... The images in OP are pretty much stamp-sized.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Final Fantasy XII (PS2) is still a gorgeous game
- Thread starter Razmos
- Start date
... The images in OP are pretty much stamp-sized.
It is indeed a very pretty game, to this day I'm still in awe at the sheer dread I felt when my characters arrived to
or the joy and relaxed feeling of the
...
For a long time I thought that my favorite game in the franchise would be FFVI but after playing this gem for more than 150 houres 2 years ago I put them both on equal footing because the gameplay is incredible, the characters are all likeable and the story was a nice departure from the previous games and was perfect for the kind of game this was.
I wish for this to get a HD remaster,
or the
on HD...
The Necrohol of Nabudis
Phon Coast
For a long time I thought that my favorite game in the franchise would be FFVI but after playing this gem for more than 150 houres 2 years ago I put them both on equal footing because the gameplay is incredible, the characters are all likeable and the story was a nice departure from the previous games and was perfect for the kind of game this was.
I wish for this to get a HD remaster,
Bhujerba
Imperial City of Archades
Eh, it's possible that some of the pics could be from emulators, but all that does is enhance how beautiful the game already was. Doesn't change the fact that the art direction/character design and everything else is generally what people praise the game on, rather than it's resolution/pixels, ect.
I remember it looking that good, since that's how I play the game now. No point playing it on a PS2.
Playing at a proper resolution only highlights how amazing the game looks. So much detail that is ACTUALLY IN THE GAME gets lost at PS2 resolutions.
LeoDiBlack
Neo Member
Totally agree with you
SenkiDala
Member
Well of course emulators make it looks good but when it was released it looked like shit even on day 1. 
I was pretty dissapointed since I'm an early fan of FF. It's also my last favorite FF but for other reasons.
But it looks fine on emulators yes, I might give it a second chance if there's a HD version.
I was pretty dissapointed since I'm an early fan of FF. It's also my last favorite FF but for other reasons.But it looks fine on emulators yes, I might give it a second chance if there's a HD version.
Well of course emulators make it looks good but when it was released it looked like shit even on day 1.
But it looks fine on emulators yes, I might give it a second chance if there's a HD version.
Disagree. Game always looked amazing. Looks better on emulator, but that's just because the art direction is already top notch.
Mashin Haters
Member
idk its just so dam confusing to me especially when i play the game on and off. The worst are the cut scenes dealing with the political discussions idk who is who lol. The OST is amazing.
My fav song is this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIkYOR5kgxM
Played it on ps2, never replayed it on an emulator and I still think it is one of the best looking games of all time. Judging from reviewers at the time, that was the usual reaction too.Well of course emulators make it looks good but when it was released it looked like shit even on day 1.
But it looks fine on emulators yes, I might give it a second chance if there's a HD version.
I'll agree with you there. FFXII is one of the harder games to pick up where you left off if you've been gone a while. Everything from a more nuanced plot/narrative background to the more open nature of the game makes it easy to get completely lost if you've forgotten what the last two cutscenes were like from months ago.
Pretty much this. The emulated screenshots are how I remember the game, even if they didn't look exactly like that.
Now that technology has gone on, it has obviously aged slightly, but back then it genuinely was one of the most beautiful games ever.
Modest Mauser
Member
Just because the game was lower res on PS2 doesn't mean it looked shit, it still looks wonderful. Emulator screens are higher resolution but they don't just magically up the graphics.
That's how I feel. It's easy to forget names and such when there are a lot of characters pulling the strings, on top of the fact that the game really encourages exploration. I remember someone saying once that they were too busy having fun to pay attention to the story, which is both a good and bad thing; it's an inevitable consequence of a more open game. Personally I still enjoy the setting of war and political intrigue, but it is hard to remember the details sometimes. The world building, locations and combat are top-notch enough for this not to be an issue, in my opinion.
LeoDiBlack
Neo Member
You have one point there, at first it's confusing but just because of the political context that the Ivalice Universe usually handles, same thing happened to me in Final Fantasy Tactics but later I learned about the story and... Heck, that Universe is so huge! I fell in love with it.
btw awesome track
Oh! I forgot to put this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSyfGm6wXgs - I'm captain Basch from Dalmasca
DON'T BELIEVE ONDORE'S LIES
I've often wondered how the Japanese script compares.
I think that it could have started once the western PS3/Vita versions of FFX were released. By then they had enough information on sales around the world to judge if it was feasible to go ahead with FFXII HD.
So my guess is that work on XII HD could have started before the first half of 2014 was over.
Aside from that, the reason they took so long to get X HD ready is that they announced it too early. I guess we'll know soon enough. But I fully expect XII HD to take less than a year from announcement to release (at least in Japan), like it happened with Type-0.
And I really hope Virtuos is handling the remaster if it is happening. They did an amazing job with X/X-2 on both PS3 and Vita.
Most FF characters are garbage anime rejects though. At least in the 3d ones.
The Praiseworthy
Member
While I find the gameplay and the level design of FFXII good.
The story and the OST and the world is not memorable as FFVII FFVIII FFIX FFX.
I can still remember the story events cut scenes CG scenes some tracks from these 4 games so clearly.... But FFXII? Nop, it's so shallow and missing the usual charms and fantasy.
That's way it's my less favorite modern Main FF game.
The story and the OST and the world is not memorable as FFVII FFVIII FFIX FFX.
I can still remember the story events cut scenes CG scenes some tracks from these 4 games so clearly.... But FFXII? Nop, it's so shallow and missing the usual charms and fantasy.
That's way it's my less favorite modern Main FF game.
The cutscene models were so good for the time too. Ashe's hands put Lightning potato fingers to shame.
That's hilarious, lol.
I'd say the FF games you prefer are far more shallow than FF12.
tiggerkiddo
Member
I always enjoyed going on foot from Arcadia all the way to Girvegan, it was one of my favorite RPG worlds and I would relish a chance to play it in HD. I played the hell out of my PS2 game. It had such a lovely soundtrack as well, some of my favorite places to just run around and kill stuff were the Great Crystal, Giruvegan or even Pharos.
The cutscene models were so good for the time too. Ashe's hands put Lightning potato fingers to shame.
That's just embarrassing.
Shin-Ra
Junior Member
Great example of a dev trying to cram so much in they lose sight of the basics.
The Praiseworthy
Member
The cutscene models were so good for the time too. Ashe's hands put Lightning potato fingers to shame.
FFXIII's is in game model.
FFXII's is HQ Cut scene model.
No.
I hope that the PS4 remaster has been in the works for quite a while so by the time they announce it,they're ready.
The guys did a fine job with the FFX remaster ,but I really hope they don't alter the faces if they were to handle the remaster.
HD hands are hard.
When I first played the game back in the day, what I was most dispappointed about was... that I had completely spoiled myself on the story. With the advent of Youtube, the numerous delays and the game being THE most anticipated game of all time for me (being a huge Matsuno fan didn't help too), everything was set for me to search about very detail about the story and the game's features before even completing it by myself. So in a way, I never really enjoyed the game like it deserved to be. Still didn't stop me from doing two playthrough, one of 60 hours and another of 270...
So yeah, with FFXII, I learned the hard way to NEVER EVER spoiler myself on a game anymore.
So yeah, with FFXII, I learned the hard way to NEVER EVER spoiler myself on a game anymore.
The Last One
Member
That's true, FF XII ingame models doesn't actually have fingers.
Shin-Ra
Junior Member
I don't remember, did FFXII have a lengthy loading delay into cutscenes?
FFXIII switched to pre-rendered, yet in-engine quality cutscenes for middle-importance cutscenes.
I haven't fully played XII and you can certainly not like it, but going for what almost everyone else says about its world, setting, characters and plot, it seems to me anything but shallow.
I hope so too. I not that I didn't like the faces in FFX, I actually did, but I understood the resasons SQEX mentioned for the change. But XII's faces, besides being great, seem in little need of change.
You all need some help, really... that's the HQ cutscene model and this is her "normal" model (the equivalent of what that post is trying to compare...)
Notice the lack of fingers...
Shin-Ra
Junior Member
Did they use this lower quality gameplay model during cutscene closeups? That's the point, XIII did.
You all need some help, really... that's the HQ cutscene model and this is her "normal" model (the equivalent of what that post is trying to compare...)
Notice the lack of fingers...
FXII's in-game cutscene hands, heck even the whole character model, are perfectly doable on 7th-gen consoles. There's no excuse for the rectangular prism hands on Lightning's in-game model. Even open world games like GTAV and Ground Zeroes last-gen had better in-game fingers than that.
I never said it was the ingame model. My point was that those hands were really well done for a ps2 game.
Yep. Opinions.
Megidolaon
Member
I pray to the gods we hear some words of this game getting an HD Remaster at E3.
Faram.
Faram.
Death Penalty
Member
Though I'm not a big fan of the character designs, the art direction in pretty much every other area is absolutely fantastic. The Espers are some of the most inspired summon designs ever, the backgrounds have a glorious fantastical element and the monsters are as varied and creative as they are well-executed. I agree with the OP that these elements make XII timeless. I don't believe I could ever consider the game anything but beautiful, no matter how much technology progresses in the mean time.
It's not my favorite Final Fantasy for a number of reasons, but that's unfortunate because it's by far one of the easiest to look at.
It's not my favorite Final Fantasy for a number of reasons, but that's unfortunate because it's by far one of the easiest to look at.
OP screenshots look much better than it looks on an actual PS2. When you can get up close to the assets they look nice, but still a bit jaggy. In the normal zoomed out camera view it's pretty blurry and jagged even at the best of times.
A great looking PS2 game overall, but I still think it looks dated (through no fault of its own). It also probably looks better on a CRT.
A great looking PS2 game overall, but I still think it looks dated (through no fault of its own). It also probably looks better on a CRT.
Absolutely. Even though it supported 16:9, it's a total jaggfest on a widescreen, even more so at bigger screen sizes.
badcrumble
Member
FFXII is easily the most ambitious FF game ever made. It doesn't manage to succeed in all of its ambitions and it's pretty deeply flawed, but it's still absolutely my favorite for all that it does accomplish.
The two things that I think would really help it out the most would be slightly more in the way of character-specific abilities (non-temporary character differentiation in battle is important, I think, for making every character's battle functions feel like an extension of their personalitiy) and a stronger focus on making sure that what you're doing in the story feels better-connected to the cutscenes (FFX did a very good job of making sure that almost every single boss in the game, with only a few exceptions, feels well-connected to the story - they're almost all sinspawn, yevon minions, sin itself, or seymour).
The two things that I think would really help it out the most would be slightly more in the way of character-specific abilities (non-temporary character differentiation in battle is important, I think, for making every character's battle functions feel like an extension of their personalitiy) and a stronger focus on making sure that what you're doing in the story feels better-connected to the cutscenes (FFX did a very good job of making sure that almost every single boss in the game, with only a few exceptions, feels well-connected to the story - they're almost all sinspawn, yevon minions, sin itself, or seymour).
Mendax
Member
wait until E3 and if nothing is announced play it on ps2 or pc
PulseONE
Member
Esper Summons in that game were legitimately the best looking thing on the console
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JFHUgg39_Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JFHUgg39_Y
Shifty1897
Member
I don't want to play it again on my PC but if Square doesn't announce an HD remaster, it's happening.
Is that a threat?
REMASTER THIS GAME. OR ELSE.
remasters really should all end up on PC as one of the platforms though. Posterity and all that :|
The Praiseworthy
Member
Well play the game for yourself then... People like to hype certain things up or un-hype certain things down.
FFXII isn't near memorable as the previous games.
I can name you Top 5 moments from each games I mentioned before with Top 10 memorable tracks and when exactly you hear them plus Top 5 emotional scenes.... But I can't do the same for FFXII.
It's Just so forgettable.
Northeastmonk
Gold Member
It's one of the best RPGs in the last decade. I'm saying that we should get an HD version. Who knows how SE thinks about all this, but I had a blast with XII. I also knew a lot more people in town who enjoyed it. It's a shame they haven't made anything better ever since. The game felt fun outside the main plot and you had a giant world to enjoy.
It may not have been as memorable as previous FFs, but it felt 10 times better. It feels good. It's also jam packed with great atmosphere and things to do.
I actually spoiled myself back when it was out in Japan. I did watch some of the end, but frankly it didn't spoil the game. The dialogue was excellent and everything felt fresh.