Adam Bolander's Blog - Posts Tagged "games"

All right, I know that Final Fantasy is a series of video games, not books, so let’s just skip over the part where you all throw me into a pit of rabid chinchillas- all right? But even if it’s not a book, I still feel like Final Fantasy can serve as a great example of where the fantasy genre should be, as opposed as where it is now.
First of all, for those of you who aren’t aware, Final Fantasy is a series of video games that started on the original Nintendo system, and have spanned all the major (and not-so-major) consoles. There are fourteen numbered entries, with the fifteenth currently in development for the Playstation 4, and more spinoffs and direct sequels than I can count, like Final Fantasy: Tactics, Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, Dissidia: Final Fantasy, and the Final Fantasy XIII Trilogy. The games are, with the exception of the direct sequels, completely disconnected. You can play them in any order, or even skip some of them, without missing any important details. This is not just because the stories are disconnected, the worlds they take place in are too. The twin words, Cocoon and Pulse, in Final Fantasy XIII have absolutely no connection to Spira and Zanarkand from Final Fantasy X. The games do, admittedly, share a few common elements, such as the summon spirits, which have led many people to argue about how the games might be more connected than was originally beleived- but that’s not important to what I’m trying to get at here.
More than anything, though, the Final Fantasy games are known for having amazing stories. Like most roleplaying games, storytelling is usually the main focus. Each of these games, have a long, epic narrative to share with you that spans over their unique worlds. These stories are long, often requiring anywhere between sixty to one hundred hours to complete. And here’s the point that I’m trying to get at: they’re DIFFERENT.

Now, I’m a fan of fantasy in general. I love Brandon Sanderson, Patrick Rothfuss, Robert Jordan, and R.A. Salvatore as much as anybody else. J.R.R. Tolkien is one of my heroes. But have you noticed how the genre has stagnated over the past few decades? Nobody wants to move outside of what Tolkien put forward in The Lord of the Rings. Classic medieval setting, swords and shield, staffs and wands, elves and dwarves, you know what I mean. You’ll be hard pressed to find anything that doesn’t fall even somewhat into these categories. I’m not saying that good stories can’t come from this setting- far from it! Elantris, Mistborn, The Name of the Wind, and The Eye of the World all provided for some awesome adventures. I’m just saying, isn’t it time we moved on to some different settings? That’s where Final Fantasy caught my attention. The settings they put forth don’t immediately bring to mind anything else I’ve ever read/watched/or played. I don’t begin the game and immediately think “Wow, they totally ripped off Lord of the Rings with this.” Final Fantasy VII’s half fantasy half scifi setting was the first thing I noticed about it. You start the game riding a train to a factory, which you plan to infiltrate and set off a bomb. Upon arriving, you fend off a swarm of gun toting guards, mutant tentical-y dogs things, and laser shooting robots with a sword larger than you are. Your partner is a man with a gun for a hand. You also have access to a lightning and an ice spell. Now, tell me that sounds ANYTHING like a book you’ve recently read.
Likewise, in Final Fantasy X, you play as a famous sports star when a gigantic Godzilla-esque monster crashes your big game, somehow transporting you to an alternate, yet almost identical, world. There you become bodyguard to a young summoner who is about to begin her religious pilgrimage to obtain all the most powerful summon spirits and defeat the giant monster- which also turns out to be YOUR FATHER! Yeah, name another book that pulled THAT one on you.
The characters are awesome too, and not just the main characters. Let’s say you walk up to somebody on the street and say “Name a Final Fantasy character.” Assuming they had any idea what Final Fantasy was, they’d probably say, “Sephiroth.” Sephiroth is by far the most popular character in any Final Fantasy game. With his long, silver hair, one black wing, and seven foot long katana, he’s got an image that will stick in your head. He has his iconic theme song, “One Winged Angel,” that is instantly recognizable even to people who haven’t played the game. And these are all things you can appreciate without having even played Final Fantasy VII. Play the game and you’ll find one of the deepest villains of any story I’ve ever experienced. His mother was an alien come to destroy our world, but he, himself, became a soldier to protect it. Upon discovering his heritage, though, his sanity gradually snaps, leaving us with the most terrifying psychopath to ever walk the planet. This guy can swing his sword faster than the eye can see, kill entire armies without batting an eye, and even throw a freaking star at you. And through it all, he has a calm, collected attitude, like he couldn’t care less about the pain and suffering he’s causing. Only one word can describe him: MEM-OR-A-BLE.

So, why don’t authors do that more? Fantasy is a wide open genre. There are no rules! Why do we keep limiting ourselves to what one man created, and thousands of others have replicated? Again, that’s not to say that good stories can’t come from these settings, but wouldn’t it be cool to see something DIFFERENT now and then? Something UNIQUE? Something that doesn’t take place in a renaissance fair? Mistborn gave this to us somewhat, making the setting and style and interesting mixture like Victorian-age and typical fantasy. I say this now, so hear me, readers of the world: WE NEED MORE UNIQUE FANTASY!
I mean, I’d like more of it. I’m not going to stop reading books if it doesn’t happen, or anything. I’ve made this my own personal goal, though. I want to write a story someday that when I’m finished, I can look back at it and think to myself, with sincere honesty, that I could see it being turned into a Final Fantasy game. Not because I think it will (though that would be AWESOME), but because it means I’ll have crafted a story that doesn’t follow the conventions set down by the other authors before me. It will be... yes, I’ve said it a hundred times already, but unique!
But what about all of you? Are you satisfied with the fantasy genre where it is now? Or do you, like me, hope to see some it branch out into more unexplored territories? Let me know what you think in the comments!