History SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome / FinalFantasy

** Tellah is a ''very'' old man, and mixing this with GameplayAndStoryIntegration, he actually gets weaker as he levels up, his stats decreasing and his magic costs going up. He might be a incredibly powerful master of both Black and White Magic, but his advanced age means he hit his physical peak long ago and has only been degrading with the stress and strain of having to go on an adventure like this and keep up with much younger characters.

** When Vaan, Balthier, and Fran meet Basch in the Nalbina Dungeons, he attempts to explain what really happened the night the king of Dalmasca died and he apparently betrayed his people and killed Vaan's brother Reks; he had an EvilTwin brother who posed as him and killed the king, that way Reks would be an UnwittingPawn. While it turns out that he is being completely honest and correct, Balthier points out how ridiculous it would be to just outright believe Basch's words, and Vaan outright refuses to believe it. The only reason Balthier and Fran give the info any credibility is because they did just see Gabranth take his helmet off to show a similar face to Basch, so they have evidence to suggest he is telling the truth. Even still, they only release him because of pragmatic reasons, and it takes a bit for the three to accept that he wasn't lying.

*** Yuna revealed to the world that Yevonism was both hypocritical and led by people upholding an AncientConspiracy. As a result, not even the most staunch followers of Yevon stayed loyal, especially since Yuna and her guardians gave the world no reason to stay loyal by permanently defeating Sin in a way that directly went against Yevon's teachings. But instead of Yevon going away completely, the upper brass tried replacing it with the "New Yevon" religion, which keeps to the positive morals of the old religion while preaching for conservatively making changes to the world.

*** After millennia of MedievalStasis, Spira's freedom from Yevon's machina ban causes the world to change ''drastically'' in just a few years. Formerly untamed wildernesses like the Calm Lands and religious sites like Zanarkand have turned into tourist attractions. Augmenting technology into combat has forced off most wild beasts, leaving formerly endgame zones relatively safe. The Thunder Plains in particular, for what a pain to navigate they used to be, has turned the lightning storms into a non-issue with machina-augmented lightning rods laid out across the entire road.

*** Politics have also shifted after Yuna revealed to the world that Yevonism was both hypocritical and led by ghosts upholding an AncientConspiracy. As a result, not even the most staunch followers of Yevon stayed loyal, instead replacing it with the "New Yevon" religion - which keeps to the positive morals of the old religion while preaching for conservatively giving machines to the world. It also gave rise to the Youth League, who think that since most of Yevon was lies, they don't deserve the time of day for redemption and want to tear down as many walls as possible to augment the world with machines. The Al Bhed, who have centuries of persecution from Yevon behind them for their use of Machina, naturally side with the League. When the two factions go to war, the story angles towards the Youth League being the "right" faction, as while neither is technically in the right and both are at fault for tensions getting so high, siding with a church that has a risk of slipping back into their old corrupt ways is considered the worse option of the two. Showing New Yevon any favoritism at all locks you out of the game's GoldenEnding.
*** The Guado and the Ronso are both feeling extreme tension towards one another at the start of the game due to Seymour's actions. Seymour massacred a ton of their race as well as their Maester when the party went climbing Mount Gagazet to reach Zanarkand in the first game, and as the official leader of the Guado as a whole, his psychopathy made everyone else look at the Guado with suspicion at best and hatred at worst, not helped that some Guado continue to revere Seymour, even if they admit that he was misguided and what he did was awful. If the party doesn't talk the Ronso down, this leads to tensions boiling over to a race war that it's implied leads to the extinction of the Guado.
*** Yuna is beloved by the people of Spira, both as the only High Summoner to have ever survived fighting Sin, and for bringing the Eternal Calm with Sin gone for good. As such, many see Yuna as a rallying figure, which results in all the major factions wanting her to ally with them because it will make their side look more legitimate to the rest of the world. As a result, when Yuna finds a potentially important sphere and has to choose who gets it, it results in one side getting what they want, but the other factions become openly hostile. Someone like Yuna can't just make choices freely when she carries so much weight in the world.