FFXII!

[Minosheep]

http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ff12/ff12.html

So far all we have is screens and artwork, but it looks like it's shaping up to be similar to FFX!

The Sheep God's view? Well, The Sheep God couldn't make it for the interview, but we did interview one of his sheep! Here's what he had to say!

: "Baa. Baa baa baa. Baa baa baa baaa, baa baa!"

And there you have it.

[Spydar]

Looks can b deceiving but then again i havent seen that much of it except all tha technology which reminds me of FF8

[Cobalt Katze]

FFX my ass, hehehe.. Take a look around for the trailer for this game. It looks amazing, and the graphic style is actually very akin to Vagrant Story, as the core members of the artistic team also worked on that game and Final Fantasy Tactics. Battle system looks to have a few realtime aspects as well. Hell, I'll just post the article here from IGN that has some basic storyline stuff innit, and a link to the trailer Quiter nabbed from the event.

[i]FFXII takes place in a world called Ivalice. This is actually the same world as featured in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance -- or, at least, the fantasy world into which the characters warp at the beginning of the game (we won't spoil the FF Tactics experience for you by going into more depth).

At the center of the game's story are its hero Vaan (17) and heroine Ashe (19). Vaan lives in the Damaska Kingdom, which has been captured by the Arcadia Empire. Vaan has a personal connection to the conquest of the Kingdom by the Empire in that he lost his family to the Empire. He dreams of becoming an air pirate and one day earning his own ship so that he can escape the empire.



Ashe, meanwhile, is the princess of the Damaska Kingdom. Seeing as how her father the King was killed at the hands of the Empire, she's the only heir to the throne. She's been missing since the end of the war that her Kingdom lost to the Empire. She forms a resistance group in order to take on the empire, meeting Vaan along the way.

Of course, characters from FF games of old will make an appearance in FFXII. According to Matsuno, characters you expect to be in the game will be there. This will include a Cid character and the Moogles, although once again the Moogles are designed differently from previous titles in the series. Initially, the Moogles apparently looked a bit scary, commented Matsuno.

In addition to taking place in the same world as Tactics, FFXII has one other big feature from that game: Judges. In Tactics, the Judge characters were a special group of Knights who promoted law and order by overseeing battles and penalizing those who disobeyed the rules. In FFXII, the Judge characters form a group of "Knights of Terror" and serve as an adversary to Ashe and Vann. A Judge character can be seen in the logo artwork for the game, pictured to the right of this story.

In some ways, FFXII is the final product of a vision producer Yasumi Matsuno had for a game eight years ago. Back when producing the original FF Tactics, Matsuno had a vision he wanted to achieve but was unable to -- the idea of an immature world, where human rights aren't at the same level as that of our world. You'll be able to see this idea in FFXII through the caste-based society present in the game. In the below art, the characters at the bottom of the image are of different castes and ethnicities.



Visually, art director Hideo Minaba pointed out the colors in the same piece of artwork. The clear blue sky, the orange structures which are actually made of earth -- the game is meant to have a Mediteranian look, mixing European and Arabic culture. The development team actually traveled to Turkey to research the game. Incidentally, FFXII was originally envisioned as taking place in a Megapolis type of environment, but Minaba ended up wanting a more middle- age look.

Character designer Akihiko Yoshida also had an important say in the final style taken with the game. Whereas previous FF games have focused on character models first to be used in CG movies and then to be used in realtime, this time around things worked in the opposite way, with the team concentrating first on real time, then on CG. Yoshida joked, pointing to Ashe's short skirt, that the characters were designed from the back to the front.

Also discussed at the presentation was a bit on the game's sound component. While famed composer Nobuo Uematsu was present in only pre-recorded video form, his counterpart, Hitoshi Sakimoto, who's contributing greatly to the game, took the stage and gave out a few comments. It was revealed that FFXII will feature a theme-song- like-thing at the end of the game, although the team is actually trying to do something different this time around. Apparently, what comes at the end of FFXII won't be just a theme song with lyrics, but something beyond that -- something new. No, specifics weren't revealed.

Attendees at the unveiling were given a glimpse at FFXII via a three minute trailer. While we're unable to share the trailer with you, here's a summary of what was shown (don't worry, there are no spoilers here, as we had to guess what was going on most of the time for ourselves).

The trailer begins with a shot of Vaan seemingly unconscious. Quick CG clips of Vaan waving a sword and battle footage suggest that Vaan may have just been part of some sort of conflict. Vaan rises with an apparent headache, and the main section of the trailer begins.

We're shown shots of some spell casting followed by what seems to be a door opening leading to a large dark character -- perhaps one of the Judges? This is followed by more CG battle footage, this time involving Chocobo riders.

The trailer then cuts to a large, majestic cityscape with air ships flying to and fro. One ship lands in the heart of a parade, and following a shot of a yet unidentified character, we're shown Ashe, veiled. She looks almost as if she's about to be married.

At last, the trailer cuts into a lengthy gameplay sequence, showing Vaan, Ashe and a third character running through deserts and fields, engaging in battle and casting magic. Based on the names listed in the battle menus, the third character's name is Fran (no relation to the IGN Insider editor in chief -- maybe). Fran weilds a bow and arrow.



The trailer continues with numerous event sequences, both pre-rendered and real time, allowing us to for the first time hear FFXII's voice acting. Following numerous comical-looking villains, we're given our first clear glance at a Judge character. Judges are masked and wear dark armor. They definitely suggest the terror that Matsuno mentioned.

The trailer comes to an end following a few magic spells, a small summon spell and a large scale CG battle sequence.

Looking at the trailer footage alone, it's clear that FFXII has seen a tremendous visual improvement over Final Fantasy X. Characters look more detailed and animate smoothly, with none of the shaky movement of the previous installment. Surprisingly, it was revealed that the game engine uses half as many polygons as that of FFX, suggesting that the good looks are due to better shading and texturing routines.

And here you go! Check out the trailer fer yourselves:

http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~nanko/movies/ff12-2.wmv

[Minosheep]

Oh my God...

*creamed pants*

I just meant it looks like FFX in the walking around screen, and its battle screen was remniscent of FFX or FFX-2.

[reaper]

This is a sweet looking came i am pretty psyched about it.

some great CG to



some really great CG lol

[Minosheep]

Mmm... butt.

I mean, uh... This game looks really cool, I'm impresed with their graphical achievements.

Mmmm... butt.

[Terin]

*seconded*

[Lewis Black]

OOOOOOOOOOOH! Teh EMPIRE! Holy crab shxt! Like, thats totally original Scoob! Good god and why are the main characters always teens or 20-24? Can't we have some older people? No Square? We can't? Too bad that chick ain't 17 and wearin that outfit cuz she'd scream jailbait! Why does the main character dress like some goddamn Chippendale's dancer? Fo seriously folks looks at him! No protection at all! At least wear a cotton shirt! Argh!

PS: Can you tell I'm in a bitter mood?

[SaitoH]

Man, that chick sitting down is exposing her boobs.

O_O;;

[GAAZ]

Dood SaitoH yer right! I'd like to butter her rolls if ya catch my meanin! Ya'know what I'm sayin?!