EoFF RPG Thunderdome 2020 Round 3: Match 7

Match 7 is up! Categories are Characters, Music, and Replay Value/Side Content!

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age


vs.

Persona 3: FES

Very stark disparity here. On characters, I think FFXII is about the worst FF on characters of those that actually have characters. All of the characters are either bland and unmemorable, annoying, or Balthier (that last one isn't actually a bad thing but only one character is Balthier). Persona 3, I love pretty much the whole cast, except Ken and Fuuka.

Music - I don't really have a problem with FF12's music, except that I just straight up don't remember it very well. I think it likely strays toward atmospheric. Persona 3 has great, memorable music that I enjoy for it's distinctive style. Again I'm going with P3.

Side Content/Replay Value - FF12 might have more (they both have quite a substantial amount), but I just don't really like it very much. On the other hand, I love the various optional ways to spend time, especially social links, in P3 and how it feeds back into the gameplay. For replay value, I think P3 has some pretty decent replay value, while FF12 barely has play value.

I also have very little doubt I will be disappointed with the way this goes.

As much as I love FFXII, I think these categories in particular work in P3’s favor

Characters I'd give a slight edge to Persona 3, honestly neither of the games have a particularly great or memorable cast to me but if I had to pick one I'd give an edge to P3, in no small part because of Elizabeth who in spite of not even being a playable character is a bundle of charm none of the other cast members of either game manage to match.

Music is a decent category for both, they got a good spread of both general tracks and standouts, I'd give it to FF XII because I just like its style better.

But replay value finally is where FF XII completely hits this competition out of the park for me, the Zodiac Age version in particular. Between the job system, the insane amounts of ways and routes you can take to tackle the many different challenges available at all kinds of points in the game, things you can craft or pursue way earlier than you're "meant" to, and just generally having a gameplay system that makes running through everything a fun grind, it's one of the primary reasons I like the game so much. Needless to say I've played through different versions of FF XII several times. Persona 3 meanwhile... I can see myself replaying "maybe" at some point. Which is still more than I can say for a few games but it's not even close to FF12. In spite of having played FFXII about 6+ times by now and having only played P3 once, I'm more excited at the prospect of replaying FFXII than P3. On some level I'm sure it's just because I generally enjoy playing the game more, which is true yeah, but I think it's also fair to attribute to the replayability of FFXII as a game specifically.

Ugh, you smurfers are going to make me decide this?

Oof. This is a bit tough for me. While P3 is comfortably in my top 10 whereas XII isn't as close, two factors make this a bit more of a toss up. That list was based off vanilla XII and TZA really did fix a lot of issues I had with the original. Secondly, P3 to me is more amazing for the sum of its parts as opposed to it's individual merits. Here's my breakdown:

Characters: This one is a tough choice, I love the cast of both games. I love Matsuno's style of characters, and with a few exceptions, I feel Akiyama and Watanabe did a great job keeping it in his style. You just don't get that kind of writing in games or media, so that's a plus. P3's cast is certainly the more bombastic and emotional group. They are a bit more anime tropey than I would care for, but P3 stands in a weird transition of still feeling like real people (like in P2) and not sliding straight into pure anime sitcom like the later persona games. I appreciate that all of the cast grows within the plot and isn't just relegated to optional side content. Both casts hold onto the central themes of their games really well. So for me, this is a tie.

Music: I like Sakimoto's music, and much like the characters, the score he composes for the Ivalice titles feel really unique. It is more atmospheric than I would care for, but the game still has some major gems like Esper Battle, Battle for Freedom, To be a Sky Pirate, and Penelo's theme. P3's score was unique for its time and I feel it holds up really well. The pop soundtrack works really well and it's likely my favorite of the Persona soundtracks with only P2 and P5 coming close. Sadly, I still feel Meguro's best work is in the mainline series, but if we're being fair. I feel Sakimoto's work in Vagrant Story, FFTactics, and BoFV are a bit better. I'm going to give this to Meguro though because I probably love P3's score a little more than FFXII's score.

Replay value/Side Content - Haha! Yeah I'm going to echo Karifean here. XII has P3 beat in this category. Don;y get me wrong, I love P3's side content but I find P3 has a more linear progression in term of building Persona teams. The customization is strong, but the lack of a defensive game that the mainline SMT games had with Press Turn hurts a lot of the replay value for me when it comes to optimization. Elizabeth and Death are fun boss fights, but with Elizabeth, I'm not keen on a pattern based super bosses, because it leaves little room for self expression. I feel that's the big difference here is that XII's replay value goes farther because there are several ways to tackle optional content and the game in general. The disposable nature of persona's means that building an uber cool Jack Frost doesn't mean much past the early game. You do get more leeway in The Answer, which featured more challenging gameplay, shadow mobs that required multiple elemental types to win, and more restrictive building that made customization matter more, but the content is far too short and the Once More system in general isn't quite the main event gameplay draw that Press Turn or ADB battle is for me. XII's got more options and the superbosses have a little more wiggle room for a player to bring their own style to the fight. XII is also built for side content. Social Links never felt optional, you just prioritized the ones you liked the best. XII wins this easily for me.

So that leads me to a... draw. Okay smurf it, I'm RNGing this. Persona 3 suffered it's own MegaTen death. It forgot to wear a Persona with RNG defense and was sneaked attack. The MC took critical damage and then it was all over the following turn. FFXII managed to squeak by a victory.

This is one of those matches where I’m happy with either outcome honestly. Both games are incredibly special. Congrats to FFXII!