A matter of taste then. I hated the cards with back-story and loved Yuna, Lulu or Maechem telling it. But this wasn't my main beef. I hate when writers "telegraph the plot" or actors do the same in a movie. (Like those pretty Hollywood boys who say "I'm angry" because they can't make a convincing angry face unless they are getting upstaged by a rival in real life )
Actually, outside of that one Vaan scene, I still, never really felt like the plot was "telegraphed". Also, I felt FFXII has done a better job using body language and facial expressions than other games. But, to each their own I guess

Quote Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno View Post
As for the storyline....If the player had been kept in the dark the scene would have had a greater impact..
I didn't It was quite a shock to me too.
Really? I felt it was blatanly obvious after you watch the opening camp scene and later after Yuna acquired her first summon. The game just kept screaming it out to me...

Quote Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno View Post
I wrote my feelings on FFX to get this point across. That and I am sick and tired of fanboys and fangirls doing side by side comparisons of FFXII against FFX...
Well I do admit being an FFX fanatic but I honestly did try to see FFXII on it's own merits. And saw a lot of good things, writing just isn't one of them.
I just want more critiques of FFXII alone with examples from within the game. I hate when people compare their games to their favorites. It was a pet peeve I picked up after FFVII came out and everything had to be compared to it (It's my other least favorite FF, though I have come to terms with it in recent years.) FFXII, isn't even my favorite but I do feel that most complaints are more about opinion and personal taste as opposed to the game just being poorly done.

Quote Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno View Post
Though I still do not understand how you feel as though FFXII is not a cohesive world. We have more details about this game's world than any other in the series. Even more amazing is how everything actually blends together in the game. About 98% of the game's world has a logical reason for being there.
I never said that!

Quite the opposite, I agree with you 100%, the world design on XII is fantastic and perhaps - heresy!!! - even better than my beloved X There, I admitted it. The areas, the culture, the races, the religion, foodstuffs, fiends and Mist / Jagd details are just so rich and detailed!

Which makes the weak story quite glaring to me. And makes me dislike FFXII story and characters more compared to it's own good areas than compared to X or any other game.

The game is very uneven. Wonderful in some hard to make areas, lame in other areas that SE used to excel at. It doesn't live up to it's potential, and by such easily fixable reasons.

With such outstanding graphics and such a rich world, and such a fun and well designed battle system it is just a crime to have XII spoiled by the lame storytelling, unmemorable music and weak Esper system. A pity and a crime. Why didn't SE pop up a bit more $$$ to get better scene writers ? It seems to me it is much harder t o have all those wonderfully detailed graphics and world design than it is to find someone with more than junior high level writing.
First, that comment was meant for Timerk's previous few posts. Sorry for the confusion.:laughing: But the real problem I think you have, is that you need to realize that FFXII is story driven. FFX is a character driven piece. I personally feel it had a lousy cast and that's why I don't care for it's story, and as you have said yourself, it's something I feel SE mastered a long time ago was their ability to create gripping characters and plots.

FFXII is designed to be like the older games (by older we mean pre-FFVI). I began to really think about it as I played, and started to notice how many similarities it had to FFV. I feel it is a story driven piece where the characters are given enough back story and personality to give the player a reason to sympathize with them and enough motivation to see it through. Their personalities are not shown to be as strong cause like the older games, it's a RPG.

Role playing does not mean watching a fully written character with a distinct personality go through his own personal trials and tribulations. If that was the case, movies and books would be role playing as well. Role Playing (in context of RPGs) is about assuming the role of a character. The characters are designed so the player can relate to them and play the game as them. That's why story scenes are carefully written so that the characters should be portraying the feelings of the players themselves. It may explain why I love Lady Ashe so much cause I could feel her personal struggle about gaining and using the nethicite. I could better relate to the scene than just watch Yuna constantly defend her desire to be a summoner cause according to character "it was the right thing to do"

There's a human element to the characters that is difficult to capture. I feel the writer's did it because they allowed us players to finally assume the roles of the characters themselves. Perhaps you never even thought about it this way. Chances are you will not agree. You seem to enjoy the character driven pieces better, nothing is wrong with that, I love character driven stories as well (my favorite FF is a character driven piece in my opinion ) I just don't think FFX was a good one.


And you don't get to play on those "so amazing" parts. It is just dumped at you and you have to sit still dying to explore and to move your characters and be condemned to just be listening to a movie instead. See my point about not including the game player in the story telling ?

FFX was notorious for this...