There are unmarked spoilers for Final Fantasy XII in this thread. Proceed with caution.
I've got a lot of issues with how Final Fantasy XII tells its story (mostly in how it doesn't do so cohesively), but I wanted to talk about the one element that disappoints me the most to this day: the Judges.
For years, we would gloss over this iconic image of the five antagonists as FFXII continued its six year development cycle (which, prior to FFXV, was the longest time it took for an FF game to release). A considerable amount of hype was built up around these amazingly-designed armored bad-asses, with early reviewers calling them "Sephiroth times five" (because now and forever, Sephiroth is going to be the main metric to which all FF bad guys are measured....even if you liked Kefka more).
Instead, what we got were five mooks that barely got as much development as the Turks, or even Seifer's Disciplinary Committee. Instead, the Judges were more like FFIV's Four Fiends: powerful enemies that came and went the moment they made their appearance as the latest boss to take down.
Actually, scratch that...the Judges don't even reach that level, since you don't even fight all of them (and no, the tacked-on boss trial after the fact does not count).
Let's run through each Judge one at a time, starting with the one that got the most development as well as a complete arc throughout FFXII's story.
Oh? You were expecting Gabranth? Too bad, because that honor goes to Judge Ghis.
"But he was the first of the Judges to go down!", you may protest. Even so, Ghis was also the one Judge to have a complete story that is witnessed to completion by the main cast. The group encounters him engaging in the strong-arm political maneuvers that Archadia is known for, they fight him as the first major boss battle with a party, they continue to engage with him when he's out of the mask (adding an extra bit of character that puts him above a simple faceless underling), and they are even present when he is done in by his own hubris. As villains go, Ghis met all the criteria of a decent threat, brief as though his time may have been.
But that's still way more screen-time than Judge Drace got.
Boy oh boy, Judge Drace....maybe people blocked it out of their minds, but this was the single worst handling of a female character in the history of the FF franchise. She exists in exactly two cutscenes, the second of which she is fridged as soon as she is introduced. It's still baffling to this day how she got top billing in the marketing only to be so unceremoniously shanked faster than any character I've ever seen in a JRPG. Her role was only to make the other bad guys look badder.
Speaking of which, Judge Bergan at least had a cool boss fight and some neat one-liners, but that was about it. He was the hound-type of enemy, a one-and-done encounter that was challenging and violent, but otherwise could have been handled by any other type of enemy.
And then we get to Judge Zargabaath, who was such a nothing character that his name wouldn't show up in Google's autocomplete. Seriously, how many here even remembered his name?
Zargabaath gets an honorary sticker as the one surviving Judge in the game, showing up in the ending CG to bark a single order and...that's it. It was a role that any random imperial mook could have done instead. There is perhaps no other character that perfectly illustrates FFXII's cut narrative, when he literally has nothing to do throughout the story.
Finally we get to Judge Gabranth, aka the only Judge anyone liked. Truth be told, Gabranth was a decent antagonist, someone who wasn't entirely evil, but chose the path that he felt was the best for his people and kingdom. He did unmistakably evil things, but there was a deeper purpose to it, and he didn't just mindlessly obey orders.
But, much like main antagonist Vayne, he does a 180 in his convictions after a single boss fight. Despite all the big speeches he makes throughout the battle, he changes his mind and aids the heroes in bringing down Vayne in a final moment of redemption that did not feel entirely earned. Rather, the clock was ticking on wrapping up FFXII's troubled story, so we just whizzed right to the punchline. Also, he probably would have gotten much more development if Basch was the main character like it was originally planned.
Also, a special shout-out to Final Fantasy XIV for taking the Judge concept and doing it way better:
Though they go by a different name, the Imperial Legatus are clearly inspired by the Judges, and are far and away better handled and significantly cooler. You actually get a proper boss fight with the lady in this one, and she doesn't even go down the first time. Please play FFXIV if you aren't already.
But heck, even the Judges in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance were more interesting than the ones from FFXII:
They may not have had any actual character development, but they at least functioned as the game's defining mechanic. You got the whole story about their roles in FFTA, and you had to constantly change your gameplay tactics built around their arbitrary Rules. That's a much more consistent concept to deal with than half of the missing baddies in FFXII.
Seriously, I'm sure a lot of people are going to argue otherwise, but that's where I stand with them. It's a sore spot that's never going to heal, especially as I'm running through the game gain courtesy of TZA (which I'm enjoying, all things considered).
I've got a lot of issues with how Final Fantasy XII tells its story (mostly in how it doesn't do so cohesively), but I wanted to talk about the one element that disappoints me the most to this day: the Judges.
For years, we would gloss over this iconic image of the five antagonists as FFXII continued its six year development cycle (which, prior to FFXV, was the longest time it took for an FF game to release). A considerable amount of hype was built up around these amazingly-designed armored bad-asses, with early reviewers calling them "Sephiroth times five" (because now and forever, Sephiroth is going to be the main metric to which all FF bad guys are measured....even if you liked Kefka more).
Instead, what we got were five mooks that barely got as much development as the Turks, or even Seifer's Disciplinary Committee. Instead, the Judges were more like FFIV's Four Fiends: powerful enemies that came and went the moment they made their appearance as the latest boss to take down.
Actually, scratch that...the Judges don't even reach that level, since you don't even fight all of them (and no, the tacked-on boss trial after the fact does not count).
Let's run through each Judge one at a time, starting with the one that got the most development as well as a complete arc throughout FFXII's story.
Oh? You were expecting Gabranth? Too bad, because that honor goes to Judge Ghis.
"But he was the first of the Judges to go down!", you may protest. Even so, Ghis was also the one Judge to have a complete story that is witnessed to completion by the main cast. The group encounters him engaging in the strong-arm political maneuvers that Archadia is known for, they fight him as the first major boss battle with a party, they continue to engage with him when he's out of the mask (adding an extra bit of character that puts him above a simple faceless underling), and they are even present when he is done in by his own hubris. As villains go, Ghis met all the criteria of a decent threat, brief as though his time may have been.
But that's still way more screen-time than Judge Drace got.
Boy oh boy, Judge Drace....maybe people blocked it out of their minds, but this was the single worst handling of a female character in the history of the FF franchise. She exists in exactly two cutscenes, the second of which she is fridged as soon as she is introduced. It's still baffling to this day how she got top billing in the marketing only to be so unceremoniously shanked faster than any character I've ever seen in a JRPG. Her role was only to make the other bad guys look badder.
Speaking of which, Judge Bergan at least had a cool boss fight and some neat one-liners, but that was about it. He was the hound-type of enemy, a one-and-done encounter that was challenging and violent, but otherwise could have been handled by any other type of enemy.
And then we get to Judge Zargabaath, who was such a nothing character that his name wouldn't show up in Google's autocomplete. Seriously, how many here even remembered his name?
Zargabaath gets an honorary sticker as the one surviving Judge in the game, showing up in the ending CG to bark a single order and...that's it. It was a role that any random imperial mook could have done instead. There is perhaps no other character that perfectly illustrates FFXII's cut narrative, when he literally has nothing to do throughout the story.
Finally we get to Judge Gabranth, aka the only Judge anyone liked. Truth be told, Gabranth was a decent antagonist, someone who wasn't entirely evil, but chose the path that he felt was the best for his people and kingdom. He did unmistakably evil things, but there was a deeper purpose to it, and he didn't just mindlessly obey orders.
But, much like main antagonist Vayne, he does a 180 in his convictions after a single boss fight. Despite all the big speeches he makes throughout the battle, he changes his mind and aids the heroes in bringing down Vayne in a final moment of redemption that did not feel entirely earned. Rather, the clock was ticking on wrapping up FFXII's troubled story, so we just whizzed right to the punchline. Also, he probably would have gotten much more development if Basch was the main character like it was originally planned.
Also, a special shout-out to Final Fantasy XIV for taking the Judge concept and doing it way better:
Though they go by a different name, the Imperial Legatus are clearly inspired by the Judges, and are far and away better handled and significantly cooler. You actually get a proper boss fight with the lady in this one, and she doesn't even go down the first time. Please play FFXIV if you aren't already.
But heck, even the Judges in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance were more interesting than the ones from FFXII:
They may not have had any actual character development, but they at least functioned as the game's defining mechanic. You got the whole story about their roles in FFTA, and you had to constantly change your gameplay tactics built around their arbitrary Rules. That's a much more consistent concept to deal with than half of the missing baddies in FFXII.
Seriously, I'm sure a lot of people are going to argue otherwise, but that's where I stand with them. It's a sore spot that's never going to heal, especially as I'm running through the game gain courtesy of TZA (which I'm enjoying, all things considered).
.
