Topic: Games you've recently beat

Finally finished erm, Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age, and it is only my second game of the series that I've finished, after 7 Remake. Took me the best part of 150 hours and still a fair bit to do in regards to the Platinum. But as much as I've enjoyed it I think I have had enough of the game and to continue playing it would make the experience less enjoyable. Still overall, I thought it was a brilliant game.

I finally had a couple free hours and so I finished Control last night. I’d been hovering near the end and delaying the final stretch by running around mopping up side quests and Board Countermeasures. But I finally went through the final sequences and saw the credits both times.

The end game content is quite well done though and I usually don’t stick around a game after the ending, but this might be an exception. First off I have the DLC to do - both The Foundation and AWE. Secondly, I’m shy just a few more ability points for the last trophy so there will be a bit of grinding for that, but I figure I’m close. And lastly, I want to hang around and explore areas I couldn’t get to before due to mold etc, and as the bonafide Director talk to people and get the bonus dialogue from the NPCs.

So a few more hours yet until I lay the game to rest.

@Th3solution nice Sol, glad you got a lot out of it. I never bothered playing the dlc but I heard both are good additions... reckon I'll catch them when I eventually replay the PS5 version.

@JohnnyShoulder I've only played FFVIIR and FFXV (both of which I enjoyed) but a couple of friends of mine who are huge FF fans have suggested I should try FFXIIZA. Has it got action combat or turn based?

@colonelkilgore It's kind of a bit of both

@Voltan okay... colour me intrigued. As you may have noticed (as I mention it semi-frequently) I've just never been able to click with turn based action... maybe a half-way house like this could be the 'gateway-drug' I need.

@colonelkilgore You have Gambits, which are set of instructions to each party member. They then carry out these instructions automatically, so you are not carrying out the moves yourself on the screen, only setting up the Gambits.You only start off with the basic stuff, but you can buy more from certain shops. It is explained really well in game, although it wasn't until a few hours into the game that I unlocked the tutorial.

@colonelkilgore Are you familiar with the "Active Time Battle" system of the classic Final Fantasy games? It's basically turn based but the order of turns is determined by a bar that can be filled at a different rate depending on a character's stats, status etc. Once it's full, a character can perform an action.
XII still uses a similar system but you can also move characters on the battlefield between the actions.
It's a bit of a middle ground, I guess.

@JohnnyShoulder @Voltan I'm not familiar with either gambits or the 'active time battle' system... having read your explanations though I'm thinking I should probably just wait for FFXVI. The Last thing I need is to waste another 10-15 hours trying an RPG that doesn't have real-time action only to come to the same conclusion I'd arrived at with Persona 5 and Divinity: Original Sin 2. Cheers for the info though guys.

@colonelkilgore It’s been years since I played FFXII and I only played the original, not the Zodiac Age edition, but it has a really unique battle system, as others have mentioned. It’s depends what you dislike about turn-based combat that will determine your opinion of FFXII’s system. One one hand, there is not much spur of the moment skill based combat, a la Souls games. However the gambit system rewards a tactical approach with good preparation and applying some logic before a battle. If you set up your gambit (the auto instructions and reactions that your party members follow) then the battles basically play themselves and you can breeze through most of them. If the aspects of turn-based battle that repel you is the lack of being the actual executor of the action, then you’ll probably hate the FFXII gambit system. For me, it was great and I really enjoyed the ability to invest time and strategy setting up my team and then just watch them lay waste to the enemy. 😄

@colonelkilgore Gambits are a way to control your party members indirectly. It's like a simple scripting language: IF Health < 30% THEN use a healing item, etc.
As you progress through the game you unlock new conditions for the gambits as well as the ability to set a larger number of them.

@colonelkilgore Additional thought...
For me the gambit system was a bit of ‘trimming the fat’, so to speak on the usual turn-based combat. So, for example, when your main character’s health drops below 30%, don’t you want your healer character to execute a healing spell? Well, of course. You’d probably do that 9 times out of 10 anyways. If the enemy is known to be weak against a certain element, wouldn’t you have your mage use that offensive spell? Sure. So you’re just pre-arranging to do all the things you’d normally do, and then only getting involved when you have a curve ball thrown at you, but the mundane decisions are all automatic with the gambits.

Edit: @Voltan beat me to it a little 😄

@Th3solution I am 'interested' as I enjoyed 7R and particularly 15 (I know right) so much... but I just have so many games scheduled that I know I'll enjoy, I guess there just isn't enough upside to taking another punt on something that lends its self to a style I struggle to click with.

I appreciate everyone's (yours, @Voltan & @JohnnyShoulder) though 🙏

Congrats @JohnnyShoulder on finishing Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age!

For having a double and quadruple speed up function that still was a hell of a lot of hours ya spent on it, but glad you enjoyed it quite a bit!

And well done on felling Yizamat too, especially after your first time against him unfortunately crashed... I would've probably just thrown the towel in myself with the stupidly long super bosses

I almost did @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy, or at the very least just continue to finish up the story. Even with quadruple speed and all the tecniks setup to gimp his damage and so on, it still took the best part of 2 hours! 😂

That was definitely the longest boss fight, the end of game boss was a breeze in comparison. Part way through the final stage I set loose my best summon on the final boss, and it one hit killed him!

I've finished Resident Evil 3 Remake. It was not as atmospheric as I imagined it. Resident Evil 2 Remake was better in all aspects. Still fun game.

I've completed Persona 2: Innocent Sin. That was the PSP version, played on PS Vita.

Overall, it was fairly fun. The story was great in it. It's set in a Japanese town, and trouble is brewing as rumours start becoming reality.

My main complaints come from some gameplay issues. Selecting the different options in battle and demon negotiations feels a bit slow and cumbersome. And the difficulty was very easy for much of the game, even on Hard difficulty.

But overall, it was quite enjoyable.

@Kidfried The first game is pretty safe but I loved it. A nice platinum too.

Much like the Crash trilogy, they do start to put more filler in the other games. Some of it works, some doesn’t.

If you’re going for all the platinums, I remember one boss fight in the second game that you have to do without being hit and I swear it was harder to do that than beat most of the bosses in the Dark Souls games

The @RogerRoger seal of approval! Now there is a scary thought!

Man of Medan. It was enjoyable enough, but I think Little Hope is better. And Until Dawn is even better than them both.

I did fairly well, and kept most of the main characters alive. Julia was the only fatality, as I mistakenly stabbed her at the very end. Conrad was probably going to die too. He escaped earlier, but came back to help after everyone else had left.