It's not like it was as strong as The Wire, or War and Peace, or Pulp Fiction, or any other exemplary piece of storytelling in other mediums. It's like saying FF6 won the gold at the special olympics: an achievement, but only in the context of a medium that has special needs.
I'd add a "for the time" in there somewhere, personally. I think video games have come a long, long way since then, and the Special Olympics comment only really applies to older games. I look at Final Fantasy 6 the same way I look at, say, Thundercats. A lot of people remember it being awesome because at the time it was, and at the time they were kids. Imagination and childhood fleshed out a lot of non-existent details and made that six foot tall slide six stories tall.
When you go back and play it, however, it's evident that things aren't quite as you remember. Watching re-run of Thundercats was positively painful. As for FF6, I never played it back in the day, but tried to when they re-released it for the PS1 (?). I never got more than six hours in, so I can't give a full critique of the game or anything, but let me say, what I saw was almost fully in line with the Thundercats.
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So being a FF fan and never having played FF 12...
24/09/2009 10:25:44 PM
- 920 Views
You're not alone- the characters just didn't click for me, nor did the plot
24/09/2009 11:16:11 PM
- 745 Views
Videogame stories suck the big one, with VERY few exceptions.
25/09/2009 12:29:39 AM
- 766 Views
FF7?!?! You're a nutcase!
25/09/2009 01:50:16 AM
- 708 Views
Fair enough. Maybe I'm proving my own point.
26/09/2009 06:46:26 AM
- 759 Views
I will have to disagree with this...
26/09/2009 08:20:46 AM
- 665 Views
Exactly. When I think story here, I think of the individual stories as well as the whole.
26/09/2009 07:13:24 PM
- 780 Views
Still, it's good for a videogame story.
26/09/2009 07:54:01 PM
- 699 Views
I agree, with caveat.
26/09/2009 11:54:25 PM
- 807 Views
New games do not feature the storytelling prowess of good TV, films, or novels.
28/09/2009 01:03:46 AM
- 719 Views
I disagree. Maybe you're playing the wrong games. *NM*
28/09/2009 04:51:48 AM
- 345 Views
What is the videogame equivalent of The Godfather, The Wire, or Great Expectations? *NM*
01/10/2009 03:31:37 AM
- 368 Views
Ah, I see. *NM*
03/10/2009 08:02:28 PM
- 383 Views
Say what?
04/10/2009 02:21:01 PM
- 671 Views
"Ah, I see" means "You haven't answered because there is no satisfactory answer."
05/10/2009 07:06:03 AM
- 686 Views
So you expect me to reply within two days when it took you three?
05/10/2009 10:29:27 PM
- 617 Views
I've used that escape from a debate I was losing, too. It's a good one
06/10/2009 09:21:31 PM
- 739 Views

And yet so many people claim to play them for their stories...
25/09/2009 03:06:44 AM
- 766 Views
The extras lower peoples' standards, but I DO think it's still the story.
25/09/2009 04:34:30 AM
- 662 Views
That's basically what I meant.
25/09/2009 05:05:19 AM
- 640 Views
Yeah I understand.
25/09/2009 05:18:34 AM
- 721 Views
You are correct. But it sounds like semantics to me, since in practice...
25/09/2009 06:00:41 AM
- 676 Views
I enjoyed 12 more than most of those you mentioned...
25/09/2009 12:55:56 AM
- 658 Views
The grid was fine, but didn't scale well.
25/09/2009 04:35:57 AM
- 657 Views
I'll agree with this point, but I also agree with most of the thoughts of the GP
25/09/2009 05:26:18 PM
- 738 Views
I am glad that at least one person here is with me on this.
26/09/2009 05:53:42 AM
- 684 Views
It's interesting....
26/09/2009 06:55:18 PM
- 718 Views
Final Fantasy XII was the best written FF ever, by far.
26/09/2009 05:47:27 AM
- 729 Views
LOL... FFXII was the best FFXII ever?
26/09/2009 03:43:11 PM
- 683 Views
That was juvenile, TMJ. Also, he said best written FF. *NM*
26/09/2009 06:58:12 PM
- 380 Views
Yes, it was funny on a juvenile level.
26/09/2009 07:11:12 PM
- 679 Views
Some of us --I'd even say MOST of us-- like that, though.
26/09/2009 07:20:55 PM
- 723 Views
Agreed, I want to get into a magical whale's belly and fly through the air ...
28/09/2009 05:03:14 AM
- 924 Views