Changing the Paradigm: Final Fantasy XIII and Narrative

Changing the Paradigm: Final Fantasy XIII and Narrative

            "Cocoon—a utopia in the sky.

Its inhabitants believed their world a paradise. Under the Sanctum's rule, Cocoon had long known peace and prosperity.
Mankind was blessed by its protectors, the benevolent fal'Cie, and believed that tranquil days would continue forever.

Their tranquility was shattered with the discovery of one hostile fal'Cie.
The moment that fal'Cie from Pulse—the feared and detested lowerworld—awoke from its slumber, peace on Cocoon came to an end.

Fal'Cie curse humans, turning them into magic-wielding servants. They become l'Cie—chosen of the fal'Cie.
Those branded with the mark of a l'Cie carry the burden of either fulfilling their Focus or facing a fate harsher than death itself.

A prayer for redemption. A wish to protect the world. A promise to challenge destiny.
After thirteen days of fates intertwined, the battle begins."

—Official Prologue

            Final Fantasy XIII, technically the latest entry in the storied Final Fantasy franchise, is for some reason one of the most controversial titles of this generation. For me personally, I find a lot of the game’s most commonly heard criticisms to be unfounded or blown out of proportion. After it’s lengthy and problematic development, it seems to be a miracle that the game turned out at good as it did. It does have its fair share of problems, and is rather average for a main series Final Fantasy game, but overall it’s a pretty damn good game. We could get into a lengthy discussion about linear gameplay, gorgeous graphics, or automated combat, but that’s not what I’m here to discuss. I’ve already reviewed the game; we don’t need to mention any of that. No, today I am going to delve into one area in which I think Final Fantasy XIII meant to excel, but ended up stumbling on: it’s narrative.

            Now, Final Fantasy has always been a story-driven series, and XIII is no exception- in fact, XIII’s gameplay seems made solely to carry the game’s narrative. When discussing this story, however, I find that there are a couple of significant problems early on in the game which hamper the rest of it. Of course, one of the oft mentioned complaints about Final Fantasy XIII was it’s datalog, which dumped all of the information concerning the game’s lore into the player’s lap rather than weaving exposition into the story, and that’s one of the problems. The other major one, I find, lies with the ’13 day’ flashbacks, the series of cutscenes which delve into the character’s backstories while the story continues around them ad medias res.

            Final Fantasy XIII does have some very provocative ideas in its plot. At it’s core, the game is about people being cast out from their society, and being forced to confront a fate worse than death. Mass genocide, government control, slavery, societal paradigms, and other powerful themes serve behind the story of Lightning and her crew of rogue L’cie, battling their mechanical overlords the Fal’cie in order to save the city-world of Cocoon, even though that city doesn’t want them to be a part of it. Final Fantasy XIII opts to tell a more character-driven narrative, focusing on each character’s internal conflicts as they struggle to face their fate as L’cie, but unfortunately, with the manner in which the game’s opening sections are structured, the player has a difficult time becoming attached to the character’s or understanding their motivations. By weaving exposition concerning the lore of Cocoon into the narrative instead of dumping it into the datalog, and placing the content of the 13 day scenes at the start of the game, we automatically have a much better story with stronger connections to the characters. All of the elements are there in the game; Final Fantasy XIII has provocative themes and some powerful scenes. Reworking the way these elements are implemented, even at the very beginning, will radically improve the story.

            Final Fantasy XIII tries to open with a big action setpiece: Lightning and Sahz fighting their way out of the Purge train, fighting the robotic-scorpion boss, and then ending up in the Hanging Edge, battling the Sanctum troops alongside Snow’s rebellion group NORA. It’s clear to me that this was intended to pay homage to the classic opening of Final Fantasy VII, in which Cloud and the members of Avalanche attack Shinra’s Mako Reactor and battle another robotic scorpion boss, and this is a problem. Final Fantasy XIII is not Final Fantasy VII, and therefore it should use it’s opening hours to establish it’s own story, rather than dumping the player into a series of confusing action sequences. A lot happens in XIII’s opening which should be emotionally heavy and weighty, but isn’t, because the player has no idea what is going on or who the characters are. In addition, the world of Cocoon is so alien to us that we have a hard time understanding the significance of major plot points, and that too harms the story.

             What I propose is turning the 13 Day cutscenes into the game’s opening gameplay segments, showing largely the same scenes, and using them to flesh out the four initial characters (Vanille and Fang come into the narrative later, so they needn’t be focused on right away). That’s not to say they couldn’t open the game the same way, using the train sequence to hook the player with an epic action sequence- have that, then afterwards have Lightning do a voice over explaining the basic aspects of Cocoon- it’s a city that floats in the sky, people who live in it are terrified of the outside world, mechanical Fal’cie guard the city, et cetera. From there, each character would have their respective ‘before the Purge’ scenes interspersed with little gameplay segments designed to teach the players the mechanics of the game (a much better tutorial than XIII’s, which spread the tutorial throughout almost the entire game and killed the pacing). After each character has had their stories established in this opening, we would see the outbreak of the Purge, and then we can cut back to the battle at the Hanging Edge, and have a much stronger connection with the characters. I’m going to go through each character (Lightning, Snow, Sahz, and Hope) and explain how this shift would improve their story.

            Let’s start with Lightning. Right away, Lightning comes across as very similar to prior Final Fantasy protagonists such as Cloud and Squall. She’s cold, distant, but will eventually grow closer to her companions over the course of the story. Lightning comes across as unlikeable early on in XIII, but like the other characters, we know very little about her and have trouble identifying with her struggle. Lightning, like Snow, wants to save her sister Serah, who has been branded as a L’cie by a Fal’cie from Pulse (more on that later). We discover in XIII that Lightning and Serah’s parents died, and Lightning felt she had to grow up quickly in order to watch over and protect her little sister. By placing this at the start of the game, we have a better understanding of what drives Lightning to save her sister, as well as why she doesn’t get along with Serah’s fiancée Snow- she knows Snow is a troublemaker and doesn’t trust him. In fact, we could use that to establish both of their characters- Snow’s NORA group is known for illegally hunting monsters, and Lightning is a member of the local Guardian Corp unit (essentially, she’s a police officer). Lightning’s tutorial section could involve fighting off some local monsters that are too close to her home, during which she would meet/encounter Snow and chastise him for his dangerous actions. Right away, we understand more of Lightning’s distrust of Snow and why she’s angry when she discovers that this is the man dating her beloved sister (and it also established Snow’s reckless character as well). Lightning’s scenes could also establish the nature of L’cie. A huge part of Final Fantasy XIII’s story focuses on how L’cie are ostracized from the community and become dangerous monsters called Cieth if they don’t fulfill their Focus. Perhaps a Cocoon L’cie could go Cieth and Lightning and her troops would be forced to destroy it. A scene such as this, accompanied by some explanatory dialogue, would help establish the horrific fate of L’cie, and make the player emphasize with the characters more then they themselves become L’cie. Also, I always thought it was weird how Lightning volunteered to go on the Purge train- I know she had an escape plan, but it seemed like a pretty forced way of getting her and Sahz to meet. A better plan would be for her to try to rescue Serah when she is taken by the Fal’cie, only to be subdued by PSICOM and taken to the train to be deported as a traitor, and for being too close to the Vestige. She could notice/overhear the destination of both the Vestige and the train, and then form her escape plan with Sahz. Either way, though, when next we see Lightning, fighting her way to the Vestige, we now understand what she means to do, and what drives her.

            Snow Villiers is another important character in Final Fantasy XIII. He’s Serah’s fiancée and the leader of NORA, which eventually becomes a rebellion against PSICOM and the Purge. As mentioned earlier, Snow is a reckless but good-hearted individual, and like Lightning he will go to any lengths to defend Serah. The scenes with Snow in the 13 Day flashbacks are among the most powerful in the game; Serah’s revelation that she is a L’cie, his proposal and promise to keep her safe, Serah’s capture by the Fal’cie, et cetera. Like with Lightning, by placing these at the start of the game along with some small gameplay segments and interaction with NPCs and NORA members would go a long way to making Snow’s motivations clearer and more sympathetic. For me, one of the best scenes in Final Fantasy XIII was one from the earliest trailers- Snow and Serah’s proposal. Snow tries to distract Serah from thoughts of her Focus by joking around and talking about their future. They kiss, slowly, but as they do a single tear runs down Serah’s cheek, and as Snow holds her his face betrays his true feelings. This scene is incredibly powerful- Snow are Serah are trying to hold of the inevitable, but they know Serah’s fate cannot be changed. Imagine how much more we would care about Snow’s motives if we had seen this scene before he makes an ass of himself in the Hanging Edge by acting so macho. In fact, most of Snow’s scenes simply reiterate things about Fal’cie and l’cie. Now, if these scenes were at the beginning instead of spliced into the middle, then what were once reiterated plot points become established plot points, and then the necessary exposition to understand Serah and the other character’s eventual plight is placed where it should be. Snow and Serah are two characters who would have made a much better first impression had these things been explained earlier in the story. Snow would also have a better relationship with the people he’s trying to save, and therefore the player would have a greater stake in the events of the game, understanding what exactly is at risk when the L’cie are forced by the Fal’cie to destroy Cocoon.

                                            One of many scenes which would have greatly benefited the story had it been placed at the beginning.

            Another character who suffers greatly by the way he is introduced is Hope Estheim. Hope’s major character development in Final Fantasy XIII involves getting over the death of his mother. Now, in Final Fantasy XIII, it’s completely impossible to completely emphasize with either Hope or his mother, because she dies in the first hour of the game, before even know Hope’s name, and Hope later characterizes himself as a whiny teenager instead of a traumatized kid who just lost the only family member who cared for him. The player can’t emphasize with these characters without even knowing who they are, and Hope’s entire arc is practically killed by this laziness. Like Lightning and Snow, Hope needs to be characterized before the events we’re supposed to sympathize with, making the death of his mother the shocking turning point that it should have been. Right away, Hope’s scenes in the 13 Day flashbacks establish that his mother is the only family he is close too, and he is distant from his father. A couple more scenes with the two of them would have gone a long way towards improving their portrayals in the story. Really, Hope doesn’t need too much more than this. He’s a kid traumatized by the loss of his mother and caught up in a conflict he has no stake in; if Final Fantasy XIII had established his character before this, maybe Hope wouldn’t have come across as a whiny brat for half of the game.

            The final character who should have had a better introduction is Sahz Katzroy, although to be fair he probably requires it the least. Sahz has one of the few genuinely shocking moments in Final Fantasy XIII, where after seeing his L’cie son crystalize before his eyes thanks to the prior actions of Vanille, he attempts suicide. Sahz’s motivation and backstory were honestly fairly well done throughout the game, and seeing as it also went hand-in-hand with one of the game’s major plot twists (Vanille and Fang’s true origins), there doesn’t need to be too large a change here. Still, sahz could have used some prior characterization before the big twist, and especially before the Hanging Edge. The scene with Sahz and his son Dahj is very similar to the Snow/Serah scenes, as two people try to stay positive in the light of the horrible crisis of becoming a L’cie. Perhaps a scene where Sahz buys the baby chocobo for Dahj, his son’s capture by PSICOM to serve as a Cocoon fal’cie, and his arrest and deportation would all serve to better characterize him without giving too much away.

            This altered method of opening the story, I feel, would have greatly benefited Final Fantasy XIII. The game was still pretty good, and honestly the majority of the plot following this could continue on largely as it did. Scenes would be altered, dialogue would have to be changed, and there are still several little problems with the story (I always felt that Yaag Rosch was an interesting but underdeveloped character. A soldier who understands the plight of the L’cie, but hunts them down in order to keep the peace against all odds? Lots of wasted villain potential there), but in general, having a stronger connection to the world and characters would have solved a lot of the game’s problems. And then, maybe- just maybe- people wouldn’t still be whining about how linear the game was.