FFXII: The Bigger Picture

Final Fantasy XII got balanced scales in terms of love and hate. Since it was released, it was one of the most discussed games in almost everything. Mainly because it's a Final Fantasy, and such a long development time that even Guinness recorded that in their books. Denying its beauty in terms of graphics and details is blasphemy, but story and gameplay are the main talking points for whoever played this game. I'll focus on story here, and mainly the two you see in the first picture; Vaan and Penelo.

Short bio: Vaan and Penelo are two orphan teenagers who are living their lives in Dalmasca's Rabanastre under the care of a big-hearted Bangaa with the name Migelo. Dalmasca is occupied by the Archadian Empire and took everything from both kid and elder living there. Vaan always had this rebillous intent against them and usually steals from the imperial soldiers from time to time. He once told Penelo that he wants to be a "Sky Pirate" to regain the freedom he lost because of the Empire.

Now as the story goes, Vaan and Penelo get an airship (not theirs) and fly around the world in a long fight against the Empire.  But, as main characters, how did they turn out? The answer is: Almost forgettable.

What Happened?

Sorry, Vaan. Try again in the sequel.

At the beginning, Vaan decides to steal the Dusk Shard; a very important relic in Dalmasca's history, from the Empire's hands. Such a massive task to be done, but Vaan does it and steals it. Until Balthier and Fran gang decides to interfere and fight for it. Eventually they get stuck together and Vaan keeps the Shard for himself when they came back to Rabanastre. That part (the whole thing I'm talking about) was my favourite. Vaan had all the spotlights. He decided to steal right from under the Imperials' noses, and ran all the way successfully (you can argue with this point) to Rabanastre. It is such an incredible achievement and heroic by Vaan. He had his fair share of memorable screen time, and most notably is the scene where he jumped on Basch's cage and started screaming at him. Screaming at the "kingslayer" and raging on him like that just made me love Vaan. After they survived and returned, he had some personal problems to deal with against Basch. Vaan forgave him and that's kinda cool to see, since no real evidence is around and add to that such a big guy like Basch begging for forgiveness from a teenager just gives Vaan lots of points. 

All this impressive stuff gave the game promise. FFXII was bound to be an ultimate figure in gaming. Vaan had his spotlights, but they didn't last long enough.

Overshadowed

Ashe announcing that Vaan is no longer important
in the game.

It was slightly visible when they were in the Garamsythe Waterway. When Balthier and Fran came in, Vaan had to follow them and eventually, he gave up his lead. Balthier and Amalia, the lass who joins them later, took control of conversations thanks to their experience and Vaan's naivety in the business. If we fast forward much later in the game when Vaan and Penelo are reunited and the group is complete, they just disappear even further into the shadows. The occasional discussion here and there and that's it. Penelo is even barely mentioned during the game. I can assure you that none of Ashe, Basch, or Balthier calls her name. Fran does once but that was in the ending. Vaan gets called from time to time but Penelo is just NOT there. Story writers included here rarely in the important scenes and just gave spotlights to the likes of Basch, Ashe and Balthier, with Vaan getting some screentime from time to time. 

Seeing Vaan and Penelo disappearing from the act saddened me. They showed a bit of promise early on but vanished as the game went through and were outmuscled by other characters from the same casts. But, even though I stated that I'm critical of this, I do see both good and bad points of this.

The good 

Fran telling Vaan to piss off. 

Question here: What are Vaan and Penelo? They're Humes orphans who live in Rabanastre. And what is this story about? It's about a war between empires. So it's mostly going to talk about royalty and those who possess the royal blood inside their veins, or got a major part in the politics and certain big events. So, if anything, casting Vaan and Penelo out for a bit was necessary. Because their positions and backgrounds just don't make them fit into this. They're teenagers who just got lost in the middle of all this. Balthier is an ex-judge and son to the Doctor Cid himself, Basch is a "kingslayer" and Ashe's protector in Vossler's place, Ashe is the heir to the throne, and Fran is Balthier's companion. Vaan did get the slight push in being the brother of the murdered witness of the late king, but Penelo? She really got nothing to do with all that. She did lose her parents in the war, but that puts her nowhere in the war other than a victim. 

More into the point: Getting Vaan and Penelo as deep as, Basch  for example, in the story would be difficult. They might be forced to do something like what FFIV did with Cecil, who discovered later in the game that he's brother to Golbez and not a normal human being. But that wasn't really a problem since he was already very important, but it was so sudden and for me at least, completely out of the blue. Vaan and Penelo had to be given up so they can concentrate on the more significant characters in this way, because if they wanted to bring up their importance, they would have to create more outside-of-the-box stuff, which could lead to cliches and unwanted arcs if writers didn't want to be bothered, and that might take the story outside the main focus.

The bad 

Vaan got tricked into joining the game,
apparently.

You just simply DON'T DO THAT TO MAIN CHARACTERS. Vaan is the bloody main protagonist of the game. He's standing in the middle of the US boxart. He's placed among the likes of Terra, Cloud, Squall, and Zidane. How can you make such a character so irrelevant?! Why make him the lead character when you aren't going to be bothered in giving him an important role in the game? He had his moments earlier, but then he was just...there. Once embarrassed himself, once saw the ghost of Reks, 2 hours later he talked for a moment and that's effing it! Why not make Ashe the protagonist if you're aren't going to give a damn about THE MAIN CHARACTER YOU JUST MADE?!!! Okay, Main Character 101: If you're going to make a main character, let us see him/her. As simple as that. Zidane was just a thief in the middle of all that war between Alexandria and Lindblum, yet he showed some leadership, talked a lot, gave his opinion, and had a bite from every pie. He (still talking about Zidane) remains like this until he finally discovers that he's not normal. You CAN make a character that isn't part of the bigger picture and STILL make it relevant. 

Penelo was just handled quite horribly; no backstory, and no major, memorable scenes of her. Terrible. She looked like a decent character and could have been a sweet addition to the game...wait. Did I just say "addition"?...... See, Square Enix? Penelo could have been an addition, because she's not EVEN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE! It's just bad from the developers. The cast wasn't 10 people and had to concentrate on 7. It was 6 and they removed two to concentrate on 4 (or three if you want to exclude Fran).

Problem solved

Having such a long time developing the game, and then releasing it while it still feels a bit unfinished by a company such as big as Square Enix is rather too disappointing. Then, Square Enix released a sequel called "Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings" and I must say, it's great. Vaan in that game was a boss. I so much loved him after playing RW. He showed how good he could have been had they worked more on him in FFXII. Penelo was also cool, not like Vaan but certainly a main character. I don't know what went wrong in the main game, but they did have the recipe for the cake but made a mess of it. But in the end, two different games, different teams, different writers, different story, different...everything. But Revenant Wings wins massively in terms of handling the main cast and giving all characters their right. 

If I was being honest with you, IMO Final Fantasy XII could have been the best in the series. But it only needed a character to drive it forward. Balthier wasn't enough, Basch wasn't enough, nobody was ever going to be enough because there is already a hero, but that hero himself wasn't enough.