And Your Chocobo Too.
Sep. 5th, 2012 07:06 pmI've picked up a copy of Revenant Wings, the DS sequel to Final Fantasy XII. I'm quite amused by the fact that, in other direct Final Fantasy sequels, the main character of the original is largely shunted out of the way so other characters can take the spotlight. In Revenant Wings, Balthier and Basch are shunted out of the way so Vaan, who had essentially no role in the plot of the original game, can have his own story, even though Vaan was the main playable character of XII.
More importantly: IT'S TOMAJ THE NPC WITH THE WORLD'S MOST SARCASTIC FACE, HI TOMAJ. I didn't know he had a larger role in this! If our close associates have to be characters who had a microscopically small role in the first game, I'm glad at least one of them is Tomaj the Sarcastic-Faced NPC.
(I did actually remember Tomaj from the original game, even though he had about ten lines and existed primarily to give a licence board tutorial. He'd be immensely gratified to hear that.)
And the airship has a log! And Penelo insists that everyone write in it, and Kytes is very dedicated and earnest and records everything, and Tomaj just writes about how bored he is, and Filo ignores the log entirely, and Penelo writes GUYS YOU'RE ALL SUPPOSED TO WRITE IN THE LOG and Vaan writes FINE PENELO I'M WRITING IN THE LOG, HAPPY NOW??? and I am really quite charmed by this.
The progression of Tomaj's log entries when everyone else goes missing, incidentally, is absolutely adorable:
- There were tremors in the mountains, and nobody's returned since. I searched the caves but couldn't find anyone, and before I knew it the Strahl was gone. I hope for the best, but somehow I doubt everyone just got lost...
- I'm starting to get worried. I questioned the sky pirates, the aegyl, and even had Cu Sith ask the Yarhi, but no one knows where everyone's gone. It's as if they vanished into thin air. But they have to be somewhere...
- If this is a joke, I'm not laughing. I know they're out there. Somewhere. Will search again tomorrow.
I was also a bit charmed by the bit at the beginning where the two sky-pirating duos found two treasures, and Vaan went 'great, one each!' and of course Balthier tried to talk his way into getting both. Oh, Balthier.
Other favourite moments:
Penelo: You're alive!
Fran: I am. This surprises you?
Foulmouthed Moogle: Kupo-po-po! Kupo kupo! And your chocobo too, kupo!
Nono: Do you have room for a weary moogle to rest his pompom, kupo?
Tomaj: No objections from me... kupo.
AND VAAN PUNCHED BALTHIER. I love Balthier, but frankly he deserved that.
The problem with this game is that I do not have an ounce of strategic thinking in my being. I am becoming very, very familiar with the Game Over music. It's pretty music, but I could stand to hear less of it, to be honest.
Shortly after beginning Revenant Wings, I fell asleep and dreamt that the game started to lean in a Penelo/Squall Leonhart direction. There was a scene in which Penelo pinned Squall down on a bed and explained that she thought Laguna was trying to kill him and agonised aloud about how awful that was, and Squall looked bewildered at first but then began, very slightly, to smile. This... this seems unlikely on several levels. (To be fair to my subconscious's characterisation abilities, I'm fairly certain Laguna hadn't endangered Squall intentionally; there was a misunderstanding.)
In other news, Lightning Returns, a new game in the Final Fantasy XIII series, has been announced! I am quite excited about this. Predictably, half the Final Fantasy fandom is going 'WHO ARE ALL THESE GAMES FOR, DO SQUARE-ENIX HATE MONEY OR SOMETHING, NOBODY LIKED FINAL FANTASY XIII'.
The games are for me, Final Fantasy fandom. They are all for me. I am the mythical Final Fantasy XIII fan and Square-Enix are making games solely for me.
More importantly: IT'S TOMAJ THE NPC WITH THE WORLD'S MOST SARCASTIC FACE, HI TOMAJ. I didn't know he had a larger role in this! If our close associates have to be characters who had a microscopically small role in the first game, I'm glad at least one of them is Tomaj the Sarcastic-Faced NPC.
(I did actually remember Tomaj from the original game, even though he had about ten lines and existed primarily to give a licence board tutorial. He'd be immensely gratified to hear that.)
And the airship has a log! And Penelo insists that everyone write in it, and Kytes is very dedicated and earnest and records everything, and Tomaj just writes about how bored he is, and Filo ignores the log entirely, and Penelo writes GUYS YOU'RE ALL SUPPOSED TO WRITE IN THE LOG and Vaan writes FINE PENELO I'M WRITING IN THE LOG, HAPPY NOW??? and I am really quite charmed by this.
The progression of Tomaj's log entries when everyone else goes missing, incidentally, is absolutely adorable:
- There were tremors in the mountains, and nobody's returned since. I searched the caves but couldn't find anyone, and before I knew it the Strahl was gone. I hope for the best, but somehow I doubt everyone just got lost...
- I'm starting to get worried. I questioned the sky pirates, the aegyl, and even had Cu Sith ask the Yarhi, but no one knows where everyone's gone. It's as if they vanished into thin air. But they have to be somewhere...
- If this is a joke, I'm not laughing. I know they're out there. Somewhere. Will search again tomorrow.
I was also a bit charmed by the bit at the beginning where the two sky-pirating duos found two treasures, and Vaan went 'great, one each!' and of course Balthier tried to talk his way into getting both. Oh, Balthier.
Other favourite moments:
Penelo: You're alive!
Fran: I am. This surprises you?
Foulmouthed Moogle: Kupo-po-po! Kupo kupo! And your chocobo too, kupo!
Nono: Do you have room for a weary moogle to rest his pompom, kupo?
Tomaj: No objections from me... kupo.
AND VAAN PUNCHED BALTHIER. I love Balthier, but frankly he deserved that.
The problem with this game is that I do not have an ounce of strategic thinking in my being. I am becoming very, very familiar with the Game Over music. It's pretty music, but I could stand to hear less of it, to be honest.
Shortly after beginning Revenant Wings, I fell asleep and dreamt that the game started to lean in a Penelo/Squall Leonhart direction. There was a scene in which Penelo pinned Squall down on a bed and explained that she thought Laguna was trying to kill him and agonised aloud about how awful that was, and Squall looked bewildered at first but then began, very slightly, to smile. This... this seems unlikely on several levels. (To be fair to my subconscious's characterisation abilities, I'm fairly certain Laguna hadn't endangered Squall intentionally; there was a misunderstanding.)
In other news, Lightning Returns, a new game in the Final Fantasy XIII series, has been announced! I am quite excited about this. Predictably, half the Final Fantasy fandom is going 'WHO ARE ALL THESE GAMES FOR, DO SQUARE-ENIX HATE MONEY OR SOMETHING, NOBODY LIKED FINAL FANTASY XIII'.
The games are for me, Final Fantasy fandom. They are all for me. I am the mythical Final Fantasy XIII fan and Square-Enix are making games solely for me.
