Board 8 > Does anyone care about me playing FF12

(+) Yeah! (+)

I know this is one of the black sheeps of the series so I get it if nobody cares

Im going on vacation and bringing the Switch version with me. I havent played it since 2006, and never finished it, and I was pretty lukewarm on it back then, so Im gonna try to give it a fresh perspective almost 20 years later. For context I was also lukewarm on FFX-2 back then but I played it again last year and love it now

And also now that im done with all the FF14 expansions, this is the last game I need for my FF ranking that ive been doing on b8 for over a year now

Believe it or not the board has a few 12 fans so Im sure some would be interested

yes

International Zodiac Job System best name ever

I bought Zodiac Age a while back, but never got around to playing it. I played the original FFXII probably...50% through?

Secretly the best FF.

As someone who also bounced off of it in the PS2 days, the remaster is so much better. It's actually pretty fun to play, even if the characters and story are still kind of bland

I think even the OG was fun enough. Zodiac should make it a breeze

Maybe a bit. I'm actually interested in playing Zodiac Age for myself and have a copy next to my PS5 collecting dust

Ya know, this game actually works if you view it through the lens of a dungeon crawler. And it especially feels that way when you hit the fast forward button

And Im sure the License / Gambit system can make for some broken builds. Back when I was playing FF5 you guys told me about some insane combinations. So yeah please someone tell me how to absolutely break FF12

Ive kinda screwed myself right now though. I had Penelo as white mage, but shes not in the party, and right now ive got Vaan as thief, Balthier as machinist, Fran as black mage, and Basch as guest, and Ive been doing like four dungeons back to back with no way to change jobs or buy items, and im out of potions, so now im caught in a struggle

2nd best FF

10th best FF

If I'm generous and not counting spinoffs and remakes

replaying 12 and 13 years later made me appreciate both games more.

TomNook7 posted...

Ya know, this game actually works if you view it through the lens of a dungeon crawler. And it especially feels that way when you hit the fast forward button

And Im sure the License / Gambit system can make for some broken builds. Back when I was playing FF5 you guys told me about some insane combinations. So yeah please someone tell me how to absolutely break FF12

Ive kinda screwed myself right now though. I had Penelo as white mage, but shes not in the party, and right now ive got Vaan as thief, Balthier as machinist, Fran as black mage, and Basch as guest, and Ive been doing like four dungeons back to back with no way to change jobs or buy items, and im out of potions, so now im caught in a struggle

Fran comes with cure no matter what the job shes in, I believe.

Alanna82 posted...

Fran comes with cure no matter what the job shes in, I believe.

Oh shit thank you! I saw Cure in the list but just assumed it was there for Penelo

Also i guess i didnt realize how heavily inspired ff14s empire is by ff12s. Judges are legatuses and everything

Also ff12s music sounds so much like tactics i love it

Should i be hanging on to any of this loot besides teleport stones?

TomNook7 posted...

Should i be hanging on to any of this loot besides teleport stones?

Nah, feel free to sell it.

Selling loot is primarily how you make money in FF12, if I remember correctly.

dont believe ondores lies

Hey bucket head

Bounced off of the remaster not that long ago.

Lol i remember not liking vaan back then, but i actually find him pretty likable and endearing now that im older

I remember being on board 8 when his character art was first revealed, and he was shirtless and showing nipple, and just EVERYONE on the internet was so pissed lmao

As soon as there stopped being a main character, this immediately became the Balthier + Fran show

But I aint gonna lie - I got stuck in the Raithwall tomb, and then got stuck on the Belias fight for a bit. It was a little disheartening, but i decided to toughen up and stick with it, and do some monster hunts, explore the maps a little more, etc.

So eventually I got licenses for gear that had magic resistance, saved up enough gil to buy said gear, and even got some better weapons via monster hunts. And i had all my gambits lined up just right, and finally beat Belias.

And even though i really dont have access to much right now (all the cool magic and techs arent available in shops right now), and even though i had the battle running on autopilot it was oddly satisfying

And then we got the Dusk Shard, but Vossler do a betray OH SHIT

And now I have access to the second license board. Im so excited to completely break this shit. I have Balthier as Machinist, Fran as Black Mage, and Basch as Knight, and Ive been reading on some broken combos online, and Im thinking Machinist/White Mage, Black Mage/Monk, and Knight/Bushi

Was the second job license board in the original? I feel like this entire license thing has been completely reworked from how i remember it. Throw in the fast forward, and they really did a lot to fix ff12 in this remaster

In the original, there was just one license board that everyone used, none of the job specialization at all. I believe the job boards were added in the International rerelease, and the latest version added the dual-classing.

I'm one of the weirdos who thinks FF12 is on the upper end of Final Fantasies but also for none of the reasons I usually play the series. The sense of exploration in 12 goes above and beyond. I also think a lot of Square's modern stuff would work better if they refined the gambit system - having literally every character controlled by it was silly, but being able to program the AI-controlled party members in their action RPGs would do a better job at capturing the idea of team-based combat.

I think XII's exploration is terrible because it's just big empty space with nothing out there worth finding because all the treasure chests have a potion or 256 Gil in them

^both of those above two posts are true

This game is a bit of a mixed bag and all over the place, kind of like Ashes wardrobe

But Id say the difficulty spikes give FF12s exploration enough of an edge. I went out into a rainy swamp, saw a thunder elemental, and it did like 999 damage to me and in that moment i realized thunder damage is super effective in the rain (just like tactics!)

So not only did i learn to just stay tf away from thunder elementals in the rain, but also i prioritized thunder on frans gambit and immediately turned my luck around

Theres been a bunch of little organic moments like that so far

I have no idea how Quickenings work and after reading like three different guides i might not ever get it

TomNook7 posted...

I have no idea how Quickenings work and after reading like three different guides i might not ever get it

It's fine, I beat the game without ever really learning how to use them optimally

TomNook7 posted...

I have no idea how Quickenings work and after reading like three different guides i might not ever get it

You press buttons and damage number go up

Im laying here playing ff12 on my switch, and my wife playing ffx on her switch next to me and its just clearly a much better game

Shes at the part where theyre on the boat, and they shoot the harpoon gun at sin and the fisherman are like SORRY LADY YUNA WE GOTTA GET IT AWAY FROM KILIKA OUR FAMILIES ARE THERE

fucking big ass sin dragging your little ass boat

Music all epic

Switches to a cutscene after every turn

Wakka throws the ball farrrrrrr as shit and hits sin like boop 30 damage

Gotta dive down and fight sinspawn underwater

Im just sitting here like damn i wish i was playing that

Also

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7e26a59d.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f01a0784.jpg

HOW

FF12 had a troubled development. Director quit halfway through.

I noticed that getting more quickenings made it better but yeah I didn't totally understand the strategy behind it.

quickenings are player-skill-based and make the game less fun

Phon coast is dope

The archadian capital is too

Yeah, that's a really good part of the game

You actually some character interaction and development during it too

Balthier used to be a judge? OH SNAP

But wow this chop minigame is some bullshit nvm i hate this game again

Oh man I had blocked the chops from my mind

Just did the dungeon in the giant crystal where you dont have a map and its basically a giant maze of the same room over and over but you gotta keep track of key stones, teleport pads, etc

and im on vacation in another country and didnt have internet where i was, so i had to draw a literal map to get through it

And then i guess this game has ff14s ascians, but in this one theyre called occurians, and they control shit behind the scenes, and one of them is named venat, and

i am so tired

TomNook7 posted...

venat

surprise

TomNook7 posted...

Just did the dungeon in the giant crystal where you dont have a map and its basically a giant maze of the same room over and over but you gotta keep track of key stones, teleport pads, etc

and im on vacation in another country and didnt have internet where i was, so i had to draw a literal map to get through it

And then i guess this game has ff14s ascians, but in this one theyre called occurians, and they control shit behind the scenes, and one of them is named venat, and

i am so tired

this is definitely where I stopped playing when I was younger. Got lost and got bored

TomNook7 posted...

Phon coast is dope

The archadian capital is too

Honestly I remember absolutely LOVING all the mid- and late- game locations and environments. The only issue is the early- game locations are all boring brown deserts, planes, cities, slums, and sewers.

It really makes starting a new game SUCH a slog, but if you can get well past Rabanastre everything looks so beautiful.

Augh

I must persevere

Its the only good mainline FF i have left

more thoughts:

Its cool that Cid is a bad guy this time, but it sucks hes also just kinda bland and uninteresting

Speaking of bland and uninteresting, vaan and penelo have like nothing to do with the plot lol. Eventually ashe just kinda took over as role of main character

Summoning seems kinda useless, as your dps goes way down, so i just save my mist for quickening

I dont wanna hate on ff12 too bad - its still an 8/10 good game when compared to all other games for the time. If it wasnt called final fantasy people would be like whoa check out this cult classic ps2 jrpg and would probably put it up there with rogue galaxy or whatever. Thank god for fast forward tho. I cant imagine playing this game in slo mo

It's fine to hate on FFXII. I don't think I would've liked it if it wasn't FF either, but I just really dislike the battle system. It just feels like walking around and auto-battling, which just isn't my bag. Thankfully Xenoblade took it and turned it into something really good, so in hindsight I'm glad FFXII exists.

Storywise it's all setup and big story moments without any of the necessary transition stuff to get from point A to B to so on. There's a version of this game that could work but it would need to have even more cutscenes. FFXII decided that its main story would be told primarily only through cutscenes, which hurts it quite a bit.

And yeah, playing the OG version of this at regular speed was literal torture

Dr. Cid is great

TomNook7 posted...

Im just sitting here like damn i wish i was playing that

story of my life

I could see thinking Dr. Cid is uninteresting when compared to a more cartoonish Cid in the same game whose entire thing is take off his sunglasses and hand them to a hot babe, but ya know... I feel like the good doctor gets better and better as the game progresses. Dr. Cid is definitely more of a personality in the late game after you finally come to understand his motivations and machinations. I for one thought he stole every scene he was in, but maybe that was just me.

a 100 floor long tedious dungeon right at the end of the game, and if you have to leave to restock on items or whatever, you have to restart at floor 1

whew

I really like FF12. Probably a top 5 FF for me.

Vaan is pretty lame, but like a few other FF characters I disliked FFRK endeared me to him a bit because he was pretty damn good there.

Id legit be very interested to hear more from people who love this. Id like to hear an ff12 fans perspective for sure

Like I know it has its devoted fans, but its just one last check mark for me at this point. Its good enough, but a bit of a mixed bag overall. I think the combat and customization were intended to be a highlight, like with ff5 and x-2, but ff12 fumbled it a bit. Ill have more to say when i finish it