WK Plays FFXII

[Wolf Kanno]

Alright, I'm jumping back into this marathon!

Since I already played this a few years ago, I'm going to being doing this playthrough a bit differently, and I'll be doing a self-imposed challenge run. The theme of which is an FF1 any % run. What this means is that I will not be unlocking secondary classes and I'm limited to the starting classes from FFI. So the only classes I can use are Knight, Red Battlemage, Shikari (essentially thief and ninja), Monk, and Black and White Mage classes. I've also already figured out who is playing who. I am still debating about espers, but seeing how they are more novelty than functional, I may give them a pass. I was also playing with the idea of limiting my weapon and spell selections to what is available in FFI, but I also was hoping to speed run this playthrough a bit.

XII has a tendency to be very involving and I feel this marathon has been going slow enough, so that's why I'm any % this and will likely not be going after all the Mark Hunts this time. Maybe I'll do it if I come back to the file.

So as an added play along, guess who gets each class this playthrough.

[Wolf Kanno]

And thus we begin.

The opening is really a whirlwind of action and information. Basically cramming what was at the least, a year's worth of information into a ten minute movie. It's really amusing how the opening kind of downplays Ashe (the game's real main character) and sort of makes you think it's going to be Razler, then Basch, and then finally Reks. I also like the framing device of the game being Marquis Ondore's memoir, especially helped by his excellent voice acting.

So we start with Vaan and the class I chose for him was Aries/White Mage. The zodiac sign sort of fits him, though I imagine he would be more of a Sagittarius realistically, but the hot-hotheadedness certainly fits the sign of Aries. White Mage on the other hand does not. Aries is a Cardinal Fire sign of action and excitement, so I feel a melee focused sign would have fit better. WHM should have been Cancer or Pisces, nurturing water signs. Not that many of you care about astrology. Anyway, I have three mage classes and three melee classes to choose among my party of six, but I opted to make my healer be one of the boys.

Anyway, I defeated the Rogue Tomato, saw the parade, and spoke to Old Dalan, so I'm moving onto collecting the materials needed to restore the Crescent Stone to enter the palace. I am taking a slight detour to visit Nalbina Fortress where I got my first mage class weapons, so now that Vaan is equipped with his Rod, we can get moving.

I'm going to be honest, but I feel FFXII has some of the best nameless NPCs in the series. It's actually fun talking to characters in this game because they either fill you in on more lore or they have their own interesting mini-plot lines going. The world building in XII is incredibly underrated