In a sense, then, even the weapons of Final Fantasy IX have identities while simultaneously defining each character, both ludically and narratively. On a very basic level, this binary extends to the game’s ludic systems: each weapon’s inherent nature (the abilities it confers) is only presented outward (when those abilities are conferred onto the character) after certain requirements are met. In the world of Final Fantasy IX, then, there exists a peculiar narrative tension between outer expectations-social or political class, perceived nationality or race-and inward desires and innate characteristics. Quina’s broken English serves as comic relief, but his ambiguous sex (Quina is always referred to as “s/he”) reminds players of the game’s more grandiose concerns. Take, for example, Quina Quen, a bipedal creature of indeterminate origin whose primary motivations are always gustatory. These character’s self-awareness ultimately disrupt Garland’s plan, but the Terrans do find new homes in the Black Mage Village, a refuge for Vivi’s sentient kinsmen.Īnd so, Final Fantasy IX’s exploration of identity is macrocosmic-entire planets are forced to tackle the issue-yet the game is, in general, lighthearted. Zidane is created, in turn, to kill Kuja, thereby wrapping up all of Garland’s loose ends. This irony singularly dominates the climax of the game: players and characters alike learn that Kuja was himself created by Garland to wipe out the population of Gaia, so that the inhabitants of Terra, a neighboring, destitute planet, might move in. Vivi’s species of black mages were artificially created to be foot soldiers, chattel to be bought and sold in Kuja’s blossoming black market arms dealership. The subject of the most poignant sub-plot in the game, Vivi joins Zidane in an attempt to learn more about his origins. Of particular interest is Vivi, a black mage (and yet another orphan). Zidane and Kuja struggle with their origins as living weaponry, manipulated by Garland Dagger (née Garnet) is an adopted Alexandrian princess who learns that she and Eiko, another orphaned girl, belong to an ancient and all-but-extinct race of summoners Steiner, Dagger’s bodyguard, and Freya, a Burmecian dragoon, balance their loyalties to their respective states with their devotion to individual members of those states and so on and so forth. For example the Mage Masher, a dagger Zidane finds early in the game, enables him to learn the abilities Flee and Detect, provided he use it long enough to acquire the requisite Ability Points-a fairly ho-hum system, given Final Fantasy’s long tradition of innovation in a genre noted for being old-fashioned.Ī perfunctory sketch of Final Fantasy IX’s characters reveals the extent to which the game seems fixated on the friction between outer appearances and inner truths. Final Fantasy IX, however, ostensibly lacks any distinctive mechanics, opting for a relatively old school, and relatively simple, weapons-based system of abilities and skill points: Zidane, the game’s protagonist, and his crew gain new skills by equipping new weapons. Final Fantasy IX is an exploration of how the creation and maintenance of identity is intrinsically linked to material objects.Īctive Time Battle, Materia, Draw and Junction, Sphere Grid, Gambit-Final Fantasy’s ludic components are perhaps as well known as its narratives. It is, to coin a phrase, ludo-narratively resonant: Final Fantasy IX’s mechanics don’t reveal the game’s narrative as much as they contribute to and inform a particular understanding of it. #ALEXANDROS DUNGEON BOSS SERIES#It’s not that the genre is dissonant, per se it’s that its ludic and narrative elements seem to be so fully divorced from one another that analysis seems like a waste of time.Īnd yet Final Fantasy IX remains, in my mind, the most thematically cohesive of the series and a triumph of narrative focus. As the notion of ludo-narrative dissonance-that a game’s “play” elements pull against its narrative ones-becomes the dominant shibboleth of an increasingly large tribe of games critics, the Japanese-style role playing game seems to have been pigeonholed as stagnant and archaic.
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