Balthier Truly is the Leading Man

So, I’ve recently been on a huge Final Fantasy XII binge; most of my time outside school and college applications have been dedicated to exploring the vast and expansive world of Ivalice and reworking myself through the story of Princess Ashe’s reclaiming of Dalmasca and its independence from Archadia. It’s a good thing I hadn’t done a review of this game to this point, because up until now I would have had hardly anything positive to say about it; frankly, the game annoyed me more than Final Fantasy X, which is hard to do. However, over the years the game has really grown on me and is now probably my favorite of the series, next to Final Fantasy IX. I can get onto a whole tangent about why this game is awesome (which I may do in another essay), but that’s not what this rant is about. No, this rant will be about a something a little more specific.

Now, those of you who played FFXII, you probably found yourself a little annoyed with the awkward placement of two certain characters: Vaan, the lead protagonist who seems to just be there for the ride, and Penelo, who seems to just be there for Vaan. It’s true; other than Vaan’s loose association with the plot due to his brother Rex, these two characters seem to be of no consequence to any real end in this plot and are rather vestigial. You’ve probably also heard rumors suggesting something along the lines that Captain Basch was supposed to be the lead, but was pushed into the side so that Vaan could bring about a bishounen, teenage icon aspect to the story. If true, that would have totally been awesome and much better than what we ended up with. But this, too, doesn’t matter, because it turns out that another character is actually the lead, and that character is Balthier.

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Radiata Stories

Time, yet again, for another video game review, and who would have guessed it would be another RPG? In 2005, Tri-Ace released their newest game, Radiata Stories. A completely new project, Radiata Stories aimed to take the aspects of the basic RPG, mix it with a compelling story in a fantasy setting, and make it modern with little taste of Tri-Ace here and there. Overall, the game is a cross between Star Ocean (another Tri-Ace series) and some children’s fairy tale involving knights, elves and dragons. Radiata Stories literally offers hundreds of hours of entertaining gameplay, and the possibilities seem endless. It is definitely one of the great games of the RPG genre, and here’s why.

Kingdom Hearts

Are you a big fan of Final Fantasy for its badass characters, innovative battle systems, and its state based leveling system? Are you a big fan of Disney for its fun, lovable, and versatile characters and settings? Then you should certainly love it when they’re put in a blender together and make what is now one of the most popular game series of the decade: Kingdom Hearts. Released in 2002, Kingdom Hearts took the world by surprised, offering a real-time battle system, character classes, and a great story, becoming the perfect mix of Final Fantasy and Disney. This game was on of the first video games I ever grew to love, and it certainly opened me up to a vast world of gaming, especially in RPGs. To this day, almost eight years later it remains as what may quite possibly be my favorite games series of all time that I make sure to play through every once in a while. You may be wondering how such an odd blend could ever be good in any way shape or form, and I’ll tell you how now.

Final Fantasy IX

Remember the old Final Fantasy games, and their classic battle systems and their expansive worlds with character classes such as the knight, the black mage, and the thief? By the release of Final Fantasy XIII, this seemed to be a tradition that classic SquareSoft (now known as Sqaure-Enix) games were steering away from with the Final Fantasy series. However, one game dared to return to its roots before everybody upgraded to the Playstation 2 and the revolution in the Final Fantasy series. Released in late 2000, the last game in the series released to the original Sony Playstation, Final Fantasy IX offered us what we would expect in a game with such a bold name as “Final Fantasy” by bringing us back what made the original games in the series so popular, and bringing it to the new millennium. To this day, Final Fantasy IX remains as my favorite Final Fantasy game, and quite possibly my favorite RPG of all time. But what makes this game so amazing? Well, lets go over that.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope

In early 2009, Tri-Ace released their newest installment of Star Ocean, dubbed The Last Hope, through Square-Enix. The Star Ocean series has been known for it’s vast dungeons, the affection system, and real-time battle systems, and The Last Hope works to take it one step further.

This time, instead of a sequel based several hundred, even thousands of years ahead of the predecessor, The Last Hope is more of a prequel, and covers Earth’s initial attempt at exploring the galaxy in S.D. 0010. Several years prior to the plot within the game, in A.D. 2064, Earth is left barren due to the nuclear destruction of World War III, scarring the sky with clouds and making the surface uninhabitable. The U.S. and Japan sign a peace treaty, ending the war, and together they try rebuilding their race and hope to find a new home among the stars. With that they begun building their space program, the Universal Science and Technology Administration, which eventually set up the Space Reconnaissance Force, which we will became all too familiar with. The SRF’s mission is to set out and explore the galaxy, locating suitable planets for human colonization so that the people of Earth may once again have a home.