Taken to Heart

There is a common misconception in the world of gaming that because something has succeeded before, it will succeed the next time the idea comes around. While formulaic properties are common in most media, movies, games, television shows, even books, in a media that is about the expansion and interactivity of people and games, this represents a huge problem. When you eliminate the surprise of a game, you end up being forced to depend upon other things in order to keep players coming to you for entertainment, be this clever story telling, the reputation of the franchise, or the reputation of the company and system, or any other of several dozen possibilities that I can think of.

Let me tell you a story, its short I promise. When Final Fantasy(Abbreviation: FF) II (for the Super Nintendo today its known for most systems as FF IV(that's two and four for anyone who doesn't know their roman numerals)) I hurt a friend, someone very dear to me because of how much I loved that game from the very first time that I played it. Sure I had played Dragon Quest (then known as Dragon Warrior), Crystalis, Final Fantasy (the very first one), and others including the Zelda games, but the story line of Final Fantasy II for me was instant love.

Since I have played the game, in my love of the story, though sorrow, and shame (for many reasons mainly hurting my friend) because of how much I love it. I have purchased every version of the game that I have found, and I still go back and play the old SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) version. However, I set myself up for a fall in doing so. I played the game so much that I at least used to have a run in the game where my characters are barely level 40, they have the necessary items, and a minimal amount of game time played (20 hours I believe). With this impressive feat I can beat the game, it’s difficult, but because I know what elemental weaknesses all of the enemies have, I can bypass much of the challenge of the game.

Here's the point of my story: Square, now Square Enix (or affectionately said squee-nix), when I had last checked, had not varied from this formulaic lay out of their games. Bombs are always weak against Ice, Imps as well though usually they are so low you might as well swipe them, earth, air, wind, fire, and earth beats air, air beats water, water beats fire, fire beats earth… that type of thing (no I won’t go into details for Final Fantasy more then I have). The problem being save FF VII (seven), I have lost virtually all interest in Final Fantasy. Why?

Well the problem is two fold. First I can’t forget the weakness system that I learned, and that is still inherit to All FF Games, and because of this I can defeat enemies well before I should be able to. Normally gamers think of this as a good thing, because it means I can move though the games very quickly. However it presents a problem, specifically, what do you do when you are at a point in the game that you can’t go backwards, but the enemies you’re fighting can kill you in a single round, and you can’t kill them? There’s only one solution, if you don’t have multiple save files, and that’s to start over again.

Even with multiple save files, I find wandering around replaying the same enemies repeatedly boring. In turn this means that I lose interest in playing the game, and there for never finish the story, let alone the game. FF VIII (eight) is supposed to be a fantastic game. I’ve never played more then 10 hours into it, because I get bored.

The second problem is this: I keep buying the games. How could this be a problem you ask? Well they sit and collect dust now. I haven’t even played my Collector’s Edition of FF XII (twelve). In fact, since seven I haven’t completed a FF game since seven, which I only finished out of a twisted sense of responsibility to Aeris, a character in the game. I just can’t get into them.

Don’t get me wrong. I dearly love Squeenix’s games, particularly their stories. I love the worlds that they weave, and dream of being able to do the same myself one day. But these two issues reinforce each other. I keep buying the games because I love the stories, but I don’t play them. Since I am buying the games, Squeenix has another person supporting them, showing them that the system that is in place is one that I myself want to be in place. In short I’m telling them that this system is great, keep using it. Instead of sending the message that changes needs to occur to the system.

The point is this: game makers like everyone else will use a system until someone tells them it’s not working. The only ways we as players of the games have a way to voice our opinion are to contact the companies, email, phone, letters, petitions, what ever, and to stop buying the games. Does this mean that I expect everyone to look at FF XIII (thirteen) and not buy it? No, I’m a realist, I can only dream of finding a Final Fantasy game that one day can capture my heart like number two was able to do.