T w e n t y S i d e d

In this week’s entry Rocketmaaaaa-an! talks about the scene where Basch meets with Ondore, the Marquis,Based on my time with Mike Tyson Adventures, I’m convinced you’re all wrong and “Marquis” is actually pronounced “Marcuth”. the narrator guy, or whatever the game is calling him at any given moment.

Ondore meets with Basch, but then he says something ominous about needing to “keep up appearances”.  Basch draws his sword, some imperials charge in, and we cut to the next scene.

We’ve been belaboring how little sense things make in the story right now, and I worry that this argument is going to wear out its welcome long before we get to the end. So let’s give that a rest and talk about the odd cinematography.

Back in 2007 I claimed that Basch ran out of the room after drawing his sword. But no, said the fans, I just wasn’t paying attention. On a second viewing, I can see that he’s still there. He’s just standing behind Balthier.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “FF12 Sightseeing Tour Part 4: Resisting a Rest”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

This week, Rocketeer recounts how our heroes escaped from prison and then bumbled around town trying to find the plot.

This disastrous opening has left our writer in a terrible position. The main characters are out of prison and are finally free to do what they want… except they all have different goals, none of which align with what the player cares about, which is doing something about this dastardly Empire that just took over.

Balthier is a sky pirate, and Vaan wants to be a sky pirate, but this isn’t a game about sky piracy and that’s not where the author wants to go. Also, Balthier doesn’t like Vaan, doesn’t need his help, and doesn’t care to teach him the finer points of sky-piracy, so the whole “sky pirate” angle doesn’t help us.

Basch and Vaan want to “do something” about the Empire, but Vaan still has a grudge against Basch so they can’t work together. Meanwhile, Basch needs to clear his name with the resistance.

Bathier has no immediate goal, and Fran’s only goal is to follow Balthier around.

Penelo has no goals whatsoever, she hasn’t met the rest of the party, and she’s never expressed any interest in our ostensible main plot of fighting the Empire.

So everyone in the main cast is either directionless, enemies, or working at cross-purposes. The next section of the game is a chain of cutscenes designed to untangle this horrendous mess and get our heroes all pointed in roughly the same direction. The author accomplishes this with Penelo’s kidnapping. This works… eventually. It’s just that it takes some time to get all the pieces in place so that the plot can begin inching very slowly forward. 

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “FF12 Sightseeing Tour Part 3: Are You Going My Way?”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.