Playing this game seemed like one long wait...

Truly, I was sitting there wondering when I'd actually begin caring about the characters. Imagine

how disappointed I was to find the waiting didn't pay off.

Vaan? In my mind a couple of passing comments about Rek's demise isn't sufficient to make me feel a wave of sympathy when he finally realises vengeance won't bring the guy back. Ashe? Never given the opportunity to explain to moral dilemma she faces (i.e. to take the crystal or not to take it?) so her eventual decision was equally unsuccessful in evoking my emotion. Penelo was token happy-go-lucky girl and Fran was token mystery woman. Neither were graced with a dialog to express their opinions on the changing political situation let alone to interact with one another on a social level.

Balthier was *slightly* more developed. I did find myself wondering why he so willingly went along with the princess' abduction scheme and was pleasantly surprised to find out he did have an ulterior motive rather than his cooperation being a convenient plot device. However, his conversation with Ashe where he reveals he was a judge et al was so incredibly abrupt that I wasn't sure what to make of it. Rather than serving to expand on his "dashing sky pirate" facade it was merely jarring. How am I supposed to respond to this new information given that courtesy of a non-existent script I barely know Balthier from a bar of soap?

(Also, the name Ffamran makes me giggle. It reminds me of "fruit flan". :p)

In fact the only guys I was remotely taken by were Basch and Larsa. The former's dogged loyalty to a throne at his country's expense and conflict with Gabranth were small glimmers of hope amongst this dull cast. Sad that I could never feel the initial tension between him and Vaan, which like so many other facets of the storyline was under-developed. As for Larsa, his own struggle for a peaceful solution was to me far more compelling than Ashe's.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to downplay FF12's brilliant graphics or extinction of random encounters. Also unlike many I'm not one to complain about the license board -- if you think it's a tedious system, try playing FF Tactics and weep as you attempt to amass enough JP to learn any useful ability. The music was pleasant enough, as was the voice acting and sound effects. Longevity-wise the game goes f o r e v e r and a day.

But still, the soul is lost in this one. You know, if I had the choice between having pretty animations and three-dimensional characters, I'd pick the latter every time.

How the hell can I write fanfiction about these people??

Still, I think that many people can write fics about FF XII, I'm not one of them yet but not all games inspire everyone to come up with a good fanfiction, right?

The same goes for FF VIII. Squall and Rinoa were in the drivers seat, and the rest of the cast was left shadowed in the back, but BECAUSE OF THIS, people are able to write amazing fan fictions, letting the characters do whatever they want and have it be (within reason) a possible scenario.

So for me, even though I thrive on character development, not having any allows me to write fictions. If I knew everyone's past inside and out (like VII's), I wouldn't know how to farther develop their characters because they already have been developed so much.

In XII and VIII, the characters are left so open that you can manipulate them and play with them.

Did this make any sense?

Hey but I do agree with the topic starter on how the character's faces look like they were painted, haha because that's what I thought too when I first started to pop in the game and saw the preview...

They could have at least made their faces like in Dirge of Cerberus.

Overall, everything is perfectly okay since I don't pay attention too graphic. Unless, it is worse than it's previous game. Example Final Fantasy V

Also, we need better control on the espers. Not only they are weak and can be easily kill against any boss, you can't even control them let alone use their most powerful attacks without fullfilling certain ridicolus thing like "the use must be pertified and the esper life bar must be at critical".

I agree with you on the espers, I almost never used them during the game.

I didn't think it was that bad tough (the game), I fell in love for the world and I think the culture and politics are well explained, true the characters could have made a better impact, maybe it would be as simple as the game starting before Ashe's wedding, accompanying each characters story individually, before mix them all together in the beginning as they did. Example: maybe if we were shown how Ashe met Rasler and had seen more interaction between the both of them, later in the game we could experience and understand better her pain.

But I think the game is great, and was one of my favorites until now.

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