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I just got done with the demo of FFXII and I must say, I am very, very pleased with what they've done with it. The game seems to have taken the core FFXI gameplay, which was horrible, but then, get this, they actually made it something that is fun to play.
The levels seem to be mission based, like FFX-2, where you go into a battle area, you have a few objectives to accomplish, and you have a boss battle. During your fights you have the option to use the Active Time or Wait Time battle systems. Basically, you just say if you wanna have the game pause for you when you're looking thru the menus, or do you want the game to keep going while you are browsing your options. I couldn't seem to find any sort of inventory/equipment menu (usually the default Triangle button) that gave me the status of my characters, with an options screen.
When you enter battle, you control the leader (who you can change on the fly) and then have the AI control the other two, and you can quickly jump over and just give a quick, specific action order to each one while fighting. All of this just melts together very nicely.
You get 2 missions in the demo, one in wait time the other in active time to get a handle on the differences. The first mission was set on a beachfront with mandagoras, flying fish, shaman-type creatures, and large horse creatures. The goal was to lure out the boss called the "Stonecrusher", a large Tyranasaurus Rex-like monster by killing 3 large horses on the map.
When the dinosaur came out, I then used the leader's, Vaan, summon skill which was a large earth-based combatant called Hashmal. He was a large stone creature, with mossy growth on it that threw rocks or punched the dinosaur with his large claws. Unfortunately, the dinosaur couldn't withstand the beating it gave to stay around for the summon to do his final spell. And just something of note, when a character summons a creature, the other 2 party members disappear for the time being until the summon is dismissed.
The second mission had me with a group of 3 different characters led by Ashe, with another summon. Their goal was to traverse this dungeon, fighting many creatures along the path, to fight a large Adamante to obtain the "dragon key"... oooohhh.
Using that key, I found the Ancient Door which opened up to the boss battle with the giant Ring Wyrm ... no, not a ringworm, but a giant Dragon-like creature with a large, metal ring around it's neck (very similar to Tira from Soul Calibur 3's weapon). I then threw up the summon for Ashe which was a large fire-based creature that sorta resembled a witch doctor on steroids. After having the summon put a whooping on the wyrm, the summon, Belias, then used its ultimate power of "hellfire" that just obliterated the monster in grand fashion (as you would normally see in any Final Fantasy, 7 and on).
After defeating the wyrm, I was treated to a second trailer giving more cut scenes and spots of gameplay. I can't really tell what the story is about, except a rival nation attacks your nation and all the other nations surrounding, with yours being the last to fall. 2 Years later the princess wants to be kidnapped by some Sky Pirates (yes, lots of airships in this one) to be a rebelious youth, I suppose, and the Judges (think FF Tactics) have something to do with this as well. The planet is called Ivalice, not unlike Final Fantasy Tactics, but the writers claim that the two worlds have nothing to do with eachother. I guess we'll just have to wait and see until next year for more on the new Final Fantasy XII. I'm excited as shit, and I thought it was gonna suck.
The levels seem to be mission based, like FFX-2, where you go into a battle area, you have a few objectives to accomplish, and you have a boss battle. During your fights you have the option to use the Active Time or Wait Time battle systems. Basically, you just say if you wanna have the game pause for you when you're looking thru the menus, or do you want the game to keep going while you are browsing your options. I couldn't seem to find any sort of inventory/equipment menu (usually the default Triangle button) that gave me the status of my characters, with an options screen.
When you enter battle, you control the leader (who you can change on the fly) and then have the AI control the other two, and you can quickly jump over and just give a quick, specific action order to each one while fighting. All of this just melts together very nicely.
You get 2 missions in the demo, one in wait time the other in active time to get a handle on the differences. The first mission was set on a beachfront with mandagoras, flying fish, shaman-type creatures, and large horse creatures. The goal was to lure out the boss called the "Stonecrusher", a large Tyranasaurus Rex-like monster by killing 3 large horses on the map.
When the dinosaur came out, I then used the leader's, Vaan, summon skill which was a large earth-based combatant called Hashmal. He was a large stone creature, with mossy growth on it that threw rocks or punched the dinosaur with his large claws. Unfortunately, the dinosaur couldn't withstand the beating it gave to stay around for the summon to do his final spell. And just something of note, when a character summons a creature, the other 2 party members disappear for the time being until the summon is dismissed.
The second mission had me with a group of 3 different characters led by Ashe, with another summon. Their goal was to traverse this dungeon, fighting many creatures along the path, to fight a large Adamante to obtain the "dragon key"... oooohhh.
Using that key, I found the Ancient Door which opened up to the boss battle with the giant Ring Wyrm ... no, not a ringworm, but a giant Dragon-like creature with a large, metal ring around it's neck (very similar to Tira from Soul Calibur 3's weapon). I then threw up the summon for Ashe which was a large fire-based creature that sorta resembled a witch doctor on steroids. After having the summon put a whooping on the wyrm, the summon, Belias, then used its ultimate power of "hellfire" that just obliterated the monster in grand fashion (as you would normally see in any Final Fantasy, 7 and on).
After defeating the wyrm, I was treated to a second trailer giving more cut scenes and spots of gameplay. I can't really tell what the story is about, except a rival nation attacks your nation and all the other nations surrounding, with yours being the last to fall. 2 Years later the princess wants to be kidnapped by some Sky Pirates (yes, lots of airships in this one) to be a rebelious youth, I suppose, and the Judges (think FF Tactics) have something to do with this as well. The planet is called Ivalice, not unlike Final Fantasy Tactics, but the writers claim that the two worlds have nothing to do with eachother. I guess we'll just have to wait and see until next year for more on the new Final Fantasy XII. I'm excited as shit, and I thought it was gonna suck.
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