The Wonderful World of Ivalice

[Big D]

I like how society's changed so much by the time Vagrant Story's events unfold. Back in FFXII, magick was a part of everyday life, crucial to technology and science. Mist permeates everywhere, and palings protect cities from attack. While large amounts of Mist are dangerous, there's generally no harm in people studying and embracing magical powers.
But in Vagrant Story, magical arts are forbidden by law and religion, and Mist has become known as 'The Dark', an omnipresent and corrupting force that's kept out of human cities by Palings. Where colossal airships once sailed the skies on Skystone, it's now a significant feat when someone uncovers the spells to temporarily levitate a small piece of Cloudstone.

Ivalice's complete history would be a fascinating, though I fear sad, tale. Learning, for instance, why magic all but disappeared, along with all the non-human races. If the ancient, captive wyrms and war machines of FFXII are anything to go by, it's a world that's repeatedly pushed itself to the brink of annihilation by constructing impossibly powerful weapons of war, whether living or mechanical.

[Wolf Kanno]

I completely agree, The Fall of the Lucavi/Scions, The Dynast-King, The Great Collapse, St. Ajora, Mullenkamp, and many more. There are so many events I want to learn more about Ivalice. Even more information on just the larger part of the world would be nice. You really get a greater sense of history from Ivalice than other FF worlds.

Reading the background info on Ivalice through the Bestiary in XII or the Dispatch mission in FFT you get a glimpse of something truly grand. What I wouldn't give for a Vagrant Story 2

[Bolivar]

Did the other races in Ivalice go extinct? B/c FFT's world takes place outside of FFXII's, and the Archadian empire (Valendia) was pretty racist/specist to begin with.

Although I do know moogles "used to live" in the one swamp, maybe they were just in other places.

[Wolf Kanno]

Did the other races in Ivalice go extinct? B/c FFT's world takes place outside of FFXII's, and the Archadian empire (Valendia) was pretty racist/specist to begin with.

Although I do know moogles "used to live" in the one swamp, maybe they were just in other places.

Its a possibility, most of the material concerning Ivalice only takes place in XII's era. Personally, I don't see it outside the realm of possibilities for the races to still exist in FFT and VS time periods just in different countries.

[Captain Maxx Power]

In all honesty the Ivalice-based games of the franchise are some of the weakest games in the bunch. Final Fantasy 12 in particular is remarkably terrible and dull in so many aspects.

[arcanedude34]

That may be your opinion, but I enjoyed all the Ivalice games, with the exception of the ones I haven't played, obviously.

[Roto13]

In all honesty the Ivalice-based games of the franchise are some of the weakest games in the bunch. Final Fantasy 12 in particular is remarkably terrible and dull in so many aspects.

Only for story whores. (And even then, only for story whores who don't want to follow a story about a situation instead of a story about magical young adults.)

[Big D]

Agreed; I consider FFXII's story in the simple-but-well-told category. A reasonably straightforward plot, but with depth and back-story to make it rich and engaging. A nice change from the trend of plots that are so convoluted they almost require re-playing the game just to have a clear idea of what's happening and why.

[ReloadPsi]

I've encountered the odd theory here and there that FFIV took place in Ivalice; apparently FFT has like a million very direct references to it but I've never played it enough to find out.

Based on said odd theory here and there, I once played an FFIV fangame in RPG Maker where they just outright referred to the world as Ivalice.

[arcanedude34]

I used to think VI took place in Ivalice, probably just because of the reuse of the name Espers in the Ivalice games.

[ReloadPsi]

It's weird to think that "Esper", another wacky creative slur by Ted Woolsey, could be adopted by an entire sub-series of the FF franchise.

This has reminded me that FFIV did ultimately decide on "Eidolon" for its summoned monsters though, so I guess that last post is unlikely to be true.

[McLovin']

this is a timeline from the Ultimania book:

The timeline of Ivalice in Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII, provided by Square Enix's official guide book, Final Fantasy XII Ultimania Omega. Translation is as follows:

Final Fantasy XII History (brown)

* 1st Upper Box: Unknown Era - The Occuria reside in Giruvegan.
* 2nd Upper Box: Old Valendia 1 - Establishment of the Galtean Federation.
* 3rd Upper Box: Old Valendia 394 - The Galtean Federation breaks apart.
* 4th Upper Box: Old Valendia 706 - Final Fantasy XII takes place.
* 5th Upper Box: Several decades after Old Valendia 706 - Female St Ajora establishes a new religion.

Grey box: Are they the same person?

Final Fantasy Tactics History (blue)

* 1st Lower Box: Unknown Era - 12 Knights kills a demon, and rescues Ivalice.
* 2nd Lower Box: 1200 years before the Middle Ages - St Ajora establishes the Glabados religion.
* 3rd Lower Box: Unknown Era - A catastrophe befalls the civilization at this age.
* 4th Lower Box: Middle Ages - Final Fantasy Tactics takes place.

So FFT is like 1000+ years after FF12.

[Captain Maxx Power]

Only for story whores. (And even then, only for story whores who don't want to follow a story about a situation instead of a story about magical young adults.)

Joy, turns out I'm a whore. Well excuuuuuuuuuuuse me, Princess. Heaven forfend that I might actually want to play a JRPG for the story. I mean it's not as if the vast majority of them are so convoluted in their gameplay elements and grind-up-the-ass that the story is pretty much the major part of the game. Calling me a story whore is like calling someone who asks for tea leaves mixed in their tea a flavour whore. Granted you could tell them to not complain about only having hot water to drink, but they've still got a valid reason to be irked.

Agreed; I consider FFXII's story in the simple-but-well-told category. A reasonably straightforward plot, but with depth and back-story to make it rich and engaging. A nice change from the trend of plots that are so convoluted they almost require re-playing the game just to have a clear idea of what's happening and why.

If by straight forward you mean tired, dull and uneventful then I concur. It's not so much the simplicity of the plot I hate (though that is one of the things I don't like), it's the sheer poorness of the way it is presented and the main characters. I've yet to have anyone on this planet legitimise the presence of Penelo in the game apart from to fill out the last party slot. Everything you do and everyone you talk to just seems so inconsequential to the proceedings (which incidentally are, as I say, tired, dull and uneventful) I can almost feel my brain glazing over everytime someone opens their mouth to utter out stilted exposition dialogue. And that's really what it comes down to; the game pretty much just has every NPC advance the plot. That's about it. There's zero character development, zero motivation, no growth in terms of the story, no interesting internal conflicts, no philosophical musings (granted it's usually pseudo-intellectual but at least it's interesting), absolutely nothing which is said that isn't designed to punt you from point A to point B.

In a word, FF12's story is horrible. It's easily the most boring game I've played in my life by a long margin. This is without me even mentioning the other reasons why I hate the game.

[Wolf Kanno]

If by straight forward you mean tired, dull and uneventful then I concur. It's not so much the simplicity of the plot I hate (though that is one of the things I don't like), it's the sheer poorness of the way it is presented and the main characters. I've yet to have anyone on this planet legitimise the presence of Penelo in the game apart from to fill out the last party slot. Everything you do and everyone you talk to just seems so inconsequential to the proceedings (which incidentally are, as I say, tired, dull and uneventful) I can almost feel my brain glazing over everytime someone opens their mouth to utter out stilted exposition dialogue. And that's really what it comes down to; the game pretty much just has every NPC advance the plot. That's about it. There's zero character development, zero motivation, no growth in terms of the story, no interesting internal conflicts, no philosophical musings (granted it's usually pseudo-intellectual but at least it's interesting), absolutely nothing which is said that isn't designed to punt you from point A to point B.

http://forums.eyesonff.com/2110033-post64.html Read have fun.

I don't care if you hate the game and feel its awful we all have our own opinions and I'm not really going to bother convincing you one way or the other. Though lashing out at the the whole Ivalice franchise cause you didn't like XII seems pretty silly to me.

[Roto13]

Sorry you missed the bitter emo with a heart of gold, the "energetic" 15-year-old girl, the mysterious "old" (read: 25 years old) guy, and their quest to save the world from a super secret hidden threat, but FF XII actually tried to do things differently without being completely cliched and ridiculous. Lots of things happened in XII, but for once the game put love stories and angst in the background in favour of telling the story of two warring countries and the little guy caught in the middle.