Yep, I got my copy at midnight. This post is delayed because I played a little bit of it first before I published this post. I won't post a review since it's obvious it rocks. :P No need for any explanation, and while I'm likely to have complaints, my 1st half hour was fun - thusly I suggest you buy it. Unless you don't own an XBox 360 or can't borrow one.
(Yes, I did fork out the extra money for the Collector's Edition. All I have to do now is finish the fight before holidays end.)
I've gotten hold of the Blue Dragon demo on my XBox 360, and I'm rather fond of the battle system. It has a very interesting tradeoff between taking damage and dealing damage, which I like a lot because I think it adds quite the amount of strategy to your planning, and most certainly tests your timing skills as well. There's also an interesting field skill that allows you to instantly kill weak enemies you've killed before! Big plus for saving time when you just want to rush through a dungeon! According to the mini-tutorial in the demo, there's even a skill that allows you to stun the enemies on the field.
I've always found field manipulation interesting, and probably one of the many reasons why I liked Xenosaga. The notions of their shadows attacking is also an interesting one, since they all have rather interesting forms and some of them are pretty cute. :P
While I still don't know how worthwhile it is to acquire Blue Dragon, I think it's a pretty safe bet that it'll be a good game. I've begun putting quite the emphasis on RPG storyline compared to gameplay, because in my opinion, an RPG is for both. You want to see the storyline, while having fun stuff to do while furthering the storyline. (Yes, I find both lacking in FF12. My opinion of FF12 is beyond low since I find playing that game is sheer torture. You don't hear that coming from someone who played the four .hack games to the end very often, I'm certain.)
I'm highly interested in battle systems that place a tradeoff between damage and something else. To this extent, I am very fond of the battle systems in Grandia 2 and 3. I am unsure if I'll be happy with Blue Dragon's form of trading off damage for flexibility, but I think it'd make for a interesting strategic game. (Not difficult to see why I like Disgaea huh.)
One thing I find pretty interesting is the rather large party in the demo. Having 5 characters in a battle takes away some of the strategy that goes into planning your party since it's pretty straightforward isn't it? Three frontline tanks, one support mage, and another offensive mage.
Here's my bashing of Final Fantasy XII. (Note the lack of the very important word, review. My bashing is based purely on the first six hours of so of the game. ) If you've been reading my blog, you know I have quite the extreme hate for Final Fantasy XII. Why the extreme hate you ask? That's because I believe it is quite possibly the worst Final Fantasy I have ever played, and the only Final Fantasy so far that I have been unable to finish due to my gripes with it.
For one, the storyline sucks. It's weak and is a far cry from many RPGs. It doesn't take a genius to tell you what happens. From the first 5 hours, we can tell that chances are Ashe will be reinstated (after the world's longest journey to retrieve proof of her birthright), Larsa will become Emperor, Vayne will fight some stupid war for some stupid purpose (probably after accelerating the death of the emperor somewhat or the emperor just dies naturally) like world conquest, our dear Vaan will get his own airship, bla bla bla.
Next on the list, the music is hardly nice to listen to. I don't know about you, but it becomes just about as annoying as the game itself within just 5 hours. In fact, I've learnt to block out the music while playing within just 5 hours, so I can't even hum it. But I'll be honest, I've never liked Hitoshi Sakamoto's music much. It's just not up to par in my opinion.
Another gripe I have is with the dungeons. I highly dislike dungeons that look like pieces copied and pasted to form a larger dungeon. Yes, you see these in the first 5 hours of gameplay. I kid you not. First, we have the sewers of Rabanastre. I have never been so desperate to get out of a dungeon out of TEDIOUSNESS, REPETITION and BOREDOM before. And guess what? They repeat it later in some something-Yensa desert where they string together long series of rings with walkways. Yes, they look the same. No, there's no way besides the map to tell where the bloody hell you are.
That brings me to my next point - overly long and ridiculous names. Rabanastre, Archadia, Ivalice and passable, when you start passing off terms like Urutan-Yensa, manufacted Nethicite, Dynast-King, to support your ALREADY weak storyline. I don't even know if it was to create interest in the weak storyline that they used such pointless words. That is IN ADDITION to using the words Magick and Technick.
I would find fault with the battle system, but I now understand why people can play the game as it is. Without the gambit system, I'd say FF12 would be doomed. In fact, I think the only reason FF12 is any good is because it's battle system is a redeeming feature. But, you have to go without it for a good two hours, I think, because you can't set up gambits until then. And those two hours - are pure torture. Why? You can move around, but you can't swing your sword with a button press. You've gotta wait for the meter to fill up. And how often do you do this? Every time you meet a monster. How often to you meet monsters in your first 2 hours you think? I'd say about every 30 seconds when you're out in the desert.
With it's weak storyline and uninspired (and long-winded) dungeons, they might as well call it Final Fantasy Dungeon Crawling (60 hours of dungeon crawling guaranteed!). Which I think probably isn't too far away, considering how busy Square Enix is milking its cash cows these days. Final Fantasy XII easily has the worst first hour of gameplay of most games. They toss you large amounts of storyline with plenty of words, you start playing as the main character's brother, and chance upon what must be the ONLY plot twist in the entire damn storyline. I'm sorry, I'm not gonna play what is essentially Final Fantasy Dungeon Crawling with Scriptable Party AI.
Now if you would excuse me, I have .hack//G.U. Vol. 2 to finish.
I've been playing quite a massive amount over the last week I'd say. I've started on .hack//G.U. Vol 2. I've completed Gears of War, and will be completing Perfect Dark Zero over the next week or two. Project Gotham Racing 3 is done with, and I'm now beginning on Forza Motorsport 2. Super Paper Mario is only about an hour or two away from completion of the main storyline. I have finally after so many months brought myself to play about 5-6 hours of Final Fantasy XII. My opinion hasn't changed much. The story moves at a snail-like pace, and the dungeons are more annoying than they are fun. I cannot find myself forgiving an RPG that has me looking at the area map every once in a while because everything looks the same. Yes, .hack is similar, but at least .hack doesn't have take forever to load.
I'm looking at taking some time to complete Halo and Halo 2 before Halo 3 shows up, and I also have Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2 to complete before Metroid Prime 3. I intend to finish some amount of Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2, although I think it's unlikely I'll be playing the 3rd game, but I have already more or less completed MGS: Portable Ops for the PSP.
I have gotten quite sick and bored of DotA, just as I've grown bored of Counter-Strike. I suppose too much repetition is bad. I bid you farewell and good night.
As time passes, I find my interest in computer games is weakening. I spend less time playing computer games than I've used to. Stuff like Counter-Strike: Source and DotA no longer hold much interest for me. I find this a rather disturbing change. When I sit at the computer, I no longer with to play some game, I intend more to sit there, lurk in a few forums and boards, lurk in MSN, then I decide to just go to sleep. Of course, there's me blogging and fooling around programming (be it a game or some arbitrary stupidity). I don't even post as often anymore. I know there was a time I posted every day, but that lasted about like two weeks. It's not that I couldn't sustain it, I could - but I didn't. The reason wasn't because I thought what I was posting was junk (in fact the part I thought my posting was horrible was somewhere last August). It was probably the beginning of me losing interest in blogging. Ever since then, I've been blogging in a more erratic manner, with a schedule closer to something like once in ten days. Although it never really is around there, and I am making up a schedule that doesn't exist, I'd say I'm close enough.
However, that being said, my interest in gaming hasn't changed. Either its because this year less good PC games came out, or I've actually switched sides. My vote is on the latter. I find myself more longing for my PSP when I feel like a good gaming session. I bought two 6th generation consoles when the first of the 7th generation came out. I am no sucker for punishment - I certainly bought the consoles because they were dead - but they were good consoles. They had good games on them that I wanted to play and in addition - I found them highly sufficient at filling my need for gaming. I now have both portable consoles - both a PSP and a DS.
Funnily, I bought a PSP more out of impulse - and the DS less so. Apparently, my impulse was right. If I had a DS, I would not have been gaming as much. I have no love of the killer app known as Nintendogs - and the touch screen is nothing new to me. There have been too many mediocre games being called sensational for use of the touch screen. They fail utterly to me. The best game on the DS I've played? Phoenix Wright - guess what? I don't need the touch screen. Best use of the touch screen? Most certainly Metroid Prime Hunters.
I believe my gaming tendencies have changed massively in the last year or two. I find myself moving away from PC games towards consoles and suddenly, software modding my gaming consoles is quite fun too. I find myself more fond of my PSP than my DS - funnily for games, not for the console since I actually game exclusively on the PSP - the media features I don't need. I suppose my mind is maturing and changing - and it's possible there will come a time when I stop PC gaming completely. Which now begs the question - should I buy a Wii or a PS3 first?