With the NA release of Final Fantasy XIII-2 around the corner, there's been a lot of talk about it and FFXIII lately. One such post I saw recently talked about "what went wrong with FFXIII." The biggest point the author discussed was that of its "overly" linear nature. What he means by that, unless I'm mistaken, is that there didn't seem to be much freedom to decide where to go. Now, I have to agree that for most of FFXIII this was indeed the case - most of the maps had very few branching paths and even when they did branch off it was just for a fight and a treasure chest. This is definitely a far cry from the (here he goes again) overworlds from Final Fantasies of old where, once you left the initial town/village/city you started in you could virtually go anywhere, or so it seemed. Naturally there were limits to where you could go in order for there to be a logical succession to the story but you could still walk around and battle here and there and just see how far you could go. It was really easy to just lose yourself in there. But, although that sense of exploration is unmistakably diminished (if not altogether lost) with the degree of linearity maps in 13 had, I wonder how much of a negative impact that has on the game's storyline.
Most of the time, I play games for the story. I generally treat them as books. I'm not going to go on a crazy limb and say this is how games are to be played. And I'd be painting the wrong picture saying this is always the case even for me. When it comes to RPG's, though, I'm first and foremost in it for the epic storyline. Seeing the character relationships develop and unfold, the dramatic events take place, the twists, the surprises, and then the inevitable conclusion are all things I can't do without in a good story and I'd like to think this is what generally drives most RPG's.
There is, of course, the other side of the coin: this is a game we're talking about, so naturally there's a game play element that cannot be ignored. There are RPG's I've never finished because the story failed to take hold of me but there are surely just as many I stopped playing because they were just awful to play. However, I don't think linearity is really a game play issue... or is it?! I think we're reached an important point in this observation.
While the late 90's and early 2000's can likely claim to be the golden age of the JRPG, the current wave seems to favor the western RPG. I think, if nothing else, what most sheds light on the divide between the two is how the story is treated. In both, there is this large theater wherein, at least by the end of the game, the fate of the world - if not the entire universe - is in the hands of a small brigade of unlikely heroes. The difference, then, is how we get there: how we went from small town kid with big dreams who lost some or all of his family in some tragedy to starry-eyed, troubled, war-worn, couragious warrior bent on saving everything. (You can probably tell I'm far more versed in the JRPG spectrum of things and I don't deny that in the least.) Correct me if I'm wrong but the goal in many western RPGs isn't even this one huge final battle that all the events of the game were leading up to but instead it is to do your own thing while being in that huge universe. Sure, there's an end-game in some fashion, but it's optional, at best.
In a strange sort of epiphany I'm having at this very moment, I'm beginning to realize what was linear in 13 wasn't the story but the gameplay. Sure, there's tons of people out there that complain to no end about how much they hate this or that character (mostly Hope, they all hate Hope :/ ) but I think for the most part people were mad that you can't really explore the beautiful worlds Pulse and Coccoon are. The author of the article mentioned in the beginning said something I, in retrospect, do empathize with. It really is a shame that all you could do was take in the sights. It was like being in a massive cave full of shiny crystals and cool things you could barely make out in the distance but you were stuck on this catwalk that cuts right across the whole thing from entrance to exit.
So back to square one, really. Is the contrived appearance of all those hallways in 13 something that reflected negatively on the story? Well, it was certainly conspicuous enough that even in my delirious honeymoon with the game (I was looking forward to 13 for far too long) I was able to notice it but in a sense I took it at face value. "It's just how it is in this game." - I told myself. Yet even in that, where my immersion went from I'm Lightning and company to I'm playing FF13, I was still able to appreciate what was happening to those characters. I guess I can only really speak for myself in all this.
For what it's worth, it's not like the overworld and towns is gone from all modern JRPGs. Tales of Vesperia felt so very much like an olden days' RPG but with modern day aesthetics and production value. As for the state of the FF series, a topic I don't want to get into too much again, it's just a matter of waiting to see what comes next and taking each game for what it is. And really, we just can't complain these days. There's so many games vying for our money and attention that we can't get hung up on how much we dislike one or the other. There's so much to like and explore and sink time into that we'd be fools to get hung up on what makes us unhappy. Ooph, just got totally off track and went all peace and love on this post. Ok, back on track!
I think what I'm trying to get to ultimately is that it's a matter of taste. There are people that don't really care for the main track of a story in an RPG. They just want to form the tightest, strongest group of bad-asses the world will ever see. Maybe there are others that want to see and feel everything in this fantasy world they've been dropped into. They won't rest until they've upturned every stone, opened every chest, fought every mob and collected every droplet of stardust the game set you out to collect for some dubious reason. Then there's people like myself that will be carried through even poor dynamics (like an awful camera - looking at you Alice: Madness Returns) by the prospect of finding out what comes of all you've been put through.
No comments:
Post a Comment