So Square might have trolled the world.

[Zilong]

It's much easier to attribute these shit to the shitty storytelling rather than grasping for straw in deeper meaning/symbolism.

[Qalbert]

What does this have to do with "trolling" at all?

Played FF8 for like 10 minutes and threw it away.. so i wouldn't know or care about this.

found the trolling you were looking for

[Mayareira]

I've read the website and...well...fuck.

[Warudo Ecksu]

Interesting theory, but I didn't like 8 at all despite playing through it 3 times so if Squall was really dead and everything was a dream, then that explains why the rest of the story sucked dick. It all makes sense now.

9 was better.

[Fereydoon]

9 was better.

I can agree with this a lot. Though I did like 8 quite a bit. It was good for the first like, two discs. Then "OMG SORCERESS FROM THE FUTURE!" started and it just got worse from there.

[Exoduso]

I agree that many things in FF8 don't make sense to this day...
The Ultimecia = Rinoa theory seems more legit than Squall being dead though, I must say.

And yes, FF9 was way better.

[Warudo Ecksu]

you two are my new best friends

[Mayareira]

In terms of story, gameplay, music, technical aspects..and everything 12 was far better than any other FF.

[Insanecyclone]

In terms of story, gameplay, music, technical aspects..and everything 12 was far better than any other FF.

inb4 shitstorm

Most people didn't like it because of it being free-roaming battle style. At least that's what I've read about the hate towards it.

[Mayareira]

I'd take the strategic and fluid battle system of XII to any dragon-quest ripoff one.

The un-strategic, rigid Dragon Quest type battle system did work well because of the obvious technical limitations of previous consoles (switching to a 3d battle "arena" from pre-rendered backdrops) but they've got no place in todays world.

[miokomioko]

I'd take this theory because it's the only one that makes sense of this shitty game & story.

[Raen Ryong]

inb4 shitstorm

Minor shitstorm in spoilers cause I'm sure most people don't want to read this again for the 10000th time.

Spoiler: show

In terms of story, gameplay, music, technical aspects..and everything 12 was far better than any other FF.

There was a story besides the first few hours and the last few?

In terms of characters... Vaan was initially well developed but quickly fell by the wayside, Penelo ... who was she again? Ashe was badass to begin with but they never really took her far and Basch similarly. Balthier is probably the best character in the game in terms of force of personality/characterisation and Fran is fairly uninteresting with precious little character development.

As far as villains go, Vayne is more realistic than a lot of FF villains but this comes at a cost to how interesting he is as a nemesis (how often do you see him anyway)? The judges are threatening to begin with but very quickly become dull when you barely see them and whenever you do, they are going to die. Likewise the Archadian army; they're just not present in enough of the story to feel dangerous.

Gameplay was decent though tried to mix battle systems too much I think... I wanted to be able to try and dodge some of the enemy "super attacks", not get thrown into a cutscene when they used one. Espers? Absolutely useless. Your characters were basically carbon copies of each other (which other FFs are guilty of too, but still). Pacing was horrible (starts off good, then it's dungeon => dungeon => dungeon => dungeon => dungeon => dungeon with little between... plus the "threat scope" of the enemy increases dramatically out of nowhere with the Sky Fortress Bahamut etc).

Musically, I can barely remember any of the tracks... in most FFs, the music is dramatic and adds great emphasis to a recurring theme (see the repeating of the "To Zanarkand/A Fleeting Dream" background tune in many songs).

Anyway, I'm bored now I just didn't really enjoy 12 much...

[Charismatic]

(how often do you see him anyway)

Stopped taking you at all seriously at this point considering that you see him A LOT.

[Qalbert]

stopped taking you seriously when I saw penelo in you sigatar

Spoiler: show

jk bro

[miokomioko]

the "threat scope" of the enemy increases dramatically out of nowhere with the Sky Fortress Bahamut[/spoiler]

I think that was the point.

[Raen Ryong]

Stopped taking you at all seriously at this point considering that you see him A LOT.

Granted it has been awhile since I played, but you see him in his inauguration, I believe when you get captured inside the palace and dragged into the street? When he usurps power, and then in the final battles inside Sky Fortress Bahamut. At risk of looking like an idiot, did I miss any notable ones? Compare this to the presence of villains like Kefka, Sephiroth, Kuja and Sin (you don't physically see him that much but the game is set up in such a way that you always feel threatened by him, and he is referred to constantly).

EDIT:

I think that was the point.

Obviously the stakes are supposed to get higher near the end, but the pacing is pretty bad in my opinion. You go from barely fighting a single imperial and just wandering across wilderness into a huge tower where suddenly everything becomes epic and amazing out of nowhere, and you're suddenly fighting in this large-scale war. There's just no buildup!

[Chun Liroy]

FFX>FFXII. True talk.

[Chun Liroy]

[GRT]

one thing that gave legs to the Rinoa theory is just how out-of-nowhere Ultimecia was in regards to the whole story

FF stories can be corny and cliche, but they are rarely incoherent or incohesive; it just seemed like SE was setting that lack of relevence up purposefully to force the fans to connect the dots themselves

[Soa]

Outside of the criticism of Espers that was the worst critique of FFXII I've ever read. Ashe's character stops developing? There is little Archadian Army presence? These two things are major driving forces throughout the plot of the game.

Going dungeon -> dungeon -> dungeon? Most of the endgame was dungeons I'll grant you that, but the first about 85% of the game was dominated by expansive outdoor zones.

There was a sudden threat of "enemy scope" at the end? There were major major points all throughout the story that suggested heightened chance of all out war. I mean I don't even know how you could possibly miss it they were so blatantly obvious.

If you didn't like the game thats fine, but I suggest playing it again and actually paying attention a little this time.