Current Events > What's the point of Penelo in FF12?

(+) Yeah! (+)

At least Vaan gets some dialogue (albeit it's sort of forced)... Penelo is like nothing.

Eye candy.
---

Yaridovich posted...

Eye candy.

That's what Ashe and Fran is for.
---

Spooking posted...

Penelo is the Rikku, Selphie and Yuffie of FFXII.

Yuffie is always in my final party
---

Is it true Penelo and Ashe never talk
---

its true that her, vaan and fran are not all that important
its because in the planing of the game at different points balthier, basch and ashe were all going to be the main character thats why all 3 of them are so important
but who would be the lead kept changing and eventually they said they should make the lead a teenage boy for the target audience to relate to

so in came vaan who can be lifted right out without changing anything
penelo was added so that there would be someone connected to him in the party to help him seem like less of a hanger on. it didnt help.


but i like her design
i usually use penelo and balthier as my party leaders
---

Sometimes late at night I like to imagine Penelo getting butt fucked but a Bangaa in some back alley
---

Yaridovich posted...

Sometimes late at night I like to imagine Penelo getting butt fucked but a Bangaa in some back alley

wat
---

SGT_Conti posted...

Is it true Penelo and Ashe never talk

Ashe gasps like every 2 seconds
---

Yes, Penelo and Ashe never talk between each other.

Penelo is there because Vaan is there, and Vaan's story ended 5 hours into the game.
---

DezCaughtIt posted...

SGT_Conti posted...

Is it true Penelo and Ashe never talk

Ashe gasps like every 2 seconds

i think he is asking if penelo and ashe ever talk to each other
and i dont think they do at any point but its been awhile since i played

penelo talks about ashe a few times and i think ashe does talk about penelo once
but i dont think the two characters ever actually have even a mini conversation with each other
---

It's so stupid Vaan is the main character. Dude is a street urchin and Ashe is a princess.
---

I think I remember a scene where Penelo says a statement to Ashe in passing and Ashe just does her gasping bullshit and end scene

But yeah you're right and I've never actually noticed that
---

Not even her design is any good, she's very unremarkable. Both she and Vaan could have been the voice of the actual people, the commoners, to counter balance the other party members all being royalty and nobility, and the contrast could have made for interesting dialogue and scenes.

But alas this is a jrpg company we're talking about, that level of writing and story telling is not their forte, and that's ok I can live with that. But why design Vaan like Victoria Beckham with painted on abs... if they had gone for a more Aladdin street urchin look it would have made him better looking and more relatable.

Ashe and penelo do have dialogue together but never just them. There's a scene where penelo points out her and vaan couldn't even recognize their own princess.
---

I've been told countless times this, and i've come to believe it.

Fran and Balthier were supposed to be the protagonists, but SE thought that adult protagonists wouldn't "connect" with the player base too well so they created vaan and penelo on the last limb of production, hence why they feel so out of place and why vaan's reason to even be in this adventure is so flimsy.

Hell even the VA's for vaan and penelo are mediocre compared to the rest of the cast so it really feels like a last moment thing that they were added.

This kinda sounds far fetched for some, but may i remind you that they literally created another version of the original Nier to be released in the west, where they changed the "pretty boy" protagonist of the japanese version to the rough dude that is the protagonist of the NA version?
---

Easiest way to look at it.

Ashe & Balthier are the main characters (due to their role later in the story).

Vaan just happened to get tangled up in their mess and the players are seeing their story unfold through his POV.
---

Spooking posted...

Penelo is the Rikku, Selphie and Yuffie of FFXII.

the loli basically
---

ModLogic posted...

Spooking posted...

Penelo is the Rikku, Selphie and Yuffie of FFXII.

the loli basically

None of those characters are loli
---

penelo's design is good
for shame random person who lied and said it wasnt

for shame
---

The original main character was supposed to be basch. He didn't have his scar in original designs but he was definitely a little younger than he ended up being.

He was also supposed to at least be the main character in the sequel but they scrapped that and went with vaan and penelo as the main characters.
---

Penelo does stuff with Larsa.

As for not having conversations... FFXII lacks those in general. There aren't nearly enough characters moments. From what I recall, most stuff is related to the plot and not each other. Like they thought FFX had too much and then went to the other extreme in XII.
---