Final Fantasy XIII: Story, Linearity, and Evolving the RPG

Without a doubt, the Final Fantasy franchise of video games is one of the most popular and recognizable assets in gaming, second in pervasiveness perhaps only to Nintendo's first-party IPs like Super Mario, Donkey Kong, and the Legend of Zelda. With twelve "pure" titles, the first dating all the way back to 1987 on the original Nintendo Entertainment System, and many more spin-offs, remakes, and side-stories, the franchise has literally defined the Role-Playing Game (RPG) genre. It has brought decidedly "hardcore" gameplay to a mass market (ranking sixth on the list of all time best-selling video game franchises with 92 million units sold), and maintains many dedicated fans. As such, it is no surprise that the pending release of the series' thirteenth entry has the gaming industry on the edge of their seats. And as the critics begin to post reviews, the overall consensus is...well...rather mixed.

Final Fantasy XIII is extremely important for many reasons. Primarily, it has been in development for well over three years, and is the first game in the series to be released on "next-generation" consoles. Whats more, FFXIII is the ONLY game in the series to see an initial release on multiple platforms, gracing both the PlayStation 3 AND the Xbox 360 on March 9th, 2010. These facts alone make FFXIII's release extremely momentous. But beyond release timing and logistics, FFXIII is also important because it is being touted as one of the most unique games in the series to date, abandoning many mainstays of the franchise. First, the game's battle system is very different. While still decidedly "turn-based," FFXIII only allows players to enter commands for one of the characters in your party, leaving the computer to control the actions of your comrades based on preset "Roles" and "Paradigms." Second, and perhaps more importantly, the game designers have opted for a much more linear, story-driven experience. They accomplished this by limiting the amount of "open world" exploration, cutting down on the number of available side-quests, and completely removing the existence of towns to visit. And while the new battle system has so far been highly regarded, the shift to a more linear format has irked many of the early critics and long-time fans.

The unrest regarding this extreme linearity seems warranted. While gripping stories and memorable characters are important pillars of the franchise, some of the most memorable Final Fantasy moment occur while wandering around the world map, exploring towns, and conversing with the locals. These moments, where players are not being forced down a predetermined path but are instead free to take their time, breathe in their surroundings, and lose themselves in the expertly-crafted fictional world give these games much needed levels of realism and depth. Without these moments, the games would devolve into a constant repition of enemy-filled field after enemy-filled field (which the review at RPGFan.com seems to suggest is in fact the case with FFXIII). And unless the battle system and character leveling options are extremely fun and rewarding, such a game could become very exhausting, very fast.

However, it is important to understand the other side of this coin. That is to say, there is virtue in game play linearity in that it helps tell a well orchestrated, cinema-esque story. By forcing players to walk down a predetermined path, the game designers give themselves the ability to develop a much more cohesive and fast-paced storyline than may be possible by giving the player too much freedom to explore. For example, critically acclaimed story-driven action games like Uncharted 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4 are almost entirely linear. They move from chapter to chapter without allowing players to "stop and chat." Through this technique, their designers created two games that have widely been regarded as the closest things to "playable action movies" to date. It is into this category that I am hoping FFXIII falls: an action heavy, story heavy thrill ride that rivals the best movies in theaters today.

In the end, I can't reach any real conclusions about the game until I play it myself. However, what I hope is that gamers (specifically, big RPG fans) forget their preconceived notions about what RPGs and Final Fantasy games should be, and go into FFXIII with an open mind. Our current generation of consoles, with their powerful processor and high definition graphics, provide for the creation of extremely cinematic experiences, and perhaps a more linear style of game play is a step in a similar direction, necessary for achieving true storytelling genius. It may well be true that the game I have in mind is not an RPG by the most basic and strict definitions. But, to me, that's okay. Games evolve, genres change and cross-over, and sometimes you need to give up old-school mainstays to really move forward into a higher level of game play and storytelling.

So here' to trusting Square Enix. Here's to thinking of FFXIII as more than just another entry in a long running series, but a new game with fresh ideas that is (hopefully) a step into the future for the genre. And here's to the evolution of the RPG, and of gaming in general.