Final Fantasy XII details emerge at last!

I'm fairly sure it'll be on PS2. Anyway, those screens have to be PS2 shots, surely?

 

If they're PS3 shots (which they're not of course), then the PS3 is gonna look REALLY lame compared to "XBOX2" and "Gamecube2"

 

One of my friends read the Japanese at the bottom. It's definitely PS2.

 

I have to agree with Pooja on his view of FFX-2. I'm taking a pass on it, will be checking out FFXI later though.

I've been looking forward to FFXII but from the current information its kinda hard to say if I'll love it or not. The screenshots look nice but it will most likely be the story information, gameplay system, and if not we can explore like in pervious FF games that will make me preorder this, pick it up when I see it, or pass on it. I want to be made to preorder this baby.

 

Man, don't even worry about the gameplay. The team that did Vagrant Story and FF Tactics is doing FFXII, so I'm not worried at all. And since I'm too lazy, I'll just go ahead and spread what information The Magic Box got on FFXII:

-the game will ship on TWO DVD's
-the game world is going to be huge
-very little love elements
-gameplay closely similar to Vagrant Story (not exactly like it, but it shares some elements)
-and that's about all I can remember

Anyway if you want to know more,
The Magic Box

edit: the site seems to be down or something.

 

Nifty. What was Vagrant Story's gameplay like? I never got around to trying it.

 

I hope thats not true. I thought Vagrant Story was so freaking boring. Way too much emphasis on stat menus and crap. On top of that, all these menus you are forced to look through were extremely inefficient. But I'm sure everyone will disagree with me.

 

Note that I said that the gameplay will share some stuff from Vagrant Story; it won't be exactly like it. Even if it was, I couldn't complain seeing as I thought Vagrant Story was one of the best games ever.

 

Jesus... Christ...

edit: well, they took it down for the time being (guess they thought it was too early, or they were testing it or something) but anyway it had some new art, high quality images of gameplay and cutscenes, and my God it looked incredible.

 

Darn, I missed it. Why is it that sites come down after you link to them?

 

I'm an e-curse.

 

Well thanks a lot. Because of your curse I can't feast my eyes on those FF12 goodies! They'll probably be back up a little later, though. The site says November 19 is the official launch date for the site, and it's the 19th in Japan right now.

 

Let the drooling begin

November 19, 2003 - Hundreds lined up outside the Virgin Cinemas complex in Tokyo's Roppongi area today in anticipation of Square Enix's unveiling of Final Fantasy XII, the first traditional entry in the FF series since Final Fantasy X some two years back.

At the presentation, Square Enix showed off a three minute trailer of the game and had various staff members (including the father of Final Fantasy, Mr. Hironobu Sakaguchi himself!) comment on what we can expect from the game. We'll have some details on the unveiling conference shortly, but in the meanwhile here are some of the new bits and pieces that were revealed on Final Fantasy XII itself.

FFXII takes place in a Mediterranean-influenced world called Ivalice (this is actually the same world as featured in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, only this is the first time the world has been shown in such detail that we can make such statements as "Mediterranean-influenced). At the center of the game's story are its hero Vann (17) and heroine Ashe (19). Vann lives in the Damaska Kingdom, which has been captured by the Arcadia Empire. Vann has a personal connection to the conquest of the Kingdom by the Empire in that he lost his family to the Empire. He dreams of becoming an air pirate and one day earning his own ship so that he can escape the empire.

Ashe, meanwhile, is the princess of the Damaska Kingdom. Seeing as how her father the King was killed at the hands of the Empire, she's the only heir to the throne. She's been missing since the end of the war that her Kingdom lost to the Empire. She forms a resistance group in order to take on the empire, meeting along the way.

The video trailer showed numerous sequences from the game, including events, battles and pre-rendered computer graphics. Visually, it's clear that the game has improved considerably over Final Fantasy X, with characters who look more detailed and animate smoothly (no more of the shaky movement of the previous installment). Surprisingly, it was revealed that the characters use far fewer polygons than their FFX counterparts, suggesting that the good looks are due to better shading and texturing routines.

FFXII seems to borrow a bit from previous Final Fantasy games. The main characters are listed as class "Humes," which is recognizable from Final Fantasy XI. The "Judge" character from Final Fantasy Tactics makes an appearance in the game as well. In Tactics, the Judge characters were a special group of Knights who promoted law and order by overseeing battles and penalizing those who disobeyed the rules. In FFXII, the Judge characters form a group of "Knights of Terror" and serve as an adversary to Ashe and Vann. A Judge character can be seen in the logo artwork for the game, pictured to the right.

In some ways, FFXII is the final product of a vision producer Yasumi Matsuno had for a game eight years ago. Back when producing the original FF Tactics, Matsuno had a vision he wanted to achieve but was unable to, the idea of an immature world, where human rights aren't at the same level as that of our world. You'll be able to see this idea in FFXII through the cast-based society present in the game.

Also discussed at the presentation was a bit on the game's sound component. While famed composer Nobuo Uematsu wasn't present, his counterpart, Hitoshi Sakimoto, who's also working on the game gave out a few comments. It was revealed that FFXII will feature a theme- song-like-thing at the end of the game, although the team is actually trying to do something different this time around. Apparently, what comes at the end of FFXII won't be just a theme song with lyrics, but something beyond that -- something new. No, specifics weren't revealed.

Produced by Yasumi Matsuno (Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Battle, Vagrant Story) and featuring art direction by Hideo Minaba (FFVI, FF Tactics, and FFIX), character and 3D map direction by Akihiko Yoshida (FF Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Vagrant Story)

 

Sounds good. And the FF12 site is officially up now. Later I might go through and translate it, but on a quick glance I did pick up words like "Damaska" and "Arcadia." I've also discovered the name of a third playable character: Fran (furan).

 

Does sound good.

I'm really gonna have to hear more about the battle system before I even put it on my want list though. Thats gonna make or break for me.

I expect the story/music/visuals will be good as usual in typical Square fashion, so I'm not worried about that.

 

Yeah, that's the real sticking point. Based on the screenshots, it looks like it'll be the standard three party member system. I would assume it's also turn-based.

It's good to hear that the concept has been around for eight years, as it means it's been very carefully considered.

 

Seeing airships probably means it takes place long before FFT and the Zodiac Brave story.

I haven't played FFTA, though, so I don't know what it's about.

Pooja, how do you know Uematsu will just compose the end song ? FFT music is quite good, no doubts of that, but it still isn't as good as Uematsu's.

Combat trun based ? Cool news. I rather feared the return of ATB, while it's not a bad system I prefer the CTB used in Tactics and X.

 

That's not necessarily what I meant by "turn based." I'm guessing, based on the screenshots, that you give commands to your party members when each of their turns come up. Whether it's the ATB or something else, I don't know. I'm also tired of the ATB, though.

Or I could be totally off and it's something more like Kingdom Hearts. The fact that the characters are standing in the traditional "hero line," however, makes me doubt that.

 

Oh, ok. Guess we'll have to wait for more info.

Anyway, sounds good. Now I have one more reason to play FFTA. Damn. As if I hadn't already enough reasons.

 

There was another report I read on a Japanese site (translated by someone on a message board) that said that Uematsu would be doing the theme song while Sakimoto will do the rest. I can't complain, really, as I think Sakimoto is just as good as Uematsu (and even better when it comes to quality). Uematsu is my favorite thematic composer, but Sakimoto's music always seems to have higher quality.

It speaks for itself.

 

Nice video. I think I saw Shiva in there. It was also nice hearing the Japanese voices which probably won't be in the U.S. version.

 

I love Uematsu and own all of his FF scores, but by FFIX I got tired of his work. The new guys who worked on FFX and FFXI did a very nice job. I'm sure Sakimoto will do a fine job also and bring yet another fresh FF score.

And the video looks great. It gives me some hope for the battle system.

 

Here's a link to a torrent with several videos, interviews, screenshots, the music from the official site, etc... I think the interviews and texts are translation from the magazine where the pictures were first seen.

 

From what I've seen it kind of has my interest. I have almost every Final Fantasy that you can get your hands and I intend on getting the whole collection if possible.