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PlayStation (Games) Role Playing (Games) Entertainment Games

Final Fantasy XII Details Leak Ahead Of Unveiling 89

Thanks to GameSpot for its coverage of pictures and details of Square Enix's Final Fantasy XII, as a Japanese print magazine released a very short preview ahead of "an official presentation of the game" on November 19th in Tokyo. According to the piece, the game "...will take place in a fantasy world where there are other races aside from humans, and flying vessels fill the sky", and "main characters in Final Fantasy XII are a boy named Van and a girl named Arche." The available media also contains a CG shot of "a soldier riding on a chocobo", for those worried their favorite winged creature would be excluded from this instalment.
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Final Fantasy XII Details Leak Ahead Of Unveiling

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  • by quandrum ( 652868 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @11:53AM (#7465015)
    Next they are going to tell me that there is a character named Cid! Or the money is called Gil?!!! Magic with names like Fire and Firaga?!!!!!!!! Bombs as... monsters??? Seriously, this is a one page age that tells us teh characters names, and gives us an idea of their costumes...
  • by Anonymous Coward
    I used to like Final Fantasy, but the games have been on a downwards spiral since IX. I'll stick to my VI, VII, VIII, and Tactics, thank you.
    • I must be getting to old. i thought I and II were great, III and IV were questionable, and everything after that was right out.

      and what's with gamespot? one week it's 'uh oh, something leaked from a magazine, we have morals, we won't link or post to copyrighted materials'. now it's 'sweet, a leak! here's some pics!'
      • Most leaks to the media are done so on purpose.
      • Everything after IV was right out? I thought VI had the best story of them all. My order of liking is VI,IX,V (maybe.. whatever FF2 in America was),VII,I,X,VIII. I thought X had a really good story, but very little actual game play between the movies.
        • see that's funny - story in my mind is easy in a video game when you're not allowed to do anything.

          games are about gameplay, and imo everything after IV had progressively less gameplay. though they've all had pretty good combat - but that's what tactics is for, right?

          maybe it's just my preference for western dynamic-story open gameplay rpgs as opposed to the more eastern solid compressed story, linear progression, linear gameplay rpgs.
    • by Anonymous Coward
      I always love the close mindedness of gamers sometimes. Heaven forbid the series redeem itself in any way. True, square has been on a downward trend. VII was great, VIII was good, had trouble sinking myself into IX, X was playable, but mediocre.

      I'm not even going to touch FFF (Final Fantasy Fanboy, FFX-2). And while XI looks interesting, and i've heard good things, it's not really within the series being an MMORPG.

      I'll wait and see what XII produces, and if it looks like a solid new game, it'll be wor
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Redeem itself? How much are you trying to contradict yourself? You claim X was mediocre, but does this new game look anything less than a clone of X? Even the characters designs are EXACTLY THE SAME.

        It's sad, but there hasn't been a truly redeeming Final Fantasy game since VI. Maybe VII. I've still got my original cars of I, IV, and VI. Every once in a while I put the games in and play them a bit. Can't say that I've picked up FF VII since at least 1998. The PSX(2) Final Fantasy era of games have b
    • by neostorm ( 462848 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @03:03PM (#7467101)
      Hahaha!

      You know, about 8 or so years ago, everyone who is now in their late 20's - early 30's said:

      "Well... looks like the glory days of Final Fantasy are past. Everything just kind of went down after VI..."

      Youth is amusing.
      • Hmm, i'm in my very late 20s now, and am _still_ saying the series started sliding downhill after FF6, with brief respites in FFT and FF9. I haven't tried FF10 yet though, so i'll have to see how that goes. FF8 was definitely the crap though.
  • Leak Happy (Score:3, Interesting)

    by May Kasahara ( 606310 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @12:05PM (#7465133) Journal
    Didn't the FF7: Advent Children leaks come from a Jump magazine as well? Someone there either really loves Square or really wants to annoy them. Or just wants to sell more magazines.


    In any case, as for the pics, I kind of like that the characters have a more "cartoony" look about them than FFX's characters did. Still feels Tetsuya Nomura-ish... bleah :P

    As an aside, I hope they bring the Overworld Map back, one where you can actually see your avatar/Chocobo/airship travel around on. That was the one thing I seriously disliked about FFX... no overworld (the little map that they gave you on the airship sucked for exploring).

    • Re:Leak Happy (Score:3, Interesting)

      by simoniker ( 40 ) *
      I think the street date of that Weekly Jump magazine is probably after/on the 19th, but somebody in Japan is getting copies early and posting them online, though I'm not sure - I would think Square Enix wouldn't want to scoop their own press conference by printing details early elsewhere. The magazine itself [ex.org] is _very_ popular, it seems - has a larger circulation than any US game-related magazine, though it seems like it covers other stuff too:

      "What is JUMP? WEEKLY JUMP, rival publication of WEEKLY SHONEN
      • Re:Leak Happy (Score:3, Informative)

        I believe the Weekly Jump that provided the pages in this case is primarily a manga anthology (like the other Jump manga Shonen Jump). The same publishers also put out a mag called V-Jump, which focuses more on video games (there's also a series of V-Jump strategy guides). Thing is, I couldn't remember if the Advent Children leak came from V-Jump or Weekly Jump.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • it is back, it actually is comming back in X-2. that was probably one of the biggest complaints of X I heard. Thanks for the info! I'm looking forward to FFX-2 even more now.

        And amen on FF8...

      • I wish the "map" in X could have at least been more clear, you could barely make out which continent was which, let alone where the cities were.

        As for X-2, I've heard absolutely nothing bad about it. I'm not sure why people don't seem as excited about it like they were for the rest of the FFs.

        8 I didn't mind the story so much, just the gameplay. 7 I minded the story. I didn't care for insane boy at all, and did it bother anyone else that after Aeris died he wound up with Tifa? Probably not. Oh well.
    • Haven't checked out the pics myself-- I hate spoiling anything about an FF game, but that's personal preference-- but I'm not terribly bothered by Nomura's designs. I like them a little bit better than Amano's (but not by much-- naturally, being an old fart, I still think FF6 was the best so far), but to be honest they aren't all that great either way. FF's character design does need a kick in the pants-- get someone like, oh, I don't know, Ken Akamatsu or CLAMP to design the characters for a Final Fantas
  • by cgenman ( 325138 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @12:20PM (#7465352) Homepage
    Final Fantasy XII takes place in a magical fantasy world, where humans co-exist with beasts. Mysterious rocks will power spells, summon monstrous beasts, and boost either HP or SP.

    The Hero is a young man, just heading out into the world with nothing to his name but a sword and a bad haircut. Soon, he will discover the truth of his origins and the love of a childhood friend. He will form a rag-tag band including a fighter, a healing spellcaster, a criminal with a heart of gold, and a cute, semi-coherent, bumbling creature. But the forces of the Dark Empire are looming, and must be stopped from destroying the planet in their mad quest for non-ecofriendly power.

    In their quest players will join the rebellion, ride on Chocobos, and fly in Airships. They must defeat the underworld people, release the spirits on a haunted boat, visit the tree of Mana, and discover the power of love.

    The game is roughly 40-50 hours long, though much longer if you want to complete all of the side quests. I don't want to give away too much here, but lots of mini-games will be involved.

    All in all, another revolutionary game from the greatest game company that ever lived. The only problem is that those random enemy encounters are just too frequent, but that will probably be fixed for the American release. 9.5 out of 10.

  • Same Character Look (Score:2, Interesting)

    by neosiv ( 320921 )
    Is it just me or do the main characters look exactly like the ones from X, just with different names?
  • by DragonPup ( 302885 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @12:47PM (#7465643)
    ...that pirate in the bottom right of the picture?
  • by Synic ( 14430 )
    That lizard-man looks familiar... Like straight from Final Fantasy Tactics!
  • Character Design (Score:5, Interesting)

    by swat_r2 ( 586705 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @01:14PM (#7465956)
    Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the Final Fantasy heroes to be made from a generic template? While I do appreciate the costume design creativity, the actual characters themselves seem to fit in the "so cute I just want to punch them" mold. And yes, the males are so de-sexed there's not much difference from the female counter-parts. Take for instance Square's upcoming FFVII CGI - Sephiroth wasn't supposed to look like a deranged female supermodel. I realize that we are a deeply vain culture and if something looks prettier we're more inclined to lay down our cash, so from a marketing perspective it does make sense to have uber-hot people as the protaganists.

    I'm not the biggest Final Fantasy fan although I loved VII to death I've become less and less excited about the series, I seriously just looked at those pictures and went "meh".

    Cool Game Character Design 101:

    1. White Hair is all the rage these days.
    2. Definitive scar over the eye.
    3. Big Hair is Better.
    4. Women's cleavage makes sense no matter what situation.
    5. Only those with ~6% body fat need apply.
    6. Sketch a woman, remove the breasts and makeup = instant male hero.


    Anyone care to add to the list? :)
    • by pmz ( 462998 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @01:22PM (#7466035) Homepage
      6. Sketch a woman, remove the breasts and makeup = instant male hero.

      No wonder I'm so attracted to male CG characters. Thanks, this means I'm not gay at all!
    • I don't remember the character art for FFVII, but it could possibly be that Sephiroth was originally drawn to look like a deranged female supermodel.

      After all, look at all of the art from FFVI. Kefka (the most evil enemy of all) looked like a deranged, annorexic clown.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • pretext: I'm an American living in Japan

      You honestly havn't a clue about Japanese culture. The Japanese view of an attractive male body is quite contrary to our overly-homophobic steroid-driven desires in the West. Your quite accurate description of Sqauresoft's male heros IS exactly what Japanese want to see in heros. Tall, slim, no body fat, big colorful/non-colored (anything but black!) hair, etc. They want their women to look the same with one key difference: big boobs.

      That said, if you don't like

      • I'm not complaining about Japan per se, I'm just as sick of seeing the typical "Conan" type in American games as well, I just want to see game designers challenged to avoid cookie cutter heroes. And they are slowly coming to this point.

        I consider myself pretty well versed in Japanese culture. I live in Vancouver which has a huge number of Japanese people, I watch lots of Anime and Japanese movies, play imports, etc so I realize that they like pretty men. On a side note I watched the Friends last night
        • I love the FF games and all (own every one) but I'm started to get a little tired of the pattern of the boy with spikey hair falls in love with the white mage and saves the world. At least X-2 has a girl main charactor, though it would be more impressive for a unique FF to star a girl.
          • Do you think it would sell as well if it was an African, Indian or other ethnic character? We all know Barret was the first African to star in a Final Fantasy game, but his ebonics detracted from the game in my opinion.

            I think that after FF12 Square will really have to change something drastically or become stale and predictable. I'm also getting tired of the Spikey Haired boy falls in love with Beautiful Girl Mage who is destined to die tragically, because it's her "fate".

            I mean it's still enjoyabl
            • I'ld like to say it would sell as well with an ethic charactor, but I just don't know. I know for me it doesn't take much to convince to buy an FF, but other people aren't like me.

              The most common thing I've heard against X-2 is that it's "too girly". As the first female led Final Fantasy, I'ld think that might come with the territory. And it's not like Metal Gear Solid and other games like that are ever dismissed as "too masculine" since you can only play as men. But, from everything I've seen, I'm the
  • It's about frickin' time they added "Pirate" to the set of job classes. I can't wait to play him. Arggggggg maties... chocobo dead ahead.
    • by Anonymous Coward
      More like "Argggg maties......check out all this copyright infrigment I'm doing!"

      Tee-Hee
    • "It's about frickin' time they added "Pirate" to the set of job classes." Dude, if this is true. . . my mind just went blank thinking about all the stuff I would do. Airship off the port bow! Take her amid-ship! Prepare to board! Arrrrr!
    • In FFV, one of the main charactors was a pirate.

      =)
      • Well, then it's about time they brought a pirate back (I never did play that one). Really though, the pirate was in reference to the magazine's mascot in the corner of the picture. I don't really think they're going to have a pirate. <glum>Sigh...</glum>
  • Also known as...
    Final Final Final Final Final Final Final Final Final Final Final Final Fantasy

    When will the madness end?
  • I don't think that anyone should be ripping on any FF game. If you don't like a certain one, like FFIX or FFX, then please don't sit there and b***h about them. Other people liked them, and it's really only a matter of opinion. Just because some people don't like a game dosen't mean that it realy does suck.
  • Its funny, these days when I think about playing the newer Final Fantasy games, especially FFX, I think of it less as a game, and more as an extremely long interactive movie. I have no doubt I'll be awed by the graphics, but it says something when I find it more enjoyable to download and watch all the CG cutscenes than to play the game.

  • I'd like them to go back to the format of FF 1 were I could pick four characters from eight different classes then play the game from there with a good plot.

    I also would love not having a "main hero" that I can't remove from the party except under a few rare instances.

    Could you imagine FF where you selected characters then the story just unfolds rather than that evil empire destorying the world by using up the life force/magic/mana. It would be nice to have a FF that followed Glen Cooks "Black Company".
  • Does anyone else find the name 'Final Fantasy XII' rather odd? Shouldn't the final fantasy be once and for all? Great series and probably the most famous of all RPG's, but a better name would have been nice. Still, I suppose it is too late to stop now...
    • by Daetrin ( 576516 )
      Does anyone else find the name 'Final Fantasy XII' rather odd? Shouldn't the final fantasy be once and for all? Great series and probably the most famous of all RPG's, but a better name would have been nice. Still, I suppose it is too late to stop now...

      Welcome out from under whatever rock you've been hiding under for the past fifteen years! After you've finished scraping off all the moss that must have accumlated over that time, i'd like you to read through this six foot stack of printouts detailing eve

      • Yes, I have been under a rock in terms of games- heck, I still remember Bard's Tale as the pinnacle of RPG's. Actually, I have never heard of any of those jokes about FF, but then again, I don't play them. Now back to my rock.
  • Because everybody knows it!
    No sensible businessmanager is going to _not_ use the Final Fantasy trademark. Just for the fact that it is called Final Fantasy it will sell well. Even though it is basically a new game.
  • Ships that fill the sky and a fantasy world with races other than humans. Boy and a girl as main charactes... hmmmm I smell FFIX all over again...
  • If Squaresoft actually went and made a new Final Fantasy game with generic characters. People you could name, who didn't have preset names of paths. Like the Light Warriors of FF1. No preset names, no preset paths -- only what you did with them.

    Another Final Fantasy game that has the exact same gameplay with the exact same hundreds of cliche plot points [project-apollo.net] and done-it-before gameplay makes me yawn.

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