FFXII Ending

[Lbelle]

If Balthier would have died I would say the game officially sucked. He is hands down the best character in the game by a mile, and there just isn't a reason at all to kill him off at all. Plus, it made a much better ending to think he "might" have died, but for him to then get safely off the Bahamut.

[Aerin]

The Marquis's accent was annoying as fuck to me. So no I wouldn't want to hear anything more from him.

While I agree Balthier was the best character by far, i wouldn't have cared all that much if he died at the end. If you're going to kill off a character do it right.

One of the reasons why VII was popular, character gets killed just when you finally get to know them and really like them. Then you're motivated to complete the game and kick ass. And no i'm not saying that's the only way to kill off a character the right way, just giving an example.

[Lbelle]

I just think killing off characters for no reason isn't cool.

[Jeryhn]

Especially when you have Phoenix Downs.

[layoneil]

I definitely agree with you Sendoh, I'm guessing that personally I was disappointed with the lack of Balthier in the final clips (who'd have guessed?), especially since the heart-wrenching final moments where it looked like he was going to sacrifice his life for Rabanastre. I felt like a little something extra at the end would have been great, i.e. Balthier dropping a great one-liner at us, or something written by the Marquis... does anyone agree?

the ring and the note was his one-liner. he's cooler to not actually show up.

1. Does anyone think that there should have been some homage to the writings of the Marquis Ondore, like there was throughout the earlier parts of the game? Like some end of his novel, or chapter?

that's written a lot later than when the game ends, and that seemed to have been dropped after Leviathan, when the game switches from political positioning to Ashe's crew being on Cid's leash.

2. Oh man, did anyone else feel like their heart was in their throat when they realized Balthier was on the Bahamut? And would anyone agree that it would have been a tragic and very memorable ending if Balthier had died?

i was pretty sure he wasn't go to die, so no.

[Quicklet]

If Balthier would have died I would say the game officially sucked. He is hands down the best character in the game by a mile, and there just isn't a reason at all to kill him off at all. Plus, it made a much better ending to think he "might" have died, but for him to then get safely off the Bahamut.

Predictability is dumb. Maybe if they did it realistically, but if you honestly though he might have died, well,

[chesh]

If Balthier would have died I would say the game officially sucked. He is hands down the best character square has ever made by a mile, and there just isn't a reason at all to kill him off at all. Plus, it made a much better ending to think he "might" have died, but for him to then get safely off the Bahamut.

Fixed, suck it cloudiroth fanboys.

[Stilgar]

Balthier is cool, but he's a little too much of a metro IMO. I like Basch better just from XII, but if we take this out to the whole series I'd have to mention Kain, Locke, Celes, and Zell. lol j/k about Zell.

[Quicklet]

Balthier is cool, but he's a little too much of a metro IMO. I like Basch better just from XII, but if we take this out to the whole series I'd have to mention Kain, Locke, Celes, and Zell. lol j/k about Zell.

Seriously, it's pretty hard to top Kain or Locke in terms of character pimpness. Basch > Balthier for sure though.

[Exoduso]

Um, Kuja.

kthx.

[Helpoemer]

having played both the JP and US versions of the game, it lost a lot of its dramatisation (which to me does a lot) during the translation
eg: Ashe at the end when she tells Balthier to get off Bahamut and when they fly away goes "Balthier..." in the US version, just says it in a sigh-ish way.
while in the JP version she's like "BARUFREAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

i just enjoyed playing it a lot more in JP than in english because it was so much more dramatic

that could be blamed on the english VAs though

[Stilgar]

having played both the JP and US versions of the game, it lost a lot of its dramatisation (which to me does a lot) during the translation
eg: Ashe at the end when she tells Balthier to get off Bahamut and when they fly away goes "Balthier..." in the US version, just says it in a sigh-ish way.
while in the JP version she's like "BARUFREAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

i just enjoyed playing it a lot more in JP than in english because it was so much more dramatic

that could be blamed on the english VAs though

I actually prefer the English VAs in XII, just because the British accents go so well with the fantastic. I guess it's all the conditioning from LotR and such. Fifty years of fantasy using British English primarily has a profound effect.

[LD]

I'm just glad I'm not the only one who thought the plot lacked completion.
It all seemed to feel pretty empty after you leave giruveagan.
The motivations of Vayne and especially Venat weren't really explored, and the ending was horribly cliche.

Having said that, I did enjoy most of it, but the lingering questions and the unimpressive ending left a bad taste in my mouth.
I expected so much more after played FFT and Vagrant Story.
I blame the director falling ill during development, it's fairly obvious he was the soul of the story development.

Game Play and presentation were flawless, it was like a superior single-player version of FFXI.
The first half of the game did a excellent job of exploring the characters in a beautiful world.
Side Quests and minor NPCs have personality and everything is generally organic.
It's just when Reddas appears for practically no reason as a plot device that I started to question how well made the game really was.

I somewhat disliked FFX, it was a well made, yet very sappy, over-rated game with two of the most annoying main characters of all time.
I liked it, but not over any of the other FF's I've played.
However, the voice acting and direction was second only to the MGS series (of the games I've played.)
All of the supporting characters were excellently expressed through their VAs.
Vaan and Penelo's VAs have the emotional range of that donkey from winne the pooh, only you know, perky instead of depressed.
Fran was decent at doing nuance, though it's a generally dead-pan character to begin with, but it was done well.
Actually, XII was much like X in that the two main characters were made less likable mostly because of their VAs, while the other actors were much better at portraying their characters.
The only exception to this would be Ashe, who gave a very good performance, with just the right amount of emotion at just the right moments.
Baltheir was very true to character, as was Bashe, though I believe the latter stumbled through some of his lines and didn't emote well enough.
Larsa & Vayne were disappointing in their readings.
Now that I think of it, I think some of the best VAs were the ones you heard the least from.
John DiMagio, some of the Archadian guards, Fran’s sisters, the dreaming dude, the Garif Chief.

I may have rambled on a bit, but the voice acting wasn't so bad that I would say it takes away from the game as a whole (not significantly, anyway).
It was just the big "Blow 'em up, Save the world, sacrifice some people, but oh snap they're actually alive, yay everything's awesome for realz"...ending.
It didn't have the gravitas of VII, VIII, IX, X (I admit, that was a hard-hitter), or, lets be frank, XI.
It was pedestrian, something to simply end the game, and I don’t think it was up to Final Fantasy’s standards.


P.S. FUCK DOUBLE CHECKIN’ TO SPELL FAKE NAMES RIGHT. >:O

[Toth]

The motivations of Vayne and especially Venat weren't really explored, and the ending was horribly cliche.

I disagree here. Vayne (and Venat)'s intention was repeated several times: to free humankind from the grip of the Occurians and write their own future. In a way, Vayne can be viewed as a tragic hero, sacrificing everything for this goal. He felt that coming a noble and mighty house of Archadia forced him to do such a thing. Still, he was quite conscious what he was doing was wrong but believed it needed to be done for his kind to have the chance to be free of those Undying freaks. He also placed all his hopes on Larsa and he ensured his brother would survive no matter what.

Why Venat broke away was explained as well: He didn't like the way his brethren continued to play gods even though their time had passed.

[RuBP]

The motivations of Vayne and especially Venat weren't really explored, and the ending was horribly cliche.

I disagree here. Vayne (and Venat)'s intention was repeated several times: to free humankind from the grip of the Occurians and write their own future. In a way, Vayne can be viewed as a tragic hero, sacrificing everything for this goal. He felt that coming a noble and mighty house of Archadia forced him to do such a thing. Still, he was quite conscious what he was doing was wrong but believed it needed to be done for his kind to have the chance to be free of those Undying freaks. He also placed all his hopes on Larsa and he ensured his brother would survive no matter what.

Why Venat broke away was explained as well: He didn't like the way his brethren continued to play gods even though their time had passed.

Their motivation was repeated several times in the span of a few hours. The immediate build-up to the climax and the resolution that followed was well-done but too fast paced to appreciate. Ending might have been cliche but I think it fit the game pretty well considering how it was presented.

[BarthelloSylph]

Yea I definitely think the ending and the story was well explained. The problem was the pacing - the plot was going along well and at a slow clip, which lead me to believe there was many hours left in the game. Then from Giruvegan to the end, its just a mad rush.

Better pacing would have served this game well. Though I'd have loved a longer game too My only other complaint is the lack of Balthier and Fran in the ending - they needed to give us a background on all the characters - even the minor ones. They didn't, thus no warm fuzzy feelings for the end of XII - fantastic, INCREDIBLY fun game to play though.

[governor]

Honestly, my only real issue with the game was that it needed more Cid. He was a badass character, everyone loves the insane villian. I felt that Cid should of disposed of Vayne and became the final boss.