FFXII: International

[Phoenix Flame]

There are some pretty amazing things going on at Square-Enix as far as updates go. I wasn't too surprised when they announced they were doing an International version of XII either - but the game boasts some pretty cool features....suck as the Zodiac Job System - 12 different license boards you have to choose for your characters. Once they are chosen - THEY ARE CHOSEN - in other words, you have to begin a new game to change boards. Also, they are similar to the job system in FFT. White/Black/Time/Red Mages, Japanese Fighter, Gunner, Knight, Monk, Theif, Spearman (your welcome Spec) and a few others.

Other features of International XII include a 'fast forward' option, where the game moves at 2x speed when you hold down L1. ^_^ Farming never had it so easy. It will be easier to get $$$, they move and up'd the odds you'd get a good item in the chests/coffers. Theres even a 'Trial' mode....think "Survival" where you can imput characters from your saved games and battle bosses you fight in the game one-on-one style...the further you go, the tougher the bosses.

I think this is definitely worth investing a little money into and plan on picking up a copy in the future. I'm a little "XII'd-out" ATM. So I'm going to be focusing on getting through VI Advance, then X: INT. then 1-5. Then around that time - XIII will be out and I'll pick up that. Afterwards I'll give XII INT. a hard look. o_O

XD

BTW: The release for this game is August in Japan - so if any of you have PS3s...you'll have to import it. Release for the US is still unknown...and they didn't release X International in the US FYI.

[ThroneofDravaris]

Most of the additional features are pretty superfluous but I think the job system will overall make the battle system far more balanced. They are changing most spells to AoE (Area of Effect) and adding gambits like "Foe: more then 2/3 etc in range" which will probably make offensive magic slightly less then the joke it is now. There will more then likely still be a massive advantage for physical characters but at least now players will actually have to specialize a little instead of making all your characters the same. It's a pity it's come to this, since players should have had incentive to specialize from the beginning and ideally I would have like to have seen an entire re-balancing of the license board to make this possible, however this is probably the next best thing.

But yeah, I could do without most of the other things. Boss rush modes never really appealed to me and controlling guests and summons only has limited appeal (the latter will probably still be useless anyway unless they boost their power). I probably won't bother with the game unless it receives an English localization but with the release of Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ in a few months it that might not be such a pie-in-the-sky fantasy.

[Spec Highwind]

Originally Posted by reasoniamalive

Spearman (your welcome Spec)

Dragoons > Spearmen

[Phoenix Flame]

Originally Posted by ThroneofDravaris

Most of the additional features are pretty superfluous but I think the job system will overall make the battle system far more balanced. They are changing most spells to AoE (Area of Effect) and adding gambits like "Foe: more then 2/3 etc in range" which will probably make offensive magic slightly less then the joke it is now. There will more then likely still be a massive advantage for physical characters but at least now players will actually have to specialize a little instead of making all your characters the same. It's a pity it's come to this, since players should have had incentive to specialize from the beginning and ideally I would have like to have seen an entire re-balancing of the license board to make this possible, however this is probably the next best thing.

But yeah, I could do without most of the other things. Boss rush modes never really appealed to me and controlling guests and summons only has limited appeal (the latter will probably still be useless anyway unless they boost their power). I probably won't bother with the game unless it receives an English localization but with the release of Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ in a few months it that might not be such a pie-in-the-sky fantasy.

I agree...most of the features are more 'fluff' than anything else....and I'm not excited about speeding-up boss battles either....especially against optional bosses like Zodiark :S But I'm in favor of running 2x speed through the Feywood or Giza plains or somewhere along those lines to save precious moments from my rediculously boring life. =33

I would have been interested in a 're-balancing' of the LB too - or having it done way with altogether and instituting a job-only system - such as was seen in IV and tactics. -------on a side note, I - like many - didn't know you could add more party members during the second/third/....etc. playable battles in Tactics. I fought hard only to get pwn'd again and again at the fourth necessary battle *I'll get more info on this later* with the wizards and archers. ------
Those battles were awesome - and the custimization level of your characters just made the game a touch sweeter. Anyway - I feel like if the job system was the only (or at least, optional) feature of XII it would make the game THAT much more of a Legend. I (for one) didn't mind the switch from ATB to live battles. I think its the times. XIII is just another FF for me...so of course I'll purchase/pwn it. But I really like action-adventure - which was what FF XII was leaning towards when they added this type of battle scope. I would LOVE S2 to see a job-system only XII. I think that would be an epic win!!

Controlling summons (thanks ToD - I forgot about that feature) actually will improve the summon espers significantly. Although I am certain that this will still not be enough to coherse players into using them all the time. Albeit that some battles they are actually VERY useful for. (Try summoning Zeromus in your battle w/Exodus for example.) Still. Controllability (as I've mentioned) will only get you so far with espers. They take away a character - two if you can't control the damned thing - and just aren't THAT necessary during gameplay.



All-in-all. This should prove to be the remake that outdoes X:International. I can see >10million copies being sold worldwide time-wise the same as X is currently. What's it been.....five years since X: Int. was realeased? I can see that figure doubling for XII: Int. I want to see the remake, I'm sure a LOT of people who weren't satisfied with XII will want to see it also.

[Phoenix Flame]

XII: Internation shipps in Japan next week...anyone planning on importing/buying a copy?

I'll prob. import one - since it doesn't seem to have a US release date planned.

[Zeromus_X]

Ooh, glad you reminded me! I'm definitely going to pick this up in the near future.

[Phoenix Flame]

I'll wait a little while - I still have PLENTY of FFs that I haven't even played yet...I don't really want to spend $90 in the forseeable future anyway - unless its in Brazil next month.

[Phoenix Flame]

>_< Damn it! I know this doesn't matter to members like Zero - but the all of the dialogue for this game is in English while the subtitle, items, weapons, spells, etc. is ALL in Japanese - with no way to switch back and forth from one text to the other.

Does Square have their heads THAT far up their ;cen or what?! ;ang

[ultimecia]

[QUOTE=reasoniamalive]
BTW: The release for this game is August in Japan - so if any of you have PS3s...you'll have to import it. Release for the US is still unknown...and they didn't release X International in the US FYI.[/QUOTE

Its actually going to be released for the PS2.

[Zeromus_X]

Originally Posted by reasoniamalive

>_< Damn it! I know this doesn't matter to members like Zero - but the all of the dialogue for this game is in English while the subtitle, items, weapons, spells, etc. is ALL in Japanese - with no way to switch back and forth from one text to the other.

Does Square have their heads THAT far up their ;cen or what?! ;ang

Does FFX: International allow you to switch back and forth? Because other than that, I believe all of the International or Final Mix versions of the games are like that (English voices with Japanese text).

And regarding the game never being released in English speaking regions despite having English voices, it's all a marketing thing. Director's cut versions of games usually sell pretty well in Japan, however, in places like the US, they don't believe that people will pay the same money for the same game with added features. It just wouldn't sell enough to warrant releasing it out here. It's sad, but it's just something we'll have to deal with since International versions of games are never released outside of Japan, and never will be.

You may also be wondering "well, if it's only released in Japan, then why on earth are the voices in English?" It's a bit of a cultural thing, but the Japanese have a thing for the English language. They enjoy listening to the English voice cast. It's kind of like how some people here like listening to the voices in their anime in Japanese with subtitles.

Originally Posted by ultimecia

Its actually going to be released for the PS2.

You mean to say that it already has been released on the PS2. And although reason is already aware of this, PS3s cannot play PS1 or 2 games of a different region, they can only play PS3 games region-free.

[Phoenix Flame]

[QUOTE=ultimecia]

Originally Posted by reasoniamalive

BTW: The release for this game is August in Japan - so if any of you have PS3s...you'll have to import it. Release for the US is still unknown...and they didn't release X International in the US FYI.[/QUOTE

Its actually going to be released for the PS2.

Yeah, I knew that - I originally thought that any PS1/PS2/PS3 game would play on the PS3 - thus making reginonal restrictions null...but I was wrong. .__.; Only PS3 games are restriction-free.

Originally Posted by Zeromus_X

Does FFX: International allow you to switch back and forth? Because other than that, I believe all of the International or Final Mix versions of the games are like that (English voices with Japanese text).

And regarding the game never being released in English speaking regions despite having English voices, it's all a marketing thing. Director's cut versions of games usually sell pretty well in Japan, however, in places like the US, they don't believe that people will pay the same money for the same game with added features. It just wouldn't sell enough to warrant releasing it out here. It's sad, but it's just something we'll have to deal with since International versions of games are never released outside of Japan, and never will be.

You may also be wondering "well, if it's only released in Japan, then why on earth are the voices in English?" It's a bit of a cultural thing, but the Japanese have a thing for the English language. They enjoy listening to the English voice cast. It's kind of like how some people here like listening to the voices in their anime in Japanese with subtitles.

Yes, Zero - they did have an option in the menu configuration that allowed you to switch the text from Japanese to English...hence why I'm able to play it.

[Phoenix Flame]

After a few months have come and gone I've decided NOT to get this version.

...I mean, YOU CAN'T CHANGE THE TEXT TO ENGLISH?!?! WTF?! :VERYVERYANGRYATSQUARE:

[Phoenix Flame]

Let's just hope XIII is THAT much better. ==D When's the release date?

[kavith]

MAKUHARI--At Square Enix Party 2007, we had the chance to get our hands on Final Fantasy XII International: Zodiac Job System, which was just announced on Thursday during the publisher's press conference. It's become a tradition for Square Enix to re-release their blockbuster titles in Japan under the "International" label. And with over 5 million copies sold worldwide, FFXII was obviously a prime candidate for this.

The most obvious change in FFXII: International is the voice acting. Much like the previous releases under the "International" label, FFXII: International features characters speaking in English, with Japanese subtitles on the bottom of the screen. In terms of visuals, the game features 16:9 wide-screen support, which wasn't available in the original Japanese release. Wide-screen support is becoming essential in Japan as electronic stores are mostly selling wide screen HDTVs nowadays due to the fact that analog broadcast will be terminated in just four years.

Among the other new additions, the key of which being--as the game's title bluntly suggests---the Zodiac Job System, which is more or less a fancy term given for the game's new license board system. The boards come into play during character evolution. While the original FFXII had only one license board, FFXII: International gives you a selection of twelve boards that you can set on each of your characters. Doing so will let you customize your characters into playing like a certain job; Knight, Monk, Time Mage, Breaker, Archer, Black Mage, White Mage, Red Mage, Kikoushi (gunfighter), Uhlan (Spearman), Shikari (a fighter that uses daggers), and Mononofu (a fighter with a mix of Japanese style attacks like Samurai and Ninja skills).

It's completely up to you as to how you set the boards on your characters, and if you chose to do so, you can even set the same board on multiple characters. However, you can't change the board on your characters once after you've picked them, meaning that you'll need to finish the game (or restart) if you want to change their boards.

Fortunately, the developers of FFXII: International intended the game to be played multiple times, and there's a new feature that lets you save time in doing so. Pressing the L1 button in FFXII: International lets you go into "Double Speed mode" where the game literally runs at double its normal speed (during both exploration and battles). Since FFXII is already using the PlayStation 2 hardware to its potential, the only way to add this feature was apparently through frame skipping. So when the Double Speed mode is turned on, the graphics move a bit choppy, albeit extremely fast.

Another major new feature in FFXII: International is the new "Trial Mode" that can be picked from the title screen menu. This mode resembles a survival style battle where you take on memorable enemies in the game (mostly bosses), one after another. You can use your characters from your saved data to fight in Trial mode, so if there's an enemy that's too strong, you can build up your party members in the normal/storyline mode, and then challenge the enemy in Trial Mode again. The enemies get stronger and stronger as you beat then, and we've been told that there might be some surprising enemies if you get near the end of the mode.
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[dappa]

There is a fan patched version of this game available so you can play it in english, just google for it or look on youtube