But when your party is not traversing every labyrinthine fortress checkered throughout the expansive backdrop, you’re navigating breathtaking metropolises and townships. Most of the continent is filled with the unexplored ruins of ancient dynasties. Like Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XII’s narrative takes place in the Kingdom of Ivalice. Despite struggling with personal shortcomings, they continuously discover ways to defy fate. Vaan and his ragtag team of outcasts remain some of the greatest characters in Final Fantasy lore because they’re so easy to root for. Even so, they learn to find companionship in others: Ashe, a forsaken princess, Basch, an exiled soldier, and Balthier and Fran, wanted bounty hunters.ĭespite their oddball mix, each member of Final Fantasy XII’s main cast shares similar insecurities – cowardice, loneliness, unresolved grief, and doubts of self-worth. After many chance encounters with shady folk, the two youths are flung into a world of political intrigue and clandestine coup d’états. While Penelo attempts to find silver linings in their plight, Vaan looks to the sky with dreams of owning an airship and living freely.

Street urchins Vaan and Penelo call the impoverished slums of Rabanastre home.

Where other entries employed moody, often unrelatable caricatures to drive their plots forward (that’s right, I’m talking about everyone’s favorite heroes, Cloud and Squall), Final Fantasy XII is less about individual motivations and more about the sum of its ensemble parts. Like most installments in Square Enix’s beloved series, Final Fantasy XII chronicles the lives of heroes rising against a greater antagonistic force.

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