Final Fantasy XII was released before it would have been accepted by the FF fanbase.

[Scoobes]

Galvanizer said:

Scoobes said:

Vaan isn't a strong enough character to bring the cast together and be a main protagonist. He's not that far removed from the blank slate that WRPGs usually employ, but those games compensate for that by giving players choices in the story. It's a weak excuse for including Vaan as the main protagonist. As a side character he could fulfill the same role whilst making room for a protagonist with a greater investment in the plot to draw the player into the story. Instead, he's just a weak protagonist that ticks all the stylistic boxes whilst having little to no relevance to the plot. The fact that he needs such a weak excuse of "he brings the entire cast together" reinforces my point that he has no genuine relevance to the plot. Any of the chracters could have fulfilled that role with a very small amount of rewriting and without singificantly changing their character.

As for character interaction, I'm fairly sure I remember Rikku having a conversation with everyone at some point. Not 100% sure as it's been a while but I have vague recollections of a number of general party conversations. Not so much in XII.

As for X I'd argue that X has a fairly simple plot at its core with some familiar concepts (e.g. corrupt religious leaders), but more importantly, the storytelling is stronger. Frequent storytelling/character developing cut-scenes, protagonists that are central to the plot and no "filler" characters. Yuna fulfilled the role of bringing the cast together and was central to the plot. She falls for Tidus which gives the player an easy concept to emotionally invest themselves in. It makes people care about the characters even though at its core, it's a more basic storyline when compared to XII.

I disgaree that Vaan needs to have the entire story revolve around him in order for him to be a good protagonist. You're basically feeding off a JRPG stereotype of how the main character must be vital and intergral to every aspect of the plot. FFXII doesn't obey that rule and it's much better as a reult.

As for character interaction in FFX, there was more of it compared to FFXII, but there were still charcaters that barely spoke. I paid keen attention to this when I played FFX in january this year. Seriously, nobody even had a deep conversation with Kimahri. He was just standing there doing noothing for the most part. He only came alive when a fight was about to break out.

 

I didn't say the story needed to revolve around him, but he at least needs to be relevant to the plot. In X, the majority of the plot didn't revolve around Tidus, it revolved around Yuna; the POV character was still relevant with valuable insight. In VII the plot was centered around Sephiroth, Cloud was just there for revenge; the POV character was relevant. In VIII the plot is shared between Squall and Laguna; both were relevant to the story (as much as I hated Squall). In VI the cast was a true ensemble with multiple POVs; many of those were relevant to the narrative.

It's not a sterotype for the series so that's not why I think he's a poor protagonist. I do however expect a protagonist to at least have a modicum of relevance to the story otherwise why should I see the story from his POV? Why do I care? The character has no true investment in the story so he's effectively a casual observer. It distances the player from the narrative.

As for Kimahri, that's pretty much his character trope (silent, but fiercely protective; seen, but not heard) whereas in XII it didn't feel like the characters really interacted regardless of their character trope.