There was backlash in both cases. With VIII it was a combination of realistically proportioned characters and weak/confusing game systems whereas with MGS2 it was that you didn’t actually play as Solid Snake as the marketing material had intentionally misled you to believe.
also the squall nude cartwheel scenes were a bit excessive
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it’s in the escalation to absurd heights
granted one of them achieved more with that than the other
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Actually the one I’m having trouble seeing is 9 & 3
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both the last game in their respective series that fully came together and the only one that concretely improved upon the original breakout success while still being relatively low-key compared to the others, generally the least commercially successful because not many people wanted either of these franchises to be especially low-key in the first place (or else the audience was burned by the indulgence of the prior installment and simply less excited for this one), surprisingly stellar script given that the actual prose in these games is generally only good enough to support the narrative, usually the fan favourite though this is no longer a novel position and a defense or critical analysis of 2/8 or 5/12 is generally more interesting.
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10 and 4 are definitely both bad games
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I dunno, XII and 5 are the two games in their respective franchises that I’ve never finished, despite otherwise basically liking them both. The endings to each really drag.
Also, would this mean 13 is equivalent to Death Stranding? Because I’m absolutely not on board with either.
13 is pachinko metal gear. Don’t forget that one. Never forget.
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Felix this vaguely thought out comparison doesn’t work and I demand you vet it completely by your peers until it is airtight. What about Peace Walker? What about FFXI? What about X2 (what about X2?)
Resetera nerds love MGS3 as much as we do.
Yes, that one doesn’t match for me, especially seeing how MGS 3 is considered the pinnacle of the series and FF9 kind of a nothing, by-the-books entry
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The Xbox One and Switch ports of the game will allow a license change, letting players respec their party members’ jobs as they see fit. Additionally, there are more gambit slots for party members, as well as the ability to switch between them with named descriptions, like “Fire Boss” or “Exploration”. An improved New Game + mode allows characters to start the game at level 90 and bring over items, weapons, magic, and more from the previous play through.
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So which soundtrack option is objectively the best: original, reorchestrated, or OST?
The music in this game is wild because it’s giving me big nostalgia for playing FFXII Revenant Wings in 2008. I did not love Revenant Wings, but it was one of the first games I played on my silver DS Lite. I bought that DS after many years of not playing many video games. I was doing a master’s in visual art in England at the time. Now I’m in Canada, married, have a kid, and am studying technical writing.
I think I knew back then that Revenant Wings had the same music as FFXII, but I wasn’t expecting that a game on my Switch in 2019 would remind me so strongly of my life in 2008.
Anyway, I’m enjoying the Zodiac Age. This is my first time playing FFXII. I like how dungeon crawl-ey it is for a Final Fantasy. I also think the battle system is super relaxing, but I just snuck into Rabanastre Palace for the fete and I wish I could customize my gambits already!
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Personally I enjoy the OST mix the most, as it includes instrument tracks that were missing in the original PS2 version on some pieces due to technical limitation. The Remastered version feels a bit too far removed from the original versions to me while the OST version feels like the versions closest to the original intent.
I’m having a great time playing this on the switch. It looks great in undocked mode. It’s a bit less impressive on the TV since the lower resolution is more noticeable (it runs at 80% of max resolution on each respective screen). It’s amazing how the switch brings new life to this stuff.
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Yeah, the reorchestrated soundtrack is very beautiful, but I’ve noticed it sometimes takes the tracks in unexpected ways (in respect to my experience of them in Revenant Wings, which is a weird comparison). Thanks for the OST recommendation–I’ll try that out.
I’m having the opposite experience to you when it comes to docked vs undocked. I think that when undocked, the game looks really bland or samey. It’s not a resolution problem–I think the environmental textures are so weirdly detailed that the visuals are too busy for such a small screen. Nothing pops out to catch my eye.
But when docked, the game looks great on my old Sony Bravia LCD.
Last night I watched a fairly comprehensive comparison video between all of the versions of this game. There have been a lot more changes than I was aware of.
The biggest surprise, was that in the PS2 versions; spell effects had to wait for other spell effects to finish. Due to hardware limitations. So even if your ATB bar was ready to go with a spell, if another spell effect was still going, the ready character had to wait.
As far as the music goes: I think the new stuff lacks some of the energy and tambre of the original music. But I do agree the OST music is a good balance between new and old.
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https://www.dualshockers.com/yasumi-matsuno-final-fantasy-tactics-ogre-battle-comments/
Matsuno: Rather than looking back at the past , I’m the kind of person who loves trying out new things. But when you reach my age, you start having thoughts like “How much time do I have left to keep making games?”. And I’m not talking about retirement, I’m talking about death. Recently, I’ve been to more funerals than weddings, and it made me aware of how limited our time is. On places like Twitter, fans sometimes send me messages like “I really wish you’d make a new Ogre or FFT !!”. When I see messages like this, a part of me thinks “I probably need to make one before I die”.
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Isn’t marriage at an all time low, in Japan?
Reminder that Yasumi Matsuno is the holy dragon 50 million HP superboss of this game, made in a potentially super passive-agressive move by the remaining FF12 team
FF12 on the Switch definitely is The Dream and I don’t regret buying this maximalist-ass game for the third time
Maybe they’ve gotten too generous with the jobs - IZJS on the PS2 only had 1 permanent job / per character and is known as easier than the original release, then the PS4 remastered allowed 2 jobs per character at the same time without balancing the game to compensate, and now on the Switch you can also respec and change jobs at any point.
I’d have loved Squeenix to take the time to make different character models per class (-> Balthier wearing one of those giant black mage hat), but admittedly it would have been super wasteful
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I recently watched something praising X-2 and I can always get down with on screen gear changes.