Characters. An important part of any story is its Characters. Great plot plus uncompelling Characters equals fail.
In the 1990s, new technology was allowing video game designers to actually tell stories with their games. Pong and Asteroids were left in the dust and new market for story-driven games opened up. At the forefront of this movement was the company Squaresoft with its innovative Final Fantasy series. As Squaresoft pushed the envelope in video game story-telling, a new problem arose; for the first time video game designers had to create believable characters. The stories had just gotten that big.
Building off the success of Final Fantasy II (Japan IV), Final Fantasy III (Japan VI) and Chrono Trigger featured large casts with sweeping plots, richly orchestrated music, and a myriad of varried locations. To hold player's attentions, each character of the cast had to be unique with his/her own story arch and defining characteristics. In addition, interest had to be maintained in the cast as a whole. Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy III solved this second problem in two interesting ways.
With its characters designed by Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball Z fame, Chrono Trigger was already off to a rich start. However, the games real genius comes in taking the wild and varied characters of Akira Toriyama's designs and welding them into a coherent ensemble. The solution seems to have been making each of the characters "misfits" in some way. The cast as a whole gains its power by serving as a community of acceptance where everyone can "fit in;" an attractive theme for the teenagers to whom the game was marketed. Think about it: Lucca is ostracized for her nerdy scientific ways, Marle has a strained relationship with her father and chafes against the constraints of being a princess, Frog lives with the shame of having failed his friend and is an outcast because of his strange form, Robo is separated from the other robots when Lucca gives him a heart, Nyala is a woman leading a tribe of men, and Magus' entire civilization has been destroyed.
Final Fantasy III also offers it ensemble as a place of acceptance for outcasts, but it adds an extra layer by making all of the characters suffer from dehumanization in some way or other. Terra has been stripped of her memories and forced to be the tool of the empire. Locke's ambitions as a treasure-hunter are constantly berated as mere thievery. Edgar plays the rich fop because it is his only release from the roll of "king." Sabin flees the dehumanizing aspects of the kingship only to lose his family, his country, and his spiritual guru. When the kingdom of Doma falls to the empire, Cyan, as the sole survivor loses everything. Gau is driven into the wilderness and forced to live as a beast. Shadow doesn't even have a name. In joining together, the cast of Final Fantasy III not only finds acceptance, but also restores and affirms its members humanity; an interesting theme that dovetails nicely with the industrial and imperial setting.
Stories don't function without characters, and they don't hold audience's attentions without compelling ones. As innovations in technology allowed video game designers to enter into the role of story-tellers, the need to create compelling characters became imperative in order to maintain player interest. Squaresoft's Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy III take up this challenge in interesting ways. Not only do they make the individual characters compelling, but they also create strong themes to bind their ensembles together.
Interesting what you can learn from a video game.
In the 1990s, new technology was allowing video game designers to actually tell stories with their games. Pong and Asteroids were left in the dust and new market for story-driven games opened up. At the forefront of this movement was the company Squaresoft with its innovative Final Fantasy series. As Squaresoft pushed the envelope in video game story-telling, a new problem arose; for the first time video game designers had to create believable characters. The stories had just gotten that big.
Building off the success of Final Fantasy II (Japan IV), Final Fantasy III (Japan VI) and Chrono Trigger featured large casts with sweeping plots, richly orchestrated music, and a myriad of varried locations. To hold player's attentions, each character of the cast had to be unique with his/her own story arch and defining characteristics. In addition, interest had to be maintained in the cast as a whole. Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy III solved this second problem in two interesting ways.
With its characters designed by Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball Z fame, Chrono Trigger was already off to a rich start. However, the games real genius comes in taking the wild and varied characters of Akira Toriyama's designs and welding them into a coherent ensemble. The solution seems to have been making each of the characters "misfits" in some way. The cast as a whole gains its power by serving as a community of acceptance where everyone can "fit in;" an attractive theme for the teenagers to whom the game was marketed. Think about it: Lucca is ostracized for her nerdy scientific ways, Marle has a strained relationship with her father and chafes against the constraints of being a princess, Frog lives with the shame of having failed his friend and is an outcast because of his strange form, Robo is separated from the other robots when Lucca gives him a heart, Nyala is a woman leading a tribe of men, and Magus' entire civilization has been destroyed.
Final Fantasy III also offers it ensemble as a place of acceptance for outcasts, but it adds an extra layer by making all of the characters suffer from dehumanization in some way or other. Terra has been stripped of her memories and forced to be the tool of the empire. Locke's ambitions as a treasure-hunter are constantly berated as mere thievery. Edgar plays the rich fop because it is his only release from the roll of "king." Sabin flees the dehumanizing aspects of the kingship only to lose his family, his country, and his spiritual guru. When the kingdom of Doma falls to the empire, Cyan, as the sole survivor loses everything. Gau is driven into the wilderness and forced to live as a beast. Shadow doesn't even have a name. In joining together, the cast of Final Fantasy III not only finds acceptance, but also restores and affirms its members humanity; an interesting theme that dovetails nicely with the industrial and imperial setting.
Stories don't function without characters, and they don't hold audience's attentions without compelling ones. As innovations in technology allowed video game designers to enter into the role of story-tellers, the need to create compelling characters became imperative in order to maintain player interest. Squaresoft's Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy III take up this challenge in interesting ways. Not only do they make the individual characters compelling, but they also create strong themes to bind their ensembles together.
Interesting what you can learn from a video game.
Comments
Thanks for this series of posts. I really enjoy hearing your analysis of the RPGs of our generation.
I spent more time in the side-scrolling, hero-saves-the-day genre (plenty to say about that too) and its great to hear about things on the other side of the fence.