History VideoGame / FinalFantasyXII

* BareYourMidriff: Among the playable characters, Ashe, Basch, Fran, Reddas, and Reks all have a variation of this. As for Vaan, he takes it [[WalkingShirtlessScene a bit further]]. Other than them, this type of fashion is widespread in Dalmasca, thanks largely due to the kingdom being located on a desert.

* EliteMooks: All over the place.

* FreeRotatingCamera

* BonusDungeon: Again, many.

* SchizophrenicDifficulty: Due to the open world and the player's freedom of movement, the game difficulty can be all over the place. During a basic, normal playthrough while fighting a reasonable number of encounters, the difficulty will generally follow a smooth curve from easy to hard over the course of the game. However, if the player actively avoids encounters and just goes from one boss battle to the next, they can easily find themselves under-leveled and under-geared. Alternatively, if the player gets side-tracked by even some of the extra content included in the game, bosses from the main storyline can easily become a joke, as much of the extra content is not only more challenging than anything found in the main storyline (there are random bats in caves that are higher level than the story's final boss), but can reach ''absurd'' levels. The game's ultimate optional boss, Yiazmat, was infamous for taking players ''12 hours'' to defeat in the original [=PS2=] version. Throw in stuff like New Game Plus, New Game Minus, and self-imposed challenges like assigning all 12 zodiac jobs to your party, and the challenge (or lack of it) you're likely to find in Final Fantasy XII can vary wildly.

* SchizophrenicDifficulty: Due to the open world and the player's freedom of movement, the game difficulty can be all over the place. During a basic, normal playthrough while fighting a reasonable number of encounters, the difficulty will generally follow a smooth curve from easy to hard over the course of the game. However, if the player actively avoids encounters and just goes from one boss battle to the next, they can easily find themselves under-leveled and under-geared. Alternatively, if the player gets side-tracked by even some of the extra content included in the game, bosses from the main storyline can easily become a joke, as much of the extra content is not only more challenging than anything found in the main storyline (there are random bats in caves that are higher level than the story's final boss), but can reach ''absurd'' levels. The game's ultimate optional boss, Yiazmat, was infamous for taking players ''12 hours'' to defeat in the original [=PS2=] version. With the modern Zodiac version, players can now kill him in "only" a few hours. Throw in stuff like New Game Plus, New Game Minus, and self-imposed challenges like assigning all 12 zodiac jobs to your party, and the challenge (or lack of it) you're likely to find in Final Fantasy XII can vary wildly.

* SchizophrenicDifficulty: Due to the open world and the player's freedom of movement, the game difficulty can be all over the place. During a basic, normal playthrough while fighting a reasonable number of encounters, the difficulty will generally follow a smooth curve from easy to hard over the course of the game. However, if the player actively avoids encounters and just goes from one boss battle to the next, they can easily find themselves under-leveled and under-geared. Alternatively, if the player gets side-tracked by even some of the extra content included in the game, bosses from the main storyline can easily become a joke, as much of the extra content is not only more challenging than anything found in the main storyline (there are random bats in caves that are higher level than the story's final boss), but can reach ''absurd'' levels. The game's ultimate optional boss, Yiazmat, was infamous for taking players ''12 hours'' to defeat in the original [=PS2=] version. With the modern Zodiac version, players can now kill him in "only" a few hours, with the world record around ''50 minutes''. Throw in stuff like New Game Plus, New Game Minus, and self-imposed challenges like assigning all 12 zodiac jobs to your party, and the challenge (or lack of it) you're likely to find in Final Fantasy XII can vary wildly.

* SchizophrenicDifficulty: Due to the open world and the player's freedom of movement, the game difficulty can be all over the place. During a basic, normal playthrough while fighting a reasonable number of encounters, the difficulty will generally follow a smooth curve from easy to hard over the course of the game. However, if the player actively avoids encounters and just goes from one boss battle to the next, they can easily find themselves under-leveled and under-geared. Alternatively, if the player gets side-tracked by even some of the extra content included in the game, bosses from the main storyline can easily become a joke, as much of the extra content is not only more challenging than anything found in the main storyline (there are random bats in caves that are higher level than the story's final boss), but can reach ''absurd'' levels. The game's ultimate optional boss, Yiazmat, was infamous for taking players ''12 hours'' to defeat in the original PS2 version. With the modern Zodiac version, players can now kill him in "only" a few hours, with the world record around ''50 minutes''. Throw in stuff like New Game Plus, New Game Minus, and self-imposed challenges like assigning all 12 zodiac jobs to your party, and the challenge (or lack of it) you're likely to find in Final Fantasy XII can vary wildly.

* SchizophrenicDifficulty: Due to the open world and the player's freedom of movement, the game difficulty can be all over the place. During a basic, normal playthrough while fighting a reasonable number of encounters, the difficulty will generally follow a smooth curve from easy to hard over the course of the game. However, if the player actively avoids encounters and just goes from one boss battle to the next, they can easily find themselves under-leveled and under-geared. Alternatively, if the player gets side-tracked by even ''some'' of the extra content included in the game, bosses from the main storyline can easily become a joke, as much of the extra content is more challenging than anything found in the main storyline (for reference, there are random bats in caves that are higher level than the story's final boss). Throw in stuff like New Game Plus, New Game Minus, and self-imposed challenges like assigning all 12 zodiac jobs to your party, and the challenge (or lack of it) you're likely to find in Final Fantasy XII can vary wildly.

** Same problem with Quickenings. They look awesome, but in the end they aren't worth it. Simply figuring out how to use them and chain them together is a headache. The game doesn't explain it, so many players resort to the Internet. Even then, turns out there is a lot of randomness involved: the odds of forming a chain is random, and even the damage they deal is somewhat random. By the time the long and awesome-looking attack animation finishes, you could probably have dealt just as much damage simply using your party's normal attacks. Worst of all, they do not scale. Once your characters reach a high enough level they will surpass their own Quickenings in damage output, making using them a waste of time.

** Same problem with Quickenings. They look awesome, but in the end they aren't worth it. Simply figuring out how to use them and chain them together is a headache. The game doesn't explain it, so many players resort to the internet. Even then, turns out there is a lot of randomness involved: the odds of forming a chain is random, and even the damage they deal is somewhat random. By the time the long and awesome-looking attack animation finishes, you could probably have dealt just as much damage simply using your party's normal attacks. Worst of all, they do not scale. Once your characters reach a high enough level they will surpass their own Quickenings in damage output, making using them a waste of time.

** Same problem with Quickenings. They look awesome, but in the end they aren't worth it. Simply figuring out how to use them and chain them together is a headache. The game doesn't explain it, so most players resort to the internet. Even then, turns out there is a lot of randomness involved: the odds of forming a chain is random, and even the damage they deal is somewhat random. By the time the long and awesome-looking attack animation finishes, you could probably have dealt just as much damage simply using your party's normal attacks. Worst of all, they do not scale. Once your characters reach a high enough level they will surpass their own Quickenings in damage output, making using them a waste of time.

** Espers cannot be controlled, but they can be killed and so require healing and buffing like normal party members, and a lot of the optional Espers cannot be acquired until late in the game. Furthermore, the strongest Espers require three Mist Charges to summon -- that is, you need to give up ''all'' your MP. They have unchangeable gambits which affect all their actions, including the LimitBreak that you're probably looking for, all of which have wildly different (and sometimes impractical) ways of activation. The Esper will go away, too, if its master is KO'd.
*** ''International Zodiac Job System'' and ''The Zodiac Age'' subverts this by allocating the new Mist Gauge to summon Espers, so you don't have to worry about your MP being chewed down to zero. Also, you can finally control them manually and release their super attacks as you wish, though you still can't change their gambits.
** Plot-related accessories and weapons including the Goddess' Magicite, the Dawn Shard, the Manufacted Nethicite, the Sword of Kings, and the Treaty Blade. The former two give you good magick protection but lock your MP at 0, while the Nethicite halves elemental damage albeit inflicting a permanent Silence debuff on the wearer. The latter two, meanwhile, aren't so much impractical as bland, since reasonably priced weapons sold at the same time they're collected have better stats. On the contrary, they can be equipped by anyone, have a good combo rate, and had their damage boosted in the Zodiac versions, though the Sword of Kings had its evasion and combo rate nerfed.
* BackgroundMagicField: The Mist, which invades all Ivalice with some locations having more concentration than others. It even affects the gameplay; the higher the concentration, the more MP you can recover by movement.
* BadBadActing: Listen carefully to Basch during the assassination scene during the prologue. That's not bad acting; that's [[spoiler:''Gabranth'' not quite managing to imitate his brother.]]

** The theme of the Archadian Empire mainly features stirring violins and trumpets, much like the iconic 'Imperial March' from Star Wars (though in keeping with the game's GreyAndGreyMorality, the Archadian theme leans more towards "imposing grandeur" as opposed to the "threatening menace" of the Star War's 'Imperial March').

** The theme of the Archadian Empire mainly features stirring violins and trumpets, much like the iconic 'Imperial March' from Star Wars (though in keeping with the game's GreyAndGreyMorality, the Archadian theme leans more towards "imposing grandeur" as opposed to the "menacing danger" of the Star War's 'Imperial March').

** The theme of the Archadian Empire mainly features stirring violins and trumpets, much like the iconic 'Imperial March' from Star Wars (though in keeping with the game's GreyAndGreyMorality, the Archadian theme leans more towards "imposing grandeur" as opposed to the "threantening danger" of the Star War's 'Imperial March').

** Even the Archandian Empire theme predominantly features stirring violins and trumpets, much like the iconic 'Imperial March' from Star Wars (though in keeping with the game's GreyAndGreyMorality, the Archadian theme leans more towards "imposing grandeur" as opposed to the "threantening danger" of the Star War's 'Imperial March').

** Even the Archandian Empire theme features predominantly stirring violins and trumpets, much like the iconic 'Imperial March' from Star Wars (though in keeping with the game's GreyAndGreyMorality, the Archadian theme leans more towards "imposing grandeur" as opposed to the "threantening danger" of the Star War's 'Imperial March').

* SchizophrenicDifficulty: Due to the open world and the player's freedom of movement, the game difficulty can be all over the place. During a basic, normal playthrough while fighting a reasonable number of encounters, the difficulty will generally follow a smooth curve from easy to hard over the course of the game. However, if the player actively avoids encounters and just goes from one boss battle to the next, they can easily find themselves under-leveled and under-geared. Alternatively, if the player gets side-tracked by even ''some'' of the extra content included in the game, bosses from the main storyline can easily become a joke, as much of the extra content is more challenging than anything found in the main storyline (for reference, there are random bats in caves that are higher level than the game's final boss). Throw in stuff like New Game Plus, New Game Minus, and self-imposed challenges like assigning all 12 zodiac jobs to your party, and the challenge (or lack of it) you're likely to find in Final Fantasy XII can vary wildly.

* SchizophrenicDifficulty: Due to the open world and the player's freedom of movement, the game difficulty can be all over the place. During a basic, normal playthrough while fighting a reasonable number of encounters, the difficulty will generally follow a smooth curve from easy to hard over the course of the game. However, if the player actively avoids encounters and just goes from one boss battle to the next, they can easily find themselves under-leveled and under-geared and impossible to progress. Alternatively, if the player gets side-tracked by even ''some'' of the extra content included in the game, bosses from the main storyline can easily become a joke, as much of the extra content is more challenging than anything found in the main storyline (for reference, there are random bats in caves that are higher level than the game's final boss). Throw in stuff like New Game Plus, New Game Minus, and self-imposed challenges like assigning all 12 zodiac jobs to your party, and the challenge (or lack of it) you're likely to find in Final Fantasy XII can vary wildly.

* SchizophrenicDifficulty: Due to the open world and the player's freedom of movement, the game difficulty can be all over the place. During a basic, normal playthrough while fighting a reasonable number of encounters, the difficulty will generally follow a smooth curve from easy to hard over the course of the game. However, if the player actively avoids encounters and just goes from one boss battle to the next, they can easily find themselves under-leveled and under-geared and impossible to progress. Alternatively, if the player gets side-tracked by even ''some'' of the extra content included in the game, bosses from the main storyline can easily become a joke, as much of the extra content is more challenging than anything found in the main storyline (for reference, there are random bats in caves that are higher level than the game's final boss). Throw in stuff like New Game+, New Game-, and self-imposed challenges like assigning all 12 zodiac jobs to your party, and the challenge (or lack of it) a player is likely to find in Final Fantasy XII can vary wildly.

* SchizophrenicDifficulty: Due to the open world and the player's freedom of movement, the game difficulty can be all over the place. During a basic, normal playthrough of the game, fighting a reasonable number of encounters, the difficulty will generally follow a smooth curve from easy to hard over the course of the game. However, if the player actively avoids encounters and just goes from one boss battle to the next, they can easily find themselves under-leveled and under-geared and it'll become almost impossible to continue. Alternatively, if the player gets side-tracked by even ''some'' of the extra content included in the game, bosses from the main storyline can easily become a joke, as much of the extra content is more challenging than anything found in the main storyline (for reference, there are random bats in caves that are higher level than the game's final boss). Throw in stuff like New Game+, New Game-, and self-imposed challenges like assigning all 12 zodiac jobs to your party, and the challenge (or lack of it) a player is likely to find in Final Fantasy XII can vary wildly.

** The Great Crystal is one of the most complex MagicalMysteryDoors puzzles in the history of video games. It's a labyrinth of identical crystal corridors connected by pathways and waystones that teleport you between areas. Many paths are blocked off by gates, and the gates are deactivated with corresponding waystones but only stay open for a set amount of time before they close back up. Additionally, the waystones can control ''two'' gates each, and opening one gate closes the other. The names of each room are extremely long and in a foreign language, meaning you're unlikely to be able to remember where you are or where you came from. And to top it all off, unlike every other dungeon in the game, the player has ''no map'' -- you're just given a vague indicator of where you are in the maze. If you want to do it all yourself in lieu of googling a map already made by previous players, getting through the area requires hours, if not days, of diligent home map-making. The one "good" thing is that the area is completely optional. Nevertheless, some of the most powerful spells and equipment are hidden in the maze, as well as two secret bosses.

*** Vayne wants to secure his family's control and legacy against those who would threaten it (The Senate; rival houses of the Empire; the occuria). This drives him to actions that cost him his family members; both literally as he kills his father and through driving Larsa to oppose him.

** The Great Crystal is one of the most complex MagicalMysteryDoors puzzles in the history of video games. It's a labryinth of identical crystal corridors connected by pathways and waystones that teleport you between areas. Many paths are blocked off by gates, and the gates are deactivated with corresponding waystones but only stay open for a set amount of time before they close back up. Additionally, the waystones can control ''two'' gates each, and opening one gate closes the other. The names of each room are extremely long and in a foreign language, meaning you're unlikely to be able to remember where you are or where you came from. And to top it all off, unlike every other dungeon in the game, the player has ''no map'' -- you're just given a vague indicator of where you are in the maze. If you want to do it all yourself in lieu of googling a map already made by previous players, getting through the area requires hours, if not days, of diligent home map-making. The one "good" thing is that the area is completely optional. Nevertheless, some of the most powerful spells and equipment are hidden in the maze, as well as two secret bosses.

** Some chests with valuable items have a random chance of spawning. Sometimes a room will have a chest in it, sometimes the room will be empty. If you are aware of this, it's as simple as exiting the room and coming back in until the chest spawns. If you are ''un''aware of this (e.g. someone new to the game playing casually), you could easily miss powerful items because you'd assume a room or area is empty and don't think something so silly as exiting the room and coming back in would make a chest magically appear.

*** Particular mention to the Tournesol, another of the most powerful weapons in the game, because it encompasses all of the above. It can only be obtained by purchasing it at the Bazaar by selling three each of three particular pieces of loot. You get one each of them from Montblanc for doing various tasks, so how do you get the other two each? You have to track down more very rare loot items, three for each loot piece, most only obtainable from one or two enemies, often times Rare Game. Hoard those nine very rare loot items, sell them to the Bazaar in the right quantities to unlock the Tournesol's trade components, buy those trade components, and then sell ''them'' back to unlock the sword at last. Again, ''nowhere'' is the player told what, where, when, in what order to do any of this - or even what their reward will be if they happen to do it correctly.

** The Great Crystal is one of the most complex MagicalMysteryDoors puzzles in the history of video games. It's a labryinth of identical crystal corridors connected by pathways and waystones that teleport you between areas. Many paths are blocked off by gates, and the gates are deactivated with corresponding waystones but only stay open for a set amount of time before they close back up. Additionally, the waystones can control ''two'' gates each, and opening one gate closes the other. The names of each room are extremely long and in a foreign language, meaning you're unlikely to be able to remember where you are or where you came from. And to top it all off, unlike every other dungeon in the game the player has ''no map'' -- you're just given a vague indicator of where you are in the maze. If you want to do it all yourself in lieu of googling a map already made by previous players, getting through the area requires hours, if not days, of diligent home map-making. The one "good" thing is that the area is completely optional. Nevertheless, some of the most powerful spells and equipment are hidden in the maze, as well as two secret bosses.

** Some chests with valuable items have a random chance of spawning. Sometimes a room will have a chest in it, sometimes the room will be empty. If you are aware of this, it's as simple as exiting the room and coming back in until the chest spawns. If you are ''unaware'' of this (e.g. someone new to the game playing casually), you could easily miss powerful items because you'd assume a room or area is empty and don't think something so silly as exiting the room and coming back in would make a chest magically appear.