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Final Fantasy XII Playstation 2 2006
Highlight a FFXIV blog which has challenged you to think about an aspect of lore in a different way.
One good example would be @stalwart-spirit and how much I've learned about Rabanastre and the Kingdom of Dalmasca as a whole.
Given that I found (and still slightly find) the Return to Ivalice storyline completely impenetrable, Saeed's story has been a fantasic hook for me to continue learning more.
Plus there is a Rabanastre-adjacent Mimble fic that has been at the back of my mind for months, for which @stalwart-spirit is definitely an inspiration.
Rocking up in Archades like
Rabanastre, Royal City
Shahab Alizadeh: LinkTree
Source: Instagram
It's time for a vacation! Which of these excursion packages are you choosing?
Sea Breezes & Beaches: Besaid, Costa del Sol, Balamb
Snowy All the Way: Icicle Inn, Esto Gaza, Narshe
Somewhere Selcuded: Eruyt Village, Winhill, Thamasa
Expensive & Bougie: Archades, Jidoor, Treno
City Life: Lindblum, Deling City, Rabanastre
Some Place Unique: Bhujerba, Daguerreo, Esthar
Old Ruins: Zanarkand Ruins, Ipsen's Castle, Centra Ruins
Royal City of Rabanastre - FFXIV
FF12 has been my favorite FF game for years, but I always find myself muttering "I hate this part" when I play it...what's up with that?
For the past decade or so whenever someone would ask me about Final Fantasy titles I would always say ”FFXII (12) is my favorite!” And yet, at the same time, whenever I’ve played it (which has been about 3-4 times), I’m always finding myself muttering “Oh! I hate this part!”
Recently, I’ve been playing Theatrhythm Curtain Call and Final Bar Line…a lot, and even though FF12 (for seemingly arbitrary reasons) has remained my default answer to “my favorite FF game,” I find myself largely avoiding its song selection (Except Rabanastre, my one true love). Besides Rabanastre, I can’t be bothered to actually care about the songs. I would even go as far as to say listening to them inspires a sense of tedium rather than excitement more often than naught. (This might have more to do with the song selection too though. I'll write about that another time.)
It begs the question then…do I even like FF12? Why has it been my go to answer for so long? What was it that even drew me into the title to begin with?
I think the best place to start is perhaps mentioning the first way I truly interacted with the game. (Ok, the actual first interaction was in 2009-ish, my brother was borrowing it from a friend and I would walk into the room every now and then to see him playing it. I distinctly remember thinking every time “Weren’t you just watching that cutscene?!” I had dabbled in the game myself, but, as it goes for typical middle-schoolers, I really quite sucked at it.) But I digress.
So, back in 2012-ish, I didn’t have access to a PS3 (I know it’s a PS2 title, bear with me). I had never had the opportunity to play FF13 but I wanted to know the story, so for the next week I binged a full “cut-scene” movie (in its 43+ gloriously separate parts) on Youtube. After “finishing” that title, I saw that a similar video had been spliced together for FF12, except it was only 6.5 hours long! Clicky Clicky.
I. Was. Intrigued. The first thing that stood out to me was how the narrative pacing of the cutscenes felt incredibly cinematic in comparison to the FF13 “movie” I had just watched. Maybe it was an impression at the impressive opening video that colored the rest of my consumption, or maybe it was the uploader’s particular editing and splicing choices, but I found the narrative extremely engaging. It’s admittedly been a hot minute since I refreshed myself on the nuances of the story, so my statements will be reflecting more on my lingering impression than specifics (give me some grace please) but…
This leads me to the first reason I believe I “fell in love” with FF12. It was the first story that made me consider “maybe I like political intrigue as a plot genre?” At the time, most of the stories and RPG titles I remember engaging with were the typical fate-of-the-world high fantasy plots rife with foretold heroes, oracles of saviors, OP protagonists that held their worlds by the throat, and (ugh) god-killers. In FF12, though it does arguably fall into a lot of these tropes, there remained at its core a sense of “insignificance” to the characters when considering the entire world of Ivalice. Perhaps it was the absence of “inevitable-destinies” or that our protagonists were not “famous” due to some well-known prophecy, or that Vaan and Penelo were literally insignificant to the plot, but it all made the characters feel more relatable. Or maybe it was the sense that no one character felt unreasonably powerful in the face of their larger political foes. The geopolitical consequences of warring nations would have manifested regardless of the specific cast’s coming together. Something about the plot also felt grounded in how selfish and narrow it really was. Ashe wanted to recover her kingdom not for the fate of the world, but because it was unjustly stripped from her and she wanted revenge. It was also at this same time I started to discover a fondness for the “slice-of-life” genre where plots existed comfortably within a small, largely insignificant to the broader world, personal scope. By no means am I out to say FF12 was a cheeky little “slice-of-life,” but the first act at least did make it feel that way for a while.
Which brings me to the second reason I default to FF12 as my favorite: Rabanastre. To me, this city’s presentation felt incredibly alive. Part of this I attribute to the sheer amount of NPC’s visually present in the streets and shops. It really felt like there were people believably living their own lives in the city. On top of that the mentions of the mixed architecture (i.e Galtean versus Dalmascan) and the distinct vibe and socio-economic divide evident with Rabanastre’s Lowtown alluded to a rich history and socio-political fabric that made the world feel lived in. It enforced a sense that the world came first and the characters followed, rather than a world being created to justify the characters’ existence. I know there are a lot of good examples across media that also get this right, but there was just something about FF12’s execution that particularly resonated with me. Maybe it was the timing (I was in those impressionable middle and highschool years after all), or maybe it was the grittier approach to the colors and graphics. Maybe it was how absolutely enthralled I was with the silhouette of the Garifs (I don’t cosplay, but I want to cosplay…), but something about the world of Ivalice as presented in FF12 continues to inspire me to this day.
I think it is here that lies the real reason I’m so drawn to the spirit of FF12 even in the face of the tedium I somehow equally attribute to it. It’s much less the specifics of the story or even the cast of characters that compels my declaration of “favorite.” Rather, it is the robust world of Ivalice that inspires me. It feels so real, so tangible, like a place I could actually visit. I remember for years I would say “If I could visit any place, real or fantasy, I would want to visit Rabanastre.” I wouldn’t mind experiencing and learning that city’s history first-hand.
So is FF12 still my favorite? Realistically, probably not. I can recall a lot more things I liked about other titles. Nevertheless I don’t think I will ever entirely relinquish my fondness for FF12, or more accurately, Rabanastre. The fact that the innovative auto-gambit-based gameplay was surprisingly fun was just a bonus.
KWEH!
Chocobos artwork for Final Fantasy XII
