Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
PlayStation (Games)

Final Fantasy XII U.S. Demo 53

Posted by Zonk from the love-the-last-fantasy dept.
Tim Butler writes "1UP has posted a massive blowout on the U.S. demo of Final Fantasy XII that ships with Dragon Quest VIII next week. They're definitely impressed, saying 'This is not the old-school Final Fantasy action you've come to expect -- but the trade-off is a fast-paced, combat-intensive game with a vast, contiguous world and danger on all sides.'"
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Final Fantasy XII U.S. Demo More

Final Fantasy XII U.S. Demo

Comments Filter:

  • Stopped caring (Score:2, Interesting)

    by faloi ( 738831 )
    I haven't worried about Final Fantasy in a while. I played FFX, and got tired and bore of the whole thing. A long gaming experience shouldn't be that way because one has to walk mindlessly through the one path available for number of hours. FFXI was better in terms of a game experience, but then it has to be because it's a MMORPG. If FFXII is going to be the worst of both worlds, I don't need it. Without more information, I just don't care.

    It's probably great if that's the kind of game you like to pl

    • Re:Stopped caring (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I like the illusion of having some choices on how to proceed in a game.

      Exactly! Morrowind rocked my world once I got used to it, since there were SO MANY choices, and I'm dying to get its sequel, but I could not stand FFVII or FFX for just the reason you explained. FFI at least seemed interesting enough to want to explore, Dragon Warrior I would let me roam almost the whole map from the beginning of the game, but FFVII and since feel like I'm having my hand held, and the only real danger in the game comes i

      • Re:Stopped caring (Score:3, Interesting)

        by jchenx ( 267053 )
        Wow, Morrowind's openness is exactly why I DIDN'T like the game, and prefer "hold my hand" traditional RPGs (FF-series, Xenosaga, etc.). Those games are supposed to wrap you up in the story so much that you want to see what's next. The choices that you ARE allowed to make are generally restricted to how you want to develop your characters' skills. Granted, if the plot doesn't intrigue you in the first place, then yeah, I definately see it becoming a chore.

        With Morrowind, I felt like I was given no direction
        • I take issue with your terminology, traditional RPGs are either pen & paper or the early computer RPGs, all of which are much more freeform than the average japanese RPG. There's nothing traditional about single-pathed movie-driven RPGs.
          • Yeah, I should have said "traditional Japanese" RPGs. Traditional RPGs (like D&D) are arguably the MOST free-form RPG there is.

            Although it's interesting that computer RPGs based on D&D or similar mechanisms, I find, fall somewhere in the middle between Japanese RPGs and the complete openness that was Morrowind. I'm referring to games like Baldur's Gate, Planescape:Tormet, and KOTOR. There's still this storyline that you are forced to follow, but there were different ways of fulfilling it. (For examp

        • Re:Stopped caring (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Reapy ( 688651 )
          A lot of gamers are very specific in what they like. My wallot is cursed by my enjoyment of them all.

          I loved all the elder scrolls games for their openness and ability to do what you wanted. I actually never followed the main plot in any of those games but clocked many hours to them.

          I also loved final fantasy for its ability to tell me a great story and presnet it very cinimatically for me. In the newer ff's, the cut scenes were a great reward for me when i finally go to one, as I have always enjoyed square
    • Why is it that every time there is a final fantasy game coming out people complain about the fact that there is only a single plot. The single plot lines and numerous cut scenes where the user just watched and learned about a character and partially limited worlds have always been part of Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy games have always been interactive stories more then create your own adventure. Final Fantasy games are more like reading a fantasy book. You are there to experience the story that the creator

  • androgynously delicious (Score:4, Insightful)

    by xenomouse ( 904937 ) on Friday November 11, 2005 @12:25PM (#14008769)
    Is it just me or are the main characters [rapidgaming.com] in each new FF slowing morphing into a single gender?
    (maybe with exception to FFIX [ffonline.com], which had a conquistador and a rastafarian it it)

  • MMORPG-ishness (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Spleener12 ( 587422 ) on Friday November 11, 2005 @12:51PM (#14009049)
    The resemblence of the system to an MMORPG is entirely coincidental- MMORPGs happen to have real-time battles on the same screens that the players explore, that's all.

    Remember, the whole reason why RPGs had battle transitions in the first place is because the technology wasn't there for them to make the battles look as pretty as they wanted to on the same screens that the players explored (imagine FF1 if the battles took place on the map screens. Now imagine FF1 if you walked on the map with the same character sprites you had in combat. Get the idea?) It's an abstraction that we don't need anymore, so they got rid of it, since keeping tradition for the sake of tradition is just retarded.

    • Re:MMORPG-ishness (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jeblucas ( 560748 ) <[jeblucas] [at] [gmail.com]> on Friday November 11, 2005 @01:12PM (#14009282) Homepage Journal
      There's a point at which "tradition" becomes branding. Everyone that's played a Final Fantasy game knows there's battle transitions. It was for technical reasons before, no it's for branding. If there wasn't this transition, we'd start to compare Final Fantasy to a zillion other games that let you walk around and collect crap and attack wee beasties...and it might come up short. Final Fantasy's characters and stories have been all over the place, so there's no brand continuity there--all they have is the name, some consistant lingo (gil, etc), and certain play characteristics--like battle transitions.

      • Re:MMORPG-ishness (Score:3, Insightful)

        by bateleur ( 814657 )
        Branding might be the reason for battle transitions, but it definitely isn't this which stops FF being compared to things. ...because FF does get compared to things constantly. The series is the benchmark against which PS2 RPGs are judged. Many of the individual games in the series are flawed in various ways, but still nothing else really comes close. Love it or hate it, FF almost defines a genre of its own.
  • Console only?

  • Stupid Blurb (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Rocketship Underpant ( 804162 ) on Friday November 11, 2005 @01:10PM (#14009261)
    What the heck is a "massive blowout"? Did 1UP explode? Argh ... let's use words with meaning, Slashdot editors.
  • This is really scary... Five pages about a "30 minute" demo? I suppose we haven't seen FFXII in a long time so people might need reminding... The DQVIII demo was hours long...

    I'm still more concerned about Dragon Quest VIII though. FFXII was a good play according to a DQer at E3 2004 so I don't think the demo will be abysmal. DQVIII, however, adds mismatched voices, poor button layouts (try using L1 and L2 as yes and no and then go to the menu where L1 becomes page left) and *shivers* the menu... Bundling t
  • As someone who's been lukewarm on the Final Fantasy series, this may be the game that gets me to believe that maybe the beatings will stop. Honestly, a lot of this sounds like the influence of Enix over the company - the loss of random encounters, a faster-paced battle system, and a system based on player timing are all traits more associated with Enix games. Which I've mostly though superior to Square games over the years, so this works well from my perspective.
  • I don't care much about Final Fantasy, so I hope Square/Enix will do something with their better (IMO) but less known property, the Soul Blazer trilogy - Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma. A visually improved re-release would be great.

  • hahaha (Score:4, Informative)

    by Joe the Lesser ( 533425 ) on Friday November 11, 2005 @02:54PM (#14010260) Homepage Journal
    "In fact, all the skills featured in the demo should be familiar to FF veterans. The one exception is the summon Hasmal's groaningly named skill Roxxor, about which the less said the better."

    That's priceless.
    • The one exception is the summon Hasmal's groaningly named skill Roxxor, about which the less said the better.

      ZOMG H45ma1 15 t3h |_337!!1 H3 PWn2 t3H 3n3N\y n00bz w1t t3h r0xx0r!! w00t!1!eleventyone--what? They're saying it's not good? t3h SUX!!

Slashdot Top Deals

He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him. -- Bion

Close