Final Fantasy XIV is the best Final Fantasy since XII

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Originally Posted by Zantetsuken

I find FFXII to be a great litmus test in evaluating a person's appreciation of all things 'Final Fantasy'. (it's the only main-series FF game that ever received a perfect Famitsu score, and one of 21 games in history that have.) The game was the most intricately crafted Final Fantasys at the time of it's release, and was created by one of the greatest fantasy visionaries of all time: Yasumi Matsuno. (Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, Vagrant Story, Tactics Ogre, etc)

If you hate on FFXII (esp FFXII:International Zodiac), I'll disregard anything you say in the future in regards to feedback on this or any other FF games, as the series is clearly not for you.

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I like the way you think, I even consider FFXII a test of maturity.

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Originally Posted by Zantetsuken

I find FFXII to be a great litmus test in evaluating a person's appreciation of all things 'Final Fantasy'. (it's the only main-series FF game that ever received a perfect Famitsu score, and one of 21 games in history that have.) The game was the most intricately crafted Final Fantasys at the time of it's release, and was created by one of the greatest fantasy visionaries of all time: Yasumi Matsuno. (Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, Vagrant Story, Tactics Ogre, etc)

If you hate on FFXII (esp FFXII:International Zodiac), I'll disregard anything you say in the future in regards to feedback on this or any other FF games, as the series is clearly not for yo

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Well, that's pretty narrow-minded of you. How about this, then?

In my opinion:

FFXII perfectly captured what FELT like a FF. The setting was fantastic, the music was great, the background lore was great. The gameplay and the combat were fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

As a GAME(which it is), FFXII was phenomenal. But as a story? It was atrocious. The first 10 hours of the story were so grand and incredible that it opened you up with "this will be the best FF ever made..." and then it quickly becomes a dull journey around the countryside with VERY little plot development and a lame lead character(Vaan). Seriously, have you read the information where they talk about WHY Vaan was made as the lead character? It was dumb. He serves ZERO purpose to the story. Basch and Ashe were cool, I thoroughly enjoyed them. So was Balthier. But even though the game had a lot of pluses, the thing I enjoy most about FF games(the story) was SEVERELY lacking in FFXII. I don't think anyone can deny that the plotline had nearly zero surprises or any kind of interesting plot development(except "He even made me a Judge..."). It's almost as if they didn't have a story planned. A lot of the characters were so one-dimensional. The game hardly had any surprises and surely didn't have a good story. The writing, when it was used, was good though. I'll give it that.

If you feel that FFXII had a great story, I have to seriously doubt that you even payed attention to it. Please, offer me the info as to why you enjoy the story. I'd seriously love to hear it.


On every other account? FFXII was fantastic, and embodied what FF games should feel like(unlike 7,8,10).

i hated FFXII combat , it was "cool" but as PLAYER i feel dissapointed , the game played for u after u learned a few things.....

Eh I like the game but wish it had some elements of FFXI. Like the airships should hold more than one person and have it being attacked by monsters and such. Then again I'm only level 24 or so, so perhaps I am missing some things but we shall see. If they get some elements from XI in it would be really nice overall though I really like what I'm playing :D.

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Originally Posted by flavored

witty dialogue?

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It was inside the wall of quest text you may have skipped through

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Originally Posted by Zantetsuken

If you hate on FFXII (esp FFXII:International Zodiac), I'll disregard anything you say in the future in regards to feedback on this or any other FF games, as the series is clearly not for you.

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I rather liked XII, though have to disagree with you on this point simply because I understand everyone has different tastes, and attitudes like this help get the "fanboy" label slapped on you which I don't want. There were issues with XII, mostly due to battle and gambit mechanics for me.

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Originally Posted by Dorfentyme

But as a story? It was atrocious. The first 10 hours of the story were so grand and incredible that it opened you up with "this will be the best FF ever made..." and then it quickly becomes a dull journey around the countryside with VERY little plot development and a lame lead character(Vaan). Seriously, have you read the information where they talk about WHY Vaan was made as the lead character?

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Vaan really was not the main character, but the point of view they wanted you to receive the story from. He basically was the catalyst for getting Balthier and Ashe's groups together, resulting in the opportunity Ashe needed for her story to take off. Vaan plays a role very similar to Obi Wan's in Star Wars: A New Hope. No Obi Wan, and its quite likely Luke would never have met Han Solo and gotten off of Tatooine. Difference here is the intended point of view of the audience.

I loved FF7, FF8, FF9, FF10, and FF1-6. They were awesome games for their time. Truly memorable. But the one Final Fantasy that holds a special place in my heart is Final Fantasy XI. The game had adventure from zone to zone. The mobs were thrilling, in that you didn't know what would make them come after you, IE: Agroing sight, sound, magic, the stench of death, or true sight. It made you passionate enough to stay up day and night fishing up 10,000 moat carp for the Lu Shangs fishing rod, and later insane for going after the parts to make the Ebisu fishing rod. The thrill of running into Notorious Monsters and taking them down. The adventure of gather items for your AF. It relied heavily on you making friends quickly. It was accessible to all, and loved by many.

That is a Final Fantasy to me, one that I'll never forget.

I agree with OP.

I've been playing Final Fantasy since 1996 with Final Fantasy for the NES. I went through almost every title, except XI. All I can say is that FF XII is one of my favorites. It was an expansion of Final Fantasy Tactics for the PSX, where Ivalice went ALIVE. I found in FF XIV a world with almost the same taste than XII and that's why I like it so much. I would have loved to have some Hitoshi Sakimoto's music as well. I loved the battle system (Yay, it was different from usual, I like innovation), I loved the characters (Except for Vaan and Penelo), music was awesome, the voice cast was awesome and the game itself is pure fun. XII stands as one of my favorite Final Fantasy besides IV, VI, VIII, IX and Tactics. VII is fine, but meh... I saw party characters dying in previous games as in Phantasy Star 4 for the Sega Genesis, so I wasn't shocked at all. Also, anyone that had played Vagrant Story, would have noticed some similarities.

I have only played FF3,4,7,10,12. They all have better story than FF14, as an FF, it's not that good. I still like Tataru, Papalymo, all those Lalafell, but there's nothing to stand equal with characters such as Sephiroth or Yuna.

As an MMO though, it is good, but still not great yet. GW2 really could've gone the subscription mode and made endgame raiding. They had so much potential, and tonnes of details made from people that you know they actually plays an MMO. User friendly Auction House, one button to clean bag up, a very clean looking bag, etc or just quality of life as mentioned in other posts. It's sad GW2 has to go that path.

Alot of people say this is a WoW clone. Yes it surely looks like WoW from it's Golden Age. The level of perfection of the game and level of raid difficulty I'd say is somewhat close to Kara'zhan in BC. WoW wasn't that perfect back in early release of BC, the BC launch was terrible too. But that didn't stop the game from being good. I'm glad SE decided to give us MMOers another chance to hope for real hardmodes.

Since ActivisionBlizzard will never restore WoW back to it's Golden Age (remove LFR, remove resilience, remove boss nerfs, etc....), I'm actually quite glad FFXIVARR exists.