Square Enix's Final Fantasy series has now entered its twelfth installment. Although it has always broke new ground, Final Fantasy VI was the first installment with mass appeal.
It told the story of Terra Branford, an unwilling soldier of the Empire. The game begins with an imperial raid on the town of Narshe looking to investigate claims of an Esper being found in Narshe. Terra's controllers are killed during the raid and she regains her freedom of will but not her memory. She is rescued by a treasure hunter (or thief) called Locke Cole who promises to protect her. Locke takes Terra to Figaro where they meet the charismatic king, Edgar Roni Figaro. He leads a double-life as both an imperial lackey and a sympathiser of The Returners, a militant group opposed to the Empire. Escaping the clutches of the Empire in the shape of Kefka the three flee Figaro and an epic adventure begins.
All of the Final Fantasy games have a story-line which encompasses different layers of both social and individual struggle. Traditionally role playing games focus on an individual or a band of individuals involved in a pretty straight-forward battle against evil (think, for example, the Zelda series). However, Final Fantasy games often tell the story of wider social struggle either against:
- a repressive Empire (VI, VIII, XII)
- a corporation (VII)
- or even against an established religious order (X).
As well as a wider social struggle there are the individual, personal battles that we all go through. Main characters are often complicated and often, perhaps unusually, have ‘issues’. Terra herself goes through many internal conflicts. However, other good examples of this include Cloud’s internal battle during the course of Final Fantasy VII or else Squall’s struggle to find himself in Final Fantasy VIII. Main 'bad guys' are often the antithesis or darker sides and aspects of the hero or heroines own personality thus they add immense depth to the proceedings:
- In VI, Kefka originates from the same experiment as Terra but in him it produces a perverted lust for power and destruction where as she longs for peace and is filled with compassion.
- VII sees Cloud in much the same position. Him and Sephiroth share a common background (both are products of genetic experimentation) but Cloud has none of Terra's purity. He is dark broody and troubled both by his suppressed side and an inferiority complex. Sephiroth taunts him constantly with the fear of his own inferiority .
- Seymour aims for the same end as Yuna in Final Fantasy X but seeks to end the misery caused by Sin by bringing the nothingness of destruction and death to Spira; there attempted marriage is an allegory for the efforts of some to force a false unity between two mutually exclusive parts of a personality.
Identifying with the characters and their struggle is another reason why the games are less game and more an experience in the that movies, music and books can be experiences.
