Beyond the parallels to Star Warsnote ordinary kid hooks up with rebel princess and a rogue and his animal sidekick with a Cool Ship to battle an evil emperor, his black-armored Dragon, and their giant battle fortress..., the game injects a lot of Grey-and-Grey Morality into certain classic scenarios. The mad genius, Dr. Cid? Turns out he wasn't mad at all, just a touch over-theatrical. The evil emperor, Vayne Solidor? He's only trying to keep his nation in order, albeit in overly-pragmatic and slightly megalomaniacal fashion. The self-proclaimed gods, taking care of mortals? Take the Old Testament God, and remove every trace of compassion but keep the wrath, and that's all these guys are. The tired twin brothers twist? The Black Knight Gabranth is exactly like Basch, your Knight in Shining Armor, only looking at things from the other side of the situation. In general, none of the "bad guys" are really evil... they just happen to be on the other side, is all. In the end, the real battle wasn't between rebels and the Empire, but between the mortals (where both sides eventually find common ground) and Occuria, and everything afterward was just tying up loose ends. After all, good and evil are sometimes just a matter of perspective.
Regarding Dr. Cid... Balthier complains that the man used to be a good father and family man, until he began researching "the stones" and became obsessed with them to the point of neglecting his family. This caused Ffamran to grow disillusioned with his father and desert his position as an Archadian Judge to become a Sky Pirate. Match this up with the timeline of Archadia's expansion, but, most importantly, with Venat's first contact with Cid and Vayne. Cid didn't neglect his family —he completely bought into Venat's mission of freeing humanity from the Occuria. He wanted to create a better future for his family, so he put his heart and soul into it! It's even more tragic that the Nethicite eventually robbed him of his sanity, but even in the end, when he has fought his son and is dying, he still believes in Venat's goal and thinks he performed well in his service. Later, when Vayne hears of Cid's death, what is his response? To think of his own father, who he had killed in order to ascend. Emperor Gramis knew exactly that it was the way it should be, so that Larsa, the better choice for an heir, could lead Archades to a better future. Vayne knows this too, and even though he resented Gramis' choice and decided to take power for himself, he grieves for the fathers that die for their children's sake.
In a way, the game does have a clear villain: Ashe. FFXII plays like a Start of Darkness prequel with a twist ending. What would have happened if Ashe had listened to the Occurias, still wanting revenge? She would have wiped Archadia from the map and then could have become a witch-empress with a pact with the devil; exactly the kind of Big Bad you encounter in classic fantasy RPGs. If one listens to her theme from the soundtrack, you'll also notice that it doesn't really sound like a heroic theme...
Then there is the role of Vaan in the story. He is usually treated as a tagalong kid not relevant to the grand scheme of things, but during the first appearance of Rasler's "ghost", Vaan also sees a ghost, but believes that it's Reks'. Since we know that the ghost is a tool used by the Occuria to manipulate Ashe, we can only assume that Vaan is seen by the same Occurias as a "plan B", another proxy who could do their dirty work if Ashe failed. Later Ashe keeps seeing her husband's ghost but Vaan stops seeing Reks', which would mean that he has already shook off the Occuria's influence. Vaan becomes a more virtuous role model for Ashe: he has as many reasons as her to hate The Empire, but he gives up his desires of revenge, is ready to forgive Archadia, and even becomes friends with the brother of the man responsible for Reks' death, showing Ashe that there are other paths than mindless revenge and convincing her to not become the Big Bad she would've been otherwise. This shows the quality of the writing: Vaan, despite becoming the lead when he wasn't intended to, was incorporated in the story with a subtle but vital role: he actually manages to defeat the Big Bad by stopping her before she becomes evil. How many RPG heroes can claim such a feat?
Equally, the Occuria may have realized this fact about Vaan, which may have been what prompted them to send him images of Reks. Keep in mind that he and Ashe weren't the only ones hurt by the Empire and/or looking for revenge. The Occuria might have sent him images to keep him from thinking clearly. Arguably, they may have been able to project images towards anyone who felt strongly enough against the Empire.
Speaking of revenge: the events at the end of the Pharos are actually the absolute ideological triumph for Venat. Why? Because of the seven characters, six (all but Fran) have personal reasons to hate Archadia, and the Sun Cryst gives them the means to have their revenge. Cid and Gabranth are defeated, the Occuria are watching and would most certainly stop Venat for directly stopping Ashe & co, so nothing is stopping them from taking new nethicites and blowing up Archades, especially considering the fact that the Sun Cryst was used to power up the Bahamut and even gives them the excuse of using the Magicites of Mass Destruction against Archadia as "legitimate defense". And yet these characters refuse to do so. Think about it: the Occuria's postulate is that the Humes are unable to go beyond their base instincts and need Gods' guiding hand. And here, Humes who have more than enough reasons to use violence against Archadia deliberately choose compassion. At this point, Venat has won: s/he was right about the Hume: the ideological conflict between the Rogue Occuria and its kin end up in the absolute victory of Venat.
Another point for Grey-and-Gray Morality: all the summons you get in this game are evil, either as the future villains of Final Fantasy Tactics or expies of past games' Big Bads (and Shemhazai, but she still fits the pattern). The good-aligned summons you've used in past games, like Bahamut, Leviathan, and Alexander? They're still present, but they're the namesakes of the enemy's warships, not yours.
The ink stain that we see right next to the judge on the logo? This is Venat; the (supposed)Big Bad is hidden in plain sight, and s/he is the first thing you see when you begin to play.
There is one thing that often missed about the game. Some players have complained that the main characters did not take part in the most "interesting" parts of the story: there are epic battles and political maneuvering, but Ashe & company are wandering the countryside and are seldom linked with the "heavy" stuff. But this is the whole point of the story: most of what the main characters do will be regarded as insignificant by historians, but it is these apparently insignificant deeds that will have changed the tide of history. Now, an important point of the plot of Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story was that events recorded in historical chronicles (like battles, the rise of kings and emperors, etc...) are not always as important as you would believe. There is a good chance that Ashe will be remembered for infiltrating the Bahamut and killing Vayne, an impressive feat, yes, but the really relevant deed — refusing to avenge her husband and her kingdom and destroying the Sun Cryst — will probably be neglected by historians and eventually forgotten. Basically, this means that the games of the Ivalice verse share a common Aesop.
FF Tactics shows how Vayne's and Venat's wishes have been fulfilled. People have said that because Ashe and co. ended the Occuria's control on history, it has caused the decline of magic, the rise of St. Ajora's ignorant religion and allowed the Lucavi to eventually attempt to cause the world's destruction; but this isn’t the only thing it did: it also was what allowed Ramaza to do his actions in the first place. Ramza, a mortal, without the help of the Occuria or other gods, is able to change history on his own because Ashe and the rest ended the control of the Occuria on humanity. The whole story of FFT in relation to FF12 shows how the reign of history has been put back into the hands of man.
The crashing of the hoverbike in the prologue — at first seemingly a random plot device, but careful consideration leads to the first hint of the nethicite's true nature.
The License Board seems like Gameplay and Story Segregation before you realized that this is Ivalice — the world is built around law. The licenses are actually the Medieval equivalent of permits today. Makes sense (for the most part) that they would request you to have a license for using a certain kind of weapon or magick, not only to keep the public from planning a Coup de'tat but also because irresponsible use of weapons or magicks would wind up hurting you
What exactly are you handing over when you spend License Points? Evidence that you've been performing community service such as destroying creatures that would normally threaten the general populace. In return, you're actually being trained in the correct use of the items/skills the License applies to! How else would you know how to cast that Blizzard spell you just bought? To an untrained person, it would appear to be gibberish or they wouldn't know the proper method for accessing their MP reserves for the various spells. For instance, converting MP into ice would be quite a different process to converting it into fire, with possibly disastrous consequences for those lacking the training but trying anyway.
Basch is one of the better melee fighters of the party, but has a curiously low Vitality stat? Why? Well, he's only recently finished a very long stint in prison — solitary confinement, at that. It's a wonder he's still in shape, let alone able to fight so well.
And as much of a badass as he is even after that time in prison... imagine what he must have been like before that happened. If he can fight like that when he's barely held together with spit and willpower, imagine when he was leading the Knights of Dalmasca.
Also, prison kind of explains why he joins the party with 0 MP — not only is he pretty much destroyed physically and mentally, but it's hard to run around to charge your MP up when you're dangling from shackles over a deep pit.
Talking to NPCs around Rabanastre at the start of the game reveal that they seem to know about Vaan's less-than-lawful activities, possibly making a player ponder why he's never been arrested before. Most citizens have been driven to poverty by the Empire, but really, how many thieves and pickpockets does the city have? However, Vaan can't talk to all the NPCs in Rabanastre; only the ones he knows, along with know him in return (who likely provide cover for him, when possible).
Balthier taking Ashe's ring as "payment" for escorting her around with the party? At first glance it may seem like just what he says; he's keeping it as a prize until a greater one is revealed. However, it's also a Secret Test of Character - Balthier isn't so superficial with his treasure hunting that he couldn't tell what a wedding ring is, and Ashe by that time is still in the mindset that she needs to use the nethicite to attack the Empire, still mourning Rasler's loss. Balthier requesting the ring as payment is him testing her out to see if her revenge and lust for power really matters more to her than her love for Rasler, even rubbing it on her face afterwards that he'll keep the ring until he finds something "more valuable". Ashe justifying her revenge on Rasler's death matters more to her than Rasler himself, so agreeing to give up the precious wedding ring means it's might just as well be a hollow collectible.
He returns it by the end of the game, too, because he did fulfil his promise. He found the Cache of Glabados, which is more valuable to him as a sky pirate, and Ashe finally learned her lesson, so she can have the ring back.
Listen again to Vayne Solidor's introductory speech to Dalmasca, in particular the line of "Here I will pay my debt! I swear it now!" By the end of the game, the Archadian Senate is dissolved leaving Larsa and Vayne in a position of absolute power, Larsa and Al-Cid are in positions to broker for peace between the empires, the Sun-Cryst is destroyed and Vayne dies against the party over Dalmasca in a battle that severely hinders the Archadian military. Whether intentionally or by a hell of a coincidence, Vayne fulfills his promise.
Vaan may seem to be the Tagalong Kid (alongside Penelo) compared to the adults in the party like Ashe and Balthier. But when one takes his appearances in this game, Revenant Wings, and Final Fantasy Tactics A2, we can see a clear progression from hero-in-training to a hero in his own right and finally a legendary Sky Pirate in his own right. In short, XII is Vaan's origin story, while Revenant Wings is his first real crack at being The Hero.
Near the end of Final Fantasy XII, the party destroy the Sun Cryst thereby breaking the control the Occuria have over mankind. That's sounds good at first but then consider Final Fantasy Tactics, which takes place far into the future of Ivalice. All the sentient races aside from humans are extinct, humans have lost the means to create things like airships, and the Lucavi, who had originally been bound by the Occuria, have attempted to free themselves and destroy the world. Perhaps they were better off doing what the Occuria said?
Word of God mentions that St. Ajora Glabados is alive during the events of FFXII. Who is the Big Bad of Final Fantasy Tactics? Ultima and the Lucavi. Who are the Espers the party freed from their Occuria-imposed prisons? Ultima and the Lucavi. Assuming they actually are the same entities and not just similarly-named, you cause the events of Tactics. Freed from her prison, Ultima will possess Ajora, die, and set the plot of Tactics in motion...
Remember Omega Mark XII? The extra bestiary entries for the Urutan-Yensa are project notes written by its creator, the same guy who created the Mimics. The Mark XII got away from him and considering it's the Mark XII, the other Omega bonus bosses in the series may be his creations as well. Add that to the fact the the Mark XII and the Mimic Queen have very similar designs and you get the implication that the Mimic Queen was intended to be a prototype Omega that is capable of reproduction. Fortunately, it only spawns relatively normal mimics, but what if there are others out there that don't have that limitation?
We know that Final Fantasy Tactics comes after Final Fantasy XII. We also know this means most of the other sentient races go extinct and humanity loses airship technology. We also know that Bhujerba is a continent floating in the sky reachable only by airship. When humanity loses the ability to make use of airships and the mining on Bhjerba was already getting at the material keeping them up there...whathappensto Bhujerba?
There's two distinct floating continents in Ivalice. Bhujerba and Lemurés. Lemurés is super high up and difficult to reach, so it's probably still around, but one of the elements brought up about Bhujerba a lot in the game is that part of the reason it's able to be effectively neutral is because it literally moves around a lot and drifts over national borders all the time. It helps that it's specifically mentioned in the lore that the magicite that keeps the continent up regenerates if left alone, which is why there's apparently a bunch of unused mines. There's a pretty big chance that Bhujerba is just hanging out on the other side of the planet or something, because Ivalice appears to be on the scale of, say, the Arabian Peninsula. It's big, yes, but it's just the place where three continents meet, it's not the whole world.
In the end-game, one optional superboss to fight is the Hell Wrym. The thing is already disturbing enough, being a powerful, evil dragon-like entity implied to be the King of Hell. Thankfully the gods sealed it up in Sochen Cave Palace, but it's been trying to break free. The real horror comes into play if you consider the fact that it's chamber is just walking distance away from the most populated city on the planet, with the strongest military. Imagine if that thing got out before you got to it...
In spite of everything the heroes achieve, one thing remains clear for those who know the entirety of Ivalice... Marchecomes in like a lion.
