FFXII: Love It or Hate It?

[Daenerys]

Since FFXII seems to be one of the two FF games (the other being FFVIII) where people either Love it or Hate it i thought it would be nice to create a stickied thread asking that very question.

Use this thread to debate the Pros / Cons of FFXII and debate for / against it

[eisprinz]

Actually I'm pretty balanced with this game; I hated certain things and loved them, as well.

If there was anything I loved about this game, it was the fact that Square was trying to do something new - but I also kinda hated the fact that they changed lots of things beyond recognition. Now, I'm obviously not saying that I want everything to stay traditional, but the games shouldn't each be so radically different that Square could easily market it as separate from the Final Fantasy franchise.

Another thing I loved was the politics and the balance between social delicacy and ruthlessness - but of course this is something I hated as well, because the politics totally gets dropped toward the end in favor of supernatural with the tacked on Occuria ending.

Also, while the scenery was quite elaborately rendered, I felt detached from it emotionally. None of the places you went to really meant anything from each other. Take Dalmasca - it's Vaan and Penelo's home, yet it hardly seems like they feel attached to anything in it. You don't get to see their actual home.

The only place that came close to being emotionally and symbolically important was Eruyt VIllage and Fran's connection with it - but the emotional impact gets pretty much evaded, as Fran only enters the village proper one time (and it struck me as a bit anticlimactic when she does, as the other Viera don't really do much to repel her, except with words).

In other games, we got locations with real emotional ties to the characters that were fully expressed. Places like Aeris' Church in FVII, Kohlingen in FFVI, Home in FFX, and Trabia Garden in FFVIII.

In past games, the locations really meant something, and each one would hold a distinct emotional quality to it, but it's all a little fuzzy in FFXII.

[Misty]

Love it, obviously. I've given my reasons elsewhere in MANY other topics about what I like about this game, so look elsewhere ;P

[Kerrigan]

Lovelovelovelovelove. The ONLY thing I disliked about this game was how useless Vaan was as a main character.

Contrary to that, though, notice how Ashe frequently says, 'Don't interrupt me, Vaan.' This might be taken as an indication that the story is actually intended to follow Ashe and not Vaan - he gets his moments, but it's actually about Ashe.

[Rockman X]

You need to add another option to the poll: both

I hate and love XII. Damn emo game...

[Mitsuki]

I'm sort of in-between, I suppose. I don't love it, nor do I hate it. I'm just okay with it. Like Judge Rulia, I stated many reasons why I'm just okay with it. Everything was well done, yes...but I just can't connect to the story and the character, Vaan.

[Archangel]

Woot the "love it" is winning. I've stated many times my opinion on this. I'll summarize- Love the new battle system and set up, it was refreshing. Felt the story was cut short and should have gone more in-depth.

[SapphireStar]

Im about 40 hours into the game and Im balanced with it. I dont love it, but I dont hate it. I like the game, I like the characters, soundtrack, license grid and the amount of sidequests.

[captainbill47]

I really enjoyed Final XII. My favorite story line was X, but I loved the updated mechanics in XII's battle system (gambits and 3d game play rocked) and the license board. I'd give anything to see a similar license board in XIII, but with a more specific path for each character like X's sphere grid. I really think Final XII made as large a jump in RPG gaming as X did over IX. I do agree that the story in XII was just barely not quite up to usual FF standards, but I also think we've been a bit spoiled by the great stories told since VII... Oh, and I'm in love with Fran. Hot chicks with the Playboy bunny ears preattached??

[Tseng]

It was ok i guess, there were things I liked. The hunts were one of the best side games that I have seen in final fantasy, and Reddas is deffinately my favourite npc in the series. That said the storyline was woefully inadequet compared to the rest of the final fantasy`s, the characters were not developed at all, for me that was the biggest mistake SE made........................I didn`t really care what happened to Vaan, Ashe and co. And I would have prefered the Espers to have had the usual names (shiva, ifrit, bahamut etc) rather than those going to the airships.
Still i`m playing it at the moment so it can`t be that bad..................but it could have been so much better.