FFXII = finally fantastically finished!!
Feb. 19th, 2009 05:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flonnebonneI think I remember someone on my flist describing FFXII as "a good game, FAR too long," which is a good summary of the game if you ask me.
The game is long because it's padded with hours of dungeon-crawling and fetchquests, unfortunately. The actual amount of story is not very much. It's a good thing the battle system is fun. It had a good amount of challenge, and occasionally you could run into some exceedingly nasty monster that would have you running for your life. I liked that.
The main things that impressed me about FFXII were the graphics and the excellent, excellent translation. The dungeons got monotonous after a while, but they actually are pretty gorgeous if you don't stare at them for hundreds of hours. And the intro FMVs...wow. They reminded me of the battles in Lord of the Rings in terms of sheer scale.
The translation of FFXII is so good that I suspect the Japanese script is probably inferior. Is the translator a scholar of some kind?
Unfortunately, because the dialogue was written and acted so well, and the world-building was so detailed, my expections for the actual story were far too high. It was just...not complex enough, I think. Not for a game that's descended from Final Fantasy Tactics (but then, FFT involved the company Quest along with Square, so it's a different creature altogether).
Also, it really bugged me that while the characters SOUNDED very smart and used big words and had cool accents, they kept doing STUPID things. Case in point:
-"Oh noes, Ondorre turned us over to the Imperials. Let's easily escape (again) and not get pursued and then maybe buy some hi-potions and then WALTZ BACK INTO ONDORRE'S HOUSE THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR."
-"Oh my gosh, the nethicite is blowing up the entire Imperial fleet! Let's FLY RIGHT AT IT and somehow GRAB THE NETHICITE FROM MIDAIR."
-When themariachi Rozarrian emissary guy visits and asks Ashe to go with him to Rozarria to help sue for peace and prevent the war that is going to erupt in like two seconds, Ashe is all "Ignore! I'm gonna walk very slowly into the heart of the Archadian empire to find a rock. No, I won't split up my party. See ya!" And speaking of that particular errand...
-Why didn't we blow up the Draklor laboratory? Or steal their research? Or at least LOOK at their research? What kind of terrorists are we?
And so on, and so on. I almost wished that the dialogue weren't so well-written, so my expectations of the characters' having some brain cells would go away.
Anyway, who exactly is the main character of this game? Vaan is kind of a joke--I kept waiting for him to do something important, but all he did was tag along while more important people did important things. One of my favourite parts of the game was when the party finally makes it to the Sun-cryst and this little dialogue takes place:
Ashe: King Raithwall stood here. With this sword he cut the Sun-cryst and took its power in his hand.
Vaan: (approaches Ashe) But you're going to use the sword to destroy the
Sun-cryst. Aren't you, Ashe.
Ashe: Ehh. Don't interrupt me, Vaan, or I will beat you with your own liver.
Ashe is pretty hardcore, by the way. In my game it always seemed like she was running off to kill monsters off-screen when I didn't want her to. I probably just had her gambits set up incorrectly, but I prefer to think she's just one hell of a blood-thirsty lady. I kind of wished the other characters would stop warning her against the dangers of absolute power blah blah blah, I wanted her to blow up some shit. She had really good stats too, I bet she coulda dunnit.
Balthier is awesome. I don't think I need to explain this. I assume he is the fandom darling and gets lots of smex. Just because, I had him using guns the whole game, even though apparently he's a fraction of a second slower on guns than most of the other characters due to some animation glitch. Apparently Fran is slightly slow on her default weapon (bows) too! What the hell, right?
Here is how I set up my party, most of the time:
Vaan (1-handed sword and shield), tank and heavy hitter
Basch (ditto), tank and heavy hitter
Balthier (gun), long-distance fighter
Fran (bow/other), long-distance fighter and crappy mage
Penelo (pole/staff/other), fighter and good mage
Ashe (staff/other), awesome mage
I think Fran had the crappiest stats overall, and she didn't excel at anything, but I'm not sure how much the characters' stat growth is pre-determined and how much is luck.
The weird thing about FFXII is that they give you enough license points so that every character can do everything--you don't really have to specialize that much, except at the beginning of the game. Later on, you teach EVERYONE how to cast Blizzaga, Curaja, Esuna, Bubble, Scathe, etc. You think they'd make it a little harder to turn ALL your characters into raging beasts of destruction...
The last dungeon was exceedingly short. And the last battle was really straightforward. One of my friends said he didn't actually KNOW he was fighting the last battle and was all surprised when he beat the game. But it was a good ending.
I guess Balthier is the leading man, huh.
Btw, REC ME SOME FICS PLZ. PREFERABLY WITH BALTHIER IN THEM.
The game is long because it's padded with hours of dungeon-crawling and fetchquests, unfortunately. The actual amount of story is not very much. It's a good thing the battle system is fun. It had a good amount of challenge, and occasionally you could run into some exceedingly nasty monster that would have you running for your life. I liked that.
The main things that impressed me about FFXII were the graphics and the excellent, excellent translation. The dungeons got monotonous after a while, but they actually are pretty gorgeous if you don't stare at them for hundreds of hours. And the intro FMVs...wow. They reminded me of the battles in Lord of the Rings in terms of sheer scale.
The translation of FFXII is so good that I suspect the Japanese script is probably inferior. Is the translator a scholar of some kind?
Unfortunately, because the dialogue was written and acted so well, and the world-building was so detailed, my expections for the actual story were far too high. It was just...not complex enough, I think. Not for a game that's descended from Final Fantasy Tactics (but then, FFT involved the company Quest along with Square, so it's a different creature altogether).
Also, it really bugged me that while the characters SOUNDED very smart and used big words and had cool accents, they kept doing STUPID things. Case in point:
-"Oh noes, Ondorre turned us over to the Imperials. Let's easily escape (again) and not get pursued and then maybe buy some hi-potions and then WALTZ BACK INTO ONDORRE'S HOUSE THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR."
-"Oh my gosh, the nethicite is blowing up the entire Imperial fleet! Let's FLY RIGHT AT IT and somehow GRAB THE NETHICITE FROM MIDAIR."
-When the
-Why didn't we blow up the Draklor laboratory? Or steal their research? Or at least LOOK at their research? What kind of terrorists are we?
And so on, and so on. I almost wished that the dialogue weren't so well-written, so my expectations of the characters' having some brain cells would go away.
Anyway, who exactly is the main character of this game? Vaan is kind of a joke--I kept waiting for him to do something important, but all he did was tag along while more important people did important things. One of my favourite parts of the game was when the party finally makes it to the Sun-cryst and this little dialogue takes place:
Ashe: King Raithwall stood here. With this sword he cut the Sun-cryst and took its power in his hand.
Vaan: (approaches Ashe) But you're going to use the sword to destroy the
Sun-cryst. Aren't you, Ashe.
Ashe: Ehh. Don't interrupt me, Vaan
Ashe is pretty hardcore, by the way. In my game it always seemed like she was running off to kill monsters off-screen when I didn't want her to. I probably just had her gambits set up incorrectly, but I prefer to think she's just one hell of a blood-thirsty lady. I kind of wished the other characters would stop warning her against the dangers of absolute power blah blah blah, I wanted her to blow up some shit. She had really good stats too, I bet she coulda dunnit.
Balthier is awesome. I don't think I need to explain this. I assume he is the fandom darling and gets lots of smex. Just because, I had him using guns the whole game, even though apparently he's a fraction of a second slower on guns than most of the other characters due to some animation glitch. Apparently Fran is slightly slow on her default weapon (bows) too! What the hell, right?
Here is how I set up my party, most of the time:
Vaan (1-handed sword and shield), tank and heavy hitter
Basch (ditto), tank and heavy hitter
Balthier (gun), long-distance fighter
Fran (bow/other), long-distance fighter and crappy mage
Penelo (pole/staff/other), fighter and good mage
Ashe (staff/other), awesome mage
I think Fran had the crappiest stats overall, and she didn't excel at anything, but I'm not sure how much the characters' stat growth is pre-determined and how much is luck.
The weird thing about FFXII is that they give you enough license points so that every character can do everything--you don't really have to specialize that much, except at the beginning of the game. Later on, you teach EVERYONE how to cast Blizzaga, Curaja, Esuna, Bubble, Scathe, etc. You think they'd make it a little harder to turn ALL your characters into raging beasts of destruction...
The last dungeon was exceedingly short. And the last battle was really straightforward. One of my friends said he didn't actually KNOW he was fighting the last battle and was all surprised when he beat the game. But it was a good ending.
I guess Balthier is the leading man, huh.
Btw, REC ME SOME FICS PLZ. PREFERABLY WITH BALTHIER IN THEM.
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no subject
Date: 2009-02-20 01:36 pm (UTC)Maybe the producers like to blow shit up too. I don't play (hello addictive personality) but I like the sound of this Ashe chick.
Ask
no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 11:36 pm (UTC)Ashe is pretty cool. And she's not SO badass that she's unbelievable, as a lot of "strong female characters" are. She seems to be the way she is partly because of circumstances, but also partly because of just who she is.
I feel weird about dropping in on someone and asking for recs. 0_o I'll at least wade around through the fandom a little first.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-13 09:53 pm (UTC)"A Kind of Integrity" Balthier & Fran prequel to FFXII by Twigcollins.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/166043/chapters/241755
There's a lot of good ffxii fanfic out there -- much of it by pendancy and vieralynn -- but that story is my favorite fic for fxii, for reasons that are too hard to explain while tapping on a tablet in a cafe. (but I have it downloaded to ibooks on said tablet for rereading enjoyment)
Thank you!
Date: 2013-05-14 06:42 am (UTC)Man, it's been a long time since I read a fanfic that long. FFXII seems to inspire the long ones, don't it? Whenever I dip into the fandom I always feel a little awed and overwhelmed.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-30 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-20 08:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 11:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 07:49 am (UTC)Barth = Basch?
Date: 2009-05-21 09:47 pm (UTC)I kind of figured that at high levels everyone would be hitting 9999, so the differences wouldn't matter too much. What level did you get up to?
no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 07:47 am (UTC)I remember looking at tons of stat growth tables because I'm a geek that way, and I believe Vaan actually ends up with the best stats for nearly all the weapons, no matter what you do with them. Fran and Balthier tend to be a little weaker because they're so unbalanced. (guns get affected less by stats, though, so you may not have noticed it with Balthier.)
I KNOW NOT ANY BALTHIER FICS. I PROPOSE THAT YOU WRITE SOME.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 09:43 pm (UTC)Heh, so Vaan gets good stats instead of good story, whereas Balthier is the opposite. Fran kind of gets shafted in a lot of ways--I remember at the end of the game, when everyone is screaming "BALTHIER! OMG DON'T DIE!" they kind of seem to forget about Fran. (It's just like Frodo and Sam, isn't it)
Alas, Balthier is much too difficult for me to write, I would have to go and read some smart lichurachure and learn some big words and nice turns of phrase before I could possibly write him. UNPOSSIBLE. MUCH TOO DARFFICULT FOR ME. Plus I really haven't felt the writing bug for FFXII, though I love reading the stuff.
Btw, have you read the works of ellnyx? Particularly this one and this one? (Recs=misdirection so I don't have to write anything meself)