Vaan just asked the question we were all thinking

Gotta respect him for that

And Fran just gets annoyed and gives Vaan the silent treatment. Classic.

@@adrammelechthewroth6511 Viera ☕️

It's so funny that even FF14 has a reference to it.

Yes, definitely, I would say not the just the best in the series, but also one of the best in games generally.

And I always watch the cut scene because of the voice actors. I still can hear them and remember their voice in my head lol.. just goes to show how impact they had on me. FFX, X-2, FF12 and FF13 all has memorable voice actors.

The localisation in general is top notch

The dialog writing is the best in the series!

The only line I think could have been voice acted better was Van’s scream when Balthier pushed him over the bridge onto the little sky bike Fran was driving. That scream sounded less like someone who feared they were falling to their death and more like someone who just got hit with the worst smell ever

Best gameplay imo

@@TrvisXXIIIespecially with zodiac age fixing a lot of things

Same. I'm a Stan for anything ivalice

It did the combat well without straying too far from its turn based roots. I never understood why the didn't just build off of it for subsequent titles

@@geoffreychauvin1474 well there was the sequel called Revenant wings, but yeah I totally agree. One thing I always thought is there’s still a massive world to explore. We didn’t even step foot in Rozzaria for example.

FFXII is a true treasure... The music alone is enough but in addition you get a gorgeously crafted world and (pretty) good systems to enjoy it.

I think my first playthrough I was too young to appreciate the nuance and sophistication of this game. Compared to the others, xii had more of a mature target audience. At times the dialog felt Shakespearean. Older me on a second playthrough enjoyed it much more.

I just can agree :) !

Same. I went from the FF that killed all FF for me to Zodiac age being my fav FF. It's great and only appreciated now that I'm older

People that worked on FF12 are currently working on FF16. They also were behind ff tactics and vagrant Story. All these games had matured complex story telling and seriousness.

There should be a sequel (ps2)

@@ethanshelbyskateboarding9980 Absolutely. Not considering it’s Nintendo DS knock off

We don't mention the Great Crystal......ever. The overall story and lore of the game is brilliant in its depth and as you have said, its sophistication.

Same, I love their old English style of speaking, the localization team really did a fantastic job. I know the Soulsborne games also do this but their grammar don't add up sometimes, but FFXII is just perfect, like the speakers were really from that era. Same with Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics.

@@infernas The voice acting is great in FFXII, but for me I feel it is somewhat hampered by the lower audio quality. I know the developers had to heavily compress the audio due to limitations at the time, but I still notice it and sounds like someone turned up the bass too much. Still excellent work though from the writing to the voice acting.

It was what I always wanted in a movie, and I got to play it.

Ah The Great Crystal, I'm still amazed that my 14yr old stupid brain able to clear that maze while getting Ultima.

Same. For me Basch and Ashe, maybe Balthier, too, will always be the main characters. Penelo and Vaan are more of support characters in my opinion.

@@v4njoh_927 Vaan is cool because he kinda has a "interested observer" perspective, he's along for the ride and wants to support Ashe Penelo is straight up "Vaan's big sis stand in doesn't want him harm" They're not bad, but seeing an actual badass princess who's not afraid to stick to tradition for power or break expectations when suitable, i feel like Ashe is just so unique

I agree. Honestly, if you only watched the cutscenes after the party sets out for Raithwall's Tomb, you would think she was the main character to begin with. She gets the most focus in many of the most important scenes, and the whole moral of the story hinges on her decisions.

Odd, Ashe always came off as the main character to me. She's the one who the plot follows. The whole story hinges on her reclaiming her birthright as Dalmasca's crown princess. And she gets a lot of character development to this end. All of the game's chapters end with her facing some manner of inner character conflict. Meanwhile, Vaan has incentive for being there but no real motivation or objective beyond owning the empire for what they did to Rex and his parents. And Basch... poor Basch gets almost entirely sidelined for a large portion of the story. This is why I always objected to Vaan. Not just because he exists solely due to executive mandate, but because his inclusion really does Basch dirty. Basch is completely pushed aside to make room for Vaan, when Basch was supposed to be the the protagonist alongside Ashe. I will say, however, that the writers did a good job incorporating Vaan no matter how shoehorned in he is. Vaan could be a lot more insufferable than he is. As he is, he's actually fairly tolerable. And they actually give him a sympathetic reason for being there and some actual character growth. But man, does his very existence really screw with the story. Even the initial hours of the game's story feel like it was edited and messed around with to make Vaan's involvement make sense. The story eventually evens out once it's done trying to shoehorn Vaan in, but poor Basch never recovers from being relegated to second fiddle.

Why would they give Vaan a future design meaning he was just a regular kid in 12 starting off and only learning about the Occuria in the middle of the game???

I too like future Vaan MUCH better than the first time we meet him. I just wish he had a bit more of a reason to be with the party, much as you say most of XII he just feels like he is there, everyone else has a reason and a purpose, Vaan was just in the wrong place at the right time and got swept along, I do not like him.

I want The Marquis Ondor's complete memoirs on audio book read by his voice actor just so I can listen to that delectable DICTION!

I wasn't a big fan of the job system in the Zodiac Age simply because i loved the ability to give my characters the abity to do things as i unlocked to customize each party member as i went along but I still love the game

I always assumed that the license board was just you getting the property training to use your equipment. Their is this small bit in a different game where a soldier damaged his sword because he trained with a bronze blade and it had a different balance to his iron one

And also you have to be professional and capable and responsible enough to use these kind of weapons, if people can casually buy guns and use it right away, it’s will be messed up and how many people would have been killed accidentally or things will go out of control, that’s why you see the characters don’t equip their weapons during the cutscenes and while walking around the city

Balthier calls himself the leading man a few times in the game so it's a reference to that.

@@sb6196 Oh ok. thanks for that, I'll play FF12 after I finish FF15, it's a gift my dad gave me.

I just wish Vaan and Penolo had a better in-game reason for being part of the team like being hired and trained by Balthier or something

@@Tony_409 In a way they end up being trained by Balthier and Fran respectively when they both allow them to pilot and co-pilot their ship, the very same Balthier would get an ulcer if it had as much as a scratch on. It's one of the reasons I like Balthier, he keeps saying he's "the leading man", but always allows others to step forward and do their thing and the only one who calls him out on it is Fran at the very end by calling him a "support role". But personally, I prefer this direction of "well, crap, all we wanted was to steal some shit out of the palace and now we're mixed up in a nationwide conflict that could alter the very history of our world and humanity because gods and shit", as as I said, neither Vaan nor Penelo chose to be there, they literally fell into it due to circumstances (Vaan getting caught for stealing and being associated to Balthier and Penelo getting kidnapped because of her supposed association with Balthier), but still stood up and fought for what was right.

Same here! Now I will have to play the game all over in Japanese, just for his voice!

The story is so political that it was always going to put off younger players. You really need to be old enough to understand politics to enjoy the depth of ff12.

Yeah it was, that was the main impression and criticism I had of it when the PS2 game was released.

I need to play the remaster, the game originally almost turned me off of FF, I did not enjoy the game the first time around at all, but I keep hearing the remaster is much better for many of the reasons I didnt like the original. Vaan though is still there, can't avoid that one, but may be worth a shot.

@@sparemobius7430 The remaster certainly looks better, but I personally don't like the zodiac system and how it limits your characters. I much preferred the original and how every character could learn every skill and ability so I could fully customize my party. Give it another chance. Vaan is just supposed to be our eyes into the world of ff12, Ashe is the real main character.

@@mbern4530 see I agree Ashe, Balthier, or hell anyone but Vaan is a better MC, even Penelo, although her reason is to be Vaan's babysitter. The Zodiac system is a bit of a draw for me actually though. I like the fact that they could all be whatever, but at the same time I didn't if that makes sense. Zodiac adds a bit more strategy, gives you the ability to give them a bit more character and reasons to use more than just the same 3 or in my case 1 as anytime it would let me I soloed with Ashe for extra exp, and only really brought anyone else out as support in boss fights. at least until she hit 100, then who cares.

i loved vaan, as a child vaan was my favourite character in ff12

Penelo was cute

The manga was good too.

I thought XIII-2 solid and XIII-3 for it's game play was decent

Nah, we got many good Final Fantasy games after FFXII.

FF 12 is my favorite one... followed by FF 9 😅 but tbh, I haven't played 15 and it seems it got its fighting mechanics from 12. So maybe that could become one of my favorites.

@@CompaDeArranke not really, 15 was more of a button masher. I played some of it, I liked the more open style world, but I didn’t like the story all that much. I also wish they had given the characters more customization in it.