| Zkuq said: I hate it when I don't get noticed if I'm not the first person you quote. Makes it harder to response in time. I'm not comparing map designs, I'm comparing openness in practice. The first thing I tried to do when I played FFXII was to explore areas I wasn't supposed to go to. I got owned, totally. Whenever I tried to go that wasn't where the story tried to make me go, the enemies were far too powerful. Maybe I had bad luck but I certainly couldn't go anywhere. Open in theory, not in practice. No fun going somewhere you get owned so quickly. Are you trying to argue I should ignore the pacing because it doesn't matter as long as gameplay pacing is good? Because that's exactly what it feels like you're trying to say. I don't care what an ideal pacing is, the pacing in FFXII felt wrong and that's what matters to me. As for gameplay pacing, it wasn't very good either. Gameplay in FFXII is fun but not quite great, which in turn means I didn't find it interesting to grind through dozens of enemies for an hour or two before having a proper break. And that was the majority of gameplay in the game. As far as I know, it's not a RNG problem. It was even mentioned in the official guidebook if I recall correctly. Too bad I missed that piece when I was playing the game. And every other item in the game is somewhat easily obtainable, so I don't really see why you're still trying to argue they didn't mean the player to get everything if he wanted to. If they didn't mean it that way, they failed. Your definition of an interesting character is something I can somewhat agree with. However, in FFXII's case, IIRC most characters didn't really get much dialogue and as foor Vaan and Penelo, I don't even remember their goals. I think it was along the lines "our situation sucks, we demand justice" and then they went with the flow. Either way, they were totally forgottable characters and especially with Vaan being pretty much the main character, that's a problem. The rest were somewhat interesting but with the story pacing of the game, didn't really stand out. As for Link, I can't really say because I haven't played a Zelda game ever. If I had to guess, if he's an interesting character, it's because of what he does, his personality, and the fact that he's on the screen pretty much all the time so you get to know him (and no one's stealing the attention from him). Overall, I get the impression that because we're talking about games, you want the story to be as minimalistic as possible at the expense of gameplay. Nothing wrong with that opinion but you might want to consider the fact that other people may not think the same way as you do. Personally, everything from pure gameplay to something that's practically an interactive movie is fine as long as it's a fun experience. When I play games, I don't think "I play games, I want this kind of an experience". I don't care if it's a game-like experience as long as it's fun. FFXII was fun but certainly not something that was "ahead of its time" or anything. It got the critique it got because it had flaws, it didn't appeal to all the people it tried to appeal to. Some people could live with the flaws and perhaps not even see them as flaws, while others could not, and the latter group was (and is) pretty big too. |
The point remains that FFXII had a world far more open than FFX. I'm surprised you even thought to compre them. They're not in the same league. FFX is literally a straight line until you get the airship before the last boss. In FFXII, you can go almost anywhere, even if the enemies are way over your level. Therefore, in both theory and practice, FFXII is a very open game. Having enemies that are too poweful in certain areas deosn't change that, it instead supports it.
With regards to story pacing, I'm merely stating that there's no rule that dictates the ideal pacing of story cinematics in a video game. I think you're riding off your experience with past FF games and using their story pacing to critcise FFXII. You have to judge FFXII on its own merits and as its own standalone game. After all, the world is far more realistic in scale than any past FF. As a result, story scene pacing has also been spread out far more realistically. One thing I do agree with you on is that FFXII is simply just battling and exploring. While I enjoyed this, I wold have liked some more variety in gameplay, such as a few mini-games. At one point they were going to put in playable airship battles as a mini-game, but sadly it didn't make the cut.
Getting the best weapons is definitely a RNG issue. To get the Zodiac Spear, you have to not open 4 certain chests and this will alter the RNG and allow the weapon to be 100% obtained from a chest later in the game. This also applies to many other rare items. Therefore, if people never bought the official guide, they would have no way of knowing this item was even in the game, yet alone how to obtain it. That's why I say the developers didn't want the game to be 100% completable. If they did, the actual game would provide cryptic clues and hints about rare items and weapons and how to get them.
I found Vaan and Penelo to be good characters. I remember their goals well and that carried me through the game. However, I think people expected too much character development from the FFXII cast. I'm glad there was barely any, as it allowed the cast to feel more realistic and not fake and overly scripted. I also really enjoyed the dialogue of the cast; the game has superb voice acting. Lastly, the lasting legacy of Vaan is a testament of how well written the script of FFXII was.
On my view on video games, I believe that gameplay comes first and story should be written to support the gameplay. For example, if you make a game that's open world and primarily about exploring, you should write a script that's focused on the world itself and what's happening in it, not one focused on the characters your controlling. You can include some character development, but the world should be at the forefront of the story, as that's what the gameplay revolves around. However, if you're making a game that's linear and the player walks in a straight line from A to B (basically FFX and FFXIII), you can make a story more focused on character development. With the fact FFXII was open world and mainly about exploring, I find the story to be very good. The story urges you to keep exploring and visting new locations.
