Beginner's Question???

[Locke4God]

I've played almost every FF, and my impression is that XII improves on almost every facet of the series. From what I can tell the voice acting is a massive improvement, and the license system is superior to the sphere grid and offers a higher degree of customization. It's side games appear to be an improvement as well as do the number of Summons and the way you utilize them in battle. Overall I've almost expecting it to be the clear best game of the series. Any thoughts?

Also I wasn't sure about the game layout but has the world map returned or is it more like 10? And can you switch out party members like 10?

[KeybladerXIII]

The answer to both of your questions is yes. The world map is much more open then X's linear take in it, although you have to rely on gate crystals for most of the game. The party you use is completely up to you you, although there are fewer characters, but that's what the License system is for, so that you can specialize them. However, I found the License system odd at first, since buying a weapon doesn't mean you can use it right away because you need a license.

If you have any other questions, please ask!

[loaf]

FFXII is my 3rd favorite FF game in the series. The license board is awesome to. You can assign one person a type of weapon to use even to make it more interesting. Like make Balthier a thief and give him daggers or give Pinelo a 2g hammer or sword. Make Ashe the tank, and Basch and Vaan magic users. Whatever you want, also with the magic with the license board. I will say this though, farm a lot, and grind a lot, you will enjoy the chain system if you like to grind and farm.

[Locke4God]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm looking forward to getting into really soon. I just finished a years worth of 6 & 10, both replays, and I haven't played a new game since I beat 4 like 3 years ago. It's going to be great.

[Meier Link]

I thought the Spere grid system in X was better then XIIs, mainly due to the fact that you can alter the sphere grids with enough patience. XIIs Licenses system is limited to a set number of options you can choose from (given the limit is large) but there is no outside customizations options. Basicly from XII's system = what you see is what you get in comparison to FFXs which is equal to take it, leave it or wipe the board clean and do what ever you want with it.

I am not downing on the license system though, it is unique (somewhat) for SE. You can master sections of the grid fairly fast and then focus in on specific skills and destinations. You are given a magnitude of paths to choose from but the down fall is that you are limited on what you can actually do with the board options.

[Yesha]

I've played almost every FF, and my impression is that XII improves on almost every face of the series. From what I can tell the voice acting is a massive improvement, and the license system is superior to the sphere grid and offers a higher degree of customization. It's side games appear to be an improvement as well as do the number of Summons and the way you utilize them in battle. Overall I've almost expecting it to be the clear best game of the series. Any thoughts?

Yes.. I must agree to you! The voice acting/actors are very impressive, I Love the License system more than the Sphere Grid.. because in License system.. mostLy at the end or nearLy end you can get/unLocked aLL the enhancements/armors/weapons.. etc. but in Sphere Grid, it takes time to cLear aLL of it.. and aLso getting spheres are quite hard especiaLLy for the speciaL spheres.. which are needed for LvL.4 magics/enhancements.. etc.

The summons are good but sometimes I quite more Like the other FF summons.. because atLeast when you summon one of them.. everyone on your party wiLL get EXP.. but.. I noticed in FFXII.. as I'm pLaying it.. when one specific party member summon one Esper he/she wiLL onLy get the EXP. from the monster you kiLLed.. so it's not very advicabLe when fighting boss battLes since that's the one who'LL give mostLy a bunch of EXP. but aLso.. you can aLways make your Esper return.. if you want.. but sometimes I'm too Lazy to do it.. LoL! And.. I aLways forgot doing it.. :-)

Also I wasn't sure about the game layout but has the world map returned or is it more like 10? And can you switch out party members like 10?

Yes and Yes!

[Locke4God]

So you can use a Summon along side your other characters in this game, whereas you couldn't in X, right? And can you trade out character's mid-battle like you could in X?

Thanks for all the info guys. It's very helpful.

@ Yesha - You know it was that way in X. If Yuna summoned and defeated a monster, she was the only one who got experience, whereas you're right, everybody got experience for winning a battle in all previous games. I think at least in 8, the person who actually killed the monster got slightly more.

[SicknessAngel]

the world map is huge so.. u'll need time to visit ever single town/dungeon etc
i love this game...

[Locke4God]

That's such great news. God I'm going to love this game!!!

[KeybladerXIII]

One thing that I found odd in XII was that it paralleled Star Wars in many ways. I won't spoil anything, but when you play through it, characters, locations, and story structure are very similar if you've watched the old Star Wars movies.

[Ryu-Kentoshii Hirokima]

I've Played this game, and I own it, and I can assure you that it is a Really Great game, and you will love it When you Play through most of it. Well, Hope you Enjoy it, I sure as hell did...LOL

[Hinj]

Ya FFXII is totally my favorite final fantast game that ive played so far. The battle system is off the chart.

[Megidolaon]

I've played almost every FF, and my impression is that XII improves on almost every facet of the series. From what I can tell the voice acting is a massive improvement, and the license system is superior to the sphere grid and offers a higher degree of customization. It's side games appear to be an improvement as well as do the number of Summons and the way you utilize them in battle. Overall I've almost expecting it to be the clear best game of the series. Any thoughts?

Also I wasn't sure about the game layout but has the world map returned or is it more like 10? And can you switch out party members like 10?

I wholeheartedly agree.
I'm playing the undub the 2nd time around and it's pretty much the only Japanese game I know where the dub is superior. Especially the British Empire.

The license board is also better, but sadly it doesn#t play that much of an important role.

I thought the Spere grid system in X was better then XIIs, mainly due to the fact that you can alter the sphere grids with enough patience. XIIs Licenses system is limited to a set number of options you can choose from (given the limit is large) but there is no outside customizations options. Basicly from XII's system = what you see is what you get in comparison to FFXs which is equal to take it, leave it or wipe the board clean and do what ever you want with it.

*eyebrow*
Wipe it clean and re-make it? God, normal people don't grind for 500 hours.
The license board system (not implementation) is better because it eliminates annoying "travel fees", i.e. to get the next power up, you have to spend 3 sphere lvls to get there and if you want to unlock an earlier node, you even have to spend sphere lvls to get back there and then even more to get to the next node.
And in the normal version, sphere are incredibly rare, most of the time you have a ton of sphere lvls , but no spheres to unlock the nodes, meaning you get almost no reward for killing enemies.
At least that was fixed in the International version where you get tons of spheres of all kinds (the ones to unlock nodes).

The summons are good but sometimes I quite more Like the other FF summons.. because atLeast when you summon one of them.. everyone on your party wiLL get EXP.. but.. I noticed in FFXII.. as I'm pLaying it.. when one specific party member summon one Esper he/she wiLL onLy get the EXP.

A) FFXII Espers are crap, they are useless in the end. A few have their use in some situations, but it's not worth it because you need to make a huge effort for scrap damage compared to what a full party can dish out with the right buffs. Not to mention it uses up too many MP (maybe even all) and 2 characters won't get exp.
B) WTF is with your L? Is your keyboard broken or something?

@ Yesha - You know it was that way in X. If Yuna summoned and defeated a monster, she was the only one who got experience, whereas you're right, everybody got experience for winning a battle in all previous games. I think at least in 8, the person who actually killed the monster got slightly more.

No, in FFX Yuna got the exp for the battle action of summoning the aeon. Since everyone that performed an action in battle gets the exp, just have other characters do something as well and everyone gets exp.

As for the FFXII world map, it's like the most awesome map ever made.
You have one large world map and when you select a dungeon/town you can view the map for that area. At the exits of an area, there are arrows showing to which other area it connects, if you select them, you can view the map of that area and so on.
Also, while you can easily travel around with countless teleport crystals or an airship, all area are connected and by foot you can go anywhere (except islands of course).

FF12MAPS.com - your final fantasy 12 map database
This site has everything you'll ever want. Locations for everything, from hunts/marks over equipment to loot and enemies.

[Belugn]

Yeah I have to agree about the Espers being a huge disappointment. But getting them all is still satisfying and fun (if time consuming and frustrating sometimes, but that's side quests for you). Everything already seems to be said, so I'll just be repeating you all, but I have to mention that the BEASTIARY is a huge bonus. Seriously, READ the beastiaries, they hold so much information about Ivalice and it's mythology, and lots of times it ties together some loose ends of the story, and answers questions about certain characters.

Ivalice map is the best in the world, I wish all FF games will be these vast worlds where you feel you can go ANYWHERE and look at ANYTHING from now on. And no more set camera angles, yay!

Glad to see some people who likes the voice acting. I __LOVE__ the voice acting, but most FFXII players I've encountered so far haven't thought to highly of it actually. I hope you'll enjoy the game, it's really worth the time imo anyway!

[ffking997]

yes and yes both questions are yes...