You Know What They Say About The Leading Man.
Well, I've finally managed to finish Final Fantasy XII, and I'm having trouble coming up with some thoughts on it that aren't just 'BALTHIER! HEARTS HEARTS HEARTS HEARTS HEARTS.' I already want to play through it again, purely for Balthier (and Fran, because she is also awesome and they're always together and I love their partnership madly). I wish there were a 'Super-Easy Mode (For Obsessive Balthier Fans)', in which I could play through the entire game ridiculously quickly, just for the scenes with Balthier in them, and skip all the places in which Balthier doesn't have any lines. IT WOULD BE THE BEST GAME EVER.
Right. Um. Thoughts that aren't squeeing about Balthier and/or pairing him up with Fran/Ashe/the Strahl (he's surprisingly heterosexual in my mind for a man with rainbow jewellery, although that's apparently not going to stop me pairing him up with an airship. Actually, that's a heterosexual pairing, too; he refers to the Strahl as 'she', doesn't he? IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE). Hmmm.
Well, I was worried for a while that I wouldn't really like XII, but BALTHIER MADE IT AWESOME I fell in love with it a little when I realised that, although it has a huge sweeping political plot, it also has a soul. Towards the end, you start to get the impression that the team really are friends (although it's a pity that wasn't made clearer before; there was so much focus on the politics that it seemed to forget to show that our little group of individuals was becoming closer), and I love the silly sidequests and interactions with NPCs: I love it when you're doing favours for completely irrelevant characters to get chops, and when you get the opportunity to read a Moogle's diary, and when you help a Cockatrice get across the river to meet its friend. (Of course, the problem with meeting adorable frightened Cockatrices and a wolf that is the best of friends with a little boy is that you start to feel guilty when you kill the creatures out in the wild. WELL, I DO, AT LEAST. STOP LAUGHING.)
And... no, it's no use. I'm just going to end up squeeing about Balthier again. BEST CHARACTER EVER, YOU GUYS. He's absolutely right: Vaan (who I did somewhat come around to eventually, but who rather suffers in my esteem due to, er, not being Balthier) may be the player's character, but he is the leading man.
Right. Um. Thoughts that aren't squeeing about Balthier and/or pairing him up with Fran/Ashe/the Strahl (he's surprisingly heterosexual in my mind for a man with rainbow jewellery, although that's apparently not going to stop me pairing him up with an airship. Actually, that's a heterosexual pairing, too; he refers to the Strahl as 'she', doesn't he? IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE). Hmmm.
Well, I was worried for a while that I wouldn't really like XII, but BALTHIER MADE IT AWESOME I fell in love with it a little when I realised that, although it has a huge sweeping political plot, it also has a soul. Towards the end, you start to get the impression that the team really are friends (although it's a pity that wasn't made clearer before; there was so much focus on the politics that it seemed to forget to show that our little group of individuals was becoming closer), and I love the silly sidequests and interactions with NPCs: I love it when you're doing favours for completely irrelevant characters to get chops, and when you get the opportunity to read a Moogle's diary, and when you help a Cockatrice get across the river to meet its friend. (Of course, the problem with meeting adorable frightened Cockatrices and a wolf that is the best of friends with a little boy is that you start to feel guilty when you kill the creatures out in the wild. WELL, I DO, AT LEAST. STOP LAUGHING.)
And... no, it's no use. I'm just going to end up squeeing about Balthier again. BEST CHARACTER EVER, YOU GUYS. He's absolutely right: Vaan (who I did somewhat come around to eventually, but who rather suffers in my esteem due to, er, not being Balthier) may be the player's character, but he is the leading man.