Himuro said:
I dunno. When I expressed my disinterest in the game, you guys just railed on me instead of understanding my complaints about it.
No, we definitely listened. It's your complaints we rail against because you just don't get the game and it isn't for you. You absolutely hate Gambits but refuse to turn the battle speed down so you can switch through characters. You are extremely bull-headed and stubborn about things and you whine like a child sometimes when you can't get things your way, without realizing that is how this game is and you either have to play it this way, or suck it up and quit. You impose too many rules for yourself and completely refuse to adapt to the style of game you play by not grinding, by not using specific game mechanics, etc. There is a way for you to play without using gambits but you just don't.
It's times when you say things like...
half assed character customization that basically wants every character to learn every single thing on the board instead of using imagination to come up with customized beasts, with sparse story and little to no characterization in between. And every time I'd get a cutscene for my supposed "reward" for trudging through these boring dungeons and world that lack any variety whatsoever, the party would simply say,"We need to go to this next place. What we are seeking is not here."
These things piss me off because they simply aren't true at all. Firstly, if you hate this kind of character customization then you are basically calling everything that isn't a class system shit, because that's what it is. The only major difference is the actual weapons can be changed, and I think that pisses so many people off subconsciously. It's always been that Cloud has the Buster Sword and Barrett has the machine gun arm; you can't switch those! Yet in XII you can, and you feel that takes away from some of the "characterization" of the characters when in actuality, it doesn't at all if what weapons they use aren't related to the plot. This game gives you free customization of skills and magic, just like Materia, just like GF's and drawing, just like Espers.
Secondly I don't get you saying that the world looks "the same" everywhere. Yes, for the first part of the game you are basically stuck in desert environments, but those places are still amazing to look at. The desert that has the Big Shell-looking huge towers in the Sandseas, the pristine beaches of the Estersands, the ever-changing Giza Plains. Then you can get to places that look completely different from each other, like the Necrohol and Paramina Rift. I thought the whole swamp/bog area in northwestern Ivalice was awesome and really hadn't seen that used often enough.
Look, I could argue that you've never really given the game a fair shake because on the other message boards we are at you were ripping it all the way up to launch. Whatever - none of that matters. You don't want to like this game or you would like it. We've expressed our views to you countless number of times and I'm sure the people here have as well, but it's really up to you and you clearly don't get the message this game is trying to send and you don't like the style and manner in which it presents it. It's a shame that you can't get into it because I think it does a lot of things that should be on the "next wave" of RPGs. Persona 3 is a nice throwback to some really hardcore, old-school drag your knuckles on the ground ass-kicking RPG gameplay with a slight twist, but XII should be where we are going - no random battles, sophisticated and intelligent AI that you still control, open-ended character building with unique attributes so you can do whatever you want, and vibrant, large open worlds to explore.
KTallguy said:
I guess... but the only individuality was the mist knacks really. I liked the balance of FF6: all the characters could learn magic but each character had one unique type of skill.
Himuro said:
Ditto. I liked how each character COULD be the same in FFVI, but at the same time, they still all had unique abilities so they wouldn't ALL feel cookie cutter.
See, this is what I just don't get and makes me extremely frustrated. To me, FF VI skills like Sketch/Throw/Runic = Limit Breaks = Mist Knacks. I barely ever used, if at all beyond the first few hours of the game, people's skills in VI. Same thing with Mist Knacks. I'm just astounded by the limitless things you can actually do with XII to the point where you can build the character to be however you want them to be. Also, let's not overlook that you do start out in "paths" to begin with in the licenses your party members already know before joining.
