Final Fantasy 12

I have always been a big fan of the FF series. I love the art work, the cut scenes, the story line, and the somewhat complicated characters. This series has definitely evolved over time because the main character always remains the same; the tough but small blond kid with an in-your-face attitude and a heart of gold. Inspiring isn't it?

But something is nagging at me. I can't figure out what exactly, but this time around playing FF just feels a little off. ? The experience is different, not as enjoyable as it was when I first picked up FF 7 back in high school. Back then I even played the original version on my old NES, which I still have. Maybe I'm getting old, maybe I've changed...maybe we've grown apart. :(

It's not surprising though, FF hasn't really changed at all in the past ten years. Die-hard fans of the series refuse to admit that they've been playing the same game for their whole teenage life. Each new version is prettier than the last...like I said before, the characters will always remain the same. There was one unique deviation in the series and that was FF 9. It's bubbly characters put a different twist on the old game, but really nothing changed besides the art work. The same characters are still represented.

Look at the boy hero, for instance. He's tough, but short, blond, has attitude, and will end up saving the world, so he also has a heart of gold. Then look at the girl heroine, she looks almost exactly like Tifa from FF 7, only a little more fleshed out. There's the standard big guy, the wild guy (with appropriately red hair) and the reclusive sorcerer.

Hmmm. Why am I still playing these?

Well, for one thing, although it is true that each new version is essentially an improved copy of itself, FF does have some new features that are new and exciting. Like this new battle set-up, for instance. The old games would break away from the world and the battle field existed almost on a separate plane from the adventure game. It was kind of like a cut-scene in itself, but here FF 12 follows other games' style of walking and encountering monsters that you either choose to engage or run from. Magic is now shared amongst party members so that only one kind needs to be purchased instead of having to equip each character individually. But still, if this is all FF 12 has to offer...why am I still playing it?

I've been thinking about marketing and how game series like Final Fantasy come out with one game, and then never stop. However, although it is kind of dull, it still works. I bought FF 12 with no hesitation because my past experiences in playing the FF series has always been enjoyable, I never stopped to think that even though I liked all the others, I might not like them anymore. After having played Katamari Damacy and its sequel We Love Katamari, I'm finding the FF series lacking in entertainment. It's almost like a ball-and-chain with me now, I am compelled to continue on with the series because I'm afraid that if I stop playing each new game I might miss something spectacular. This addiction needs to end! And what kind of video game programmers rely on so heavily on graphics? God of War is entertaining because of its simplicity, but the FF series keeps getting more and more complicated with bigger and better graphics and more expansive, movie-like cut-scenes. When will it end?!?

It's almost unfair that games like Final Fantasy can still be so captivating, while games like Katamari Damacy are hardly known. By the way, I've been looking for Katamari in both its forms but have yet to find it on any shelf, while Final Fantasy 12 is everywhere.

Comment on "Game Theories"

"Game Design as Narrative Architecture" by Henry Jenkins

The relationship between games and story...

I agree with what Jenkins says on page 120 about how games tell stories differently than other forms of media and "We must therefore be attentive to the particularity of games as a medium, specifically what distinguishes them from other narrative traditions." But with this statement, Jenkins is also making it appropriate to underscore the kinds of stories that can be told through video games. Just like how the Sci-Fi genre has always been classified as a lesser form of literature, so too will the games we play be less significant than what the other forms of media can portray.

Later, Jenkins goes on to say that a game designer has less control over narrative information than authors of books or filmmakers do. I do not agree with this, I think that authors and filmmakers have less control over what narrative information is released. In fact, I think that authors and filmmakers intentionally reveal more narrative information than video games do.

First, when I was younger I used to read the last page of a book first so that I know how it ended. Even today I will sometimes go to Border's Books and flip through a book that looks interesting. If I can read any random page and it peaks my interest, then I'll buy it. Also, books today have their own versions of trailers that precede the release to peak interest, like on the Today show, or any morning show for that matter that brings an author on to discuss the content of their new book.

Second, filmmakers are even more famous for revealing the most interesting aspects of their movies in the very commercial advertisements they use to generate interest. Especially where action flicks are concerned, all the best stunts and c.g. are the first things we see. Also, filmmakers and actors make up the majority of guests featured on talk shows, purely to promote a new movie. You know how on David Letterman's show or Jay Leno's show there will be an actor on promoting a new movie, and they show a clip from that movie at random, and then the actor explicates the scene for the audience? It's the same thing as going to Border's and picking up a book and flipping to a random page and reading it.

Finally, I hesitate to say that video games reveal more, or that video game designers have less control over narrative information, because buying a new video game can be a gamble. Yes, there are trailers for new games, but games have way more content to consider than books or films do, so the ratio to information being prematurely revealed is slim compared to the amount of information revealed in one, three minute movie trailer that acts as montage of all the best scenes and reveals the entire plot line. For me at least, and I'll try to keep my comments as personal and not general as possible, I am grabbed by the cover of a game, or I'll stick with a genre that I like, but I never usually research a new game before I play it the way that some people do with books and movies with their Arts & Entertainment section of the Sunday Times.

And my final point about this is that games reveal their narrative information within a sequence of events that needs to be followed by the player. If I were reading a book instead of playing a game and I wanted to know what happens next, I'd just flip the page until I got that information. You can't do that with video games, you can't even break the code with console games to find the information you're looking for, or you shouldn't! Because that's the fun behind playing video games, you need to accomplish something before any new information is revealed to you. With books and movies you can just skip ahead, and that means that authors and filmmakers have less control over narrative information than video game designers.

Easter

So this weekend I went home for Easter and it was fun. My mom still buys us 2 dozen eggs every year...just in case. I went out Sunday night to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with a friend of mine. When we were kids my friend used to make me play TMNT with him, and in exchange he had to play barbies with me. It was a sweet deal until the day I got slimed, that ooze must be radioactive because it took several washings to get it out of my hair. Anyway, the movie was great. We felt a little childish watching with young kids in the theatre, but it occured to me that the makers of this new TMNT version would probably be counting on the patronage of former fans. That eventhough the story is meant for children, the event itself appeals to all ages, from kids to thirty-year olds.
Video game nostalgia brings older games to newer systems like the Wii and XBox360 which both offer the feature of downloading old favorites. The only downside to this that I've noticed is that the lag time between the action you take on the new system's controller and the response to that action on the screen. My NES never took half a second longer to respond to my jump comand, and that is a very irritating aspect to playing old games on new consoles. Frankly, I'd rather think back to 1989 when I got my first Nintendo (also the year I found out Santa was a hoax) and keep the original gaming experience a fond memory. It changes, sours when you go back to game you played as a child and you realize that it isn't as much fun as you remember, or nearly as exciting. My reflexes have changed, games today aren't as predictable.
TMNT has nothing to do with this, it just popped into my head. But TMNT was a new experience too. The animation was great, your standard save-the-world scenario, and new villains, but the ending suggested that a new TMNT would be out soon, and this time with Shredder (crossing fingers). I noticed though, that while watching the movie I was paying less attention to the plot than I was to the details, for instance do these new turtles sound like the original ones? Oooh, look, there's the scepter that brings you back in time...stuff like that.
My friend laughed every time one of the turtles made a cheesy remark that is so characteristic of TMNT style.
Overall, my friend and I had a lot of fun reminiscing, but I'm wondering if there was ever an old TV show, well old for me...80s-ish?, that was remade into a feature film specifically for an adult audience.