aka_Pyro's definitions
In lieu of the gross oversimplification of this game provided above or below this definition, I would like to say that Final Fantasy XII, an RPG published by Square-Enix for the Sony Play Station 2, is brilliantly distinguishable from its 11+ predecessors in the Final Fantasy series by its high production values, extravagant voice acting, a plot line easily identifiable as a blatant rip-off of Star Wars yet so intricate that it's more than forgivable if you're a fan of the series.
Essentially, if you liked LucasArts' Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic series for Xbox and PC for its gameplay, then you will have nothing against FFXII's gameplay. If you liked Star Wars Episodes IV-VI for their creepy-cult-forming stories, then you will fall in love with FFXII, because 90% of what made up A New Hope great is there: the princess without a kingdom, the orphaned boy with an above-average destiny from the desert, his slightly less-important side-kick, the knight of an extinct order, the awesome pirate that men envy and women adore, and his tall, dark, and fuzzy sidekick who used to live in a realm of gigantic trees. Hell, S-E even threw in their own Cloud City, complete with a Lando-character! But he's white and has a funny accent.
Since I cannot respectably portray the plot of this game without spoiling it, I will just go to say that you will not finish this game in the time you can finish KotOR, which took approximately 40 hours, and FFXII has already eaten up 55 hours of my time, and I'm not even halfway through it.
If you played Final Fantasy X and thought the Sphere Grid was too linear in terms of character stat development, then you will probably enjoy FFXII's mode of development, the License Board, in which you have total control of your character's spell development, weapons and armor that he or she can equip, and even which 2 of the 12 total Espers in the game that they can summon.
If you played FFX and thought that the Overdrives were over the top, then you haven't mopped the floor with the faces of boss characters until you've made use of the Quickening system. In contrast to the other games in the series, where each character has a few unique, super powerful attacks that they are able to use one at a time after they've charged their gauge, FFXII gives each character 3 fully offensive attacks that can be CHAINED together with the Quickenings from two other party members for a powerful combo capable of felling bosses before they can lay a hand on you. But, there's a couple of caveats: one, the MP gauge, also known as your Mist Gauge, is shared by both your magic AND your Quickenings, and two, it's also your Summoning gauge. So, you can't summon a monster, perform magic powerful magic, and then unload some serious pain with a Mist Chain without using some ethers or elixirs (if you have only one Quickening unlocked, that is). But, on the plus side, each Quickening you acquire on the License board will give you 100% more Mist at your disposal, so technically, you CAN do all three MP related actions if you have acquired all 3 Quickenings for your character.
If you liked being able to set behaviors in the KotOR series for your party members, in FFXII, you can fully automate your characters that you aren't directly controlling through the use of fully customizable instructions for them to follow, called Gambits. Of course, due to the nature of the Gambits, it takes a bit of practice to remember to check and re-customize these gambits for each area you visit or each enemy you fight, because you don't want your characters to be sitting around casting Shell on each other when you're being ravaged by melee fighters, or sitting around casting any magic when you want to save their Mist Charges for Quickenings and Summons.
For full reviews of the game, try a site like GameSpy, or IGN.
Essentially, if you liked LucasArts' Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic series for Xbox and PC for its gameplay, then you will have nothing against FFXII's gameplay. If you liked Star Wars Episodes IV-VI for their creepy-cult-forming stories, then you will fall in love with FFXII, because 90% of what made up A New Hope great is there: the princess without a kingdom, the orphaned boy with an above-average destiny from the desert, his slightly less-important side-kick, the knight of an extinct order, the awesome pirate that men envy and women adore, and his tall, dark, and fuzzy sidekick who used to live in a realm of gigantic trees. Hell, S-E even threw in their own Cloud City, complete with a Lando-character! But he's white and has a funny accent.
Since I cannot respectably portray the plot of this game without spoiling it, I will just go to say that you will not finish this game in the time you can finish KotOR, which took approximately 40 hours, and FFXII has already eaten up 55 hours of my time, and I'm not even halfway through it.
If you played Final Fantasy X and thought the Sphere Grid was too linear in terms of character stat development, then you will probably enjoy FFXII's mode of development, the License Board, in which you have total control of your character's spell development, weapons and armor that he or she can equip, and even which 2 of the 12 total Espers in the game that they can summon.
If you played FFX and thought that the Overdrives were over the top, then you haven't mopped the floor with the faces of boss characters until you've made use of the Quickening system. In contrast to the other games in the series, where each character has a few unique, super powerful attacks that they are able to use one at a time after they've charged their gauge, FFXII gives each character 3 fully offensive attacks that can be CHAINED together with the Quickenings from two other party members for a powerful combo capable of felling bosses before they can lay a hand on you. But, there's a couple of caveats: one, the MP gauge, also known as your Mist Gauge, is shared by both your magic AND your Quickenings, and two, it's also your Summoning gauge. So, you can't summon a monster, perform magic powerful magic, and then unload some serious pain with a Mist Chain without using some ethers or elixirs (if you have only one Quickening unlocked, that is). But, on the plus side, each Quickening you acquire on the License board will give you 100% more Mist at your disposal, so technically, you CAN do all three MP related actions if you have acquired all 3 Quickenings for your character.
If you liked being able to set behaviors in the KotOR series for your party members, in FFXII, you can fully automate your characters that you aren't directly controlling through the use of fully customizable instructions for them to follow, called Gambits. Of course, due to the nature of the Gambits, it takes a bit of practice to remember to check and re-customize these gambits for each area you visit or each enemy you fight, because you don't want your characters to be sitting around casting Shell on each other when you're being ravaged by melee fighters, or sitting around casting any magic when you want to save their Mist Charges for Quickenings and Summons.
For full reviews of the game, try a site like GameSpy, or IGN.
Final Fantasy XII scored well according to many respected reviewers. I like it better than FFX, personally. Square-Enix has outdone themselves in this PS2 classic.
by aka_Pyro November 25, 2007
Get the Final Fantasy XII mug.Many people of the Abrahamic religions, specifically Christianity, have a saying: No God, No Peace, Know God, Know Peace. I cannot honestly be expected to believe that being a Christian will mean that I will know peace when all the Abrahamic cults are warring with one another.
Instead, I'm just going to assume that 'devoting oneself to the highest power' means 'selling out the the ones who won't kill you if you join them.'
Everyone has their own opinion on religion, of course, and therefore, it is impossible to create a world-wide peace when peace is agreement not to be enemies. For example, if a faith requires enemies to survive, its practitioners will continue to kill and maim and hurt others until the faith is dead or every last 'heretic' is no more than a memory.
Besides, organized religion defeats the purpose of free will, if you haven't noticed. That's why I'm the free and happy atheist that is completely stigmatized against any religion that doesn't offer the power to summon monsters based on a pact with the religion's deity.
Final Fantasy has some cool religions in it, ever hear of the Yevonites? Oh, wait, their leaders are corrupt and evil. Ever hear of the Covenant, a religious collective of alien races with one single goal? Oh, wait, that involves the total annihilation of all intelligent life in the galaxy. Star Wars has the coolest religion of all, though. May the Force be with you, always.
Instead, I'm just going to assume that 'devoting oneself to the highest power' means 'selling out the the ones who won't kill you if you join them.'
Everyone has their own opinion on religion, of course, and therefore, it is impossible to create a world-wide peace when peace is agreement not to be enemies. For example, if a faith requires enemies to survive, its practitioners will continue to kill and maim and hurt others until the faith is dead or every last 'heretic' is no more than a memory.
Besides, organized religion defeats the purpose of free will, if you haven't noticed. That's why I'm the free and happy atheist that is completely stigmatized against any religion that doesn't offer the power to summon monsters based on a pact with the religion's deity.
Final Fantasy has some cool religions in it, ever hear of the Yevonites? Oh, wait, their leaders are corrupt and evil. Ever hear of the Covenant, a religious collective of alien races with one single goal? Oh, wait, that involves the total annihilation of all intelligent life in the galaxy. Star Wars has the coolest religion of all, though. May the Force be with you, always.
by aka_Pyro October 13, 2007
Get the Know God, No Peace mug.The superhero alter-ego of the character Cat in the Newgrounds Flash series Retarded Animal Babies Episode 4: Stupor Heroes, animated by David C. Lovelace. He has the 'power to penetrate mighty fortresses', though he 'prefers shaved fortresses.' See also: Infinity Lad, Bruce Willis-Man,Satan Man, the Fucking Fucker, and the Triple-D Triplets.
Cat: I'm the Purple Penis! I penetrate mighty fortresses, and sometimes hairy ones!
Puppy: No, I called Purple Penis!
Cat: No, you said you were going to be the Green Penis.
Bunny: Green Penis? Eeeewwww!
Puppy: No, I called Purple Penis!
Cat: No, you said you were going to be the Green Penis.
Bunny: Green Penis? Eeeewwww!
by aka_Pyro October 10, 2007
Get the Purple Penis mug.Do the Hustle! *Backwards, Clap, Forwards, Clap, spin to the right, clap, spin to the left, clap, jump forwards, jump back, repeat, click heels twice, heel-toe-heel-toe-heel-heel-toe-toe, turn and repeat from step 1*
by aka_Pyro August 19, 2007
Get the the hustle mug.Nintendo's re-design of their latest handheld. New features include:
- Smaller size - The DS Lite measures 133mm wide, 73.9mm high and 21.5mm deep at 215 grams in weight. This makes it 42% smaller and 21% lighter than the original DS. The screens are the same size.
- Four brightness levels, of which the brightest is extremily bright.
- Larger stylus
- Shiny future-esque finish available in White, Black, and Light Blue. These are the launch colors, and Nintendo will very likely release more colors as time goes on.
- Improved Wi-Fi capabilities (hardware only)
- Button layout change (Start, Select, Power)
- Region Free, as is the original DS
- Increased Touch Screen sensitivity
Other than the above revisions to the system, the DS Lite is essentially the same system. The same, except more addictive. Do not buy one of these unless you actually have the have time to waste. This little piece of awesomeness is notorious for eating up time like pac-man pigs out on pac-pellets.
This is made especially more true because of the backwards compatibility: with access to the huge library of GBA games and the growing library of DS games with Wi-Fi enabled features, you are guaranteed to spend as much time as you possibly can playing with your Nintendo DS Lite, spamming Urban Dictionary and online forums about PSP, and being an utter annoyance to people who brag about their PSPs, and anyone who thinks the PlayStation series doesn't suck; sometimes, you'll find yourself doing all of those things at the same time.
- Smaller size - The DS Lite measures 133mm wide, 73.9mm high and 21.5mm deep at 215 grams in weight. This makes it 42% smaller and 21% lighter than the original DS. The screens are the same size.
- Four brightness levels, of which the brightest is extremily bright.
- Larger stylus
- Shiny future-esque finish available in White, Black, and Light Blue. These are the launch colors, and Nintendo will very likely release more colors as time goes on.
- Improved Wi-Fi capabilities (hardware only)
- Button layout change (Start, Select, Power)
- Region Free, as is the original DS
- Increased Touch Screen sensitivity
Other than the above revisions to the system, the DS Lite is essentially the same system. The same, except more addictive. Do not buy one of these unless you actually have the have time to waste. This little piece of awesomeness is notorious for eating up time like pac-man pigs out on pac-pellets.
This is made especially more true because of the backwards compatibility: with access to the huge library of GBA games and the growing library of DS games with Wi-Fi enabled features, you are guaranteed to spend as much time as you possibly can playing with your Nintendo DS Lite, spamming Urban Dictionary and online forums about PSP, and being an utter annoyance to people who brag about their PSPs, and anyone who thinks the PlayStation series doesn't suck; sometimes, you'll find yourself doing all of those things at the same time.
I'm going to go play Metroid Prime Hunters, Pokemon Diamond, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Mario Kart Super Circuit on my DS with my other DS addicted friends, while simultaneously waiting six months for FFTA 2 to come out, so I can go play Metroid, Pokemon, FFTA 2, and Mario Kart DS on my Nintendo DS Lite with said DS addicted friends.
by aka_Pyro August 1, 2007
Get the Nintendo DS Lite mug.1. To give one's information "as truthfully as possible." Taken from an old Roman phrase "to swear on one's testicles." Now, think about that, and think about how differently court cases would turn out if that meaning held true to this day...
by aka_Pyro July 28, 2007
Get the testify mug.1. Digitally speaking, a piece of shit. Used in reference to a poorly made game, digital image, etc. See also: Movie Game!
by aka_Pyro July 26, 2007
Get the pile of pixels mug.