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Galvanizer on 24 July 2013
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Scoobes said:
Galvanizer said:

Vaan was relevant to the plot. It was just done more realistically and subtely than past FF games, or even other JRPGs for that matter. The fact you couldn't see how deep rooted he was to the overrall plot is just a testament to how well written FFXII was. It's an excellent script that's does well to not adhere to JRPG tropes.

 

It's hard to believe as WRPGs were never big sellers during the PS1 and PS2 era. In fact, mainline FF sold much more than The Elder Scrolls during the FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, and FFX period of releases. It just shows that WRPGs have become more mainstream and popular than JRPGs since this gen. As a result, had FFXII been released this gen, it would have sold a lot more. How? Becaue it's a JRPG that plays far more closely to the open world approach and mature writing of WRPGs than the anime-filled cliches and linear pathways of FFX and FFXIII.

His relevance is as a casual observer which I suppose was with the intention of him being a player avatar. Realistic for someone of his age (and far more preferable to FFXIII's unrealistically, wise-beyond his years, Hope) but not a good reason for him to be cast as a lead protagonist. WRPGs tend to get away with player avatar's because they give the player a greater involvement in the storyline or the character development; this acts to draw the player in regardless of the quality of the storyline. JRPGs thrive on storytelling so distancing the player away from the plotline using a casual observer/avatar simply distances the player from the plot (even if the plot is very good as in FFXII).

You're probably going to point out JRPGs where casual observers have worked. Vaan was a character designed very much by targeting certain demographics but unlike other avatar-style characters, he has his own personality that develops as per a normal JRPG (but with only a small link to the plot). The advatages of using him as a casual observer are diminshed by this. Eastern games where the casual observer work include Legend of Zelda (Link has little to no personality) and Chrono Trigger (Crono is completely silent the whole game), but these allow the player to metaphorically place their personality into the main character. This isn't possible in XII.

So in summary, Vaan as a main POV protagonist distances the player from the main plot whilst not offering the player engrossing advantages of of an avatar/casual observer.

Not sure it would have sold better this gen either. Sales of Xenoblade which is similar in its design to FFXII haven't exactly been spectacular, even though it's one of the best games of the gen. Actually, if it was the first FF of the gen it would probably outsell last gen XII on hype alone, but I'm not sure that's really comparable.

I think it works well with Vaan. If they made him a silent protagonist like Link, Crono, and Hero (from Dragon Quest), he would have been too different from past FF protagonists. In fact, the only previous FF protgaonist he's be similar to would be the protagonists of FFI. They gave him dialogue so as to not stand out too much. with how realistic the script and cut-scenes are in FFXII, having Vaan being there and not saying a word would make him come across as autistic of retarded. It wouldn't have worked and would have been a reall immersion breaker during story scenes. Therefore, they gave him a voice and dialogue, but not too much so as to not function as a player avatar.

As for sales, I think that if FFXII was a PS3 launch title, instead of releasing so late on PS2, and was later ported to the 360 and PC, it would have definitely sold 10 million worldwide.