230°

Why Final Fantasy XII is secretly the best in the series

I bought this game a few months ago with no intention of really getting into it, it was 5 bucks and I had enjoyed a lot of games in the FF series so I grabbed it. Well it is fu*king great! It’s an inspiring game and in a lot of ways not only one of the best JRPGs on the console

Read Full Story >>
screwattack.com
versusALL4250d ago

I always thought XII was the best in my opinion. It has the most realistic(believable) characters. The villan(while not as interesting as sephiroth) is fun to watch. The gameplay is deep, diverse, and a ton of fun, the story is very good and it's world is complex, and to cap it all off it looks just beautiful.

TheTwelve4249d ago

Game was entirely too easy, I'm afraid.

youndamie4249d ago

Yea allowing people to spam mist system kinda broke it, but the gameplay is still fun

Army_of_Darkness4249d ago

The main gay looking characters Vaughan totally ruined it even more.

Baka-akaB4249d ago (Edited 4249d ago )

Tidus looks easily as lame as Vaan , an Vaan wasnt even the sole main char of the game .

The game had literally three main characters that shone through : Vaan , Balthier , Ashe . With the rest of the team not that far behind in focus .

it's not at all a game where Vaan in particular was the big star . The whole team and its adventure was .

Even if you dont agree with that view , at least in FFXII if you hate Vaan you can find solace with the others .

In FFX , as it it mostly Tidus' story , you are screwed if you hate him (like i do)

NautilusXIII4249d ago

@TheTwelve
Agree. i beleive i beat the game at lv40. i was plannin on lveling to 80+ then fight final boss, but got impatient.

NewMonday4249d ago

this game had much more potential , the judges could have become the most awesome villains in any FF, but Cid and the emperor undermined their potential.

making the fugitive solder the main character would have been much more appealing.

remember this game had development problems with the Director being chained, this had an effect i'm sure.

blitz06234249d ago (Edited 4249d ago )

@Baka-akaB

If the game had 3 main characters that SHONE THROUGH it would be Ashe, Balthier and BASCH, not VAAN.

Vaan is easily the lamest MC in the entire FF franchise. Penelo had no business being in the game other than to 'babysit' Vaan and hold a nethicite Larsa gave her, which could have been done by some other character.

Basch and Balthier saved that game in terms of storyline characters. Vaan was basically like Tidus - he didn't know what the hell was going on, except Tidus actually came from a different place/time, whereas Vaan was just stupid to begin with.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 4249d ago
Zeixama4249d ago

Only things about FFXIII minus I are great city designs and memorable good soundtrack.

And it is not the best when you begin to live under the shadow of Danjuro. Item management is disaster. Ithuno is lovely pet.

The characters are easily unattachable. As a video game/fun/gameplay value, it is great but that supid story arch , that !! anone ne? annonne neee ?!!

Lucretia4249d ago

Imo ff12 was by far the worst FF game ever.

no characters had anything that stood out from other characters, they were all just reskins of themselves, no iconic weapons or anything, Vahn and his little girl friend both were not even the main characters.

the game sucked, it was too easy, and worst of all.....

it literally played itself. you could go to work and the game would be playing itself, fully healed and gain a bunch of levels and loots thanks to the gambit system.

seriously the game was no good

Reibooi4249d ago

XII being the best in the series is always something that will be up to debate. I mean at the end of the day it's the opinion of the person at hand and what one might like the other may not.

That said XII is by far my personal favorite. I loved that the story was something new and different(had far more adult themes like Political corruption, Murder and Betrayal and not just the typical love story FF was known for in alot of the previous games). Most of the characters were very well done and while I will agree that Vaan and Penllo were dull they are kind of the normal people dragged into something way over their heads so they have their place. Ashe and Balthier are some of the best characters in the series in my opinion.

I know alot of people hated the gambit system but I have never understood why. People complained that the game played itself which itself is a exaggeration. Yes you can get the battles to pretty much play themselves but you still need to navigate the world. On top of which the gambit system only worked as much as you wanted it to. If you wanted to be in direct control of more you could all you have to do was not set the gambit system to do what you wanted to do. Simple. It didn't HAVE to be a automated system if you didn't want it to be.

But I digress I could be here all day talking about why I like the game so much. I really hope at some point SE puts out a HD version of the game. Would buy that in a heartbeat.

Baka-akaB4249d ago (Edited 4249d ago )

FFXII twelve is seriously my favorite post ff6 title (With the tactics psx spin off). And i pretty feel the way you do about it .

Most people just didnt want to give it a clear chance and a deep look into the system .

Bimkoblerutso4249d ago

^Yeah, you can't go wrong with Matsuno. Tactics, FFXII and Vagrant Story are some of the best games in the industry as far as I'm concerned.

Ranma14249d ago

FF12 had a mediocre story

Bimkoblerutso4249d ago

I liked it. It didn't have a lot of the melodrama that has almost become borderline parody in the series over the years.

Though I can understand people disliking it, too. Fantasy politics is not something everyone can sink their teeth into.

l3Display4249d ago

XII had the best story, gameplay, and characters of all the Final Fantasy series.

3-4-54249d ago

I've only played FF11 and even I know FF6 would like to a have a few words with you.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 4249d ago
Snookies124250d ago

It was good, but DEFINITELY not the best in the series.

Lovable4250d ago

I agree with Snookies

FF Tactics is the best in the series.

vortis4249d ago

FFVI forever.

I know, I know...cue the flood of Cloud fanboys.

Megaton4249d ago

Agree on VI. Best ever, followed by IX.

Sarcasm4249d ago

VI is the best ever. Characters, story, and graphics (for its time).

FFXII was good, not the best, but good. Better than XIII at least.

Snookies124249d ago

Yeah, gotta agree that VI was the best. It had amazing music, story, a huge cast of party members who were thought out, tons to do before fighting Kefka, 2 world maps which was just unreal back in the day... Everything you could possibly want, and it STILL holds up to this day, which is extremely rare for games that old.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 4249d ago
MattyG4250d ago

Shhh, it's a secret to everybody.
And I've never even played 12, might have to check it out now.

Catoplepas4250d ago

It's certainly home to some of the best dialogue and voice acting gaming has produced. The audio compression did give the impression that it was recorded in a tin outhouse though, but I always thought that added to it's charm rather than it's detriment.

Hopefully once Square pulls their collective fingers out and finishes X HD they'll move on to this.

FinaLXiii4250d ago (Edited 4250d ago )

For me its FFIX the best representation for the series but i understand that people have their own favorites.

No emo crap in FFIX =)

Show all comments (69)
370°

Square Enix Declares $140m Loss Amid Game Pipeline Shakeup

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth publisher Square Enix has declared a $140m loss based on a shakeup of its internal development pipeline.

Read Full Story >>
techraptor.net
Furesis4d ago

What are they doing over there? Sounds like they canceled something big. I read a rumor a while back about ff9 remake . Here "Final Fantasy IX has gone through a very challenging development, the game is still in progress but may undergo changes drastic enough that we won't hear about it for a couple of years."
This could be one of the reasons if the rumor is true. That was Silknight i don't know how credible he is but it's something and it would make sense.

-Foxtrot4d ago

I hope IX is still on the cards

Just a straight up remake which they expand a little bit nothing over ambitious

If IX dosent happen then VI and VIII will never be thought of.

Kakashi Hatake3d ago

6 and 8 were way more p popular games despite today's cult following of 9.

blackbeld3d ago

I want my FF8 remake! Can't believe they cancelled it.

TiredGamer3d ago

What are they doing? Sales are falling and the costs are out of control. Big releases need to be absolute sales home runs now, and Final Fantasy sales have stagnated.

Now we know why Square didn’t fall over themselves to remake the original FF7 all these years ago. It certainly wasn’t a license to print money, at least not with what the expectations were. Each of these full on remakes drains an enormous amount of company resources for a razor thin profit margin.

TwoPicklesGood3d ago

Breaking the game up into multiple parts was a mistake IMO.

blackblades3d ago

The loses came from cancelling games nothing else.

Tapani3d ago

They lost the magic in the remakes. And the story is incomplete. The original FF7 is still way better. The Remake / Rebirth are just fan service. Like an Anime/Manga with "optional" filler content. FF7 had pretty much zero filler, it was paced extremely well, and still today flows much better than the grindy story and spongey enemy battles in the remakes.

babadivad3d ago

If they released it at once on all platforms, they would have made all of their money back. Could have been on to an FF8 or 9 remake. Ready to cash in again on nostalgia like Capcom. This is their fault for trying to milk the title.

Once I head they were breaking it up into parts, I lost all interest.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 3d ago
neutralgamer19923d ago

I hope people understand usually when a loss is declared it means a game which had been in development got cancelled. For example Sony Santa Monica before GOW-PS4 had cancelled a project which Sony had spent 7 figures on

As far as square is concerned they release a bad game once a year. Forspoken anyone?

For those making comments on remake not selling well, I hope y’all realize that Sony is the only reason this remake is happening. If Sony didn’t fund it the remake wouldn’t be happening. Just like Konami didn’t want to remake SH2 because development costs of 100 plus million

shadowT4d ago

Do not miss Final Fantasy 16. Great game!

raWfodog4d ago

I'm waiting for them to release the complete edition bundle, but it's definitely on my list.

PhillyDonJawn4d ago

Wth is going on with the gaming industry?

mandf3d ago

Corporate investors taking everything

TiredGamer3d ago

Not rocket science. Compare sales numbers, development cycles, and budgets to the previous gens. We are all collectively burning up the industry from the inside out. Expectations are ludicrously high now for every release and sales are dropping for even the most prestigious of series.

We used to be satisfied paying $50-60 for a game that took 1/100th the budget and staff to make. Now gamers feel cheated if they have to pay the same for a game that took 100x the budget. We may be reaching the end of the line for this model of gaming.

wiz71913d ago

@tiredgamer I think your point is one that ppl don’t understand and you hit it on the nose .. some gamers don’t want to take accountability but it’s some of the gamers fault the industry is where it’s at .. we as gamers set the standards for the industry not the shareholders , ppl forget that the shareholders and the industry want and need OUR Money. Both the Xbox and PlayStation are seeing a drop in hardware , the industry is very stagnant right now.

Tacoboto3d ago

Speaking to Square:

Turns out their mismanagement wasn't related to the western studios they dumped to Embracer, but their own fault.

With regards to Xbox - a good way to kill your brand is to pull support on high quality titles and only dump B and C-tier titles to it

With regards to PC - Epic Games Story exclusivity for any duration and piss-poor optimization will hurt you.

With regards to FF Pixel Remasters - y'all messed up by barely releasing them on physical, like wtf that was free money!

And lastly, you don't help a franchise by releasing a mainline title that undermines every title that came before it. FFXVI was a DMC-like with bottom-of-the-barrel side quests and I can't imagine that helping Rebirth at all considering its marketing is directly tied to how big that game is.

Tacoboto3d ago

Sony is getting their best titles and with the most polish, so what about it? Nintendo gets their top properties too, for titles that can run on Switch hardware.

It's the other fanbases that get the second- and third-class treatment from Square. If that's due to agreements with Sony, that's not a Sony issue but a Square one for accepting those terms. Sony is doing its best to look out for Sony.

wesnytsfs3d ago

sales and stupid practices like exclusives.

TiredGamer4d ago

The industry implosion is continuing. Sky high budgets, prolonged development windows, stagnant sales numbers, and falling currency values (inflation) are wreaking havoc on the legacy industry. AAA games will slowly become the rarity.

CS74d ago

Sad. Rebirth was one of my favorite games in a long time. Should have sold more.

CrimsonWing693d ago

Oh I’m with you. What’s worse is they can say, “Well we tried to make this amazing game and spend all this money on, but not enough people showed an interest. So no more of these since we can’t take a hit like that.”

The industry is going to take a dramatic shift. Mark my words on this.

rpvenom3d ago (Edited 3d ago )

I think there is quite a large portion of individuals like myself who held out on buying it on PS5 because I can get it on PC eventually. To be able to mod the game and also have custom graphical settings to my liking

gold_drake3d ago

same

but im not sure if it matters at all. im sure they made sony pay a hefty sum for the 3parter to come on ps5 exclusively. so watever they made in sales, might have come bk in profits for square, but i dont know
and we dont know what "underperformed" even means for square.

Show all comments (43)
130°

Square & Bandai Namco Being Honest About Quality Is A Step In The Right Direction

Saad from eXputer: "After suffering from massive financial hits, Square Enix & Bandai Namco appear to be turning over a new leaf but I'm still unconvinced."

Nerdmaster4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

I was talking about games with some Japanese guys here in Japan, and it seems like around here Bandai Namco has a fame of making low-quality games, with the occasional gem.

About Square Enix, I believe they lack the capacity to improve. They should learn with Capcom (although even Capcom still makes some bad mistakes), but I don't think they ever will. They keep chasing whatever is new at the time (blockchain, AI...) to say "we innovate", without considering the public perception and if these things actually improve the games or not. Them releasing too many small games with no advertising also shows a lack of trust in its own products. Even with their biggest games, like turning FF into an action game with XVI and the very divisive plot changes regarding whispers and timelines in VII Remake, shows them trying to attract a new generation of gamers without understanding what made the series so big in the first place.

shinoff21834d ago

I want a true ff7 remake. With thatcsaid I'm way happier with 7 remake then I was with ff16. I'd still prefer turn based but square keep chasing these Lil kids

Snookies124d ago

Man, it is perfectly fine to prefer turn based. Turn based is amazing. But there's zero reason to call anyone who likes action games "lil kids". Liking one gameplay system over another does not make you more mature in any way.

VersusDMC4d ago

People love the new FF's overall...the problem is the abundance of 7's they release that lose money or make very little like diofield, star ocean divine force, Valkyrie asylum, harvestella, foam stars, etc. Advertising wouldn't have saved those games. Apparently Forespoken had a big Advertising budget but we saw how that went.

shinoff21834d ago (Edited 4d ago )

Star ocean divine force actually sold well from what I've read not ff type numbers but well enough. Was a dope game to.

FinalFantasyFanatic4d ago

Bandai Namco is going to Bandai Namco, I do believe that Square Enix can't change without changing the entire management, they've had these issues for more than a decade and haven't learnt, I have very little faith they can course correct. I'll still buy their better remasters/remakes like Star Ocean 2 though (not FF7R).

Asterphoenix4d ago

Namco is just milking the same Sword Art Online with lack of budget as well as anime IPs that don't go to decent developers like Jujutsu Kaisen and My Hero Academia. Namco deserves their losses and no future Dot Hack or Xenosaga remaster :(.

Square allocated lot of their budget on Forspoken was a mistake. Square always had management issues. Star Ocean 2 was a great remake and I found their recent entries of FF(16 and Rebirth) better than 13 and 15.
I think they were better than 360/PS3 generation where Square went really downhill.

CrimsonWing694d ago

I don’t know why NOW they decide on this, but I guess later is better than never.

80°

I’m Glad Atlus & SE Changed Dates To Avoid Competing With Shadow Of The Erdtree

Saad from eXputer: "I'm glad I don't have to choose between Square Enix, Atlus, and FromSoftware due to bad release windows and Shadow of the Erdtree."

H910d ago

More intelligent than guerilla games

raWfodog9d ago (Edited 9d ago )

Atlus is releasing their game one week before Erdtree, SE is releasing theirs one week after.

HZD released four days before Zelda, HFW released one week before Elden Ring.

It seems to me like they are still releasing their games too close to Erdtree.

VincentVanBro8d ago (Edited 8d ago )

What a word vomit, rambling, turd of an article that simply states the obvious. Classic exputer.