Level Design of Final Fantasy XII

FFXII is a Role Playing Game with realistic 3d background and awesome music composition. The story of FF12 takes place in between mainly Dalmasca and Archadia, so this blog will be looking at the level design of these two places.

Lighting
The city of Dalmasca set in a environment surrounded by desert. There are climate changes, which are rain season and dry season. When dry season, maps around the Dalmasca city is as bright as sunny day. When the rain season takes place, the cloud thickness will change, so is the lighting, depends on how heavy the rain is. Inside the city Dalmasca and Archadia, weather conditions are ignored and player see the weather condition by default since players can stay in a city for a long while. Of course, other city can be in different weather, depends on the story setting.

Scale
In the world of FF12, characters and building are in proper proportion. Different races that have different height and anatomy (slander bodies of Vierra, small and rabbit-like Moggle, and the average Hume), children and adults are all presented in the world of FF12 to show the cultural and history combinations instead of boring character design that almost everyone has exactly the same height. This applies in the boss fight as well. Some bosses are 50 times larger than a Hume in size. When that kind of boss is introduced in the cut scene, such power of largeness can be felt from the movie.

Structure/Architecture
Since the city of Dalmasca is surround by desert, the structure of the city buildings are appear to be kind of yellowish stony, which makes the city feel old and history are contained within it.
The city of Archadia is a total different story. The city is at the top of its development, the design of the city makes me feel like I'm in 25 century Prague (by that I mean Europe style future).
And the major element that cannot be forgotten from any FF series is the crystal. Both and other cities in FF12 are using crystals as the tool of internal lighting for their shininess.

Color And Contrast
In the case of the characters, color and texture is used in the way making their characteristic very recognizable. Vaan's light armor gives him a look of a young man with full of energy. Balthier looks very experienced, his outfit also gives him the look of 30, but in fact, only 22.
In the case of the environment, we can clearly see what is coming toward the characters unless obstructed by weather setting. Even though player is in a cave environment, either monsters have red eyes that shine on them or they just have fancy equipment on their body that reflect light and give away their position.

Narrative
Final Fantasy XII is set in the world of Ivalice, and for years the two Empires of Archadia and Rozarria have been fighting against each other in a epic struggle. The kingdom of Dalmasca located in a strategically important position between the two empires. Soon Dalmasca falls under the control of Archadia. Ashe is the daughter of the king of Dalmasca. She becomes the leader of the resistance against the Empire. In a pursuit, she meets Vaan, and a adventure begins. . .

Ashe meets Vaan in the sewer underground, in which reflects how desperate the situation was. The story as the whole, it's very easy to get dragged into their world and their problems, because the theme political battle as the main target instead of some love story. Character's different personalities are very likable and their development plays a big role in this game.