With a Halloween release and me never even paying attention to this game until the 30th I decided to head to Walmart and pick it up at midnight. I'm glad I did.
I started playing Final Fantasy games on the Playstation One so I'm pretty much a FF noob. First one I played was FF VIII and have never played the great American FF fanboy game FFVII. Other than FF VIII the only ones I've played are FFX and FF X-2. FFX is probably one of my top 5 favorite games of all time. Played it through at least 6 times. FFX-2 was fun, but I never really got into it and have yet to finish it either.
There are 2 different versions of this game. There is the regular and a Collector's Edition out right now. The Collector's Edition comes in a tin case and has a bonus DVD with a History of Final Fantasy video, interviews from developers, game art, etc. Most of that stuff will probably be on Youtube with in a week so unless you are a hardcore Final Fantasy fan the extra $10 that the CE costs might not be worth it for you. The strategy guide also has a Limited Edition. Apparently there are 8 of these with each cover having a different character. The LE guide also has quite a bit of extra art in it. From what I've heard they are very nice. They are packaged so you really don't get to pick the one you want unless you know the color covers and such.
Like all the others I start them and then start them over when there is enough walkthrough information on the net to allow me the ability to find everything in one playthrough. Since I got this on the release I have just been finding things out for myself. I've got 12 playing hours in according to my save slots as we speak so I guess I'll try and give some of my first impressions on it so far. Quite a bit to cover, but I'll try to keep it short and to the point. Probably won't though. I'll start with the gameplay as I think this game has some great new features and is really the best part of the game.
At first the game was rather confusing with the new battle system and the changes in the leveling. Of course this is nothing new as every one of these I've played have had a completely new system. In this instance I was not a fan of the battle system initially and thought I would end up hating it. The learning curve on it was rather long compared to previous titles and I'd say it took me about 3 hours of game time to catch on to it.
At this point I absolutely love the battle system now that I've caught on. There are some really interesting aspects to it. If you have played FF XI I guess the system should be relatively similar to you. The battlefield is more of an MMORPG than anything. There are no random battles anymore. You can actually see the enemies and can judge for yourself prior to engaging with them if it is a good idea or not. There is a good balance of enemies in each are with ones you can't possibly beat at the beginning that you should just stay clear of.
The battle system is called Active Dimension Battle (ADB). IT is still pretty much a turn based system, but has the feel of real-time. When in battle you can move your character around freely and even try to run away if you get into trouble. No "Flee" command is entered, you just run away on your own. The battle menu to select an action is brought up at any time on the battlefield by pressing the "X" button. All the standard attacks are there with Magick (Yes that is spelled right), items, and Technicks which are your abilities such as steal. All of these attacks can be done on the fly and when selected an active ATB gauge fills up before the action is done. When actions are selected there is no need to enter the action again during the battle. For example if you selected "Attack" your character will continue to attack until the enemy is defeated with no further commands needed.
Later on there is something available called "Espers" which are the summonings in this game. Also, you have the ability to perform "Quickenings" which are ultimately this game's version of Overdrives. Each character has unique Quickenings. I have not yet achieved any of these and can't go into much detail about them.
You have control over your entire party and can change the leader at any time while on the battlefield. What is unique about your party in FFXII is a system that they call Gambit. The Gambit system is a programmable interface that allows you to program your party members to do certain actions in certain situations. These actions will be performed when certain conditions are met in a battle and they start through their Gambit system when the leader (you) engages a battle. For example, you may program a party member to heal other allies when a condition is met. You could have a Gambit that says: Whoopiddiedoo...I quit typing.
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