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

[Wolf Kanno]

Didn't get as far as I had hoped, but that might also because XII actually has stuff to do in the early game. I spoke with Old Dalan and headed to the Giza Plains during the Dry season. Met up with Penelo and rescued the lost kid and did the Sunstone quest which only required hitting up two shade stones this time around. With Penelo in my party, I went off to deal with the Thearax or whatever it's called Mark Hunt since that fight is way more manageable with two people fighting. I am a little annoyed that although we got our first hint of Gambits, the game has not given me control of it yet. Sort of sucks when you';re using classes that really need a bit more nuance with their A.I. scripts to be effective. I feel I could take down one of the rare games wandering around the Estersands if I could get Penelo to cooperate.

Penelo gets to be my Black Mage once again since she was my White/Black Mage makeshift Sage my last playthrough. I was thinking of making her a Knight just for the humor of seeing the petite member of the team be the one lifting massive knightswords but Black Mage just felt better. Unlike Aries, Capricorn being the Black Mage makes a bit more sense, it's symbol is a goat fish like being that obviously conjures up images of Baphomet and the Occult. Capricorn are serious, ambitious, and can often be rules lawyers who learn how to game the system to help them with their ambitions. While it's a bit more intense than Penelo's personality is, she does strike me as an earth sign, but more like a Virgo, which is still a responsible sign, but one that is a bit more likely to look the other way if it benefits them. Taurus would also work since she's so stubborn, but that's Uhlan class and not an FFI class.

Anyway. with Penelo helping out, I started the Patient in the desert quest and cleared up the Blooming Cactoid Mark Hunt which will eventually coincide with what's going on with the river village problem of all the menfolk being strangely absent. Once again, FFXII really does world building right. While it does have it's info dumps in the form of the Clan Primer, I still appreciate the smaller quests and these remote villages that add to the setting. Rabanastre is also an underrated starting location. I know most fans will think of either Midgar, Balamb Garden, or even Alexandria as great starter locations, but I appreciate the fact Rabanastre gives you so much more freedom and things to do right at the beginning while it slowly drip feeds story and world building to you. I can see how a lot of players may dislike this approach, but I feel it really showcases how much unappreciated craftsmanship really went into this game. You can tell the Ivalice team were refining a lot of design elements they picked up from working on FFXI. Anyway, next up is taking the Sunstone back to Old Dalan and getting inside the palace. The leading man and his stoic partner are coming up.

[Wolf Kanno]

Well I've worked my way up to the party meeting "Amelia" in the Waterway. After ditching Penelo, who is always more cunning and level-headed than I remember. Vaan travels through the waterway to make it into the palace basement with all the other servants. The only notable thing here was running into the rare game Razorfin in the sewers, and it being weak enough that Vaan could actually beat it. I've ran into two other rare game so far, but both were beyond what Vaan could handle at this point.

Since I didn't have to worry about a Zodiac Spear, I looted the hell out of the place and did the puzzle to find the treasure room, which I always forget about and low key has one sequence (when you power up a sigil to open a door) that reminds me of the temple puzzles in FFX. We'll get to my thoughts on those when I reach FFX of course. Vaan then bumps into the Leading Man himself and his impeccable partner and makes a run for it after he steals the Goddess Magicite. I do like the Hindu statue that hid the magicite as it reminds me of the ultimate boss from Vagrant Story. Not to mention I always liked the fact Ivalice is one of the very rare non-MMO FFs to acknowledge multiple religions within its setting, but we'll talk about that when I get to the Stillshrine.

Course the fete was a trap to lure out and destroys the resistance and Ifrit decimates them. The party tries to escape on the mist powered hoverbike Fran uses but... well we have the Goddess Magicite so that crashes and burns and the party has to hoof it out through the waterway. On the brightside, I've finally unlocked Gambits proper, but on the downside, my options are very limited.

So the leading man and sky pirate extraordinaire made it easy to make Balthier a Shikari since it's basically the Thief and Ninja class combined. It even has some of the same issues as it's FF1 counterpart in that it's extremely limited weapon options early games makes it feel weak in comparison to other classes in the early game. I also forgot that Balthier starts with a license to at least use the starting gun of the game, so that's helping at least. This class being Pisces though does confuse me a bit. While all water signs can be emotionally manipulative, Pisces tend to be manipulated more often than others and tend to be more indecisive than even Libra. I'm guessing the angle here might come from the fact their Tarot Card association is The Moon, which is a card that signifies illusion and deceiving oneself and others. I would have probably chosen Gemini for this class since they are the sign known more for deceiving people. Balthier himself strikes me as either a Gemini or a Leo anyway. Mostly because he's incredibly chatty and knowledgeable like a Gemini, but the whole self-centered "I'm the leading man' nonsense fits Leo's need to be the center of attention, but that is also balanced out be the fact he's surprisingly willing to look out for strangers , which is also a Leo trait.

Fran on the other hand, since she's known as the Battlemaster and always does start with more skills and equipment options than others, made her a perfect fit for Red Battlemage, especially since it worked out really well my first playthrough. Like Balthier, I forget she starts with a Bow license but I may still switch her over to a Mace and Shield combo once I get her Gambits properly fitted. Red Battlemage is probably my favorite of the magic classes in FFXII. The class being associated with Cancer doesn't bother me as much as some of the other class associations. While I feel White Mage is the best job for this class since Cancer's are known to be helpful and emotionally nurturing, often regarded as the mom's of the zodiac (and consequently, their opposite sign Capricorn is usually referred to as the dad's of the zodiac), Red Mage isn't a bad choice either because water signs are often associated with psychic or occult leanings, so at least we finally have one using magick. Cancers will also raise hell if you threaten someone they care about so, Battlemage fits pretty well. As for Fran, I'd probably choose Scorpio as her zodiac sign since she's okay playing second fiddle to extroverted Balthier despite being the more resourceful and useful one. She's also more secretive than the other cast members and her narrative about being being banished for letting herself be bewitched by the taboos of her society fit the sign pretty well.

Rant aside, having a full party has made traversing the sewers pretty easily and we met up with Amelia. I love the fact that we pull a bit of a Cloud in this game and Balthier is explaining all of the gameplay mechanics as he does the Gambit tutorial and then explains what a Guest character is to Vaan as well. I also forgot that the first actual boss of the game is the Flans in the sewers, I got the first actual Victory scene and everything and it's partially also why I'm thinking of trading in Balthier and Fran's starting weapons. Anyway, I saved afterwards and ended for the night.

Thinking back though, FFXII really does stand out from the games between it. While I now better understand my friends assessment that XII is just an offline FFXI in gameplay and feel, XII just feels better because it streamlines so much of the experience. Like yeah, quests are still a bit obtuse to find but are usually easier to solve without a guide. Combat is more zippy and due to the standalone nature of XII's design, the game strikes a better pacing balance. It just took all the things I loved about XI and made it better and more tailored for my tastes.

On the opposite end, this game just blows XIII out of the water. XII's cast might feel more muted than most FF casts, but Ivalice is just a richer setting and the gameplay just feels more robust. In XIII, I'd probably be trapped in Chapter 3 by now being switched back and forth between different groups of characters with the shakiest of understanding of who they are and why I should care. The Roles would be partially open but largely still feel like what I was doing the first several hours anyway and be going down my third set of corridors with only the Datalogs to really give me any form of insight to their significance. Meanwhile, In XII, I have a better grasp of the story, the characters and their motivations through the narrative and NPC dialogue. Even the empire, is actually softened a bit and more humanized if you walk around and really chat with people as some are very much the insufferable invaders the characters think they are while others have more humanizing and sympathetic traits like the guard in Rabanastre who came to love the city and wishes to genuinely protect it and its people, or the one in Nalbina Fortress who switches place with one of the laborers so they can see the abuse he has to deal with. I've had three damn puzzles to play with, three Mark Hunts to distract me, and I've started a major questline in the Estersand. I've also met two small settlements that have no real story significance but fill in a lot about the local culture and make Dalmasca feel lived in. A lot more time was spent making this world feel alive than in XIII.

[Wolf Kanno]

Two days worth of progress to report, though not a lot happened. Made it through the Nalbina Dungeon, officially recruited Basch, discovered Penelo was kidnapped, and we're heading to Bhujerba now. I also cleaned up two Mark Hunts, took down a Rare Game that was taunting me named Nehkbet, started the Ktjn quest and the Seven Sisters quest.

Nalbina is an underrated dungeon and one of the better ways to do a more linear dungeon if you ask me. I like how the Battery Mimics draining the power quickly turns this dungeon into a mad dash to find and kill them. In addition to needing at least 30% power to open the final gate, the fact the lower lights starts summoning an ungodly amount of undead to overwhelm the player was a neat way to keep you on your toes. Honestly, FFXII has some underrated dungeon design.

I also find it interesting Basch has four playable character models in this game, and funnily enough gets the most costume changes of any party member at a total of six different outfits (Rabanastre Armor, Order outfit in the tutorial, shirtless prisoner, found clothes, main outfit, and Gabranth's armor), which is even more than Lady Ashe. The Nalbina Dungeon is also amusing because the devs reuse the same Bangaa corpse for all the bodies found in the main prisoner area.

Basch's job is Monk, though I would really love to keep him as a Knight but I promised I was going to try to be a bit more unconventional this time around, but a mage class felt too weird. But his time as a prisoner fighting bare-fisted made me think Monk might not be a bad job for him, and now that I don't have all that sword nonsense going around for him, I can see how poles really fair for him. Monk is Virgo in the Zodiac Jobs and it's not necessarily the worst choice. Fire or earth signs feel the most natural, I would have probably done Taurus personally but whatever. I also feel that might be Basch's sign as he is pretty committed to his loved one and what he wishes to protect and the man is too stubborn to die, and Taurus are often both very committed and very stubborn. I do really want to play with barehanded with this class as I feel it's often very overlooked and while there are times you have bare-fisted characters fighting like Prisoner Basch or Vaan and Balthier fighting the Seeq guards in Nalbina dungeon, you don't often get to see Brawler in action. The algorithm for it looks interesting and I get the sneaking feeling this combo works really well with a high-level monk. So we shall see.

I think the interesting observations I've been meaning to talk about is some of the environmental design. Like I feel it's clever how all the doors the player can interact with in Rabanastre tend to have these subtle twinkling crystal objects acting like torches on either side of the door. Just a nice and quiet means of helping the player out. The other was the waterways in Lowtown, which never really registered for me. It makes sense due to the city being built over an lake in an oasis and the Garsmythe Waterway is located beneath it, but I never noticed all the water wheels and water paths flowing through the area. Makes it weird it was a storage area, but I imagine if it was food like vegetables, fruits, and meat, it would be a good place for it since I imagine the flowing water cools the whole area. There are also these little fans above the stalls that probable helps too. While it's the poor second class citizen part of the city, my temperament with the heat and Dalmasca's illogical desert dress code would make this my ideal part of the city. I am curious what the pet of Old Dalan is since it looks a bit like a pink Carbuncle depending on the design. I also think it's interesting Vaan is such an anti-imperial and yet was not really aware that the Resistance was headquartered in Lowtown, especially since a lot of the members are aware of his brother Reks. Likewise, the scene with Vaan speaking to Reks and giving him the Galbana Lililes feels really vague and surreal, making me wonder if the scene is mostly symbolic and Reks' death was different? The game implies he dies of his injuries but the manga adaption says he died from torture instead. I also just now realized that the ship Vaan and Penelo acquire in Revenant Wingswas named after Reks' favorite flower. Neat.

Well, with no new items or quests left in Rabanastre, it's time we head to Bhujerba and partake of the most infamous quest in the game.