Final Fantasy XII is the twelfth game in the butt-blisteringly popular Final FantasyRPG series, and the first main game in the series to be set in Ivalice. It's a standalone prequel to Final Fantasy Tactics and takes place in the era of Ivalice that the dream land of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was created from.The story begins with the defeat of the Kingdom of Dalmasca at the hands of the powerful Archadian Empire, and subsequent occupation. Two years later, an energetic young street thief called Vaan finds himself sucked into the languishing resistance movement led by none other than Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca, princess heir to the Dalmascan throne, thought dead. Ashe is determined to regain her kingdom and take revenge against the Archadians, and the key to this might just be the legendary nethicite once used by her ancestor to unite Ivalice under his rule.The story is also about Basch fon Ronsenberg, a proud knight of Dalmasca thought to have betrayed his king on the eve of Dalmasca's defeat, now imprisoned in a cell far from human contact. It's about a dashingSky Pirate called Balthier and his frosty Viera co-pilot Fran, who have their eye on the riches they can acquire while tagging along with Ashe. It's about Penelo, Vaan's childhood friend who finds herself yanked into the chain of events thanks to her relationship with Vaan. It's about Archadian nobleman Vayne Solidor and his ruthless campaign of intrigue and reformation, and about his young brother Larsa, who wishes to unravel the web of deceit his brother has woven.Final Fantasy XII is a complicated and detailed game noticeably different in storyline from other Final Fantasy games; whilst other games focus on individual characters, XII is less about people and more a story of Nations and nationalism, and the lengths some will go to gain power and control destiny. That's not to say it isn't a character study, with Judge Gabranth's clouded conscience and dark history being one of the major subplots - and hence why he's on the boxart. It's full of intrigue and interweaving stories, tactical team-based fighting, well-crafted dialogue (as compared to the sometimes embarrassing lines from X), and Limit Breaks (here called Quickenings). It explores the ideas of freedom, revenge, loyalty, peace, and the importance of dreams. It's also a Deconstruction of the "Find powerful McGuffin to Save The World" plot that's been around as long as the genre has, taking a much more sombre look at the pursuit of what is essentially a Weapon Of Mass Destruction and the lengths to which people would go to gain — or regain — power.The game happily ties in old Final Fantasy 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. *
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 Square Soft knowledge.It is also the first in the series to go into extreme detail on the nature of items and locations. Expect to find tufts of Phoenix Down and strips of rotten flesh instead of just the items, thorough explanations on the topics of evolutionary biology and monster habitats, a comprehensive history of Ivalice and its tribes and races, and incredible amounts of flavor text in every page of the in-game encyclopedia.For the first time since Final Fantasy II, 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. It's also noticeable as having a step up in difficulty compared to previous installments, and demanding more hours of investment from the player. Whereas in previous games you can level up reasonably well by just defeating every enemy you encounter en route from point A to point B, in XII enemies in one area can be very easy and in the next Nintendo Hard, so the game will force you to level grind just to progress with the plot.Final Fantasy XII is currently one of only five*
Justified in that the in-game codex makes it clear that it actually isn't a sewer, but an underground channel used to bring water to the city (since Rabanastre is in the middle of a desert). Hence the sluice control valve to prevent flooding. It's uncleanliness and infestation has gotten to sewer levels because Cuchulainn is there.
There's a much more complicated story here than most fans give it credit for, but considering the development teambehind it, you'll be doing a lot of reading and deciphering a lot of subtext if you want the full picture.
A lot of cool ideas, such as the backstories for the Espers, that were probably left on the cutting room floor have at least some existence as text background in the Bestiary.
An Aesop: The typical "revenge solves nothing", along with the examination of what is truly important when it comes to being loyal to a kingdom — loyalty to its ideals, its people, its rulers, or the physical kingdom itself, and if any of these should be sacrificed for the sake of the others.
Interestingly, different characters seem to draw different Aesops from the story.
Basch: What is shame to me? If I could spare just one person from the horrors of war, I would bear any shame. Bear it proudly.
Anti-Villain: Most of the judges, who (with two notable exceptions) are doing what they believe is right.
Antidote Effect: Subverted. Poison is a pretty hazardous status ailment, and you don't want it to compound (Poison + Sap will make your HP go down the drain quickly). The game mechanics (items are used nearly instantly) help it a lot.
Anyone Can Die: None of the six main characters, mind you, but the death toll for this story is reasonably high. Reks, King Raminas, and Rasler all perish during the prologue, all but one of the Judge Magisters die, all but one of the Guest Star Party Members die, everyone in Nabudis prior to the main events, and anyone elsethe Occuria might've exterminated through the use of 'Dynast Kings' much like Raithwall.
Applied Phlebotinum: Mist. Appears as a fog in high concentration, Mist increases the power of magic, causes mutations in monsters, and can have negative effects on the environment. It can also cause races that are sensitive to it, such as Viera, physical discomfort.
Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Only three active characters at a time — proving, once and for all, that three is too few. Note how much easier the game gets when you have a Guest Star Party Member. (At least Lazy Backup is averted; see below.) Four is Death is something of a Mythology Gag. Like the early Final Fantasy games, every time there is a guest, that member takes up an additional slot at the bottom of the main screen. Normally, these characters are killed off by important Heroic Sacrifices, but there are subversions early on. For example, remember Ashe? She was first a guest, and then Basch comes in, claiming he did not kill Reks, who just so happens to be Vaan's brother.
Authority Equals Asskicking: Basch is a former Dalmascan army leader, Ashe is a princess, Balthier is an ex-Judge, and Fran is sister to a Viera elder. By the Sorting Algorithm of Evil, the Archadians the player faces grow in rank as they play through the game, rising from normal Mook soldiers to Judges to Judge Magisters, and culminating with Vayne, The Emperor, as the final boss.
Awesome, but Impractical: Espers cannot be controlled, but they can be killed and so require healing and buffing like normal party members if you want to get any real use out of them, 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. The Esper will go away, too, if its master is KO'd. It simply isn't worth it. Zodiark, however, is an exception. The trick is to use him like a Limit Break instead of like Summon Magic. The International Version fixes this by letting Espers be controllable. It's worth noting that the player can Syphon MP from the Espers, as they get summoned with full MP Gauges and none of their attacks require any. That was likely put in there to counteract using a lot of MP to summon an Esper.
When your characters have much less MP and their spells suck, using a Quickening is a more practical usage for their MP. If you only have 40 MP and normal attack spells cost 8 MP each, you might as well give up all of it for a Quickening Chain that'll do far more damage. In fact, a lot of early bosses and Elite Mooks can be killed in a single round if you can string together enough Quickenings.
As for later on, they consume 1-3 Mist Charges depending on the level, and outside a proper chain, won't do nearly enough damage to make up for the cost. Chaining long enough to do decent damage to a late-game boss will probably sap all your party's MP, and for your efforts you'd probably have a much easier time using that MP to cast normal attack spells that do just as much damage. Seems pricy, no? However, nothing other than the party hurting the target can happen during the Quickenings; party members with zero to too little MP can gain Mist Charges during a Quickening chain, and join the chain (although you can't keep extra Charges once the chain ends); switching party members between the reserve and the main party will allow for a whole chain of chains, which can result in the target dying before it can even carry out its first move; certain combinations of certain level Quickenings done in one chain cause a Concurrence, which is additional bonus damage, and hurts the target and monsters near it. In the International Version, the Quickening bar is separate, so you don't even run into the cost problem.
Bad Bad Acting: Listen carefully to Basch during the assassination scene during the prologue. That's not bad acting; that's Gabranth not quite managing to imitate his brother.
Bait-and-Switch Boss: In the Necrohol of Nabudis, where a Catoblepas is slaughtered by Fury, an adorable little bunny.
Bare-Fisted Monk / Kung-Fu Wizard: With proper set ups, your party can become this, and some licenses on the grid board power up your strength when fighting barehanded. Final Boss Vayne starts the first phase of his fight by attacking you with powerful magic and his own fists and feet!
Pretty much every Dalmascan, really. As an extremely warm climate nation, very slightly justified.
Become Your Weapon: The final battle against Vayne Solidor is broken into three separate battles. In the last battle, he fuses with the rogue Occurian Venat (one of the gods) to form The Undying, which serves as the final boss.
Many of the optional Espers are likewise protected. It's theoretically possible to fight Adremmalech or Cuchulain shortly after Belias, but the enemies in their areas will kill you before you even reach them without massive Level Grinding.
And for both the Zodiac Spear, and the Espers, it's insanely hard to get to what you want in one piece. Even if you manage to get what you're after, there's still the matter of getting back to the nearest save crystal.
Golmore Jungle, which is right next to the Feywood. Some players try to avoid That One Boss by going through the Feywood (which in the story the player does not visit until much later). It is filled with powerful enemies, including cute bunnies that can toss a bunch of debilitating status ailments at you.
The Zertinan Caverns. Sure, you have to go in from the Ozmone Plains entrance to access all of it, but some monsters in there are far stronger than what you're capable of. Doubly so in the International version, where the Archaeoaevis enemy has been boosted so massively statwise that they now have anyway from 150 thousand to close to a million hp, and can oneshot a lvl 60 party.
Black Knight: Judge Gabranth, a direct opposite to Basch.
"Blind Idiot" Translation: One of the best and most thorough aversions of this in the history of Japanese imports - and coming from a series that use to be notorious for enjoyably terrible translations, no less! The English-language version of the game is genuinely well-written and even the voice acting is pretty good. Final Fantasy has come a long way from 'spoony bard!'
Book Ends: Gabranth impersonates Basch to kill King Raminas and ensure Dalmasca's fall in the opening. In the ending, Basch impersonates Gabranth to stop the battling fleets before Dalmasca is destroyed in the crossfire.
Bonus Boss: Too many to count. For many, it's a big part of the game's appeal.
Boss in Mook Clothing: Several around the world map. If an scary-looking enemy is docile, it's probably for a reason.
Boring, but Practical: The Steal Technick. You start the game with it, half your party starts with the License for it, and the ones that don't can acquire it quickly. Stealing from enemies will quickly give you a big boost in your loot income, and it's fairly simple to set up your gambits so you attempt to Steal from enemies at least once before you kill them.
Bragging Rights Reward: The Wyrmhero Blade. The highest attack in the game, automatically grants Bravery and Faith status, and has an 80% combo rate. But to get it you need to beat Yiazmat (which is only unlocked after completing the other 44 hunts) and Omega Mk. XII. Thus, by the time you can get the blade, you've beaten the game's strongest enemies, all that's left for you is hunting rare enemies and Elementals for rare loot and killing the optional Espers, which you're obviously strong enough to do without it.
Brick Joke: The petitioner for the Wraith mark mentions the ghost has begun haunting the Garamsythe Waterway and suspects it came into being to seek vengeance for the slain rats and other vermin living in the sewers. Guess what Vaan spent his time doing to train prior to the game?
Broken Bridge: Many. While there are plenty of opportunities to wander in to areas with monsters stronger than you are meant to face yet, all the paths to places important to the plot are locked off until time to get there via gates, bridges, weather, Imperial guards, etc.
You can get into the Mosphoran Highwaste long before you're meant to by spooking a guard with a chocobo, but even that option is a Broken Bridge at the beginning of the game.
Cain and Abel: Basch and Noah, although they do bury the hatchet at the end.
Character Filibuster: Gerun sweet-talks Ashe for close to five minutes straight, barely letting her get a word in edgewise, and when she finally asks a legitimate question, it goes ballistic.
Chekhov's Gun: An early cutscene introduces Balthier's voice changer device. It's completely forgotten until the very end of the game, when Vaan uses it to impersonate Larsa, and Basch uses it impersonate Gabranth..
Class and Level System: In the International Zodiac Job version, you have to pick your job before you can start getting licenses for that character, but thankfully earned LP up to that point is still retained. You can't change classes once chosen like in other FF games however (thus not making it the Job System trope). Some characters are naturally better at some jobs than others due to their base stat growth. The job available are:
Archer: Fights with a bow and wears light armor, standard bowman archetype.
Black Mage: Casts offensive black magic and a few green magic spells, wears cloth armor. Generally the best class for Penelo.
Breaker: Uses axes and hammers with shields and heavy armor. Pure offensive power. Best used for Balthier.
Knight: Uses swords and broadswords with heavy armor, and learns defensive magic. Good for Balthier or Basch.
Machinist: Uses guns with light armor. Good for characters with high speed stat.
Monk: Fights barefisted or with poles, wears light armor. Requires high strength characters.
Monofunu: Samurai class, fights with katana and cloth armor. Generally regarded as Ashe's best class.
Red Mage: Fights using all forms of magic (along with staves and cloth armor), but misses out on the last 2 tiers of each. Good for high magic characters.
Shikari: Combination of hunter and ninja classes, fights with daggers and ninja swords and wears light armor. Ties with Monofunu as Vaan's best class.
Time Mage: Fights with buffing and debuffing spells, uses crossbows and cloth armor. One of the better choices for Fran.
Uhlan: Dragoon class, fights with spears and heavy armor. One of Basch's best classes.
White Mage: The healer, fights with rods and cloth armor. Penelo and Ashe both perform excellently at it.
Classically Trained Extra: The majority of the voice actors are classically trained theatre actors, some of whom had no prior voice acting credits and were simply chosen because of their theatrical experience.
They put up a paling to make themselves immune to physical damage and/or a barrier to become immune to Magick attacks.
Some use a certain ability to double their level, making them one-hit kill your party members with regular attacks.
Zodiark is perhaps the most guilty boss of them all for cheating. His special attack Darkja has a chance to inflict Instant Death on a party member, in addition to doing high damage. Here's the problem - it hits all party members and is a cinematic attack so you can't act during it or just move party members out of his range, and it so happens this is one of the few games in the series where there is no equipment piece to block Instant Death attacks. Ergo, Zodiark has the capacity to deal a Total Party Kill, and all you can do about it besides curse and scream is cast Shell on the party to slightly reduce the chance of Instant Death hitting.
Late game bosses and many marks have a "CT=0" ability that triggers once their HP falls to a certain amount. This ability lets the enemy attack at any time without having to wait for the charge time, meaning they can attack as fast as their attack animations can allow it. If you have your battle speed set to low, this will work heavily against you as the enemy wails on you while you wait for your turn to come up. Lord help you if you fight an enemy with this ability and they cast Haste on themselves...
Cool Mask: The Judge Magisters' and the Garif's helmets. The latter is lampshaded by the cockatrice Shurry when she escapes Giza into Jahara.
Cool Shades: Al-Cid Margrace. The shades in question are particularly notable for being the only pair you ever see in Ivalice.
No doubt the technology to create them is jealously guarded by some obscure Rozarrian clan.
Cute Monster Girl: The Viera, who are bunny-girls. You just never see the males in-game.
Deconstructor Fleet: At one point or another the game manages to deconstruct and/or subvert many tropes in the Final Fantasy series. The Kid Hero is actually Decoy Protagonist (see next trope), and The Determinator is so focused on her goal it almost leads to a world war. Meanwhile with the Archadians, the EvilMad Scientist is neither evil or mad, while the Evil Twin is just like his brother but reacted differently to the same events, and has good reason to hate the other.
Decoy Protagonist: Vaan is merely the viewpoint character. Who the "true" main character is the subject of much debate. It may be no one, due to the ensemble nature of the cast. Before that, his older brother Reks is the viewpoint character for the prologue.
It's actually morbidly amusing when you first start playing the game - especially if you've been a fan of the series for a while - since you start out watching a cutscene with a young prince getting married so you think "So, this must be the protagonist." But no, he dies shortly after. Then you start playing as a young soldier so you think "Okay, so he must be the hero. After all, I'm playing as him." But no, he dies shortly after, too. By the time you meet Vaan, you half expect to see him die or something, too.
Defrosting Ice Queen: Ashe, while she doesn't necessarily become nicer, she does mellow out a lot.
The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: You get your first hunt assigned to you during the progression of the story, but if you forget to go back to Tomaj for your reward until after a number of other plot events - such as after you've gotten back from Nalbina - he'll complain about how long you took and say that he already heard about your success from someone else. He'll still give you your reward, of course.
Two guards block the entrance to the Mosphorean Highwaste from Nalbina Fortress. If you Sequence Break and get into the Highwaste another way then come back through the Fortress, they wonder how you got in and survived the trip through.
The International version removes the Zodiac Spear run from the game, mainly due to balance purposes (your jobs make tend to make you a lot stronger for most of the game now that you're focused). If you talk to an NPC next to the first jar to avoid, he says along the lines of "you can go ahead and grab this treasure here, that thing can no longer be obtained that way."
Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Or rather, dinosaurs are part of the dragon genus, along with wyrms and wyverns.
Disc One Final Boss/Dungeon: Averted or outright subverted. Major boss battles happen to include very important plot points used, like how the Manufacted Nethicite is revealed during an boss battle with Tiamat due to Mjrn's twisted inflence from the Nethicite itself. This is because the Undying have an indirect control through the Nethicite.
Getting the most powerful weapon a fourth of the way through the main storyline, though doing so requires what pretty much opts to a suicide run.
Also, getting one of the best accessories in the game after killing about eight of the optional bosses or Marks, The Nihopalaoa. It causes all items in your inventory to have the opposite effect. Combine this with a Remedy and you can inflict every status effect in the game on a single enemy almost instantly, while also allowing turning the Phoenix Down into an item that inflicts Instant Death. From there the game's difficulty comes toppling down like a row of dominoes.
You can also get a lot of strong equipment long before it's available in shops, if you know what enemies to chain or what chests to look for. The Deathbringer sword can be found in Raithwall's Tomb, Normally you'd have to wait until right before The Very Definitely Final Dungeon to get it. The Burning Bow is dropped by the Dive Talon, which is found in the Westersand. The Main Gauche can be stolen from an elite enemy in the same area immediately after returning from to Rabanastre with Basche.
You can steal a tier 5 dagger (Gladius) from the Lindbur wolf in the first hour of the game, and all that is required for him to spawn is to kill 20 of the weakest enemy in the game (though he himself being level 16, you better steal it and run like hell).
Disposable Woman: Judge Drace, who gets maybe ten minutes of screen-time before getting killed by Gabranth so he could continue to protect Larsa. Granted, all ten of those minutes are raw awesome, but it's kind of egregious considering she's the only major female character outside of the main party.
Drought Level of Doom: The game can be like this when trekking between key locations. The long road can wear you down with nary a save crystal or a shop in sight as you waste MP and items on monsters that keep swarming you.
Tier 3 includes Famfrit, the Water Esper; Chaos, the Wind Esper; Ultima, the Holy Esper; and Zodiark, the Dark Esper. Also, despite his affinity with Wind, Chaos can use all elements except Earth (which is his opposite element).
Yet another example. In this game, after performing a chain of Quickenings, you may perform an extra attack called a Concurrence. There are eight Concurrences, and while they all do Non-Elemental damage, their animations are very clearly based on the elements. Their order from weakest to strongest are : Inferno (fire), Cataclysm (earth), Torrent (water), Windburst (wind), Whiteout (ice), Ark Blast (lightning), Luminescence (light), and Black Hole (darkness).
Even Evil Has Standards: Vayne may be an evil, scheming son-of-a-bitch, but his hostility appears to be reserved only for those who oppose him. He's polite and well-mannered during his first appearance in Rabanastre, even going so far as to insist that he be addressed as "Vayne" rather than "Lord Consul", a title he says he finds cumbersome. He declares himself "a citizen of Rabanastre" rather than acting like a ruler and orders his soldiers to be respectful to the other citizens.
Executive Meddling: Why Vaan and Penelo exist—the original protagonist was going to be Basch, but the developers were concerned that an older hero wouldn't go over well with Japanese audiences, since JRPGs usually have younger, Bishōnen heroes. They become proper characters in their own right in the Gaiden Games. This trope, combined with tightening the loose ends that come with six years of Development Hell is why the International version of the game is markedly different from the original game.
Exponential Plot Delay: The game moves very fast between Rabanastre and Bhujerba, moves at a steady pace through the Sandsea and the Tomb of Raithwall, then slows to a crawl between that and Draklor as you are sent on fetch quests by supporting characters that often take you through at least one new area to traverse, often more. Then you get to Giruvegan and suddenly the plot begins to rush to a close.
Balthier and Fran are said to be expies of Han and Chewbacca. Balthier's airship, the Strahl, is an analogue of the Millennium Falcon.
Reddas is Lando Calrissian, the Judges - especially Gabranth - are Darth Vader, Ashe is Princess Leia...
The pig-like Seeq resemble the pig-like Gamorreans.
Forget that, the entire game is an Expy of Skies Of Arcadia by way of Star Wars. When the Sky Fortress Bahamut appears, Marquis Ondore might as well have cried "It's a trap!"
The game as a whole also seems like an Expy of Final Fantasy II at times.*
Fitting given that the project was handed over to the lead developer of II in the middle of Development Hell, 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 Beef Gates rather than by convenient geographical accidents).
There are early-game enemies called Slavens, which are described as being "beasts of burden gone feral" that are twice as tall as your characters, but that are barely any more dangerous than the wolves or bats from the areas they show up in.
The Wild Saurian you run into in the very first wild area of the game, however, is very much not this trope, which is why the thing doesn't attack first. Once you reach a certain point in the game, there's a one-fifth chance of a variant popping up, which attacks on sight and is even stronger than the Saurian regularly. There's also the pair of Werewolves in another early game area are hostile, and will one-hit kill you at that point in the game. Some in-game dialogue says that local villagers play chicken with them.
Fantastic Nuke: Nethicite is the reason Nabudis became the Necrohol of Nabudis. The interesting part is that it parallels Real Life nuclear technology - there is no way to undo its development. Not only are nethicite city-smashers being stockpiled, but originally there were huge swaths of land that airships couldn't fly over, all but isolating Ivalice from the rest of the world. Nethicite not only negates that effect, but makes airships faster. By endgame, just about every nation uses nethicite-enhanced airships.
Reddas: Would you like to know the best use of nethicite? Will or nil, I'll tell you. You pick it up, and throw it away.
Fisticuffs Boss: The seeqs in Nalbina Dungeon, unless you bothered to get Vaan the licence for Fire (which you get for free when Balthier and Fran join up). Then it becomes piss easy.
The Big Guy: Basch and Fran, who rarely speak and are the most experienced combatants in the party.
The Chick: Penelo, who is typically first to aid an ailing party member and dispense down to earth wisdom.
Floating Continent: Bhujerba. The floating rocks around the summit of Mt. Bur-Omisace are the remains of one that came crashing down in the distant past.
Especially in the earlier levels where you can't yet touch the Hunts you've been given. If you go through the game and just kill every monster on your way from point A to point B, you will not level up even near the amount you need to tackle the next area, usually. Sometimes even having all the Hunts that you can done will not save you from having to grind.
Besides that, Level Grinding 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 need to know where to go, what to kill, and have the willingness to invest the time in getting it.
Foreshadowing: Balthier's Mysterious Past is hinted at quite a bit in the earlier parts of the game. Notice how he flinches or otherwise perks up whenever nethicite or Draklor Laboratory are mentioned. To say nothing of his accent, and this particular line of dialogue to Larsa:
Balthier: "You can never know another, even your father."
Framing Device: The entire story is described in Marquis Ondore's diaries and documents. Often, especially after important events, he will narrate from them personally.
Gambit Pileup: When the creators of Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story 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.
Get Back Here Boss: Vorpal Bunny, good god. Almost all of the Dreamhare monsters are like this.
Girlish Pigtails: Penelo, which is in keeping with her status as the youngest female in the party and an Expy of Aika.
Getting "Nightsoil" Past the Radar: Also, the textures for the wolf enemies. They were... very, very realistically detailed. To the point that you could tell that the wolves were, in fact, females. And that the larger one used as a bounty was in heat.
Gods of Evil: Debatable. Venat, the heretic is substantially more "evil" in action, but could also be considered a Well-Intentioned Extremist. Also subverted in that the Occuria don't refer to themselves as "gods", whereas everybody else does. It's entirely possible that there's something(s) much bigger out there in the XII world than them.
... Except the good guys are monarchist, and the bad guys, while still called an 'Empire', actually have democratically elected leaders... Well, it's a little more complex than that: Dalmasca had a House of Commons that still exists (albeit with little power) under Archadian rule, and if you listen to NPCs in Archadia, you will learn that the senate is controlled by the wealthiest families of the Empire. The greatest irony about the Empire is that the ruling House Solidor rose to power by taking control of the army and making sure that it remained a meritocratic institution. The brilliance is that while there is a clear social divide in Archadia, the game drops subtle hints that show that the Archadian army allows people from different social background to work together and that people from unprivileged origins can rise to the top of the hierarchy (a feat nearly impossible in the civilian society), thus explaining why Vayne is popular and why Larsa is pretty certain for most of the game that his family holds the moral high ground.
Additionally, the Archadian Empire isn't evil — despite their leaders' actions in the war, many Imperials are usually decent guys who uphold the safety of the Empire's citizens, even in conquered territories, and the Archadian people are as sympathetic and human as anyone from Rabanastre. That doesn't change the fact that Vayne is still a megalomaniacal asshole who wants to rule the world, nor does it change the fact that the Empire conquered other realms for power. It's more of a case of both sides having issues. The good guys are just a lot better.
Gratuitous Foreign Language: Sanskrit. The Bhujerbans use it often. Bhadra is essentially the Sanskrit version of Sir/Madam. Parijanah means "guide". Madhu means "honey". And there are various other examples too.
Gratuitous Iambic Pentameter: Literally, in the case of Venat and occasionally the Judges Magister. The rest of the Occuria speak in iambic tetrameter.
Gratuitous Spanish (/Portuguese): The Great Crystal's name in Japanese is "Cristal Grande", which pretty much translates to "Great (or Big) Crystal" in Spanish or Portuguese.
Word of God says they actively went for this, giving the party members character flaws and the antagonists virtues. In their own way everyone is just doing what they think is right, for themselves, for others or for their country, and it's not hard to at least understand why they feel the way they do, even if you don't agree.
It even continues into the credits, what with the still image of a quite happy (and sane) looking Dr. Cid holding baby Balthier, who is turns out from said image is the spitting image of his father in his younger days.
Guest Star Party Member: Assorted Guild members help out on hunts or in dangerous areas and some random people out on the field. Plotwise, Vossler (before he becomes a boss), Larsa (using a fake name the first time), Reddas (until he takes out the Sun-Cryst), and Gabranth. One could count Reks as well since he doesn't last that long.
Guide Dang It: The game has a slew of bonus content including optional areas, sidequests with NPCs, optional bosses and rare items that you will simply never find if you don't know how. To recap some of them:
The Zodiac Spear. It's the most powerful weapon in the game. You find it in an optional area in a normal treasure chest, but only if you avoid opening four chests in the early areas of the game, and the game gives you absolutely no hints or warnings to this. If you fail to acquire it the normal way, fortunately it randomly appears in a chest in another area. However, there's only a 10% chance of the chest appearing, a 10% chance it contains an item, and a 10% that item is the spear. For those who aren't good with math, that works out to a one in a thousand chance of finding the spear.
The Bazaar will eventually sell the best equipment in the game, but only if you sell the right combination of items in the proper quantities—by the way, you aren't told what you need to sell or in what quantities. Finding these items is also a Guide Dang It because some of them can only be stolen/dropped/poached from a handful of enemies, and you're not told what they are or where you can find them. And speaking of finding them, a lot of enemies in the game only spawn under certain circumstances, like entering an area with a party member at low HP, killing a certain number of enemies within an area, or waiting around a certain point for a period of time.
It's fairly obvious that a lot of the dungeons you enter have additional areas, you can see them on the map and will often find locked gates and other obstacles blocking your path. Good luck figuring out how to access these areas though.
A number of the treasure cheasts that can only be opened once can be wasted by using (or sometimes not using) the Diamond Armlet, an accessory that improves the quality of items you find from chests, but sometimes screws you over by turning a really good item into vendor trash. This was at least fixed in the No Export for You international edition, in which all one time cheasts will always give you a specific treasure (though some of them still have a limited chance to spawn in the first place).
Ham-to-Ham Combat: Just get Dr. Cid and Balthier in the same room and stand back!
Heel Face Turn: Several, some prior to the game's beginning. Arguably, Princess Ashe and friends, when they refuse to do the Occuria's bidding to exterminate the Empire. The aformentioned Gabranth as well.
Lampshaded by Balthier: "I am the leading man. Might need to do something heroic." He does, of course, go on to make a heroic sacrifice... and survive it. Smooth operator. It's lampshaded again, too: During the Heroic Sacrifice, Balthier tells the party members not to worry about him, as the leading man, he claims he can't die.
On the other hand, it's played surprisingly straight by several of the Judge Magisters, including Gabranth, Drace, and former Judge Zecht. Even Zargabaath is about to make one at the end, when some last-minute assistance makes it unnecessary.
Humans Are The Real Monsters: Humes are portrayed as very power-hungry and driven to make their mark on the world due to their short lives, including via war and conquest. Ashe gets singled out several times by non-Hume characters for embodying this trait including the Occuria.
Impersonating the Evil Twin: In order to keep up appearances (and to maintain the pretext of the fragile Arcadia-Dalmasca peace treaty) Basch takes over the role (and identity) of Judge Gabranth at the end of the game from his twin brother Noah.
Improbable Aiming Skills: The Imperial Trooper who kills Rassler does so by shooting him with an arrow. Through the one unarmored spot on his body. While Rassler is mounted. In the middle of a pitched battle. Across the span of a bridge. At night. If it wasn't for the fast Basch kills him, the man would probably be deserving of a promotion.
Inconsistent Dub: In that subtitles and spoken dialogue often come out very different. Though it's rare, sometimes the two just don't match up.
Cid (dialogue): Alas, the hour of your return is late.
Cid (subtitle): Alas, your return is too late.
This was actually intentional, as the game's text was translated long before voice acting was recorded. In this particular instance, the change line comes from the actor rewording or improvising it to sound either more natural, or more in-line with how the character speaks.
Played with in a subquest involving the delivery of a letter to various stewardesses working on the many airship routes across Ivalice. They really are sisters, all of them.
Gilgamesh also has a collection of these from prior games in the series, and some outside the series. And every single one is a fake.
The best example of an Infinity+1 Sword in this game has to be the Wyrmhero Blade, which can only be acquired by beating two incredibly hard Bonus Bosses (Yiazmat and Omega Mk. XII) and trading in the rewards you get for them (along with another reward you get by punching a statue of a dragon after completing a certain hunt. It grants the wielder permanent Bravery and Faith status and HAS NO LICENCE, meaning you can equip it as soon as you get it. Unfortunately, it's so slow that it ends up being more of a Bragging Rights Reward.
Informed Ability: 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.
Around the middle of the game, however, it's revealed that her magic has grown weaker since she left her Hidden Elf Village, so this may be at least partially justified.
Fran and Balthier have slightly modified attack animations when using their default weapons (bows and guns, respectively.) Thing is, these animations take longer than the normal ones, making their rate of fire slower - meaning that they are each the worst at their preferred weapon type out of the party.
Injured Vulnerability: The Poach skill only works on weakened enemies, but you can gain rare items with it.
Interface Screw: Some optional bosses such as the Espers are this way, particularly those that disable certain parts of your battle menu (you can't do standard attacks against one, you can't use items against another).
Item Amplifier: The Item Lore Augments increase the effectiveness of items for each one purchased.
Lady Drunk: The Antlion sidequest woman is still feeling under the clouds even after her children came back home. You can give her some booze for 1000 gil, and she'll stand atop a box and do some weird movements.
Lady of War: Ashe. Also the older and more experienced Judge Drace.
Large Ham: Dr. Cid - "A trial for Ashelia B'Nargin Dalmasca!"; also, to some extent, Balthier (runs in the family), Judge Ghis and Reddas.
Also, the volume of Vayne's voice goes up a signifcant number of decibels during the final boss fights....
Gilgamesh says your silverware are forfeit to him.
Layered Metropolis: Rabanastre is divided into two halves following its occupation by Archadian forces. "Lowtown", as its name suggests, lies beneath the streets and is comprised of storerooms, now converted into residences.
Lazy Backup: Averted. If all three party members are KO'd, you have to switch in your reserve characters. In fact, the ONLY way to get a Game Over is to have all six party members wiped out.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Right from the get-go, Balthier refers to himself as "the leading man", and furthermore makes mention to "the story". He seems a bit too aware of his role as one of the leads in a video game.
The irony is that he fancies himself the leading man, but that status more rightly belongs with Ashe, Basch. He's more Wrong Genre Savvy.
Balthier is also one of a few characters to break the fourth wall to give tutorials on how the game works, particularly the gambit system. The gambit system itself leans on the fourth wall considering conversations with NPCs in gambit shops and with one woman in Archades whose husband accidentally developed a shopping gambit that she was the unwitting guinea pig for.
Leitmotif: The very distinctive "Theme of FINAL FANTASY XII" (which itself uses the overworld theme to Final Fantasy I) and "Imperial Theme" are reprised throughout a variety of themes, such as the boss-battle "Strike of a Blade," "State of Urgency," and "Desperate Fight." Even the iconic "Prelude" is augmented with a few chords from it. The Final Battle theme, "The Battle for Freedom," includes a very somber, ominous arrangement of "Imperial Theme," but as the sequence plays out it is overcome and drowned out by a heroic version of the main theme.
Lethal Chef: In the first game, a minor character who gives you a chop when you find a philosopher of food willing to try her... unusual cooking ("it's painful, yet delicious!"). Penelo starts out as this in Revenant Wings, but slowly improves over the course of the game to the point where Larsa gladly pays to have her airship cafe remodeled after sampling her cuisine.
Lethal Joke Item: The Manufacted Nethicite that Larsa gives you usually doesn't see much use, as while it gives you half-damage from elements, it casts permanent Silence on its user. But you can get a lot of mileage on it by designating someone a tank (Basch works well for this, as he doesn't come with any magic), and giving it to him. That way, you've got someone who can wade through elemental attacks with ease, and always has full MP to start a Quickening chain.
Light Is Not Good: The ultimate mark, an ancient dragon with 50 million hit points, that killed Montblanc's mentor, is light elemental.
If the Bestiary info is anything to go by, Ultima also applies.
Arguably the Occuria considering their mysterious, celestial appearance.
Limit Break: Each party member, guests aside, have three that can be chained together in a lengthy sequence. do it right and you can get a Concurrence to really up the damage output. Espers and Bosses seem to have them as well.
Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System. There was also a tin-boxed special edition available at launch which contianed a FF Retrospective DVD.
Loads and Loads of Sidequests: The game has tons of these, ranging from hunting marks and getting rewards to pretty much just running around and running stuff. It could be said that the amount of extra content is larger than the main plot.
Lost Forever Unless We Have Lots Of Time On Our Hands: The Zodiac Spear - see Guide Dang It above. Otherwise, rare Loot items can be acquired either easily from bosses and marks, or you can spend hours farming normal enemies. For example, the Orthros mark has Slime Oil to steal - miss it and you're stuck racing Rikken 90 times to get another one. And then there's Gilgamesh and all four pieces of Genji Equipment you can steal from him - no other enemy in the game can be stolen from more than once, or has the item you can steal from them change depending on their HP.
Before you even get through the Prologue, you're fighting a machine-gunning VTOL with broadswords. Ordinarily that'd be a Curb-Stomp Battle for your enemy - but in this case it's just letting you know that this is Ivalice.
Manual Leader AI Party: It was the first game in the series to use this. The player controls one party member at once and has the option of customizing the AI of the party.
Marathon Boss: Omega Mk.XII (an hour), Hell Wyrm (hour and a half) & Yiazmat (twelve hours, which nabs the page's picture) are all offenders here. Zodiark can turn into this if you're not careful.
Mass Monster Slaughter Sidequest: You can only complete the Clan Primer by killing a certain number of every single enemy in the game.
Maximum HP Reduction: A status ailment called "Disease" prevents healing, by reducing the victim's maximum HP any time they take damage.
May The Farce Be With You: In many respects, the game could be considered how the original trilogy would have gone if Luke had no Jedi powers, wasn't Darth Vader's son, and the Separtist movement from the prequels were still around as a faction strong enough to oppose the Empire.
Mood Whiplash: Finding the Sword of Kings. After a lengthy dungeon and a battle with what is likely your second Esper, you enter a chamber full of Clock PunkMagitek. The magical machinery grinds to a halt, its glow fades, the sword floats forward for Ashe to take hold off...then clangs to the ground as she finds it too heavy to hold with one hand.
Money for Nothing / Money Spider: Mostly averted. You only get money from humanoid enemies, but can sell the loot you find to get new items from the Bazaar.
My Country, Right or Wrong: During the talk with Anastasis, Ashe believes that initiating a world war to revive her country and reestablish her part as the Princess of Dalmasca is the best option. It's possible that she was influenced by the Nethicite, but the other characters like Vaan have convinced her to Take a Third Option.
Mythology Gag: too many to count. Some notable gags:
The name of one of the Bonus Bosses is Omega Mk. XII. Simple, but gets the point.
Most of the Airships are named after some of the iconic summons and characters in the series.
The Final Boss, the Undying, fusion of Big Bads Venat and Vayne, is a literal mechanical dragon. In addition, some of its special attacks have Flare in their names (e.g. "Mega Flare"). Most of the parts that make up this monstrosity came from the Airship/fortress "Bahamut".
See Gilgamesh and his, erm, "borrowed" swords.
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 the Emperor hovering outside of their hometown in a large flying fortress guarded by a cyclone. Hmmm, now where have I heard that one before?
There's actually an homage to Final Fantasy's rival series, Dragon Quest, in the form of the Wyrmhero Blade (Called 'Tolo's Sword' in Japan.), modeled after the sword of the legendary hero Loto (also known as Erdrick).
A stranger form of Mythology Gag is found in Yiazmat's name. Yasumi Matsuno, the man behind Ivalice, was known to his peers as 'YAZMAT.'
At the end of the game Balthier is said to be off looking for the "Cache of Glabados"—a reference to St. Ajora Glabados of Final Fantasy Tactics. According to background information, Ajora is supposedly alive around the time in Ivalice when Final Fantasy XII occurs.
He's still looking for it when he appears as a cameo in the PSP version of Tactics. How he did the Time Travel is not explained, but, unlike Cloud, nobody sees him as strange because he's talking about something that probably has some (even if probably different) meaning in their timeline.
In Final Fantasy X, when fighting the Behemoth enemy, Wakka will sometimes quip "How many steaks do you think we can get out of these?" In Final Fantasy XII, the Behemoth enemies sometimes drop the Loot item "Behemoth Steak".
Non-Human Undead: Many of the monster types have an undead version. Examples include undead wolves, undead war horses, undead vampire bats, undead slimes, and undead bombs. There's also the requisite undead boss who is a Conjoined Twins demon with visible skull.
New Game Plus: In the International version. Beat the game, and it unlocks this, where nothing carries over, but everyone starts at level 90 (not as great as you think, you'll find out fast just how gear-dependent this game is). Beat the 100-man trial, and you unlock New Game Minus, where no one gains any exp, period.
No OSHA Compliance: The city of Bhujerba is on a floating continent in the sky, and some portions of the city have no railings running around the edges of the walkways! However, it's said in-game that no one who falls from Bhujerba dies, and this demonstrated in-game by the character "Fallen Bhujerban" who is found in Phon Coast. The fall from the skycity gave him amnesia and probably hurt a bit, but he's alive.
Older Than They Look: The Viera live much for longer than Humes, so this trope probably fits quite a few of them. Fran for example, left her village 50 years before the start of the game yet still retains the appearance of a female in her twenties.
Nalbina fortress which is only there in the prelude due to it being destroyed.
Rabanastre Palace during the heist
Nalbina Dungeons which is only accessible during your escape.
Several airship dungeons including the Leviathan and Shiva.
Draklor Laboratory in Archades
One-Winged Angel: The final form of the final boss Vayne's, with wings formed out of parts of Sky Fortress Bahamut, even. This is a Final Fantasy game, after all.
Only One Name: In a game where most characters have not just first and last names, but middle names too, Vaan, Fran, Penelo, and Reks only have first names. With Fran it's a cultural thing, while Vaan and Penelo are commoners (and orphans for that matter) while the rest of the party is all nobility of some order.
Our Werewolves Are Different: Bipedal monsters called "Werewolves" live in the Giza Plains south of Dalmasca. They're similar in function to the Behemoths encountered much later, but lore from the game's Monster Compendium claims that they used to be human, and became transformed into monsters after eating some kind of contaminated meat.
Paper-Thin Disguise: It usually isn't too difficult to tell what treasure pots are really Mimics, especially later in the game when some Mimics are bright red, while the treasure pots they're supposed to be hiding as are usually gray and black.
"I'm Basch fon Ronsenburg of Dalmasca!" This is partially justified in that it was more to stir up trouble than it was to actually convince anyone that Vaan was Basch.
Party in My Pocket: In towns your party is represented by Vaan (even if he's not in the active party). Out in the field and in dungeons your three active characters (and whatever guests are with you) are always present and can be swapped out for your reserves at any moment.
Pause Scumming: The player can enter the party menu any time, during combat or otherwise. This enables such things as removing equipment from characters who are under Confusion ailment and about to murder a party member, or switching accessories and armour to nullify the effect of a status ailment or elemental spell the enemy is readying.
Though there is now a translation patch for the International edition which makes the game 99% in English.
Portal Network: You can expend a teleport stone to use save crystals you've visited before to get to all the important locations in the world. In fact, despite Balthier owning an airship, this will be your dominant means of long-distance transport in the game, and it can take you to far more locations than the airship can. Given that it's cheaper than commercial travel in the game (which you'll never use outside of one sidequest), one wonders how the aerodromes stay in business!
The Power of the Sun: The bonus note in the bestiary for Garuda-Egi suggests that the sun is aligned with holy power, not fire, dispelling the "myth" that the sun is a just large, firey sphere.
Punch Clock Villains: When you're not busy carving your way through their ranks, most of the Archadians are a fairly decent lot. The Archadian civilians are worried about normal day-to-day issues like finding employment and buying their spouses gifts, and some of the Archadian soldiers stationed in Rabanastre show a genuine concern for its citizens and truly want to keep the peace. For example, one of the Hunts is petitioned by an Archadian soldier in the city who saw a dangerous monster, but his superior brushed him off. Thus, he decided to pay money out of his own pocket to hire you to kill it before it causes trouble.
Judge Zargabaath at the end of the game, is willing to sacrifice himself, the Empire's flagship, and the hundreds of crewmen aboard it, to save someone else's city.
Purple Prose: The Magic Pots return again in this game. Rather than simply asking for an elixir in a crude manner such as they've done before ("Gimme Elixir!"), they clamor for the elixirs, and are outraged whenever you attack them.
Read the Freaking Manual: The reply of every person frustrated with newbies who equipped the Goddess Magicite or the Dawn/Dusk Shard (They cause forever zero MP or Silence as long as it's worn) without bothering reading the item information displayed on screen and then asked why they can't cure their characters.
Realpolitik: Pretty much the core theme of the game. The Archadean Empire is not on a war of conquest for glory or power, at least not only for those things, but because it is surrounded by nations who are the puppets of the Occuria. The twisted scheme to force a total surrender on Rabanastre - they couldn't comb the city for nethicite otherwise. Their quest for nethicite, again not for selfish reasons - nethicite is the tool used by the Occuria to manipulate humanity, and the only means Archades can fight back. Vayne is actually completely honest about accepting Rabanastre's hatred of him - he knows he's temporarily reduced them to slaves in his quest to free the world from the Occuria, and accepts that he'll be remembered as a monster for it. Anything as long as the Occuria are defeated, because that's the only way his nation will be safe. The numberless people who suffer and die due to this are regrettable but disposable.
Recurring Boss: 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 Gunblade and the Buster Sword.
It was implied in an earlier game that Gilgamesh's "death" in FFV really just sent him careening through time and space, sticking his nose into every game along the way and borrowing trophies.
Repeatable Quest: The game has only one repeatable quest, and it's very modest, and available very early. By visiting the Giza village and running around in the Giza Plains area, you can create multiple Sunstones, which sell for what is a moderate bonus for the player at that part of the game — but the player could get the amount from just killing wolves and selling the loot, and on the side get both EXP and LP.
Rotating Protagonist: Everyone has a spot where they are in the lime-lite although Penelo, Fran and to a lesser extent Basch less so then the other three.
Royal Blood: Played with, Ashe's royal name carries weight, but not enough. The entire reason Ashe wants the Dawn Shard is because she needs power to back up her lineage and with it could try to rally kingdoms to her cause, or maybe negotiate for Dalmasca's freedom with then-Emperor Gramis. Ghis comments though that the Shard is the real item of worth against her bloodline, if Arcadia needs Ashe, they can come up with a look-alike and use the Shard to declare her the real thing.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: Ashe could have just given in to despair, but she instead is basically the hero of the game. Larsa also counts.
Balthier: I doubt we’ll find her wanting in valor… Being such an upstanding member of the insurgence.
Amalia: Resistance.
Early on in the game, you'll start hearing random citizens in Bhujerba going on about "Bhujerban Madhu", a local brew that's in short supply. Then you start seeing NPCs who are suicidally depressed, half-drunk, or raging over a bad day, all of whom are jonesing for Bhujerban Madhu. Then you start finding caskets of Bhujerban Madhu. Then you start selling them...
Sacrificial Lion: Reddas. Though in fairness, it was completely his choice.
Vossler is a straighter example, dying at approximately the quarter-way mark of the story and cementing himself this trope as he's a former Guest Star Party Member. At this point, it became clear that even the protagonists weren't completely safe.
Satan: Venat. To prove how much of an utter group of jackasses the Occuria are, Venat is the game's Big Bad and still comes across as the most sympathetic among them, and even performing a Villainous Sacrifice to help Vayne. This doesn't work, but it still wins, as the Occuria have been rendered powerless now that all their conduits to the physical world have been severed.
Sand is Water: The Ogir-Yensa and Nam-Yensa sandseas.
Sealed Evil in a Can: The Esper, Famfrit. The "can" in this case being a suit of armor.
Secret Shop: Very, very much. It's in the optional dungeon, opens at the very end of the game, and it's invisible.
Sequel Difficulty Spike: While still not all that hard once you get the hang of the battle system, this is still one of the harder main series Final Fantasy games. Enemies have group attacks and status attacks and they will use them, and conversely paying or not paying attention to the elemental and status vulnerabilities of enemies can make a big difference. Level Grinding and the subquests aren't mandatory, but the game assumes you're at least taking your time between areas and not just zooming through them, because if you do you'll be overwhelmed in the next major area when the enemies suddenly get stronger. As well, Money for Nothing is averted, new skills and equipment are expensive and you may not always have enough loot to sell to afford what you want.
Sequence Breaking: With a few exceptions you're free to move between areas freely as you like, accessing rare drops and new shops ahead of time. However, you still have to do the storyline events in a specific order and a few areas are sealed off before you do. Plus, if you skip ahead to a later area out of order the monsters you meet will often be at a much higher level and thus sequence breaking is very dangerous unless you flee from fights.
Scenery Porn: While opinions on the game are divisive, one thing everyone agrees: The game's sceneries are absolutely gorgeous.
Science Is Bad: Subversion, in that the most tech you see hails from the evil Archadian Empire which isn't evil at all, and the divine Occuria condemn it for manufacturing Nethicite ("the power of the gods") because they don't want mortals to have control of their own fates.
Moogles are the source of a lot of other technology, including Bhujerban airships.
Shaggy Dog Story: From a certain point of view. As early as the Tomb of Raithwall the Empire actually offers to let Ashe take the throne publically and rule over Dalmasca again, but she refuses because she wants to keep fighting the Empire. Ultimately her attempts to attain power or weaken Archadia's don't amount to anything, and while it's her Character Development that convinces her to change her mind, up until then the party really doesn't do a thing to affect the grander scheme of things except making the world powers more suspicious and paranoid than they already were. Which of course almost begins a world war that the party has to act to stop in the climax.
Most notably, the plot references Star Wars with some enthusiasm: Apart from the obvious comparison between Judge Gabranth and Darth Vader, there Princess Ashelia and Princess Leia, as well as Balthier / Han Solo and Fran / Chewbacca. Wedge and Biggs make a cameo as well, with their names scrambled up a little this time around.
A background conversation between Vaan, Penelo and Larsa while Ashe and Basch discuss weightier matters is a shout out to the notorious Good Bad Translation of Final Fantasy Tactics. "I had a good feeling." "This is the way!"
There's also its rare game called Vagrant Soul, yet another reference to Vagrant Story. Its name in the Japanese version is Soul of Chaos, which refers to Final Fantasy I.
All the Star Wars allegories and references are shamed by the overhead shot shown of the Draklor Laboratory... it's shaped like a Super Star Destroyer.
None of the traditional summons from the main games are featured in the game (a first!) but their names survive as the names of the airships used by the Archadian and Resistance fleets. Notably, two flagships which serve as mini-dungeons are Shiva and Leviathan, Marquis Ondore's ship is Odin and the final dungeon is Bahamut.
Furthermore, the ship destroyed at the beginning is called "Tonberry."
The whole back story of Venat being disowned by her own race for giving the humes the secret of magicks via magicite/nethicite, is similar to the tale of Prometheus.
At the start of the sidequest "Anne and her Sisters", the gentleman that Anne is talking to is named Rande.
A Pirate Gossip in the bar in Balfonheim tells you about a strange fellow he met who talked about defeating a wyrm on Cerobi Steppe... "But I heard all he does is yell at windmills. Pity the man that rides with him."
The Smurfette Principle: Ultima and Shemhazzai are the only female Espers while Drace is the only female Judge.
Soundtrack Dissonance: Fighting on the field in Ozmone Plain, Cerobi Steppe, Paramina Rift, and the Great Crystal. Also, hunting Marks in these areas (music does not change when fighting Marks (except for when luring out Ba'gamnan and encountering Gilgamesh), such as Trickster in Paramina Rift, where you fight a particularly tough Bonus Boss with a calm movie score-like song playing.
Don't forget doing Quickenings. The music does not change for this either, so you get to hear the calm music of Ozmone Plain or Paramina Rift while your characters tear asunder space and time.
Space Cold War: Rozarria = NATO, Archades = Warsaw Pact, Nethicite = Nuclear Weapons, Dalmasca = any country that got a proxy war in it such as Korea and Vietnam. This game could even be viewed as what would happen if during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuba was researching ancient magic that would let them mass-produce even more nuclear weapons. All in all, this is why so much of the plot of the game is about politics and faction leaders while your party tries to get an edge in on the coming conflict — Rozarria and Archadia both don't trust the other to back down and don't want to do so themselves for fear of appearing weak, and while Archadia's nethicite research is allowing them to acquire more and more power, Rozarria is itching to seize the chance to make the first move before Archadia can. This is why the game's climax centers around stopping the battle between Archadia and the Resistance, because it's the chance Rozarria has been waiting for and if they get involved the dreaded world war will begin.
Spanner in the Works: Despite his status as the Decoy Protagonist, Vaan of all people manages to undermine the Occuria's plans. His ability to see Reks, as Ashe saw Rasler, implies that the Occuria would use him were Ashe to turn aside from their plan for her. Instead, he overcomes the illusions, refuses to take revenge on behalf of his brother, and ultimately may have been the role model Ashe needed to reject the Occuria.
Stab the Sky: Prince Rasler in the opening cutscene
The Starscream: Judge Ghis. He's assigned as Vayne's personal aide, something he detests, and thinks he is (and possibly is) more intelligent than him. He seems set to betray him and possibly even the Empire right before his doom.
Sticks to the Back: All greatswords stick directly to your back, with a slight clang, suggesting they're stuck there using magnets.
Stripperiffic: Ashe and her micro-skirt, Fran and her armored teddy — and arguably Vaan's outfit as well. Penelo's skintight jumpsuit is modest by those standards, but still pretty revealing.
Regarding Penello, there's a very gratuitous shot early in the game where pretty much all you can see is her crotch area, and you can see the texture of her panties underneath.
The Dalmascans in general are as well.
The arguable winner in this category is a minor NPC in Reddas' crew◊. She wears a coat that might as well not exist for all the coverage it provides and sports a pink g-string over hot pants. It's as though she's had clothing described to her, but doesn't actually understand the concept.
Sword of Plot Advancement: Uniquely, all the magic doodads you find during the course of the game - such as Nethicite and the swords you're sent to find, etc. - are equippable but have ridiculously bad stats. Nethicite, true to its plot purpose of sucking up magic, reduces your MP to zero, but also reduces magic attacks against you big time. Helpful against the boss fight with Mateus.
Justified in the case of the swords, seeing as they were made with the sole purpose of destroying nethicite and the Sun-Cryst and not for combat.
Tech Points: Defeated enemies yield "License Points" used to purchase new abilities, in addition to the traditional Experience Points.
Tell Me How You Fight: Although with the proper license, any character can use any type of weapon, each of them has a particular style that's visible regardless of weapon equipped. Balthier tends to use everything one-handed, even two-handed weapons, which reflects on his laid-back persona. Fran holds anything that isn't a ranged weapon elegantly to one side. Vaan uses low, wide stances that, in real life, generally allows a person to cover ground quickly. Penelo, starting with a knife, has an acrobatic, dance-like fighting style most easily seen with her unarmed style with Brawler unlocked. Ashe's style is pretty defensive, with even her unarmed stance has her putting a hand up in front of her like she's using a shield. Basch is pretty much the Combat Pragmatist given that all his moves are basic strikes executed from a natural standing stance and border on Boring, but Practical.
To Be Lawful or Good: Judge Zargabaath struggles with this most of the game, usually deciding on Lawful.
Token Non Human: Fran is the only non-human in the cast. This is glaring, as the game has the most non-human species of any game except IX (which can hardly be said to have many distinct species).
Too Dumb to Live: The second page of the Chimera Brain's entry in the Bestiary is Report #A0075 O.P.O.D:
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
Unexpected Successor: With all the other Judges either dead or defected, the rarely seen Judge Zargabaath is left in command of the Archadian army at the end of the game.
Underground Monkey: Subverted. The in-game encyclopedia gives long explanations on monster genus origins and the subtle differences between subspecies in different areas. The monsters are never just pallete swaps, but actually reflect their habitat in their designs.
The Unpronounceable: An NPC called Ktjn is involved in an optional sidequest. According to supplementary materials, it's pronounced "kitten", though in Japanese it's "Katreen". Most of the other Viera fall under this too - Fran seems to be the only exception as one of the few Viera fortunate enough to afford a vowel in her name, which seems to fit considering she's not like other Viera.
Updated Rerelease: The wrongly-named "International Version" of the game, whose changes and additions are too numerous and important to list here. Despite being subtitled "International Version : Zodiac Job System", it is Japan-exclusive.
This is mainly due to the fact that FF VII and X were also given "International Releases", which essentially means that it's all the additions the US versions got that Japan didn't in their initial release, and then some. That being said, the Zodiac Job System version might as well be considered a brand new game.
Vendor Trash: It's your main only source of income. Unlike previous entries enemies don't randomly drop gil when killed, they drop Loot instead, which you have to sell to make money.
Humanoid enemies do drop money, and you can steal gil from some other enemies, but that's a drop in the bucket.
Videogame Geography: The Kerwon continent is screwed up. Frozen tundra & mountains border lush tropical jungles. Most oddly, Mt. Bur-Omisace, at the top of a long climb through the frozen Paramina Rift, is relatively nice & sunny (or rainy). It's warmer on top of the mountain than at the base! Similarly, the continent temperature varies strongly east-to-west instead of north-to-south.
Of course, this is in a game with sand seas & floating continents, but at least all the deserts are equatorial.
It is heavily implied the Mist has a profound effect on the environment and the ecology, so Mist concentrations are likely the cause of Kerwon's badly put-together jigsaw puzzle status.
There's also the fact that with certain environmental conditions (mainly volcanic heat), things like Mt. Bur-Omisace is very much in the realm of possibility.
The Walls Are Closing In: The game has two Demon Wall enemies. The first one you fight presents a twist — it is powered up and offers you little time to defeat it, but it is fortunately a Skippable Boss and you are meant to flee the battle by using the door that it would crush you against, and instead fight the second wall in the next room. The second one (the one you must defeat) is much weaker and offers much more time to win. If so desired, you can come back later in the game to rematch against the first wall. Unless of course, you've done a lot of Level Grinding, in which case you can just off the first one right away and pick up a weapon that you're not intended to have at that point in the game yet (still not quite the Infinity+1 Sword though, but it is one of the games many, many Disc One Nukes).
War Is Hell: Basch is very much of this opinion. Vossler believes this to an even greater degree, betraying Ashe in an attempt to peacefully restore Dalmasca.
Wave Motion Gun: The battery of Mist Cannons mounted on the top levels of SkyFortressBahamut, used to sink (read:utterly disintegrate) Resistance cruisers in one shot.
"The Humes ever skew hist'ry's weave. With haste they move through too-short lives. Driven to err by base desires, t'ward waste and wasting on they run. Undying, we Occuria light the path for wayward sons of man."
Whole Scene Reference: The game's plot draws a lot of inspiration from Star Wars in general, but in particular the final assault on the Bahamut is virtually identical to the Death Star assault in Return of The Jedi, except that it's in the sky rather than in space.
X Meets Y: Not infrequently described as "what happened when Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings films got together and made a video game." The amount of parallels and possible shoutouts is staggering.
Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Superbly averted. The semi-Shakespearean dialogue is performed so smoothly and naturally that you stop noticing pretty quickly. When you do notice it, it's only because it's awesome and memorable.
You ALL Share My Story: Played relatively straight. The main characters of the story are;
Ashe, the Princess who lost her country to invaders.
Balthier, AKA Ffamran mied Bunansa, the son of one of the architects of the invasion.
Basch, the guy who took the fall for the invasion.
Vaan is the Player Character because he has the best perspective of the whole train wreck - a civilian who not only has to live in a conquered country, but lost family to the conquest. Penelo tags along with him to keep him from snapping due to the three blowhards who play their power games, ignoring how normal people suffered in the turmoil. And Fran is there to remind them that the world is bigger than their squabbles - She has extensive knowledge of the origins of magick, as well as friends among the races who left the games behind.
You Bastard: Some of the Mark hunts are memorably harsh, particularly the "Legendary" ones such as the White Chocobo and Black Chocobo, who keel over with a pathetic "Kweh." It's enough to make an FF fan die inside.
The Behemoth King is tough to even find: the player must slay every monster in the south Feywood within a set time limit. Once the King perishes, its dossier reveals that it's a guardian spirit which protects the creatures of the Feywood. Oops.
The manga adaptation provides examples of:
Adaptational Badass: The Judges have been each upgraded from Elite Mook to One-Man Army, possessing superhuman strength and speed in addition to their fighting training making them powerful duelists. Take Ghis for example—he kills Firemane single-handedly and then takes on Fran and Balthier and was beating them until Vaan intervened. And he was barehanded the whole time.
Standard operating procedure seems to be for the game's bosses to suffer Badass Decay so the party members can gain this trait dealing One Hit KOs to them — Fran uses a Quickening to freeze a second Firemane solid, and Basch cleaves the Mimic Queen apart in one swing. Using a rusted and cracked sword he repaired to working condition using Heroic Willpower.
Adaptation Expansion: Flashbacks show the circumstances of how Ashe and Rasler fell in love, why Archadia began the war, and Basch's side of the story during the night Raminas was killed.
Pragmatic Adaptation: As the chapters progressed from backstory to the in-game events, it still follows the general outline of the game's plot, but a lot of scenes are swapped out and new ones added in.
Ascended Extra: Vossler's role in the early game is much more fleshed out.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: What Vaan is shaping into. The other characters note he's an idiot, but when he gets into a fight, through either quick thinking or dumb luck, he's surprisingly capable.
Hotter and Sexier: While Ashe is the focus of this as described below, Fran and Penelo aren't exempt either. Penelo appears in her home in her underwear in one scene, and overall the three female party members are often shown from angles that emphasize their breasts and rears.
Ms. Fanservice: Ashe is prone to being depicted very gratuitously, her rear particularly being emphasized often, and on one page she's fully nude with Barbie Doll Anatomy.
Shout Out: When Ashe "borrows" Lord Rasler's sword and runs off, he calls out after her.
World of Ham: There is a lot of shouting and grandstanding going on. Even from characters who are calm and collected in the game, Basch for example. So far the only ones not to get in on it are Vayne, Fran and Penelo.
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