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| If I was created for the sole purpose of starring in overhyped garbage, I'd probably sport that face as well. |
When someone sneaks into my house, raids my kitchen, walks into my bedroom and whispers, “…R-P-G” in my ear, I spring up almost immediately and yell, “FINAL FANTASY!” And how can I not? It’s what I would call the stereotypical RPG game; platformers are Mario, shooters are Call of Duty, Fighting games are Street Fighter – Final Fantasy fits right in as the defining classic title where you play the role of someone you’re not, brush up your fighting skills and embark on a giant quest to save the world!
Final Fantasy was a neat game at the time. It wasn’t really much like anything people in North America appreciated until then – it had tiny little sprites on an overworld map, and when you touched certain tiles – BOOM – you’re in a whole new place all of a sudden. The only things gamers at the time compared it with were Zelda 2 or Dragon Warrior.
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| A lot of people liked the 12th one, but I really didn't. The enemy and character designs were pretty, though! |
However, as I played more and more of the newer 3D Final Fantasy games growing up, I found them becoming staler by the installment. By the time I played Final Fantasy XII, I was pretty sick of the series as a whole. I played through the first disk of Final Fantasy XIII, scoffed and then put it away, never touching it again. It could easily be credited to stagnation from a long-running franchise, but honestly, I think there’s a bigger reason the Final Fantasy games aren’t doing as well as other JRPGs are.
As I provide these examples, note that by saying, “aren’t doing as well,” I mean, “Facing a lot of backlash and hate.” Final Fantasy is a huge brand worldwide by now, and as such, any game it releases will sell.
My three favourite JRPG franchises are Pokémon, Tales and Persona. I never thought about it until I started writing my CLAMP articles for Here’s an Idea!, but I feel there might be some unexplored reason for why Final Fantasy has missed the mark lately:
The storys’ moods.
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| For especially horrible story moods, see Final Fantasy VII and XIII. |
When you played the first few Final Fantasy games – pretty much the first three, by Japanese terms – what kind of mood was conveyed to the audience? Obviously there was a catastrophic event occurring in all three games that had to be remedied by the heroes, but the games themselves never felt all that dangerous. How many times playing through the first few games in the series did you actually feel the scale of danger?
Apocalypse? Never. You knew the danger existed, but you definitely weren’t intimidated. You could run into hordes of enemies and kill them all without a problem! You could do anything you set your mind to, really – and with no immediate danger in the world you lived in, there was a relaxing tone about whatever it was you did. It was relaxing and light-hearted and – dammit, I love this game.
But what about Final Fantasy games nowadays? It seemed that the static plotlines arising permanently from Final Fantasy IV caused a fair bit of cynicism in the series. I have nothing wrong with cynicism and darker themes in games - like with any design decision, it can be great if done right. The thing with Final Fantasy, however, is that it hasn't changed its overall design enough to warrant capturing a mood in the story we should be feeling.
These are rather abstract thoughts, so I'll give examples of good, consistent world-building and storytelling in my favourite series, Tales.
So in Tales of Vesperia, Yuri Lowell and his crew arrive in the guild city, Dahngrest. As the crew enters for the first time, it's plain to see how rough the people are there. Being members of guilds means they're always hunting monsters or raiding the bases of crooks - but it also means they're always in competition with one another. The culture of Dahngrest is much more barbaric than the regal people of Zaphias, but the people's lifestyles are secluded and void of proper social patterns like Aspio.
In Tales, a story mood can be established using modern, inconsistent slang and cutscenes because the world itself is so believable. Where do the hermit people of Aspio live? In a cave. Are there social classes in the royal capital city? You bet there are, and the nobles are assholes like you'd expect. What do the people of Dahngrest do when they've been driven into a corner with no honour? They commit sepuku.
Some of you may be wondeing why this even matters. In Tales of Vesperia, you're fighting monsters and saving the world. Who would even notice these things? Why do the social habits and patterns of NPCs matter?
Because it's a JRPG. The story and building of a likable atmosphere - like a book - makes for a richer, fuller experience. The fact that you don't catch the speech patterns in Tales, and yet you question why Cocoon matters in Final Fantasy XIII is exactly why subtle hints in building a narrative will always overpower handing you pieces and being forced to put together a puzzle.
But of course, why should we try to compare Tales with Final Fantasy? The former is all bright and colourful and giiiirly, whereas Final Fantasy is washed out, gritty, and realistic. This really isn't a fair comparison.
So let's compare it to Persona, a way more realistic game that's waaay easier to relate to.
If Persona and Final Fantasy were people, they would be complete opposites. Persona would be a dependable best friend who would always be on your side. It would always be by your side through the thick and the thin - when you're sad, when you're angry, when you're so happy you could scream - Persona will always be there for you. Contrast that with Final Fantasy, a game that only pretends to be your friend, and then part-way through your journey together, it leaves you in the dust so it can pursue what it wants to do - which, nine times out of ten, is something stupid.
Persona builds a realistic world in the same fashion Final Fantasy does, but before you rebuke my point that Persona does it better with, "Yeah, but Persona takes place in the real world!", I would like to ask if you've ever experienced real life before, because Persona is nothing like it.
The series builds a realistic world that is completely believable in-scope: the characters are genuine, the conflictss are plausible, the true danger of the Dark Hour is established in several parameters, and all these narrative choices come together at the end to a build-up that makes sense.
Final Fantasy has been around for much longer than Persona, as well as containing more entries into their franchise - but I assure you Square Enix has never done this before.
In Persona 3, the hospital scene involving Chidori's Persona, Madea, going berserk is a fine way of showing how the narative styles differ. The scene itself is very straightforward: Madea starts strangling Chidori, everyone panics, and Shinji runs in with pills to give her, which calms her mental state until Madea is tame. The one weird, unrealistic part about the scene is a sketchy Shinji giving sketchier pills to a qualified doctor, as if he's an authority or something; I mean, yeah, that's pretty unrealistic.
In a Final Fantasy game though, there's no way they would've let that happen so easily. There would've been a lot of suspense in Chidori getting strangled, angst among the spectators, and there'd likely be a backtracking quest to recover some mystic artifact to cure Chidori of her...choking. Are you seeing my complaint with Final Fantasy's lack of scope here? Playing things up for dramatics is completely expected in a good JRPG, but "dramatic" doesn't mean to play up each event like it's the fourth of July. Play any of the recent Final Fantasy games and you'll see what I mean.
This may make me sound like a broken record: "Derrr, I think Final Fantasy is over-dramatic and badly-paced and the thirteenth one sucks!"
Take a look at the title: if I'm calling this problem a "debacle" of all things, I'm not soured or generally hateful for this! I've played and real enjoyed some Final Fantasy games, like this one, this one...oh, and this one!
I bring up this issue because I like a well-told story, an interesting environment, and some engaging gameplay that matters to me because of the story and world you're sucked into! Final Fantasy, no matter how much you love it, just doesn't put as much work into making the world matter. And I'm hard on them because I want the games to be good, I really do!
What do you all think? I understand I may be walking on eggshells for picking on such a popular franchise, but do any readers agree that Final Fantasy is losing its edge?
But what about Final Fantasy games nowadays? It seemed that the static plotlines arising permanently from Final Fantasy IV caused a fair bit of cynicism in the series. I have nothing wrong with cynicism and darker themes in games - like with any design decision, it can be great if done right. The thing with Final Fantasy, however, is that it hasn't changed its overall design enough to warrant capturing a mood in the story we should be feeling.
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| Aspio, like any Disney scene, is proof that "simple and stylish" makes for a charming little place to look at! |
So in Tales of Vesperia, Yuri Lowell and his crew arrive in the guild city, Dahngrest. As the crew enters for the first time, it's plain to see how rough the people are there. Being members of guilds means they're always hunting monsters or raiding the bases of crooks - but it also means they're always in competition with one another. The culture of Dahngrest is much more barbaric than the regal people of Zaphias, but the people's lifestyles are secluded and void of proper social patterns like Aspio.
Some of you may be wondeing why this even matters. In Tales of Vesperia, you're fighting monsters and saving the world. Who would even notice these things? Why do the social habits and patterns of NPCs matter?
Because it's a JRPG. The story and building of a likable atmosphere - like a book - makes for a richer, fuller experience. The fact that you don't catch the speech patterns in Tales, and yet you question why Cocoon matters in Final Fantasy XIII is exactly why subtle hints in building a narrative will always overpower handing you pieces and being forced to put together a puzzle.
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| Wow, so detailed! And I'm soooo emotionally attached... |
But of course, why should we try to compare Tales with Final Fantasy? The former is all bright and colourful and giiiirly, whereas Final Fantasy is washed out, gritty, and realistic. This really isn't a fair comparison.
So let's compare it to Persona, a way more realistic game that's waaay easier to relate to.
If Persona and Final Fantasy were people, they would be complete opposites. Persona would be a dependable best friend who would always be on your side. It would always be by your side through the thick and the thin - when you're sad, when you're angry, when you're so happy you could scream - Persona will always be there for you. Contrast that with Final Fantasy, a game that only pretends to be your friend, and then part-way through your journey together, it leaves you in the dust so it can pursue what it wants to do - which, nine times out of ten, is something stupid.
Persona builds a realistic world in the same fashion Final Fantasy does, but before you rebuke my point that Persona does it better with, "Yeah, but Persona takes place in the real world!", I would like to ask if you've ever experienced real life before, because Persona is nothing like it.
The series builds a realistic world that is completely believable in-scope: the characters are genuine, the conflictss are plausible, the true danger of the Dark Hour is established in several parameters, and all these narrative choices come together at the end to a build-up that makes sense.
Final Fantasy has been around for much longer than Persona, as well as containing more entries into their franchise - but I assure you Square Enix has never done this before.
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| She's in pain! Quick, guys - let's embark on a 70-hour quest to GET THOSE PILLS-- No. |
In a Final Fantasy game though, there's no way they would've let that happen so easily. There would've been a lot of suspense in Chidori getting strangled, angst among the spectators, and there'd likely be a backtracking quest to recover some mystic artifact to cure Chidori of her...choking. Are you seeing my complaint with Final Fantasy's lack of scope here? Playing things up for dramatics is completely expected in a good JRPG, but "dramatic" doesn't mean to play up each event like it's the fourth of July. Play any of the recent Final Fantasy games and you'll see what I mean.
This may make me sound like a broken record: "Derrr, I think Final Fantasy is over-dramatic and badly-paced and the thirteenth one sucks!"
Take a look at the title: if I'm calling this problem a "debacle" of all things, I'm not soured or generally hateful for this! I've played and real enjoyed some Final Fantasy games, like this one, this one...oh, and this one!
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| My favourite entry in the main series. See? I'm not a total Scrooge! |
What do you all think? I understand I may be walking on eggshells for picking on such a popular franchise, but do any readers agree that Final Fantasy is losing its edge?