adventures in patched games
So, in an attempt to out-do last year's autographed copy of Fight Club and thereby forever cement his title as Best Gift-Giver Ever, the Boyfriend somehow wrapped his claws around a copy of Final Fantasy XII: International, and-through some nefarious technological voodoo beyond my comprehension-modified our old PS2 to play it. (Don't look at me like that; the warranty expired like 5 years ago.)
I meant to do an introductory post last month, but then I got sucked in by the story (as has always been the case during my 5+ playthroughs of FFXII), so here are some belated, completely spoiler-free, and hopefully not too gushy words about what was once a fantastic yet flawed gaming experience that has somehow been elevated to near perfection.
First and foremost, the setting, characters, and plot are all exactly the same as last time around (they even kept the superb English localization), so nothing has really changed on that front, up to and including Judge Drace's criminal lack of screentime. So that's nothing new. All changes are purely gameplay-related. But sweet Ultima, what a difference they have made.
Firstly, the rage-inducing treasure system has been completely overhauled. All those Super Special Awesome chests spawn at a 100% rate with a 100% chance of whatever Super Special Awesome item you were expecting (I'm looking at you, Excalibur). Even more exciting, chests respawn by zoning away one screen, instead of three.
Guest characters are fully controllable, which means that Vossler will no longer aggro every Entite within a 50-yard radius. They also level up with the rest of the party now, meaning Larsa will see use beyond his capacity as a portal to the Land of Infinite Hi-Potions. No longer will his Lordship burn through your entire stock of Phoenix Downs by charging at the Ring Wyrm, rapier held aloft, crying "FOR ARCHADIA!", only to be inevitably engulfed in flames, over and over again. (In fact, Larsa kicks even more ass in the International version, so much so that you almost wont miss those infinite hi-potions. The abundance of sundries found in chests actually makes up for this; hell, most of the time, you'll have more potions than you'll know what to do with.) Espers are also now controllable, which is awesome. Hello, Ultima, nice to see you actually contribute something to the fight.
Equipment has been re-balanced as well (stats have been raised/lowered, ninja swords are no longer dark-elemental and thus are actually useful, most accessories provide elemental resistances, etc.). The damage and HP limits have been upped from 9,999 to 99,999, which means that brute-force weapons (like the Tournesol) and high-tier magick are actually worth the ridiculous effort to use them. Honestly, nothing is more satisfying than watching Penelo nuke an entire screen full of Mistmares for 30,000 points of damage a piece, let me tell ya.
All of this contributes heavily the biggest improvement of the game: the titular Job System (which are two words that make every Final Fantasy fan's heart flutter). Basically, each job is based around a zodiac sign and a weapon type, and each has its own licence board. In the original version of FFXII, you could sort-of create an imposed job system by only unlocking certain licenses (as in Nick Doyle's Enforced Class Challenge), but this set-up works much better. For example: before, if you wanted a black mage, you would just slap a staff and a bunch of black magick spells on one particular character and try to ignore the many superfluous licenses along the way. In FFXII:IZJS, however, you get a license board of composed of almost nothing but staves and black magick...plus sixteen motherfucking Magic Lores, meaning that said character's performance as a black mage is no longer dictated solely by equipment and natural stat growth, but rather by how much kickass you feel like bestowing upon them at the time. (SIDE NOTE: The maximum number of Magick Lores per character in the original game? Only three.) Each board is tailor-made to fit each job's role (DPS, Tank, Support), and since each character can only choose one job, there is a much higher degree of replay value...beyond the inescapable desire to ogle Al-Cid's chest as many times as humanly possible (to which each of us has fallen prey at some point or another, I'm sure).
Finally, there's Trial Mode: a 100-battle marathon pitting you against nearly every foe in the game in quick succession, up to and including Yiazmat (whose HP has been mercifully reduced), all of which culminates in what can only be described as a drunken bar fight against all five Judge Magisters at once. At long last, that over-powered end-game equipment will finally see some use.
TL;DR: Final Fantasy XII: International + Zodiac Job System fixes just about everything wrong with the original FFXII, gameplay-wise, without in any way intruding upon the many things that it did right. If you can get your paws on it and find a system capable of playing the damn thing, I highly recommend it.
This entry was originally posted at http://jerkface.dreamwidth.org/154064.html.
I meant to do an introductory post last month, but then I got sucked in by the story (as has always been the case during my 5+ playthroughs of FFXII), so here are some belated, completely spoiler-free, and hopefully not too gushy words about what was once a fantastic yet flawed gaming experience that has somehow been elevated to near perfection.
First and foremost, the setting, characters, and plot are all exactly the same as last time around (they even kept the superb English localization), so nothing has really changed on that front, up to and including Judge Drace's criminal lack of screentime. So that's nothing new. All changes are purely gameplay-related. But sweet Ultima, what a difference they have made.
Firstly, the rage-inducing treasure system has been completely overhauled. All those Super Special Awesome chests spawn at a 100% rate with a 100% chance of whatever Super Special Awesome item you were expecting (I'm looking at you, Excalibur). Even more exciting, chests respawn by zoning away one screen, instead of three.
Guest characters are fully controllable, which means that Vossler will no longer aggro every Entite within a 50-yard radius. They also level up with the rest of the party now, meaning Larsa will see use beyond his capacity as a portal to the Land of Infinite Hi-Potions. No longer will his Lordship burn through your entire stock of Phoenix Downs by charging at the Ring Wyrm, rapier held aloft, crying "FOR ARCHADIA!", only to be inevitably engulfed in flames, over and over again. (In fact, Larsa kicks even more ass in the International version, so much so that you almost wont miss those infinite hi-potions. The abundance of sundries found in chests actually makes up for this; hell, most of the time, you'll have more potions than you'll know what to do with.) Espers are also now controllable, which is awesome. Hello, Ultima, nice to see you actually contribute something to the fight.
Equipment has been re-balanced as well (stats have been raised/lowered, ninja swords are no longer dark-elemental and thus are actually useful, most accessories provide elemental resistances, etc.). The damage and HP limits have been upped from 9,999 to 99,999, which means that brute-force weapons (like the Tournesol) and high-tier magick are actually worth the ridiculous effort to use them. Honestly, nothing is more satisfying than watching Penelo nuke an entire screen full of Mistmares for 30,000 points of damage a piece, let me tell ya.
All of this contributes heavily the biggest improvement of the game: the titular Job System (which are two words that make every Final Fantasy fan's heart flutter). Basically, each job is based around a zodiac sign and a weapon type, and each has its own licence board. In the original version of FFXII, you could sort-of create an imposed job system by only unlocking certain licenses (as in Nick Doyle's Enforced Class Challenge), but this set-up works much better. For example: before, if you wanted a black mage, you would just slap a staff and a bunch of black magick spells on one particular character and try to ignore the many superfluous licenses along the way. In FFXII:IZJS, however, you get a license board of composed of almost nothing but staves and black magick...plus sixteen motherfucking Magic Lores, meaning that said character's performance as a black mage is no longer dictated solely by equipment and natural stat growth, but rather by how much kickass you feel like bestowing upon them at the time. (SIDE NOTE: The maximum number of Magick Lores per character in the original game? Only three.) Each board is tailor-made to fit each job's role (DPS, Tank, Support), and since each character can only choose one job, there is a much higher degree of replay value...beyond the inescapable desire to ogle Al-Cid's chest as many times as humanly possible (to which each of us has fallen prey at some point or another, I'm sure).
Finally, there's Trial Mode: a 100-battle marathon pitting you against nearly every foe in the game in quick succession, up to and including Yiazmat (whose HP has been mercifully reduced), all of which culminates in what can only be described as a drunken bar fight against all five Judge Magisters at once. At long last, that over-powered end-game equipment will finally see some use.
TL;DR: Final Fantasy XII: International + Zodiac Job System fixes just about everything wrong with the original FFXII, gameplay-wise, without in any way intruding upon the many things that it did right. If you can get your paws on it and find a system capable of playing the damn thing, I highly recommend it.
This entry was originally posted at http://jerkface.dreamwidth.org/154064.html.