As we all know in JRPGs though, no matter how godly their powers are, even if they end up as demigods or gods, they'll fall to any ragtag group of adventurers who killed enough trash mobs during their quest.
@@purwantiallan5089 The only thing the final boss had going for him in FFXII was his ability to become invulnerable for a ridiculously long time, at will. So it was primarily a test of how much time the player had on their hands.
Not Birth By Sleep. That game is the reason why Kingdom Hearts 3's plot is just being "We gotta save Terra, Aqua, and Ventus!" They are Sequel bait characters
Vahn to me was like Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, the least important member of the group from a narrative perspective but is still an important catalyst for the story, plus he does allow for exposition to be delivered when needed without "as you know..." lead ins.
A decent analogy, but I’d argue Vahn is diet Bilbo in that case as Bilbo had an actual point to be there, being the hired burglar, and in the book at least(or maybe just the animated movie? Idk) was the one to know and tell the Thrush to notify about Smogs missing scale. Plus his cunning got the other dwarves out of some sticky situations. Vahn does the bare minimum, unlike our dear mister Baggins
@@thedoorman6940 if we take it for granted that as the game's chosen Avatar for the player, all of the player's actions are Vaan's own. He's the one with connections to Clan Centurio, he's the one who gets the party to Archadia's upper levels, he starts the Hunt contracts, and the NPC dialogue usually makes it clear they're addressing Vaan. Basically if Ashe is the hero, and Balthier and Fran are the charismatic veteran travelers, Vaan is the face of the party, the one who gathers information and gets them jobs.
@@thedoorman6940 There is a point for Vaan to be there as he had his own brother tortured and murdered by the Empire. He represents a whole caste of people who are oppressed, disenfranchised, dealing with unemployment, lack of education and no future whatsoever. Vaan is one of the many who only have rage as fuel to keep them going, rage for the life that have been taken away from them, and for the suffering they will be forced to go through until they rot. Vaan has a point, because he is the people that the party aims to liberate, and one of the key plot points of FF12 is for Ashe to learn that her quest for revenge should not take precedence to the quest of saving the people she is supposed to represent as a queen. It's all about learning to let go and looking at the bigger picture, Vaan is undeniably part of this picture. That's why he joins us, he was given the freedom to make a change in his life and everyone else he cares about. You see Vaan making an impact a lot in hunts too and story progression while talking to NPCs and taking quests. Many people says that Vaan pushed them to fight for something rather than only looking for themselves (Bur-Omisace refugees after being invaded, Jovie in Nalbina, inhabitants of Old Archades). Vaan makes a chance in Ivalice through his own actions. He isn't there to save the world, he is there to change the people by example. He acts at a micro-level, but this grassroots action is what ends up being the most important. Vaan matters and is important, full stop.
Agreed, actually, most people will tend to agree that the REAL protagonist of this game is really Balthier, like. he has the best lines and script work alongside Fran (Yeah, she is also that likeable). Vaan is just simply meh :/
@@luckiness9500 I love Balthier, but I wouldn't say he's the protagonist over Ashe. That's like saying Kyle Reese is the protagonist of the original Terminator, or Jack Sparrow is the protagonist of Pirates of the Carribean. They're memorable, but the story isn't about their journey/growth.
I believe a lot of people's over zealous animosity with XIII isn't even so much a result of the game itself but rather how Square blatantly attempted to milk the fanbase by expanding the brand with sequels that were completely unwarranted. As someone who enjoys XIII and XIII-2 even more, (Lightning Returns kinda sucks though, not gonna lie) I believe the negative reception of XIII today would be more in line with a simple "Meh, I didn't much care for it." as opposed to the "This game is absolute garbage." I tend to see more often, if XIII-2 and Lightning Returns didn't happen.
I love Gabranth. I want an exact replica of his armour & I know there is a replica of his helmet in Square Enix's headquarters Also one of my favourite fighters in the Dissidia series
I feel like Final Fantasy XII is less a game I play for engaging combat and more a game I play to unwind. The automation of combat is meditative to me, it makes grinding for loot really relaxing to me. I also love exploring and taking in the environments. I know it's not for everyone, but I've always loved the levels and quests, even Pharos Tower (especially Pharos Tower); it's La Mulana lite to me.
49:59 You forgot to mention the obvious connection to FFT. Every Zodiac Demon you fought (with the exception of Elidibs, who actually summoned Zodiark, the Serpentarius esper of FFXII) was an esper in FFXII. Only the zodiac signs that didn't have a corresponding demon fight in FFT were filled in with other FF references like Zeromus. 1:00:48 Selling loot also fulfills the bazaar recipes. It's the only way to get some of the best weapons in the game.
I dealt with the "game plays itself" problem by setting it so that whoever my main character was didn't use gambits, so I had to manually control them. Everyone else in the party had gambits set up to help out as much as possible. A lot like the system in Dragon Age, actually.
@@KILLAKREED3MIL I don't think you can improve the gambit system, it's already perfect, aside from actions you can add of course, like having your character use steal on an enemy while he has an item, which was actually added though MOD
1:27:43 - My guess is that Venat wanted to be killed, because he wanted to totally remove the Occuria influence from the world. That would explain why he merged with Vayne instead of fleeing.
@@theSato Hmm, I never heard of anybody calling the Chiefs a Kansas football team until now. It's Kansas City MO not Kansas City KS. Atlantic City has a street name called Maryland Avenue does that mean they have a claim to Maryland? Lol.
Balthier is my favorite main character in any Final Fantasy game. He has a charming personality, the best lines and he also has the best girlfriend, Fran.
Isn't that how standards drop? Just because something worse came out doesn't mean we should be kinder to things that came out before that were also targets for heavy criticism. There's something some people need to realize: if you think something worse will come out, it will come out. There is no limit to how bad things can get.
Using a gambit for Libra:Self just automatically lets you always know enemy levels and see traps. And the user automatically uses it when it wears off.
46:10 - And the thing is, that's one of the big scenes where you realize just how well developed Gabranth is as a character. See, it's one thing to have well developed protagonists in a story. But it's another thing to be able to do the same with the antagonists too. This is why FFXII is my favorite FF game out of the PS2 era.
46:20 - Well, there is a bit of comic relief. Balthier's sarcasm/cynicism in certain scenes and some of the goofy things that NPCs do all add comic relief to the world. Also every time they say 'Marquis', it's really funny. Also every time you see the moogles, you'll have a smile on your face.
SBaby I think he meant “comic relief” as in in your face comedy. I felt the comedy to FF12 was more dry, subtle and facetious. Especially with Balthiers sarcasm the comedy felt world appropriate.
SBaby no doubt and I gotta day it kinda worked, Balthier is one of the more memorable characters in FF to me. You gotta love his ego “leading man” and “I might have to make a heroic sacrifice” really sticks out to me because it comes from him.
@@obesus787 The reason he calls himself the 'leading man' is because originally, he WAS going to be the main character. Literally. Vaan and Penelo didn't exist in the original storyboard, until Square-Enix told them to put them in the game, so it had someone that could appeal to teenagers. This is why Vaan and Penelo barely do anything in the game. They were practically added in post.
I respect your opinions, man, but personally, I like the gambits and license board in FFXII. There's something I find gratifying about being able to make the game play itself, unlike some later games where the game playing itself is mandatory. Overall, I love this game. But hey, I get why you don't. I'm loving this series, though, so keep it up! And... good luck with that thing coming up.
Also, you could get previous FF games to the point where they played themselves just as much - there were times I'd do grinding by setting the game up, and then switching the TV to actual TV or to play a different game on another console because all I needed to do for the next however many hours was keep moving to trigger random encounters and keep pressing (or holding for some games) the action button - checking in occasionally to make sure I hadn't wandered too far. Even when that wasn't possible, the vast majority of combat encounters were entirely routine - attack default target until health drops below 30% then use the relevant curative and resume attacking. All the gambit system did was make it explicit that most fights were boring routine with absolutely no actual decision making. I can respect that FF13 tried to make individual fights more interesting, but I'm not entirely convinced of their success...
I think you have to go out of your way to make the game literally “play itself” as a lot of people claim that it does. For me, I just set my gambits up normally, for attacking, healing/reviving, restoring some status effects, and some other extras and found that I was inputting manual commands just about as much as automated commands were going through.
@@frozendevil9549 Yeah, you do have to actually set it up to do so, but having the option is what makes it fun to try. It's extremely open to experimentation, and that's what I like about it.
Unless you set some status effects and Graviga, and realize some monsters arent effected by them, and you have to go to the menu to swap them out, and swap them in when you find monsters that do HRGGGH. Sure, the Gambit system is okay, but a character should logically go to another attack if the first one obviously didn’t work!
The editing on these videos is *phenomenal*, man. Images, video clips, facts, gags - seriously, well done! - The Final Fantasy Podcast | The Topic Podcast Network
I just downloaded that one on an emulator. I forgot Kytes is in too as a black mage. I like how everyone comes back when new characters. The gameplay is like tactics with a gambit system...
If any Final Fantasy NEEDS a remake, is this. FF12 was so promising I get angry everytime I play it. Because you feel how messy it is, but you also feel how all of the elements of an amazing games are there. Elements that, alone, could make it the best in the series by far. It went out too soon, the fanbase was too young. I was 16 and didn't understood shit of what they were talking about all along. In 3 years from then, politic would have become one of my passions, but at 16 I was simply too young and didn't expect a rockin' GAME OF THRONES meets STAR WARS from Final Fantasy. Except now I understand that the base idea for story, gameplay, and characters was ridicoulously good and absolutly hate how they tried their most to mitigate it by shifting the focus on Vaan, losing Matsuno on the direction of the project etc. When I play 12...I know there's a masterpiece hidden beneath the surface and just can't accept that I will never see it. The evolution of Basche, Ashe, Balthier and Fran as characters. The political intrigue between the Empire and Rozaria, and the political intrigue inside those same countries. I'll never see that. Because they got scared and tried to convince the stupid 16 years old me that it was the same Final Fantasy he knew and loved. The Irony? I hated this game when it came out… I felt it went nowhere with its themes and story, and I was right. I didn't understand half of what was happening, but nonetheless I understood that the game didn't know what to do with itself either. If they went all out on the original idea the stupid 16 years old me would have hated it EVEN MORE! I would have VICIOUSLY HATED IT WITH ALL MY HEART, I'm sure! But 20 years old me would have really liked it, and 30 years old me, today, would sing its praises for all the eternity. And I'm really sad I never got the chance.
Nope. It's a prequel. The biggest indicator of this is the fact that moogles and airships are still around. So the cataclysm couldn't have happened yet. Moogles disappeared after the cataclysm (possibly becoming totally extinct), and the technology seen in FFXII was largely lost.
Now there is a fan theory that the world of Ivalice exists in two separate timelines. But that's all it is, a fan theory. Unfortunately the most we got after FFXII in terms of story-related things regarding Ivalice are the little tidbits we got in FFXIV.
12 is one of my favorite Final Fantasy games. And I always thought it was really exciting how the Pheros Lighthouse was a 99 floor dungeon, and I still have fun with it. One of my favorite things about this game is how a lot of the side quests are connected especially with the hunts. Like in the begging of the game you fight two hunts which give you seemingly pointless items. But if you save those items you then can complete a quest to rescue someone who will give you a key to open up an optional dungeon which will lead to an Esper. Things like that make the world seem a lot more alive.
This review series has honestly been so enlightening and thrilling. I've loved every single entry you've posted and I hope it continues to be as fun. :)
5:19 - You were deprived. The Zodiac Age fixes 90 percent of the problems people had with the original version. The Zodiac Age to FFXII would be like if they re-released FFXIII as a special edition and made it NOT a hallway.
Since that game is 90% hallways they have do things like actual towns, more control over your party, etc. They would to have to make a ton of changes it be like a whole new game something I doubt Square ever do.
Clement, you have no idea how much I love this series and how much it pains me that I’ve got to wait before watching this video. You’ve got me back on FF, and after finally finishing 2 and 3, the latter one being one of the best old-school rpgs I’ve played, I went straight to the game I’ve always wondered about the most: 12. I mean, 1, 3-7 and 10 are the best; 8, 15 and 13 are very controversial and 2 is mostly bad, as I’ve heard. No one says anything about the MMOs and 12 was barely discussed, the only info thrown being it’s MMO-like combat and the political story. Besides this context surrounding it, 12 also exudes an incredibly interesting aura to me. The weird but wonderful characters’ art style, the cities blending modern and old influences, resulting in things like an Aztec airport, and the Star Wars vibe I get from all the different races coexisting and from the airships. The story is so very interesting, I’m loving the combat, including the Gambit system, character building, magicks, techs... What I mean to say is that this is one video I’ll definitely be reminding myself every single day until I beat 12 before I watch lol
Dude seriously, I swear I've watched this video a hundred times now. Best thing you've ever made dude. This is such a great video. Even when I know the whole thing, it's such good background noise.
27:15 - braindead skill issue, imagine not having a "Self: Libra" Gambit on at least one of your party members. It's literally something you can do in the first hour of the game and never worry about.
Great video as ever. I loved FF12 to bits at launch - it was the game I took to uni with me when I first left home so maybe there’s some nostalgia there. At the time I didn’t understand the why people were cold on it- it was like someone had spilled Neverwinter Nights in my final fantasy, really emphasising a classic western dungeon crawler feel. Maybe it could be argued that the standard menu based-combat of previous final fantasy games is kind of redundant if most fights I’m just mashing attack or heal, so the shift to something less immediate and more focussed on an overview of developing and structuring your party is an interesting experiment. I love Balthier’s tongue in cheek leading man schtick and the story as a whole is pleasantly dense -cramming in an epic journey, court intrigue, an ongoing war/occupation, redemption arcs, layered callbacks, betrayal, etc. I think the franchise it at its best when the focus is getting sucked into the narrative (I’ve heard an interview where developers referred to 7 as an interactive storybook with battles), but despite the depth of some of its systems, maybe this much distance from the combat was too much for some people. That said, I don’t think a lot of players who initially complained about the game "playing itself" at launch were min-maxing their character’s gambits so much as they were people who picked it up expecting to click on the word attack over and over.
I didn’t mind the idea of the automation, but its execution at times is sometimes horrible. Why would I want to attack a monster with Graviga again if the monster is immune to it? My character should’ve naturally gone with some other attack if that didn’t work, instead of repeating the same attack again. Maybe they didn’t think auto-AI that much through. Still, even though that’s my biggest problem with the game, it’s not my only criticism. Still, I do like most of the cast and some parts of the story. I’ll give that props.
Xenoblade definitely took some inspiration in a lot of FF12's areas like the combat system. Love both games though Xenoblade felt like an evolution through some of these elements.
@@alabzam No doubt! That's what attracted me to xenoblade years ago! I was like "hey this looks like FF12"! I'd love to see the continued evolution of this semi-open world single player MMO style of gameplay!
I low key wish Xenoblade used a Gambits-like system. I feel as though it would be an almost perfect fit, other than it not necessarily meshing well with arts cooldowns. But given how much people like to complain about the way certain party members auto battle, like Melia... I think a case could be made.
@Bagelbite The Neutral I think you're misunderstanding what I'm getting at, no offense. Auto-battle is fine as a feature. A game like Xenoblade Chronicles simply wouldn't work having the AI-controlled party members act on their own without slowing the game down to the point of killing the pace entirely and I'm not complaining about it existing. The issue is that the AI for certain party members simply isn't very good. Melia does not use her abilities efficiently, Sharla has a tendency to be on cooldown at the worst moments and Shulk is liable to just cut his HP in half at any time with Battle Soul, which can be very dangerous. In theory, a Gambits system, if it could be implemented into Xenoblade, would be an effective way to deal with these frustrations. Well, that's what I think, anyway.
As someone who actually enjoys playing FF XIII, I look forward to see all of its flaws exposed in excruciating detail! Fixed leveling system, only ok story, the broken economy of items, and more! At the very least the gameplay is divisive. I like it. Clement might not. Oh well. We can all agree that XIII-2 was an improvement, yes?
I've been playing all of the games in order, to try and learn a bit more about how the series evolved over time. I hit a wall at FFXIII and haven't gone back to it since. I asked around about it, and everybody said that the game really picks up and becomes a lot of fun when you get to Pulse, just stick it out until then. Nobody bothered to tell me that you don't get to Pulse until the second-to-last chapter! I'm at the point where I'm done at Pulse and I just need to go to the final chapter to finish up. I couldn't bring myself to do it, stayed in Pulse to level grind and find any excuse to not go back, and eventually just quit playing. I have FFXV, so I can keep going, but I also happened to get Persona 5, Kingdom Hearts 3, and World of Final Fantasy at the same time. Finished the first two, and am doing a Critical Mode run of KH3 to prep for the DLC. Want to wait for Royal to do my NG+ of P5. (Really hope that my save file will carry over. Loved the game, but not sure I can sit through two more full runs.) I already started WFF, and I'll probably finish it before I return to FFXV. Then again, I've also got to either get that game's DLC or re-buy it as the Royal Edition.
@@kurtisharen The game doesn't get better anywhere. It simply gets more directions to go. The sidequests are definitely underwhelming. If you liked the gameplay though, consider picking up XIII-2. All of the locales you visit have something going on, and there are *actual NPCs* going around everwhere. The story however, takes a huge dump. If you didn't like the gameplay, I can recommend LR. It's completely different from the other two XIII games. I find it to be the best of the three.
If he thinks the instrumentation "sounds "cheap" he should play the Zodiac age. The music in that game is phenomenal and is easily a top 5 soundtrack. Boss Battle Zodiac Age. ua-cam.com/video/8CTnqYZIGiA/v-deo.html Esper Battle ua-cam.com/video/Lhqh_SYadWY/v-deo.html Best boss music in the entire series IMHO.
Oh man I can tell you really love dragon quest 8. I don't expect you to do a bunch of DQ videos but it would be nice for you to do a "Clement Remembers Dragon Quest 8". I've completed that game like 7 times already and it never gets boring, I've done it 4 times on PS2 and 3 times on the 3DS. Dragon Quest 8 is the best JRPG ever. Other great jrpgs that are close are Skies of Arcadia, Final Fantasy 9, Shining Force 2, Golden Sun, Super Mario RPG Bowser's Inside Story.
I’ve known for a long time that the Xeno series was inspired by Final Fantasy. However, watching this video really opened my eyes to the similarities between Final Fantasy XII and the original Xenoblade Chronicles.
24:45 It's quite funny how this game looks huge even playing it today. It actually uses the closed rather than open world to its own advantage, by having large, sprawling map backgrounds and simultaneously very large closed-off areas. It gives a real sense of scale that you wouldn't expect from a game with instance-to-instance style rooms, and I think it would actually have been worse if they attempted it to be fully open because the maps seem unfathomable as they currently are; I'd even go as far as saying it feels larger than several open world games I've played. It's also very relaxing to explore because there is no specific combat music. For people expecting to be pumped up with adrenaline, this will be a grave offender but combined with the feeling of navigating immense maps it makes for a quite tranquil yet adventurous activity. I have previously -grinded- explored not only while watching youtube but also listening to audiobooks and even reading academic papers that were putting me to sleep, hehe.
Vaan's negative reputation even bleeds into the Dissidia games, where the characters criticize him for his various traits, mirroring how many fans saw him at the time.
I believe a lot of people's over zealous animosity with XIII isn't even so much a result of the game itself but rather how Square blatantly attempted to milk the fanbase by expanding the brand with sequels that were completely unwarranted. As someone who enjoys XIII and XIII-2 even more, (Lightning Returns kinda sucks though, not gonna lie) I believe the negative reception of XIII today would be more in line with a simple "Meh, I didn't much care for it." as opposed to the "This game is absolute garbage." I tend to see more often, if XIII-2 and Lightning Returns didn't happen.
13 was way better than 10 the first corridor simulator with terrible characters you just want to shove off a cliff, the game that only gets a pass due to nostalgia goggles. 10 was too many people's first FF so it gets way blown out of proportion and they forget just how insanely short and linear the game is, alongside the cringiest writing and voice acting since RE1. As a character Tidus was just a whiny brat, went through greater trauma than his character when I was young and never behaved like that, so the character just pisses me off to no end. Every other character is just a mindless drone. 12 was such an upgrade to me as a gaming experience after the horribleness of 10. So many later FF games get given crap for doing the same thing a previous title did and got praised for. 10's very short linear corridors, 8's story repetition, who didn't love saving Rinoa every 10 minutes for 40 hours?
I'm with you guys there lol. Oh boy, I can't wait for yet another Final Fantasy XIII/Fabula Nova Crystallis review full of stale, hateful meme opinions of "bad characters" "linearity" "mash X gameplay" and "lore that's too complex!" Even though basically every Final Fantasy has different styles and tastes, are all just as linear, many have worse characters, many have worse combat mechanics, and often much less creative original lore :( I swear ever since that stupid JonTron joke video it's been the "cool thing" to hate on XIII and FNC almost baselessly, from both people that haven't played in years or haven't played the FNC series at all. There are plenty of fans for those games, but these days the FNC series gets so much undeserved shit that fans are afraid to speak out about liking them in fear of being shunned or dealing with defending against all the hate and explaining why those games are better than many people claim. After seeing the Secret Episode of KHIII Re Mind tho, I can say I haven't been happier and more proud to be a XIII/FNC fan in years :) Screw all the haters
FFXII is probably the most forgotten Final Fantasy, or at least it was forgotten until every system started getting Zodiac Age. It came out in the west only 2 1/2 weeks before the PS3 was out (and only 8 months in Japan, plus Europe and Australia got it AFTER the PS3's release), it's not nearly as well known as what other Final Fantasy games are (even if some are remembered for the wrong reasons), and Square itself seemed to forget its existence until it was time for the crossover spin-offs like Dissidia or Theatrhythm (because they kept trying to push Lightning on us as the next Cloud Strife)
After FFX, I felt like, not just Square, but JRPGs in general were starting to lose their foothold on the market. FFXI and FFXII weren't really played in my circle of friends on account that high speed internet was a luxury and people were getting hyped for the PS3/360 by the time 12 was released. Western RPGs started to take point as JRPGs were kind of trying to find a new identity. Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Fallout, Deus Ex, Borderlands were the face of RPGs that cycle. It wouldn't be until Persona 5 releasing at the end of the PS3 cycle when JRPGs found their way into the hearts of gamers during the PS4/XboxOne cycle.
One detail about this story i like is how both the hero and villain want the age of nethecite to end but it's the human factor, the lust for power that determines who the villain is
As someone who watched my older brother play Tactics as a kid because I suck at strategy games, and loved the hell out of FFTA which was too easy for him but just right for me, I love the presentation of this game. I've heard the music described as forgettable by others, but as soon as I hear it I know I'm in Ivalice.
I had a hard rule for myself when I played this game originally: I shut off all Gambits on whichever character I was in manual control of. I forced myself to play with full manual control of at least one character at all times. It was a much more engaging game as a result. And you know what? That's kind of what Knights of the Old Republic does. Any character you're in manual control of, you must give manual commands to--the end. It helps balance out party automation.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the most guide-dang-it thing about this game: the Zodiac Spear, an ultimate weapon you must specifically avoid opening certain treasure chests to acquire, chests that appear to be nothing more than regular-ass random treasure chests and are only distinguished from others by the fact that they don't respawn when you revisit areas. The first chest: RIGHT OUTSIDE the old man's house in the Rabanastre underground slums. So basically everyone opened that immediately and screwed themselves out of a sweet weapon. Argh.
You get a Samurai sword called Masamune in FF12. Closest reference we’ll get to Sephiroth in 12. Also it’s confirmed 12’s and Tactics’ worlds take place in different dimensions.
Vaan originally wasn't the main character. The protagonist was Basch. Square's executives ordered the change, because that last time the development team made a game starring a rugged older man in Vagrant Story, the game didn't sell well. Square was suffering financial stress during this time. They were doing everything in their power to reduce operating costs and guarantee profit guided by pre-established successes. Hence another blond-hair teenage boy.
Guys I'm not even kidding after clement started talking about XIII I dug out my ps3 and the game and started playing so I could beat it before Clement does.
FF13 is one of those games where i can say "i enjoy it!" and then say "I don't reccamend it!" because there's about 5000 issues i have with the game i still enjoy it regardless but oh man, those issues either make or break the game and it's a game that someone can easily have a terrible time with if they can't get into it.
Genius Charismatic Badass I think it’s best not to think about it like a mainline FF game. Once you can get past that, a lot of people could find a lot of the positives outweigh the negatives.
@@rainofkhandaq6678 okay so my problems the character switching and being apart for 20 hours leads to characters feeling jank since they don't go through development together the paradigm system takes 3 hours to get introduced most of the locations are hallways, like ff games are linear but generally there a couple of interconnected hallways rather than one literal hallway all you do in the game besides the story (which is told in the way where you have to go to the menu and read up on everything otherwise you miss crucial information) is fight and walk forward if the battle system or the story do not jnterest you, this game will not interest you especially if you dislike the battle system. i love it, however.
FF7 only have something like 50% exp to inactive party members. While nice it was a bit of a negligible amount in the long run unless you switch often.
40:15 - Yeah, but have the characters do something. Give them a reason to be there. There are literally scenes where Vaan and Penelo are off on their own while the other four characters are talking about stuff that matters to the plot. It feels like they told the kids to go play because the adults needed to talk.
Vaan not being a Gary Sue unlike every other FF protagonist doesn’t equate to his presence being shoehorned or out of place. His tie-in was his older brother, Reks, dying by the hands of Basch’s twin, Judge Galbreanth. His brother and his country were both stripped from him directly by the Arcadian Empire. What other qualifications are necessary to be the main character in a story? It’s too bad Vaan wasn’t received well because the Prophet/Chosen One trope that square inevitably fell back into is very worn out, stale, and is generally lazy/poor writing. Oh well. Also, what's the problem with that scene in the beach? Does the main character needs to be super depressed the whole game or only do super serious stuff?
@@KayderimGameplays Ashe, Balthier, Fran and Basch are the main characters, and all of them have arcs. Vaan was literally added at the last minute due to demands from the higher ups to put characters in that could appeal to younger audiences. This is confirmed information.
@@SBaby Vaan's japanese voice actor were hired around 2002, the game was released at 2006, this is not a last minute addition in any way, shape or form. If Vaan was truly added "late", Matsuno had 4 years to fix any problem he had with the story, he just didn't saw a problem to fix it seems. The only "confirmed" information is that the apparence of the main character (who was supposed to be named Aqua) was changed from a big and buff character similar to Basch to a teenager. And Vaan do have an arc, it's literally the first act you get, the first 1/4 of the game is about him alone pretty much, and his arc concludes in Jahara when he had that chat with Ashe, and he even ends up helping her grow out of her suicidal revange phase. The ""problem"" here is that like FF 6, this game's main character is not the center of the universe and the side characters are all jobbers who are only there to make the main character look cool, like FF 10, 8, 7 and so on, i wonder if you guys dislike Terra from 6 too, since she's seen as the main character when Locke had more importance than her in the game
@@KayderimGameplays There's still no reason at all for him to be there. He and Penelo get no character development over the course of the entire game, while the others do. And they contribute nothing to the plot. As someone once said, you could take them out, start with Balthier and pretty much not have to change a line of dialogue. Doesn't sound like someone who was planned to be there to me.
@@SBaby Can you explain what this "reason to be there" is? Do god need to come down to earth and give him a divine mandate or something? i'll pass on that part of the development because you seem to be trolling if you think the angry and reckless kid Vaan was at the start is the same one at later parts, especially in Jahara, when he helps to stop Ashe from being manipulated by the Occuria when showing they can't manipulate him anymore. "As someone once said, you could take them out, start with Balthier and pretty much not have to change a line of dialogue" Well, then this someone didn't pay attention to the story. You could see at the start of the game that Balthier was an asshole to anyone but Vaan and wanted nothing to do with Ashe, it was Vaan who rushed to save her and Balthier scolded him after, so she would either be dead/captured if Vaan wasn't there. Not to mention the Basch part, even if Balthier got sent to Nalbina, he had no reason to free Basch, and he wouldn't if Vaan didn't messed up and gotten the attention of the judge. There's also the part of the Occuria and Ashe, without Vaan there, the game would probrably end with Archadia and Rabanastre blowing up and Ashe dead in the war. So yeah, Vaan has plenty of importance in the story, mainly getting the whole party together, and that including Larsa through Penelo, without that, Ashe would never have gotten her kingdom back
29:00 - that would have been some shit though, a freakin' mechanic where you can technically use certain things freely so long as you don't get caught by the proper authorities? Hell of a risk and reward system right there.
oh thats cool, but what about Final Fantasy The Phantom Attack Of The Clones Revenge Of The Sith or Final Fantasy The Force Awakens The Last Jedis Rise Of Skywalker?
As someone who loves the FF13 trilogy (13-2 is still my favorite FF), I knew this day would be coming eventually. Now that it's finally drawing near, I'm a little scared. Even still, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on them.
Fun fact about FF Tactics Advanced, the second game lets you recruit the likes of Vaan, Penelo, and Al-Cid into your party. A nice little nod to people who played 12
When XII came out it didn’t quite click with me. But I came back to it my senior year of HS and was blown away and later I really enjoyed zodiac age. X is my favorite for nostalgic reasons, but objectively I think XII is the best main entry, at least of the 3D games
The Ivalice lore is my favorite in the Final Fantasy series; 12 had a good story but squandered on its gameplay, but FFT had an even more encapsulating story and fantastic gameplay. The War of the Lions retranslation fixed the problem I had with the original by making the story more mature and Shakesperian-esque and it is my favorite game of all time. I hope you do a retrospective on FFT/FFTWoTL after you're done with the main numbered series as well. It's a shame FFT isn't nearly as popular because it was overshadowed by FF7.
Your complaint about traps isn't really valid since you're basically saying the cost of seeing traps should be reallocated to a different kind of penalty (in name only) that's pretty much the same penalty. It's a moot point.
Okay, if anyone hasn't figured out XII's plot... It's about a growing energy crisis. Something that would resonate with someone like me more than someone like Clement. Because unlike a country like Canada, America is heavily dependent on energy resources. The problem is that it's not necessarily new ground, as VII did that already. XII is just a mishmash of previous entries as an attempt to "unify" a series into a single narrative.
Clement, I've really enjoyed these retrospectives you've done. You reminded me of the games I played and loved, reminded me why I wasn't a fan of some (X-2, especially), given me new appreciation to games I didn't dig, and introduced me to Final Fantasy X, which has overall superseded 4 and 6 as my favorite of all time. There were a few where I said to myself meh, I'll probably pass, but this is the first one where I've said nope, this will remain an unplayed game. When I first saw the self-playing nature of XIII, it was a strong frowning moment, and if this is the beginning of the end because of the Gambit system, I'll pass. But as always, still a great entry to the retrospective. Looking forward to the next one come... I'm gonna say October 2020. And yes, someone at SquareEnix DEFINITELY had a thing for dat ass. Especially dat bunny ass.
1:24:11 Vayne wasn't your typical villain, that's why he's never physically in their way. Dude's a ruler and a politician. Why would he step down from his castle to obstruct them? He has an army _and judges_ for that.
Honestly the Zodiac Age remaster saved this game. I have a physical copy on the switch and I had such a great time, specially in battles. I feel like the gambit system is under appreciated. Setting gambits was one of the fun things to do in this game and watching the chaos unfold based on the commands you input in all 12 available slots and tailoring it on situations the game puts you in. The License reset feature is also the cherry on top having full customization for all characters without penalty.
"'Even with the power of a god, he can't handle 6 people with a license board." Keep doing you Clement.
As we all know in JRPGs though, no matter how godly their powers are, even if they end up as demigods or gods, they'll fall to any ragtag group of adventurers who killed enough trash mobs during their quest.
Clement loving this actually.
@@SBabythe side quest bosses in FFXII is harder than the main bosses.
@@purwantiallan5089 The only thing the final boss had going for him in FFXII was his ability to become invulnerable for a ridiculously long time, at will. So it was primarily a test of how much time the player had on their hands.
Not gonna lie, XII and Birth By Sleep were some great Star Wars games.
Not Birth By Sleep. That game is the reason why Kingdom Hearts 3's plot is just being "We gotta save Terra, Aqua, and Ventus!"
They are Sequel bait characters
@@frogglen6350 I thought that was the purpose of xion and Roxas?
Birth by sleep’s story is the equivalent to the Star Wars prequels aka the story is not very good.
@@frogglen6350 everything wrong with KH3 came from Dream Drop Distance. Dont blame BBS for that shit fire.
God, you can't mention Kingdom Hearts without a bunch of angry bad takes on the series.
Kingdom Hearts is good don't @ me and then heck off.
Vahn to me was like Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, the least important member of the group from a narrative perspective but is still an important catalyst for the story, plus he does allow for exposition to be delivered when needed without "as you know..." lead ins.
A decent analogy, but I’d argue Vahn is diet Bilbo in that case as Bilbo had an actual point to be there, being the hired burglar, and in the book at least(or maybe just the animated movie? Idk) was the one to know and tell the Thrush to notify about Smogs missing scale. Plus his cunning got the other dwarves out of some sticky situations.
Vahn does the bare minimum, unlike our dear mister Baggins
@@thedoorman6940 if we take it for granted that as the game's chosen Avatar for the player, all of the player's actions are Vaan's own. He's the one with connections to Clan Centurio, he's the one who gets the party to Archadia's upper levels, he starts the Hunt contracts, and the NPC dialogue usually makes it clear they're addressing Vaan. Basically if Ashe is the hero, and Balthier and Fran are the charismatic veteran travelers, Vaan is the face of the party, the one who gathers information and gets them jobs.
@@thedoorman6940 There is a point for Vaan to be there as he had his own brother tortured and murdered by the Empire. He represents a whole caste of people who are oppressed, disenfranchised, dealing with unemployment, lack of education and no future whatsoever. Vaan is one of the many who only have rage as fuel to keep them going, rage for the life that have been taken away from them, and for the suffering they will be forced to go through until they rot. Vaan has a point, because he is the people that the party aims to liberate, and one of the key plot points of FF12 is for Ashe to learn that her quest for revenge should not take precedence to the quest of saving the people she is supposed to represent as a queen. It's all about learning to let go and looking at the bigger picture, Vaan is undeniably part of this picture. That's why he joins us, he was given the freedom to make a change in his life and everyone else he cares about.
You see Vaan making an impact a lot in hunts too and story progression while talking to NPCs and taking quests. Many people says that Vaan pushed them to fight for something rather than only looking for themselves (Bur-Omisace refugees after being invaded, Jovie in Nalbina, inhabitants of Old Archades). Vaan makes a chance in Ivalice through his own actions. He isn't there to save the world, he is there to change the people by example. He acts at a micro-level, but this grassroots action is what ends up being the most important. Vaan matters and is important, full stop.
Agreed, actually, most people will tend to agree that the REAL protagonist of this game is really Balthier, like. he has the best lines and script work alongside Fran (Yeah, she is also that likeable). Vaan is just simply meh :/
@@luckiness9500 I love Balthier, but I wouldn't say he's the protagonist over Ashe. That's like saying Kyle Reese is the protagonist of the original Terminator, or Jack Sparrow is the protagonist of Pirates of the Carribean. They're memorable, but the story isn't about their journey/growth.
4:13 Oh man, the XIII video's gonna be something else
Ahhh the ff13 fiasco, good times lol.
I remember his VLog, the actual video's gonna be a sound thrashing.
@@Woodenfan and I cant wait for it. After playing XIII earlier in January, it's going to be cathartic for me.
As much as I knock TheSPoonyOne for his venomous behavior, even I agree that FFXIII trilogy is downright horrible.
I believe a lot of people's over zealous animosity with XIII isn't even so much a result of the game itself but rather how Square blatantly attempted to milk the fanbase by expanding the brand with sequels that were completely unwarranted. As someone who enjoys XIII and XIII-2 even more, (Lightning Returns kinda sucks though, not gonna lie) I believe the negative reception of XIII today would be more in line with a simple "Meh, I didn't much care for it." as opposed to the "This game is absolute garbage." I tend to see more often, if XIII-2 and Lightning Returns didn't happen.
The time has come and so have I.
💦
Dalmasca, the final part of the main story in FFXII is very epic like the one in DRAGON AGE INQUISITION.
Gabrath is one of my favorites Final Fantasy villain.
His design, his lore and voice acting is so majestic.
I love Gabranth. I want an exact replica of his armour & I know there is a replica of his helmet in Square Enix's headquarters
Also one of my favourite fighters in the Dissidia series
He's also one of the most well developed villains in the entire series. Kind of like a medieval fantasy Ecliptor.
@@SBaby Ecliptor? You mean Ecliptor from Power Rangers.
Right?
He’s one of the most well-rounded villains for me. Never since Gilgy had I found a true and balanced fight.
Preach!!
I feel like Final Fantasy XII is less a game I play for engaging combat and more a game I play to unwind. The automation of combat is meditative to me, it makes grinding for loot really relaxing to me. I also love exploring and taking in the environments. I know it's not for everyone, but I've always loved the levels and quests, even Pharos Tower (especially Pharos Tower); it's La Mulana lite to me.
FF XII reminds me a lot to AC IV BLACK FLAG.
*The Super Bowl ends*
“Welp, time for bed”
*Clement uploads Remembering FFXII*
“Who needs to sleep?!”
Agreed
I don't need sleep, I need Final Fantasy
Its so true
@@OmniRAF VII Remake comes out in two months, my friend
@@DonGEX I know but I love his retrospectives
49:59 You forgot to mention the obvious connection to FFT. Every Zodiac Demon you fought (with the exception of Elidibs, who actually summoned Zodiark, the Serpentarius esper of FFXII) was an esper in FFXII. Only the zodiac signs that didn't have a corresponding demon fight in FFT were filled in with other FF references like Zeromus.
1:00:48 Selling loot also fulfills the bazaar recipes. It's the only way to get some of the best weapons in the game.
Very surprising that FF XII has connections with Tactics.
I dealt with the "game plays itself" problem by setting it so that whoever my main character was didn't use gambits, so I had to manually control them. Everyone else in the party had gambits set up to help out as much as possible.
A lot like the system in Dragon Age, actually.
That's a good idea and shows how customizable the gambit system is. I really wish it could be brought back and improved upon.
That’s exactly what I did too. The Gambit system is so underrated.
@@KILLAKREED3MIL I don't think you can improve the gambit system, it's already perfect, aside from actions you can add of course, like having your character use steal on an enemy while he has an item, which was actually added though MOD
I do this too we are all cool guys for doing this
@@KILLAKREED3MILFF XIII for me is like downgraded version of X for some good reason despite its upgraded graphics.
Final Fantasy XII plot is better than the most recents Star Wars films.
All*
Every single film after Disney took over. Every single one of them.
@@noface_777even also better than 2024 movies (except Nijigasaki Season 4 Trilogy Movies Part I).
@@user-gu5dv7vj8ri am convinced that so many people around the world still love playing FF XII till now.
1:27:43 - My guess is that Venat wanted to be killed, because he wanted to totally remove the Occuria influence from the world. That would explain why he merged with Vayne instead of fleeing.
Venat did nothing wrong TM
Your Final Fantasy retrospectives are the most genuine and funny things I have heard on UA-cam. Fantastic work.
And also very good and entertaining.
Personally, The Vierra forest scenes were MY special moment in this game. I loved the dialogue and what little development they gave Fran.
I replayed that part multiple times too.
My home state of Kansas: HOLY CRAP WE WON THE SUPERBOWL!!
Me: HOLY CRAP CLEMENT POSTED A FINAL FANTASY VIDEO!!
I'm from California and dont watch Football but all my cousins who were posting things earlier talking trash are now all of a sudden quiet😂
The Chiefs are a Missouri Football Team.
TF?
Well, Kansas City falls in between both states, so alot of Kansans consider the Chiefs their team. At least the part of Kansas I'm from.
@@666ZX It's called KANSAS City. They have just as much of a claim to the team as Missouri lol
@@theSato Hmm, I never heard of anybody calling the Chiefs a Kansas football team until now. It's Kansas City MO not Kansas City KS. Atlantic City has a street name called Maryland Avenue does that mean they have a claim to Maryland? Lol.
Balthier is my favorite main character in any Final Fantasy game.
He has a charming personality, the best lines and he also has the best girlfriend, Fran.
MegaNinten 007 Fran would be a dream to have on your arm. A true fantasy.
So yall two want death by snu snu 👀
@@smsdamiracle Yes.
I feel like his voice was the awakening for a lot of people who played this and zodiac.
4:08 My opinion of Sonic Lost World when Sonic Forces came out in a nutshell.
I always thought lost world was ok at best even before forces. The soundtrack was amazing though.
After Sonic Forces, Sonic Lost World is a harmless more than acceptable platformer.
Isn't that how standards drop? Just because something worse came out doesn't mean we should be kinder to things that came out before that were also targets for heavy criticism. There's something some people need to realize: if you think something worse will come out, it will come out. There is no limit to how bad things can get.
Sonic Heroes when Sonic 2006 came out.
I’m probably one of the 3 people but I’d really like a port of Lost World on the switch. Yeah I said that.
And then there's that obscure one you've probably never heard of. Has some kid named Sora in it.
Ah you. XD
This is uploaded on my birthday! A truly wonderful gift
Invaderchris9001 happy birthday
Happy birthday!
You're FF videos are honesty my favorite you put out. They are so underrated I think.
Can't wait for 13! That's going to be a fun video.
Using a gambit for Libra:Self just automatically lets you always know enemy levels and see traps. And the user automatically uses it when it wears off.
46:10 - And the thing is, that's one of the big scenes where you realize just how well developed Gabranth is as a character. See, it's one thing to have well developed protagonists in a story. But it's another thing to be able to do the same with the antagonists too. This is why FFXII is my favorite FF game out of the PS2 era.
46:20 - Well, there is a bit of comic relief. Balthier's sarcasm/cynicism in certain scenes and some of the goofy things that NPCs do all add comic relief to the world. Also every time they say 'Marquis', it's really funny. Also every time you see the moogles, you'll have a smile on your face.
SBaby I think he meant “comic relief” as in in your face comedy. I felt the comedy to FF12 was more dry, subtle and facetious. Especially with Balthiers sarcasm the comedy felt world appropriate.
@@obesus787 That's true. Honestly, I think with Balthier they were trying to go for an iconic Jack Sparrow-esque archetype.
SBaby no doubt and I gotta day it kinda worked, Balthier is one of the more memorable characters in FF to me. You gotta love his ego “leading man” and “I might have to make a heroic sacrifice” really sticks out to me because it comes from him.
@@obesus787 The reason he calls himself the 'leading man' is because originally, he WAS going to be the main character. Literally. Vaan and Penelo didn't exist in the original storyboard, until Square-Enix told them to put them in the game, so it had someone that could appeal to teenagers. This is why Vaan and Penelo barely do anything in the game. They were practically added in post.
I respect your opinions, man, but personally, I like the gambits and license board in FFXII. There's something I find gratifying about being able to make the game play itself, unlike some later games where the game playing itself is mandatory. Overall, I love this game. But hey, I get why you don't. I'm loving this series, though, so keep it up! And... good luck with that thing coming up.
Unlike XIII, you have to WORK to get to the point where the game is automated
@@557deadpool bingo
Also, you could get previous FF games to the point where they played themselves just as much - there were times I'd do grinding by setting the game up, and then switching the TV to actual TV or to play a different game on another console because all I needed to do for the next however many hours was keep moving to trigger random encounters and keep pressing (or holding for some games) the action button - checking in occasionally to make sure I hadn't wandered too far.
Even when that wasn't possible, the vast majority of combat encounters were entirely routine - attack default target until health drops below 30% then use the relevant curative and resume attacking. All the gambit system did was make it explicit that most fights were boring routine with absolutely no actual decision making. I can respect that FF13 tried to make individual fights more interesting, but I'm not entirely convinced of their success...
I think you have to go out of your way to make the game literally “play itself” as a lot of people claim that it does. For me, I just set my gambits up normally, for attacking, healing/reviving, restoring some status effects, and some other extras and found that I was inputting manual commands just about as much as automated commands were going through.
@@frozendevil9549 Yeah, you do have to actually set it up to do so, but having the option is what makes it fun to try. It's extremely open to experimentation, and that's what I like about it.
I loved the Gambit system because it was like watching a well-oiled machine that I built do it's thing and wreck monsters
My feelings exactly.
Yep. You did it. The game didn't build it for you and tell you to push X. Therein lies the big difference between Gambits and ... ugh, auto-battle.
Unless you set some status effects and Graviga, and realize some monsters arent effected by them, and you have to go to the menu to swap them out, and swap them in when you find monsters that do HRGGGH. Sure, the Gambit system is okay, but a character should logically go to another attack if the first one obviously didn’t work!
The editing on these videos is *phenomenal*, man. Images, video clips, facts, gags - seriously, well done! - The Final Fantasy Podcast | The Topic Podcast Network
I recommend Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, gives Vaan & Penelo a lot of great character moments!
I just downloaded that one on an emulator. I forgot Kytes is in too as a black mage. I like how everyone comes back when new characters. The gameplay is like tactics with a gambit system...
i love this game so much ♥️
Yeah
If any Final Fantasy NEEDS a remake, is this.
FF12 was so promising I get angry everytime I play it.
Because you feel how messy it is, but you also feel how all of the elements of an amazing games are there. Elements that, alone, could make it the best in the series by far.
It went out too soon, the fanbase was too young. I was 16 and didn't understood shit of what they were talking about all along. In 3 years from then, politic would have become one of my passions, but at 16 I was simply too young and didn't expect a rockin' GAME OF THRONES meets STAR WARS from Final Fantasy.
Except now I understand that the base idea for story, gameplay, and characters was ridicoulously good and absolutly hate how they tried their most to mitigate it by shifting the focus on Vaan, losing Matsuno on the direction of the project etc.
When I play 12...I know there's a masterpiece hidden beneath the surface and just can't accept that I will never see it.
The evolution of Basche, Ashe, Balthier and Fran as characters. The political intrigue between the Empire and Rozaria, and the political intrigue inside those same countries.
I'll never see that.
Because they got scared and tried to convince the stupid 16 years old me that it was the same Final Fantasy he knew and loved.
The Irony?
I hated this game when it came out…
I felt it went nowhere with its themes and story, and I was right.
I didn't understand half of what was happening, but nonetheless I understood that the game didn't know what to do with itself either.
If they went all out on the original idea the stupid 16 years old me would have hated it EVEN MORE! I would have VICIOUSLY HATED IT WITH ALL MY HEART, I'm sure!
But 20 years old me would have really liked it, and 30 years old me, today, would sing its praises for all the eternity.
And I'm really sad I never got the chance.
I never got the thing with Venat.
21:22 - Yeah, Ramza, Delita, etc weren't even born yet. The game takes place thousands of years before Tactics.
Wait, this game pre-dates tactics? Could swear it was the other way around.
Nope. It's a prequel. The biggest indicator of this is the fact that moogles and airships are still around. So the cataclysm couldn't have happened yet. Moogles disappeared after the cataclysm (possibly becoming totally extinct), and the technology seen in FFXII was largely lost.
Now there is a fan theory that the world of Ivalice exists in two separate timelines. But that's all it is, a fan theory. Unfortunately the most we got after FFXII in terms of story-related things regarding Ivalice are the little tidbits we got in FFXIV.
12 is one of my favorite Final Fantasy games. And I always thought it was really exciting how the Pheros Lighthouse was a 99 floor dungeon, and I still have fun with it. One of my favorite things about this game is how a lot of the side quests are connected especially with the hunts. Like in the begging of the game you fight two hunts which give you seemingly pointless items. But if you save those items you then can complete a quest to rescue someone who will give you a key to open up an optional dungeon which will lead to an Esper. Things like that make the world seem a lot more alive.
Bosses from side quests in FF XII, 89% of them, are much harder than main story levels.
Wow, it's been so long since the last retrospective.
It's hard to believe the next part is finally out.
Thanks again for the videos. :D
This review series has honestly been so enlightening and thrilling. I've loved every single entry you've posted and I hope it continues to be as fun. :)
20:13 Oh God- Oh F***! Big tall bunny women are a treasure undeserved! This pleases me greatly on the month of my people.
PREACH.
The wait is over, like before watching just for your efforts
I can tell the Xenoblade series was greatly inspired by this game... with a good battle system.
Oh boy can't wait to see how you tear apart my favorite final fantasy game 13. And yes 13 is my in my top 5 Favorite final fantasy games
5:19 - You were deprived. The Zodiac Age fixes 90 percent of the problems people had with the original version. The Zodiac Age to FFXII would be like if they re-released FFXIII as a special edition and made it NOT a hallway.
Since that game is 90% hallways they have do things like actual towns, more control over your party, etc. They would to have to make a ton of changes it be like a whole new game something I doubt Square ever do.
I’ve been waiting for this!!! I’ll watch it in pieces through out the work day tomorrow
Clement, you have no idea how much I love this series and how much it pains me that I’ve got to wait before watching this video. You’ve got me back on FF, and after finally finishing 2 and 3, the latter one being one of the best old-school rpgs I’ve played, I went straight to the game I’ve always wondered about the most: 12.
I mean, 1, 3-7 and 10 are the best; 8, 15 and 13 are very controversial and 2 is mostly bad, as I’ve heard. No one says anything about the MMOs and 12 was barely discussed, the only info thrown being it’s MMO-like combat and the political story.
Besides this context surrounding it, 12 also exudes an incredibly interesting aura to me. The weird but wonderful characters’ art style, the cities blending modern and old influences, resulting in things like an Aztec airport, and the Star Wars vibe I get from all the different races coexisting and from the airships.
The story is so very interesting, I’m loving the combat, including the Gambit system, character building, magicks, techs... What I mean to say is that this is one video I’ll definitely be reminding myself every single day until I beat 12 before I watch lol
* And 9 in the unambiguously great titles
I have binged your entire Final Fantasy remembers the last few days. Thank you Clement. 👍👍👍👍
Dude seriously, I swear I've watched this video a hundred times now. Best thing you've ever made dude. This is such a great video. Even when I know the whole thing, it's such good background noise.
27:15 - braindead skill issue, imagine not having a "Self: Libra" Gambit on at least one of your party members. It's literally something you can do in the first hour of the game and never worry about.
Great video as ever. I loved FF12 to bits at launch - it was the game I took to uni with me when I first left home so maybe there’s some nostalgia there. At the time I didn’t understand the why people were cold on it- it was like someone had spilled Neverwinter Nights in my final fantasy, really emphasising a classic western dungeon crawler feel. Maybe it could be argued that the standard menu based-combat of previous final fantasy games is kind of redundant if most fights I’m just mashing attack or heal, so the shift to something less immediate and more focussed on an overview of developing and structuring your party is an interesting experiment. I love Balthier’s tongue in cheek leading man schtick and the story as a whole is pleasantly dense -cramming in an epic journey, court intrigue, an ongoing war/occupation, redemption arcs, layered callbacks, betrayal, etc. I think the franchise it at its best when the focus is getting sucked into the narrative (I’ve heard an interview where developers referred to 7 as an interactive storybook with battles), but despite the depth of some of its systems, maybe this much distance from the combat was too much for some people. That said, I don’t think a lot of players who initially complained about the game "playing itself" at launch were min-maxing their character’s gambits so much as they were people who picked it up expecting to click on the word attack over and over.
I didn’t mind the idea of the automation, but its execution at times is sometimes horrible. Why would I want to attack a monster with Graviga again if the monster is immune to it? My character should’ve naturally gone with some other attack if that didn’t work, instead of repeating the same attack again. Maybe they didn’t think auto-AI that much through.
Still, even though that’s my biggest problem with the game, it’s not my only criticism.
Still, I do like most of the cast and some parts of the story. I’ll give that props.
anyone else notice the graphics and characters look alot like that of Xenoblade Chronicals?
Xenoblade definitely took some inspiration in a lot of FF12's areas like the combat system. Love both games though Xenoblade felt like an evolution through some of these elements.
@@alabzam No doubt! That's what attracted me to xenoblade years ago! I was like "hey this looks like FF12"! I'd love to see the continued evolution of this semi-open world single player MMO style of gameplay!
I low key wish Xenoblade used a Gambits-like system. I feel as though it would be an almost perfect fit, other than it not necessarily meshing well with arts cooldowns. But given how much people like to complain about the way certain party members auto battle, like Melia... I think a case could be made.
Laggalot101 Xenoblade desperately needed gambits for Sharla who never healed you when you needed it because her rifle was getting hotter.
@Bagelbite The Neutral I think you're misunderstanding what I'm getting at, no offense. Auto-battle is fine as a feature. A game like Xenoblade Chronicles simply wouldn't work having the AI-controlled party members act on their own without slowing the game down to the point of killing the pace entirely and I'm not complaining about it existing. The issue is that the AI for certain party members simply isn't very good. Melia does not use her abilities efficiently, Sharla has a tendency to be on cooldown at the worst moments and Shulk is liable to just cut his HP in half at any time with Battle Soul, which can be very dangerous. In theory, a Gambits system, if it could be implemented into Xenoblade, would be an effective way to deal with these frustrations. Well, that's what I think, anyway.
I was just about to rewatch your retrospective and you just happened to have a new video out. Awesome.
As someone who actually enjoys playing FF XIII, I look forward to see all of its flaws exposed in excruciating detail!
Fixed leveling system, only ok story, the broken economy of items, and more!
At the very least the gameplay is divisive. I like it. Clement might not.
Oh well. We can all agree that XIII-2 was an improvement, yes?
I've been playing all of the games in order, to try and learn a bit more about how the series evolved over time. I hit a wall at FFXIII and haven't gone back to it since. I asked around about it, and everybody said that the game really picks up and becomes a lot of fun when you get to Pulse, just stick it out until then. Nobody bothered to tell me that you don't get to Pulse until the second-to-last chapter! I'm at the point where I'm done at Pulse and I just need to go to the final chapter to finish up. I couldn't bring myself to do it, stayed in Pulse to level grind and find any excuse to not go back, and eventually just quit playing.
I have FFXV, so I can keep going, but I also happened to get Persona 5, Kingdom Hearts 3, and World of Final Fantasy at the same time. Finished the first two, and am doing a Critical Mode run of KH3 to prep for the DLC. Want to wait for Royal to do my NG+ of P5. (Really hope that my save file will carry over. Loved the game, but not sure I can sit through two more full runs.) I already started WFF, and I'll probably finish it before I return to FFXV. Then again, I've also got to either get that game's DLC or re-buy it as the Royal Edition.
@@kurtisharen The game doesn't get better anywhere. It simply gets more directions to go. The sidequests are definitely underwhelming.
If you liked the gameplay though, consider picking up XIII-2. All of the locales you visit have something going on, and there are *actual NPCs* going around everwhere. The story however, takes a huge dump.
If you didn't like the gameplay, I can recommend LR. It's completely different from the other two XIII games. I find it to be the best of the three.
I'm pretty sure Clemant will have better opinions than Spoonys ridiculous nitpicking that wasn't exclusive to FFXIII
If he thinks the instrumentation "sounds "cheap" he should play the Zodiac age. The music in that game is phenomenal and is easily a top 5 soundtrack. Boss Battle Zodiac Age. ua-cam.com/video/8CTnqYZIGiA/v-deo.html Esper Battle ua-cam.com/video/Lhqh_SYadWY/v-deo.html Best boss music in the entire series IMHO.
Considering the complaint about spells being hidden in obscure chests, I'm surprised that the Zodiac Spear didn't get brought up.
Oh man I can tell you really love dragon quest 8.
I don't expect you to do a bunch of DQ videos but it would be nice for you to do a "Clement Remembers Dragon Quest 8".
I've completed that game like 7 times already and it never gets boring, I've done it 4 times on PS2 and 3 times on the 3DS.
Dragon Quest 8 is the best JRPG ever.
Other great jrpgs that are close are Skies of Arcadia, Final Fantasy 9, Shining Force 2, Golden Sun, Super Mario RPG Bowser's Inside Story.
I’ve known for a long time that the Xeno series was inspired by Final Fantasy. However, watching this video really opened my eyes to the similarities between Final Fantasy XII and the original Xenoblade Chronicles.
I also had Twilight Princess thoughts
24:45 It's quite funny how this game looks huge even playing it today. It actually uses the closed rather than open world to its own advantage, by having large, sprawling map backgrounds and simultaneously very large closed-off areas. It gives a real sense of scale that you wouldn't expect from a game with instance-to-instance style rooms, and I think it would actually have been worse if they attempted it to be fully open because the maps seem unfathomable as they currently are; I'd even go as far as saying it feels larger than several open world games I've played.
It's also very relaxing to explore because there is no specific combat music. For people expecting to be pumped up with adrenaline, this will be a grave offender but combined with the feeling of navigating immense maps it makes for a quite tranquil yet adventurous activity. I have previously -grinded- explored not only while watching youtube but also listening to audiobooks and even reading academic papers that were putting me to sleep, hehe.
Vaan's negative reputation even bleeds into the Dissidia games, where the characters criticize him for his various traits, mirroring how many fans saw him at the time.
1:00:39 - That is one thing The Zodiac Age improved on immensely. You can increase the speed of the game, making grinding a lot faster.
Whoaaa this video is finally here! I subbed months ago after using your FF videos to help me sleep.
Strangely enough. Freedom Planet's... planet was called Avalice, makes you wonder if that was an intentional shout-out or an accident.
I can see the resemblance.
Also has a war between nations.
As a person who loves XIII I'm very interested in how your video will be. I enjoyed this one a lot as someone who loves XII to death.
Yees I'm not alone I also enjoyed 13 as well as 12
I believe a lot of people's over zealous animosity with XIII isn't even so much a result of the game itself but rather how Square blatantly attempted to milk the fanbase by expanding the brand with sequels that were completely unwarranted. As someone who enjoys XIII and XIII-2 even more, (Lightning Returns kinda sucks though, not gonna lie) I believe the negative reception of XIII today would be more in line with a simple "Meh, I didn't much care for it." as opposed to the "This game is absolute garbage." I tend to see more often, if XIII-2 and Lightning Returns didn't happen.
13 was way better than 10 the first corridor simulator with terrible characters you just want to shove off a cliff, the game that only gets a pass due to nostalgia goggles. 10 was too many people's first FF so it gets way blown out of proportion and they forget just how insanely short and linear the game is, alongside the cringiest writing and voice acting since RE1. As a character Tidus was just a whiny brat, went through greater trauma than his character when I was young and never behaved like that, so the character just pisses me off to no end. Every other character is just a mindless drone. 12 was such an upgrade to me as a gaming experience after the horribleness of 10. So many later FF games get given crap for doing the same thing a previous title did and got praised for. 10's very short linear corridors, 8's story repetition, who didn't love saving Rinoa every 10 minutes for 40 hours?
I'm with you guys there lol. Oh boy, I can't wait for yet another Final Fantasy XIII/Fabula Nova Crystallis review full of stale, hateful meme opinions of "bad characters" "linearity" "mash X gameplay" and "lore that's too complex!" Even though basically every Final Fantasy has different styles and tastes, are all just as linear, many have worse characters, many have worse combat mechanics, and often much less creative original lore :( I swear ever since that stupid JonTron joke video it's been the "cool thing" to hate on XIII and FNC almost baselessly, from both people that haven't played in years or haven't played the FNC series at all. There are plenty of fans for those games, but these days the FNC series gets so much undeserved shit that fans are afraid to speak out about liking them in fear of being shunned or dealing with defending against all the hate and explaining why those games are better than many people claim. After seeing the Secret Episode of KHIII Re Mind tho, I can say I haven't been happier and more proud to be a XIII/FNC fan in years :) Screw all the haters
FFXII is probably the most forgotten Final Fantasy, or at least it was forgotten until every system started getting Zodiac Age. It came out in the west only 2 1/2 weeks before the PS3 was out (and only 8 months in Japan, plus Europe and Australia got it AFTER the PS3's release), it's not nearly as well known as what other Final Fantasy games are (even if some are remembered for the wrong reasons), and Square itself seemed to forget its existence until it was time for the crossover spin-offs like Dissidia or Theatrhythm (because they kept trying to push Lightning on us as the next Cloud Strife)
After FFX, I felt like, not just Square, but JRPGs in general were starting to lose their foothold on the market.
FFXI and FFXII weren't really played in my circle of friends on account that high speed internet was a luxury and people were getting hyped for the PS3/360 by the time 12 was released.
Western RPGs started to take point as JRPGs were kind of trying to find a new identity. Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Fallout, Deus Ex, Borderlands were the face of RPGs that cycle.
It wouldn't be until Persona 5 releasing at the end of the PS3 cycle when JRPGs found their way into the hearts of gamers during the PS4/XboxOne cycle.
One detail about this story i like is how both the hero and villain want the age of nethecite to end
but it's the human factor, the lust for power that determines who the villain is
12:01 - Judge Gabranth as you'll find out, is one of the most well developed villains in the entire Final Fantasy series.
I hated 12 at first but now I love it .
As someone who watched my older brother play Tactics as a kid because I suck at strategy games, and loved the hell out of FFTA which was too easy for him but just right for me, I love the presentation of this game. I've heard the music described as forgettable by others, but as soon as I hear it I know I'm in Ivalice.
Glad to see you back good review man
I had a hard rule for myself when I played this game originally: I shut off all Gambits on whichever character I was in manual control of. I forced myself to play with full manual control of at least one character at all times. It was a much more engaging game as a result. And you know what? That's kind of what Knights of the Old Republic does. Any character you're in manual control of, you must give manual commands to--the end. It helps balance out party automation.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the most guide-dang-it thing about this game: the Zodiac Spear, an ultimate weapon you must specifically avoid opening certain treasure chests to acquire, chests that appear to be nothing more than regular-ass random treasure chests and are only distinguished from others by the fact that they don't respawn when you revisit areas. The first chest: RIGHT OUTSIDE the old man's house in the Rabanastre underground slums. So basically everyone opened that immediately and screwed themselves out of a sweet weapon. Argh.
4:15 - And we didn't think it could get worse after XIII, but it found a way with XV.
"Oi oi, u got a loicense for tha' spell, mate?"
This game, basically.
FFXII walked so Xenoblade Chronicles could run
You get a Samurai sword called Masamune in FF12. Closest reference we’ll get to Sephiroth in 12. Also it’s confirmed 12’s and Tactics’ worlds take place in different dimensions.
12 is one of my favorites. I really loved this game. extremely nostalgic for me. I pre ordered the special edition and went to the midnight release.
Vaan originally wasn't the main character. The protagonist was Basch. Square's executives ordered the change, because that last time the development team made a game starring a rugged older man in Vagrant Story, the game didn't sell well.
Square was suffering financial stress during this time. They were doing everything in their power to reduce operating costs and guarantee profit guided by pre-established successes. Hence another blond-hair teenage boy.
1:10:34 - It was called 'International', which explains why it was only available in Japan.
Wow Xenoblade chronicles took so much of this game, intriguing
And it’s better because it’s a lot more intuitive and fun to play. Just sayin’.
Personally I love Final Fantasy 12. My favorite Final Fantasy will always be a toss up between 4 and 6 though. Ah good times!
Guys I'm not even kidding after clement started talking about XIII I dug out my ps3 and the game and started playing so I could beat it before Clement does.
What are your thoughts on it?
FF13 is one of those games where i can say "i enjoy it!" and then say "I don't reccamend it!" because there's about 5000 issues i have with the game
i still enjoy it regardless
but oh man, those issues either make or break the game and it's a game that someone can easily have a terrible time with if they can't get into it.
Genius Charismatic Badass I think it’s best not to think about it like a mainline FF game. Once you can get past that, a lot of people could find a lot of the positives outweigh the negatives.
@@renrenthemadscientist I don't remember what problems people had with it personally, I though it was fine.
I also don't hate Snow either, lol.
@@rainofkhandaq6678 okay so my problems
the character switching and being apart for 20 hours leads to characters feeling jank since they don't go through development together
the paradigm system takes 3 hours to get introduced
most of the locations are hallways, like ff games are linear but generally there a couple of interconnected hallways rather than one literal hallway
all you do in the game besides the story (which is told in the way where you have to go to the menu and read up on everything otherwise you miss crucial information) is fight and walk forward
if the battle system or the story do not jnterest you, this game will not interest you
especially if you dislike the battle system. i love it, however.
FF7 only have something like 50% exp to inactive party members. While nice it was a bit of a negligible amount in the long run unless you switch often.
Watching you describe the game world makes me wish they built a final fantasy theme park
Zodiac age it's much better then vanilla game
Omg we are reaching the last of ffs so far. Man, I love this series
40:15 - Yeah, but have the characters do something. Give them a reason to be there. There are literally scenes where Vaan and Penelo are off on their own while the other four characters are talking about stuff that matters to the plot. It feels like they told the kids to go play because the adults needed to talk.
Vaan not being a Gary Sue unlike every other FF protagonist doesn’t equate to his presence being shoehorned or out of place.
His tie-in was his older brother, Reks, dying by the hands of Basch’s twin, Judge Galbreanth.
His brother and his country were both stripped from him directly by the Arcadian Empire.
What other qualifications are necessary to be the main character in a story?
It’s too bad Vaan wasn’t received well because the Prophet/Chosen One trope that square inevitably fell back into is very worn out, stale, and is generally lazy/poor writing. Oh well.
Also, what's the problem with that scene in the beach? Does the main character needs to be super depressed the whole game or only do super serious stuff?
@@KayderimGameplays Ashe, Balthier, Fran and Basch are the main characters, and all of them have arcs. Vaan was literally added at the last minute due to demands from the higher ups to put characters in that could appeal to younger audiences. This is confirmed information.
@@SBaby Vaan's japanese voice actor were hired around 2002, the game was released at 2006, this is not a last minute addition in any way, shape or form. If Vaan was truly added "late", Matsuno had 4 years to fix any problem he had with the story, he just didn't saw a problem to fix it seems.
The only "confirmed" information is that the apparence of the main character (who was supposed to be named Aqua) was changed from a big and buff character similar to Basch to a teenager.
And Vaan do have an arc, it's literally the first act you get, the first 1/4 of the game is about him alone pretty much, and his arc concludes in Jahara when he had that chat with Ashe, and he even ends up helping her grow out of her suicidal revange phase.
The ""problem"" here is that like FF 6, this game's main character is not the center of the universe and the side characters are all jobbers who are only there to make the main character look cool, like FF 10, 8, 7 and so on, i wonder if you guys dislike Terra from 6 too, since she's seen as the main character when Locke had more importance than her in the game
@@KayderimGameplays There's still no reason at all for him to be there. He and Penelo get no character development over the course of the entire game, while the others do. And they contribute nothing to the plot. As someone once said, you could take them out, start with Balthier and pretty much not have to change a line of dialogue. Doesn't sound like someone who was planned to be there to me.
@@SBaby Can you explain what this "reason to be there" is? Do god need to come down to earth and give him a divine mandate or something?
i'll pass on that part of the development because you seem to be trolling if you think the angry and reckless kid Vaan was at the start is the same one at later parts, especially in Jahara, when he helps to stop Ashe from being manipulated by the Occuria when showing they can't manipulate him anymore.
"As someone once said, you could take them out, start with Balthier and pretty much not have to change a line of dialogue"
Well, then this someone didn't pay attention to the story. You could see at the start of the game that Balthier was an asshole to anyone but Vaan and wanted nothing to do with Ashe, it was Vaan who rushed to save her and Balthier scolded him after, so she would either be dead/captured if Vaan wasn't there. Not to mention the Basch part, even if Balthier got sent to Nalbina, he had no reason to free Basch, and he wouldn't if Vaan didn't messed up and gotten the attention of the judge.
There's also the part of the Occuria and Ashe, without Vaan there, the game would probrably end with Archadia and Rabanastre blowing up and Ashe dead in the war.
So yeah, Vaan has plenty of importance in the story, mainly getting the whole party together, and that including Larsa through Penelo, without that, Ashe would never have gotten her kingdom back
29:00 - that would have been some shit though, a freakin' mechanic where you can technically use certain things freely so long as you don't get caught by the proper authorities? Hell of a risk and reward system right there.
happy 15th anniversary final fantasy 12!!! :3
“Goddamnit Vossler!”
😂 that was so perfectly delivered
Ahhh yes. Final Fantasy, Episode XII. A New Empire Strike of the Jedi.
oh thats cool, but what about Final Fantasy The Phantom Attack Of The Clones Revenge Of The Sith or Final Fantasy The Force Awakens The Last Jedis Rise Of Skywalker?
As someone who loves the FF13 trilogy (13-2 is still my favorite FF), I knew this day would be coming eventually. Now that it's finally drawing near, I'm a little scared.
Even still, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on them.
Fans of 13 are braver than marines
Fun fact about FF Tactics Advanced, the second game lets you recruit the likes of Vaan, Penelo, and Al-Cid into your party. A nice little nod to people who played 12
They gave him a collared shirt in that one, finally...
such a masterpiece ♥️
Vagrant Story was also set in Ivalice
One added note: Final Fantasy XII is basically Ayumu Uehara & Shioriko Mifune's all time favourite final fantasy game.
When XII came out it didn’t quite click with me. But I came back to it my senior year of HS and was blown away and later I really enjoyed zodiac age. X is my favorite for nostalgic reasons, but objectively I think XII is the best main entry, at least of the 3D games
The Ivalice lore is my favorite in the Final Fantasy series; 12 had a good story but squandered on its gameplay, but FFT had an even more encapsulating story and fantastic gameplay. The War of the Lions retranslation fixed the problem I had with the original by making the story more mature and Shakesperian-esque and it is my favorite game of all time.
I hope you do a retrospective on FFT/FFTWoTL after you're done with the main numbered series as well. It's a shame FFT isn't nearly as popular because it was overshadowed by FF7.
0:55 - That's the most accurate description for Final Fantasy Tactics that I've ever heard.
20:30 This is all the work of Akihiko Yoshida. The man is a saint.
Your complaint about traps isn't really valid since you're basically saying the cost of seeing traps should be reallocated to a different kind of penalty (in name only) that's pretty much the same penalty. It's a moot point.
20:35 oh, don't feel bad clement. The character designer has FREELY ADMITTED that he loves butts.
Okay, if anyone hasn't figured out XII's plot... It's about a growing energy crisis. Something that would resonate with someone like me more than someone like Clement. Because unlike a country like Canada, America is heavily dependent on energy resources. The problem is that it's not necessarily new ground, as VII did that already. XII is just a mishmash of previous entries as an attempt to "unify" a series into a single narrative.
Clement, I've really enjoyed these retrospectives you've done. You reminded me of the games I played and loved, reminded me why I wasn't a fan of some (X-2, especially), given me new appreciation to games I didn't dig, and introduced me to Final Fantasy X, which has overall superseded 4 and 6 as my favorite of all time. There were a few where I said to myself meh, I'll probably pass, but this is the first one where I've said nope, this will remain an unplayed game. When I first saw the self-playing nature of XIII, it was a strong frowning moment, and if this is the beginning of the end because of the Gambit system, I'll pass. But as always, still a great entry to the retrospective. Looking forward to the next one come... I'm gonna say October 2020.
And yes, someone at SquareEnix DEFINITELY had a thing for dat ass. Especially dat bunny ass.
Lmao XD
Final Fantasy XII still is an underrated masterpiece.
1:24:11 Vayne wasn't your typical villain, that's why he's never physically in their way. Dude's a ruler and a politician. Why would he step down from his castle to obstruct them? He has an army _and judges_ for that.
Still my favorite ff game even when it first came out, the zodiac age has made it even better
Honestly the Zodiac Age remaster saved this game. I have a physical copy on the switch and I had such a great time, specially in battles. I feel like the gambit system is under appreciated. Setting gambits was one of the fun things to do in this game and watching the chaos unfold based on the commands you input in all 12 available slots and tailoring it on situations the game puts you in. The License reset feature is also the cherry on top having full customization for all characters without penalty.