Even though I don't own a PS2, I still found myself buying Dragon Quest VIII earlier today...mainly for three reasons. One: At a certain gaming review site, they not only gave it a 9.0, but said that it can easily clock in at over 100 hours. 2: I've been dying for a hardcore RPG for a while. And 3: The Final Fantasy XII demo. I've been on the verge of buying a PS2 for years...and Final Fantasy XII was more than likley going to be a deciding factor in this.
And...I have to say....I'm gonna break down and buy a PS2.
At first, I was a little concerned about the newest in the FF series. "Simulating an MMORPG you say? Returning to Ivalice for the THIRD TIME? The male lead being prettier than the female lead?"
Well...its not all that bad. The battle system has been majorly tweaked so it "resembles" a MMORPG of sorts...but, I realized at its core, its still an ATB system like the previous FF games. You walk up in the aggro range of the monster, and the battle starts (although you can start a battle outside of the aggro radius, if you so desire). You tell your character to attack, and a little meter goes up, and once it's full they do whatever you told them too, kinda like ATB in reverse. Now, the only thing I could say against it is that once you confirm you want to melee attack, your character will keep attacking. Like, you hit attack once, the meter fills, Vaan attacks, and then the meter starts to fill again with no further action from you, and will continue to do so until you tell it otherwise.
However, you can cancel any command and change it out at any time...say, belay the attack order and use a potion.
There are also two modes...active and wait. Wait bascially pauses the game when you open the command menu and gives you time to think, and active does what you'd think it does (namely, not wait). I don't really have a preference between the two, although Active is more fun, I'd say.
The other two characters in your party do pretty well by themselves. They attack what you attack (mostly), heal you when you need to be healed (mostly), and can heal themsevles when they need it (mostly). You can butt in and give them a command at any time you wish, but they do pretty well by themselves.
All in all...I liked it. The measly two "missions" just barely whetted my appetite, and I found myself playing throught the demos a second time. And, I'll probably play them a third when I go back to my friends house.
But, it may not be for everyone. Tycho at PA had some strong words against it, in his "If you don't like what I like, you must be broken" way of speaking...and actually thats all I've heard about it from elsewhere.
What are your thoughts? Also, if anyone else has played it, I'd like to hear your impressions as well.
Topic: Final Fantasy XII Demo Impressions (Read 9123 times)
