SPOILERS FOR: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2
Back in late November of 2003, Roy E. Disney, the last relative of Walt Disney to work for the Walt Disney Company, resigned his position both as Chairman of the Feature Animation Division and as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. He set up the website SaveDisney.com in an effort to draw public attention to the internal problems currently plaguing the company. It authentically saddened me to read the bittersweet sentiments of a man whose family legacy had given generations of people such happiness and joy watching the legacy turn into something else, a degraded, soulless mockery of what it had once been. In place of innovation came shameless, unnecessary marketing cash-ins like the ridiculously titled Lion King 1 ½. Instead of respect for the audience came horrible, historically inaccurate Political Correctness like in their version Pocahontas. In place of quality control and focus, they chose to expand into other ventures like Hong Kong Disneyland, forgoing quality control in favor of market saturation as the paint begins fraying in Anaheim’s Disneyland for the first time in its fifty-year history. Many people, like former Disney Animation maven Jeffrey Katzenberg left to join or found other companies. But perhaps Roy Disney can say it better himself:
My Dad was quoted once as saying, "It's easy to make decisions, once you know what your values are." That speaks volumes about what's gone wrong with the company.
"But I also believe that our identity, as I've described, has been compromised by many factors: the addition of unrelated assets which live by different value systems; the perception that, in the absence of ideas, the road to success is to cut, slowly and cruelly, back on everyone and everything that once made us successful, no longer giving our guests value for money; the shifting moral grounds that this conglomeration of companies has created. Try this one: "The Walt Disney Company's ABC Presents the Victoria's Secret Lingerie Show." I'm not making that up, in case you wondered.
We need to remember that the product itself is important, not just the selling of a "brand" name." (Roy Disney).
Square Enix Chairman Yoichi Wada recently said that he expected Square Enix to become the Disney of the 21st Century. I agree. Everything Disney has become so far in the 21st century, so too has Square Enix.
Though gaming is a much younger industry than film and animation, much of the same mythic distortion and degraded value is taking place at Square Enix, particularly in the use of intellectual properties that were once part of Square. While it’s true that contracted developers like Tri-Ace and Level 5 still seem to be creative, the in-house teams seem to be crumbling into disrepair, their creative resources, particularly Yoshitaka Amano, Nobuo Uematsu and Hironobu Sakaguchi seem to be less and less significant and directly involved in an empire they helped build. It’s true that Sakaguchi may have earned his Japanese styled demotion to corporate non-entity through the catastrophic Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, but it’s also disheartening to see that he seems to be little more than a name to the company anymore, much the way Roy Disney had become little more than to the Walt Disney Company. And much like the Walt Disney Company, much of Square Enix’s key talent seems to be fleeing. Tetsuya Takahashi fled for the greener pastures of Namco where he seems to have been allowed the creative freedom to finish his games as he sees fit. Though his work on Xenogears may have been overtime and over budget, the final game is horribly flawed as a result. I played Disc 2 wondering what might have been had the game been completed, the final set of dungeons played rather than be explained by characters sitting in chairs. And then there are the other exiles, the people at Sacnoth who made the underrated Shadow Hearts, Yasunori Mitsuda who had composed much of the best music at the company and Brownie Brown makers of the Mana series who fled to work for Nintendo, Dream Factory, the people behind their fighting games. But it’s clear that a creative malaise has set in at Square Enix; one that features games titled as ridiculously as Lion King 1 ½.
A simply case in point would be to look at the game that most directly links the two companies: Kingdom Hearts. At its core, Kingdom Hearts is an action platformer with RPG elements. You control a character, Sora, who runs, jumps, and gains new jumping abilities and fighting skills as the game progresses. Square had made titles with platforming elements before, like Threads of Fate. That game was a simple, straightforward title that featured a decent amount of polish, an automatically controlled camera and was pleasant, but nothing particularly stunning. It knew what it was and played that as well as it could. Kingdom Hearts, on the other had a desperate desire to be MORE. The end result is, perhaps, the best looking game I’ve ever played to feature no gameplay polish whatsoever. First, the camera was terrible. Either you controlled it manually through the shoulder buttons which rotated the camera both slowly and without the option to zoom out or to take a higher angle, or you locked on to specific enemies which seemed to do little advantageous other than make it more difficult to see enemies you weren’t locked onto. The camera also had a horrible tendency to get stuck in architectural corners and to follow Sora so closely that it was difficult to get a feel for what is IMMEDIATELY next to him. Perhaps these problems could be explained by the presence of first time director Tetsuya Nomura. But explanations aren’t excuses. Especially with games as polished as Ratchet and Clank featuring very similar core gameplay, yet a MUCH higher degree of polish. Ratchet and Clank was an absolute joy to play, Kingdom Hearts a chore.
But perhaps its telling that Square chose a character designer to be in charge of the development of Kingdom Hearts, because Kingdom Hearts IS all about external appearances. The game is, after all, a case of two companies with many easily recognizable characters sitting together in a boardroom and saying the equivalent of “let’s milk these properties for as much cash as possible!” Sure enough, the game features dozens of Disney and Square characters, lumped together haphazardly in a weak excuse for a plot, loaded it with as many of their trademarks as possible and tried to make a game that appealed to everyone while having no real gaming value of which to speak. Sure it’s cool to see Aerith and Squall rendered on PS2 hardware and actually speaking (with Hollywood voice talent, no less)! But that’s basically just a novelty, like rehashing segments of numerous Disney films throughout the game. I honestly wonder how many Square fans would have bought the game were these characters not present. But where the almighty Sephiroth beckons, so must gamers follow, or so it seems to me.
But it also seems to me that Square is more interested in trying to spread themselves thin more than they used to. While it’s true that during the PSX Era Square experimented with many other genres, it’s also true that they didn’t try to reach beyond that genre’s specific audience. The Final Fantasy series, Square’s key money maker, was always experimental under Sakaguchi’s auspices. Sure, some things tended to remain the same from game to game, like the core of the battle gameplay, but the storylines, magic systems etc. would shift from game to game. The few things that WOULD remain the same, like a couple of pieces of Uematsu’s music, “The Prelude” and “Final Fantasy”, would be there in every title, if only because they reminded you of the series’ legacy and because they were so darned good. Final Fantasy X was a good game, despite the lack of “Final Fantasy” playing during the closing credits. But that absence should have been a tip-off that something was wrong at Square HQ.
So, along came 2003. Or, as I would like to call it, “the year the magic died.” Square released THREE Final Fantasy branded titles this year. All of them were intended to stretch Square’s user base as thin as possible. Why aim a complex Final Fantasy Tactics title at children? Probably to try to branch across to Nintendo’s perceived younger user base. While there are some definite and interesting post-modern discussions to be had about the story’s use of inter-textuality, the game still focused on being a light-hearted adventure, simplistic in the telling and populated with exceedingly young characters clearly designed to be as cute as possible. I’ve witnessed numerous complaints from many people who were wondering where their sequel to the complex backstabbing, politically complex Final Fantasy Tactics had gone. And while I personally enjoyed the game, I could understand the gripes and people looking for their Strategic RPG goodness in other games like Disgaea and Fire Emblems, games that didn’t seem to pander to children.
Pandering actually seems to be a somewhat dominant word in Square Enix’s discourse. How else do you explain the moronic Final Fantasy X-2? Despite my reservations (as seen in one of my previous editorials) I shut up my inner naysayer and played the game. It was a mistake. Even in its lightest incarnation in Final Fantasy IX, the Final Fantasy titles, at least starting with the SNES era, tended to feature a strong sense of plotting, a palpable sense of the epic and an amazing ability to become dark, yet emotionally affecting by the end. The plots featured personal struggles, painful sacrifices and characters that developed over time. Final Fantasy X-2 did away with all that.
First, unlike previous Final Fantasies, X-2 seems clearly intended to pander to new demographics, namely lecherous skin fiends and shoujo (or girl type) anime fanatics. The GIRL POWER vibe that runs through the game and the shamelessly over done, revealing, job shifting sequences attest to that. The game’s teen pop heavy soundtrack also adds to the general feel of something looking to branch out to a new audience. The retention of the core game mechanics, the connection to a previous title, and the words “Final Fantasy” on the package were expected to keep the old user base intact. The numbers suggest that they succeeded in building an audience for the game. But that doesn’t make the game any less of a marketing ploy.
Look, for example, at the game’s rendering or lack thereof. The game reuses FFX’s graphics to obvious and explainable effect. What isn’t explainable is how most of the new areas are incredibly bland and uninteresting. Or how Lulu can be several months pregnant and still retain a figure appropriate for a corset (nevermind the effect a corset might have on an unborn child, ouch). Or how Wakka has been said to have put on weight while looking exactly the same. It’s clear that Square was largely interested in spending as little money as possible while still trying to make a “new” game. Almost all of the new graphics are for the small handful of new characters and for the female leads’ dress spheres. And then there is the music. Yes, the game world might feel different, but there are moments that cried out for use of the music from the previous title. And the music feeling different doesn’t mean it has to be BAD. I wondered how much better a soundtrack composed by Noriyuki Iwadare of Lunar and Grandia fame would have been. His work is both good and upbeat. Whereas the music in FFX-2 can be described, in its best light, as something OTHER than silence.
It seems the world of Spira had learned nothing in two years. Indeed, it seemed to have regressed. The game seemed to feature an irksome theme of “forget the past, it shouldn’t be a burden to you.” Lovely. Whatever happened to Santayana and those forgetting history being doomed to repeat it? I seem to recall that being a major theme in most Final Fantasies up to that point, including and especially Final Fantasy X. But nevermind that. Forget the series’ past. It’ll only bring you down. But, of course, even with forgetting the past seeming to be the game’s major theme, it sure lets Yuna get away with protecting it. Arriving at Zanarkand in X-2 has to be on of the most infuriating moments in my gaming life. Cid and Isaaru, characters who were essentially respectable people in X become exploiters of Zanarkand’s memory by turning it into a tourist attraction. Yuna has the option to tell them off, but doing so seems out of theme for the game. So too is the ability to resurrect Tidus. The game wants to have its cake and eat it too.
The thing is, were Tidus NOT revivable, the storyline would come closer to working. In fact, it might have been POWERFUL for Yuna to move on. But the game basically implies Tidus’s revivability from the outset, suggests it in all of its advertising and is interested mostly in pleasing EVERYONE. So there’s the unhappy ending for the people who liked FFX’s ending as it was, and the happy ending for people who didn’t like Tidus’s sacrifice. But in making Tidus revivable, but FFX-2 AND FFX’s storylines become weaker, their themes made less meaningful and their emotional impact dulled by saccharine naiveté.
But, more than anything else, what killed the game for me was the Yuna’s final speech about not wanting to sacrifice anyone EVER again, no matter how effective and important that sacrifice might be. Had she learned NOTHING? Nooj’s plan to blow up himself along with Shuyin would certainly have worked. But Yuna said “I don’t like your plan. It sucks.” Then she proceeds to suggest that it’s better for many to risk probably death and failure for both the people fighting Vegnagun and for the people of Spira in general, than for one person to risk certain death and success. That’s a naïve attitude: One that the Yuna of Final Fantasy X had the resolve not to accept, one that the Yuna of Final Fantasy X-2 seems to depend upon. And yet, the relative naivité of FFX-2’s forgetting history and being everything to all people seems to have come to a lovely fruition. Being that Square wrote the game, Yuna can get away with this attitude. Vegnagun was a stupendously easy adversary, despite what the story suggests about its power. Final Fantasy X was a story about degrees and needs for sacrifice. Final Fantasy X-2 was a story about self-deception being a necessary way of life. That rejection of its predecessor’s themes is the unkindest cut of all.
Then came Sword of Mana. I. Hate. This. Game. I played the game’s previous incarnation as Final Fantasy Adventure when I was eleven years old. It was straightforward, unpretentious, and fun. Sword of Mana, however, seems to want to do something MORE than be a graphical upgrade to a solid game, so insert a needlessly melodramatic plot, pointlessly overcomplicated weapon and armor customization and haphazard multiplayer. The thing is, the first game was FUN, it was DIRECT, and it played smoothly. The remake feels cluttered, slow, and features characters that can do nothing but complain about having to kill every boss. A plot like this can only take so much angst. I find it sad that after thirteen years, Square couldn’t do anything to improve upon the previous title. Why try to half-make a new title while corrupting the memory of the old one? Why not just make a completely new game? And did anyone play-test this thing? I suppose that might be too much to ask right now.
I know that Square has had some financial difficulties in the past few years and that they needed to make some money quickly. But that, as I’ve said before, is an explanation, not an excuse. So while I have a good deal of enthusiasm for titles like Front Mission 4 and Final Fantasy XII, I wonder now if I’m not just in denial with my Square fandom. It’s true that they once represented the best in RPG quality, but games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Suikoden III are convincing me that the real creativity and ingenuity is elsewhere. Square is content to milk its brand names, pander to the lowest common denominator whenever possible and release games with their proven brand names, expecting its loyal fans to keep biting, hopefully to the point of ignoring the fact that many games out there are just BETTER. I know many people who haven’t played Knights of the Old Republic yet because of the high PC requirements or because they can’t afford or a biased against the XBox or any RPG made by a Western company. But I also know that the people at BioWare are still passionate about making the best games possible. Go to their website, read their posts in their forums, look at the enthusiasm present in everything they seem to have display. I recently watched the “producer’s cut” movies they have on Jade Empire, their newest title. You can hear the producer’s palpable enthusiasm at the creation of that title. You can feel it. BioWare is content to be the BioWare of the 21st century.
The thing is, both Square and Disney had a part in my coming of age. I still love most of Disney’s movies from the early nineties. I think they’re great examples of animation. But Disney lost sight of that in their efforts to win the marketing game. I see the Square end of Square Enix going the same way. And though it may be melodramatic I feel like I’ve personally lost something in the process. Maybe it’s not anything monetary or physical, but it’s the piece of myself who felt a strange burst of joy when Cecil finally overcame his dark past, who felt such great sadness when Celes gave in to her despair, who was so upset by Aeris’ sad fate that he had to write a piece of 3am fan fiction to justify it to himself. Am I getting older? Am I too cynical? Maybe. But I also got quite teary watching Big Fish the other night, which is, oddly enough, exactly the sort of movie Disney USED to make… before the magic died.
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