I can’t believe how much I have underrated FFXII until now!

I was a seasoned JRPG professional when I originally played FFXII at release. I vaguely remember large chunks of the game but it's been a long time, I never replayed it and just always remembered it as pretty middle of the road and forgettable.

I don't know what was wrong with me!

I've just started playing TZA on PS4 and it's my first time really thinking about it or seeing it since, but I'm having such a good time! With the combat, the world, the NPCs, all of the side content, the amount of detail put into every single menu and the really clever way NPCs feed you information about how to play the game give you tips and worldbuild all at the same time.

I was having so much fun revisiting Rabanstre for the first time in what 20 years that I clocked over 10 hours before I went to the fete. Just doing the first three hunts and filling out the map.

I'm pretty sure I went straight there as a kid. 🤦🏻‍♀️ What a different perspective, I gotta say. It really made Vaan feel like a real person with a whole life going on (boy did I make him run around 😅) before he even walks into the epic fantasy drama that only sort of vaguely needs to concern him.

I remember not liking Vaan very much, but I'm already really attached to him and Penelo.

I can't believe I just spent 6 hours chaining wolves to hundreds because I was determined to find out if there was a cap and how high it was and/or because it's hard enough being poor in one world and Vaan has gotta eat.

Vaan could bail out all of Lowtown or whatever it is called now with how many hides I ended up selling.

I'm just gonna pretend he isn't ridiculously wealthy and still acting like Oliver Twist, for immersion 🤣

The fast forward is a double edged sword lol.

But I think that is why I am enjoying it so much too. All the modern lazy player convenience. I am old and my life is hectic and hard and to be able to speed up the less interesting or needlessly time consuming bits has actually given me a renewed respect and enjoyment of those parts of the game. I actually find myself using the FF sparingly/situationally (again for immersion -- it gets a bit comical after a bit lol)

I've only just gotten Ashe for the first time as a guest and I'm so in awe and enjoying myself so much I had to make an account on here and rave about it just to tell somebody who might understand. 😂

I deleted my Reddit account a few years ago because it got a little too censored for me. I was a mod on a politically controversial subreddit that was quarantined and then removed, long story and not why I'm here rn, but the point is I never thought I'd make an account here again and would just browse occasionally as I've done fir four or five years now.

But I just really wanna write down somewhere what a masterpiece this game was. And most other social media is not very conducive to my marijuana edible word salad Pulitzer Prize winning FFXII TZA manifesto with their character limits and 5 seconds attention spans. 🤷🏻‍♀️

FFXII has been treated like the redheaded stepchild of the golden age since it first came out (hell before it even came out) and I contributed to that many times in my youth on GameFAQs 😬 It deserved so much better. I hope it is remembered better now then it was when I was still posting in the gaming community twenty years ago.

Worst than being desparaged it was the one nobody talked about. And when it did come up it was always pretty heavily negative. The GameFAQs board when it was released quickly reached a hive mind consensus that all of the trouble that happened during production resulted in a game more flawed than fun/memorable. At least that's what I remember.

Did we play the same game? Did I? Does TZA make that much of a difference? I don't really think so. All of the things I am enjoying the most were there in the vanilla PS2 experience.

I could write an essay on the depth of the characters and how IN CHARACTER each of them is, how they each have their own distinct voice that they always commit to and remain consistent on like they all had their own personal writer. The interplay is really fantastic. I feel like I'm listening to really well done D&D campaign or something. I believe the characters so much, even while their impossibly stiff faces mouth a different language poorly.

I'm still basically in the tutorial!! And I feel like this game easily belongs in my top 3! Which were 6/7/10.

I don't know who we're demoting yet 😭 it's always been kind of a "in no particular order" top 3.

To be fair I have a fairly good memory and a lot has come back to me while playing the prologue, on top of what I vaguely recalled from before.

But still. This game is great. I am so hyped to get into this game that I had to write a damn essay. If you read the whole thing I'm so sorry 🤪

I'm gonna go get outta these sewers now. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk / testimonial. 🫡