#and I LOVE how basch is much more understanding of all of this than vossler ever was.

[irandrura]

Around 13 hours in, at the Garif Village:

There are still elements of the plot that make much more sense in hindsight. Ashe’s visions of Rasler were unclear on the first playthrough; but now I know that the Occuria are sending them to try to manipulate Ashe into destroying Archades with nethicite, in order to stop Cid and Venat from using their nethicite research to overthrow them, I can see where the visions are leading. In other words, the visious have moved from being vaguely sad and ominous to being interpretable as moves in a game of power politics. The Occuria are the closest FFXII has to visible or active ‘gods’, and even they are concerned with relatively straightforward matters of political power and ambition.

(I do mean to write a post about religion or divinity in this game, since I remember finding that an odd topic, but I think it might have to wait until Bur-Omisace.)

However, what stands out to me most strongly at this point is the game’s emphasis on motivation.

Put simply, none of the heroes seem to be very clear on why they’re doing any of this.

Well, for half of them, at least. Fran, Basch, and Penelo all have motives that boil down to “follow and help the person I am loyal to”. They’re there because of another character. But the people they follow – Balthier, Ashe, and Vaan – all have quite ambiguous motives that they themselves don’t even seem to understand. The game has gone to some effort to establish plausible reasons for each character to be on this quest, but then it keeps coming back and problematising them.

Based on Vaan’s prior words and actions, there are a range of reasons he could be here. He could be just seeking adventure. He could be trying to become a sky pirate: either by obtaining enough wealth from this adventure to buy his own ship, or by tagging along and learning from Balthier. He could be acting as a Dalmascan patriot, either seeking revenge on Archades or liberation from Dalmasca. In that light he could be tagging along with Ashe’s resistance, or following Basch out of a desire to avenge Reks. Any one of those reasons, in a different game, could be enough for his character arc. Here, though, Vaan seems to often change his mind. When Balthier asks him why he’s here in Rabanastre, Vaan is lost for words; and in Jahara, the best Vaan can come up with is “I need answers, and I think I can figure them out if I keep following you.”

In some ways I quite like this, and even find it more psychologically credible than heroes of other games. Vaan’s only seventeen: he’s still figuring out who he is. If I remember myself at that age, I didn’t know who I was going to be or what I wanted. I was exploring a lot of different possibilities, and following the paths that seemed interesting, in the hope that my purpose might become clearer over time. The same is true for Vaan.

Balthier, on the other hand, is more enigmatic. Noticeably I haven’t seen any ‘personal’ scenes with him thus far. He puts up a glib, confident front, and unlike Vaan or Ashe, hasn’t shown much of his deeper self to the player. This makes him more of a cipher. The surface interpretation of Balthier – and the one that Ashe expresses to Vossler in Raithwall’s tomb – is that he’s just after money. However, for a supposedly mercenary character, Balthier doesn’t seem to care that much about it. He was lured into the tomb expedition with the promise of Raithwall’s treasure, but when he discovers that treasure is just a summon, he offers nothing more than a snarky quip. He doesn’t seem at all irritated to be denied the treasure he was promised. As we go on we see Balthier going to pretty extreme lengths to help out, even though the payment seems far too meagre. He demands Ashe’s ring as payment for going to Jahara, but would a single ring be worth very much? He says he’ll return it if he finds “something more valuable”, but he doesn’t appear to have any idea of what that might be. The impression one gets is that he only asks for the ring in order to test Ashe’s commitment to her beliefs – but why would a mercenary care about that? And finally in Jahara, when Basch rightfully calls him on his motives, Balthier changes his story again and claims he’s just in it to see where the story goes.

Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, I can speculate that at least part of his reason for being here is daddy issues. Even so, the idea that helping Ashe’s quest would lead to Cid or any resolution of his family issues is pretty far-fetched: this is a very circuitous route to Draklor. Beyond that, Balthier’s been running from his father, so why he’d want to change directions now is even more unclear. It’s hard to resist the conclusion that, like Vaan, Balthier doesn’t really know why he’s here at all. He’s an older man so it’s less likely to be youthful confusion. Is he driven to stay by some fascination that he himself doesn’t understand?

I am vaguely aware of a reading of FFXII that sees romantic subtext between Balthier and Ashe, which might give him a further reason to stay. All I can say here is that so far I can see no subtext like that. In a different story I can imagine the ring scene coming off like that, but so far Balthier has shown pretty much zero interest in Ashe as a person, and similarly zero sign that he even considers her attractive, so I tend to stick with the mercenary interpretation. I might have more thoughts on shipping later in the game, but right now I see nothing that isn’t just blatant eisegesis.

That leaves Ashe. She is, I would argue, the closest thing FFXII has to a ‘hero’ or ‘protagonist’, and on one level her motive is very obvious. Ashe wants to drive out the Empire and re-establish a free and independent Dalmasca with herself as queen. The thing is, though, that’s very easy to state – and very difficult to work out in practice. So far Ashe is very good at making dramatic resolutions and projecting confidence, but they often don’t seem very well thought out, and she finds herself needing to change her mind. The most dramatic instance would be Ashe’s declaration that the Dawn Shard will be her sword against the Empire – and retreating when Vaan points out that she has no idea how to use it, or even how it works.

It’s also striking, of course, that Ashe made that bold promise to use what is to all intents and purposes a magical nuclear bomb against Archades, and then a few scenes later, in the Garif village, she’s willing to listen to Larsa and go with his proposal to establish a negotiated Archadian withdrawal. And this also soon after she felt so betrayed by Vossler’s attempt to negotiate an Archadian withdrawal and independent Dalmasca! What’s going on in Ashe’s head? Does she hate the Empire or not? Back in Bhujerba she was pleading with Ondore to support an open resistance movement, and now she seems to accept Larsa’s claim that they need to stop Ondore launching a revolt.

It’s hard to resist the conclusion that while Ashe wants to be queen of a free Dalmasca, she has no earthly clue how to achieve that. She’s being buffeted around by the winds of fate, grasping at the first thing in front of her that seems like it might help. I think it shows that Ashe has been raised to be a princess, to project confidence and duty in public, but underneath that she’s still a young woman who’s in way over her head. She knows she’s surrounded by cunning and patient older men who’d love to use her as a figurehead to boot. Ashe is skeptical of those demands from outside, but she still follows a path laid out for her by others – Vossler, Ondore, Larsa, and ultimately the Rasler vision and the Occuria – because she hasn’t yet figured out what her own path should be.

So ultimately, what’s striking me most about FFXII right now is that I’m following a party of characters none of whom seem to clearly understand what they’re questing for or why.

It’s cleverer and more subversive than I remember. The quest motif is everywhere in fantasy, but in the traditional, Tolkien-inspired form, it’s usually very clear what the goal is and how it will be achieved. The Lord of the Rings outlines the quest of the Ring halfway through the first volume and the heroes never substantially deviate from it. The challenge is to accomplish the quest. Most follow-up fantasy has a similar clarity to it, especially in video games. In the original Final Fantasy you want to light the orbs and defeat the fiends. In Dragon Age you want to stop the Blight. In every Star Wars game ever, you want to defeat the Empire and/or dark Sith lord. In The Legend of Zelda you want to defeat Ganon. In Chrono Trigger you want to stop Lavos. In The Elder Scrolls you want to stop Dagoth Ur/Mehrunes Dagon/Alduin. There’s a clear goal (defeat the bad guy) and a clear process for accomplishing it (defeat the lesser monsters, unite the various factions, collect all the magic tokens, etc.).

In FFXII, the challenge is to figure out what the hell your quest should be

It’s kind of weird, isn’t it?

[atopearth]

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age Part 1 - Fighting for Dalmasca

Got the PS4 version on sale so yay, can finally properly play this game. I finished the PS2 version back in the day thinking it was a crappy game back in the past, so let’s see if my opinion has changed😅 All I remember is liking Balthier hahaha. Anyway, poor Ashe, her husband died practically right after their marriage, it was supposed to be a marriage to make the people happy and show more stability in Dalmasca (her husband Rasler was the prince there) but in the end he died :( He was a pretty boy too. And as Dalmasca continues to try and protect their people and their territory, only more and more people die, including Vaan’s brother Reks. I always thought Reks was the cool and better looking brother (back when I first played it) so it’s saddening to see him die again. And omggg Vaan is so not cuteee, lmao, I still remember thinking Reks was the good looking brother and I wanted him to be the main character when I was young XD I feel like Captain Basch looks familiar…why did he kill the king of Dalmasca? Isn’t it better to have some sort of treaty rather than none, since now the Empire just takes over and does whatever they want? Hmmmm. And why did Basch have to kill Reks too? :( Reks was only 17😢

Ooh, Vayne is the Archadian Empire’s son and the new consul of Rabanastre. Vayne seems like the supposedly nice but manipulative guy that knows how to sway the people’s hearts. So Lowtown is basically the slums where the Empire throws anyone that disobeys them, pretty cool huh, you make supplies and everything destitute here to make everyone give up on doing anything since they have no job or money, and then up in town, you brainwash the people with kind words and making them accustom themselves to obeying the Empire, win win for them~ Vaan seems keen on sneaking into the castle to steal stuff though, does he want an airship that much haha. Yayyy, Penelo finally joined! Yes, please heal me and be my meat shield🤣 That flower cactoid was so annoying! Killed me with its 1000 needles😭 And omggg Montblanc (Centurion clan leader) looks like a rabbit but is actually a moogle?? What a funky moogle lol.

Lmao with the first distracting guards thing to go upstairs, it’s like c'mon guard dude! Vaan says “over here” and you completely ignore him and talk to the guy next to him?? Loll. I remember really liking Balthier when I was young, can’t remember much about Fran though😅 I wonder what the Goddess’ magicite that Vaan stole and Balthier wants is… And has Ashe managed to amass an army with the other captain guy in the beginning to destroy the castle and the imperialists? But what about the Dalmascan people that had to prepare that party?? What about Migelo..? Oh, was it actually the Empire who killed them, they knew that Ashe and then were coming to raid the castle so he planned to just destroy them easily like that with bombs and stuff.. lol at how snobby Ashe is when you save her in the sewers, at least she’s a useful healer! As expected, they all got caught and thrown into prison, poor Penelo that always has to worry about Vaan because he’s so reckless😞

Hmm, so Judges dictate the law and order of Archadia and are like the bosses of the Imperial Army, they look kinda familiar, do we have to fight a lot of them later? Ahh, so as I thought, the traitor guy that looks like Basch is probably his twin brother! No wonder when I first saw Basch I felt weird lol, I was like, I remember him being a good guy and faithful. Anyway, the Resistance guys don’t believe him or can’t accept him since his brother would technically be a Judge of the Empire then, and that’s not any better. So Vaan adopts him since he thinks that he can believe him😆 Too bad everything is finally a bit more merry but then Penelo gets captured to Bhujerba by those guys looking for Balthier (since they saw Balthier give something to her before he was thrown to jail). Shocked that Lamont is actually Lord Larsa, prince of the Empire and so Vayne’s younger brother! It was so nice when he helped Penelo out and is keeping her safe. He seems like a nice guy that sincerely believes that Vayne is a guy that will protect the people and give them the peace they want.

They’re always getting captured aren’t they, but I guess that’s what they gotta do to go save Ashe and Penelo. Seems like that guy who helped them (Halim, Ashe’s uncle, the guy who rules over Bhujerba) isn’t very dodgy at all, he’s just acting like that so he can conduct the things he wants to do in the background with less worry of the Empire suspecting him of rebelling. Well, now we have the whole party! I’m too indecisive though, who should be in my main party?! Anyway, understandable that Halim doesn’t think that this is the right time to act considering her lack of proof to show she’s the princess of Dalmasca and her lack of power tbh. He can’t do these things so rashly when he’s got people to take care of. Although it is also understandable that Ashe wouldn’t want to sit around and wait, so running off with Balthier and them to get the Dawn shard to prove her royal lineage, but I wonder how it proves it? Wouldn’t she be seen as a thief? And lol, Balthier is so soft with them, is there really treasure for him out of this? Sounds like more of a hassle to take care of a princess tbh.

I wonder why Gabranth (Basch’s brother) is loyal to the king of the Empire when he destroyed their hometown? Gabranth doesn’t seem like the type to be in it for power or something, he seems to really respect this dying king, enough that he seems to want to help fulfill the king’s wish for Vayne and Larsa to not go to war against each other after his death, since many people seem to want a king like Larsa who may be easier to control and talk to than Vayne who has a very strong agenda that won’t yield to anyone when it comes to his beliefs, imo anyway. I forgot to mention this, but omg there’s Japanese and English voices for the PS4 version and omggg, the English dub is so great, I tried the Japanese but just didn’t get into it, like dang, Balthier sounds so sexy. Gabranth sounds so great too. I don’t feel like I’ve heard Vayne enough to get a strong feel for it, but hands down Balthier is what makes this game for me right now lol. I can totally see why my memories of FFXII are limited to not liking Vaan (lmao) but loving Balthier, the leading man😆😆 Not only does he look awesome, his personality is great (I love all the banter he makes and how he focuses on his own objectives but is still pretty soft towards the rest of them) and his voice is the best☺️☺️☺️ Enough fangirling I guess lmao, but I gotta talk about something whilst I’m stuck in this huge desert zzzz😪😪 aaaand I finally made it out! Took me months to get out (I took a break from this game lmao).

Anyway, made it to the tomb! Great way to start my return to this game was dying to that Death Wall that comes smashing into you hahahaha, yes I didn’t realise you’d actually die if you don’t kill it in time hahaha. I couldn’t be bothered so I just ran from it and killed the next one lol! Mmm I see, the reason the Dawn Shard can prove her ancestry and rightful heir to the throne is because no one should know it is here in this tomb and even if they do, the tomb purges those that don’t belong so I guess you’ve got to be the right person or a super strong person to get it either way haha! It’s kinda funny how everyone was so guarded against Basch and yet Vossler ended up betraying them. Honestly though, you can’t blame Vossler. Indeed, Ashe is young and evidently naive as well, she has the heart and the resolve, but not only does she lack power, she also lacks the ability to look at the greater picture, currently anyway. She still needs guidance, but I guess Basch will provide that, whilst Balthier will provide her “reality”. I do admire Vossler’s loyalty to Dalmasca though, he honestly thought this would be the best way, and tbh Larsa is a good option to put your bets on, but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be…Especially with all the variables that could have gone wrong by relying on the Empire, but at least Basch acknowledged him and his beliefs before his death. Otherwise, guess the shards are all overpowered nethicite (stones filled with power, the shards are probably enough to destroy countries maybe), and it’s likely Vayne has other shards in his hands, time for the party to look for some kind of elders to understand how to use these shards~

Omg, I died so many times trying to get better weapons in side areas loll, guess it was worth it? The anger was real though lmao, I had to take a break hahaha. Anyway, surprisingly, the Garif who created the nethicite are clueless about it~ As for Larsa suggesting that Ashe kinda compromise and work with him to prevent war from happening within Dalmasca, I can see why it would anger Ashe to co-operate with the Empire, but at the same time, Larsa is right, the ones that would suffer the most would be Dalmascans if they allowed this war to happen at all. Aaand is Gabranth on Larsa’s side or Vayne’s? Hmmmm. Eruyt village was an unexpected place to visit, I didn’t think we’d get to suddenly see a bit more background on Fran. Didn’t expect that she actually has two sisters! But it’s kinda saddening that she can’t really hear the voice of the woods anymore after leaving it. I think when she stopped her little sister from leaving as well and talked about how she won freedom but lost her past, it was quite heartbreaking to think about. She ventured out seeking a land beyond what she knew of, and yet because she chose that path, she lost everything that makes her who she once was. In a sense, she’s probably a Viera only in name and appearance, and I think regardless of what she won from being in the outside world, she also equally lost a lot. Whether it was worth it or not isn’t even something she can or will want to weigh either, since she made that choice and can never go back no matter what she does. It’s just saddening to think about tbh. But I do have to say, it’s gotta be worth it for Balthier! Jks, but seriously XD

#final fantasy xii: the zodiac age #final fantasy xii