Brad Shoemaker Associate Editor

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More Than a Pretty Face

There's a special version of Christmas that comes to us rank-and-file fanboys roughly every couple of years, courtesy of our friends at Square. This unique holiday brings us lovely art, strange new worlds, a raft of crazy-looking characters, and weird gameplay ideas to speculate on. The hallowed day isn't confined to December; in fact, it's happened at many times of the year. Yes, I'm geeky enough to be talking about the unveiling of a new Final Fantasy game--an event that I and countless other nerds get excited about in our adulthood the way we used to get excited about Christmas when we were still wearing footy jammies and drinking from sippy cups. There's just something about getting a load of the first character designs, environments, and story tidbits for the next Final Fantasy that makes people like me get all misty in the eye.

I don't see the problem here. Vaan's got the same girly, rakish good looks as every Final Fantasy protagonist since 1997.

Recently, after months of jerking us around with delayed release dates and a total lack of info, Square finally threw us a bone with the official unveiling of Final Fantasy XII, the oft-reported but never-seen new project whose principals include director Yasumi Matsuno and character designer Akihiko Yoshida. The two worked together on low-profile but venerable Square games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story, both of which went in some pretty new artistic and mechanical directions for the company. As a result of this, we knew straight away that the next Final Fantasy wasn't gonna be cut from the same cloth as past ones. Anyway, when the first wave of info hit, we were all initially stunned by the revelation that FFXII will take place in FFT's world of Ivalice. But as surprised as I was by this detail, I was even more shocked by some of the downright venomous criticism launched by forum denizens at the rather effeminate design of the game's lead character, Vaan.

Okay, I'll admit it--the dude looks a little girly. But then, don't all Final Fantasy leading men these days have that same look of breezy, rakish confidence about them? From the windswept bangs of Squall Leonhart to the spindly little arms of Cloud Strife, these guys don't exactly scream masculinity. Frankly, if you've enjoyed or even tolerated Final Fantasy character designs for the last few years, there's nothing egregiously offensive about Vaan that you haven't already seen before. And for those of you who are saying that FFXII has lazily resorted to the same character archetypes as the last few games, I direct you to the subtle curves and realistic proportions of the game's female protagonist Ashe. After Final Fantasy X-2's busty sexplosion, Ashe looks like a real woman, and I, for one, am all for it.

That's one mean-looking chocobo prepped for war.

Besides, it's not like the world and story of Final Fantasy XII have gone soft compared to previous games. Au contraire, friends. If anything, I think the plot--what with its bitterly warring nation states and brutal enforcers of the law--sounds decidedly targeted at older tastes. The guys making Final Fantasy XII even said that, unlike the last few games in the series, this one wouldn't have any strong love elements in its story (and I bet we won't get the attendant sappy pop song this time around, either). Granted, the best Final Fantasy storylines (VIII and X, in my opinion) have been love stories at their cores. Since Square's done just about everything it can do with the RPG love story and would just be rehashing past successes if they kept it up, I'm thankful for the thematic shift. Maybe in place of romance we'll see some devious political machinations and a large-scale, all-out war this time around. At the least, that vicious chocobo design sure seems to hint that the game ain't for kids.

So basically, what I'm getting at is this: If you've been whining on Internet forums about how Vaan is too girly and FFXII is gonna suck because of it, shut up. The bottom line is that we've barely seen a shred of what Matsuno and crew are going to do with the Final Fantasy formula, and until you've gotten some more hard facts or, God forbid, played the game, this nay-saying is just pointless. If the game comes out in a year and, by some cruel twist of fate, it's horrible, feel free to laugh at me. But if that happens, I guarantee it won't be because the main character looks more Jude Law than John Wayne.