SE's in-house data analyst made a huge mistake in their interpretation of consumer trends by shoe-horning Vaan and Penelo. I was 17 when this game first came out, and I couldn't relate to nor stand Vaan or Penelo. All the more appealing characters were well outside my target age group. I'm apparently not alone in that sentiment.

Well made! Potentially underrated, certainly underviewed, give some likes and shares ya'll!

FFXII is actually directly connected to FF Tactics Advance. Montblanc is the clan co-leader in that game and now he is the head of the clan/guild. Confirmed or not, I always considered it an aftermath/continuation of the clan system and moogle ages are vague enough I believe this is many years after potential changes occurred to the clan system.

The worst traditional mainline Final Fantasy by far in my opinion

What? The Great Crystal has the 12th Esper, one of the strongest weapons in the game, a few great Magick spells, and a hidden superboss that only activates once the final hunt is accepted. Places like this encourage you to either really memorize it or draw your own map. Thankfully in the 18 years since the original release, people have put maps online. When you see how the crystal is laid out, it's honestly not bad at all. It's the doors that are an issue in figuring out which to open in what order.

I see the music as more of a *score,* with every other game being more an _album._

I need need NEED a GHOST BABEL REMAKE!

Black Chamber is easily the scariest and most effective unit in the series, FOXHOUND and Dead Cell are a joke. They're the only ones who actually carry out a nuclear strike, and they play psychological games on Snake making him distrust his entire codec team as well as killing Jimmy after he finished developing Metal Gear for them. They're ruthless.

Each post IX FF is a victim of unrestrained overambition. XV is the worst offender but XII comes close, though despite that it's still a top 5 FF IMO along with VI, VII, IX, & XIV

You missed that point on Vaans role. He is the moral of the group. He got caught up in a big plot he wasnt supposed to be in, despite his inexperienced and knowledge, he pushed through with his sense of justice. He doesnt benefit from the purpose of the journey personally, but he just a normal person who was given a chance about his situation and took it. Its a story of the humble beginnings of a hero.

Hey man i love the advanced oddities series and the forgotten classics hope your channel grows more it deserves it!

Biggest mistake of my life was revisiting this and giving it one more chance I hate this trash so much

For those struggling with the stealth missions, the cheat code for skipping a level is L R down down (it’s been a few years, so I might have missed a step). I managed to complete the game on Veteran, and it’s probably my favourite GBA game, followed by Pandora Tomorrow, Pokémon Sapphire and Ballistic Ecks Vs Sever.

Oh God, other bad stage!! Thanks to help.

Thanks a Lot! The secret its Maldini!! 👍🏻

Basch was meant to be the main character, but it was changed due to execs worried about sales.

This comment

Every so often I'll check youtube to see if there's a decent Ghost Babel retrospective. For some odd reason, your videos never showed up, even though they were published years ago. Hope the algorithm gods bless your channel

You should revisit ff11 it is the best ff game

The first FF game I ever played was FF Tactics Advace (GBA), and so when XII came out and it is also in Ivalice I was super Exited. Honestly and IMO, XII is even better than VII :v got bored of 7 pretty early. Also XIII was ok, not liked also by many, but I guess I just like the odd ones.

Enjoyed the analysis, but have to chime in with my normal rant about Vaan since people usually miss his importance on the first pass. He has a few motivations to be along for the journey: 1. Avenging his brother by fighting the Empire (the obvious) 2. Protecting his homeland (we learn from the game's dialogue that he steals specifically to give back to the people of Dalmasca, not just for himself) 3. Defending the princess (kind of a subset of the second motivation) 4. Handling his grief On that last point, one of the most important scenes in the entire game imo is when the party is leaving Jahara and Ashe and Vaan meet at night and discuss the vision they'd seen. Ashe saw Rasler, while Vaan saw his brother, Reks as the ghost in the Tomb of Raithwall. Rasler and Reks both died under similar circumstances: both enlisted at the end of the war, and both died fairly unceremonious deaths. The two surprisingly bond over their shared experience: loss. Both of them have suffered as a result of war with the Empire, and in this moment you get this sense of kinship between them over that shared trauma, as is common of survivors of wars. And by this point in the gameplay, Vaan has proven himself to be a capable fighter as well. The dialogue that really shows this development for Vaan, though, is this one, from the same scene: Vaan: "You saw him, didn't you? Like at the King's tomb." Ashe: "So you *did* see him, too... But, why?" V: "It's strange... before, I didn't even know what you looked like. And the Prince? I barely knew there *was* a Prince. Who knows... maybe the person I saw was my brother." A: "Basch told me about him..." V: "He enlisted, right at the end. But for what? He knew he couldn't win..." A: "To protect something." V: "How can he protect anything when he's dead? Was it different for Prince Rasler? Did *that* make sense? ... Hating the Empire, getting revenge-it's all I ever thought about. But I never did anything about it. I mean, I realized there was nothing I *could* do. It made me feel hollow... alone. And then, I'd miss my brother. I'd say stuff like, 'I'm gonna be a sky pirate,' or some other stupid thing. Just anything to keep my mind off it. I was just-I was running away. I needed to get away from his death. That's why I followed you. ... Know what? I'm through with it. I'm through running. I'm ready to find my purpose. To find some real answers-some reasons. If I stick with you... I think I will." A: "I wish I knew..." V: "I'll find 'em." I'll concede that Penelo is "along for the ride" for sure, but that crime is no worse than Fran "tagging along" with Balthier simply because they are close companions, or to use a classic literary example, Merry and Pippin "tagging along" for the events of LotR. For Vaan though, this scene and his input at the Sun Cryst scene has a direct influence on Ashe and her choice to destroy the nethicite, rather than wield it. Vaan's VA is a little weak due to the inexperience of the voice actor (English dubs were still in their relative infancy when the game was made) but I think his writing is definitely a lot better than most people give credit for. Once again, great video. Looking forward to other analyses you do.

To me the thing people find an issue with Vaan is what i find most compelling, it makes it believable in a way no other FF game is, if they had made Vaan a protagonist it would've sucked, Vaan is very much like yourself just going along for the ride. I also like the fact that it's Ondore narrating, it gives a sense that the world extends beyond just your party and that there's other people involved, given that it's a bigger geopolitical struggle and not you fighting some lost friend or relative gone rogue with inexplicable superpowers as is otherwise the norm lol And tbh Ondore is mostly just fluff pieces to emblish the context of what's going on, all the important parts of the plot are acted out by the characters themselves, you could cut all the Ondore parts out and other than missing some context you'd still follow the plot just fine. That said, again, i really liked it myself. FF12 to me always felt bigger, more real, more alive than any other world Square have put out in their FF games even FF15 was mostly wasteland sadly, i would pay a lot of money for a return to Rabanastre

22:51 I'll agree that this is one of the most painful dungeons in any Final Fantasy, but I'll also say that it's by far my favorite area in any FF game. But yeah, it's painful

I'm so tired of people getting this wrong, there isn't a main protagonist in this game...

its an ensemble cast. there is no 1 central all important main character (besides Ashe). idk why people choose to be so obstinate about Vaan and pretend he has nothing to do with the story but its ridiculous. you must have skipped cutscenes or something. He's a war orphan in an occupied territory dealing with imperialism who wants freedom for Rabanastre like everyone else and shows Ashe how to get past her own revenge for the people. His character is 100% fine and fits perfectly in the game. Having Ondore give out War time news and events as the story plays out to give a more general and broad overview of the goingsons is not a misstep for the story. work on your vocabulary. the game is not at fault for you to not get it this hard. final fantasy fans need to read a book

I always figured we were experiencing Ashe's story through Vaan's eyes/perspective both him and penelo just kinda got swept up in it and now they're just helping her out on her quest because they don't want their home destroyed or ruled by the empire

Katana scales with strength, and magic attack. That's why there are so many magic lore in Bushi job.

Loved the video but I gotta say Vaan is far from generic when you pay attention to his/ashes arc throughout the story. He's fighting through so much pain and has to let go and his actions reflect that as you play

I like the first game. It was short and sweet. Pacing was very good. The simplicity of the gameplay was appropriate for a side scroller. Pandora Tomorrow was awful. They tried to add length to the gameplay by repeating a lot of scenarios (go from one same hallway to another same hallway with the same enemies and same patrol patterns over and over).

I Wasn't expecting spoilers about the game I have to leave this Video

Reminds me that I should probably play the Resi 4 remake :D Great Video as always!

To think a whole generation of pro golfers must have played REG back in the day. (spooky)

Barry goes pretty hard in this one. Nice. And yes, the pixelart is quite neat in those fighting scenes. I feel like many Gameboy Color "downgrades" of bigger games are very ambitious in trying to deliver something that stands next to the originals while working on an 8bit system running on (almost) 80s tech... and to quite interesting and sometimes cryptic ways^^" Like Daikatana, Perfect Dark, Turok... This sort of "downgrade" is something that is now kind of lost in time ever since the last pure handheld systems like 3DS went off the market. Interestingly, the first Resident Evil: Revelations kind of feels like a re-evaluation of the idea, with being a (at release) Nintendo handheld exclusive spinoff on a cruise ship ✨ And at least the whole BSAA (Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance) from RE5 onwards seem like a nod to having an organisation work against companies like Umbrella.

Love the Halloween twist on the intro! And yes, I think a remake of it would be quite interesting. Especially to explore the green-blooded Leon cliffhanger!

Great vid. Playing through it now and having a blast! Cheers.

Regarding the Star Wars connection - Back when I first played XII, I definitely thought Vaan was going to end up being Ashe's secret lost brother. He definitely has a little bit of Luke in him.

I feel like the trucks being bigger on the inside is more of a homage to the first Metal Gear

thanks for the review! loved the format <3

Best combat. Fantastic VA and script. Cliche story. Terrible character development.

Absolutely love FF12 it was the first Final Fantasy game I played and I love Fran/the viera

The overall downplay of Vaan and Penelo in this type of video is the reason why I don't want to try FFXII. If there is a version or mod that would remove Vaan and Penelo in the game, I would consider playing FFXII

Easily Top 5 FFs. Best PS2 FF with XI being a strong second best.

Fishing mini game!!!?!!?!?!?!? What!!!!??? That’s crazy lol I never knew

Do NOT mess with Elementals!

Vaan actually provided much needed comedy to the game.

My RG35XX just arrived and i'm so replaying this gem of a game !

Ironically FF12 plays in a way I wish more modern western RPGs played. With that fun blend of third person action and Real time with pause gameplay.

This is a personal headcanon of mine. But I always envisioned that Ghost Babel did happen in the main timeline but not as it was presented in the game. given that the special missions strongly suggest things was a VR Training for Raiden. But to each their own like you said in the video.

I am re-Healy hoping this comes to the MGS master collection V.2 Huge fan of the series but was never able to play this one. Barely knew about it