Price just dropped to 17.99, and I've read several great reviews on it. However, it's been out for less than a year and already they've dropped the price to almost bargain-bin levels, which seems odd for such a high-rated game in such a marquee franchise. I was thinking of picking it up this weekend, but thought I'd ask around here first.

TIA.

Here's something I said a week ago on another board:

Personally I think the opposite: it was a nice upwards breeze to the FF series. At the same time I also tried FFX and, unlike with FF12, I quit it feeling perfectly disgusted at the story, characters, and the whole thing. When compared to this, FF12 got several things right:
-- Some mature characters (Fran and Balthier, for example).
-- Neat visuals and passable soundscape considering it's just TV and PS2.
-- Freely customizable skill-progress (no more pre-destined mages/warriors!)

And, of course, some things wrong:
-- Whatever-story. Some characters went out-of-character at times (e.g: Balthier not dissing the princess when everything said he should).
-- Cheating bosses. Nothing like them suddenly getting insta-gib abilities at 30% HP every fricking time.
-- Thin equipment mechanics. You get small sword, then slightly bigger sword, and bigger, bigger, bigger... You get the drill. Miss one "bigger" in between, boo-hoo. Not that other FF games are any better. *Two days later.*

So much for FF12. I threw it away, since it made me feel quite unhappy after the first, mandatory betrayer basically raped all six of my party members single-handedly at 5% health. Worse, most of his HP and abilities came totally out of the blue. Speaking about cheating.

Even the turn of plot was so predictably 'meh.' Big fellow lands from the sky, takes what you had worked for during the last two hours, and then the betrayer beats the crap out of you. Fun. So much that I will try God of War instead. To think I wasted several download-hours to get this thing :/

Which is a shame, since it could had been a nice game if the story had been more involving, the challenges more fair, and the mechanics more rewarding. Frankly, I think the FF serie has, by now, proven that it's nothing but hot air coming from the fans.Still think it holds true too. I'm not saying it's a bad game, only that you need to grind to make it playable and have a lot of patience for the abuse coming from the bosses. Whatever they say, it's *not* a RPG as much as a puzzle game.

Wow. Thanks Wordplay (you'll always be Virne to me), great analysis. I think I'll pass after all. Game Informer, whom I normally trust completely, gave it a 9. Maybe they didn't play as deeply as you did.

The price has dropped because the Platinum version is out (or will be in a few weeks).

It depends of what you like. My guess is that the Game Informer reviewer was a powerplayer and hence had no trouble with grinding for max level and finding the best possible loot.

Then there are the RPG gamers like me, who usually skip most of the unnecessary stuff at the first run and just follow the story. I like to play through the characters, so the game basically wanted to force me to become a powerplayer if I wanted to keep up with the increasingly difficult puzzle-fights.

So I can say that it's a game worth trying, but you're risking your money with it. Of course, you could do like I did and try it out "Yarrr!" -style.

In my opinion, short answer: NO!

Game Informer (and most other video game publications) have to rate a game by Square-Enix high due to advertising. Every other page that isn't an article (glorifying Square-Enix) is an advertisement of some kind. Heck, Game Informer even has a whole page dedicated to the staff advertising things in each issue!

As for Final Fantasy 12, it's a terrible game. It will take 30+ hours of level grinding to beat and then, it's not worth it. I won't spoil the ending, but it's a rip.
The "innovative" grid system is like Final Fantasy 8. ALL the characters fight the same, unless you make some ranged. The story is really just a hodge podge thrown together deal. The game is so long (and the level grinding :mad: ) that when you get to a plot point to continue the story, you forget why the heck you were headed there in the first place. Characters and sub-plots just pop up out of nowhere with no explanation. It's just sad that this series that had some prestige has fallen to such an abyssmal state.
As for gameplay, there isn't any. You can seriously set up a Gambit, so you don't even have to do anything except move your character. You don't even have to fight because the Gambits fight for you!

Also, on a sidenote, I heard the game was rushed out due to the PS3's holiday release. It came out like a month or so before, and the game definitely looks and plays like this was the case.

[ September 23, 2007, 16:37: Message edited by: starfox64 ]

I just thought I should add something here. This game is probably cheap now, and maybe someone would like to try it out. I say its good enough game, but, it might depend upon on significant thing!
Gamefaqs.com Yes, to be able to enjoy this game you need to know some crucial facts, or secrets. Those tips will make grinding pretty much redundant, and so the game will not seem as such a drag, or whatever is implied above.

The thing is I went for the faqs strait away, and didn't feel like throwing the game in the garbage. It's been a wile but my memories are good ones :)

Anyway, some of the hints are ways to level quite efficiently (almost like an exploit, but not exactly) and to acquire some EXTREMELY powerful equipment early on. This includes some grinding, but not much.

I played it when it came out, and I didn't really get into it, but it was at a time when i was falling out of love with JRPGs. I look back on it now a lot more fondly.

Hell, I might even play through it.

I got it shortly after it came out and I loved it. As far as rating FF games, I think 5 and 6 were the best, then 7 was good, then 8 was just bleh, then 9 was more on par with 7, 10 was crap, 10-2 was even more crap, and 11 was an MMO. I consider 12 to be the ressurection of the series. I wouldn't put it up with 6, but it's better than 7 in my mind. The plot is pretty typical for FF, but well done and suitably epic. Characters are good, archetypal, but good (again, typical for FF). Character customization and variability is actually significant for a FF game. You can more-or-less make anyone anything. The gameplay is difficult, challenging, but not impossible (which I liked). I beat it without more than an hour or two of grinding total.

What finally convinced me to buy a PS3 was that FF12's cut scenes were killing my PS2. I could hear the poor thing groaning. Between FF12 and the blue-ray player, I consider it a good investment.

Now we'll see if 13 is any good.

FF XIII was a piece of garbage that was 'soothing for the eyes'. At no point did I enjoy the gameplay at all.

FF XII, however, was masterfully well written. Anyone saying the bosses 'cheat' needs to have their head checked. When in the last 10 years in a consule RPG have you been challenged? The last 'boss' in any RPG that truthfully was a challenge before this game was the Emerald Weapon in FF VII. When it breaks down to it... if you understand where the boss grows harder, you can shift your strategy to defeat him/her. I for one am tired of games being made that a 12 year old could master and defeat easily and FF XII was good for that. Anyone that didn't understand the gambit system struggled with this game.

The arguments show how different each game is in the series imo. The only FF I hated was 13.

I didn't enjoy 12 as much as 10 or 8, in comparison while 10 had a very deep storyline populated by out-of-place NPC's 12 was just the opposite. I didn't hate the game though.
Grinding is a fundamental part of all FF's, but each one has some anti-grind mechanic. Like for 7 it was figuring out which materia to use, for 8 it was the card-mod system, for 9 it was having Zidane and co. use steal as much as possible so that Thievery became OP and for 10 there was Yojimbo's Wakizashi and Zanmato.