Final Fantasy and it’s fantastically long impact.

Games can take you places you never dreamed of before, they can stir emotions from you deepest core and lead you on a journey of the mind.
It’s quite safe to say that games can leave quite the impression on a player. Whether it’s seeing the world all in blocks after an intense creative session of Minecraft or having the song from Tetris stuck in your head for days on end! In case you’ve forgotten what song from Tetris is, have an ole listen here.
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Anyways, now that the Tetris soundtrack is stuck in the brain of you, my lovely reader, let’s continue on with the blog.
When thinking of a game that left a lasting impression, I was in the same mindset as a peer of mine. He felt that for him, was no “one game” but that “several (came) to mind“; you can read the brilliant post here: https://ciansite.wordpress.com/.
After deep pondering and some ‘soul searching’ the answer came to me, it had been staring me in the face all along. The game had left such an impact on me I had subconsciously integrated it into my blogs without even batting an eyelid. Sometimes when I go to sleep at night I can still here the the battle music from my party’s encounters with the various monsters and creations the world of Spira had me battle. I am, of course, talking about the wonderful game that is: Final Fantasy X (FFX if you’re that way inclined).

The year is 2008, everyone I knew had a spiffy PS3 for a couple of years now and I had just been given the best present I would ever receive in my young life, a PS2 (the slim one because portability is cool) and with it came two cracker’s of games: Sonic Riders & Final Fantasy X.  Both will always be special to me, but I put my heart and soul into FFX.

I was obsessed.

It became a habit…no a ritual, of my daily routine to come home after a long day of the monotonous academia that was secondary school and play this magnificent game. The world of Spira had captivated me and I was enthralled by the stories that developed as I progressed through the game.  Emphasis on the I here, as I truly felt that I was in the game and that every choice, be it big or small mattered.
The game provided so many hours of play for me. When I wasn’t following the main story line of getting to the fabled “Zanarkand“, I was on my own little quests such as unlocking all of my party’s master weapons or capturing different beasts for the “Monster Arena”.

When I wasn’t physically playing the game, I was mentally playing it. I was constantly thinking of different ways to level up my party, such as whether or not they might be a good fit as a ‘White Mage’ (I learned one is plenty) or which would be the best attributes to customize my weapons with! There was just so much to think about!

Sometimes I wouldn’t even mean to be thinking about the game and all of a sudden KABOOM, battle sequence music stuck in my head until the end of time …well a couple of hours really but you get the idea. For those of you who haven’t heard it, this is what I’m referring to.

Even years later now when my PS2 is sitting patiently in my home having not being played for who knows how long, I still get the urge to connect it all back together and dive straight into my last FFX save. If anything just to see these old friends again.

FFX thought me many things. I firmly believe it’s the reason that sparked my love for games and why I am doing Games Development today.
It has a been a big contributor to many of my ideas for games I want to make, as I have a habit of taking the best bits from it to help design said games (all in my head of course).

It also thought me that dodging 199 lightning bolts was not good enough and that a true fan would persevere until they reached 200.

FFX, was one of the first games that I played through and completed and it will always have a special place in my little gamer heart forever.

So from my friend Cactuar and I, we just want to say:

Stay Sassy Subscribers! 🙂

Ludology vs. Narratology – The battle for supremacy.

Ever hear of the above terms before?
I sure as heck didn’t until one day I walked naively into my Games Writing Analysis class and then BOOM! two new words for the science and study of gaming.
So, what do they mean?

From my understanding a Ludologist is someone who thinks that the key to a successful game is in the mechanics and the game play. Whereas a Narratologist is someone who believes that the success of a game lies in the game’s ability to tell us a story.
From these definitions I can easily say I am on “Team Narratology”.

I believe a lot of people would fall into the narratology category. People enjoy a good story! It’s the reason why so many of us binge watch sereis’ on tv, go to the movies or in this case play games. Games can be a fantastic medium of telling us a good story, which gives them the ability to immerse the player, sometimes without them even knowing.

Story lines can be very powerful in games. One of the first games I played where I really was entranced by it’s story was “Final Fantasy X”. Final Fantasy games are turn based rpgs, which I thoroughly enjoy but found could be mundane at times. But what made me keep coming back to play FFX was, the story line.
I wanted, no, I needed, to find out how all the characters turned out. I needed to know if they lived or died, or if they ever did up beating the antagonist Sin. (He’s a bad egg). I felt that I was part of the rag tag team and was responsible for them when I played, so when I lost a battle I would truly feel sad.
The story truly immersed me in the game and that love for playing games has stuck with me every since.

On the other hand, a game doesn’t always have to have an explicit story line to be enjoyable for someone who identifies as a narratologist.
Let’s take Geometry Dash for example. In this game you play as a square who must jump to avoid obstacles. Sounds simple right?! It was easy to grasp but challenging to complete. I found that the more I played I became attached to my wee square. As you progressed, you could customize it by giving it different features which made it more life like. My wee square was no longer a shape on screen, HE was now a being trying to get home by running through all these adversities in his life.
I gave him a story that I wanted to play through.

So it’s clear to me and hopefully you why I am a narratologist at heart.
However in my opinion, one cannot survive without the other. A game with a great story line, no matter how good, won’t be played that much by people if the mechanics are shoddy. Mechanics in a game are important but ultimately, I believe it’s the story that brings the gamers back.

In the end it’s down to personal preference and your own opinion. One particular side isn’t the right one. It’s simply what YOU love about games!

So this is me and my good friend Cactuar signing off.

Stay Sassy Subscribers! 🙂