case: ([ Zell; Agh. ])
Case ([personal profile] case) wrote in [community profile] fandomsecrets2008-01-06 06:05 pm

[ SECRET POST #366 ]


⌈ Secret Post #366 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

1.


__________________________________________________



2.


__________________________________________________



3.


__________________________________________________



4.


__________________________________________________



5.


__________________________________________________



6.


__________________________________________________



7.


__________________________________________________



8.


__________________________________________________



9.


__________________________________________________



10.


__________________________________________________



11.


__________________________________________________



12.


__________________________________________________



13.


__________________________________________________



14.


__________________________________________________



15.


__________________________________________________



16.


__________________________________________________



17.


__________________________________________________



18.


__________________________________________________



19.


__________________________________________________



20.


__________________________________________________



21.


__________________________________________________



22.


__________________________________________________



23.


__________________________________________________



24.


__________________________________________________



25.


__________________________________________________



26.


__________________________________________________



27. [ repeat ]


__________________________________________________



28.


__________________________________________________



29.


__________________________________________________



30.


__________________________________________________



31.


__________________________________________________



32.


__________________________________________________



33.


__________________________________________________



34.


__________________________________________________



35.


__________________________________________________



36.


__________________________________________________



37.


__________________________________________________



38.


__________________________________________________



39.


__________________________________________________



40.


__________________________________________________



41.


__________________________________________________



42.


__________________________________________________



43.


__________________________________________________



44.


__________________________________________________



45.


__________________________________________________



46.


__________________________________________________



47.


__________________________________________________



48.


__________________________________________________



49.


__________________________________________________



50.



Notes:

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD IF YOU'RE GOING TO USE MSPAINT USE A BACKGROUND COLOR, PLEAAAASE

Secrets Left to Post: 11 pages, 252 secrets from Secret Submission Post #053.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 ] broken links, [ 1 2 ] not!secrets, 0 not!fandom.
Next Secret Post: Tomorrow, Monday, January 7th, 2008.
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

14

[identity profile] dots.livejournal.com 2008-01-06 11:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh god, so agreed. FF6 and FF7 can go roast in a pit. I didn't hate them, but FFXII is so much better.
prototypical: (Larsa)

Re: 14

[personal profile] prototypical 2008-01-06 11:25 pm (UTC)(link)
I liked XII once I realized who the real stars of the story were. Everyone grows and changes, but Balthier and Ashe are the leads and they know it.

Re: 14

[identity profile] dots.livejournal.com 2008-01-06 11:31 pm (UTC)(link)
That's actually the thing I liked a lot about the game, is seeing someone else's story not from their perspective. Although I admit I got annoyed when the game had its GUYS GUYS GUYS DON'T FORGET VAAN IS THE MAIN CHARACTER HEY HEY HEY moments.
prototypical: (Default)

Re: 14

[personal profile] prototypical 2008-01-06 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Same. Dammit, I dunno if I should work on my gaming backlog or just replay XII now that I have it back from my mother.

Re: 14

(Anonymous) 2008-01-06 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)
*likes Vaan*

...sniff...

Even the people who like the game don't like him...he's nice...
prototypical: (Default)

Re: 14

[personal profile] prototypical 2008-01-06 11:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I never said I didn't like him. He's fun in XII and utterly awesome in Revenant Wings.

Re: 14

[identity profile] dots.livejournal.com 2008-01-06 11:43 pm (UTC)(link)
It's not that I don't like Vaan -- I admit I find his character a bit bland and dull, but I'm far from hating him. It's just that sometimes the game tries too hard to push him as being THE main character, when the stories being told are really about Balthier and Ashe.

Re: 14

[identity profile] kyrakitty.livejournal.com 2008-01-07 06:56 am (UTC)(link)
Honestly, I thought the game was really and ensemble cast. Ashe became the main character later, but Vaan started as the lead. But even then, it wasn't very strong for either of them. I think that the game got past needing a huge, obvious lead. You didn't need to directly identify with one character, because you identified a little with all of them.

Re: 14

[identity profile] dots.livejournal.com 2008-01-07 07:01 am (UTC)(link)
That's actually a great way of putting it. I still think of Balthier and Ashe as the "leads," I admit, but like you said, everyone has a little bit of story to tell.

Re: 14

[identity profile] dots.livejournal.com 2008-01-06 11:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I just barely finished the game, though I've been going back on my old save and completing hunts, trying to finish the license grid, hunting for good weapons, etc. I know I can't get the Zodiac Spear or whatever -- I opened the wrong chests at some point -- but the game is still just so easy and fun to play. I don't avoid and run from battles like I did in the other FFs, because battles are actually fun and, on hunts and against espers and bosses, quite epic and easy to get into.

I plan to do a full replay after I've had long enough to let the game sink in and fade a bit. I replay all my games rather religiously, which is a bit dumb. But I'm in the middle of a replay of Tales of the Abyss at the moment, and planning to replay Okami, before I replay FFXII.

Re: 14

(Anonymous) 2008-01-07 12:27 am (UTC)(link)
It's fine to like FFXII and all... but I see no reason to insult FFVI and VII. I know they have big fan bases, but so what? As if XII doesn't.

Re: 14

[identity profile] dots.livejournal.com 2008-01-07 12:28 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, I'm just tired of people acting like FF6 and 7 were the be all and end-all of the series. I've played them both, and I liked them, but I get really super tired of any FF game getting slammed for not being FF6 or 7 volume 2.

Re: 14

[identity profile] relmneiko.livejournal.com 2008-01-07 04:42 am (UTC)(link)
...Word on that - though the amount of milking/press FFVII gets is rather... irritating at times.

Anyway, everyone knows that the best FF game is Tactics.

...I am so alone on that, I know. DX

Re: 14

[identity profile] hezul.livejournal.com 2008-01-07 05:54 am (UTC)(link)
YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

FFT is adfjkldfjkldk YES. ♥

Re: 14

[identity profile] relmneiko.livejournal.com 2008-01-08 06:08 am (UTC)(link)
MARRY ME. <3

Re: 14

[identity profile] selfcontained.livejournal.com 2008-01-07 06:24 am (UTC)(link)
You're not alone! Tactics <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

...but I also agree with the FFXII love of the secret-poster. OH MAN, DO I EVER.

OP 14

(Anonymous) 2008-01-07 12:27 am (UTC)(link)
Hehe, I'd like you to know that your comment made me smile a lot.

And I love FF7, but I just couldn't get into FF6. I am in the minority so much there as well. :\

Re: OP 14

[identity profile] dots.livejournal.com 2008-01-07 12:30 am (UTC)(link)
I liked FF6 quite a lot until the World of Ruin half of the game, where the writing seemed to go down some universal shitter. I also may be biased, as I find Kefka more annoying than frightening, and Kuja from FFIX is actually my favorite villain of the series, though Vayne is a very, very close second.

Re: OP 14

(Anonymous) 2008-01-07 12:34 am (UTC)(link)
I don't see how people can even judge Vayne. He was really only in the beginning, a few cutscenes in the middle, and the end of the game. I'd even almost forgot about him by the end of the game.

And I'm sorry, but his plot to take over the Empire? Cliche. Overdone. Unoriginal.

I agree on FF6 getting boring in the World of Ruin. I don't think the writing was bad, they just threw in too many sidequests and I'm a completionist. You could beat the game any time you wanted as soon as you got the airship *shrug*

Re: OP 14

[identity profile] dots.livejournal.com 2008-01-07 12:38 am (UTC)(link)
But you see, Vayne's plan wasn't just about taking over the empire. Did you miss the whole thing with Venat and overthrowing the Undying? I don't see Vayne as a villain so much as an antagonist, which I know is a fine distinction to make. In the end, though, the party wanted the same thing that Vayne did -- to break the Occurian grip on human fate. Vayne just planned to do it via war, which he had to take over the empire to do.

I'm hardly saying his plot was original, but it was exectued well, which is something many media with the same storyline can't boast. Vayne had reasons for taking over besides being a corrupt power-hungry bastard -- which he still really kind of was, but it wasn't his sole reason.

And really, if you want to talk about unoriginal villain motivations, how about insanity? That's only been done a million times, and yet everyone thinks Sephiroth and Kefka are amazing.

Re: OP 14

(Anonymous) 2008-01-07 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
Yes yes, I know about his other motivations. I'm just saying, the way he overthrew the Senate was cliche. It was obvious that the scenario writer didn't give it much thought because they just wanted to get that plot point out of the way and put Vayne in the position to pose a major threat to the main party.

I've seen other games pull of a story where the protagonist and antagonist have the same goals, much, MUCH better.

At the very least, Kefka was insane and insanely hilarious. Sephiroth was just... boring. I suppose you're right, though. Insanity is overdone. Now that I think about it, though, just about every FF main villain sucks. I should cut Vayne some slack.

Re: OP 14

[identity profile] dots.livejournal.com 2008-01-07 12:48 am (UTC)(link)
I can't make arguments with other games, as I actually have a very small library that I've played and I missed many of the "classics" people go on about, like Xenogears. Of the FF games I've played, though, being 4-12, I find that 12 is the most coherently put-together, has the best character roster, and has a very sympathetic villain/antagonist. I prefer sympathetic and terrifying combined over just one or the other, which is why Kuja remains my favorite, as opposed to Sephiroth (who wasn't even really that scary, actually) or Kefka. I'm not actually fond of his hilarity; it takes away the scariness of the character he's supposed to be. And, before it gets said, I recognize that a lot of the stupid jokes were added during translation.

And yeah, most FF villains do kind of suck. I mean, the villain in X was a floating tick that it was literally impossible to lose to. What was that.

Re: OP 14

(Anonymous) 2008-01-07 01:02 am (UTC)(link)
FFXII coherently put together? I just can't agree with that. FFXII International shows just how incomplete FFXII is. Sure, FFX and X-2 and the KH games got second versions, so to speak. FFXII's is the first to just revamp so much, though. The game feels really incomplete to me.

By character roster do you mean the main 6 characters? Considering that 3 of them hardly contributed to the plot, I... find that hard to agree with.

Re: OP 14

[identity profile] dots.livejournal.com 2008-01-07 01:11 am (UTC)(link)
I hate judging games by international versions, and I don't think that's an adequate measure, quire honestly. By coherent I didn't mean gameplay so much as storyline. I don't really know what was added to FFXII in the international version gameplaywise (aside from, apparently, a zodiac-based job system?) so I can't make arguments there. But I found the battle system actually quite fun and easy to understand, and the License grid did things right in the way FFX's sphere grid tried to but couldn't quite get without first pinning characters into stereotype roles. One of the interviews with one of the game producers said that the system is so new it's hard to nail everything down correctly, much like the ATB system took a few installments to get right after FF4. I'm just glad they've stopped beating us over the head with old-fashioned ATB, it was extremely outdated. (And yes, I'm aware FFXII's system is a modified form of ATB, that's why I said I'm glad they stopped using the old-fashioned one.)

No, I mean characters in general. Larsa may as well have been a main character for the role he played, and I do find Vayne actually integral to the story, for all the little he shows up. Characters like Gabranth and Ondore, as well. I'm not sure which is the third character you mean that doesn't contribute much, as I could see arguments being made for either Fran or Basch, but I think both of them had a significant role. In fact, the only character I felt completely played no role was Vaan; Penelo had some very good moments, especially when interacting with Larsa.

To sum that huge paragraph up, I mean all the characters, even the ridiculously minor ones.

I might add that I also love the scope of FFXII's world. It just feels so much bigger than previous games, even FFX, and I keep finding new places and things to look at when I'm just idly exploring.

Re: OP 14

(Anonymous) - 2008-01-07 01:30 (UTC) - Expand

Re: OP 14

[identity profile] dots.livejournal.com - 2008-01-07 02:19 (UTC) - Expand

Re: OP 14

(Anonymous) 2008-01-07 12:38 am (UTC)(link)
Kefka is one of the things I actually liked about FF6. He was amusing at times but I can't deny that he was indeed annoying. What I loved most about FF6 was Locke though. ♥ Also, Kuja and Vayne love is best.