Favorite RPG Towns #1

Rabanastre (Final Fantasy 12)

The best part of Final Fantasy 12 was the world of Ivalice itself, and the best part of Ivalice was the capital city of Dalmasca, Rabanastre.

You're introduced to the capital after two years of foreign occupation by the Archadians, and the formerly independent Dalmasca is just beginning to see its first cultural shifts from monastic to imperial. So, politics? Yes. Check. And it's interesting, logical politics, too. The powers of Ivalice are brutal, but there's a satisfying degree of rationality in their design (which is very different from what video games usually offer).

But that's a bird's-eye view of things. It's down on the streets where Rabanastre comes alive. This city is absolutely packed with people. There's a kid who'll give history lessons for a gil, some guy who likes to count all the stones in the streets, and a down-on-his-luck sky pirate with a bad attitude selling crap wares in Lowtown. Everyone has something to add to the city's atmosphere, but it's never overwhelming. The game does a great job of finding the sweet spot between too little detail and too much.

Final Fantasy 12 even breaks the one golden rule of all RPGs where you must finish the game by saving the world, because instead of saving the world, you save Rabanastre, the tumultuous capital of a broken kingdom, and it works because Rabanastre is so essential to the game as a whole. It's the heart of Final Fantasy 12.