Did you like FINAL FANTASY XII?

[the AJman]

I heard all that"it's a breathe of fresh air stuff" before on another forum back when the game first came out and it failed to move me then..and still I don't see it.
I just don't see it.

As the old saying goes, you can't please everybody. I personally thought that this game was nothing short of a masterpiece, but we all have our likes and dislikes.

Maybe it's too subtle for me..as someone else pointed out maybe some of us can't see the subtlities of the game.Maybe some of us want those larger then life characters.

The only really subtle thing about this game is the character development. The character's changes are slow, gradual, and a little underplayed compared to earlier entries.

With that said, I'd say that the plot itself and the presentation of it all was anything but subtle. Every thing felt like it was done on such a massive and epic scale that it sometimes felt like watching a massive epic adventure film like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park. This is probably another reason why I love this game.

We don't want sudued characters who are overwhelmed by the opposition ..by the judges and Cid when they had scenes.
I am not sure the subtle characterization of the heroes is deliberate either.I always felt it was due to Matusno's departure.That if he had stayed he would have done more to make the characters more dynamic like he did in FF Tactics.

Subdued characters? You can't tell me that everytime Balthier entered the screen that he didn't completely steal the scene (except maybe with his father Cid was present). Or how about Basch, that man just oozed with pure bad a**ery. This game had characters that stuck out aside from Cid and The Judges, and besides villains usually steal the show in most other forms of entertainment. Just look at the Joker from the Dark Knight.

I really can't comment on if things would have been different if Matsuno didn't leave. It's might be true that somethings would have went quite different. I personally don't know enough about it so I can't really speculate.

You look at historical characters from Grant and Lee, to Rommel and Patton...I want my game characters to have this driving will and my villains as someone pointed out in another thread to be very bad..Sephiroth/Kefka/Kuja bad and Vayne just comes up way way short of those guys imo.

It's hard for real life people to even begin to compare with those historical figures, I don't typically expect fictional ones to, but thats just me.

As for evil villains, Vayne was just as evil as anyone of those characters. He's responsible for countless deaths in one form or another and all in the pursut of greater power. The only real difference between Vayne and the other characters is he tries to convince people that what he's doing is the best thing in the end; hell,he believes it himself. This actually both makes him a more realistic villain and a more frightening villain. He's very much like real life dictator's that have caused terrible atrocities; a good example of one is Adolf Hitler. What he did was horrible, and terrifyingly evil, however, Hitler didn't at all think that he was evil. He thought he was in the right, he felt that his actions were justified. The highjackers in the 9-11 terrorist attacks didn't at all think that what they did was evil, they believe the U.S deserved it. The point is most evil people don't consider themselves evil. And that's what makes Vayne such and awesome and terrifingly familiar villain in my opinion.

After some of the excessive debating on the FFXIII thread..which I agree that we don't want to go to the negativity there..rotfl..and we can have a more polite debate here..rotfl...
It all does come down to opinion.



We all have our preferences about what an dynamic rpg should have and in particular what an FF should have.I want my FFs to be dynamic and epic and FFXII falls way short of the mark for me on what I perceive an FF should be.

You are 100% absolutely right; it all really does come down to opinion. However it's still fun to discuss these topics so long as it's kept at polite and respectful level.