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\nThe games of the Ivalice setting specifically aren\u2019t too different, but specialize this structure to a narrower purpose. The transition from the outer struggle to the hidden struggle acts as a stakes-raising device in both cases, but in Ivalice, it also serves to introduce a conspiracy, a threat that relies on the B-plot to take proper advantage. In Tactics, this is the Lucavi using the War of the Lions as a cover for the resurrection of Ultima. In Vagrant Story, the story seems to be M\u00fcllenkamp’s attempt to sieze the Gran Grimoire, but in reality it turns out to be a scheme by Sydney to pass the Dark onto someone who will not fall to its corruption. And in FFTA, Marche, in the course of building up his clan, discovers that the very world he inhabits is an illusion given shape by Mewt’s wishes.<\/p>\n
In the Ivalician tradition, this dynamic resonates with the recurring ideas of virtue and corruption, truth and deception, and the ensorcelling lure of power. The heroes pursue the B-plot out of duty, and find themselves thrust into the hidden world at great personal cost. Ramza Beoulve, in cutting the true path through the War of the Lions and the Lucavi revolution, is remembered as a heretic by history. Ashley Riot becomes traitor to his order and, bearing the Blood-Sin tattoo, a pariah from humanity. Marche becomes the enemy of the world, known as an outlaw and a madman by the end.<\/p>\n
These stories resolve ambiguously or bittersweetly, in keeping with the motif of conspiracies and histories clouded by shades of gray.<\/p>\n
<\/div>Ramza departs into the unknown, remembered as a traitor for all time. The audience can believe that he and his sister found happiness, but we are shown time and again the unkind fates of his kind in Ivalice. Only because Ramza’s doom goes unrecorded by history may we hope that his ending was aught but cruel.<\/p>\n
At the end of Vagrant Story, Ashley has tasked himself with correcting the Dark’s perversions wherever they have spread, and wanders the world as a Vagrant, setting down no roots and living as an outcast. Did he, cursed, ever manage to improve the world? Did he die terribly? Was he consumed by his powers? Who inherited the Dark upon his passing, and did they render his efforts all for naught?<\/p>\n
In the relatively lighter Tactics Advance, we see that the children have gained a measure of maturity and strength from their tenure in the illusory Ivalice\u2014 strength well needed in their difficult lives, with meager promise that their lots will change, particularly for Mewt, who comes from a poor family with an alcoholic father, and for Doned, who will again be wheelchair bound for the rest of his life.I can’t decide whether Marche, who had no explicit complaint with his life, or Ritz, whose secret shame was that she dyed her hair, deserves more scorn from their peers.<\/span><\/p>\n What remains, proof against the depredations of such dark times, is virtue alone. Reward enough, or so pray we all. In Ivalice, we have our glimpse, our special and invaluable insight into a rare inflection point in history, and beyond it lies an enigma. These stories are histories, and though mythologized by their posterity, our characters aren\u2019t myths, they’re human.<\/em> They don’t live happily ever after, nor are they borne to Avalon. Many are the great figures of history whose lives beyond a palmful of deeds and moments fade first from memory, and then from history. Theirs was a crucial part to play in the plot\u2014 in history\u2014 but once it was done, they went on to whatever life was left to them. Their lives are uncertain because life<\/em> is uncertain; don’t let life’s perversions compromise your virtue, and only one thing will remain which the enormities of fortune can’t tear from you.<\/p>\n But not in the Ivalice of 706 Old Valendian! The cast of Final Fantasy XII receives an unambiguously happy ending. Basch kind of got fucked over, but that’s the only way Basch can raise wood.<\/p>\n The heroes of the game receive unambiguous fairy tale endings, because they are unambiguous fairy tale heroes. A conflict constantly at the core of the game comes down to this: Ashe, Basch, Balthier, Fran, Vaan, and Penelo are characters from a softer, swashbuckling fantasy world inhabiting a world that is otherwise thoroughly Ivalician, and the grinding of these gears constantly introduces problems that the game does not know how to address.<\/p>\n The world seems to know that the main characters of the game are the main characters of the game, and bends over backwards to accommodate them. Our trouble with Vaan, writ large upon the setting! One can say Vaan had no real reason to serve as the main character despite the game dutifuly accommodating him in the superficial trappings of that role. But our Ivalice provides like service for the party and their role in the world. In the three previous Ivalice games, the heroes play a direct and active role in the primary events of the game, yet Final Fantasy XII seems to set up a very dull main narrative for our cast separate from and parallel to a richer background narrative, which is managed by the adults while we, the kids, dick around.<\/p>\n I can understand why this might have happened; it seems<\/em> to gel with precedent, after all. In the three predecessors, the A-Plot is a mystery to the world at large, and the B-plots (The War of the Lions, M\u00fcllenkamps’ terrorist\/cult actions, Marche’s revolt against King Mewt) can stand as its own set of events without them. But these games use our vantage to demonstrate how the visible course of events is merely instrumental to the occult machinations underlying them, and how the outward-facing conclusions of these events only came about through the hidden interventions of the main cast.<\/p>\n Final Fantasy XII uses this vantage point to demonstrate that our actions in the game have only the most tangential and incidental, even accidental relationship with the \u201cother narrative,\u201d which seems so detached from our actions as to be more of a wallpaper behind our quest than a setting. As pointed out by Venat at the end of the game, her plans were mostly effected at Ridorana as we sat and watched; our greatest effect on the overall plot is the destruction of the 8th Fleet, which we didn’t intend and which may have occurred had we not even been present. Beyond that, the war against the Empire proceeds totally indifferent to our actions, managed by Ondore, tireless MVP of Team Good.<\/p>\n Final Fantasy XII, likely through the struggles of its long development and constant rewrites, seems to reflexively recapitulate the A-plot\/B-plot structure, ineptly. I’m not implying that this structure itself is somehow sacred, nor that the game is somehow bound to it by custom. But half-heartedly attempting to implement it, and failing, twists the backbone of the plot into lameness.<\/p>\n The B-plot resolves at last with the halt of the Imperial forces and the end of the war. Vayne, Cid, and Venat are slain, and the Ministry of Law is all but dismantled. Rozarria and Archades will not war over the realm, and Dalmasca and Bhujerba regain independence.\u201cLandis and Nabradia can go fuck themselves. Got mine, bitches!\u201d -HRM Ashelia B. Dalmasca, 707 O.V.<\/span> Archadia is Larsa’s to rule. Perfectly fine outcomes for this plot thread.<\/p>\n The galling problem is this: the A-plot is never resolved satisfactorily! No part of the staggering revelations of the Occuria, which overshadow and underpin the mundane struggles of the plot, are addressed. The Empire still knows how to manufacture nethicite. Rozarria will want it. Deifacted nethicite may still exist in Giruvegan, and the Occuria may have any number of alternate plans or weapons that we know nothing of and have no defense against\u2014 Venat’s incredible dismissal notwithstanding. This is important, because the Occuria, who still desire control of history, of whom we know nearly nothing, who might overpower all the nations of men, still watch from Giruvegan. And our party, their would-be agents on the earth, defy them, insult them, and forget them.<\/p>\n They aren’t merely unresolved, but unaddressed. The game completely forgets that the Occuria existed. They aren’t treated as a looming threat, to be dreaded, but as unworthy of attention and concern. This is like defeating Shinra while Sephiroth abides deep under the Planet, and just going back to business as usual. It leaves an extremely uncomfortable feeling of dissonance and unease for the player, knowing that the Undying are simply looming in their vast alien citadel like Meteor hanging red and fat in the sky. No one pays it any mind when they should be shaking in their boots, glad to have dispensed with the small potatoes while the main threat may now be pressured into drastic measures.<\/p>\n But here’s the rub: having hung all the narrative tension on the B-plot, our party hardly has a role in wrapping that up, either! At the end of the day, the entire B-plot is handled by Ondore and the Resistance he assembled and managed through years of sly, careful plotting and then personally led into battle over Dalmasca. The only thing the party has to do while the weight of the world rests on our Bhujerban compatriot is to deal with the Occuria and the A-plot. Which we never resolve. The main cast, already sequestered so completely from the narrative, accomplishes nothing of substance. Nothing happens in this fucking game!<\/strong><\/p>\n But this is a problem that exists only because our villains are consistently nearly as ineffectually marionetted by convenient unseen narrative strings as our heroes.<\/p>\n We are told the Empire is unopposable, and our sextet battles them regularly without difficulty. Imperials are typically battled in sequences that the party cannot easily escape, and must be toned down so an underpowered player does not become stuck. So the forces of the Empire are frequently demonstrated to be incompetent. The party regularly strikes down the most powerful members of the Imperial war pavilion, supposedly some of the greatest warriors in the realm, revealing their leadership as mostly talk. If Vayne and Venat’s demise at the final battle somehow adversely affected the Bahamut drastically enough to tip the scales in Ondore’s favor, this is hardly clear; thus, it really does appear as though the Resistance Fleet managed to destroy the Bahamut, the ultimate magitech weapon, on their own, as we assassinate Vayne.<\/p>\n Which would make the entire plot a farce.<\/p>\n We are told that Cid and Vayne are brilliant, and their actions frequently make no sense and make life difficult for them. Their entire plan\u2014 to use the deifacted nethicite to power the Bahamut and use it as a Death Star\u2014 relies only upon their using the Sun-Cryst with the Shards. If they do need all three of them for this, then they would also need to retrieve the Shard our party possesses. If they accomplish these tasks, the Empire wins. They never seek to accomplish these tasks with the remotest sense of urgency, and, in fact, wait until the latest, most dangerous moments to attempt any part of it. They do seize the Midlight Shard before the game even begins, but the Dusk Shard goes undisturbed for two years as Vayne, schemer extraordinaire, and Cid, mad genius, cannot find or open the closet in which it gathers dust. They gain the Dusk Shard only because the party, entirely through chance, had it with them when they were captured by Ghis the first time.<\/p>\n What of the Dawn Shard? Did they never seek it? Cid seems to know all about the nethicite; indeed, he must<\/em> know, since his entire plan is to use them for the Bahamut. Even if they didn’t know, the Tomb of Raithwall seems to be an obvious place to look on a wild guess. And this is setting aside for the moment that Venat apparently knows everything and can do anything.<\/p>\n But while they may not have known themselves, they certainly knew enough to follow us thereVossler probably told Ghis of our intentions before he even reconnoitered with us in Ogir-Yensa. Or maybe not, since he wouldn’t have known; Ashe reveals her destination as she absconds from Ondore’s care; Vossler is away treating with the Bhujerba Belligerents at the time. He catches up with us at the edge of the Sandsea, so it’s more likely the Empire knew our goals better than we did and told Vossler our destination, rather than the reverse. We never actually learn for sure even a single thing Vossler did to act against us or aid the Empire, other than pressuring Ashe to cooperate politically with the Empire to attempt to leverage more favorable treatment for Dalmasca.<\/span> and ambush us on our way out. But if Ghis knew where we were headed and for what, why didn’t they grab the last Shard themselves, then? We had to walk across the entire desert to get to the tomb, when they could have simply flown out and gotten there first. It’s not like only the party can enter. As long as you can survive the trip to the basement, you get the Shard, and an Esper to boot. They expected our party of six people, half of them teenagers, to succeed. Were they, with the might of the Empire, unable? Did the Empire know that the Dusk Shard they possess would apparently allow them to skip the trials of Raithwall’s Tomb and Lindy Hop straight to the Dawn Shard? Either they were too weak or too stupid to succeed in their plans.<\/p>\n But sure, we accomplish their work for them. We get captured, the Stone is stolen, and the Empire blows themselves up. It’s a cut-and-dry, \u201cMy evil has overtaken my intelligence\u201d show of Ghis’s conniving doing him in and taking out the entire 8th Fleet with him.Or so it seems the audience is meant to take it. From what the Imperials say, however, I’m not sure they could have anticipated any risk in trying to measure the Shard, and the events that ensued were the result\u2014 the only practical effect in the game, in fact\u2014 of the Stones’ supposed self-will, of which Ghis didn’t know and the party only learns later through occasional vague gestures by e.g.<\/em> the garif.<\/span> And we have no reason to think that this wouldn’t have happened without us there to observe! So the destruction of the Fleet, the most important event in the overall plot, is one that we had no real effect on. Why are we here?<\/p>\n I suppose we\u2019re here to snipe the Dawn Shard from the ashes and delay Cid’s plan even longer. We are able to do this because the main party were the only people who fled the explosion, and were the only people who survived. Well, that\u2019s handy.<\/p>\n So, the enemy’s first attempt to seize the Dawn Shard failed. What’s their next attempt? There is none. Our party is never pursued again. The next time anyone in the Empire goes looking for us, it will be Vayne sending Gabranth after us as a private practical joke. We run into Larsa by chance, and thereafter into Bergan as he comes after Larsa. We deliver ourselves directly to Archades and escape unimpeded. Why, we even run into Cid, who directs us to Giruvegan. He directs us to the Occuria only because he implicitly understands they will direct us to the Pharos, where he apparently needs us.<\/p>\n Cid and Venat countenance no threat whatsoever from deliberately linking us up with the Occuria. Maybe they’re just that confident. Maybe they have such a minute understanding of the warp and weft of fate that they know this will put us right where they want us. Maybe this is just the plot happening the way it does because it needs to happen the way it does.<\/p>\n Yes, the Empire is going to bide their time and let us take the Dawn Shard to the Pharos while they wait to accomplish the next phase. They never again make any effort to pursue their own goals by pursuing us directly. And in the end, it works: once atop the Pharos, we literally drop the Dawn Shard on the fucking floor and Cid picks it up. As usual, the Empire has conceived of the sloppiest plan in the world, and it has worked somehow.<\/p>\n This makes sense if, once again, our six guys are smart and strong enough to summit the Pharos, while the entire Empire is not. But no, they demonstrably do not need us to reach the Sun-Cryst, since they simply fly up and meet us at the top. If I believed for a second that Gabranth quietly shadowed us up 100 stories of the Pharos, while Cid quietly shadowed him in the exact same way, Hiroshi Minagawa wouldn’t have knees. The enemy demonstrates that they could have proceeded with their plans at any moment they chose, and not only did they never attempt to do so for no reason whatsoever, they chose to wait until their most dangerous opponents had the greatest chance to intercede.<\/p>\n Even at that, their plan would only be necessary if they needed all three stones for their plan to work. Er, do they? They don’t seem to be a package deal in their function or anything. They’re just the three stones that the garif kindly handed over to Raithwall. If all Cid is doing is siphoning power from the Sun-Cryst with the stones, why didn’t he? Not that I understand why they need smaller fragments of the Sun-Cryst on hand to do this at all, but did he ever attempt to use the Dusk and Midlight Shards on their own? Mightn\u2019t that work to a lesser extent or at a slower rate? Did they really have no other ideas besides the Bahamut, which may indeed have needed all three to power?<\/p>\n In Final Fantasy XII, the blind duel the lame for an unclear stakes. We hokey-pokey across the continent learning things that will avail us nothing and influence our actions not in the slightest, amassing an arsenal of Maguffins we never find the moment to use, harried passive-aggressively and inconsistently by a foe merely shoved from mark to mark by the undisguised hand of the author. When at last our foil finds its mark, the stagehands are already striking the set.<\/p>\n These are some of the higher level conceptual and structural problems with the game’s narrative, the practical inadequacies of the story concept’s manifestation into specific actions and events. The lower-level problems, the moment-to-moment befuddlement and bullshit, compose most of the Travelog and warrant but little relitigation. From the delirious conspiracy to assassinate RaminasYou didn\u2019t forget, did you?<\/span> to the bathos of Venat\u2019s declaration of victory atop the Bahamut, the narrative of Final Fantasy XII is a catastrophe.<\/em> By my lights, the game\u2019s foundation is already too cracked to bear weight by the end of the first act, as our party is at last assembled in full at Bhujerba. There’s little sense in plumbing the ruins further in search of higher meaning. I could really just stop here.<\/p>\n The conclusion continues next week.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Final Fantasy XII vainly serves two masters. It\u2019s both a member of the so-called \u201cIvalice Alliance,\u201d following Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance in the setting created by Yasumi Matsuno. At the same time, Final Fantasy XII folds this spin-off sub-series back into the main Final Fantasy series. Like many Final […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[616],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ffxii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54222"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54335,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54222\/revisions\/54335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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