Final Fantasy XII, Part One

[rynling]

The God of Pre-Orders was kind to me, and I got my copy of the PS4 release of Final Fantasy XII a day early. It's been five years since I last played the game, but I still remembered exactly how long the prologue is, so I made myself sit down and suffer through it last night.

At the beginning of the game, there is an extended exposition dump about military action and political betrayal that then makes an abrupt transition to the perspective of an orphaned teenager killing rats in the sewer. I understand why it's effective that the story be told primarily from the perspective of a representative of "the common people," but I do think the prologue could have been handled more skillfully. Specifically, I wish the narrative had begun with Vaan's personal concerns and only gradually revealed the larger conflict, including Ashe and Basch's backstories. For the first few hours of the game, it's really enough to say that a small city-state was conquered by the powerful empire to the north, and foreign troops now occupy the city in preparation for the arrival of an imperial governor. Although it makes for a dramatic opening cinematic sequence, Ashe's marriage is largely immaterial to Vaan's story, as is Marquis Ondore's lengthy history lesson.

I don't dislike Vaan with the intense burning hatred I feel toward Tidus, but I'm planning on rushing through the game until the point where its real heroes, Ashe and Basch, join the party.

ALSO, NEVER FORGET: http://xii.venusgospel.net/ff12_basch.html

Comments

[lassarina]

ASHE!!!!

that's really all I had.

[rynling]

I love her, I love her so much, I just

I LOVE MY GOD-DEFYING WARRIOR PRINCESS DAUGHTER

She did nothing wrong.

[flonnebonne]

If you didn't link the Basch fashion post, I was gonna demand it!

I never realized until now that my burning annoyance with Vaan (he doesn't warrant hatred, you're right) had a lot to do with how the opening cinematic sets him up to be the biggest letdown of a protagonist in FF history. I guess it's not poor guy's fault, considering how he was shoehorned in after Basch was kicked out of the spotlight.

Hearing about all these messed up development stories, I feel like Square should like...make a SNES-level drafts of their mega-budget games first and work out some of the basic story and character problems before they are allowed anywhere near a graphics engine. But nooooo, they always make those damn promo vids first!

That said, FF12 turned out to be a pretty good game in the end. It was the last FF that Square actually released as a finished game! I look forward to hearing about the Zodiac Age :)

[rynling]

>I feel like Square should like...make a SNES-level drafts of their mega-budget games first and work out some of the basic story and character problems before they are allowed anywhere near a graphics engine

A few months ago I was reading in Nintendo Dream (a monthly magazine that's basically the Japanese equivalent of Nintendo Power) that this is more or less what the Breath of the Wild staff did as they were developing the game. Considering how much trouble Square Enix has been getting themselves into for the past ten years, perhaps this isn't such a bad idea.

Speaking of which, Pokémon Go and Neko Atsume are about the extent of my mobile gaming experience, but it seems that Squeenix is getting more into scaled down smartphone RPGs lately? Maybe this is just me getting old, but I sometimes feel like all I want is the excitement of playing FFVI again, and I am all for smaller and more manageable games.

This is definitely me getting old, but watching HD versions of Vaan and Penelo run around in their desert-inapprorpiate clothing is making me feel like a bit of a pedobear. I think perhaps there comes a certain point in realistic graphics where maybe... you don't want the children dressed like that? Fantasy fashion is all well and good if the graphics are constrained and artistically suggestive, but I don't really need to see the dimples in the skintight leather covering a sixteen-year-old's asscheeks.

So this is my assessment of FFXII Zodiac Age, I guess: Not much has changed, but the slightly altered license grid system adds an extra element of strategy, while the updated graphics are so beautiful that they occasionally will make you uncomfortable.

[auronlu]

I don't have a PS4 and this is making me want one, except that arthritist won't let me play very much anymore.

Any rate enjoy discovering FFXII all over again. The uncomfortable aspects of their costume are a bit alarming, but it could be worse: it could be kiddie Rydia's costume redone in modern realistic graphics.

As for squeenix mobile gaming, they farmed out the whole FF multiverse to a third party, DeNA, to make a free retro 8-bit graphics style game, and dagnabbit it grew on me until I was hopelessly hooked (Final Fantasy Record Keeper.) It's Dissidia rendered in Final Fantasy II pixel graphics with an amusingly light touch, and did i mention FREE.

[flonnebonne]

Apparently Square has TWO multi-FF time-sinky mobile games right now? FF Record Keeper and FF Brave Exvius. Apparently they are both very fun. I tried Record Keeper and I had to stop because I could tell it would've taken my life over. I would love it if Square would make some oldschool FFs that actually END so that I don't end up hating myself.

Did you ever see that FFXIII video they did with SNES-era sprites? If they actually made that game I'd finally play FFXIII. (I just cannot run through empty corridors for hours and hours, no matter how much I want to play an FF with a female protag).

When I played FFX HD, I found the HD-ness was nice on the backgrounds and oddly unnerving on the characters? Everyone was a little too sharp-edged for me, all the way down to their eyelids. So I probably won't play FFXII HD personally, just vicariously. Even if it means I don't get to see Basch's potholder in HD, it'll be worth it not to see Vaan and Penelo's butt dimples.