History Videogame / FinalFantasyXII

* AwesomeButImpractical: Espers and Quickenings. Both require "Mist Charges" to use, and a Mist Charge is equal to 33% of the character's Max HP when they have have all their Quickenings.

* SummonMagic: of the Western kind.

->Eat the head of the wise, and his wisdom you shall gain! Like eating food whence to gain nourishment. To determine the truth of this, I have just now eaten a whole chimera head. No effects as yet. On the morrow, we shall see.
->No further reports, poacher no longer at large. Investigation closed, by Imperial Decree." Sgt. Xerse of the 8th

* BadBadActing: Listen carefully to "Basch" during the assassination scene during the prologue. That's not bad acting; that's [[spoiler:''Gabranth'' being a poor actor.]]

** Besides that, LevelGrinding in general is highly recommended in this game, and it could be argued that the enemies are designed in such a way to encourage this, because many have equipment pieces to be stolen or won that are much stronger than what you have at the point you first get to them. For example, an enemy met in the Giza Plains, the second area of the game, rarely drops a Katana with 52 attack, while an enemy in the Westersand (accessible at the same time) drops a Dagger with 45 Attack. You just to know where to go, what to kill, and have the willingness to invest the time in getting it.

* ThirtyGambitPileup: When the creators of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' and ''VagrantStory'' are involved, and it's the same world as in those games, this is only expected. You'd best pay attention during cutscenes because the game does not spoonfeed you the plot as you may expect from some other ''Final Fantasy'' games, said plot concerning the political struggles of two feuding nations and their elite generals as well as the various insurgents, some within their ranks, who are trying to keep them from going to war with each other.

* {{Expy}}:
** The game practically ''screams'' Expy of ''StarWars'':

--> Mjrn: Stay away! Power-needy hume!

* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: Vaan and Penelo usually get pegged as this in comparison to the more important party members like Ashe, Basch, Balthier, and Larsa.

''Final Fantasy XII'' is the twelfth game in the [[RunningGag butt-blisteringly]] popular ''FinalFantasy'' {{RPG}} series, and the first ''main'' game in the series to be set in [[IvaliceAlliance Ivalice]]. It's a standalone prequel to both ''FinalFantasyTactics'' and ''VagrantStory'', and takes place in the era of Ivalice that the dream land of ''FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' was created from.

Aside from taking place in the world of Ivalice, the game borrows much of its plot, atmosphere and world from ''FinalFantasyII'', updating the gameplay for a modern audience. It also owes more to ''StarWars'' than any previous ''FinalFantasy'' -- the character of Gabranth, in particular, is very clearly compared to Anakin Skywalker. The game happily ties in old FinalFantasy adversaries, as well: Gilgamesh makes his requisite cameo, as do several of the main antagonists from the earliest iterations of the series, as optional summoned beasts. [[hottip:*:Chaos and his Elementals, Emperor Mateus, Zeromus, and Ex-Death/Exodus.]] Still, it's very much a standalone title that can be played without having any previous SquareSoft knowledge.

For the first time since ''FinalFantasyII'', the player has the option of strategizing around weapon types and character skills almost indefinitely, and to explore the whole world from the very start of the game. The deserts, caves and small settlements around the game's starting town, for example, offer close to ten hours of exploring. And as soon as the characters are able to head south on the map, the player can choose to go north instead, where the entire rest of the continent is ready to be discovered. Although the main storyline's dungeons and boss fights failed to impress the critics, the side quests offer some of the most engaging gameplay in the series' history.

''FinalFantasyXII'' is currently one of only five[[hottip:*:The others being ''[[FinalFantasyIV IV]]'', ''[[FInalFantasyVII VII]]'', ''[[FinalFantasyX X]]'', & ''[[FinalFantasyXIII XIII]]'']] of the main ''FinalFantasy'' series to gain a direct sequel, ''FinalFantasyXII: RevenantWings'', a RealTimeStrategy title for the {{Nintendo DS}}. A manga adaptation of the game was recently released.

* AllThereInTheManual: There's a much more complicated story here than most fans give it credit for, but considering [[FinalFantasyTactics the development team]] [[VagrantStory behind it]], you'll be doing a lot of reading and deciphering a lot of subtext if you want the full picture.

* DubInducedPlotHole: In ''FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'', the initial party has fixed names in the Japanese version but random names in the English one. These hurts the MythologyGag of the Clan Centurio members being the same people.

** The game as a whole also seems like an Expy of FinalFantasyII at times.[[hottip:*:Fitting given that the project was handed over to the lead developer of II in the middle of DevelopmentHell, and that II felt a lot like Star Wars meets The Lord of The Rings at times]]. Especially in mechanics (you can choose what you're proficient in) and in exploration (II was the only previous game in the franchise in which your exploration was limited by BeefGates rather than by convenient geographical accidents).

** Those are the races of greatest importance in the world, but there are also the Nu Mou, Garif, Baknamy, Urutan-Yensa, Rev (the cat people serving Ondore, and what Cid from FinalFantasyTacticsA2 is), and Helgas (the Gran Kiltias's race). Canonically, this is the same universe as other Ivalice games, which adds the Gria and Aegyl, and also the Feol Viera (half-Viera/half-Aegyl). Ivalice better follows the trope LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces (Type I/III).

** The whole last chapter of the game seems to be an extended mythology gag. Let's see... The party climbs an incredibly tall, well-guarded tower to obtain the ultimate power, and upon leaving, they find [[spoiler: the Emperor hovering outside of their hometown in a large flying fortress guarded by a cyclone. Hmmm, [[FinalFantasyII now where have I heard that one before?]] ]]

** At the end of the game [[spoiler:Balthier]] is said to be off looking for the "Cache of Glabados"--a reference to St. Ajora Glabados of ''FinalFantasyTactics''. According to background information, Ajora is supposedly alive around the time in Ivalice when ''FinalFantasyXII'' occurs.

** In FinalFantasyX, when fighting the Behemoth enemy, Wakka will sometimes quip "How many steaks do you think we can get out of these?" In FinalFantasyXII, the Behemoth enemies sometimes drop the Loot item "Behemoth Steak".

* PrequelInTheLostAge: It stands as a prequel to ''FinalFantasyTactics''. (Probably.)

* RecurringBoss: Gilgamesh in more than one sense. You can fight him twice during the game. Furthermore, this could be the same Gilgamesh from previous Final Fantasy games as evidenced by him possessing various (replicas of) familiar swords such as the [[FinalFantasyVIII Gunblade]] and the [[FinalFantasyVII Buster Sword]].

** A background conversation between Vaan, Penelo and Larsa while Ashe and Basch discuss weightier matters is a shout out to the notorious GoodBadTranslation of FinalFantasyTactics. "I had a good feeling." "This is the way!"

** There's also its rare game called Vagrant Soul, yet another reference to VagrantStory. Its name in the Japanese version is Soul of Chaos, which refers to FinalFantasyI.

** The Espers that aren't {{Continuity Nod}}s towards ''FinalFantasyTactics'' and ''FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'', specifically Chaos, Zeromus, and Exodus, reference the {{Final Boss}}es of ''FinalFantasyI'', ''FinalFantasyIV'', and ''FinalFantasyV'', respectively. In addition, (Emperor) Mateus and Famfrit (humans and moogles' respective Totema who first appeared in ''FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'', and promoted to Esper status for this game) had their backgrounds expanded to reference ''FinalFantasyII'' and ''FinalFantasyIII''.

* TagalongKid: Vaan. It is also worth mentioning that FinalFantasyXII is what happens when the entire story unfolds from the viewpoint of this character archetype instead of the actual main character.

* ThirtyGambitPileup: When the creators of ''FinalFantasyTactics'' and ''VagrantStory'' are involved, and it's the same world as in those games, this is only expected. You'd best pay attention during cutscenes because the game does not spoonfeed you the plot as you may expect from some other ''Final Fantasy'' games, said plot concerning the political struggles of two feuding nations and their elite generals as well as the various insurgents, some within their ranks, who are trying to keep them from going to war with each other.

* CuteMonsterGirl: The Viera, an entire OneGenderRace of bunny-girls.
** Not actually one-gendered, you just never see the males in-game. They form single-gender groups that only meet when the [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean need arises]] according to [[WordOfGod the Ultimania guide]].
* [[DeadLittleSister Dead Older Brother]]: Vaan's brother Reks, who is killed before Vaan is introduced.

** Of course, this is in a game with sand seas & floating continents, but at least all the deserts are equatorial.

* LikeBrotherAndSister: Subverted with Vaan and Penelo. It's pointed out in the game and in the guide, but very nearly a case of protesting too much. [[FanPreferredCouple They look much closer in later games.]]

*** TheChick: Fran
*** TagalongKid: Penelo

[[caption-width-right:300:[[FiveManBand The main party]] and [[TagalongKid some girl along for the ride]].]]

* [[IncrediblyLamePun Bunny]] [[BonnieAndClyde And Clyde]]: Fran and Balthier, respectively.

* InformedAbility: Fran, as a Viera, is implied to possess powerful magical abilities (''"The Magicks binding the door to the {{Oubliette}} are quite strong. Too strong even for my talents."''). Until Lv.50, she has the second lowest Magic stat in the game. At Lv.99, she ends up with the third lowest Magic stat.

** A stranger form of MythologyGag is found in Yiazmat's name. Yasumi Matsuno, the man behind Ivalice, was known to his peers as 'YAZMAT.'