Final Fantasy Analyses

[Ren]

So, I don't know how many of you are into analyzing the shiz out of things - Final Fantasy included - but I, for one, am extremely fond of that, and coming across a gem like this was extremely delightful and thought-provoking. If you guys like reading essays that tear apart our beloved Final Fantasy games, I'd definitely recommend giving all the essays a whirl. I think I still have two to go through?

Anyways. I'm not going to pretend that I agree with everything this guy's saying - I read the analysis of Final Fantasy IX first and was completely dismayed and infuriated by the essayist's utter dismissal of the plot and, more importantly, Kuja - but he did give me a lot of things to think about. This guy is so good at deconstructing things it's spectacular. And I adore his analysis of Final Fantasy VI and how life-changing it was for those who had played the almost-work of art. (And it helps that I completely agree with his tearing apart of Final Fantasy X-2 and XIII, two games that I found lackluster and annoying.)

But, if you want to give those essays a whirl for some deeper thinking about some of our favorite games, I say: go for it. If you choose to not be disenchanted by an intellectual ripping things apart, that's cool too.

Oh, and I should also probably warn people that the readings contain vulgarity in the form of language and sexual references. You've been warned.

[Deleted]

Personally, I love analyzing stuff through my own lens a lot, and little based on these critical thinkers. Guess you can say I trust my own intuition a lot but I see no reason not to read another critical thinkers viewpoint.

I see you didn't provide a link...google brought up destructoid but I'm not sure whether or not it's the one you're referring to. Link me up girlfrennn.

[Larxene]

Her link is there. It's just in the paragraph~ *uses her magic mod powers to bold the linkie*

[Deleted]

Oh yayy. -flips CadeCade out the thread-

[Larxene]

*flipped out of the thread* D:

[Deleted]

I read the summary of XIII simply because its the only one i've played, and I thought it was sooo funny. The way he tore the game apart, got rid of all the fluff, and exposed the weaknesses I was too stupid and distracted from by "the graphics" to see. The character summaries killed me, they were so damn accurate, and funny too. Hope's especially, because it was sosososo mean. xD

[Ren]

Lawl. I didn't totally agree with everything he'd analyzed, but I completely cracked up with his long-winded tirades of "The Tube." and he completely deconstructed those characters FINALLY somebody who doesn't hero-worship Lightning (though she's not two-dimensional by any means). To be frank, I found Hope a bit annoying, but I was still waaaaay more sympathetic to him than the snarky guy what wrote this.

if only you'd played more games, you could read some of the others! they're so perfect, even though the one about IX is downright humiliating.

[Aryn007]

I haven't played these games but I still found reading parts of these essays interesting and relevant. Kingdom Hearts is not so dissimilar. Especially after the first game. A lot of go-to Squeenix stock characters and hackneyed plot devices, etc.

Buuuut, I don't mind stock so much as long as it is presented in a way that is engaging and thought-provoking.

[Zephiris]

Thanks for this, Ren. xD I enjoyed many of the articles here. Especially VI. I definitely found stuff I was nodding my head vigorously to, though then again I also found areas I very much disagreed with the author. I had a vague sense that the further from the games of his/her childhood we got, the much harsher he/she strayed. It had justification, of course, but every so often I felt it was a bit much.

Especially when it came to that touchy subject of FFXIII. Where it was dead on about the massacre of gameplay for everything but the battle system, I found the characters, story, and various odds and ends of XIII as exceptional as they appeared in the first half hour of the game. They truly would have been noteworthy, had their deal just not been so terribly drawn out. Many of the emotional scenes had the potential to be heart-rending if gone a little bit briefer, with a bit less lecturing to drive a point home, and maybe not after hours of grinding. It frustrates me to no end how Squeenix butchered that potential. Scratch the game itself. I just loved taking a browse through the datalog, especially near endgame. The stuff in there was really brilliant. (I think the author's brevity regarding Fang and Vanille may have been due to his skipping most of the game. xD I personally fell for them as characters later on.)

The XI analysis thoroughly cracked me up. XIII's did too, actually, because man did he just tear that down, but XI. . . lol.
X's paragraphs on the English dub needs to be read by all people who can call themselves gamers. But then. . . the 'HA HA HA'. . . not even the original dub can unsee/hear that from my mind, I think.

-goes to read about the earlier games, which I've never played-

Disclaimer: VI is my favourite, liked most of VII and X, liked parts of XIII and its sequel, wasn't fond of IX, and still need to play VIII and XII further to judge.

[Ren]

I've played Tactics, II, IV, VI, VII, IX, X, and XII for long amounts of time - in fact, I even beat three of those games (VI, VII, and IX) and I'm just a casual gamer. I've played I, V, X-2, and XIII for shorter amounts of time, and while I've never played VIII I watched an entire Let's Play of it. Of all these games, IX and VI are my favorite, however... despite my love of IX... VI is definitely its superior, plot-wise, gameplay-wise, and intellectually.

Zeph, you'd probably ADORE this freaking long article about VI that I read the other day (the dude who wrote the articles above in fact quoted this famous VI review). It equates VI to an "opera," explaining things it did or did not pull off in that sense, and despite his aloof analytical prose, he admits that VI is one of his favorite games. The article is right here. This, more than anything else, inspired me to pull VI out for the umpteenth time.

Should I eventually acquire another Final Fantasy character, it will definitely be from VI - either Relm (whom I've played here before) or Terra, or maybe I'll try somebody a little different and unexpected. But VI completely changed my life long before Kuja strolled up in his codpiece.

I can't even begin to describe how much I love VI. v__v;;

[Zephiris]

Just spent the last two days reading through that article in my spare time, Ren. It's absolutely brilliant, thanks for the share!

As I'm a big fan of music, and most especially FFVI's, the whole opera analogy sat quite well with me. This author's review was specific, but more so analytical than critical like the last writer's, so I think I ended up enjoying it more. And all the references. From that third paragraph with the Star Wars comparison, I knew I was gonna end up reading the whole thing. xD And now I may have to follow suit and replay this damn game.