180-580: Final Fantasy XII , a role-playing video game released by Square Enix in 2006, revolves around the attempt to liberate the kingdom of Dalmasca from the Archadian Empire. The story is told through the eyes of Vaan, an orphan who wishes to be a sky pirate , and other characters he encounters throughout his adventure. The visuals of the characters were designed by Akihiko Yoshida , while their stories were created by Daisuke Watanabe. The characters were designed to look and behave unlike any that had existed in
360-692: A Bachelor of Arts degree in Japanese from Dartmouth College / Keio University in 1995, and a Master of Arts degree in Classical Japanese Literature from Harvard University in 1998. Just before graduation, he interned at Sega , during which he was asked to perform voice-over for Winter Heat . His first work in translation was as a subtitler for Japanese television dramas . Smith joined Square after earning his master's degree, working as part of Richard Honeywood 's nascent localization team . On his first project, Final Fantasy VIII , he and
540-537: A featurette , "History of Final Fantasy ", which gives a brief overview of Final Fantasy games. On January 26, 2007, Square Enix Product Blog revealed full-color Gabranth, Ashe, Balthier, and Vaan figures . In 2007, Balthier was featured in Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions as a playable character. Final Fantasy XII received "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator Metacritic . It
720-597: A previous Yasumi Matsuno game , with its localization also receiving high praise. Producers of The Zodiac Age said that they were considering another game set in the Ivalice universe, adding that earlier projects faded away due to original development members working on other games. Alexander O. Smith Alexander O. Smith is a professional Japanese to English translator and author. While his output covers many areas such as adaptation of Japanese novels, manga , song lyrics , anime scripts, and various academic works, he
900-435: A 360° view of the surroundings. While in towns and cities, the player may only see from the perspective of Vaan, but any character may be controlled in the field. The world of Final Fantasy XII is rendered to scale relative to the characters in it; instead of a caricature of the character roaming around miniature terrain as seen in the earlier Final Fantasy games, every area is represented proportionally. The player navigates
1080-454: A Mist Chain reaches a certain length, a final strike will be initiated at the end of the Quickening cycle, called a Concurrence. As in many role-playing games (RPGs), characters " level up " each time they earn a set number of experience points from defeating enemies; each level gained increases the character's statistics and improves performance in battle. Statistics include hit points ,
1260-401: A Rabanastre street urchin, ignores his friend Penelo's objections and infiltrates the palace during a dinner celebrating the appointment of Archadian prince Vayne Solidor as consul . In the treasury he finds a piece of magicite, a powerful magical crystal. He is discovered by Balthier and Fran, a pair of sky pirates looking for the magicite. The three escape as Dalmascan Resistance forces assault
1440-577: A Sky Pirate. She is voiced by Catherine Taber in English and Marina Kozawa in Japanese. Penelo also appears in Itadaki Street Portable . Balthier, known as Balflear ( バルフレア , Barufurea ) in the original Japanese language version, is a 22-year-old Hume sky pirate and owner of the airship Strahl (German for "streak" or "beam" [of light]). He and his Viera companion, Fran, prefer to remain outside politics, making their living off of whoever has
1620-422: A Square employee was on Final Fantasy X , for which he was awarded "Best Localization" of 2001 by RPGamer. Smith left Square in 2002 to found Kajiya Productions—a freelance translation and localization company—with Joseph Reeder, his co-translator on Final Fantasy XII , though he would continue to collaborate on Square and Square Enix titles. By working as a contractor, he found that he had better access to
1800-519: A bit to look more like a Japanese for the sake of the Japanese audience, and also since a character that looks completely French makes some of the CG expressions difficult". Ashe is voiced by Kari Wahlgren in English and Mie Sonozaki in Japanese. Despite having been created for Final Fantasy XII , she was first introduced in Itadaki Street Special . She also appears in Itadaki Street Portable and
1980-483: A bonus disc of the collector's edition of the game, he states that he created the design of the characters after reading all of the design documents on their history and beliefs. He tried to create designs and clothing that did not exist anywhere in real life and had never been seen before, designing for example the armor for the Judges on a combination of historical armor, mountain bike gear, and futuristic ideas. The story of
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#17330856965642160-635: A brand new translation. In 2011, Smith co-founded a book translation and publishing company called Bento Books with his friend Tony Gonzalez and his Kajiya Productions partner Joseph Reeder. The company's first major work was Math Girls , a mathematics-themed young adult novel by Hiroshi Yuki . In addition to translation, Smith has composed English lyrics for a number of Nobuo Uematsu 's vocal tracks, including "Melodies of Life" from Final Fantasy IX , "Otherworld" from Final Fantasy X , and "Eternity" from Blue Dragon . He also arranged lyrics for "The Skies Above" and "Otherworld" on The Skies Above ,
2340-634: A collection of artworks and illustrations, the complete play guide, and a novella written by Benny Matsuyama, author of Hoshi wo Meguru Otome from the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Ω Guide . Another Ultimania edition, the Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System Ultimania , was released on September 6, 2007, as a guide book for the International Zodiac version of the game. The game
2520-605: A couple, leave Rabanastre to have their own adventure, sporting a shirt over his outfit by the time of Final Fantasy Tactics A2 . The recent Vagrant Story , which featured a rugged and tough protagonist, was deemed a commercial failure . Therefore, Vaan was designed to be effeminate and placed in the main role, as the developers believed the public would be more interested in a teenager. He would have been even more effeminate if Kouhei Takeda had not been cast for his voice acting and motion capture, and Vaan became more "active, upbeat, bright and positive" than originally planned. He
2700-636: A curious boy who is Vayne's younger brother, Larsa, in disguise. After they rescue Penelo, Basch confronts the Marquis over his lies, but the party is captured and detained aboard the Archadian airship Leviathan , headed by Judge Ghis. On the Leviathan , the party is reunited with Amalia, who is revealed to be Princess Ashe. Ghis takes the magicite, which is revealed to be a royal Dalmascan artifact, "deifacted nethicite". The party escapes, but as Ashe had planned to use
2880-640: A deal with the Archadian Empire so Dalmasca's sovereignty could be restored. After being defeated, he tells Basch it is up to him to protect the Princess. As Ashe and the others escape in an airship, the nethicite explosion from the Leviathan annihilates the fleet. However, Vossler is presumably alive because the Shiva were seen escaping the explosion, albeit badly damaged. Vossler is voiced by Nolan North in English and Masaki Terasoma in Japanese. Reddas ( レダス , Redasu )
3060-473: A description and analysis of the new battle system and its components, and developer interviews. The Scenario Ultimania describes the main scenarios in the game, profiles on the characters and areas in Ivalice, developer interviews, and details on each location. The last guide, the Ultimania Ω , includes voice actor interviews, the complete story of Final Fantasy XII including additional character profiles,
3240-646: A determined princess of Dalmasca who lost her father and her husband in the Archadian invasion; Basch ( Keith Ferguson / Rikiya Koyama ), a disgraced knight of Dalmasca charged with treason for slaying the king; Balthier ( Gideon Emery / Hiroaki Hirata ), a gentlemanly sky pirate who pilots his airship, the Strahl ; Fran (Nicole Fantl/ Rika Fukami ), Balthier's partner and a Viera exile whose knowledge extends to legends and myths; and Penelo ( Catherine Taber /Marina Kozawa), Vaan's childhood friend who accompanies him on journeys to "keep an eye on him". The Archadian Empire
3420-460: A few of the actors were too close to the microphones or the equipment was faulty", though she called "the voice acting itself quite good, with characters of different nations having distinctive accents". Final Fantasy XII Final Fantasy XII is a 2006 role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix . The twelfth main installment of the Final Fantasy series, it
3600-474: A friend of Penelo's parents, took them under his care and gave them work at his sundry shop. Penelo usually tries to keep Vaan out of trouble, but is unable to stop him from intruding into the palace grounds. She later encounters Vaan, who is arrested along with Balthier and Fran. This encounter forces her into a series of events, as Bangaa headhunter Ba'gamnan kidnaps her and holds her hostage in exchange for Balthier. After escaping, she meets Larsa Solidor, one of
3780-464: A maniacal shell of his former self. Over the course of the game, Cid seems to talk to himself multiple times, but it is later revealed that he is instead talking to Venat, a renegade Occurian; Occurians have the ability to make themselves seen and heard by whom they wish. Under Venat's guidance, Cid helps Vayne encourage the war to gain shards of the Sun-Cryst to help him create manufactured nethicite. Cid
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#17330856965643960-720: A member of House Solidor, whose members had led the Empire for four generations. This in effect makes him a "Prince", though he claims the democratic nature of the Empire makes him no more eligible for the throne than anyone else. Despite caring for the welfare of the people and of his family, Vayne is willing to use any means necessary to maintain order and retain power. He ensures the complete subjugation of Nabradia and Dalmasca and exterminates their royal families to acquire their deifacted nethicite and confronts Dalmasca's resistance movement with absolute ruthlessness, accepting no surrender. He even goes so far as to murder his ailing father and frame
4140-403: A new battle mechanic which rewards the player with improved loot for slaying a particular type of enemy multiple times in a row. Selling different types of loot also unlocks a bazaar option in shops, which provides items at a lower cost, or items exclusive to the bazaar. Excluding the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Final Fantasy XI , Final Fantasy XII is the first entry in
4320-464: A new name. Balthier is now a renowned career criminal with a sizable bounty on his head, and is trying to evade the law and the bounty hunters seeking the reward for his capture. He originally joins the resistance in hopes of reacquiring the Dusk Shard, but after learning it is actually a piece of nethicite, he sees too much of his father's obsession in his own quest and decides to abandon the search. After
4500-467: A peace treaty between Dalmasca and the empire. The group and Larsa go to Mt. Bur-Omisace to seek the Gran Kiltias Anastasis, Ivalice's religious leader, and beg his approval of Ashe as queen of Dalmasca. There they also meet Al-Cid Margrace, who is in talks with Larsa to avert a war between Rozarria and Archadia. Their plans are curtailed when Anastasis is killed by Archadia, and soon afterwards
4680-468: A reader of the original [Japanese]". For less "literary" mediums like manga and games, Smith feels more free to maximize the audience's enjoyment if a strict literal translation that adheres to the original sentence structure would impede that enjoyment. Smith considers his treatment of Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII among his best translations. He looks to Vagrant Story as a title that demands to be in English and thought of his work as revealing
4860-449: A resistance movement. During the struggle, she meets Vaan , a young adventurer who dreams of becoming a sky pirate in command of an airship. They are quickly joined by a band of allies; together, they rally against the tyranny of the Archadian Empire. Final Fantasy XII was both a critical and commercial success, earning several Game of the Year awards and selling over six million copies on
5040-488: A sky pirate traveling the world with Penelo. During the events of Revenant Wings , Vaan becomes captain of the Airship Galbana and uses it to travel to Lemures, meeting old friends while making new ones. He is given the title of the "leading man" which Balthier formerly held, and other characters suggest a teacher/student relationship between them, though Balthier denies this. In the aftermath, Vaan and Penelo, who are now
5220-404: A source of inspiration for its gameplay system. The Diofield Chronicle used the game as one source of inspiration for its controls and player movement. The localization of Final Fantasy XII was praised as a high point of the series and video games as a whole. Lead localizers Alexander O. Smith and Joseph Reeder went on to collaborate again on Tactics Ogre: Wheel of Fortune , the remake of
5400-498: A special Final Fantasy XII package, which contained a PlayStation 2 game system, the Final Fantasy XII game, a standard DualShock controller, and a vertical console stand. The Japanese third-party manufacturer Hori also released Final Fantasy XII memory cards on the day of the game's release; stickers of Final Fantasy XII characters are included. Game peripheral maker Logicool ( Logitech 's Japanese branch) released
5580-472: A special edition Final Fantasy XII controller on the same day. Suntory produced "Final Fantasy XII Potion"—a drink containing such ingredients as royal jelly , chamomile, sage, thyme, and marjoram. The drinks became commercially available in Japan on March 7. Suntory also released a Final Fantasy XII Premium Box, which came with a Final Fantasy XII collector's card. The Potion was a limited edition product and
Characters of Final Fantasy XII - Misplaced Pages Continue
5760-419: A target, an action, and a priority. The target specifies which ally or foe to act on and the condition for applying the action. For example, the target "Ally: HP < 70%" causes the character to target any ally whose hit points have fallen below 70%. The action is the command to be performed on the target. The priority determines which gambit to perform when multiple gambits are triggered. These heuristics guide
5940-464: A unique soundtrack in his own way. "Kiss Me Good-Bye" was performed in both English and Japanese by Angela Aki . Aki's style of playing the keyboard while singing reminded Uematsu of his childhood idol, Elton John , which was one of the reasons he chose her. The English version of the song was featured in both the Japanese and North American versions of the game. In addition to the theme song, violinist Taro Hakase co-composed, arranged, and performed
6120-403: Is Dalmasca's. He is a cheerful and energetic boy who dreams of someday becoming a sky pirate in command of his own airship. He trains to meet this goal by killing large dire rats in the sewers of Rabanastre on a daily basis, for which Dalan gave him the nickname "Vaan Ratsbane". Despite nominally being the main protagonist, as the player starts the game controlling him, most of the game focuses on
6300-412: Is Ffamran mied Bunansa ( ファムラン・ミド・ブナンザ , Famuran Mido Bunanza ) , the son of Imperial magicite researcher Dr. Cid (Cidolfus Demen Bunansa). Balthier received many privileges as Cid's son, including being made an Imperial Judge, but eventually cut ties with his father after Cid became consumed by his experimentation with nethicite. He left the service of the empire, stole an Archadian airship, and took
6480-549: Is a 33-year-old Hume sky pirate from Balfonheim. In truth, he was originally the missing Judge Magister Foris Zecht ( フォーリス・ゼクト , Fōrisu Zekuto ) of Archadia. During the war with Nabradia, he was responsible for the Midlight Shard destroying the kingdom under orders from Cid without being told what its effects would be. Out of guilt, he abandoned his post and took on the name "Reddas", arriving in Balfonheim, where he cleaned up
6660-421: Is a 36-year-old Hume Judge Magister of Archadia, as well as the secondary antagonist of Final Fantasy XII . He is Basch's twin brother, and in the introduction to the game, is responsible for the deaths of Reks and King Raminas, which Basch was blamed for. After the fall of Landis years prior to the start of the game, Basch left for Dalmasca, leaving behind Noah and their mother, who was suffering from an illness at
6840-581: Is a fifty-eight-year-old Archadian Hume scientist and head of the Draklor Laboratory in Archades. He is one of the main antagonists of Final Fantasy XII . He is responsible for discovering the technology behind airships, as well as for the creation of manufactured, or artificial, nethicite. He is later revealed to be Balthier's father, whose ambitions drove Balthier away; this incident was the result of Cid going to Giruvegan to study nethicite, only to return as
7020-401: Is also featured in the rhythm game Theatrhythm Final Fantasy as a subcharacter representing Final Fantasy XII . Akihiko Yoshida has stated that Ashe's physical features were designed with the intent of making her look vaguely French , saying that "the base of her bone structure is a French person's. We were given orders from the start to not make her look like an Asian. But we modified her
7200-524: Is best known for his software localizations of Japanese video games including Vagrant Story , Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney , and Final Fantasy XII . He currently resides in Kamakura , Japan, where he operates his own contract localization business, Kajiya Productions, and is co-founder of a translation and publishing company, Bento Books . Smith first gained an interest in Japanese after attending an exchange program in northern China . He obtained
7380-491: Is confronted by Vaan, Balthier and company at the Draklor Laboratory, only to lose and flee. He goes to the Pharos lighthouse to invoke the Sun-Cryst's full power, revealing himself to the main characters there once Gabranth is defeated. Enraged, Gabranth tries to attack Cid, who teleports out of the way as Venat throws the judge against a wall. Cid fights Vaan, Balthier and the rest of the party once more, and again loses. He dies after
Characters of Final Fantasy XII - Misplaced Pages Continue
7560-475: Is divided into three continents: Ordalia, Valendia, and Kerwon. Ordalia is located in the western part of Ivalice. The Rozarrian Empire makes its home in the vast inland plains of this continent as the eastern portion of it is largely desert and "jagd"—lawless regions so rich in Mist, the ethereal manifestation of magicite, that airships cannot function. Valendia is the home of Imperial Archadia, where lush highlands dot
7740-507: Is later sent to Pharos to "test" Ashe if she would take revenge, attacking the group in rage when they refuse to exact vengeance for the wrongs against them as he had; he leaves after his defeat and the arrival of Cid. At the end of the game, after a discussion and fight with Basch, Gabranth decides to make up for his wrongs by protecting Larsa and helping the Resistance kill Vayne. In the process, Vayne fatally injures him, causing him to die after
7920-552: Is no longer available. Final Fantasy XII was also adapted into a manga by Amou Gin [ jp ] . Square Enix published the series in a total of five tankōbon volumes from December 22, 2006, to August 22, 2009. Studio BentStuff published three Ultimania books in 2006: Final Fantasy XII Battle Ultimania and the Final Fantasy XII Scenario Ultimania on June 16, and Final Fantasy XII Ultimania Ω on November 24. The Battle Ultimania provides
8100-403: Is not comparable to any previous protagonist of the series, which he explained as partially a result of the game using a different character designer than previous ones. The geography of Ivalice, particularly Dalmasca, had an influence in the character's initial designs. When asked about the characters' revealing clothing, Yoshida commented that "Dalmasca is supposed to have a hot climate", and that
8280-559: Is now part of the Hume world, and asks for a confirmation from Jote that the Wood accepts her before she leaves. Jote replies that The Wood misses her child and is jealous of the hume that has taken her away. Fran smiles for the first time in the game, knowing her sister is lying and still cares for her, as she leaves The Wood. In Revenant Wings , Balthier and Fran are searching for the Cache of Glabados. Fran
8460-466: Is plausible and release him. After being freed, he makes it his mission to protect Ashe and support the Resistance. After he and his brother reunite, Gabranth is deeply puzzled by Basch's continued ability to persevere in spite of his past failures. Basch explains that his vow to defend Ashe had given him purpose and a renewed sense of honor. After the final battle against Vayne, as Noah is dying, he asks Basch to take his place as Larsa's protector. Because it
8640-408: Is ruled by House Solidor, headed by Emperor Gramis ( Roger L. Jackson / Hidekatsu Shibata ). The emperor's sons are Vayne (Elijah Alexander/ Nobuo Tobita ) and Larsa (Johnny McKeown/ Yuka Imai ), the former a military genius and the game's main antagonist, and the latter a charismatic seeker of peace. Judge Magisters, upholders of Archadian law, protect House Solidor and execute every command issued by
8820-647: Is sensitive to the magical Mist that permeates Ivalice, and is affected by it on three separate occasions: in the Tomb of Raithwall, when Judge Ghis heats the Dawn Shard in his airship's engine, and when in the presence of the Sun-Cryst. When the party reaches Giruvegan, she can detect the Mist nearby has cooled and is less intense. She is the oldest of the characters, as Viera are very long-lived, but appears youthful. Fran once lived with her sisters Jote and Mjrn in Eruyt Village,
9000-518: Is the Hume Marquis of the Skycity of Bhujerba, the most recent in a line of nobles that ruled Bhujerba for generations. Ondore is also Ashe's uncle, serving as the preacher to her wedding and Rasler's funeral soon after. At the opening of the game, Ondore appears to have yielded to Archadian rule, though he secretly supports the resistance movement. He is being blackmailed by Vayne, who forced him to announce
9180-454: Is the only living child of King Raminas and the sole heir to the throne, and married Rasler Heios Nabradia shortly before Archadia's invasion of Dalmasca. Following their marriage, he died in battle defending Nalbina Fortress on the border of his home state of Nabradia, making her a widow . While many believed their marriage was driven by politics, she spent the two years following his death in mourning and continued to wear her wedding ring. She
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#17330856965649360-400: Is the use of Sanskrit in the city of Bhujerba. Phrases such as "svagatam" (welcome) and titles like "parijanah" (guide) are lifted directly from Sanskrit. Minaba mentions that the team tried to bring out Arabic culture in the design of the game. War is a prominent theme of the game and the developers stated that the cutscene battles are influenced by Ancient Rome . When asked to comment on
9540-568: Is voiced by Michael E. Rodgers , but in Dissidia he is instead voiced by Keith Ferguson , who also voiced Basch in XII . An adaptation of the character named Noah van Gabranth appears in Final Fantasy XIV as a Garlean Legatus; in contrast to Final Fantasy XII , Noah is the son of Basch van Gabranth. Cidolfus Demen Bunansa ( シドルファス・デム・ブナンザ , Shidorufasu Demu Bunanza ) , also known as Doctor Cid,
9720-450: Is voiced by Nicole Fantl in English and Rika Fukami in Japanese. She also appears in Itadaki Street Portable . Larsa Ferrinas Solidor ( ラーサー・ファルナス・ソリドール , Rāsā Farunasu Soridōru ) is a 12-year-old Hume, the fourth and youngest son of Emperor Gramis of Archadia, and Vayne's brother. He is the Emperor's favorite, and Gramis works tirelessly to ensure that Larsa remains pure and free from
9900-436: The Final Fantasy series before them. Their stories were written to create a script where neither side was truly right or wrong, but instead had different opinions and interpretations of the events occurring in the game. There are six main playable characters in Final Fantasy XII ; Vaan , an energetic orphan of Rabanastre who dreams of becoming a sky pirate; Ashe , a determined princess of Dalmasca who lost her husband in
10080-466: The Ivalice Alliance series, which also includes International Zodiac Job System . Fortress , an action game developed by Grin , was to have been a spin-off game that took place following the events of Revenant Wings . Square Enix cancelled the project after six months of development. In July 2017, Square Enix released Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age , a high-definition remaster of
10260-458: The Final Fantasy XII project after Yasumi Matsuno, the original director, had left and was not able to collaborate on the script with him directly, unlike with Vagrant Story . Principal voice recording took place over eight weeks, with months of translation work both before and after that. Smith worked with Matsuno again on the 2011 PlayStation Portable remake of Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (titled Wheel of Fortune ), which received
10440-514: The Ivalice universe with Yasumi Matsuno as a guest creator. Michael-Christopher Koji Fox, the translation director of Final Fantasy XIV indicated in an interview that the team have a lot of people who worked on Final Fantasy XII and "is one of the games they wanted to borrow heavily from because they thought it was really cool, and they really liked the imagery and lore that it had". Astria Ascending used its job system seen in later re-releases as
10620-575: The Nintendo Switch and Xbox One were released on April 30, 2019. The gambit system inspired similar systems used in other games such as Dragon Age: Origins and Pillars of Eternity II . Final Fantasy XIV also used the gambit system as a base for its "Trust System", a mechanic that pairs online players with story characters controlled by artificial intelligence . The game also incorporated several regions and characters from Final Fantasy XII into its game world, alongside other games from
10800-614: The PlayStation Awards 2006 bestowed the "Double Platinum Prize". It was selected for the list "Top 100 New Japanese Styles", a list of "products and services originating in Japan to serve as a mark of excellence". Final Fantasy XII also received nominations in such categories as best RPG, story, art direction, character design and original musical score at the AIAS ' Interactive Achievement Awards , Game Developers Choice Awards , BAFTA Video Games Awards , Spike Video Game Awards , and
10980-526: The PlayStation Portable . In Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy , Bobby Edner reprises his role in English; however, Takeda was unable to reprise his role as Vaan and was replaced by Kensho Ono in Japanese. Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca ( アーシェ・バナルガン・ダルマスカ , Āshe Banarugan Darumasuka ) , also known as Ashe, is a 19-year-old Hume princess fighting to liberate her kingdom, Dalmasca, from the Archadian Empire. She
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#173308569656411160-500: The Satellite Awards . Final Fantasy XII sold more than 1,764,000 copies in its first week in Japan, almost equaling the sales of Final Fantasy X in its first week. A Square Enix conference report stated that Final Fantasy XII sold more than 2.38 million copies in Japan in the two weeks since its March 16, 2006, release. In North America, Final Fantasy XII shipped approximately 1.5 million copies in its first week. It
11340-549: The Sphere Grid in Final Fantasy X , all characters may obtain all licenses on the board, but each Quickening and Esper license may only be activated by a single character. Final Fantasy XII is set within the land of Ivalice during an age when "magic was commonplace" and "airships plied the skies, crowding out the heavens". At this time, magicite, a magic-rich mineral, is commonly used in magic spells and in powering airships—a popular form of transportation in Ivalice. Ivalice
11520-629: The Strahl from Vaan and Penelo and leave a note for Ashe. Both he and Fran intend on finding the Cache of Glabados, which is resolved in Revenant Wings when it turns out to be tied to Eternal. Balthier is at first intent to take Lemures' treasure, the Auracite. However, he knows the truth behind it and attempts to destroy the Auralith, eventually rejoining Vaan's group to fight the Judge of Wings, letting Vaan be
11700-537: The overworld on foot, Chocobo , or by airship. Players may save their game to a memory card using save crystals or gate crystals, and may use the latter to teleport between gate crystals. An in-game bestiary provides incidental information about the world of Final Fantasy XII . Final Fantasy XII restructures the system of earning gil, the currency of the Final Fantasy games; instead of gil, most enemies drop "loot" which can be sold at shops. This ties into
11880-481: The regional differences in pronunciation found in the Japanese version. He also tried to distance the game from the "flat reads" found in other dubbed work by casting voice actors who had experience in theatre work. In terms of general changes, the localization team introduced widescreen 16:9 ratio support and reinserted scenes that were left out of the original Japanese version for political reasons and to preserve an "All Ages" CERO rating. A playable demo of
12060-495: The "leading man" while he leaves the limelight. Balthier is voiced by Gideon Emery in English and Hiroaki Hirata in Japanese. He made a crossover appearance in Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions and also appears in Itadaki Street Portable, as well as World of Final Fantasy Maxima . Fran ( フラン , Furan ) is a Viera warrior, mechanic to the Strahl , and Balthier's copilot. Like all Viera, she
12240-514: The Archadian Empire invades the two countries. Rasler is killed in the war, the city of Nabudis is destroyed in a single explosion, and the Dalmascan King Raminas is assassinated moments after signing a treaty of surrender. Marquis Ondore announces that the assassin was Dalmascan captain Basch, who has been sentenced to death, and that Princess Ashe has committed suicide. Two years later, Vaan,
12420-458: The Archadian emperor Gramis dies and Vayne ascends the throne. The party journeys to Archadia, where they discover Doctor Cid, the creator of manufacted magicite, who directs them to go to Giruvegan to find the source of nethicite. In Giruvegan, Ashe encounters the makers of nethicite, the immortal Occuria, who "pull the strings of history"; they give her the Treaty Blade to cut new pieces from
12600-476: The Archadian invasion; Basch , a disgraced knight of Dalmasca charged with treason for slaying the king; Balthier , a gentlemanly sky pirate who pilots his airship, the Strahl; Fran , Balthier's partner and a viera exile whose knowledge extends to legends and myths; and Penelo , Vaan's childhood friend who accompanies him in journeys to keep an eye on him. There are also several "Guest" characters, who temporarily join
12780-614: The Archadians moved in to occupy Rabanastre, he and Captain Azelas led an assault on Nalbina Fortress in an attempt to save the king, only for Imperial forces to capture him. Noah, now called Gabranth and employed under Archadia, posed as Basch and slew the Dalmascan king and Vaan's older brother, Reks, who witnessed the crime. The Dalmascans denounced Basch as a traitor and he was reportedly executed by Marquis Ondore. In reality, Vayne imprisoned him in
12960-531: The Dalmascan Estersand with Basch, joining the Galbana's crew to stop the Judge of Wings, who is creating Anti-Archadian propaganda with her actions. Larsa is voiced by Johnny McKeown in English and Yuka Imai in Japanese. Vossler York Azelas ( ウォースラ・ヨーク・アズラス , Wōsura Yōku Azurasu ) is a 38-year-old Hume who was a former Dalmascan Knight and a close colleague of Basch. Vossler fought alongside Basch during
13140-426: The Dalmascan army, eventually rising to become one of its most respected officers. When Archadia attacked Nalbina Fortress, Basch and Ashe's husband, Lord Rasler Heios, led the defense. However, the Archadian forces overwhelmed their troops and an archer mortally wounded Lord Rasler. Basch carried Rasler's body from the battlefield and went into hiding with the surviving commanders of the Dalmascan military. Shortly after
13320-593: The Imperial senators to put an end to their scheming against him and Larsa, as well as leveling cities in nethicite testing experiments. Vayne seeks to free humanity from the control of the Occurians, a race of god-like beings that have for centuries secretly meddled with the course of human history. During the battle over Rabanastre at the end of the game, Vayne commands the Sky Fortress Bahamut, and after confronted by
13500-468: The Japanese version) Hume orphan and Vaan's childhood friend, who serves as a voice of reason and keeps him out of trouble. She dreams of being a dancer, and learned martial arts from her older brothers. Five years before the Archadian invasion, a plague struck Rabanastre, killing Vaan's parents; as a result, Vaan and Reks were adopted into Penelo's household. The Archadian invasion had also killed Penelo's family members and Reks, orphaning her and Vaan. Migelo,
13680-650: The Japanese-only International Zodiac Job System for the PlayStation 4 . It adds trophy support , a remastered soundtrack with a few new tracks, and improved technical performance. The Zodiac Age was nominated for "Best Remake/Remaster" at IGN ' s Best of 2017 Awards, and won "Best Remaster" at Game Informer ' s Best of 2017 Awards and 2017 RPG of the Year Awards. The remaster also received favorable reviews. The Zodiac Age
13860-522: The Mindflayer was placed as a special monster, retaining the initial design; the Occuria were then given a different design of glowing eyes in a mist-like form. The Occurian with the greatest influence on the story is Venat ( ヴェーネス , Vēnesu ) , one of the primary antagonists of Final Fantasy XII , who rebels against the other Occuria and tries to give the people of Ivalice the power to not be manipulated by
14040-608: The Nalbina Dungeons to ensure Ondore's loyalty to the Empire—if Ondore betrayed the Archadians, Vayne could destroy his credibility by revealing that Basch was still alive. During their attempt to escape Nalbina Dungeon, Vaan, Balthier, and Fran discover Basch chained in a cage suspended from the ceiling. Despite initially being suspicious of him, especially Vaan, who blamed him for Reks's death, Basch protests his innocence and tells them about his twin. The party decides his story
14220-459: The Occuria offer her nethicite to rule as another Dynast-King and conquer Ivalice in their stead; however, she rejects their offer. Ashe acknowledges Larsa's intention to stop the war and makes her way to Vayne in the Sky Fortress Bahamut to end it. A year after the Bahamut's crash, Ashe is crowned Queen of Dalmasca and rejoins her friends in fighting the mysterious Judge of Wings in Revenant Wings . She
14400-770: The Occuria's wishes, but instead destroy the Sun-cryst. The party defeats Gabranth, who reveals that he killed King Raminas, and destroys the crystal. Al-Cid tells them that the Dalmascan Resistance, led by Ondore, is about to fight Archadia in Rabanastre, but the Archadian forces now include the Sky Fortress Bahamut . They infiltrate the Bahamut , and find Larsa failing to dissuade his brother Vayne from his plans for war. They defeat Vayne and Venat, and Ashe and Larsa announce
14580-404: The Occuria; as a result of its defiance, it is labeled a heretic. Venat taught Doctor Cid the secrets of nethicite, allowing them to manufacture it themselves; it also convinced Cid and Vayne to seek out the nethicite shards originally cut from the Sun-Cryst by Raithwall. In the game, Venat is seen talking to Cid both while visible and not. Venat's ambitions are ultimately fulfilled when Ashe resists
14760-401: The Occurians' plans and Reddas destroys the Sun-Cryst, later sacrificing itself to give Vayne his power while proclaiming they will die together, as it has accomplished what it set out to do. It is voiced by Anita Carey in English and Narumi Tsunoda in Japanese. A character sharing Venat's name appears in Final Fantasy XIV ; like her namesake, she is a dissenting member of her race that set
14940-592: The PlayStation 2 by November 2009. In 2007, a sequel titled Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings was released for the Nintendo DS and, in that same year, an expanded version of Final Fantasy XII , titled Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System , was released on the PlayStation 2 exclusively in Japan. A high-definition remaster of the International Zodiac Job System version, The Zodiac Age ,
15120-491: The Resistance to prevent an aggravation between the warring countries. He leaves the party at Mt. Bur-Omisace after learning from Al-Cid Margrace that his father had been murdered, attempting to reason with Vayne, but after seeing Vayne would not listen to reason, Larsa aids Vaan and company in battling Vayne. After his brother is defeated, Larsa takes his place in the Archadian throne and settles into peace agreements with Basch as his protector. In Revenant Wings , Larsa journeys to
15300-641: The Square Enix Japan merchandise page, along with a full-sized replica of Judge Gabranth's helmet from the game, a statue of Gabranth, and a statue of Balthier and Fran riding a flying machine through a collapsing building. The characters in Final Fantasy XII have received mixed opinions from reviewers. Praises were given by Calvin Smith of PSX Extreme, who stated that the characters are "classy and well thought out, an ensemble cast whose players rarely descend into needless melodrama or writhing angst". He also said that
15480-416: The Sun-cryst, the source of all nethicite and its power. She learns that Venat, one of the Occuria, has defected to put the "reins of History back in the hands of Man", manipulating Vayne in his quest to conquer Ivalice and leading Cid to create manufacted magicite to reduce the relative power of the Occuria. Ashe and the party journey to the Sun-cryst, where she decides not to take her revenge by following
15660-413: The active character is targeted by an attack or ability. Characters who are knocked out may also be substituted. A new feature in the game is the "gambit" system, which allows the player to program each character to perform certain commands in battle in response to specified conditions. Using gambits, the player may set reactions to different stimuli for each character. Each gambit consists of three parts:
15840-459: The amount of damage a character can receive; strength, the power of the character's physical attacks; and magic, the potency of the character's magical spells. In addition to leveling up, players may improve their characters via the License Board. The License Board is an array of panels that contain "licenses" which allow a character to perform certain actions. The board is split into two parts;
16020-515: The backstory of Final Fantasy XII , she has terrible cooking skills, despite being the motherly figure to the other orphans, and in the sequel, she is trying to improve her skills by running a diner on the Galbana. Her relationship with Vaan is also explored, such as during a conflict when she cares deeply for a Dalmascan knight who appeared in Lemures, much to Vaan's chagrin. By the events of Final Fantasy Tactics A2 , Penelo has gained much reputation as
16200-455: The battle, dissolving into energy absorbed by the Sun-Cryst before it is destroyed and fully activates his final airship, the Bahamut . A character named Cid appears or is mentioned in every main Final Fantasy title; this appearance is the first Final Fantasy game to feature a Cid character as a villain. Cid is voiced by John Rafter Lee in English and Chikao Ōtsuka in Japanese. Halim Ondore IV ( ハルム・オンドール4世 , Harumu Ondōru Yonsei )
16380-465: The battle. As he is dying, he requests that Basch replace him as the protector of the new Emperor Larsa. Basch agrees, and is later shown serving as "Gabranth" and Larsa's protector. Gabranth is one of the villains and the sole character representing Final Fantasy XII in Dissidia: Final Fantasy , where, as in XII , he is voiced by Akio Ōtsuka in Japanese; in the English version of XII he
16560-461: The beginning of the game. During the game, at the Emperor's behest, he acts as an informant on Vayne and is selected as Larsa's protector. Gabranth loathes himself for the framing of his brother and the tasks Vayne and the Empire have commanded him to do, such as killing Drace to prove his loyalty to Vayne after his rise to power. He accompanies Bergan and Zargabaath to Mt. Bur-Omisace, where Larsa agrees to return with him to avoid any trouble. Gabranth
16740-424: The character development. Shane Bettenhausen of Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine found the game's cast "a tad mundane" compared to characters from previous installments. Moreover, they found both Vaan and Ashe uninteresting, making the story lack "the emotional punch". They also criticized the voice acting as uneven and rife with mispronunciations. GameTrailers also criticized the characters, saying that many of
16920-458: The characters was created by scenario writer Daisuke Watanabe. In the bonus disc interview, he states that he endeavored to create characters that were neither fully good nor evil, adding flaws such as selfishness to the heroes and virtues such as kindness to the villains, in an attempt to make them more realistic. He also said he tried to create a scenario in which neither side was truly right or wrong, but instead just had different interpretations of
17100-467: The characters when acting autonomously, though player-directed commands are always given top priority. In Final Fantasy XII , a mysterious phenomenon known as "Mist" is the key energy which allows characters to cast summoning magic and perform "Quickenings". After defeating an Esper in combat, the player will be able to summon it to the battlefield. Similar to Final Fantasy X , the summoned creatures become active participants in battle, as opposed to
17280-634: The cinematic attacks seen in previous games in the series. Unlike X , however, Espers follow hidden gambits, rather than the player's direct command. The summoner remains an active member in the fight, able to attack and cast support magic, instead of leaving the party or standing idle while the summoned creature fights. An Esper will leave the battle if either the summoner or itself is knocked out, its time limit expires, or it executes its special attack. Some Espers have origins in Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Advance and others are derived from
17460-454: The counter-attack at Nalbina Fortress. Like Reks, he was tricked into thinking Basch was responsible for killing King Raminas. After the battle, he fled underground and joined the Resistance alongside Princess Ashe. For the next two years, he protected the Princess and tried to restore their lost Kingdom. During the events of Final Fantasy XII , he reunites with Basch after the captain escapes Nalbina Dungeon with Vaan. While initially skeptical of
17640-620: The creation of custom tools used for the development of the game. It was also listed as 8th on the Guinness top 50 games of all time in 2009. Hitoshi Sakimoto composed and arranged most of the game's soundtrack, with Hayato Matsuo and Masaharu Iwata creating seven and two tracks respectively. Nobuo Uematsu , following his departure from Square Enix in 2004, only contributed the ending song, " Kiss Me Good-Bye ". Sakimoto experienced difficulty following in Uematsu's footsteps, but he decided to create
17820-529: The creation of the Espers and granting power to King Raithwall to conquer the countries of Ivalice with the Dawn, Dusk, and Midlight shards of nethicite. The Occuria were first designed to be a race of Mindflayers, a type of enemy monster in the game. Earlier concept artwork portrayed these "Mindflayers" as wearing luxurious robes and turbans and lounging in a bar and smoking pipes. The design was changed during development, and
18000-478: The developers decided to expand on Al-Cid's role. He is voiced in English by David Rasner. The Occuria ( オキューリア , Okyūria ) are a small group of immortal beings, often called by both themselves and others the Undying ( 不滅なる神 , Fumetsunaru Kami ) . They are referred to as gods by some, but unknown to the major religions in Ivalice, they played a vital role in the history of Ivalice. They were responsible for
18180-656: The developers. Comparing the non-human races in Final Fantasy IX with those of XII , the developers have stated that the former were modeled after humans, while the latter were fundamentally different in terms of biological characteristics. These non-human races include Bangaa, Viera, Seeq, and Moogles . In the game, humans are referred to as Humes. Some of the races in the game that first appeared in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance , such as Bangaa, were originally designed for Final Fantasy XII . When asked why
18360-431: The development team to aid in his translation process, free from the fetters of corporate communication protocols. In 2005, during the protracted development of Final Fantasy XII , Capcom hired Smith to work on the localization of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney . He found director Shu Takumi 's writing to be very funny and clever, which drew him to the challenge of translating Takumi's jokes and wordplay. Smith joined
18540-403: The different types of action. The player may swap to and issue commands to any of the three characters in the party, but guest characters are controlled by artificial intelligence (AI). Battle commands are initiated through a series of menus, and include Attack, Magicks, Technicks, Mist, Gambits, and Items. The player may switch any active character with an inactive character at any time, unless
18720-551: The end of the conflict to the battlefield. Larsa becomes the Archadian emperor and Ashe the Queen of Dalmasca; Basch replaces his brother Gabranth as Larsa's protector; Vaan and Penelo fly an airship to meet Balthier and Fran for another adventure. Development for Final Fantasy XII began in December 2000 and was headed by Final Fantasy Tactics director Yasumi Matsuno and Final Fantasy IX director Hiroyuki Ito . Matsuno provided
18900-442: The events in the game. He tried to convey the emotions of the characters through their lines, the acting of the voice actors, and in the facial expressions of the in-game models. Alexander O. Smith , the English translator for the game, included accents to the characters for the English version of the game to add a layer of depth to the game by having characters from different areas of Ivalice sound different. He based these accents off
19080-512: The events of the game into motion. In conjunction with the game's release, Square Enix has produced a lineup of merchandise including jewelry, action figures and other goods related to the characters. Most of the merchandise are released in Japan. The items produced include Vaan's necklace, Ashe's wedding ring, a Judge Magister-themed lighter and a Magister-themed card case. A plush doll of Nono and four full-colored action figures of Ashe, Balthier, Vaan, and Judge Gabranth have also been displayed in
19260-404: The execution of Basch and the death of Ashe in an attempt to keep the resistance from trusting him or accepting his support. During the game, once the Archadian 8th Fleet is destroyed, Ondore openly announces his support of the rebel forces and enlists Rozarria's aid for a large assault against the Archadian Empire. Ondore is the narrator in the story, as his memoirs are read during certain points of
19440-444: The extensive notes made by game designer Yasumi Matsuno on the backgrounds of the characters. Smith chose voice actors for the project who had stage and film acting experience, in an attempt to avoid the common problem of "flat" reading he felt was prevalent in video game voice acting. The designers have stated that non-human characters and races feature a prominent role in the game, which was influenced by an interest in history among
19620-555: The fan observation of Star Wars similarities, Minaba replied that although he was a fan of the series, it was not necessarily an influence to the game's designs. It has also been noted that the similarities originate from The Hidden Fortress , the 1958 Akira Kurosawa film that inspired Star Wars . The developers initially planned to return to the "big-headed" character designs of previous Final Fantasy games, but settled on similar proportions as characters in Vagrant Story ,
19800-587: The final bosses of previous Final Fantasy games such as Chaos , the final boss of the first Final Fantasy , and Zeromus, the final boss of Final Fantasy IV . Final Fantasy XII introduces "Quickenings", a new Limit Break system unique compared to those in previous games in the series. Characters learn Quickenings by progressing to specific panels on the License Board. Each character can learn three Quickenings, which are unique to that character. Characters may string together Quickenings into large combo attacks, called Mist Chains, via timed button presses. If
19980-539: The final version of the game. Ito drew inspiration for gambits from plays in American football where each team member has a specific job to do based on the conditions and desired outcome. As for the license system, he explained that needing "licenses" to perform certain actions was a natural extension of the rigid structured society of Archadia, as epitomized by its Judges. At the early stages of development, Minagawa revealed that numerous ideas and features were planned for
20160-451: The focus to a younger protagonist as a result. Vaan's early designs were described as effeminate, but with the casting of Kouhei Takeda as his voice and motion capture actor, Vaan became less feminine and more "active, upbeat, bright and positive". Comments were made about the similarity between character designer Akihiko Yoshida 's creations and those of Tetsuya Nomura , another Square Enix character designer. Yoshida felt this comparison
20340-409: The forces of Rozarria and Archadia. Caught between the two powerful Empires, Dalmasca and a number of smaller nations have already been subjugated by Archadia two years before the game begins. The six main playable characters in Final Fantasy XII are Vaan ( Bobby Edner / Kouhei Takeda ), an energetic orphan of Rabanastre who dreams of becoming a sky pirate ; Ashe ( Kari Wahlgren / Mie Sonozaki ),
20520-584: The fray, the development phase took longer than expected, causing delays. Design inspiration came from a mix of medieval Mediterranean countries as demonstrated by the architectural styles found throughout Ivalice along with many of the races populating the region. The art team, led by art directors Hideo Minaba and Isamu Kamikokuryō, visited Turkey , which influenced the game's Mediterranean-style setting. The developers also used styles and deco from other sources including areas in India and New York City . Of note
20700-486: The gambit system would "let the game play itself", countering that gambits do not function without a player. However, IGN wrote that while "still extremely strong", Final Fantasy XII has one of the series' weaker soundtracks. Executive producer Akitoshi Kawazu was pleased by Famitsu 's rating but admitted that he thought the game was not perfect; he felt that the storyline did not meet some fans' expectations. Kawazu expressed his frustration and regrets regarding
20880-583: The game was shipped with the North American release of Dragon Quest VIII in November 2005. To commemorate the release of Final Fantasy XII , playable demos of the English version were available at DigitalLife's Gaming Pavilion in New York City on October 11, 2006, a day dubbed " Final Fantasy XII Gamer's Day". Additionally, Square Enix gave fans the chance to cosplay as characters from XII . Each person
21060-481: The game's "other characters" are "more interesting than the ones you'll actually control", and that the "characters' motivations are thin to non-existent". RPGFan editor Stephen Harris, while praising the quality of most of the voice acting and especially Balthier's, criticized Fran's as "monotone and subdued" with an "indecipherable accent". Cortney Stone of RPGamer found fault with the voice acting recording, describing it as "substandard" and said that "it sounds as though
21240-500: The game's ending credits theme, Symphonic Poem "Hope" , along with Yuji Toriyama. Two promotional soundtracks were released before the original soundtrack, Symphonic Poem "Hope" and The Best of the Final Fantasy XII Soundtrack , on March 1 and 15, 2006, respectively. The former contains all the music used in the game's trailer performed by Taro Hakase, including Symphonic Poem "Hope" . The original soundtrack itself
21420-435: The game, but were dropped from the final stages due to certain constraints and hardware limitations. Some of these included the ability for a second player to join in the gameplay, enabling a two-player mode. Another idea that was given a considerable amount of thought was the ability to recruit non-player characters to join in the mob hunts. Due to the technical limitations of the console and multiple number of characters joining
21600-565: The game. He is voiced by Tom Kane in English and Akio Nojima in Japanese. Al-Cid Margrace ( アルシド・マルガラス , Arushido Marugarasu ) is a member of the Rozarrian ruling family, the House of Margrace. He is seen during the game attempting to keep Rozarria and Archadia from fighting a costly war, as well as informing the main characters of political developments in Archadia. Although he succeeds in keeping
21780-488: The idea of the characters revealing skin was his. Vaan ( ヴァン , Van ) is the main protagonist of Final Fantasy XII . He is a 17-year-old orphaned Hume street urchin who lost his parents to a plague when he was 12 years old. His only brother, Reks, died two years before the start of the game during the Archadian invasion of Dalmasca. He makes a living as Migelo's assistant, running various errands for him while pickpocketing from Archadian soldiers, claiming to take back what
21960-451: The in-game engine, and was voted number one for Best Art Style on IGN ' s weekly Top Ten. Newtype USA named Final Fantasy XII its "Game of the Month" for November 2006, praised the gameplay, graphics, and story, and called it "the best RPG to have been released for any Sony platform". Although GameSpot lauded the gambit and license systems as an innovative and in-depth way for
22140-563: The inner English game that always existed underneath. Smith was able to speak directly with Matsuno to improve the script translation, marking the first of their many collaborations. For Final Fantasy XII , his role entailed rebuilding the world to make sense for an English-speaking audience. He chose to portray the Archadian Imperials with a British accent to distinguish them from the American -accented Resistance members. For both of these titles, Smith relied on Matsuno's dense notes on
22320-415: The judges. He was pleased by the performance of Johnny McKeown, the child actor who portrayed Larsa, a precocious prince. Smith was able to rewrite the script based on the actors he had cast for each character. He also made a key change to one of the final lines of Final Fantasy X with scenario writer Kazushige Nojima 's approval. In the original Japanese, the main character's love interest, Yuna, tells
22500-468: The landscape. Central to the story is Dalmasca, a small kingdom between the two continents and empires. Located in the middle of the Galtean Peninsula of Ordalia, Dalmasca is surrounded by an expanse of desert. The temperate climate of Dalmasca differs from the cold environs of Kerwon to the south and the lush plains of Valendia and Ordalia. During this time, Ivalice is beset by the pending war between
22680-438: The magicite as proof that she was the princess, the group journeys to collect another of the pieces of nethicite, the Dawn Shard. They are again captured by Ghis; when he tries to use the Dawn Shard in the Leviathan rather than the "manufacted" (artificially made) magicite it normally uses, his entire airship fleet is destroyed in a mirror of the destruction of Nabudis, and the party flees again. They encounter Larsa, who seeks
22860-525: The main Final Fantasy series not to include random encounters . Instead, enemies are visible in the overworld and the player may choose to fight or avoid them. Battles unfold in real time using the "Active Dimension Battle" (ADB) system. Battles begin when the party comes within range of an aggressive enemy, the party attacks an enemy, or a story event initiates a confrontation. When a character or enemy begins an action, target lines connect characters to other party members or enemies; different colors represent
23040-437: The main character, Vaan, was so effeminate, the development team explained that their previous game, Vagrant Story , which featured a "strong man in his prime" as the protagonist had been unsuccessful and unpopular; the change regarding Final Fantasy XII from a "big and tough" protagonist to a more effeminate one was thus decided after targeting demographics were considered. The game's art director Hideo Minaba has said that Vaan
23220-408: The main party at various points in the plotline, such as Larsa , the young prince of Archadia, Vossler , a member of the resistance against the Archadian Empire, and Reddas , a disillusioned former Magistrate of Archadia. Other major characters who influence the plot of the game but are not playable characters include Vayne , the eldest prince of Archadia and main antagonist of the story, Gabranth ,
23400-532: The modern FF era". IGN editor Jeremy Dunham praised the game and its writers for "evolving the personalities, histories, and motives of characters you already thought you knew, but didn't" and for "capitaliz[ing] on the opportunity to tell you about them". He also noted the visual and auditory detail of the characters, saying that "each and every model, down to the most obscure NPC , has an immense level of attention paid to them -- from their clothes and facial expressions, to their walking and idle animations" and that
23580-580: The most for the taking. They are inadvertently drawn into the war, however, when they attempt to steal the Goddess's Magicite—later revealed to be the Dusk Shard—from the Dalmascan Royal Palace. Vaan gets to the magicite first, and when Balthier and Fran confront him, the three of them are caught up in the chaos of a rebel assault on the palace. Balthier is Archadian by birth and eventually reveals he
23760-481: The original concept and plot but was forced to bow out a year before release due to health concerns. The team was restructured as a consequence: the new directorial duo consisted of Ito and Hiroshi Minagawa , while Akitoshi Kawazu of SaGa series fame became the game's executive producer. Series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi was disappointed by Matsuno's departure and declined to play the game beyond its introduction. The desire to move away from random encounters
23940-472: The other translators were not given access to the game files; they were instead forced to hack in their new dialogue using GameSharks during testing. In 1999, he worked as the main English translator for Yasumi Matsuno 's Vagrant Story . Reviewers noted the high quality of the English script, in which Smith utilized various archaic English idioms and slang that distinguished the game from its straightforward Japanese counterpart. His last major work as
24120-425: The palace, and in the sewers they meet the Resistance leader, Amalia, before being captured by Archadian forces. In the dungeons they meet Basch, who was imprisoned but not killed, and who states his twin brother Gabranth was the one to kill the king. The four then escape together back to Rabanastre. There they discover Penelo has been kidnapped and taken to the floating city of Bhujerba. In Bhujerba, they meet Lamont,
24300-440: The party defeats Dr. Cid at the Pharos, Balthier makes peace with his father and helps the group destroy the Sky Fortress Bahamut as penance for Cid's deeds. Balthier says that he is to be the "leading man" of the story throughout the game, and insists that this makes him invincible, since the hero always emerges in one piece. He and Fran are feared dead after they go down with the Sky Fortress Bahamut, but later reappear to retrieve
24480-422: The path through Golmore, Fran is forced to return to the village and ask for help. She learns from Jote that their youngest sister Mjrn has run off to the nearby magicite mines. When Fran finds her and brings her back, Mjrn reveals she wishes to leave Golmore, but Fran advises her against doing so, relating how her own independence has cost her her family and the ability to commune with the Wood. Fran accepts that she
24660-406: The player hunts monsters in 100 different maps to gain items and money. The game also includes the western version's English voices and widescreen 16:9 support, and a bonus DVD. A sequel , Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings , was released for the Nintendo DS in 2007. It takes place one year after the events of Final Fantasy XII and follows the adventures of Vaan. The game is one of four in
24840-451: The player to control the characters, it criticized them for being too complicated and difficult to adjust to, especially for newer players of the series. The reviewer also criticized the sometimes tedious back and forth travel. On the other hand, GameSpot took particular note of the "excellent" voice cast. IGN praised the game's rich storyline and artistic direction, shown through its "sheer depth of character". It also assuaged criticism that
25020-438: The player to find and defeat increasingly difficult monsters in the game's open world. Final Fantasy XII also includes elements from previous games in the series, such as Chocobos and Moogles . The game takes place in Ivalice , where the empires of Archadia and Rozarria are waging an endless war. Dalmasca, a small kingdom, is caught between the warring nations. When Dalmasca is annexed by Archadia, its princess, Ashe, creates
25200-497: The question of leaving Japan-specific terms untranslated, Smith is careful to either translate around it or provide a concise description of the term. He only resorts to leaving a word in Japanese in rare, plot-critical cases, such as with a kotatsu used as a murder weapon in The Devotion of Suspect X , stating "Nothing kills the flow of a text more than a long-winded explanation of something which would have come second nature to
25380-426: The ruling family. The technological marvels of airships and synthetic nethicite—a form of magicite that absorbs Mist—are thanks to Doctor Cid ( John Rafter Lee / Chikao Ōtsuka ), a prominent researcher from Archadia. The Resistance against Archadia includes Dalmascan knight Vossler ( Nolan North / Masaki Terasoma ), an ally of Basch; Marquis Halim Ondore IV ( Tom Kane / Akio Nojima ), the game's narrator and ruler of
25560-418: The same game world as XII , Ivalice . Comments have been made about the similarity between Yoshida's creations and those of Tetsuya Nomura , the character designer for Final Fantasy VII , VIII , X , and XIII . Yoshida feels this connection is sparked by the style of color used by both artists, which involves a color consistency between the characters and the environments. In an interview included in
25740-488: The secluded Viera settlement in Golmore Jungle, but became restless and desired to see the outside world. This was a major source of conflict between her and the other Viera, especially her elder sister Jote, who served as the village matriarch. Fran argued that although all Viera begin their lives in the forest, they are not necessarily bound to remain there to the end. When the party encounters an impassable Viera barrier on
25920-553: The second album from Uematsu's band, The Black Mages , and performed the spoken word intro to "Maybe I'm a Lion" as well. With his translations, Smith goes to great lengths to preserve the experience of the original text as much as possible, especially if it has a distinct feel. For The Devotion of Suspect X , he mirrored Higashino's "sparse, methodical tone of Japanese" by using more elevated and formal language. He draws on his academic background in classical Japanese literature to inform some of these translations. When it comes to
26100-640: The skycity Bhujerba; Reddas ( Phil LaMarr / Takayuki Sugo ), a sky pirate based in the port at Balfonheim; and the Rozarrian Empire, of which Al-Cid Margrace (David Rasner/ Norio Wakamoto ) is a prince of the ruling family. The mythos of Final Fantasy XII revolves around a character known as Dynast-King Raithwall, a man who once united Ivalice to create the Galtean Alliance in ages past. In Dalmasca's capital city of Rabanastre, Princess Ashelia (Ashe) of Dalmasca and Prince Rasler of Nabradia have just wed, as
26280-431: The sons of Archadian Emperor Gramis, who takes care of her and convinces her he wishes to make peace with Dalmasca. After reuniting with Vaan, she makes him promise not to leave her side, and ever since then has traveled with him, furthering their relationship as sky pirate and partner. A year after the Bahamut's crash, during the game's epilogue, Penelo serves as Vaan's navigator from their adventure in Revenant Wings . In
26460-411: The stain of politics and war. Despite his young age, Larsa is idealistic and believes that the strife within Ivalice can be quelled without war. Larsa possesses a great deal of respect for House Solidor and the men of his family, especially his older brother. The Senate, however, fears Vayne's growing power and the perceived threat to their own, and thus plot from the beginning of the game to place Larsa on
26640-528: The storyline, citing creative differences between the PlayOnline and Final Fantasy Tactics members of the development team. Final Fantasy XII was named best PlayStation 2 game and best RPG by numerous video game journals and websites, including GameSpot , GameSpy and IGN . Both Edge and Famitsu awarded it Game of the Year 2006. The Japan Game Awards 2006 honored Final Fantasy XII with their "Grand Award" and "Award for Excellence" and
26820-443: The supposed main character's role was changed to become an observer, "a different outlook than in the previous installments". 1UP.com 's Andrew Pfister applauded the character dialogues as being "intelligent, subtle and sharp"; the relationships between characters were lauded as well. Balthier and Fran's relationship was compared to Han Solo and Chewbacca of Star Wars , being "far more interesting than anything Square's put out in
27000-404: The team's previous game, as development progressed. Basch was the first character designed and the developers considered him the "hero" of the story at the time. Vaan and Penelo were added last and became the heroes in the final version of the plot. The developers were motivated by the commercial failure of Vagrant Story , which featured a "strong man in his prime" as the protagonist, and switched
27180-522: The team, uses the nethicite to become "Vayne Novus" before Vaan mortally wounds him. Venat, however, awards Vayne for helping it by giving him the power of an Occurian, causing Vayne to become the monstrous "Undying" and grafting pieces of the Bahamut's superstructure onto his body. In the ensuing battle, Vaan kills Vayne. Vayne is voiced in English by Elijah Alexander and Nobuo Tobita in Japanese. Gabranth ( ガブラス , Gaburasu ) , also known as Noah fon Ronsenburg ( ノア・フォン・ローゼンバーグ , Noa fon Rōzenbāgu ) ,
27360-402: The team. Scenario writer Daisuke Watanabe in turn fleshed out Shoda's plot into a script. During the English localization process, Alexander O. Smith , who had previously worked on Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy X , acted as producer and translator. While still preserving the meaning behind the Japanese script, Smith made the decision to use different dialects of English to reproduce
27540-551: The throne in hopes of manipulating him from behind the scenes. Over the course of the game, Larsa proves himself to be more capable than the Senate believes. He travels with Vaan and company under the alias "Lamont" during their trip to the Lhusu Mines to rescue Penelo, but his knowledge of nethicite exposes him. Larsa helps Vaan and company escape from the Leviathan and later joins them again at Jahara, urging Ashe to use her influence on
27720-472: The time. Noah, however, remained with their mother and moved with her to her home country of Archadia, where he took on her surname of Gabranth. After his mother died of her illness, Gabranth began to hate Basch for abandoning his homeland and family. Soon after, he was noticed by Emperor Gramis and joined the Archadian Judges with his backing; he rose to become a Judge Magister, the position that he holds at
27900-460: The town and became a patron to pirates. Ondore eventually approached him and asked that he retrieve deifacted nethicite, the shards of the Sun-Cryst, from Doctor Cid. Later, he accompanies Ashe to the Pharos at Ridorana to find the Sun-Cryst. After Cid activates the Sun-Cryst, Reddas sacrifices himself by using the Sword of Kings to destroy the crystal, unleashing an explosion which vaporizes him and most of
28080-416: The traitor, Vossler eventually learns to trust his friend once again. They meet up on the Leviathan as they are on their way to rescue Ashe. Vossler dons an Archadian judge armor to fool the guards and enable them to rescue the Princess, and escapes to Bhujerba where they plan to keep the Princess safe. However, the Princess decides to take matters in her own hands and travel to the Tomb of Raithwall to obtain
28260-557: The treasure of the Dynast-King. Vossler catches up after being left behind at the Ogir-Yensa Sandsea while on their way to the Tomb. He offers to protect Princess Ashe once again, despite objecting to Balthier and Fran's invading the royal tomb. After the party gets the treasure, the Dawn Shard, from the tomb, they are taken aboard the Leviathan once again. There, Vossler reveals that he, embittered by their "profitless battle", has made
28440-443: The twin brother of Basch, and Cid , a brilliant scientist and father to Balthier. The characters in the game have been the basis of several pieces of merchandise produced by Square Enix, such as statues, action figures, and jewelry. They have been subject to mixed reviews; some reviews have applauded the characters' dialogue and relationships to each other, while others dismissed the story and characters as uninteresting. Critiques of
28620-680: The two countries from fighting for most of the game, he joins the resistance in a strike against Vayne at the end of the game. Al-Cid appears in Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift when Vaan requests his aid. After Vaan and Penelo join Luso's party, Al-Cid requests membership as well to lie low from his duties as royalty. Al-Cid was initially given only a small role in the original storyline, but Norio Wakamoto , his Japanese voice actor, had "voiced Al-Cid in such an interesting way" that
28800-544: The upper Pharos. Reddas is voiced by Phil LaMarr in English and Takayuki Sugo in Japanese. Vayne Carudas Solidor ( ヴェイン・カルダス・ソリドール , Vein Karudasu Soridōru ) is the third son of Emperor Gramis and Larsa's older brother, as well as the main antagonist of Final Fantasy XII . He is the 27-year-old Hume Consul of the Archadian-occupied Dalmasca, Commandant of the Archadian Empire's Western Armada, and
28980-411: The upper part comprises Magick, Technick, Accessory, and Augment ( stat increases and other permanent buffs ) licenses, and the bottom part comprises mostly Weapon and Armor licenses. To use a Magick, Technick , or piece of equipment, the character must obtain its corresponding license by spending the required amount of LP (License Points). LP are earned in battle along with the experience points. Like
29160-438: The voice acting for the characters has also been mixed, with different reviews either praising or criticizing both the acting and the technical quality of the recordings. Final Fantasy XII ' s characters were designed by Akihiko Yoshida . It was his first involvement in a main-series Final Fantasy game, though he worked as the character designer for Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story , both of which were set in
29340-459: The voice acting was "top-notch". GameSpy 's Justin Speer also praised the characters, saying that it was hard to "resist being charmed by a few of the characters" and that they "interact with each other in dramatic and interesting ways". The voice acting was praised by Keith Schleicher of Gaming Trend, who said that the characters voices all matched their appearances well. Other reviewers have criticized
29520-422: The world's backstory to capture subtle and implied connections and preserve the rich texture of the game. Smith compares translating lip synced dialogue to writing entirely in haiku . The 7% of Final Fantasy XII ' s script that was voiced took more time to translate than the remaining 93%. In his role as voice producer, Smith searched for character actors like John DiMaggio and British stage actors for
29700-401: The world's events and conflicts and Ashe, with his character used as a narrative device to allow the player to follow the events as an outside observer. Over the course of the game, Vaan comes to understand he spent his time running from his problems and blaming the Archadian empire for them, rather than moving on with his life after his brother and parents' deaths. By the end of the game, Vaan is
29880-676: Was asked to show Square Enix three photos of his or her costume for a chance to win a trip to New York and participate in the Final Fantasy XII Gamer's Day event. Final Fantasy XII once held the Guinness World Record for longest development period in a video game production, with a total of five years, spanning from 2001 until its release in 2006. At a Final Fantasy XII "postmortem" at MIT in March 2009, Hiroshi Minagawa mentioned that several years of production were devoted to
30060-530: Was designed by character designer Akihiko Yoshida to look Asian . Vaan is voiced in Final Fantasy XII by Bobby Edner in English and by Kouhei Takeda in Japanese. Vaan has also appeared in other video games; despite having been created for Final Fantasy XII , he was first introduced in the 2004 crossover board game Itadaki Street Special for the PlayStation 2 . He also appears in Itadaki Street Portable and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy , both for
30240-429: Was first released for the PlayStation 2 in March 2006. It introduced several innovations to the series: an open world ; a seamless battle system; a controllable camera; a customizable " gambit " system, which lets the player control the artificial intelligence (AI) of characters in battle; a "license" system, which determines what abilities and equipment can be used by characters; and hunting side quests , which allows
30420-410: Was largely developed by Virtuos , who previously developed Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster for Square Enix. A version for Windows was released via Steam on February 1, 2018. The port included support for higher display resolutions and 60 frames-per-second rendering, options to switch between three different versions of the soundtrack, and immediate access to the post-game modes. Versions for
30600-468: Was present since the beginning of development. This desire fueled the development of the Active Dimension Battle system so players could seamlessly move from battle to exploration. The gambit system was conceived early on as a way to facilitate this change. Battle system designer Hiroshi Tomomatsu said that it gradually moved away from a complex and rigid formula to the more flexible form seen in
30780-428: Was re-released as part of the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimate Box Japanese package in December 2012. For the North American release, a "Collector's Edition" was available through GameStop and EB Games . This edition includes the original game packaged in a metallic case along with a special bonus disc, which contains Final Fantasy XII developer interviews, an art gallery, U.S. and Japanese trailers , and
30960-415: Was released in Japan on August 10, 2007. It includes twelve license boards (instead of the original game's one), each corresponding to a different Zodiac sign and job . The player can control guest characters and summons, and hold L1 to double the game's running speed. There is also a " New Game+ " option, a "New Game- (minus)" option (in which characters do not gain experience), and a "Trial Mode" in which
31140-536: Was released two months later in Japan on May 31. It consists of 4 CDs with 100 tracks, and includes promotional tracks not in the final version of the game. The CD single for "Kiss Me Good-Bye" was released on the March 15, 2006. A limited edition was also released, featuring a DVD containing the music video for "Kiss Me Good-Bye". Tofu Records has released an abridged version of the original soundtrack, which contains 31 songs, including "Kiss Me Good-Bye". On March 16, 2006, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan released
31320-571: Was released worldwide for the PlayStation 4 in July 2017, for Windows in February 2018, and for the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One in April 2019. Throughout the game, the player directly controls the on-screen character from a third-person perspective to interact with people, objects, and enemies. Unlike previous games in the series, the player can also control the camera with the right analog stick, allowing for
31500-603: Was set to appear in Fortress , as revealed in concept art for the game. Basch fon Ronsenburg ( バッシュ・フォン・ローゼンバーグ , Basshu fon Rōzenbāgu ) is a 36-year-old Captain in the Order of Knights of Dalmasca. He and his twin brother Noah are natives of the Republic of Landis, which the Archadians conquered long before the events of the game. After Landis was overthrown, Basch fled to Dalmasca and Noah to Archadia, and they lost contact. Basch joined
31680-435: Was sparked by the choice of color used by both artists, which was based on maintaining consistent color between the characters and the environments. Non-human characters and races play a prominent role in the game, which was influenced by an interest in history among the developers. Miwa Shoda wrote a storyline for the game premised on the basis of the cutscenes and world setting that had already been finished when she joined
31860-417: Was still widely believed that Basch was dead, he adopted his brother's name and title when entering Larsa's service. In Revenant Wings , Larsa sends him to be the Empire's representative in dealing with the Judge of Wings. Basch is voiced by Keith Ferguson in English and Rikiya Koyama in Japanese. He also appears in Itadaki Street Portable . Penelo ( パンネロ , Pannero ) is a 17-year-old (16-year-old in
32040-411: Was the fourth best-selling PlayStation 2 game of 2006 worldwide. As of March 2007, the game had shipped over 5.2 million copies worldwide. By November 2009, over 6 million copies of the game were sold worldwide on PlayStation 2. As of October 2017, the PlayStation 4 remaster shipped over one million copies worldwide. An expanded version of the game, Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System ,
32220-403: Was the sixth game to receive a perfect score from the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu . It is also the second Yasumi Matsuno game to garner a perfect score, the first being Vagrant Story . The game was praised for its graphics, scenarios, game system, and the freshness it brought to the Final Fantasy series. It was praised for its seamless transitions between full motion video segments and
32400-446: Was thought to have committed suicide, but took on the alias Amalia ( アマリア , Amaria ) , to serve as the leader of the Resistance before joining the group. Her desire for revenge against Archadia for the horrors its army committed on her people was manipulated by the Occuria to reinforce their rule over Ivalice. Over the course of the story, the Occuria create an image of Rasler to guide Ashe where they need her to go. In their encounter,
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