So today I was waiting at Gamestop early this morning for them to open and I snagged a Collectors Edition of FFXII and a Strat Guide for 20% off. I spent all of today bringing out my nerdyness, which I haven't done in awhile. I spent 7 straight hours playing and the funny thing my PS2 wasn't even warm. Well anyways FFXII is freaking amazing! I was kind of iffy at first on the new battle system but it's so much fun, it still plays like a Final Fantasy game just you aren't contained in one space. For those who have played FFXI it's basically just like that except the animations and time fighting is a lot smoother, plus it's easier to level up. (I remember fighting the same 3 monsters on FFXI to finally get to level 10 so I could use a Greatsword...) They also have this new feature known as a License board which is basically like a sphere grid, but you still gain levels, the license board is just for skills and the weapons you can use. With the characters though they are so flexible, you basically can plot their progress and choose what you want them to do. Like for instance the main character Vaan, you can make him a great swordsman with white and black magick (yes its Magick in FFXII) Like as of right now I have cure, fire, blizzard, and thunder and they get great amounts of damage and so does his attack. The story itself is really good as well, I'm not even a fourth of the way through and there's been so many twists in the plot, and the dialouge is just right, even the voice acting is better, there's a lot more personality in all the voices, not just the same five people playing all sorts of odd roles.
But here's some downers..
They went back to the good old Esper name for the summons except..... THEY DON'T HAVE ANY OF THE ORIGINALS!!!! I miss my Ifrit, Shiva, and Ramuh! No Carbuncle, Alexander, Bahmut, or anything. I think the only one they've used before was.... well I take that back he was a boss, anyways Ultima is also a summon. I think that's about all that's bad, I can't really diss a game that put me back into my RPG state of mind, lately I was just straying away from most RPGs but FFXII brought me back to it.
Overall FFXII is a brilliant game and I have still yet to beat it, once I finish the game i will let everyone know how it was overall.
Well... the summons ARE in the game, just not literally. Like most of the empire's airships are named after summons like Ifrit, Ramora, Shiva, Ramuh, and so forth. It's just that the summons themself aren't there anymore. If you've played Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, you'd recognise the summon names in FFXII.
You'd also recognise two other characters in the game too, I'm not trying to give anything away, so find out for yourselves! ;D
