...But wait, it has no storyline!

[Radje]

(I assure you, this is FFXII related.)

In my mind there are three "generations" of Final Fantasy Player.

First of all you have Generation 1. The proud grandparents of the bunch who grew up with the first Final Fantasy games. The jumbled mix of pixels that relied so purely on epic storylines and amusing plays on words and the poor graphics.

Most recently, however, you have the Generation 3 people. These are the newer (and generally younger) players whose first games were FFXI / FFXII / FFX-2 or even...Kingdom Hearts.... These people are fans of the vast landscapes, the non-linear storylines or missions as the FF world has began making use of.

I like to believe I am part of the middle group. Generation 2; the balding, mid life crisised group. We grew up with FFVII on the good old playstation. We remember how we used to think the FMVs in 7 looked as convincing as real life. Gameplay was getting better and the funny square lumpy characters had a certain frantic charm to them which kept us going through the years to follow. FFVIII and FFIX then finally FFX immersed us completely. The storylines bringing us to tears.

Which brings me nicely to my point. Am i really so old fashioned as to miss it, or does FFXII have no thrilling storyline what-so-ever?

It had one or two mentions of a war that you never saw but for a brief bit of plot to get you used to the game. It had the occasional warning of Arcadian forces getting hold of/ making stones that could destroy the world (Materia anyone?) and then Ashe and co thwarted the attempt in what would be 5 minutes of plot if you don't count the massive trecks through the tedious, albeit gorgeous landscapes to get to the next temple...thing.

FFXII was a game that kept me hooked, it had a great run up to what could've been a storyline to Rival the tear inducing FFX, the battle system was interesting and useful, your clan and the huge locations were marvellous.

But then it just stopped, the storyline never advanced further than (SPOILER)Cid almost destroying...a tower. The locations had little to no history unlike that of the game's predecessors and the characters barely befriended one another. No love story.

I thought storyline was what Square was all about, was i wrong? Let me know your opinions.

[Bahamut2000X]

Yeah the progression of story could of gone a bit better in the game, but I didn't think it as overly bad. It had it's moments and still had a nice ending I thought. But the game could of used some more cut scenes (as opposed to FFX which could of cut out about half their cut scenes and still have had too many) to have character development and story progression in.

[Renmiri]

You are 100% correct but also 100% late on realizing it... There's gotta be at least 5 threads of we gen 2 debating the Gen 3 and Gen 1 over the lameness of XII story.

The most recent one has some good points
http://forums.eyesonff.com/showthread.php?t=102046

[Radje]

You're right in the sense that it's just another thread ripping on FFXII's faults but i wanted to direct this one specifically towards the absence of storyline, as i'm worried it is becoming a continuing trait in FF games. The last story based game they made was X, in 2001?! That worries me.

[Moon Rabbits]

Final Fantasy XII suffered from awful pacing similar to KH1+2. Everything was packed into the final hours, and I stopped playing altogether for about two weeks at one point.

However, that doesn't change the fact that the storyline is extremely original and excellent, and that FFXII is an almost perfect game.

[Bahamut2000X]

Hey now FFXI has a great storyline, though with the way the game is structured it's a bit far and in between to do some of it. But there's still quite a few story lines to play through.

[Wolf Kanno]

http://forums.eyesonff.com/showthread.php?t=102046

Read the whole thing...

Also, I feel there are four generations, the gap between FFI being released from FFIV was long enough to warrant them being there own generation. So you could easily divide the generations by the systems they are released in

By your system, I'm Generation 1(in my day, we didn't have fancy schmancy graphics and cutscenes! Hell, half the time you didn't even know what you were fighting, it all just looked like jumbled pixels. I once thought that FFI was a game about destroying evil "pixel demons"... and other generic old guy phrases...) by my system, I'm the SNES (or Super Famicom) generation (FFVI is better that FFVII, Rosa and Cecil are a better couple than Squall and Rinoa, as well as Yuna and Tidus. FFV has better gameplay than all of Generation 1, 3, and 4 combined... ) But I loved your social explanation of FF fans.

[Setzer Gabianni]

Oh my..another "FFXII has no storyline" thread. The whole no gripping storyline is based on people's opinions. The storyline was there, not everyone is expected to be like hooked to it. It's the same with every other game.

Oh, and there was love. Believe it or not, in unusual ways I think.
Most FF games have never had such a definite love story/theme anyway. X and VIII had the strongest. All the others..just bare traces. People have become so obsessed with these supposed pairings in each game nowadays that people firmly believe there is such a strong desire to have a love story smack bang right in your face every time.

Not all love has to be something like Cecil x Rosa - Larsa had a love for peace - he wanted no war, and cared greatly for cooperation with Ashe. Basch and Ashe themselves had a great love for freeing Dalmasca, freeing the people from the clutches of the empire. Even characters like Vossler had a great love..desire to restore Dalmasca back to what it used to be.

And there was love also..in the sense pretty much everyone else thinks of - Ashe still had strong feelings for Rasler, it was unfortunate however, that the poor bastard had to die.

*In a way, this whole thing makes me think about Valentines Day, where the majority of people, treat that day as just a day for lover's. It isn't. Valentines Day is supposed to be a day where you show your love, appreciation, for anybody that you hold close to your heart.*

[Angel_from_hell]

Ohh come on...one more of those kind of threads. Final Fantasy XII has a story, a rather great story infact. I haven´t played through the whole game yet, but eventhough that I can say that the storyline is great. Sure I miss the feeling I got when I played FF8 but every game can´t be the same and every FF game can´t be compared with FF7 as many people always tries to.

[Zeromus_X]

Just because the story was presented in a different manner than most of the other games in the series doesn't mean it doesn't have a story. A story does not necessarily have to be character-oriented.

[Hazzard]

I haven't completed the game yet, but i find the story very quick at the moment. It could slow down a bit, and not get so paced up. I think square did put some time into this game's storyline, but it resembles old FF's, like FF1-FF4. I like that, and find it fun to be in a realistic world where these sort of stories happened in our reality-but in the past, but a few exceptions like the monsters. It's basic story is freeing the kingdom, i don't know what is so unusual about that! I find that simple and good, and unlike other FF's- it doesn't always have to have a deep meaning it could just get straight to the point. This gives me my instant goal, and doesn't leave me wondering what the story is about, so i would classify the story as direct and obvious.
Basically good!!!

[Renmiri]

Well, the first 3-6 hours have a ton of story:
Hour 1: with the wedding at Rabanastre then (SPOILER)the groom dying, the kingdom falling by treason and everyone dying
Hour 5-6: (SPOILER)then Asche is alive, Basch is alive and the treason was made by his evil twin, The Empire's younger heir shows up and helps Ashe

Then pretty much we spend the time in a wild nethicite chase for 80 hours to find out that

(SPOILER)Cid and Vayne were not mere power hungry SOBs they were "nobly" trying to free men from freaky godlike beings, and they are themselves helped by a freaky god-like being

Add 20 hours more of nothing happening and finally you get to the last scenes and there's a bit more story.

Lame, paced like a 80 year old trying to dance hip hop. Weak story telling, badly paced for a story that isn't that original to start with.

I liked FFXII for the sidequests, the gameplay and the graphics. Not for the characters, music or story.

[Setzer Gabianni]

Of course that's just you, I'm sure Kanno can come back and ownz j00

[eternalshiva]

DEpends how you play ;o you could just go from CS to CS and see the whole story line develop and do nothing else but get to the next level to beat the next boss. You may think there's no story line because there's just -so much to do-.

This game is very similar to FFXI ;o you do the main mission when you feel like you've done enough crafting and NM hunts XD Maybe its because I'm 26 but I find the political intrigue of the story fascinating and really well put out. I like politics >_> and this story line has alot in it.

[Radje]

That'll be why i could never get into this game then *chuckles*. I hate intricate politics.