Quote Originally Posted by Ouch! View Post
It's actually my second favorite game in the series behind Final Fantasy IX. I think it is one of the most well-imagined worlds that we've seen in the Final Fantasy series, and I absolutely loved the gameplay. Normally that the story is something of a weak point for the game would be a nail in the coffin for me, but FFXII still somehow manages to just excel so much at every other aspect that I'm willing to overlook the problems. And it's not that the story is in any way bad; rather, it's poorly paced which is doubly problematic because so much of the plot is focused on subtlety and intrigue. Because there's hours of dungeon crawling (through some pretty gorgeous landscapes!) between plot advancement, a lot of the story gets lost in between.

Final Fantasy XII has more moral complexity than any other game in the series by far. Even our villains aren't bent on world destruction or domination--their goal is the liberation of humanity from the manipulation of the Occuria. In the end the group of heroes even ends up opposing the Occuria in their own way. It eschews the over-dramatic speeches about friendship and love (see: end of disc three of Final Fantasy VIII and the ending of Final Fantasy XIII) that permeate recent entries in the series in favor of complex motivations and actions from a number of different characters with varying objectives. Honestly, I feel that Final Fantasy XII is the best balance of traditional JRPG elements meeting with more progressive movements in the genre toward more mature and complex themes. Naturally, you will not be surprised to hear that I regard Final Fantasy XIII as a disappointing regression, especially because it spends such a great deal of time building toward the interesting moral dilemma of heroes savings themselves versus saving the world.

That said, it's pretty clear that the game was originally imagined largely as revolving around Ashe, Balthier, and Basch. I would argue that most of the guest characters (notably Vossler and Larsa and arguably Reddas) are far more important to the overall narrative than Vaan, Penelo, or Fran. As much as I like Final Fantasy XII, I recognize that it had the potential to be so much better had a different direction not been forced upon them half way through development.
From what I've read, apparently, Vaan was purposely written as a non-entity because he was meant to be a player avatar. The original theme of the game was a "Dignified drama about the nobility of Ivalice through the eyes of a commoner". It's unknown how Matsuno would have accomplished this because he simply wrote a rough draft of the plot before he left the project and it was JunAkiyama and Daisuke Watanabe who came up with the idea of writing Vaan as simply an observer to the game's true protagonists of Lady Ashe, Balthier, and Basch. The goal was for the game not to follow previous FFs where the player became emotionally attached to the story of the characters but rather feel like they took part in the adventure with a group of real people (and I damn near quoted this statement).

As for Fran and Penelo, where I agree they are not important to the issue o Vayne and the Occurians, Fran allows us to see into the world of one of the other races because their is subtle theme about the displacement of the Viera in the background of the story and this issue of the old traditions versus the new world and the idea of those who embrace this new world being considered exiles and cast-offs by their tribes. Penelo likewise serves as a tool for Ashe to grow as it's Penelo's relationship with Larsa that gives Ashe second thoughts about using the Nethicite against the Empire because Penelo represents a theme of resolving conflict and hatred through the hope of a new generation. Archades and Dalmasca's relationship is on the rocks now but future generations may find a means of seeing eye to eye, so her story, though small, does represent something significant to the overall plot.

Other than that, I don't disagree with your observations but I wanted to point out something I read about the game's development to shed light on it.