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06.) DIFFERENCES & EXTRAS - G0600
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This section will be a brief list of changes incorporated in FFXII-IZJS. I'll
be comparing them to first JPN version of FFXII, as well as US version. The
list is not in chronological order, because I keep finding more stuff that is
different, nor do I think I'll likely ever have the list done in chronological
order.
Regarding game's language, take this to heart...
VOICE ACTING IS IN ENGLISH.
EVERYTHING ELSE IS IN JAPANESE.
THERE IS NO WAY TO CHANGE THE LANGUAGE OF EITHER VOICE ACTING, SUBTITLES, MENU
SCREENS, OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT INVOLVES LANGUAGE.
And regarding the possible releases elsewhere in the world...
THERE ARE NO PLANS TO RELEASE FFXII-IZJS OUTSIDE OF JAPAN.
Now with that out of the way, I shall commence with listing the differences.
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#01 - Trial Mode
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Trial mode pits you against series of 100 battles against various opponents. It
starts off easy enough, but soon gets to the point where battles are pretty
hectic and you have to watch Ashe's six in order not to got KOed.
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#02 - 12 New License Boards
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Shortly after accepting Rogue Tomato hunt from Tomaj, you can start tinkering
with learning the licenses in order to improve your chrs. But what's that...
instead of one big LB there are twelve LB! Each LB represents a job in Zodiac
Job System (also note that shape of each LB is roughly the same as respective
zodiac sign).
The jobs at your disposal are: white mage, dragoon, machinist, red mage,
knight, monk, time mage, breaker, archer, black mage, samurai and thief.
Once you choose a job, you cannot change it! This is very important to take
into consideration, so think twice before choosing a job. Of course, you can
choose not to select any job and play the game that way, but it'll be extremely
challenging and you'll be missing out on bonuses from jobs.
You will see many "island squares" on each LB. "Bridges" that will connect LB
with these squares appear as you acquire espers. Again, you will need to
carefully consider who you will get to become a summoner with which esper -
once you select the esper license, same license disappears from others' LB.
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#03 - Controllable Guests
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At various points in the game, specific chrs will join your party as a guest.
In previous versions of FF12, guests were acting according to their own gambits
and you couldn't do squat about it.
However this time around... you can take control of the guest chr and make
him/her party leader, check what magics and techs they have learned, as well as
change their gambits so they don't act 'freely' anymore. You cannot change
guest's equipment, though.
Guests level up as you do, so they no longer make their shair of EXP go to
waste.
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#04 - Controllable Espers
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At various points in the game, you will need to battle espers in order to
continue your saga. In previous versions of FF12, espers (once summoned) were
acting according to their own gambits and you couldn't do squat about it.
However this time around... you can take control of the esper and make him/her
party leader, as well as change their gambits so they don't act 'freely'
anymore. It's also possible to toss esper's bigass attack on your command so
you don't need to wait for just-the-right conditions anymore (Exodus' was
specifically hard to put together).
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#05 - L1 Button Speed Boost
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By pressing L1 button at any time while roaming around, game's performance will
speed up. This allows you to get from one end of the map to the other in
significantly less time, and battles are also done much much quicker.
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#06 - Gambits
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You can buy every gambit in the game as soon as you finish storyline events in
Barheim Passage.
The game introduces 16 new gambits, divided like this:
- 5 new 'ally' gambits
- 4 new 'enemy' gambits
- 7 new 'self' gambits
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#07 - Items
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The game features introduction of at least 10+ new items. Among interesting
ones to point out: Dispel Mote and Bravery Mote.
Some items' effects have been changed. For example Chronos Tear now removes
both Slow and Stop.
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#08 - Enemies
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The game features a couple of new enemies in Trial mode - battle with five
judges at once (during regular storyline you fight three of them)...
- Enemies' statistics / attacks change
Several of the enemies have undergone a change, possibly for the better to
them. The biggest obstacle I found was duo of Archaeoaevis foes in [Zertinan
Caverns / Balamka Fault] - their lv ranges anywhere from lv59lv99! Their
attack repertoire is also changed (Curse, Crushing Fangs, Dispelga etc.) as are
their passive abilities. In short, I faced couple of game overs thanks to those
two dudes.
Hunt mark Ixion also seems to have a boost in magic attack power - when it went
critical, it was killing my chrs with 8000+ damage from Thundagas.
Some enemies drop different items now. Example: you no longer get Kotetsu from
Werewolf in Giza Plains, but instead an axe with 54 ATT (Slasher).
There aren't that many differences in this field, though.
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#09 - Magicks
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There aren't any new "new" magicks, instead some old ones got renamed - for
example, Water is now Aqua spell.
Several of the magics have been re-classified into other magic class (for
example, Bravery and Faith now belong to white magic class), and some spells
are given more range (lv1 element spells and Cure are now AoE effect spells).
You won't be able to find all magics in shops. I came to end of game and was
still missing over 20+ spells on my list - instead you have to find them in
treasure pots.
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#10 - Weapons
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There's a couple of new weapons which have been added (for example - Excalipoor
2Hsword with 1 ATT).
Many weapons have different effects now, like different ATT (for example -
Masamune now has 117 ATT instead of 93 ATT from earlier versions), or addition
of inflicting a negative status on enemy hit (for example - Blood Sword can
inflict Confuse).
- Different ways of acquiring weapons
By this I mean that you will find some weapons in totally different ways. For
example - Masamune is found in treasure pot in same room where you fight
Gilgamesh for the second time. As a hunt reward from Montblanc you receive
Excalipoor 2Hsword.
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#11 - Armors
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Some of the armors have different defense rating in comparison to their
counterparts from earlier versions.
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#12 - Accessories
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- Accessories' effects change
Some of the accessories have different effects in comparison to their
counterparts from earlier versions. Those include addition of guarding against
elemental magic (Diamond Armlet makes you immune to thunder spells), or
accessory being made more useful (Ribbon adds +1 to DEF and MDEF, has permanent
Libra and Regen, and shields against most negative statuses except Reverse and
Death).
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#13 - Shops
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In comparison to earlier versions, many of the shops carry different lineup of
warez you can buy. This affects even Clan Provisioner's shop - no Nihopalaoa
for you that way.
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#14 - Quickenings
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Certain LB have 4 Quickie licenses, costing various amounts of LP (50, 75, 100
and 125, respectively). Example - I chose Knight license board for Vaan. On
that LB there are four Quickening licenses. You can still learn only three
Quickies, but I notice that 125 Quickie license blocks access to three licenses
(a tech, HP boost, and a weapon license). Very sneaky.
- Different usage of Quickies
Quickies are now performed differently - they no longer use chr's MP, but are
instead represented as three bars below chr's name, HP and MP gauges (as a
result of that, HP and MP bars are gone). Once Quickie ends, you can recover
Quickie gauges by attacking the enemies or receiving damage (touching SCR or
GCR completely refills the gauge).
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#15 - MP Issue
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Because Quickies no longer affect MP directly, chr's MP no longer gets
multiplied when that same chr acquires Quickie licenses. Instead, chr gains
much more MP as he/she levels up. For example (excluding the fact that chr has
learned any Quickies), Vaan in earlier versions of FF12 would have say 320 MP
at lv99, while Vaan in FF12 Int. has 314 MP while he is lv40.
As you reach lv99 and depending on the job you chose, expect chr's MP to be in
range from 650 MP to 850 MP.
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#16 - New Game Plus
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This mode is unlocked once you beat the game by defeating last storyline boss.
Wait for the ending credits to disappear, then you're asked if you'd like to
begin a new game on Strong mode, or be returned to title screen.
Strong mode has all of your chrs begin on lv90, and that is it. All items,
equips, licenses, gil, and everything else you acquired in previous playthru is
gone and doesn't carry over.
This mode is unlocked once you beat the game by clearing Trial mode completely.
Upon clearing Stage 100, you'll be asked if you'd like to begin a new game on
Weak mode, or be returned to title screen.
Weak mode has all of your chrs begin on levels 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, and 3, and you
gain NO EXP WHATSOEVER from enemies. All items, equips, licenses, gil, and
everything else you acquired in previous playthru is gone and doesn't carry
over.
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#17 - Chest Respawns
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Probably the biggest improvement to the game.
CHESTS RESPAWN BY GOING ONE SCREEN AWAY!
You no longer need to go away three screens in order to make a chest respawn.
However, chests have retained their "abilities" to not have 100% spawn rate
upon entering the screen, and being one-time-only chests. With that in mind, if
you don't see a chest when you come to pick it up for second time, chances are
it was one-time-only chest or luck just didn't favor you for particular spawn %
rate (in latter case, just try again).
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#18 - Save Game from Earlier Versions
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If you're hogging onto any saves you made in earlier versions of FF12, you can
now freely delete them. FFXII-IZJS doesn't support importing any of those
saves, so you have to start a completely new game.
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#19 - Damage Limit Removed
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Another thing lot of players may like is that they have removed damage limits.
Let me explain - in earlier versions lv99 Vaan with Tournesol equipped could
dish a maximum of 9999 damage to weak enemy. Well, if you choose Knight Vaan
with maxed out LB and Tournesol equipped in FFXII-IZJS and have him whack a
weak enemy, you're likely to see 20000+ damage!
Damage limits have also been removed for spells.
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#20 - Technicks
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- Technicks in treasure pots
You won't be able to find all techs in shops. I came to end of game and was
still missing 9 techs on my list - instead you have to find them in treasure
pots.
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#21 - Licenses on LB
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Some of the licenses have undergone a change in effects. For example, learning
Potion Lore 1 will up recovery potential of Potions by 20% (in earlier versions
learning Potion Lore 1 would do the same, but only by 10%).
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#22 - Outfitters Shop
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Once you have completed Draklor Laboratory and have successfully hunted down
first Trophy Rare Game foe Thalassinon for Huntmaster at [Phon Coast /
Hunters' Camp], you can talk to Shifty-Eyed Man standing next to some crates.
Once he recognizes your success of Thalassinon vanquishing, he'll open up his
store... which is empty.
In order for this cheap bastard to get his warez, you need to start hunting
down 30 other Trophy Rare Game enemies that have spawned over Ivalice. When you
claim their trophies, bring them back here and trade them to either Atak
(weapons), Blok (armor) or Stok (sundries). Shifty-Eyed Man's store will update
depending on how many and who you give trophies to. You can talk to Huntmaster
and ask about how many trophies you gave to whom, in case you ever forget.
The stuff offered and prices for that stuff are different than in earlier
versions.
