On Adventuring and Fantasies
Okay, so it’s rant time. Everybody gets a turn. It’s the internet. Bear in mind that this is a rant, and therefore has narrow focus, for the sake of making a point and expressing thought. Ok. Ready. Go.
I want to go on an adventure. Who want to come? Everybody? I hope so. Now who is going to lead us? This is a question that needs answering. I’m going to discuss and pick on Square-Enix again, primarily because they are the most high-profile example. But also because of my own charged sense of betrayal.
Final Fantasy XIII, again, is the subject of this controversy. 5.5 million people lined up, wanting to go on an adventure with you. And you gave them Hallway Quest. It’s one of the most beautiful hallways I’ve ever seen on a home console. But it is, nonetheless, Hallway Quest. This is no fantasy. It’s a juvenile drama that takes place in the middle of an environment that your players would love to explore, if you didn’t have them stuck in a rat maze. It’s a disgrace, frankly. I can only conclude that Squeenix is going the way of George Lucas, the way of American banks in recent years, and the way of many big businesses that have suddenly disappeared… you think you’re too big to fail. And while I might hope for great things from you in the future, it’s going to take some serious passion and the willingness to risk accumulated wealth on their true innovators and storytellers to make it happen. Memorable adventures (and great games) will not be borne on the backs of past success. You’ll stick up 5.5 million people for their money first, and some of them won’t mind. But for myself, and those who want value for game-monies tendered… you’re going to have to try harder.
Where are the ideas and passions that created the first Final Fantasy? I want to be told a story. Where are the innovators that created chocobos? I want to find and interact with amazing creatures. Where are the storytellers that took us over the earth, through the air, and under the sea? Even into outerspace, in the same game? I want to go somewhere unexpected. Who wants to take us on an adventure? I have no desire or interest in long hallways. Somebody’s got to turn ideas upside-down and surprise us again. I mean really surprise us.
Where does this leave us? In my opinion, it leaves us in the hands of the young and independent: those who have not yet become George Lucas or Hironobu Sakaguchi. Square Enix is busy buying up Eidos and expanding their IP ownership to continue growing their company. There is no guarantee that they’re really in the game to create the adventures I want to go on. They have money, they have talent. But they’ve done little to capture my imagination this time around.
I’ll vote independent. I’ll put my confidence in the wondrous variety of indie games I see being churned out all over the world. I recently found myself genuinely frightened while playing a simple 2D browser game. I encountered monsters that fly and announce their presence by casting shadows over the land, by bringing storm clouds and death upon me. C’mon… a little browser gets a greater emotional reaction out of me than your big budget hallway? Sadness, I say. But I also say this… indie developers take the risks required to make memorable experiences happen. Though, I pose this question to everybody in the game industry, independent or otherwise: When you have made your money and established your IP, or if you have the time and talent to create the game you really want to make… are you willing to risk it to create memorable games? Are you willing to aim beyond your experience for sake of taking us somewhere new?
I hope somebody is.