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FFXII:IZJS (I'm still getting used to writing that down) came out exclusively in Japan and Korea, and features a range of additions that weren't available to those of us abroad. The most tantalising of these, for me, is the Trial Mode where you can pit a character (or a party, I don't know) in a 100 round challenge against increasingly difficult enemies. Instead of one master license board there are twelve boards to choose from, each being a more traditional class: White Mage, Red Mage, Thief, Monk etc. Also, a Weak Mode is available where you have to play the game through gaining no experience from battles. The L1 button turns on a double-speed mode utilising frame skipping; finally! It seems like this game has been engineered to suit the way that I play RPGs.

I'm so hooked on all things FFXII that my friend and I have ordered this game from Play-Asia. We decided that, because we have such a wide knowledge of this game, we wouldn't really mind playing it in Japanese. I've dug up some translation guides and license board layouts in English.

So what do we all make of this? Has anyone played it? Should we have an English translation? Do the new additions benefit the gameplay or do they change what an FF is supposed to be about?

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Well, North America never got FF X International or either of the Kingdom Hearts Final Mix games. Since this is basically the FF XII version of those, it's doubtful that FF XII International will come out in English. There's no precedent. But I've been wrong about these things before, so hopefully for fans like you this isn't true. Cross your fingers.

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
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I seriously hope we get it, it sounds so perfect >.< especially the new license board system.
If this comes out in English, I'll be so happy

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*Sigh*....Times are tough

Quote (laszlow @ 4th February 2009 00:49)

Well, North America never got FF X International or either of the Kingdom Hearts Final Mix games.

I never did understand that. Am I right in saying that the FFX International had the advanced sphere grid and the dark aeons? If so, that's the same as the PAL one I bought, so how difficult would it really be to release it in North America? I have no idea how Square-Enix decides which games should go where. Maybe they flip a coin or something. And then one for the driver.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

PAL regions got FFX International because by the time they were scheduled to receive it, Japan already had FFX International. They decided to go ahead and give you the upgraded version, since they were no longer printing the original.

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
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Quote (sweetdude @ 22nd February 2009 03:24)

Maybe they flip a coin or something. And then one for the driver.

In that case, the US would have terrible luck.

Compared to European countries and Australia, North America gets games pretty close to the the Japanese release date. I guess SE thinks it wouldn't be profitable to release a newer version of a game that people already have in the US. It's probably too risky to release in the US even if that works in Japan (I bet have more hardcore RPG players over there).

I already thought FFXII was a solid game, so I would dig an improved version. It sounds pretty nice, especially if they changed the license boards a bit cause let's face it, it was pretty annoying that all characters ended up having the same skills and abilities.



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I say what I wanna say, I play how I wanna play.

Quote (laszlow @ 22nd February 2009 03:30)

PAL regions got FFX International because by the time they were scheduled to receive it, Japan already had FFX International. They decided to go ahead and give you the upgraded version, since they were no longer printing the original.

That's understandable, but would anyone disagree that if there already is an English International translation available, releasing a limited edition version of FFX in NA would be profitable and well received? I would equate it to releasing FFVII and VIII for PC. I wouldn't think it would be too risky, as you say Harlequin.

I've got the FFXII International now, but I forgot that my old TV only plays at 50z. Nightmare. I totally agree, the old license board seems far too broad and renders about half of the weapons and armour as useless, in my experience.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

I doubt that there is an interchangeable language option on these. Otherwise I would have my girlfriend pick me up the means to play a copy when she goes back to Korea to visit family this summer. My Korean still has too far to go for me to be playing games in the language. To be honest though, that really doesn't sound like enough to go through all the trouble. I would hope there is more added to it before I can be bothered to try and get a copy.

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Climhazzard is the timeless evil robot who runs some of the cool stuff at CoN (mostly logging chat, since there are no quizzes at the moment), all the while watching and waiting for his moment to take over the world. -Tiddles

They did release it in Korean actually. Japan and Korea were the only two countries covered. You're in luck squire!

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.