I feel as though this 'writing out my thoughts' thing has been put off for too long since last time. Very well, I will lay out my thoughts imperfect and jam-packed with tangents that diverge from the main point.
But in all truth, I actually find my thoughts cohere better when I scribble them down. I can memorize the main point I want to illustrate while first elucidating that point. Something that, I believe is quite genetic, as most normal people on this planet would state their points first, saving elucidations until immediately afterward.
For this post, I've decided to treat on the ever popular Final Fantasy series. I confess on the outset that I feel very ill equipped to handle a subject like this one for I have extensive gaps, I'm afraid, in my education on the series. This is where the stats jump in:
First FF game exposed to: FFVIII
FF games I've played: VIII, IX, XIV:A Realm Reborn, X, XIII, III (that's the Western-released III, I believe), IV and VII.
FF games actually completed from start to end: VIII, X, III
Now, you should see why I would consider myself a poor authority on the subject of Final Fantasy, since the number I've merely played greatly outranks the number I've completed. And if the crown gem of the series (that is, VII) is not among the completed list, than why on earth would anyone think I have anything of import to say?
Well, I would remind everyone that this blog's main purpose is to record my thoughts and musings for my own benefit. I would never take my opinion to a forum, or more pathetic, the comment section on a Youtube video. I acknowledge the raving mass of fans out there that can take whatever opinions I own and rip them to shreds with verbal eminence surpassing that of my own! The end result is myself feeling much like a dog who gets scolded my his master simply for his being too eager to play when his master has had a rough day at the office. The point? I'm going to say things here that people will take issue with. My disclaimer has already been made known, so if you happen to read the following and take exception with the following, I'll probably just respond with a "boo hoo" unless of course it's an intelligent comment. Oh! and as always, HERE BE SPOILERS! Don't be sailin' on unless ye want to sink yer ship in the briny seas of endings revealed prematurely!
I classify useless questions of category and subjective statement, as well as other forms of nerdery, worthless in the extreme, but I may answer some of these "not so pertinent" questions along the way. One that sits before my mind now is, do I count those other games along with those that bear the Final Fantasy title? You know the ones; made by the same company and play just like a FF title but without the title: Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Kingdom Hearts...etc...
My answer? I don't know. The only FFish game I've played was Chrono Trigger. And, no, before you ask, I didn't beat that one either.
So the next question you might have is, "What's wrong with you? How is it you've played a lot of these titles and not finished them?" That's a legit question. The reasons why I haven't actually beat so many of them are various. Most of the time is comes down to gameplay, though I oftentimes loose interest in a particular part and stop playing the game for awhile. When I come back to it, I don't remember where I'm at in the story, so I just start all over, probably just to get bored again around the same spot. Still, I think the big reason is gameplay issues; for example, a certain title will not tell you outright that it's a good idea to constantly stock magic from the very beginning, or to fight every mob you see. Sometimes the game actually gives players hints that indicate good strategies, when they're actually good ways to get yourself royally screwed later on. I will not pretend I'm a shrewd man—actually I will pretend, but I know in reality I'm not—so I naturally don't think in RPG terms, e.g. how much DPS this new weapon will grant me; instead, I just know that I'm more powerful with it. And that line of thought can be treacherous when the only way to determine increased power is to pay sharp attention to a dry stats menu and (God forbid) crunch numbers.
But sometimes, the reason why I stop playing through a FF title has a lot to do with the story. It's fascinating to me how many stories (be they FF or otherwise) can grip me at the beginning and lose me in the middle. Sometimes, it can hold my attention for 2/3 of the game, but I'll get hooked on some other game by that time, or one or many of the reasons stated above might occur and my attentions will shift elsewhere.
Let me start my opinions (once again, the most unnecessary, but most exciting part) out by stating directly what I like and dislike. Starting with FFs VIII, X and III, I figured that I might as well begin by saying what actually got me through them. This won't (shouldn't) take long.
I liked VIII because it was the first FF I've known. Yeah, yeah I'm kinda a few years behind the gaming scene for being a product of the 90's but I was socially stunted as a child and didn't get fancy toys like video game consoles when everyone else was, so instead of being apart of the millions of Westerners who's first FF in Playstation format was VII, mine was VIII. Sue me. And yes, I am one of those types who form bias on nostalgia, I'm sad to say.
Still I can't help but love the setting I find myself in FFVIII. I think the whole "mercenary school" is imaginative genius with lots of potential and trumps the hell out of Hogwarts. The overall aesthetic to the game was genius as well. The player is brought before a myriad of sceneries; some conveying an advanced, Japanese-cyberpunk feel (Esthar), others giving off an old-school Western European feel (Deling, Dolet), others giving off an ancient Greco-Roman feel (Centra), while still others mirrored scenes from everyday life. I think it's a shame the game isn't considered a production on par with its predecessor, and therefore will probably never attain the title of 'Classic' for the sole fact that it's aesthetics are amazing.
Yeah, I will admit that the story got kinda wonky after the second disk and kept getting wonkier. Yes I will also admit that the combat system had some wonks of it own. But in all fairness, I've never really been a huge fan of turn-based combat. It's never seemed that realistic to me and I may go to my grave viewing it as a vestige of hyper-rational conflict assessment, whose origins probably date back to D&D. Yes, it might be entertaining for a while in the strategic sense (like how chess might be considered fun), but the battlefield probably shouldn't be that platonic in the end. In FF I can deliver a sword blow across the chest to a human target, and despite a flinch and a numeral popping up telling me how much damage I accrued on his hit points, the target doesn't appear any less worse for wear. Once again, if you're the kind of gamer who is into the strategy and intellect of it all, then be my guest, but in my mind a platonic battlefield shrinks the world and the story. It's one thing to quantify damage done, it's entirely quite another when pain and viscera are thrown into the mix, because then issues like ethics and will are brought into the picture.
Interestingly enough, in FFVIII there's a small portion of dialogue between Squall and Seifer where the latter asks the former if he's scared to kill actual people in armed combat. Squall, nonchalantly as ever, replies something to the effect of, "I try not to think about it." Indeed, that's what all good soldiers must do and I think you can make an argument for that whether the death in question is an inoffensive falling down to the ground and fading away, or a grim spectacle of blood spinach and intestinal chewing gum. Like, even in the first example you still are bringing someone to non-existence (to use the term very loosely). Still, FF never really asks that question in any other series (that I know). Sure there are ethics concerning motives for killing and fighting but the actual fighting in question never seems to make much of a difference to the protagonists. In fact, there are times where I find it extremely ambiguous as to whether I am killing an enemy or merely "kicking it's butt" to the point of incapacitation. In any case let us say the protagonists are killing their enemies. One would think they could work that into the story itself or effect the character in some way. I mean I can picture, a 13 year-old Hope killing a pulsework solider or a monster and being psychologically okay, but when he kills a cocoon soldier he's not one bit shaken. And forget for now that he was harboring an intent to kill Snow all this time too; for it's one thing to want and say you're going to kill but quite another to actually do it, especially at that age and station of life.
So anyhow, my point in brief is that life-taking occurs in FF games a ton, but I can only feel disconnected a bit by the characters' behavior regarding what should normally be a very difficult and traumatic thing to do. There's just a kind of comic attitude about it that bothers me in the way a home-cooked meal does when it tastes like a crucial spice was left out. More I can say. Probably shouldn't.
Now one thing players like to get into regarding the story is the whole Ultimecia debate. Honestly, right now I will tell you I am not often one for debate. I remember looking this up one time but I became progressively bored the more I read and don't quite know where to stand. Maybe the only thing I took away from the debate was that you cannot change your fate. Be that as it may, the game, in my opinion, doesn't make that a focal point of the story and instead puts the love story between Rinoa and Squall at the forefront. I actually like to think of the game as a character study of Squall, as it starts with him, centers around people he primarily knew in his childhood and gradually displays his movement from cold independence to emotional kindness. In other words, tsundere. Ha! Just kidding. Though that label sort of applies, Squall isn't actually full tsun, I'd say. He can still get along with people, it's just he never lets his shield down.
To summarize, I think the story gets lost somewhere around where sorceress Adel and the Lunatic Pandora come into the game. All of a sudden you are hit with the revelation that Edea wasn't the bad guy after all, but was being possessed through time by Ultimecia. In my humble opinion, involving time travel in a plot can either make or break your story and it did with this one. Yeah you can get all involved and deep about who was actually possessing who (or who is who) and wrestle with the debate issues, but perhaps one solution to the myriad of questions is just that the writers didn't know what they were doing. Perhaps that's just me being intellectually banal and lazy.
The one with the best story so far had to be FFX. I only owned the game for maybe a year and a half and played through it about five times. I really enjoyed how the game was put together. Even the combat system was fairly straightforward and included a telos in that slain enemies would fade into a swarm of pyreflies. The lore in this game was integrated like no other title I've fully played. Like, if you came across a ruin, the characters themselves would explain to you what its significance is. They easily did this through the Newcomer trope manifested in Tidus' character; because he'd never been to Spira before, it gives a nice little excuse to share all sorts of info about this world in such a natural way, unlike FFXIII's database thingy *glares*. All the characters I found to be rather enjoyable despite falling more on the "peppy" side of things (remember I'm a Leonheart fanboy. Good heavens, did I just say that?). The game had many good things to say regarding sacrifice and selflessness, usually demonstrated through Yuna's and Tidus' actions.
Here's where an objection might be raised: but wasn't all that self-sacrifice just a result of being duped by a twisted organized religion that preached an even more twisted entity? Well in some ways yes it was, and I think the game rightly showed how short-sighted or even wicked religions can be. Religions are dangerous things because they involve worship, and worship inevitably turns the worshipers into the object of their praise. Yu Yevon, or rather, the spirit of Yu Yevon, was a mindless, but powerful entity, capable of ensuring the rebirth of the monstrous Sin no matter how many summoners' lives were sacrificed in the vain hope of purging it from Spira forever. When this is revealed to the company (and the player) by Lady Yunalesca, I think Yuna's response to her one of the single most fitting and moving speeches in a video game I've ever heard.
But here's where it can get easy to stick out your pointer finger like Mr. Wright and yell, "Take that!" ...Uh and also, "Ha! See where religions lead you? Never be fooled into their hate and pointlessness! Now die, Yunalesca! Die, leaders of Yevon! Die Yevon himself!"
We must not be tempted to take an anti-religious stance in life or make atheism a creed to live by. The Western World, though gaining so much through the Renaissance and Enlightenment, has lost a lot too. Notice that though the game pointed out the failings of humans regarding religion, it didn't end with Tidus waking up somewhere realizing it was all a dream and him going to continue living his life as an unbeliever all things spiritual and religious. In fact, because he was a dream, he departed to the Farplane in the end, where the spirits of his mother, Jecht and Auron were.
Because they found the source of the corruption to be backed by a thousand years of religion, doesn't mean there are no true gods to serve. The sacrifice Yuna was meant for, and the one Tidus ended up making were still for salvation from Sin. Sin wasn't brought about by any god, but by a man, and it took more than a pure human element to redeem Spira.
All in all, I would recommend FFX to many people. Most likely people that I like. Kind people, with caring souls. This was what FFXIII should have referenced as far as the emotions department goes... whiney bitches does not a good story make (and though I say that, a certain young wizard with a lighting-shaped scar on his forehead comes to mind).
I'm also aware there are like, purists out there who only consider FF titles I-VII to be worth anything at all. VIII is where the series nose-dived and it's gotten ever worse, they may claim. I have no idea how close to the truth these purists may be as the only one of these I've beaten was III. Now to eliminate any confusion here, I'm talking about the III that has Terra and Locke and espers etc.... I know other, perhaps more seasoned gamers stick to calling it VI, but I will call it III because that's what popped up on the main title screen after the DUN DUN DUNNN music plays.
I enjoyed III for how well it was able to make me feel like it was always a part of my childhood. Chrono Trigger was much more a part of my childhood and yet the amount of expression the characters had in III compared to the ones in IV, for instance, really made me think back to my first experience watching my big bro play CT the first time. And it's not only that. From the somber music in the opening scene (Terra's theme I believe it's called) to the progression of the story through each of the three character groups up until Kefka unleashes hell upon everyone really did a good job of capturing my interest, as well as making me feel like they had belonged to memories I've had long ago forgotten. In other words, I felt more attached to the characters, towns, setting and adventures than I had when I tried my best at IV or IX. And for the record, VII succeeded in this too, what with all it's dirty-industrial 90s punk feels, but alas I couldn't finish VII for a different reason than the ones above: emulator difficulties :(
In fact, had it not been for the environment and setting of III, I might not have finished it. On my first few attempts, I would always seem to get bogged down shortly after Kefka's calamity. I know it's as simple as scouring the now-dead world, gathering your mates and eventually dealing justice to that psychotic clown, but... dem end-game blues tho...
End-game blues are when you know you're getting close to the end of the game and all that's left are a few paltry side-quests that you don't feel like expending the energy on because... well... 1) not story relevant and 2) I've beaten everything thrown my way so far, why do you think I need whatever weapon/armor/ability this side-quest will grant me now all of the sudden, O game? You may be thinking #2 is a stupid reason. Aye, if you know how tough some of the bosses that lie ahead are, then you'd have all the more reason to make sure you've secured all the necessary comrades to your party and collected the most badass espers and taught everyone all the most badass spells and not to mention Edgar's tools... it would be wise to stock up, yes?
Yeah, but it takes time. And I've found the more time I spend in an FF game where no plot progression is being made, the less interested I become and therefore the more willing I am to put the game away for good. XIII had this in one... heh heh GRAN example: Gran Pulse. Once I was at Gran Pulse, I felt like I knew the end was near, which aggravated me as I also learned that the game wanted me to essentially grind precious hours of my life away before any more story could happen. I cri. So I've felt like this in III's world, post Kefka wrecked everyone's shit. Also slightly got this feel upon entering the Calm Lands in X, but they kept it fresh enough and not as much grinding and finding (finding i.e. exploring everything in hopes of unlocking a secret the game was adamantly not telling you, while possibly enduring grinding along the way. Think the clock in Zozo) was required. Yet another exemplum: CT's Ocean Palace. The place was so gaddam big that with each mob I fought, I could see Crono and friends yawning and blowing snot bubbles along with the Guru of Time...
So in the spirit of confession I will admit I cheated my way through FFIII. I had to. Terra's theme kept beckoning me to finish. But those damn elemental dragons were so tough... and I didn't want to grind or find....
So my final battle with Kefka was undoubtedly anti-climactic, but what you gonna do? Perhaps next time, I'll just get ahold of a nice walkthrough guide and beat the game semi-legit. As far as the bigger picture goes, I appreciated FFIII for it's setting and aesthetics as well as the plot. It explored loads of questions from the ethics of warfare and industrialization to empires to greed for power and influence. I honestly didn't foresee Kefka becoming as big of a problem as he did right off the bat, and actually felt quite a bit comforted when peace negotiations between the Returners and the empire were happening. Hell, even Kefka was in chains then! So props to FFIII for letting me take part in an adventure I'll never forget.
Some closing thoughts. From my perspective as a gamer, it seems like what's happening nowadays in the industry is much more different. Of course AAA games are likely to have way better graphics and user-friendliness in amounts as liberal as icing on one of those store-bought cakes, but as I played through III, it occurred to me that it's got a lot more "scriptedness"to it than other games. Games heavy on dialogue like the Mass Effects and Elder Scrolls are trying to break away from the script, trying to let the player forge the narrative as he sees fit. I like this and I don't. I like how these games can bring a player into the world further through optional dialogue choices.
Think about a dream wherein you were in a beautiful, totally freaking-cool awesome place. As it's a dream however, you cannot control your actions and as a result you may awaken from the dream depressed that you never fully got to explore the awesome place. Let this serve as an analogy for a scripted work, or game in this case. I feel this way about FFVIII from time to time, wishing there were more people to meet, more lore to be learnt, more cities to visit and more downtime to experience. I get this in games like Fallout; that is to say, I don't feel like it's over-scripted. If one of the characters I meet along my path gives me a simple greeting to their town I can either give them a hearty hello, be a bit more reserved or tell them to out and out fuck off.
That being said, I feel like FFIII, for all it's scriptedness gets something right. Perhaps we've gotten a bit too hooked on games with the alternate end and the speech/action options that bring us there. I suspect it's what critics have railed against games in recent history for doing, e.g. Metal Gear Solid. Fans were okay with the cutscenes in 1, tolerated them in 2, annoyed by them in 3 and reviled them in 4. Gamers now seem to hate exposition all of a sudden. Kojima is now infamous for his games being 80% cutscene and 20% game time. We cannot sit still long enough for a story to unfold, so we want our games to tell it to us while we are in control, walking alongside a character, al la Assassin's Creed, or have crucial narrative events unfold before our eyes al la Half-Life or Bioshock. But are we as an audience even paying attention? So many times, I've seen gamers miss something important to the story or even the advancement of the game itself because they were busy being distracted somewhere else. Atlas tells us to "find a crowbar or something" and Joe Blow at the helm of our protagonist didn't catch that part because he was too busy looting stuff or jumping around or other ass-hattery. Another thing players are notorious for missing is on screen text-tips and general written instructions. Indeed, I've seen otherwise intelligent people fail horribly at the first few missions in GTAIV because they never considered the words on the screen, "Wait in Roman's car" for example, to be worth their time. Then follows confusion and frustration afterwards when Mr. ADHD's interests conflict with the game, usually resulting in mission failure for leaving the site or just plain being stuck because God forbid you actually should read stuff in a game, right?
All I'm saying is that it'd be a shame if games that do play a bit more linear (like FFIII and perhaps other FF titles) dry up and die out because gamers' attention spans today are shorter than a midge fly's pecker.
