/vr/ - Retro Games

>>10332175
FF12 on the PS2 had to not only render the game at a lower resolution compared to FF10, but also had to use letterboxing help save performance as well (since only 75% of the screen has to be rendered). Battles were intended to have a lot more characters onscreen at once (like you see in the prologue where you have a squad of 6 guys vs half a dozen enemy imperials) but that was just too much so the game reduced down to your 3 party members vs maybe 3 or 4 enemies max.

>>8859617
It is a good story, or at least it has great themes, but it's not told that well in my personal opinion. So much cool and neat shit happens in it but the direction of most cutscenes is flat and it's easy to lose attention. It's like the exact opposite of FFX where even a lot of scenes that don't move the story forward are kind of entertaining.

>Vaan turns his agression from the loss of his brother against the Empire instead of one murderer
>Ashe learns to let go of her past and rage to fuck over the weird evil gods that are manipulating people. Literally slashes the ghost in half
>Vaan helps Ashe come to grips with being a person instead of just a royal figure
>Balthier's past as a Judge informs his freedom loving pirate character really well
>Fran's arc in the woods where she discards her entire race to have her happy life
>Gabranth

Could go on but I bet you reading this don't remember some of these scenes or plot beats. I think that's understandable. Some of the more overtly awesome or cool scenes are huge standouts but a lot of it is just delivered with two characters talking to each other without an extremely clear connection to the current objective of the player.

https://rainsunflower.wordpress.com/2019/08/29/understanding-vaan-a-story-of-forgiveness-and-purpose/

This guy's site has some neat articles about FF12's development and reception.