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[Logan Cano]

I personally think that art done right (especially by elite devs) > uber l33t hardware, but there will always be some things that could still look better if only you had some more texture memory and bandwidth. For example, characters' clothing close-up in FFXII; it is artistically impressive, but still a bit blurred because the detail has to be turned down in order to compensate for everything else that needs textured.

I don´t think that is really the case. I understand many of PS2´s shortcomings, but there are many games that shine graphically despite them. Judging from the demo, it looks like the problem is the graphics engine, it´s quite old, 2002 technology isn´t it?? Underwhelming graphics are a natural consequence of repeteadly delayed games, and (again, judging from the demo) while FFXII would have looked truly fantastic in 2003, today it is very dissapointing. Hopefully that changes in the actual release.

However, I´m still puzzled by the quality of the cutscene screenshots, they do look phenomenal, and it´s very interesting to see such a contrast between the gameplay sections and cutscenes. Is the game code so demanding that when it´s not needed, the engine can draw so much better characters??

 

[thetrin]

I don't care if the textures aren't as good as they should. Isn't the game's world supposed to be huge? And the enviroment in the demo was very very big, too bad we couldn't explore all of it in the demo..but it gave a great preview of the things to come?

The graphics are bad. Right. Have you seen those cutscenes? Holy shit, most amazing animation I've seen this gen.

I thought spells like fira look amazing. They stream across the screen like fire actually would, and you can FEEL the pain.

Word. It's the sheer vastness of the world that impresses me. I'd rather have a lower quality world of incredible scale than a really pretty but ultimately small world.

 

[duckroll]

it looks like the problem is the graphics engine, it´s quite old, 2002 technology isn´t it??

Yes, that is exactly true. Now shut up unless you want them to delay the game for another 5 years just to have slightly better graphics.

 

[RaijinFY]

Yikes, u really want to play the damn game!

 

[DarknessTear]

I dunno man, if you turn the camera to where it's close up on them and move around some you can see their accessories (necklaces and such) move around and their hair too. Plus the character models have a great amount of detail, too bad you can't really see the char models unless you do that. :lol

 

[Diablos]

I don´t think that is really the case. I understand many of PS2´s shortcomings, but there are many games that shine graphically despite them. Judging from the demo, it looks like the problem is the graphics engine, it´s quite old, 2002 technology isn´t it?? Underwhelming graphics are a natural consequence of repeteadly delayed games, and (again, judging from the demo) while FFXII would have looked truly fantastic in 2003, today it is very dissapointing. Hopefully that changes in the actual release.

However, I´m still puzzled by the quality of the cutscene screenshots, they do look phenomenal, and it´s very interesting to see such a contrast between the gameplay sections and cutscenes. Is the game code so demanding that when it´s not needed, the engine can draw so much better characters??

This is true, but one would hope that with all the delays they were able to tweak the graphics engine a bit.

 

[speedpop]

Beggars can't be choosers.

 

[duckroll]

sadjf; When the fuck did this happen?!~

Man, you have a real bad habit of only quoting the MISINFORMATION on the internet. You really fail at it.

I already explained that Itoh and Minagawa took over the directing duties. Kawazu is only on board as the Executive Producer because he's one of the ONLY Squaresoft people on the Board of Directors of Square Enix left now. The rest of the board of directors are all Enix people. Executive Producer = guy who signs checks. Like Sakaguchi did on FF8-11.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

The battle system needed a rehaul, although I wonder how its going to affect the overall game structure. The ability to "skip" enemies seems to imply that alot of the game is going to be 'kill x number of [insert creature here] in area to progress."

 

[duckroll]

Bad habit my butt! This was from 1up.com! They should get their stories right and I shouldn't have to go to some fan instead.

Didn't they steal fansite tactics to build their entire DoA4 guide too? :lol

 

[My Arms Your Hearse]

You actually won't be able to just run by enemies, at least later on in the game. You can already see the distinction between the two areas in the demo. On the Phonne Coast (sp?) you can pretty much run around everything, but if you try that in the Stilshrine, you're just going to get a lot of mobs on you at once, which is usually not in your best interest. I expect that there will be /more/ fighting in this version and also recall that enemies /respawn/ (and will probably do so at a higher pace in the final game than in the demo).

 

[Bizarro Sun Yat-sen]

However, I´m still puzzled by the quality of the cutscene screenshots, they do look phenomenal, and it´s very interesting to see such a contrast between the gameplay sections and cutscenes. Is the game code so demanding that when it´s not needed, the engine can draw so much better characters??

Probably it's mostly because for the cutscenes they know exactly where the camera will be, which characters will be on screen, which parts of the background will be visible, etc., and can allocate resources accordingly. This is also why FFX with its preset camera, smaller areas and random encounters (meaning no visible monsters to worry about) managed higher polygon counts than FFXII. All other things being equal, games (and parts of games) with preset, closed staging almost always look more impressive than games with open staging, large areas, etc.

 

[Bizarro Sun Yat-sen]

I'm a big fan of Kawazu's work, he's one of very few people left in the Japanese game industry who are doing anything worth a damn and the animosity toward him here and elsewhere is reason #98728364 that the mass of gamers will not be shown kindness come the time of judgement, but anyway, he's mentioned that he had no direct involvement with Code Age Commanders for which he was also credited as Executive Producer, so I'd imagine he's not directly involved with FFXII either. I hope you sinners are happy!