Ignophobia – Nathan Mallory's Weblog

EDIT: News Flash! Now FFXII may be delayed! Again! WTFBBQ?!

Well, the demo is out now and if you don’t have it, you should (DQ8 is a great game too, after all).

Musically, I was rather disappointed. While it’s only natural that a stark change from a thematic composer like Uematsu to a more harmonic one like Sakimoto will result in a major change in direction, these songs didn’t sound like Final Fantasy at all (thanks again, Amber, for the PSF2s to loop to my heart’s content). Even Sakimoto’s rendition of the Fanfare sounded as bizarre as some of Uematsu’s debauchery of the Chocobo theme over the years. I’ll confess I’ve never been as devoted to Sakimoto as many people here, but I appreciate his ability to create drama and mood in Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Breath of Fire 5. Here, though, rather than attempt to compose in a way that transitioned from Uematsu’s use of melody into his own style, he seems to have just written in his own style, and the result is music more appropriate for a FFT2 or VS2.

Maybe it’s all fitting… after all, FFXII is set in Ivalice, which has almost exclusively been Sakimoto’s musical territory. I’m not quite sure why Square Enix, in placing direction of the series to Matsuno’s accomplished hands, decided to just let he and Sakimoto make Final Fantasy Tactics, minus the Tactics. But I’m not sure why they let Sakaguchi make FFXI an MMORPG, either!

Gameplay-wise, it’s just as I said in the title. Having played in the FFXI beta and living in the World of Warcraft more frequently than I probably should, the basic controls seemed almost too familiar. The only difference was that now you are playing the MMO controlling the entire party rather than a single character, an experience that smacked more than a little of Baldur’s Gate for the PC.

I don’t think gameplay alone in FFXII will adversely affect the series any more than character swapping did in FFX. But I find it highly ironic that they chose to package a demo for FFXII, a series which by all indications seems to be desperately trying to move with the changing times into more contemporary stories and control schemes, alongside a game like DQ8 which, draw your own conclusions, seems to be milking the “old school” style of story and turn-based gameplay for every ounce. Personally, I’d rather see something in between on both games — a little more restraint with FFXII (they’re called “console RPGs” for a reason, folks) and a little more change with DQ8. But hey, they didn’t ask my opinion.

Not that it bears much mentioning, but visuals are something that the FF series has succeeded in pushing the envelope with each new title, and FFXII looks to continue that. Even if the gameplay is piss poor, Sakimoto’s score entirely uninspired, and the story a convoluted mess, it will surely be a visual treat. I just truly hope that’s not the only thing we can expect of the Final Fantasy series in the future…

The event of a person’s death is a natural time to reflect on who they were and what they did in life. That’s because they won’t ever do anything again; what they could have done or planned to do in their lives ceases to have meaning. In an instant their lives becomes quantifiable. The seemingly bottomless list of attributes and accomplishments, personality and potential, that add up to make a human being gets a line drawn at the bottom, and everyone else is left behind to do the math.

What will they say about you when you die? Will they talk about what you did? Who you were? Who you looked up to? Will they look at what you loved and the other lives you touched? Will they be sad for the loss of you? Or will they mourn the loss of who you could have been?

It seems almost callous to me to contemplate summing up someone’s life when they die, but we all do it. And whether we do it consciously or not, we assign values to the person’s accomplishments, even in the end. We constantly judge others for what they do in life, whether they spend their time helping the sick and needy or playing videogames; why would that change because the person has died?

Watching someone pass away in a stupid way, before their life’s work could reflect their potential, makes me immediately examine my own situation and ask the inevitable question: what if it had been me? Would they talk about my love for piano? Probably. Would they praise me for my level 60 mage and epic ram in Warcraft? Probably not. I would be another case of lost potential, who had a kind heart and touched the lives of many. Is there anyone who doesn’t touch people’s lives meaningfully? Is it simply convention (or lasting optimism?) that we repaint the life of the dead in the same glowing, alabaster light regardless of the truth? I doubt my obit would read, “Ambitious student and videogamer. He worked just hard enough in school to get by, and he certainly wasn’t the best at almost anything he did. But he was diverse, and intelligent, and was curious about a great many things. He was honest, most of the time, and even though he was a bit antisocial, he valued friendship and comradery above all else.”

So what I actually do might not have much impact on what they ultimately say about me when I die. I think my point is that standing solemnly as another friend is lowered into the ground, unconsciously playing the value game with his life, I find myself playing the same game with my own. From one angle, am I wasting my life in virtual worlds and fancy gadgets? Or am I enjoying life as I work patiently towards realizing that potential I am sure will be assigned to me at the end of the game?

At the end, shouldn’t we be faulted for not making more of our lives, when the choice of what to make of it was entirely ours? If we all had such potential, are we not to blame if it goes forever unrealized into that good night?