Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

=
=
Spoilers abound. Including spoilers from other Final Fantasies.

A game that deviated just far enough from the mean to. . . to. . .

To, shall we tentatively say, suck?

No, that's too harsh.
It deviated just far enough to dissapoint.

Don't misunderstand.
The graphics are beautiful. Everything to the random bauble in the Rabanastre weapon shop is imbued with an astonishing detail that makes me woe the lack of a first person camera. The soundtrack is amazingly orchestrated, and the regular level up gameplay is incredibly fun despite the lack of random battles. I have yet to find a song in the game that compels me to stay in one area just to listen to it's great melody, but that doesn't account for my severe dissapointment.

Yes, the level-up system is fun, but I wasn't expecting such a meticulously specific system. I found the sphere grid of Final Fantasy X to be a slight annoyance, so imagine my dismay upon finding that XII features an incredibly elaborate system requiring tedious planning to acquire new abilities, weapons, armor, general upgrades, and accessories. I don't like having to choose and plan out an entire weapons class for each of my characters. For some people, this wouldn't be a problem, but I always feel forever plagued by my choices. If I wanted to buy and MMORPG, I would have bought War Craft, or played Final Fantasy XI instead of waiting an extra two years for this game.

However, the annoying level-up system wasn't enough to drive me to extreme disenchantment. The game came out near perfect in all of the conventional rating methods, but what about plot? The lack of a sappy romance story would thrill me, if it weren't for the entire lack of the rest of the story. I've played the game for 60 hours, have completed about 75% of the main storyline quests (I'm in Giruvegan), and still don't know who the main villain is.

The characters are unimaginative stock characters dependent on stereotype. Vaan relies on the teenage, naive, princess-following-hero stereotype. And here I was hoping for a main character that strayed from the weak, sissy path Tidus was hell-bent on following. Ashe is the princess whose soul concern is gaining power to save her kingdom. Fran,the semi-magical and very enigmatic viera, follows the Archadian (i.e. British) sky pirate (and thief), Balthier. Penelo came in a package deal with Vaan, his childhood friend trained (apparantly, the guide book said so!) in the martial arts. Then comes Basch, the knight sworn to protect the princess (Sound familair? coughcoughSteinercough). Balthier is the most original one, but that's just because he opens his snarky mouth so damn much. Besides, I could sit here all day and then compare him to Zidane, just as Vaan to Tidus, and Ashe to Garnet/Dagger and so on and so forth. It's not that the characters lack originality (although I don't care how much Vaan opens his mouth, he's still going to be the lame, naive hero-boy), I could compare all the Final Fantasy character to eachother and say how unoriginal they are. The Final Fantasy XII crew remains dependent on stock archetypes because they haven't been given the chance to evolve themselves because the storyline hasn't given them the chance.

I don't know who any of the characters really are, or have the slightest inkling, because the whole game has simply been Ashe telling the party "We should go here now." Am I just imagining this? Are there actually frequent, long lasting conversations that my game has simply glitched out on and skipped? Am I simply remembering wrong, and all of the other Final Fantasies didn't really have much of a storyline either. Then why the hell does everyone ramble on and on about Final Fantasy VII and its damn plot twists all the f------ time?! Sorry for the exasperation, but I can't help but be emotionally affected. I have no life.

Anyway, my point is that the real story seems to be the international struggle over Ivalice, but the problem is that my party is only faintly involved in this struggle. I've been running around the whole damn country, hearing faint details about Vayne's power struggles, and murder in the capitol, and coupes, but how am I contributing to any of this? I've apparently been looking for magic stones the whole time. Sure, these magic stones basically act like mini-nuclear warheads, but I've spent the whole game looking for stones for the princess so that she can save her precious Dalmasca (which seems to be doing fine). I've gotten to new cities just to be told, "Now we have to go somewhere else." Most of the cutscenes have been devoted to Ashe, how she should proceed, and where to find another f------ artifact. The other half of the cutscenes have been devoted to the government and their corrupt leaders or deployment of armadas. Nothing moving has ever happened in a CG scene, except for maybe the second one in the game. The CG scenes have been overused to simply show whatthe government is doing, the layout of the town or building I'm about to enter, or I kid you not, Balthier saying "This way" and everybody follows him. Whatever happened to the main character getting stabbed in the chest with a giant icicle and stealing motorcycles? That's cool. I used to treasure CG scenes because they were used sparingly to emphasize something important.

As for the exceedingly bothersome question of the true villain, I'm leaning towards Vayne, but it's a mighty shame that my characters have never even really met him. Yet, I hope Vayne isn't the main villain, although it's where most signs seem it point. It's just, he reminds me too much of the slimy half Guado Seymour. I don't want another lame aristocrat villain, even if Seymour wasn't the last boss. I'm holding out for some last minute, poignant plot twists. I'm driven to beat this game because I keep telling myself "It has to get better."

I wish I knew where the mist came from, an answer I ardently hope to find. I want to know why Bhujerba floats in the sky, something I doubt will be answered, and I want to see Vaan do something mildly impressive that will at least mark him as a true main character instead of a lame figurehead. I must be hoping for too much, but I just wish the game would move me.

I've always treasured Final Fantasy because of their creative plotlines, and moving stories. I have waited five years for this game (since Final Fantasy X came out) for the next real Final Fantasy (Final Fantasy X-2 and XII didn't count). I think I wasted my time. Perhaps I am living in the past, and nothing can truly live up to the memory of when I was younger, and much more easily enchanted. Perhaps Final Fantasy died since the death of SquareSoft and the inception of Square Enix because honestly, in my opinion, nothing worth while has really debuted in the genre since the new merge. Maybe this isn't a diatribe against Final Fantasy XII, but the degeneration of the series itself. Perhaps in the Decline of Video Gaming there rings a truth.

Yes, we can argue that Advent Children was beautiful, that Kingdom Hearts was fun, and that Dirge of Cerberus was a good game. However, Advent Children didn't give me what I wanted. It recanted a tale that involved more Turk action than main character action. I wanted to see the main characters develop more, not watch Reno make jokes. I wanted to hear Cid say "Drink your goddamn tea!" I played Kingdom Hearts not for its prize-winning characters and plot, but for the Final Fantasy characters. I placed Squall and Cloud on such high pedestals to see them bastardized to the fullest. Cloud was taken back in time to his days of identity crisis, which he was supposed to have resolved. Squall, which I was much more upset about, had to be defeated by some kid weilding a key decked out in GAP clothes and traveling around with a bunch of Disney characters. In all rights, one of the Final Fantasy characters should have been weilding the keyblade, but they had to be bastardized in order to make them imperfect, unsuitable options. I played Dirge of Cerberus to find out more about Vincent's past. All I discovered was that he is a very shallow man, obsessed with Lucrecia. What I would have liked was a decent explanation for his freaky red trenchcoat. As for Final Fantasy X-2? I'm too tired to create an entirely seperate diatrabe for that sad Charlie's Angels wannebe game. All in all, the recent Final Fantasies have been laden with dissapointment for me.

Maybe I've just become old and jaded, but that would be a real shame because I really want to enjoy Finaly Fantasy. Maybe I should go replay IX to see if my memory is as clear as I think it is. All of this diatribing makes me hungry for a real story. Although, my brief, fervent desire to replay that game will probably be fleeting, and I will remain in a state of inaction. However, perhaps I will discuss my perpetual inaction another day.

For now, I will keep playing Final Fantasy XII, praying for a respite from its monotony.
It will get better.
It has to.

-Funk Out