It has arrived!

[Müninn]

Well, launch night been fun =D Friend and I went to our local Gamestop for the 11pm launch party, met a few cool people (along with some other FFXI addicts). Midnight finally rolls around, and I get my copy of the game, special edition along with the special edition guide (which is quite large).

First impressions:
So far, lovin it. Nice design, good music, and a nice amount of movie clips at the start. So far from the start the story is quite intriguing and to have some good depth to it. Now I can't wait til my mom wakes up so I can play it on our widescreen TV (and the game does come with a widescreen format option).

For now, I'm tired =P I'll post some more tomorrow (today? o_O) after playing the game for a few (10+) more hours lol.
(PS. It's almost 3am right now, so don't mind bad spelling and lack of a lot of detail xD)

[lukeman]

I think I speak for everyone in the PAL region when I say:

...Jammy git. lol

[Dusk]

How very dare you, I suggest you go take it back now before I open a can of whoop ass.

[Depu Techiikue]

xD

At the midnight launch at my store where I work at, this guy was shaking around outside, and walking back and forth by the door. It was kinda funny, he kept bragging about standing out there for three hours, four by midnight. That's when you know you need to get another game to play, or a movie to watch, or a friend to hang out with, or something. XP

[Mirae]

I think I speak for everyone in the PAL region when I say:

...Jammy git. lol
xD lol!

Damn you lucky NTSC region US peoples :P Tell me what the game is like! O_O
I'm very curious, been anticipating this one a while now =D

[Trigani-Maru-Suke]

I just got the game yesterday...I'm not fond of the battle system -.-

It just doesn't feel like FF anymore without the tranditonal RPG style turn-based battles. I like how square enix tries not to be repeative (except for cid and the other returning names) but I was afaid when Star Ocean came out that we'd be seeing more action based RPG battle systems and less of the turn based, and it seems I may be right (for once lol).

Of course, I probably would have already known about the battle system if I had looked into it more, or played the demo, but I don't like doing that with games. It just get's me more anxious to play the game.

Anyways, overall I'm liking it, starting to get used to the battle system, just hope it'd not like that for all future FF games.

[lukeman]

Don't get your hopes up. First of all I KNOW that turn-based that your used to is gone for the next FF, and probab;y for good. The new combat is actually resoundingly popular mostly. Sorry!

[Xyrin]

Uhh..The game sort of -is- turned based..O.o;

You know FFX? The timing is exactly alike for both X and XII..There are only differences.

Each character has their own agility, as well as the monsters.

Now, it broke it up and calculated who would attack when and blah blah..


In XII, it's the same, except there is no waiting, your turn comes around and you launch your next attack.


I feel it a lot better being able to run around and fight instead of getting into annoying battles..you can run from monsters if you want, or you can fight.. I also enjoy packing up a BUNCH of them and then killing them all n.n


Other then that though, this is one of the best Final Fantasies yet..


All the people whining about the little things in FF, they actually fixed.

Monsters don't drop Gil anymore..O_o; They drop "Loot" (For example, a Black Chocobo drops chocobo feathers.) and you can sell them at shops for some Gil.

Also, as far as the battle system goes, it's DELICIOUS. You have to plan your battles out well, or the result will be your entire party dying T_T

Also about the gameplay:

Mist: So far I know of 2 "Mists".

Espers - These are the summons! There are a lot of them..and I'm 15 hours into the game and only have 1 .__.; Dammit, lol.

Quickenings - Weird name, but these things are helpful.. When I was fighting my first Esper, I was only doing about 200 damage with the swing of my sword. Well, luckely I had 5 people with Quickenings already... When you have full mana on a character, you can start a quickening. It will go into this little duel screen as they cast their quickening, and you have to press buttons for the characters to do their quickening. So.. If you have 3 characters in your party that have a Quickening, you can combo in their quickenings with your own. The highest I've gotten was a 10 combo. If you get above a 3 combo you get "Inferno" Which is a big explosion, then after 6 there's something else where a bunch of rocks fall down..I did a whopping 5k damage on the Esper. Only sad part is, if someone uses their Quickening they are compleatly 100% drained of their MP. So you kind of have to use it wisely.

(Also, if 1 person has full mana, and another character is in the party and has a quickening also, but only has half mana, they can still add in a combo (It's all depended on luck..) but from what I've seen so far, I'm pretty sure you'll only have 1/2 the luck than you would if they had 100% mana.)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tTp9a3B4R2g (This is a semi-crappy video of someone getting a 2 combo with Quickening.)

Also! Something I loved when I found out.. You can only have 3 people max on the feild.. For instance if you're playing FFX, and your 3 characters got butt-****ed, then you get a game over..Not in FFXII. If all 3 of your characters die, you can go into the options menu and change them out with people that are still alive.

The only problem I found here is if you want to Raise someone, they have to still be in your party to do so.


So far, I love the Graphics, Gameplay, Style, Characters, and all... Love the game 100%

[lukeman]

I watched one of the opening cutscenes (real-time, not FMV) on youtube. HOLY HELL the voice acting is good!!!!! I mean, I was expecting an improvement on FFX but this is unreal! The presentation is stunning as well.

This better be a February rather than March release over here! The sooner the bloody better!!

[Blackbird97]

i'm at the part where you get belias, the first esper. i have all the quickenings too for all six charcters.

[Moogle]

I agree, the battle system's different, but easy to get used to. Honestly, I only said "what the hell?.." once before I got the knack for it. Also, the High Rate video is bloody awesome. If you notice (I'm an overly observant geek) in the cutscene near the beginning, when Vayne makes his first Rabanastre-public appearance and presents that speech, watch the audience. They all move of their own accord, all completely different. That's amazing. I also think the fact that hair moves in the Low Rate scenes is incredible.. But I ramble, sorry, lol.

[Zidane007nl]

Well, the European release is February 23rd (finally). Too bad it won't be released a week earlier, so I could play Final Fantasy XII the whole spring break. :(