Final Fantasy

  • Thread starter MadHypello
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Thoes are some pretty nice pics there GT. I see most of you guys say that you dont want to pay for FFXI but i really think its worth it. Heck I've been playing since mid March and Im in love with the game. He's some pictures of my character Zorro. Utada is my girlfriend who also plays the game with me. Everyone else you see are other players and or my LS members or my clan members. Take a look.
 

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I think Final Fantasy XI is a really good game and i wanted it so badly but i didn't have a credit card,i still don't.That's the only reason why i don't have the game.
Maybe it's for the best,i don't have much time on my hands so i would probably end up playing it on rare occasions only.

Oh and,
Ec ed buccepma du vehecr dra kysa un tuac ed luhdehia vunajan fedr haf secceuh yht cdivv?
 
I like the FF series, if only because they're generally so big. You can spend months on one game when other games are already completed in a week!

I guess my favourite is FFVII, though FFX comes close.

One thing has struck me about FFXII, it has a very similar look, at least the characters anyway, to Squares "Vagrant Story" on the PS1. Does anybody remember that? And maybe more than just a slight similarity to FFIX. It seems to have a kind of Medieval look. And those bunny girls!...woof-woof!! ;)

Anyway, looking forward to FFXII, though I have no idea when it's out in the UK....same goes for FFXI!
 
That probably has something to do with the art director.The same guy who is doing this game did Vagrant Story.That's why it's similar.
 
FF got me into RPG games..a ..long....long ...time ago. I started with ultima something or other for the nintendo. before that I was into the submarine game and a game called b17 bomber ..for intellavision or something. All the FF games are good or great IMO. I'm glad I went out of type to play them.
 
Same, I was looking for something new (6/8 games I owned were driving sims) so I tried FFIX ... and loved it. I've also got VIII but haven't gottena round to VII (ironic as my current avatar is Cloud Strife). I like how it's a different story every time, I'd get sick of playing with the same characters in each game.

The systems in FF8 and 9 are way different too. 8's Junction System, was really complex (who here hates it?) but it was so cool how you can customise your characetrs totally. 9 is still the best because with 4 in your party you can have much more complex battel strategies.

Has anyone here beaten Ozma?
 
Ozma was bloody the easiest side boss I have ever seen.... I hate number 9, 8 was ok, and 7 is my favourite. I can't wait until Advent Children comes out ( BTW anyone know the release date?) The FF series on Ps2 was way overdone in my opinion, I mean my friend is a hardcore fan and he played it for a month straight and still couldn't beat the dark Aeons.. And the look too oriental! What happened to the cool looking Bahamut Zero!? Now I'm ranting..
 
Damn, I was so close to beating Ozma today it wasn't funny. The she wiped out my party with a single Meteor ...


I like IX a lot, mostly because there is one single thing from VIII that got to me: the fact that the identity of Ultemicia and her reasons for Compressing Time were never fully explained.
 
Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1) is better than than La Pucelle Tactics (PS2) :odd: . I spent $80 on a game that had less options than a PS1 game. :grumpy:
Final Fantasy 1 was great when it first came out but,I still hear that music in my dreams/nightmares 14 years later. :scared:
 
I know that this is something that I should know, but what IS the advent children? I have seen many pictures about it, but I haven't found out if it's a movie or what. I'm lost with Final Fantasies, because they haven't published all of them in Finland yet (at least, not the one you can play in the internet).
 
First off Hypellos = Gungans = I would buy a game where the entire purpose was to eviscerate them as they screamed for mercy.

Misshh Yooona?! Uggh.

Anyway, Advent Children is a movie that takes place after the events of Final Fantasy VII. In other FF VII news, they're making an action game featuring evenyone's favourite ambiguously vampiric hero, Vincent.
 
Meh, 8 was lame in the department that mattered: story. I reckon RINOA was ULTEMICIA.

If you've played I-VI, then you'll find VII and VIII are totally different, mostly because they were much more high-tech. IX was the true sequel to VI (widely considered the jewel in the Final Fantasy crown). Can't wait til XII ... but I need a PS2 first.
 
I guess it's a matter of taste but Final Fantasy VIII(8) was the best so far in my view.
 
demon of speed
Get one damn it!!
I'm working on it! If possible, I'm more excited about FF12 than I am about GT4, so FFXII and FFX will be high on my shopping list.

Has anyone ever played FF I-VI? I know Square re-released a few on PS1 ('Anothology' and 'Chronicles') but I haven't seen them much. If only they were re-done so they didn't se the old 2-D graphics ...

And has anyone ever played the Tactics game set in Ivalice? Because Ivalice is the setting for FFXII and I really want to know what it's like!
 
I have played FF1, FF3 and FF6 on an emulator, if I remember the numbers correctly. I liked FF1 very much, and I think that every FF junkie should try it. :dopey:
FF3 wasn't so good, even though it had very interesting characters. I didn't like the graphics, because they made my eyes hurt. FF1's graphics I could tolerate, because the colours were darker and it was so nostalgic, so I didn't care. FF6 was also very good, but I didn't finish it because I got my new computer before I could have finished it. :)
 
Not many people know much about this game so i decided to fill you in.I have found a summary of all the available information of this game,written by Alastair412 .Note that this may contain some spoilers.


Final Fantasy XII takes place in Ivalice(Final Fantasy Tactics Advance).The two mighty empires of Archadia(on the Ordalia continent) and Rosalia (on the Valentia continent) are at each other's throat. Between them, the small but technologically advanced kingdom of Dalmasca has been acting as a buffer for some time.
But (to secure a strategical position) Archadia invades peaceful Dalmasca, giving the setting of the story.
This happens two years before the game actually takes place. The game's tutorial battles are fought during the climax of the invasion, and you play as Reks, a young knight, Vaan's elder brother, under the guidance of Basch, an elder knight.

Ashe is the daughter of the late king of Dalmasca and heir to the throne. The invasion has forced her to join a resistance group. She will eventually meet up with Vaan, a young orphan yet optimistic citizen of Dalmasca who loves freedom. Vaan harbors dreams of becoming a sort of flying pirate later on, and joins the rebellion because he's unhappy with Archadia's yoke.

Several elements from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance make a return in FFXII: Bangaas, Vieras and NuMou are present. Further, the omnipotent Judges are back again, but it seems they might be the bad guys now. They obviously are key to the story, though, as one of them is depicted on the game's logo.

In an interview for Famitsu, the staff also mentioned that the characters are wearing light clothing because Dalmasca is a mediterranean / warm climate. They further indicated that orange and blue will dominate the visual impression from the game.
There will be a variety of airships in the game, this is already reinforced by the new concept art and the new screenshots.


In a Q&A session, the staff clarified that the whole game setting was about warfare, and that romance ought to take a step back compared to the previous Final Fantasy games.
- The judges were originally knights in early Archadia allowed to dispense justice in order to simplify the realm's administration. As Archadia grew into an empire, they progressively snatched up more and more power.
- There will be one airship as a means of transportation.
- Initially, they planned to include massive airship battles, but later dumped the idea because of the technical requirements on one part, but also because the strategical element it would have implied would have stood at odds with the rest of the game.
- In the game, the sky is a symbol for freedom, and Vaan's desire to become a sky pirate is a way to express his desire to break free of Archadia's oppression.
- In general, one of the dominant themes throughout the game is the question "what is true freedom".
- The judge dispatched to Dalmasca with the occupation forces becomes acting ruler for the kingdom. He is most probably the one depicted in the game's logo.
- There's a weather engine built in, which will influence magic, eg. Fire is weaker when it rains.
- Dalmasca is a peninsula, with Archadia to the North, Rosalia to the West, and more or less uncharted / uncivilized territories to the South.
- Both Archadia and Rosalia appear to be fighting proxy wars and expanding their territories by swallowing smaller countries just like Dalmasca.
- The two empires are major powers with completely different cultures, customs, religions, political background and histories, and have been clashing for a really long time because their very own beliefs are at odds. Their confrontation seems to be gearing up to a big conflict, and the imminence of that threat explains why they have started absorbing buffer states like Dalmasca lately.
- The party won't be directly witnessing the "big confrontation", though, but get updates through, eg, reports, rumors and whatnot. It looks like we won't be able to visit both empires either, rather we'll be focussing on Dalamasca's struggle under Archadian rule.
- Crystals appear to be the source of all things magic in Ivalice this time around.

Continued Below.
 
The official site's "prologue" section carried the words initially played during Final Fantasy Tactics title music:

'A warrior takes sword in hand,
Clasping a gem to his heart.

Engraving vanishing memories into the sword,
He places finely honed skills into the stone.

Spoken from the sword, handed down from the stone...
Now the story can be told...'

Now for the characters:

- Ashe, 19 years old, heir to the throne of Dalmasca, leader of the resistance.
- Vaan, 17 years old, orphan, member of the resitance, wants to become a sky pirate later on.
- Fran, age unknown, a Viera also member of your party, particuliarly gifted with weapons.
- Balthier (alt. romanization Balflear), 22 years old, apparently one of those sky pirates Vaan wants to become, wields guns, loves the freedom not to belong to any specific country.
- Penelo (alt. romanization Pannero), 16 years old, an energic youth, a skilled dancer and singer. Whether this translates into her battle abilities remains to be seen.
- Reks, Vaan's elder brother and only sibling, whom you play during the tutorial battles and who's 17 at that time (remember, this takes place 2 years before the actual story).
- Basch, 36 years old, a senior knight of Dalmasca, involved in the dramatic events around Dalmasca's fall, who leads you through the tutorial battles.

- Penelo has a close relationship with Vaan.
- Penelo lost her parents in a previous war. Aside from her artistic skills, she is also a gifted martial artist, but still lacks practical battle experience.
- Penelo was taught by her elder brother (she apparenly had several), a member of the order of knights, who might possibly be deceased as well.
- Fran and Balthier are supposed to be equal partners from way back.
- It appears now quite clearly that Ashe has been to her wedding. Whether it was completed or interrupted by an invasion, or she's a widow, or her husband ran away or whatever is not known. We only know that he's that sliver-haired unknown character in the trailers, that they seem to share the same sword at different times and that they were about to get married together. It might become clearer later on.
- The staff has hinted that there were several more key characters still about to be revealed, several of them playable ones.
- From the E3 shots and videos, it looks like the party will have up to 8 playable members, which can be switched freely around as long as you're not fighting.
- Matsuno mentioned in mag interviews that the story would focus on Vaan and Penelo, and added that the stories of Balthier and others may become the stuff for other games. This latter comment was made tongue-in-cheek, because the interviewer mentioned that Balthier was Sakaguchi's favourite char.
- While Basch and Ashe bear the burden of the kingdom and of politics on their shoulders, Balthier and Fran live a freer life, one which Vaan and Penelo aspire to. During the course of the game, though, they will eventually come to realize that this apparent freedom has its own share of sacrifices, and that true freedom may be harder to achieve than they expect.
- There are also male Viera in Ivalice, but they stay mostly out of sight.
- Apparently, Balthier and Fran are wanted for a hefty reward.
- From the latest Famitsu issue (Vol 20/2004), some new background on Ashe, translated by ffxiionline's Khalalahey: Ashe is the youngest of nine children the King of Dalmasca had. Eight of them were male and had died in war or disease when the King was around 49 years old. This is the case that she is the only child left to take the throne. She has a serious personality but acts calmly and knows and understands what is happening around her. The people of Dalmasca look up to her to bring the peace to the kingdom again. She doesn't always speak her mind, but deep within her, she feels the need to escape from the pressure.

As for the Races of Ivalice:

- Humes are the dominant race in Ivalice, representing about 40% of the population. Obviously, Humes have a great cultural diversity depending on their origins. They tend to get along fine with races of equal intelligence like Viera, but extend domination on the less bright species, which are often used for menial labour, like the Bangaa and the Seeq.
- The slender Viera have a longer life expectancy than humes, and can be either dark-skinned (Rava Viera) or light-skinned (Veena Viera). Viera tended to stick to their woods until the hume wars threatened their homelands about 25 years ago. Since then, the Viera have more or less reluctantly started getting involved in hume affairs. The offspring of mixed Rava and Veena origins were the fastest to adapt, while the pure-blood have tried to retire to more remote forests.
- The Bangaa come in four major varieties depending on their scales' colours. The live a bit longer than Humes, and their overall lizard-evolved toughness makes them fit for soldiering roles. Humes, however, tend to limit their advancement opportunities. Finally, the race isn't really fit for magic except the most basic spells - there are exceptions, though: a handful of Bangaa have mastered advanced and Bangaa-specific spells.
- The nimble Moogles are also among the smarter races. They are well integrated into the Hume society, while still having their own capitol. Their small size gave them advantages working on machinery, a task the race excells in. Of course, not all of them are techies, and they hold a variety of professions. They also tend to make excellent mages.
- The barbaric, pig-faced Seeq are a tough and brutal race, mostly used as cannon-fodder, prison wardens or any other position where agressive strength is required. Severely lacking intelligence, they barely speak the Hume language, and are generally considered as the scum of society.

Continued on the next page.
 
In a fashion similar to Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XII takes the approach of using less polygons than Final Fantasy X in exchange to more textures and lighting. This also allows the game to use a free rotating camera.
It is unlikely that a top-down world map like in pre-FFX games will get back. The team mentioned that they did like the FFXI setting a lot, and were going to use this system: you walk around in a vast world at a real scale.
Before cries of disappointment get louder, remember, though, that with the huge amount of airships involved, it is entirely concievable that airship travel will take place in the 3D dimension within the same environment, giving you back the same kind of free movement enjoyed in previous instillments.
The good ole' transition to battle screen is obviously gone, since everything is already on the right scale, so like in a MMOG or in KOTOR, you move seamlessly from travel to combat, enemies visible on the screen. This doesn't really mean the end of random encounters, though, as monsters can probably respawn and apparently they, too, move around to intercept you when they "spot" you.

Finally, Final Fantasy XII is the first major title running under a new policy of limiting the amount of FMVs announced by Square-Enix president Wada, so cutscenes will be mostly seamless CG instead.

- Matsuno is a big FFXI fan, and claims to bring some of the XI's unique feel into a single-player experience like XII. This includes big locales, a vast world, a freely rotating camera among other, yet-to-be-unveiled things.
- Changing character equipment produces visual changes on the world map.
- In a recent interview, Sakaguchi stated that while there were many changes in FFXII, he still felt that this was absolutely a Final Fantasy. Remember, Sakaguchi's only real role today seems to be giving a new FF his seal of approval...
- He also stated that he was really taken by the graphics and doubted FFXII's performance would be toppable on the PS2. In the same sentence, though, he hinted that there were still several games to be made on the PS2 (FFXIII?).
- The main storyline may last between 30 and 40 hours, according to Matsuno, but completing all sidequests and maxing out characters could clock up around 100-150 hours.
- To render a the scope of the game, Matsuno mentioned that there were about 600 NPCs in Rabanastre, the Dalmascan capital, of which 150 could be interacted with. For perspective, in Final Fantasy X, there are less than 50 NPCs which you can interact with in Luca, including Blitzball players.
- Obviously, there are many other towns and cities besides Rabanastre, and NPC look and clothing may change quite a lot depending on what place you are.
- There's a quest system which awards you tasks in different cities, those involve dispatching certain monsters or fed-exing for items for prize money. These are of course entirely optional.

The Battle System is looking to become a major break from well established Final Fantasy traditions.

Final Fantasy XII uses a new system called "ADB", Active Dimension Battle.
From what I've seem so far, this is how it works:
- You control one of your characters at a time, but contrary to ATB / CTB, there's no automatic switching to the rest of the party members as soon as their time gauge is full.
- You can manually switch over to control another of your characters.
- However, characters you're not controlling directly will either (can't be sure yet) remain idle or repeat the last command you gave them over and over.
- To break out of this limitation, you can use "gambits", which are apparently 10 token tactical commands applying to the team. I use the term token because you apparently collect them like items.
- Note that there seems to be 10 types of gambits, not just 10 of them. While the gambit "use firaga" is the same type as "use thundaga", the magic gambit, they might well be distinct gambits altogether.
- Gambits give strategical control orders to the rest of your team, one of the fundamental gambits being to simply follow your lead.
- Some gambits at least are applied to the two remaining characters individually (like the remove gambit).
To understand this further, and until more details surface, I picture this a bit like FFX's Blitzball: you control one player, and assign tactics to the rest of your team, who will execute them at the best of their abilities.
The currently identified gambits are:
- Remove (from battle)
- Just attack
- Follow lead (Mimic???)
- Cure self
- Cure allies
- Some more to use magic learned by the character
- One important thing to stress, though, is that the gambit system is not entirely pervasive: you can apparently turn it off, and control characters in a more traditional ATB fashion. The main innovation in doing this, though, is that you can take control and issue commands at your leisure, not merely when the time bar is full.

Note that in all shots from E3, the old three status slots at the rightmost part of the stats bar which was shown in the earliest screenshots have gone. So either this has been removed from the game, or is tied to something you get later on.

Continued Below.
 
For the character under direct control, four fundamental commands exist: attack, magic / tech, gambits and item. In the magic / tech group, there's an apprently new thing, "Green Magic" we will discover. Or not - possibly this is just a rush translation for E3 which in fact should be blue magic. We'll eventually find out.

Your characters move around in true 3D when fighting, there's no longer any fixed battle lines. Apparently, another huge change has been introduced: supposed allies like guards and such don't stand around idly while your party gets whacked at, but they join the fight. Handy blue arcs can be displayed (my guess, using select or L1) to indicate which character targets which enemy, including the allies.
- As speculated, the arcs can be hidden away.
- Final Fantasy XII doesn't use a job system.
- Through focussed skill use, you will be able to shape characters towards one "job", but given enough time, one character could master everything in the game. What I gather from this is that using enough White Magic will boost those stats influencing White Magic, making that character a better White Mage. To be confirmed, though-
- There are 7 weapon types in the game:
- Swords
- Short Swords
- Spears / Lances
- Staves
- Bows
- Guns
- Gloves (for martial arts)
- Weapons have their own levels, whatever it means.
- The classical elements are of course back: Fire, Ice, Thunder, Earth, Water, Wind, Dark, Light.
- On the world map, there will still be unescapable battles.
- Monsters on the world map will be able to aggro you at a distance, based on sight, but also sound and smell. The aggro distance proper will of course vary by monster, which means you'll have an easy time escaping some of them.
- Matsuno explained that the ATB elements underneath ADB were left here to provide an easier time to oldtimers not used to Final Fantasy XI.
- He also explained that the whole system was easier to get used to that Vagrant Story's.
- Finally, Sakaguchi, having played it, stated that the gambit system was very satisfying once you managed to create effective gambit combinations.
- The characters will be able to equip weapons, shields, armor and helmets, but the latter two won't be visualized on your characters.
- There are collectible crystals in the game with various effects, among them magic, healing and item storage.
- Apparently, through physical attacks, you can regain MP.
- You can apparently freely build parties with just one or two characters (making solo character challenges less of a hassle than, say, FFX, if it's done right), and in-game dialogue matches your party setup.
- As already hinted at, it's been confirmed that bystanders won't remain idle when you battle their friends, so attacking one guard will aggro all others in the vicinity.

Matsuno has refused to share any details on the system so far, apart from mentioning it would be level- and XP-based. He however mentioned that the system was designed to allow for detailed micromanagement of characters while at the same time allowing newcomers to use it painlessly.

- There are about 120 people working on the game, 30+ alone working in the graphics department.
- The main character and a majority of the plot are finished.
- On the trivia side, the 3D team is apparently working on in-house development tools to get beyond what's currently available on the market.
- Part of the staff went to Turkey to gather inspiration for the locales.
- Finally, Final Fantasy XII was rumored to span two DVDs, but this rumor is now several months old, and was never confirmed.
- Regarding Hironobu Sakaguchi's current role, Matsuno is said to still consult with him as the "spiritual father of FF" for things pertaining to the FF spirit. Aside from that, he doesn't seem to have any active role anymore.
- Oddly enough, Itou seems to have completely disappeared from the scene recently...
- In a Famitsu interview post-E3'04, Sakaguchi clearly gave this game the FF seal of approval.

The End.

(Written by Alastair412)
(Editing by GTC2K3)
 
Wow nice read... This will probably be my first FF series I will buy... (Besides the two tactics)... I enjoyed them both and it was great to hear that the main guy from those series is doing this game...

BTW... The two main characters remind me of Ritz and Marche for some reason......
 
What stopped you from buying the other games?Final Fantasy VII,VIII and X are all 5 star games.Better games do not exist(in my opinion).

And i agree,Vaan and Ashe do kind of look like Ritz and Marche except for a few cosmetical differences.
 
Hiya! :D :embarrassed: :lol: Meow! (='.'=)

www.FFXII.net is a good site to go for loads of info on Final Fantasy XII

I hope XII will be as good as VII, VII and X OR EVEN BETTER! :embarrassed: I love how VII is just plain fun, while X was the most emotional Final Fantasy! The ending of X made me cry! :(
 
GTChamp2003
What stopped you from buying the other games?Final Fantasy VII,VIII and X are all 5 star games.Better games do not exist(in my opinion).

And i agree,Vaan and Ashe do kind of look like Ritz and Marche except for a few cosmetical differences.

I never had a ps2 or ps1 before this year so i've been unfortunate to miss em... (I've played FFT for ps1 on my pc with Bleem but slow downs get annoying... Slow computer...) And I've seen my cousin play X and see him beat it.... I could probably borrow the game... but I'm just too interested in XIIs game style... Sounds really good...
 
Yeah I thought X sucked too. But I plan on getting XII because it looks like a change from the norm.

Oh and to GTchamp2003, I somewhat agree that FFVII and VIII were good games, but I can name a couple other RPG's that are better IMO. :)
 
I can belive that.I mentioned VII just because it was the first 3D FF game.I actually enjoyed Xenogears more.But a better RPG then Final Fantasy VIII,i think not.VIII was perfect,in my view.Just read the reviews on game sites.FF VIII is the best FF game ever.

I wonder why you two think that X was bad.For starters,it looked way better then the previous games.It had Voice Acting and a great story.It had awesomness written al over it.
 
GTChamp2003
I can belive that.I mentioned VII just because it was the first 3D FF game.I actually enjoyed Xenogears more.But a better RPG then Final Fantasy VIII,i think not.VIII was perfect,in my view.Just read the reviews on game sites.FF VIII is the best FF game ever.

I wonder why you two think that X was bad.For starters,it looked way better then the previous games.It had Voice Acting and a great story.It had awesomness written al over it.

As my cousin stated... X was too short... Too focused on visuals than game play... And the ones before seem to be better than X... But he still likes it I think he beat it atleast twice... (I know I'm not anyone of the two but hey)

Voice acting? I would rather have subtitles than voiceovers... Kinda weird with voice overs... Anyhow that is my opinion.. Just hope they put that option for FFXII... (I doubt it)
 
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