There’s a very, very fine line between “really clever” and “too clever to be true” when it comes to critical analysis. Whether it’s a book, a game, or a film, a lot of so-called brilliant people cook up some ridiculous theses and wind up on the wrong side of that line. On the other hand, people unfamiliar with critical analysis tend to assume it’s all nonsense, but that’s no better - there are a lot of good things to be said about themes and metaphors even when they weren’t a part of the author’s intent.

        Critical analysis of games is still in a weird position right now, because most people - and most gamers, too - don’t accept the idea that gameplay can be used to convey meaning. The other problem is that gaming lacks a lot of the specialized terms and knowledge that other mediums have developed, so analysis of games tend to be done through a literary or film-centric lens. So it’s a real treat to find analysis of the actual interactive part of a game, not just its narrative or themes.

        Revisited: Final Fantasy IX’s Mechanics of Identity by Joseph Leray (of Destructoid and Electric Hydra fame) is one of those rare pieces that actually gets mainstream exposure. I’m sure there’s plenty of critical analysis going on somewhere, but it’s certainly not getting published on Destructoid and Kotaku and driving millions of hits. Which is a real shame. FF IX Revisited is a “really clever” piece, and it’s pretty well grounded in actual evidence and logical conclusions. So it’s sad to see the couple of comments saying “sorry, but you’re full of shit, it’s just a game man.”

        What makes FF IX Revisited so great is that it has a limited focus and plenty of good evidence for its arguments. Identity formation and social roles are sensible themes that could even have been intentional - unlike most of what people say about Catcher in the Rye. In the comments, Joseph says at one point that the really fascinating part isn’t that FF IX does something new or exciting with its narrative or gameplay - just that “the two parts reflect off of each other so seamlessly.” That, right there, is the whole point - the ludic elements (gameplay) have an actual meaning, and a real connection to the narrative component.

        Most games have no ludic meaning beyond simple power fantasy, and that’s because they’re designed to convey fun to the player, not meaning. Games are what they are because they’re interactive and systematic, and if we don’t use these unique properties for any good purpose, we’re wasting the incredible potential of the medium. Film didn’t become a respected medium in its own right on the basis of well-written dialogue (writing) or acting (plays) - it was the unique possibilities provided by the medium that proved film could be art.

        In the United States, games are now legally considered art. The thing about critical analysis is that it requires you to look at something as more than just a simple piece of media, and that’s what we need in the gaming press right now. Film and book critics are expected mainly to do critical analysis, while gaming critics simply aren’t. Because the popular press spreads the idea that there’s a deeper meaning to everything, it’s a lot easier for people to accept a film or book as a work of art. The more we get pieces like FF IX Revisited on big name sites, the closer we’ll be to mainstream acceptance.

vael:

Now Demi, do you really think I could pull off such a ruse as a game design? You may remember in the beginning of my envisioning for game 3 that I said “stealing a soul in game 3 is different than in EBZ, because you would actually be doing it”. The fact you can even *actually* do anything is enough to be interested because it instantly adds that fact to the narrative. “I went there, and THEN I talked to the person.” Instead of clicking on the storylet that tells you you did. “Casing” a place to rob may not be too different from EBZ, but how could it be? How much do I develop just to, what, perhaps make casing a bit more interesting, when there’s pickpocketing, lockpicking, and arson available to the player?

As I said, RPGs are “raising bars” along to a storyline, and while some gameplay is just so damned interesting that you simply must continue playing, (see your latest addiction to final fantasy’s job system) I’m not creating those kinds of systems. I’m slowly leaning towards more and more story-driven gameplay, but that doesn’t mean I’m neglecting the fact that I am still making a game. EBZ is wonderful, but we both know it’s not much of a game, and that being true has even made its players (players?!) question what a game truly is.

While you say “actually doing it” as opposed to “the game telling you that you did it,” they’re pretty much the same - except in the case of “actually doing it,” you have to click a few extra links. In Echo Bazaar, you click “investigate the reporter” and then some text comes up to tell you that you followed the guy and overhead a suspicious conversation. It feels kind of hollow, because it’s pre-baked stuff you’ve simply unlocked by pressing the right button, but if you really care about the story then it’s usually ok. I think most people will agree that this isn’t a very good mechanic, but I also think that most people will find something to like in Echo Bazaar, so it succeed fairly often.

        When you’re “actually doing something,” it seems like it would be more like this: you click “follow the reporter!” and then “hide around the corner!” and then “eavesdrop on the conversation”? You’d get more or less the same text, but broken up into three parts. It would make the game more interactive, in theory - there would have to be other options along the way, so you have better control of what happens. In this case, success or failure is on your choices as the player, not random chance. But I don’t think it would be inherently better than what Echo Bazaar does. As a player, it’s hardly more interesting and you just have to press extra buttons to get what you need. As the creator, it radically increases the amount of “content” you need to make for all the different options. So it’s a question of execution.

        The distinction has merit, though, because the same thing comes up in a lot of dialogue based games - in Mass Effect, or LA Noire, you’re given small snippets or themes of dialogue to choose from. Then the writers put the rest of the words in your character’s mouth. So you’re talking to a suspect in LA Noire, and you pick “doubt” because you have a little feeling of doubt - and suddenly your character is outright accusing the suspect, potentially losing their trust or making them angry. And that sucks, because you, as the player, didn’t mean for your character to do that. The problem here is that your interactive role as the player isn’t perfect - you just give vague directions to the character and the writers fill in the rest.

        I haven’t actually played LA Noire myself, but I’ve been reading about it and I’ve listened to a number of podcasts about it. From my understanding, a lot of the “gameplay” is pretty terrible - the driving sucks, the shooting sucks, the interrogation is a bit iffy, and so on. But solving mysteries is really fun and really interesting. Enough to make up for every other fault the game has. Essentially, the game is carried entirely by its atmosphere and story, so even though the mechanics suck it’s completely worth playing.

        (As a side note, a lot of people who are really into gaming as a medium have argued against LA Noire being a “good” game, and rightfully so. Its strong points are borrowed from other mediums, and it’s probably the current pinnacle of “interactive movie” games. But that just means we don’t need to make more games like LA Noire. I think it’s a great opportunity to learn about what people enjoy, and what they’re willing to pay for. A game that isn’t about action can actually be successful - that’s a strong message for publishers. And if every game told a story as well as LA Noire…)

        So the point of all that is this: if you’re telling a great story, and your players are engaged despite the simple mechanics for delivering it, things will probably work out. Grinding in Echo Bazaar is completely boring for the player because it’s a simple mechanic and nothing beyond that. But being involved in some grand mystery at the Shuttered Palace, or talking to suspects (in the Rubbery Murders content you buy with Fate) is super cool, and unlocking things like Stormy Eyed feels rewarding despite the mechanics. It all works because you’re engaged, and that should be the ultimate goal of every mechanic in a game.

        (My points about LA Noire comes from a number of podcasts (Destructoid’s Podtoid, The Escapist Podcast, Japanator’s Japanator AM, The Electric Hydra) but I don’t have the exact episode numbers, and also this article on GameFront)

Looking at the comments on an excellent Destructoid piece about Final Fantasy IX, I came across someone who puts me to shame with his FF Nerd power level. I knew from the beginning that I wasn’t going to blog my way through the games, but I’m even happier now that I chose not to do that, because I could never hope to do it better than this guy.

        I spent a couple of hours last night just skimming through all of these, so take that as a warning about how much he wrote. Check out a couple, you’ll get a good idea of how dedicated he was to this. He’s got a good sense of humour, and the writing is solid too. He also chose to play the original versions of each of the games, in some cases requiring fan translations, which boggles the mind. I’ve been playing the GBA releases of FF I-VI (DS release for FF III), and they’re a whole lot nicer than what he had to deal with. The game I remember as FF II is radically different from the one he describes (in terms of gameplay), but then I haven’t played the game since I was twelve, so that might have something to do with it.

        So yeah, this guy is my hero.

————————————————————–

The Final Fantasy V And Pitchfork-related Section Of This Post

It seems like everyone has the exact same reaction to FF V’s job system. Pitchfork captures what vael and I felt nicely:

Final Fantasy V’s two-dimensional characters get tossed around by an implausible scenario with more plot devices and contrision than you can shake a moogle at. This seems to be the main reason a lot of players aren’t too fond of the fifth installment. A week or so I was talking about this with Polly, who is not a Final Fantasy V fan. “So what if the plot is silly,” I told her. “It’s still a pretty fun game.”

  “Pat,” she answered. “A little kid running around with a cereal bowl on his head is silly. Final Fantasy V’s story is just retarded.”

“WHAT?” I asked. “WHAT WAS THAT? I’M SORRY, I CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER ALL THIS JOB SYSTEM.”

I’d be really surprised if he didn’t know about it, considering how in-depth his knowledge of the games are, but FF V’s job system has a feature he doesn’t even mention. I don’t the game ever actually tells you what happens when you “master” a job, but something very important happens, and it’s probably the best part of the game’s design. Nevertheless, the “oh my god this is so well designed” reaction can only reach new heights when you find out about the connection between Freelancers and mastered jobs.

        When you reach the maximum level of a job, it’s considered to be “mastered” by that character. At the start of the game, the Freelancer job is pretty lame: you can equip anything, but you don’t really have any abilities. Later on, you can mix and match any two abilities you like.

        Now, by default, you can use all the passive abilities of a job when you’re using it, without taking up your second ability slot. A Monk can use Counter without equipping it, and a Thief can use Sprint the same way. But when you’ve mastered a job, this ability extends to the Freelancer job. If you master both the Monk and Thief jobs, as a Freelancer, you’ll have both Counter and Sprint innately. On top of that, you get the best of their innate stat boosts, too. So you get great strength, stamina, and agility.

        So the Geomancer job may have a pretty lame ability (and some helpful passive abilities), but it only takes 175 ability points to master it, as opposed to something like 600 for the other magic jobs. That means a really easy boost to your magic stat towards the end of the game for your fighters. The other magic jobs, for obvious reasons, give better stat boosts than the Geomancer job, so your Summoner/White Mage won’t get much use out of mastering it.

        Playing the end of the game as a dual-wielding Ninja with the Ranger’s Rapidfire skill is pretty awesome. But playing the end of the game as a Freelancer, with Rapidfire and Spellblade, and the best stats and skills of the Ninja, Ranger, Geomancer and Mystic Knight is amaaaaazing.

————————————————————–

The Final Fantasy V And Update-related Section Of This Post

Looking over yesterday’s post, I had a quick thought about the characters in Final Fantasy V, who are interchangeable from one another barring a few minor stat differences - they may be roughly identical in the gameplay, but they still have their own personalities and look (unlike in FF I or III, each character has their own “look” when using a certain job) and the player defines their own gameplay roles for the characters based on your progression through various jobs and customization of the characters.

        By contrast, in FF I the party you choose in the beginning only has meaning to the gameplay, while choice of job in FF III is fluid and contributes nothing to the actual character. They may get names in the DS remake, but you can make your job level 99 Black Mage a Ninja and your job level 99 Thief a Magus, and it makes no difference.

        On a final note, which will spoil a bit of FF V’s story, swapping a character for another wholesale is a difficult thing to pull off. In the beginning of FF V, you have Galuf as a party member - he’s a tough old man, well-suited to being a physical fighter. Later in the game, your progress with his character is transported to a character named Krile - a young girl, best used as a mage. If you’ve been training Galuf solely as a Monk up until this point, suddenly you need to change the role you’ve defined for the character. On the other hand, if you know it’s coming, you can train him as a more general character such as a Blue Mage or Mystic Knight.