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How the new FF is like a bad DM
12 years ago
When SquareSoft was producing Final Fantasy 6, it had three directors. However, when creating the characters of that awesome game, writing them was divided among several individuals; Hironobu Sakaguchi wrote for Terra and Locke, Yoshinori Kitase wrote for Celes and Gau, Testuya "Belts" Nomura wrote for Shadow and Setzer, Kayori Tanaka wrote for Edgar and Sabin, etc. Then after all that was done, Kitase figured out how all of these characters, with their separate motivations, would be able to come together to form a group. How would they be motivated by the story's main plotline and how are they gonna react to it? Well turns out that is exactly how traditional paper-and-pencil RPGs are put together. However, this charming take on character development isn't something really shared by modern FF games.
In fact, FF XIII does everything in reverse. Toriyama wrote the story based on the setting, before any characters were developed. He then handed the script off to Daisuke Watanabe and told him to write the characters into the story such that they would fit. For example, one of the characters had to try and commit suicide and they decided that the comic relief should do it. Why? I dunno. Cuz the other characters were wrapped up in other crap I guess, and Sazh wasn't doing anything. The Script called for it! Someone had to do it!
See, if you know your traditional gaming, they call this railroading. And it's severely frowned upon. Deciding how a game is going to play out ahead of time, independent of what your players want to do, or what your characters are gonna wanna do. It's really not very fun. It makes it difficult to develop an emotional connection, to feel like you have any freedom.
Player: "Y'know I have a motorcyleplane. Why don't I go somewhere safe."
Game: "No! No, you have to go to the next point. A-a-and it's the only place that you can go. And when you get there your motorcycleplane crashes, or runs out of gas, or explodes or something so you have to stay there."
Then the character and the player are both thinking "Oh my god this sucks! I don't even want to be here." Then the player is mad because they feel they're being punished for a decision that the game developers made, and while you could argue that it's good that the player is now emotionally invested somehow in the stupid thing that's happened, it's not good if that emotion invests them in getting off their lazy butt to return the game to the store that they bought it from.
That kind of thing makes the game less immersive. The player doesn't feel upset because of something that's happened in the game; they're upset because of something that the game did to them--the player. The only way to overcome an obstacle such as "I don't want to be here playing this game in this particular way" is to turn the game off. It's a real problem when the obstacles get so metaphysical that it seems like you could blame the game developers for sending you to stupid places.
In fact, FF XIII does everything in reverse. Toriyama wrote the story based on the setting, before any characters were developed. He then handed the script off to Daisuke Watanabe and told him to write the characters into the story such that they would fit. For example, one of the characters had to try and commit suicide and they decided that the comic relief should do it. Why? I dunno. Cuz the other characters were wrapped up in other crap I guess, and Sazh wasn't doing anything. The Script called for it! Someone had to do it!
See, if you know your traditional gaming, they call this railroading. And it's severely frowned upon. Deciding how a game is going to play out ahead of time, independent of what your players want to do, or what your characters are gonna wanna do. It's really not very fun. It makes it difficult to develop an emotional connection, to feel like you have any freedom.
Player: "Y'know I have a motorcyleplane. Why don't I go somewhere safe."
Game: "No! No, you have to go to the next point. A-a-and it's the only place that you can go. And when you get there your motorcycleplane crashes, or runs out of gas, or explodes or something so you have to stay there."
Then the character and the player are both thinking "Oh my god this sucks! I don't even want to be here." Then the player is mad because they feel they're being punished for a decision that the game developers made, and while you could argue that it's good that the player is now emotionally invested somehow in the stupid thing that's happened, it's not good if that emotion invests them in getting off their lazy butt to return the game to the store that they bought it from.
That kind of thing makes the game less immersive. The player doesn't feel upset because of something that's happened in the game; they're upset because of something that the game did to them--the player. The only way to overcome an obstacle such as "I don't want to be here playing this game in this particular way" is to turn the game off. It's a real problem when the obstacles get so metaphysical that it seems like you could blame the game developers for sending you to stupid places.
