final fantasy 12....so dissappointing.... SO MUCH POTENTIAL!!!!

[YTDN]

I agree with this, and I think FFXII's story is definitely a step in the right direction for much better games with mature, intricate political plots. However, the pacing and development of it was just terrible and lacked enough substance to keep me really caring about what was going on, which is why it gets knocked down a notch in my rankings.

Weirdly, I found the political plot to be what let down the plot. Basically, everything that happened in the grand swing of things happened behind closed doors, with little input from the main party. The amount of times in the second half of the game where you finally get to your destination only to hear 'oh yeah, while you were trekking through the back end of nowhere, Vayne's just done something to make all your efforts absolutely pointless' just got annoying. It was like the 'heroes' weren't actually important until the very end of the game when you finally decide to just kill Vayne. Now, if the game had focused more on the interpersonal relationships of the party it wouldn't be so bad, but it doesn't, so that's a mark down.

I also found many of the villains under-utilized, to the point I got to the Bahamut and thought 'wait, why should I hate Vayne again?' I knew in theory that Vayne was a bad guy, but since you never actually speak to him in the entire game and he never directly does anything despicable, I find it difficult to see him as a villain. Many of the Judges weren't used very well at all- Drace gets a grand total of 10 minutes of screentime before getting offed, which was depressing since she could have played a Beatrix-type role very well, and Bergan, the only actually evil guy in the game, murders the pope and then you kill him.

This of course relates to the lack of emotional moments in the game. In pretty much every FF game, there are moments that make you cry, make you go 'awww' or make you sceam 'oh yeah!'. Aeris' death, Rinoa reuniting with Squall, the destruction of Cleyra, Lindblum and Alexandria, the Kilika sending- all moments that give great emotional reaction. FFXII was seriously lacking in this department- the only moments that tugged my heartstrings were those involving Balthier and Fran (Fran apologizing to Jote, Dr. Cid's death, Fran and Balthier's 'moment' right after...) and, strangely enough, the scene where Vaan leaps at Basch's cage and calls him out on killing his brother (a subplot that I thought was swept under the rug waaay too quickly- seriously, evil twin? And Vaan just believes him? Just like that?)

I also disliked the License board system, half for having to buy equipment and magic twice (would have been better if you just bought equipment at shops and magic on the License board), and the other half for making all the characters pretty much the same. Really, they all needed to have unique boards and unique weapons, but then again that's just a personal preference.

Finally, I'm going to agree with alot of other people here saying the conflict was too small-scale. Yes, saving Dalmasca seems fine and all, but since it's hard to see how life in Dalmasca is any worse under Archadian rule, and the fact that the war you were supposed to be saving it from never happens (you don't even get to go to Rozzaria), it leaves me with a kind of anticlimatic feeling. It felt like the early stages of VI or IX, but for the whole game. And the whole thing with the Occuria- totally underused. Gerun should have been the final boss, not Vayne.

Whoa, it's been a long time since I've posted here.