topics meme: but what are your thoughts on Ivalice
On with the prompting meme! (Yes, I slowed down a lot. Sorry. I'm kind of. Between the cats and work exploding and realizing oh shit there actually are things to do for the wedding and I have to do them right now and also the delightful hole that I fell into called Bravely Default, I'm sort of. Not entirely mentally here.)
sathari asked, "Final Fantasy 12--- any and all thoughts! (FYI, I'm doing my first-ever playthrough and am loving it, but feeling very strongly that the only reason the PCs aren't making common cause with Vayne Solidor and Cid Bunansa--- who after all want to free humanity--- is because Ashe and Balthier are kinda stubborn that way.)"
So, this is going to be a little truncated because I'm also typing up a lot of this stuff for
moogle_university this month, but I'll hit some of the highlights.
Funnily enough, I expected to hate FFXII. (FFXII and FFXIII were the games that basically decided me on "never look at the pre-release hype for an FF game; I'll buy it anyway and my preformed opinions are ALWAYS WRONG.") I was throwing an uneducated hissy fit about the concept of "MMO-like" combat and although I'd played and loved FF Tactics, I hadn't managed to mentally connect Matsuno and the things I loved about FFT with the idea that the same person would be doing FFXII. I did buy Dragon Quest VIII because it came with the XII demo, which I played (I remember that the areas one ran around in were Phon Cost and the Stilshrine of Miriam; my freakish memory for details in FF games is such that when I went into the Stilshrine in the game proper I was like OH MY GOD LOOK IT'S THE DEMO LEVEL WAIT FUCK THAT MEANS BOMBS.)
Obviously, I didn't hate it. The MMO themes to combat made me really happy (let me tell you about how I love gambits); I ended up really enjoying the exploration and the journal and the language oh my God I can't even with how gloriously I love the translation of FFXII. I really enjoyed the License Board as the means of character advancement.
And that's not even getting started on the characters; I can ramble forever about how much I love Balthier (the texts that Sev and I are exchanging as we play FFXII are hilarious and excellent). I adore Ashe for tons of reasons. I love Fran, I am critically weak vs. Basch, and I really like Penelo. I don't get on that well with Vaan, but I fucking love Al-Cid and Reddas and Gabranth and Drace and Vayne and LARSA HOLY SHIT LARSA and tl;dr there are so many relationships and character aspects here for me to roll around in and to mine for storybits. (There's a reason FFXII is my second-most-prolific fandom.)
There are things I really don't like about XII, largely relating to some of the more obnoxious side quests and the hunts. I don't like the way some of the "gimmick" dungeons are constructed (I can scream profanities for a good ten minutes about the secret area of Henne Mines.) I don't necessarily like the teleport crystals/the Strahl as the means of getting places. There are sidequests I find really frustrating. But overall, I really love the game.
I do disagree with
sathari to an extent about the reason that the PCs aren't making common cause with Vayne and Cid - I think it's a lot more than just Ashe and Balthier being stubborn. Vayne and Cid may mean well, but they are both going about it in a highly autocratic manner and they are both responsible for a fair amount of direct destruction. I'm not sure at what point in the plot teh common cause would be made, but assuming we mean Giruvegan or the Pharos, by that point I think a lot of the damage has been done - we know what nethicite has wrought at Nabradia thanks to Reddas, and Vayne has already wrought the death of someone that the ancillary characters like Larsa really cared for, not to mention that we have seen how much of a better choice as emperor Larsa could be. Also, even by the time we get to Leviathan, Ashe has personal reason to hate Vayne several times over, even if we pretend he had nothing at all to do with the conquest of Dalmasca. As for Balthier, he did not set out to save the world. I don't really see him signing on to save humanity in this way at the behest of his father and Basch bears no love for Archadian anything, nor Penelo. That kind of thing is very hard to overcome.
I've posted this at http://lassarina.dreamwidth.org/1090070.html and you may comment there or here. On Dreamwidth, this entry has
comments.
sathari asked, "Final Fantasy 12--- any and all thoughts! (FYI, I'm doing my first-ever playthrough and am loving it, but feeling very strongly that the only reason the PCs aren't making common cause with Vayne Solidor and Cid Bunansa--- who after all want to free humanity--- is because Ashe and Balthier are kinda stubborn that way.)"
So, this is going to be a little truncated because I'm also typing up a lot of this stuff for
moogle_university this month, but I'll hit some of the highlights.
Funnily enough, I expected to hate FFXII. (FFXII and FFXIII were the games that basically decided me on "never look at the pre-release hype for an FF game; I'll buy it anyway and my preformed opinions are ALWAYS WRONG.") I was throwing an uneducated hissy fit about the concept of "MMO-like" combat and although I'd played and loved FF Tactics, I hadn't managed to mentally connect Matsuno and the things I loved about FFT with the idea that the same person would be doing FFXII. I did buy Dragon Quest VIII because it came with the XII demo, which I played (I remember that the areas one ran around in were Phon Cost and the Stilshrine of Miriam; my freakish memory for details in FF games is such that when I went into the Stilshrine in the game proper I was like OH MY GOD LOOK IT'S THE DEMO LEVEL WAIT FUCK THAT MEANS BOMBS.)
Obviously, I didn't hate it. The MMO themes to combat made me really happy (let me tell you about how I love gambits); I ended up really enjoying the exploration and the journal and the language oh my God I can't even with how gloriously I love the translation of FFXII. I really enjoyed the License Board as the means of character advancement.
And that's not even getting started on the characters; I can ramble forever about how much I love Balthier (the texts that Sev and I are exchanging as we play FFXII are hilarious and excellent). I adore Ashe for tons of reasons. I love Fran, I am critically weak vs. Basch, and I really like Penelo. I don't get on that well with Vaan, but I fucking love Al-Cid and Reddas and Gabranth and Drace and Vayne and LARSA HOLY SHIT LARSA and tl;dr there are so many relationships and character aspects here for me to roll around in and to mine for storybits. (There's a reason FFXII is my second-most-prolific fandom.)
There are things I really don't like about XII, largely relating to some of the more obnoxious side quests and the hunts. I don't like the way some of the "gimmick" dungeons are constructed (I can scream profanities for a good ten minutes about the secret area of Henne Mines.) I don't necessarily like the teleport crystals/the Strahl as the means of getting places. There are sidequests I find really frustrating. But overall, I really love the game.
I do disagree with
sathari to an extent about the reason that the PCs aren't making common cause with Vayne and Cid - I think it's a lot more than just Ashe and Balthier being stubborn. Vayne and Cid may mean well, but they are both going about it in a highly autocratic manner and they are both responsible for a fair amount of direct destruction. I'm not sure at what point in the plot teh common cause would be made, but assuming we mean Giruvegan or the Pharos, by that point I think a lot of the damage has been done - we know what nethicite has wrought at Nabradia thanks to Reddas, and Vayne has already wrought the death of someone that the ancillary characters like Larsa really cared for, not to mention that we have seen how much of a better choice as emperor Larsa could be. Also, even by the time we get to Leviathan, Ashe has personal reason to hate Vayne several times over, even if we pretend he had nothing at all to do with the conquest of Dalmasca. As for Balthier, he did not set out to save the world. I don't really see him signing on to save humanity in this way at the behest of his father and Basch bears no love for Archadian anything, nor Penelo. That kind of thing is very hard to overcome.
I've posted this at http://lassarina.dreamwidth.org/1090070.html and you may comment there or here. On Dreamwidth, this entry has
comments.