Because it's a game that does nothing new in any way. It's, uh, great for what it is.... I guess. But I disagree with a game as unambitious and as stuck in the past as DQXI being worthy of praise. In fact I felt insulted while playing the game. I couldn't believe that this is a game released in modern times. EVERYTHING felt ancient, boring, unambitious. Just a game that's all about evoking nostalgia. And "charm," but the lack of ambition in pretty much all areas of the game ruins any potential "charm" it may have for me.
I don't even hate the game. It's fine for what it's going for. It does some things well- again, a lot of nice big towns, some of the characterization and writing is on point, and if you like wandering around in a toriyama anime you will have a lovely time doing so.
That being said the gameplay is decidedly not fine, has a ton of backwards and confusing decisions that appear to exist purely for "nostalgia" and no other reason, and it holds back the game. Why is there an option to move around your party members during combat that is completely useless? You can position your characters for what in any other RPG would result in distance related defense bonuses or back attacks but in DQXI these are inexplicably missing and not an option? Why? There's no coherent reason for this.
I'm not going to pretend FFXII is flawless- it does have it's issues here and there (though Zodiac fixes A LOT of them) but if we are looking at the *gameplay* between one and the other it is night and day.
This is what I mean: DQXI's AI is so brain dead I had to leave it on "orders only" for 99% of the game. The other options were nearly useless. "Fight Wisely" "Mix it Up" "Don't Use MP" "Focus on Healing" etc. Extremely broad, says almost nothing about what actions will be taken, and your characters will end up doing nonsense more often than not.
FFXII? (and I'm quoting myself from a previous post here).
FFXII's AI allows the player to fine tune behavior to such a degree that it's light years past all of these. Not only can i tell a party member to "heal me", i can SPECIFICALLY tell that party member to heal ONLY certain characters in the party, ONLY with Cura and not Curaga, and ONLY when HP is below 20%. Maybe I NEVER want to heal my main damage dealer because critical HP status is better for Combos. A gambit allows me to resurrect only him or her when KO'ed with no healing while treating the rest of the party normally.
The gambit system allows party members to immediately recognize negative status effects and remedy them with the most effective method in real time, AND sustain positive status effects (haste, reflect, bubble) to keep them active through dangerous areas at all times without me micromanaging my buffs.
I dont have to hope the AI figures out who the most dangerous opponent is, i can set a gambit to hit the party leader's target, the current enemy targeting a specific character, the enemy with the most HP, the highest level, or the highest magic power.
If i want to do weird offbeat things like use phoenix downs on dragons when i see them (and there are reasons you might want to), or physically attack my own party to impose a positive status effect with an unusual weapon i can guarantee that action gets done 100% of the time.
The AI can be set to distinguish between when to use a spell based not just on whether the enemy is weak to it or not, but simply vulnerable vs. flat out immune.
And ALL of these actions can be prioritzed by me. A braindead AI might think resurrecting a party member is more important than removing Confuse from a teammate, but if i disagree i can switch priorities for those behaviors easily. Maybe i want to immediately resurrect UNLESS my prime damage dealer is confused at the time in which case FIX THAT FIRST. Gambit lets me do this with precision.
And you're going to try and say that the party AI in DQXI is good? When it's lapped this badly by a decade old system running on the PS2?
and for the "Well, the game plays itself!" criticism, pick up Zodiac Age, and start up Trial mode. Put your money where your mouth is and try to get the game to "play itself" through all 100 stages. If you can get past level 15 or 20 without serious strategizing and optimizing of your gambits and equipment, I would be VERY surprised.
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