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
- 957 Views
You're not alone- the characters just didn't click for me, nor did the plot
24/09/2009 11:16:11 PM
- 784 Views
Videogame stories suck the big one, with VERY few exceptions.
25/09/2009 12:29:39 AM
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FF7?!?! You're a nutcase!
25/09/2009 01:50:16 AM
- 749 Views
Fair enough. Maybe I'm proving my own point.
26/09/2009 06:46:26 AM
- 793 Views
I will have to disagree with this...
26/09/2009 08:20:46 AM
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Exactly. When I think story here, I think of the individual stories as well as the whole.
26/09/2009 07:13:24 PM
- 814 Views
Still, it's good for a videogame story.
26/09/2009 07:54:01 PM
- 739 Views
I agree, with caveat.
26/09/2009 11:54:25 PM
- 844 Views
New games do not feature the storytelling prowess of good TV, films, or novels.
28/09/2009 01:03:46 AM
- 752 Views
I disagree. Maybe you're playing the wrong games. *NM*
28/09/2009 04:51:48 AM
- 361 Views
What is the videogame equivalent of The Godfather, The Wire, or Great Expectations? *NM*
01/10/2009 03:31:37 AM
- 388 Views
Ah, I see. *NM*
03/10/2009 08:02:28 PM
- 403 Views
Say what?
04/10/2009 02:21:01 PM
- 701 Views
"Ah, I see" means "You haven't answered because there is no satisfactory answer."
05/10/2009 07:06:03 AM
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So you expect me to reply within two days when it took you three?
05/10/2009 10:29:27 PM
- 654 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
- 776 Views

And yet so many people claim to play them for their stories...
25/09/2009 03:06:44 AM
- 804 Views
The extras lower peoples' standards, but I DO think it's still the story.
25/09/2009 04:34:30 AM
- 696 Views
That's basically what I meant.
25/09/2009 05:05:19 AM
- 675 Views
Yeah I understand.
25/09/2009 05:18:34 AM
- 761 Views
You are correct. But it sounds like semantics to me, since in practice...
25/09/2009 06:00:41 AM
- 711 Views
I enjoyed 12 more than most of those you mentioned...
25/09/2009 12:55:56 AM
- 691 Views
The grid was fine, but didn't scale well.
25/09/2009 04:35:57 AM
- 692 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
- 780 Views
I am glad that at least one person here is with me on this.
26/09/2009 05:53:42 AM
- 721 Views
It's interesting....
26/09/2009 06:55:18 PM
- 759 Views
Final Fantasy XII was the best written FF ever, by far.
26/09/2009 05:47:27 AM
- 766 Views
LOL... FFXII was the best FFXII ever?
26/09/2009 03:43:11 PM
- 724 Views
That was juvenile, TMJ. Also, he said best written FF. *NM*
26/09/2009 06:58:12 PM
- 397 Views
Yes, it was funny on a juvenile level.
26/09/2009 07:11:12 PM
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Some of us --I'd even say MOST of us-- like that, though.
26/09/2009 07:20:55 PM
- 761 Views
Agreed, I want to get into a magical whale's belly and fly through the air ...
28/09/2009 05:03:14 AM
- 958 Views