An Ode to Final Fantasy and Video Games

During my lunch break at work today, I was checking out my usual video game web sites, and found myself a click away from seeing the demo of the new Final Fantasy 13 game. I watched it later today and found it pretty fun, but it seemed like a whole lot of far-out sci-fi stuff. That might be a strange statement coming from the author of a science fiction novel, but when you see futuristic towns teeming with bioengineered wolves, living spaceships, and weird little portal things which spawn said creatures, well...it's cool to look at, anyways.

The Final Fantasy series is kinda funny...Squaresoft was a small company that was running out of cash to make games for the old Nintendo. They were tasked with making one last game to save the company itself, and the result was Final Fantasy - a game that featured a medieval setting and characters, a strong plot, lots of hours of gameplay, and a deep system of strengthening your heroes, their weapons, and so on.

Since then, there have been 11 other installments of the main series, dozens of spin-offs, and a multimedia franchise including plush toys for those cute little Chocobo animals, two CGI films, and more. All this took Squaresoft from the brink of bankruptcy, to becoming one of the best game companies out there.

This was all because of one thing: good stories.

Video games make more money than the film industry, and although you could argue that a movie ticket costs much less than a brand new video game, you could also counter that interactive entertainment is just that much more engaging than watching a lackluster romantic comedy or generic action flick. However, one thing that movies has over games is a HUGE head start in terms of developing the medium and mastering the art of storytelling.

That's what I love so much about the Final Fantasy games. Even when technology limited them to showing small little animated people walking about a cartoony landscape, you could tell that storytelling in video games were starting to catch up to Hollywood. It's not there yet, but it will be someday.

I'm listening to music from the tenth Final Fantasy as I write this, which not only confirms my nerd status, but my desire to see engaging stories told effectively in ALL mediums. I've heard that there's no such thing as an original stories, only imaginative ways of telling them. I do believe this - that there's nothing new under the sun - but that as generations of mankind come and go, we keep rediscovering ways of telling stories, even if we have vaguely heard of it before.

Final Fantasy has done things no other games have done, or at least, done nearly as well. Characters are fully developed. They grow on you. Each one has a backstory and a goal to achieve. Some of them stick with you until the end of the journey, and some perish along the way. What sticks with me is that you are guiding them all as you see fit; you are a part of the story in a way that a TV show or movie simply can't top.

Unfortunately, I'm in the generation that has only just broken the mold that "games are for nerds"...I don't think they ever were. It doesn't take much social interaction to sit and play a game by yourself, but then again, wouldn't that also make car enthusiasts, puzzle solvers, stamp collectors, photographers, and others all nerds? A hobby does not a nerd make.

Video games have been a stress reliever, an entertaining good time, a surefire party staple, an escape from awful days, breakups, or lonely stretches. Currently, most of my game systems are in public storage, and I often miss the opportunity to play through Final Fantasy 7, 9, and others.

You see, stories come in all sorts of packages. From a great orator to a modest blog, from mass media broadcasts like the Super Bowl to a quiet Saturday playing through Final Fantasy alone or with friends, no story should be looked down on that strikes a chord. I largely think that Final Fantasy has been the turning point of when games started to grow up.

At the turn of the 20th century, entertainers/actors had little status compared to businessmen and doctors, and now someone can get thousands of dollars for just a picture of a celebrity at the right (or wrong) moment. I don't that kind of excess, but perhaps video games will one day become the dominant medium in entertainment. Already, we kick off parties with Guitar hero and Rock Band, find the latest Mario game under the Christmas tree, exercise on the Nintendo Wii, find new friends around the world playing Halo or Gears of War online, and so on.

But my love for games stemmed from quiet moments, where I could experience a world all my own, on my own terms, and could let my imagination run wild. If that makes me a nerd, then call me a proud nerd - but stories are worth far more than we often give them credit for. :)

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