surf dtoid with 
Rising (10+)
People you follow
send message
follow
followers
Honestly, I can not get into either battle systems. Tales "feels" like button mashing; and FFXII, like you said, feels like a MMO. Maybe I am old school but I prefer the old FF battle systems with the occasional twist thrown in.
Right now I would say my favorite battle system in a RPG is Demon's Souls'. Demon's Souls' battle system is what I had hoped PSO/PSU would eventually evolve into.
Right now I would say my favorite battle system in a RPG is Demon's Souls'. Demon's Souls' battle system is what I had hoped PSO/PSU would eventually evolve into.
I'm a fan of true turn-based RPG's like FFX is. But I think they did a great job on the FFXII battle system. It take a little time to get used to, I'll give you that, but after you know what's going on it's pretty good.
Its a false statement to stay FFXII uses FFXI's battle system. FFXI is a bunch of independent people using programmable macros for gear and actions that they decide should take priority over other actions and gear sets. All actions and macros are still entered manually, though, the players always decide what their next action will be.
In FFXII, you have a AI system you program to recognize conditions to act upon them. This is basically taking all the work you'd do in a turnbased RPG and just letting you do it up-front so you don't have to button mash X to attack or navigate menus to select all these actions you normally would. This lets you sit back and oversee the action and you can change tactics as needed.
Both systems are only as convoluted as you make them. If you think the Gambit System is steep, you should see the macro lists I composed for Scholar in FFXI. It consists of 100+ spells from the Scholar/Red Mage job combination and also includes gear swaps and macroed page swaps, too. And I only did it to make my play efficient as possible, I didn't have to. Many people wouldn't go to that much trouble for one job.
All my Dragoon Macros fit in a neat little set of 20 macros. Ranger has less than 60, one set of 20 assigned to Bow, Crossbow and Guns respectively.
FFXII's Gambits are a cakewalk by comparison, the only annoyance for me being manually switching out equipment in character equip menus.I only need Thief's Gloves for Steal.
In FFXII, you have a AI system you program to recognize conditions to act upon them. This is basically taking all the work you'd do in a turnbased RPG and just letting you do it up-front so you don't have to button mash X to attack or navigate menus to select all these actions you normally would. This lets you sit back and oversee the action and you can change tactics as needed.
Both systems are only as convoluted as you make them. If you think the Gambit System is steep, you should see the macro lists I composed for Scholar in FFXI. It consists of 100+ spells from the Scholar/Red Mage job combination and also includes gear swaps and macroed page swaps, too. And I only did it to make my play efficient as possible, I didn't have to. Many people wouldn't go to that much trouble for one job.
All my Dragoon Macros fit in a neat little set of 20 macros. Ranger has less than 60, one set of 20 assigned to Bow, Crossbow and Guns respectively.
FFXII's Gambits are a cakewalk by comparison, the only annoyance for me being manually switching out equipment in character equip menus.I only need Thief's Gloves for Steal.
I love the FF12 battle system, and loved the fact you can make your party go fully auto.
Coupled with power levelling, which I'm doing at the moment, and the need for constant micro management is gone. Set up your gambits correctly for each battle area, and watch how the party kicks arse. When you have your gambits up and running all you need to do is use the left analouge stick to move about, perfect for zoning out and enjoying the character designs of the enemies, or appreciating all of the visual work the dev team did on the game.
I did not find the system convoluted at all or steep, simply because I kept it simple and used brute force to over come enemies/bosses rather than messing around with magic, setting up healing gambits for my party. This worked grat and after countless battles, never let me down.
Coupled with power levelling, which I'm doing at the moment, and the need for constant micro management is gone. Set up your gambits correctly for each battle area, and watch how the party kicks arse. When you have your gambits up and running all you need to do is use the left analouge stick to move about, perfect for zoning out and enjoying the character designs of the enemies, or appreciating all of the visual work the dev team did on the game.
I did not find the system convoluted at all or steep, simply because I kept it simple and used brute force to over come enemies/bosses rather than messing around with magic, setting up healing gambits for my party. This worked grat and after countless battles, never let me down.
I actually started playing again 2 days ago, and I happen to love the battle system. It is different and new, and I love not having to see a load screen before killing crap.
I've played just about every Final Fantasy, but I only started XII about 3 weeks ago. I'm 40 hours in, and for the first time ever in a FF game I don't care.
The story just hasn't grabed me. The characters all seem so bland and flat (and why do they only wear shades of brown?), and I have no idea what is going on with all these warring Kingdoms and their politics and their silly names.
Saying that though, the combat is the only thing that has kept me going. The MMO-style loot collecting aspect is extremely addictive. But I never really use spells, and battle tactics seem to boil down to who has a higher level. Overall, it all seems sluggish. I found FFX way more fun, and here's hoping that XIII is closer to capturing that high-speed fun.
The story just hasn't grabed me. The characters all seem so bland and flat (and why do they only wear shades of brown?), and I have no idea what is going on with all these warring Kingdoms and their politics and their silly names.
Saying that though, the combat is the only thing that has kept me going. The MMO-style loot collecting aspect is extremely addictive. But I never really use spells, and battle tactics seem to boil down to who has a higher level. Overall, it all seems sluggish. I found FFX way more fun, and here's hoping that XIII is closer to capturing that high-speed fun.
I really liked the FF XII battle system. It wasn't very frenetic but it gave the battle a good pace.
I came hear as the rest to say how bad you are wrong but it seems to be pretty clear, you ARE wrong, FFXII combat system is great, a great improvement to the damn FFX "combat" system (more like press X while watching the TV).
At least in FFXII characters keep attacking automatically, and I always kept my party-leader with the gambits turned off.
At least in FFXII characters keep attacking automatically, and I always kept my party-leader with the gambits turned off.
Wow, looks like I definitely stirred up some emotions from the Destructoid community. Awesome. I'll try to just give a blanket response here due to the huge amount of responses, so bear with me.
What I'm seeing in the comments so far is that people either ignored a large portion of the battle system and just set up a couple of gambits and relied on brute force to get them through or they set every last little thing to create a totally customized party designed for the sole purpose of kicking ass. I don't like how there really is no middle ground with that system. You're either tinkering with every character's movesets or you're just setting a couple gambits and hoping your power leveling prevails. To be honest though, I mostly just hate the battles themselves that try to pass themselves off as open world encounters that have the same base mechanics of every other Final Fantasy game set on Active. I want to be able to move freely and rely on timing and strategy than doing something like selecting defense from a menu for when the monster inevitably hits me.
Now for some of the other comments.
@ElectroZack: Yes, I've heard the Demon's Souls system is fun and engaging, but I haven't gotten a chance to play it myself.
@Riegel88: True, the fact that there are no loading screens before battles is one of the positive things they took from MMOs.
@Excalipoor: I've played a few "Tales of" games and I enjoyed them all, though Symphonia and Abyss stand out for me. I can't wait for Graces to come out.
@Ezequiel Alvarez: I don't think there's really a wrong answer here. I just love seeing a community that's so passionate about video games that when they defend it they actually give reasons instead of baseless name calling. It's very refreshing.
What I'm seeing in the comments so far is that people either ignored a large portion of the battle system and just set up a couple of gambits and relied on brute force to get them through or they set every last little thing to create a totally customized party designed for the sole purpose of kicking ass. I don't like how there really is no middle ground with that system. You're either tinkering with every character's movesets or you're just setting a couple gambits and hoping your power leveling prevails. To be honest though, I mostly just hate the battles themselves that try to pass themselves off as open world encounters that have the same base mechanics of every other Final Fantasy game set on Active. I want to be able to move freely and rely on timing and strategy than doing something like selecting defense from a menu for when the monster inevitably hits me.
Now for some of the other comments.
@ElectroZack: Yes, I've heard the Demon's Souls system is fun and engaging, but I haven't gotten a chance to play it myself.
@Riegel88: True, the fact that there are no loading screens before battles is one of the positive things they took from MMOs.
@Excalipoor: I've played a few "Tales of" games and I enjoyed them all, though Symphonia and Abyss stand out for me. I can't wait for Graces to come out.
@Ezequiel Alvarez: I don't think there's really a wrong answer here. I just love seeing a community that's so passionate about video games that when they defend it they actually give reasons instead of baseless name calling. It's very refreshing.
I agree with Brimtastic. I couldn't get into the story nor did I connect with any of the characters. XII was one of the few FF's that I didn't care to play through. I found the battle system to be ok, but it was not enough to keep me playing such a boring game.
About two thirds of the way through the game you can use the auto grinding trick
youtube.com/watch?v=yvjD0GV7lOY
Tell me that's not genius.
youtube.com/watch?v=yvjD0GV7lOY
Tell me that's not genius.
I ran through way under leveled to grab the zodiac spear. Then i proceeded to just grind. Once u have the gambits set i found the battle system quite fun. Just a matter of reaching the point where everyone is set nicely and has great weapons.
A tip ElectroZack, if you try to play FF12 again, crank the battle speed up as far as it will go. You'll have a roaring good time, I'd recommend it.
Final Fantasy 12 is the only Final Fantasy I've ever enjoyed - apart from 9, but that was for aesthetics, not for mechanics - and I'm deeply depressed to hear that FF13 will be going back to the more traditional style of turn based strategy - as far as I know - instead of sticking with the fantastic system in 12 which actually turned me on to the franchise for once.
Final Fantasy 12 is the only Final Fantasy I've ever enjoyed - apart from 9, but that was for aesthetics, not for mechanics - and I'm deeply depressed to hear that FF13 will be going back to the more traditional style of turn based strategy - as far as I know - instead of sticking with the fantastic system in 12 which actually turned me on to the franchise for once.
