this is currently a good CE topic; engaging Toast is a big step towards turning it into a bad CE topic.

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Oh is that his alt? Yeah im gonna stop here.
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in that case i'd like to engage you on the gambit system. i thought it was a great idea; it moved the focus away from forcing players to key through menus and it gave them the same results. we don't measure games by how many buttons they make us push.

also that orchestral version of the bridge crossing theme every time i hit the load save screen always got me Fucking Pumped to play. every single time.
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EffectAndCause posted...

Was it too complicated for you to choose a target, choose a situation and choose an action?

Apparently it was for you, hence why you need the god awful gambit system to do it for you

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Its easily one of the most beautiful PS2 games I can think of

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Balthier is the best main character

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Apparently it was for you, hence why you need the god awful gambit system to do it for you

if you can automate the relatively mindless parts of a game, why shouldn't you?

if a player knows they want to cast cure 3 when someone is about to die, why force them through inputs just to accomplish that? the strategy part of the game has already been solved.
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Does it have the most detailed city on ps2?

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Fluttershy posted...

if you can automate the relatively mindless parts of a game, why shouldn't you?

Why even play games when you could just watch a let's play instead? Making decisions uggg so hard

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but the decision-making part is over, toast. c'mon, try and keep up.
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I know just watch lets plays. No need to give any input the decision is so obvious.

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well, that's the thing. setting up the gambit system lets you make decisions before the battles even start, and have them resolve without the need to mash x. in simultaneity, no less.

you're not trying to argue that having the player manually select abilities adds strategic depth, are you? i feel like maybe you're unfamiliar with what you can do with the gambit system. if you want to watch a let's play, that's probably a good idea to get acquainted with the concept.
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clearly i'm arguing that playing the game is adding strategic depth not that playing the game is playing the game and the gambit system eliminates the point of playing the game. But hey if you like shitty let's plays i get why you would love the gambit system

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but toast if you already know what you want to do in a given scenario you have the strategic section of the game resolved already. the puzzle of 'use a phoenix down on a dead party member' has been solved before the character is even dead.

if you want arbitrary buttons to push, i recommend something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsYW_8IX09o&feature=youtu.be&t=54
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First 4 and 9 had the best aesthetic.

i hate the stupid pig noses all of the human characters have in 12

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if you don't want to play the game you can watch let's play. If you want to keep ignoring what i've said you can keep talking about strategy.

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Imagine thinking Final fantasy games require actual strategy to beat lololololol

i'm not ignoring what you said, lol. remember saying this?

Making decisions uggg so hard

i've just been pointing out that the decision-making (read: strategy) part of the game can be untied from the input part of the game. it's kinda what makes the gambit system great.

if you want to run with some arbitrary definition of what is and is not 'playing a game', where more buttons is better, that's fine, but at least label your arguments correctly. you want buttons to hit and that's fine! they make clicker games and i showed you that mario teaches typing game, so there's a market for you.

Imagine thinking Final fantasy games require actual strategy to beat lololololol

to be clear i'm not arguing that the ff series has much in the way of strategic depth. hit the fire enemies with ice; heal when you're about to die. use big strong attacks. level up if you get stuck. bam, you've beaten most JRPGs. but i'm not about to agree with the idea that paging through menus actually adds anything. what does it add to the first final fantasy game that i need to tell my four-fighter party to fight every turn, when it's literally the only command they can execute? edit: oh, and if about to die = use potion. see what i mean, though? the system isn't deep and button presses don't make it deep.
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I also just recently finished playing Zodiac Age, and I definitely had a blast, it was a very fun game, and this time I even did the sidecontent like beating the super ultimate bosses and I even beat trial 100! So yeah that was gratifying.

But I agree very much with what the 2 other posters said about character interactions. For me any story can be forgiven, be it cliche or incredibly convoluted, as long as the character interactions make up for it. And it's unfortunate that in this game, the party has almost 0 chemistry with each other.

Especially considering that Basch and Balthier had so much potential and unfortunately get shafted, more so Basch and they were the best part.

Don't even get me started on the wasted opportunity they had for political intrigue with the whole Vayne vs the Senate thing, the judges, Larsa, the Rozarrian Empire... could have had a real Julius Caesar epic unfolding but it's just taken care and mostly forgotten about just like that. Just a damn damn shame, 12 could (and imo should) have been Final Fantasy's swansong.
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decisions =/= strategy, do you remember what i said? even as you quoted it?

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Oh yeah and the game is beautiful that goes without saying, I always like Ivalice's look. And I like how in this game you start in the desert and then go to more beautiful areas like golmore jungle or paramina rift or even the feywood.
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FFX is way more aesthetically beautiful than FFXII

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