Poll of the Day > I like FF12... but, storywise... ummm, what was the point? *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Like, you beat the game... but nothing was accomplished by anyone.
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IIRC the game had a pretty rocky development and that was one of the reasons why the story fell off a cliff on that long ass trek to Archades.
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Story was always the weakest part of that game. It felt incomplete, I believe you were supposed to at least visit Rosaria before they cut it.

The thing is... Vayne was set up as a political enemy, and you just kinda win and then that's it...
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welcome to old school you beat the game! thats it! deal with it suckaaaaaaaaaa *spinaroonie*

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Lokarin posted...

but nothing was accomplished by anyone.

You mean, besides saving the world from a warmongering leader?

The story in XII isn't the best, but it's not as bad as people make it out to be.
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Lokarin posted...

The thing is... Vayne was set up as a political enemy, and you just kinda win and then that's it...

Well i mean yeah the games gotta end

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ArvTheGreat posted...

welcome to old school you beat the game! thats it! deal with it suckaaaaaaaaaa *spinaroonie*

FFXII's story was shit even by the standards of its own time, though.

Hell, it's story was shit even by the standards of its own franchise. Multiple earlier FF games handled narrative and characterization way better.
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The game is actually about the Occuria manipulating the political state of the world thoughout the centuries, and Ashe's struggle to wrest control from the race to bring humanity back under autonomous control, whilst also resisting their temptations. The struggle against the Occuria draws parallels to Matsuno's other games, such as the Ogre race from the Ogre Battle series, the Church of Glabados from FFT, and the Crimson Blades from Vagrant Story. I'd recommend every single one of those games, just as an aside.

Most people that played FF12 couldn't get over Vaan's passive role in the group, making it difficult to get invested in the plot when your direct representation in the world has seemingly little to do with any major events that transpire. That is a failure of storytelling - no arguement there - but the setting has a rich history, the characters exhibit moral dilemmas and interesting character growth, and the numerous political plotlines are rife with tension. And yes, it's a Final Fantasy, so most of your time is spent hunting for magic rocks. These factors make up for the lack of a strong protagonist, although, admittedly, the story can be difficult to follow on a first playthrough. The cherry on top is that, in a stunning change from the norm, the writing is of surprisingly high quality for a Japanese game, accompanied with quality performances from great voice actors like Gideon Emery and Simon Templeman.

It's easy to distill the story to a simple good guys must stop evil guy from taking over the world simplification, but could you not do the same for the vast majority of video game storylines? FFXII doesn't have a great story, but I feel like the strength of the dialogue and the rich backstory support the plot's shortcomings. For me, that's good enough.

I didn't mind Vaan being the player proxy, since the story is clearly about Ashe...

The sideplots did seem mostly well thought out, like Fran's relationships and such.

Plus Ashe's path to ascension, the core of the game, did serve as a good throughline for the game.

I just felt the final boss kinda didn't add anything to the story lead up so far... It would have served better if Vayne was deposed, politically, as a result of the good deeds you've done throughout the game and the final boss was JUST Venat, or Venat plus something else
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they're all pointless after 9.
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I never felt that Vaan was the protagonist in XII. I felt the whole party besides him and Panelo were the main character and that Vaan and Panelo were just tag a longs who got lucky and happened to be able to be there.
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