Story of FF12 compared to other FF games?

[Larry Daley]

I never really played other FF games, but I enjoyed FF12 although I felt the ending was a bit rushed.

How does the story compare with other FF games?

[Protoman]

The tone is definitely different from other games. I guess it's more "subdued" in a sense. In this game, the main quest is to stop a war between an empire and a kingdom, while in other games it usually has something to do with bringing balance to the world or vanquishing a great evil. This makes the world of FF12 feel a little more grounded than the worlds of other FF games.

All in all, it's just different from prior entries.

About the ending being a bit rushed... well, sorry to tell you but this will be a trend starting with this game. FFXIII and XV were both very rushed too, and XV is the worst in this aspect. It's like 40% of a full game, and it's very glaring right from the start.

[Hinnyuu]

It's hard to say by what metric to compare things. But for sure FF12 is not your standard hero+party have adventure fare, it's got more political overtones and a way of narration that often puts you to the side of the big action. There's a lot of groundedness to events and characters and that is not exactly in line with some of the other FFs which do lean more heavily into heroic tropes.

I always call it a "more mature" story, but there's many ways to describe it. How good is it compared to other FF stories? Very hard to say. I'm a fan personally but I recognize that many other people also are not.

[Vagrant]

Last time you asked about the soundtrack, now you're here for the story.

Just buy it bro.

[valium]

The other FF games are more... fantastical, going further off the deep end storywise.

I would say the best FF games are 5 and 6, you can find the remasters here on Steam. Is saying emulation a nono on the forums? It is probably too late to find the original SNES games or the PS1 anthology, which are better versions than the pixel remasters.

[Larry Daley]

Cool, thanks for the responses guys

[「Lukja」]

star wars but in ivalice

[WhateverWorks]

I was in high school when it came out originally, and at the time it was both my favorite and least liked. I considered it to be the single best gameplay system the series had ever had (and still feel this way tbh), and considered it to be the least interesting story. I played it again years later and it became one of my favorite stories in the series. I think one big thing that makes some people not take to it is the way Vaan isn't important to the story, even though he's the character you "play" as. This is of course on purpose, everyone knows Balthier is the main character. But coming off of 7-10 I think it felt weird for many people.

I will say that the story does really make some poor choices toward the end, really just in the final chapter. The final chunk of story shouldn't have been in the location that it was in, the stories final events should have taken place upon a return to the crystal and the Occuria. They should have been the final boss/bosses, in one way or another. And the Espers should have been plot relevant. Not necessarily the focus, since it would have felt repetitive coming off of IX and X, but relevant. They have this rich and mysterious history that is so connected to the world of Ivalice overall, yet they have no relevance to the story beyond the exposition when you get the first one. I mean you bring some of them back to Giruvegun, and nothing?

[Fryman]

Originally posted by valium:

The other FF games are more... fantastical, going further off the deep end storywise.

I would say the best FF games are 5 and 6, you can find the remasters here on Steam. Is saying emulation a nono on the forums? It is probably too late to find the original SNES games or the PS1 anthology, which are better versions than the pixel remasters.

1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 got GBA releases. Do with that information what you will.