Looking at Dissidia Characters in the future

The cast of X-2 has skills? All I remember them doing is high-fiving each other and striking poses.

In all seriousness, X-2 seems to be almost universally disliked. I've seen very few people admit to enjoying it. I wouldn't think S-E would put in a character from that game when they could use someone with more of a fan following. And the abilities the characters have in that game aren't really anything special.

 

There's nothing special about Penelo. I'd think if they were going to add another XII character, they'd pick one with some personality. Not to mention that Penelo was like so far removed from the events of XII that I can't see why they'd choose her as a representative. They could seriously have left her (and Vaan, come to that) out of the game entirely, and we wouldn't have missed anything. Terrible characters.

If it were me choosing, I'd probably have gone with either Basch, Ashe, or Balthier as the rep from XII. Forget Vaan.

VII also has a huge boatload of fanboys.

 

No, I don't. The difference is that Cloud was actually necessary to his own game, and Tifa, though I disliked her, had a personality and her own role in VII. Cloud was obviously the main character of the story, not just the one you controlled for gameplay purposes. Penelo served no purpose. Vaan, after the early parts of XII, served no purpose. Of all the characters S-E could choose to represent XII, those would be the last two I think make sense. Even Fran was more important to the plot.

And as I said before, FF VII has fanboys. I would say that it is the best known FF and the one with the most outspoken fanbase. Why else would we have Advent Children, Before Crisis, and Crisis Core while games like VIII and IX haven't been touched? S-E would throw in an extra VII character in Dissidia because they know VII is popular (look how many VII characters are in KH). Not so with XII.

 

No. The story of XII is mainly the story of Ashe and Basch, with Balthier and Fran as the more important supporting cast. Vaan and Penelo may be good friends, but what purpose do those friends have in the story? Penelo's sole purpose in the game as far as I can remember is to get kidnapped so that Balthier and co will travel to Bhujerba (sp?). Vaan's purpose is to unite the other party members in the beginning of the game. After he does that, he could have disappeared and taken Penelo with him and no one would miss them. In fact, I remember hearing that S-E had originally intended Basch to be the lead character of XII, but added in Vaan at the last minute because the Japanese love their effeminate males. It makes sense, with his lack of development and all.

And since I'm already heading toward off topicness, I might as well go ahead and say that in the context of just FF VII, I don't consider Cloud and Tifa good friends at all. They knew each other, vaguely, as children- Cloud had a crush on her, but Tifa never seemed to pay him any mind. They met up again later, and it seemed the roles had been somewhat reversed but it was never very developed, imo. And anyhow, Cloud is obviously the lead of VII, and Tifa had a role outside of a love interest as a member of AVALANCHE, and she had that whole past with Sephiroth burning down her town and killing her dad and all that. It was personal with her, and the gamer was made to care about it (or at least, the average gamer who liked Tifa). Penelo's backstory wasn't so well done.

All this rambling is just to say that you cannot equate FF VII with XII. VII is a much more popular game, and for fanservice and monetary reasons, S-E would pimp out those character more often than they would those from other games. And if for some unknown reason S-E were to happen to decide that FF XII needs another character represented in Dissidia, Penelo would be the worst possible choice, both because the characters in that game were all interchangeable in battle, so she didn't stand out (despite, I suppose, having the best magic stat) and because her story is so completely unimportant to the whole of XII that I can't see her as the spokesperson. It'd be like choosing Heideggar as the villain representing FF VII instead of Sephiroth. Makes no sense.