Plot development... stopped? *may be spoilers*

[Varen]

The story was so bad, so so bad. I can hardly remember any of it because it wasn't the least bit memorable. Even Super Mario 64 has a better story.

[slippyToad]

Originally Posted by Varen

The story was so bad, so so bad. I can hardly remember any of it because it wasn't the least bit memorable. Even Super Mario 64 has a better story.

Lol something tells me you only like Super Mario 64 and Halo.

the game is not hard indeed, except i feel i rush too much through the game often having the trouble with overleveled enemies on my path killing me in one hit.
Eventually it became a boredom of leveling up or try to outrun regular enemies and use tons of quickenings chains on bosses which were really unbalanced, considering it can kill bosses in one hit or you use up all your mp with practically no damage depending how well you did.

the optional boss in Salikawood is probably the best example, with his renew ability he can use all the time and only quickening chains do enough damage to prevent him from using it(even with nihalopoao strategy it still used renew spell). And what do i get as reward? New areas which my underleveled characters die in one hit.

I really hated the sidequests, because most of them showed up too early than the current level you were, discouraging me to get them as soon as possible.

True that a correct use of the grid can make me fly in the game, but if i play it the first time around I prefer to start lighthearted like Final Fantasy VII. Playing with strategy the first time is hard without using guides to do since you don't know anything about the grid until you unlock it.

And indeed characters were bland or rehashes of old characters(which is not new, ok).

I loved the openness of the game, but disliked the fact that often you can't fare well there for being underleveled most of the time.

[HG Montgomery]

Originally Posted by wolfmaster913

If your screen resolution and such is causing the game to be "flickery and headache inducing" you should really look for the "flicker filter" option in-game. It helps smooth the picture out. I personally always have it turned on, although for most newer TVs it really doesn't make much of a difference. Also, not playing the game drunk might help a bit with the headache part.

thanks, i wish me not knowing about that had been the case... but sadly i did have it on! you should have seen what it looked like without it... ugh. anyone else had this problem with the PAL version? its not like my TV at the time was that old / small. i swear it's a conversion thing but i've never really seen anyone else moan about it so i thought i'd bring it up. the most recent square game i played apart from that was kingdom hearts 2, and that looked fine on the same setup i was running FFXii on.

i totally agree with slippy about the unbalanced quickening system. and did i ever get sick of sitting through those animations. i mean, i'm used to having to do that with FF7 & 8 especially, but at least those sequences were a bit more inspired. i can't say how hard i think it is really because i power levelled every time i found asidequest i couldnt do, and i only played through the game once.... some of the hunts are pretty damn fiendish though. whereas others are fiendish for all the wrong reasons - i.e. it's almost impossible to locate some of them without repeatedly entering the same area for ages.... i didnt use a guide or the net at all so finding all of those was a massive pain. i dont know why i put myself through it sometimes, i really don't...

[Averic]

I thought the story in FF12 was a really good concept, I was getting a little sick of these emotional driven games where most of the drama is people crying and moaning over stuff. It was nice to see a political theme being pushed for a change.

The only real beef I have with the story was Vaan and Penelo, they were clearly added once the story had already been concived as they do literally nothing once it kicks off. I know they added them to appeal to the japanese market and maybe that had to be done, but still it would be nice to imagine it without them.

I always thought the plot would have been so much better if you started off as Bashe (no Wrex) fighting through the castle, with us fully seeing gabranth and knowing their backstory as a kick start to the game. The action would then switch to Ashe, her backstory explained from the war with arcadia and more focus on the rebels, hell they could even had her doing that whole sunstone thing at the beginning to get into the castle, she would be seperated and run into balthier and fran, and all is well, the story carries on as we know.

[MonBeeb]

Originally Posted by Averic

The only real beef I have with the story was Vaan and Penelo, they were clearly added once the story had already been concived as they do literally nothing once it kicks off. I know they added them to appeal to the japanese market and maybe that had to be done, but still it would be nice to imagine it without them.

Vaan is the perspective character, but that doesn't mean he has to be important to the plot. He's an outsider looking in; it mirrors the perspective of the player and makes exposition less awkward. It's similar to Tidus's role; because the perspective character knows nothing about the situation, other characters have reason to explain it. If we were playing as someone more involved, Ashe for example, the wouldn't be such an easy excuse to explain the motives and geography of the world; a well-educated princess who has been navigating political wastes for two years would already know all of that.

In response to the OP, nothing happens during this period because it's a long freaking way from Bur-Omisace to Archades. I guess maybe an alternative would have been for the party to sneak aboard an imperial airship, but there were already two sequences aboard airships and that would get extremely repetitive.

I didn't really mind that plot development was sparse during this period, but I did mind how Basch suddenly dropped out of the story in about the middle and stopped talking during the cutscenes. For somebody who was originally going to be the main character, he actually does very little.