Got my wife to play through FFX since I talked about how important it was to me as a kid. She's nearly at the end of it and agrees with me that it's wonderful. Also, we both think Tidus is a very well-realized 17-year-old main character
The side quests in 12 aren't just monster hunts, most of them are actually neat little contained side stories that help the vast world feel more alive. Hands down, 12 has my favorite bonus content of the series because of this.
Not only that, a lot of the hidden bosses are great and sometimes even required in order to take on the other secret content in the game. It's got quite a lot of layers to it if you look at the game past the main campaign.
One thing I've always thought was really cool about FFX is how you hear the final boss music just a few minutes into the game. It's used as hype music as the Zanarkand blitzball tournament begins, and is punctuated by the cheers of the crowd. It's especially fitting, since this particular tournament is supposed to be commemorating Jecht. But the very same cutscene also has Sin appear and attack Zanarkand, so the theme punctuates both Jecht's legacy as a blitzball player and as Sin. When watching that cutscene on the first playthrough, it's kind of confusing what's going on, because the game hasn't yet explained what blitzball even is yet. Both Sin and the blitzball tournament use a lot of water imagery, so cutting back and forth between them I was definitely left me feeling like "wait, is this not supposed to be happening?" when Sin is attacking. But revisiting that cutscene after completing the game, it's super cool.
I remember feeling like that too and I thought it was just me being dumb, I'm glad that I am not alone having been super confused by this cutscene initially!
2:32 isn't the narration supposed to be right before zanarkand? that's what the intro sequence is about. I'm mostly certain (but haven't played in a while so maybe not) that there is no narration after zanarkand.
Hi Bopper, I just wanted to say I've been really enjoying this series. As someone who's been a long time enjoyer of Final Fantasy but who doesn't have a, for lack of a better term, "arts degree brain" it's been really interesting to see your perspective on the various titles, and how in some cases we've both arrived at more or less the same conclusions despite approaching the games from very different places. My only issue so far has been the way in which you use the active voice in your writing, but I also recognize that's more a pet peeve of mine against the humanities in general rather than anything in particular you're doing on an individual level, so I don't know if that's a particularly useful piece of feedback. In any case, I'm looking forward to the next installment.
@@ProfessorBopper To first provide some context and make sure we're both on the same page, I'm coming at this from the perspective of writing in the active voice versus the passive voice. My understanding is that this distinction is basically the difference between saying "this work is about X" versus "I see this work as being about X" or "one could interpret this work as X". To my mind, the former often reads in such a way that it passes a threshold beyond assertive and into domineering or condescending: "My understanding is the correct understanding. I am the sole valid authority on this subject. Anyone who disagrees with me is wrong". In contrast, I see works written in the passive voice as being more open minded and collaborative: "I see it like this, but that's just my take. Other people might come to different conclusions, and that's perfectly okay". One frames the reading as objective truth, the other as subjective interpretation. I understand that the former tone wasn't what you were trying to strike with your video, but it is how things written in the active voice can sometimes read to me. In terms of examples, I didn't think to take notes or write down timestamps while I was watching so I unfortunately don't have any exact sections to point to. As a broader example, let's consider a running theme throughout your series of the Final Fantasy franchise being in conversation with works of English-language literature like Moby Dick. Are there parallels that can be drawn between the two works? Certainly (as a disclaimer, I haven't actually read many of the works you cite so I cannot definitively say that this is the case, but for the sake of argument we'll say it is). Were these parallels the result of the creators' familiarly with the works in question? Conceivably; I don't know how widely those works have been translated, and by extension what sort of cultural penetration they have in non-English-speaking countries such as Japan, but it is at least theoretically plausible. However, to say that the franchise is in conversation with those works implies, to me at least, a level of intentional reference and homage that I don't think is present in Final Fantasy. I certainly wouldn't rule out the possibility, but I feel successfully arguing that point would require a level of supporting evidence that you do not provide in the video. e.g. an interview with the game's director in which they specifically reference said work as an inspiration. This lack of corroboration combined with the aforementioned tonal implications of the active voice gave parts of the video a sense of not-entirely-founded confidence in a "Trust me bro, I know what I'm talking about" sort of way. That sense in turn somewhat detracts from my enjoyment of the videos. All that being said, the fact that I'm the only one bringing this up means it's probably just "a me problem". I don't think it meaningfully diminishes from your work, or that it's something about your writing style that needs to be changed in any particular way. As I said previously, I've been enjoying the series so far and am looking forward to its continuation. I'm very much in the traditionalist camp who disliked the move away from turn based battles, so XII and onward is largely uncharted waters for me.
@@gilbat1 thanks for the response! I don’t remember if I talked about this directly in the first part, but my goal with the literary connections isn’t to say “Final Fantasy VIII is directly influenced by this specific Romantic or Gothic novel,” but to connect Final Fantasy with a larger artistic context/lineage. So, it’s less about proving that Kitase or Nojima read Wuthering Heights in preparation for VIII, and more looking at how these works separated by time and culture intersect and elevate one another. It’s an analytical style that doesn’t work with the scientific method or even other fields like history. It’s very unique to art and I can imagine it’s quite jarring when you’re trained in another field. Same for the active voice. For humanities writing, every thesis has to be debatable. It’s just good practice and for readers it can get you into the ideas and the arguments much more quickly. You can bracket every word in these videos with “in my opinion” and you would be correct to do so. As a TH-camr/public speaker/teacher/entertainer/whatever you want to call it, I need to keep stuff well-paced, active, and engaging and the active voice just makes that much easier. It can be a hard switch to flip, but just watch these videos (and any video game analysis video) with “in my opinion” as an underlying truth for every line spoken. Because it is just all my opinion and interpretation (and all from my own personally preferred analytical framework) and I don’t really want to pretend otherwise
@@ProfessorBopper If I understand you correctly then, it sounds like the intended framing is to present them not as iteration or response, but as a case of convergent evolution. The works' similarities are due to them speaking to shared or overlapping aspects of human experience, rather than one directly replying to the other. To be honest I'm still not entirely sold on that model of analysis, but the choice is understandable given your background and the limitations you're working under. As a side note, the channel New Frame Plus has its own series on Final Fantasy that I think serves as an interesting companion piece to this one. In it, they look at the franchise from the lens of an animator and how advancements in technology over the course of Final Fantasy's history have expanded the range of how the games' stories can be presented and told. A particularly noteworthy moment for me was a comparison made between the spritework of the SNES era and stage performance.
I remember being introduced to the idea of a "focal character" as an alternative to defining a character in a story as a "protagonist." I'm rusty on it, and I only really encountered the term in college, but hopefully it can enter more people's vocabulary when talking about games with narratives like XII and VI. I thought to bring this up when Bopper mentioned the complaints of people who find Vaan lacking as a protagonist. It's probably true that the idea of a "good final fantasy main character" is an almost morally thick concept, and one which, if adopted, can unintentionally limit the understanding of what could be an even richer experience for a player. However, I think it's also the case that, as a culture, we bring up the question of a strong or weak protagonist before almost anything else when discussing what makes a story tick. I think if you do that too many times too mechanically, you run the risk of limiting storytelling itself, or at least closing yourself off for a while from other means of appreciation. I'm not the biggest fan of XII necessarily, but I can 100% imagine a universe in which VI was criticised for similar reasons. What saves it from the criticism, at least from my limited perspective, is years of fans referring to it positively as "the final fantasy game without a main character." If people accept a narrative choice as intentional, they're much less likely to reject the choice. I also just, y'know, really like VI though, so I don't know, ha! Great video as always of course! So close to XV I can smell the saint-esque agony. Yippee!
I think two important things to appreciate medias more deeply are 1) assume artists are competent and 2) assume artists make mistakes. It's a bit contradictory but hear me out. First you often see overly negative criticisms that stems from people not liking something and assume it's because it's objectively bad rather than something with meaning, and not giving an artist the benefit of the doubt of trying to figure out what they're going for is going to leave you not engaging with things because of first impression which sometimes can mean you miss out on incredible things, or even when it's not incredible, simply having an appreciation for the work and passion that went into a project can bring much more positivity into your life than trying to just find the crack in someone's work. But also another issue is that some people will also not acknowledge that just because a work is done with purpose and just because you like it doesn't mean it's flawless. Acknowledging faults or blind spot in a piece of art shouldn't lessen the enjoyment of the art (unless those faults are stuff like bigotry recontextualizing the entire thing in a very bad light), and art is such an iterative process that some things are bound to be there kinda just because, not everything has meaning, maybe a character is from a first draft and never was cut until they were too deeply woven into the story to be removed despite their presence undermining the themes of the story. Just because a work or an artist is good doesn't mean you should try to find had hoc explanation as to why a flaw is actually a quality. Because again, understanding the little cracks in a work of art can also give an appreciation for the work that went into it. Point I'm trying to make here is often the perception of what a work is can really alter how it's received and taking it for what it actually is can be really difficult but it's often really worth it to try and take a step back to do that. I always feel it's so much more fullfilling when I hear analysis of something that challenge my perceptions, or when I take the time to do that myself. Sorry if this was a bit long and barely an answer to what you said, this is just a thought that sprouted from your comment =p
The whole aspect of Forgiveness that was brilliant to me when I finally discovered it, is that true forgiveness is actually a power move. It's not about saying "What you did wasn't wrong," or "You are released from justice" or even "You've learned your lesson so I accept you again." It's not a matter of anything that the transgressor has done. It's the victim saying "I release myself of the pain caused by the memory of your actions." You give up the perceived power and leverage over the transgressor by being the "victim" or "in the right" and instead are allowed to move past the incident. To see Tidas be required to forgive Jecht to break the cycle of Sin is to see an acknowledgement of wrongdoing and a release of the self from the burden of said wrongdoing. It is the hardest and most vulnerable part of healing because it requires you to acknowledge and *move past* the pain.
That seems like a great game that I'd love to play one day, because it's certainly not FFX. FFX is about Tidus deciding to become an abuser and betray the girl that, for some unknown reason, has fallen in love with him. And somehow, he ends up being forgiven for his selfishness despite having done nothing to deserve it. The triumph of the abusers. The triumph of the lies.
@@ahumanbeingfromtheearth1502 Tidus' last choice is extremely selfish. He doesn't free Yuna, he just traps her in a different cage. Now, her world doesn't revolve around Sin, it revolves around him and the hole he left in her heart (She's doing pretty fine in FFX-2, and will receive freedom, at last, which is the reason X-2 is brilliant and necessary to the story, but I digress.) It's more subtle, but it's still the same old cycle of abuse repeating. Tidus lied to Yuna. He hid the truth and tried to solve things by himself like a big boy, sacrificing himself in an ultimate act of selfishness. Tidus is the villain, and just because the game seems to refuse to acknowledge it doesn't mean we shouldn't.
@@shytendeakatamanoir9740this is such a weird take I'm not even sure how to respond. You can argue he made the wrong choice by not telling her, but going from that to "he's an abuser" is WILD.
@@ahumanbeingfromtheearth1502 You have a character who starts the game by questioning the unjust system at play, and being brutally honest (that's what Yuna sees in him that makes her eventually fall from him). He pushes Yuna to hope for another way. But in the end, he openly omits the truth and decides to do things behind her back like everyone else before. That's a hero to villain trajectory. It couldn't be more obvious. He persuaded himself it's for "the greater good", like all the ones before him, but, in the end, he's no different. If he opened to Yuna, and convinced her to follow his plan, I'd buy this carefully crafted lie he told himself and, apparently, convinced everyone (and that's a testament to the storytelling everyone seems to believe it. Maybe because the game itself seems to believe it as well.) This isn't even a wild theory. It should be pretty obvious to everyone trying to engage with this story.
I just have to say your analysis of FFX was phenomenal. I've been playing it for over two decades. Spent too much time thinking about it, parallels in it to real world things, thematic stuff, etc. etc... and still, got a lot out of this and new things to think about. Great work.
As someone who’s been tempted to start FFXIV, I really loved the analysis of XI here. It’s the entry that seems to be one of the least talked about but it seems fascinating in how enduring the game and the community has been over the years.
10 was my first and started my long journey through the series! These videos have me super ready to playthrough every single game again! And maybe finally get around to 11 this time!
Your piece on FFX took every thought that remained from the first playthrough that enchanted me with the story of Tidus and Yuna, and just put it all together as a culmination of what the story had made me feel, love, and cry over. Expertly done.
And at the same time it makes perfect sense. If final fantasy has any identity is that it's always experimenting with new ideas for what it should be. So in that sense putting mmo's in the lineage of the series is an acknowledgement of that.
It seems like ffx discourse as a whole has moved on from the "ffx is anti-religion" 2016 buzzfeed era of lazy surface level analysis. Imo at least, its more-so deconstructive of specific elements, rather than a holistic condemnation.
I left a comment already, but I've been playing X recently and had a funny thought. Tidus turns the story into a tasteful isekai. When I say "tasteful" I hope that doesn't sound too judgy. What I mean is, we share in Tidus' perspective as an outsider to place, but Tidus has only so much interest in being a player vessal. He has a specific relationship to his dad which exists before we ever touch the controller, and that relationship's changing dynamics both mater externally to the plot and also internally. X is equal parts concerned with exploring a new place as it is exploring a new person.
I am grateful that you're finding a way to speak of the MMO Final Fantasy games even if they're not your cup of tea or you don't have the time to fully immerse in them. They ARE an important part of the series lineage, and I've never been satisfied by people that write them off because they don't want to pay a subscription fee or engage with multiplayer aspects or whatever. They carry forward the themes and the things that they do inform the ones that come after! FFXI's influence on FFXII's battle systems is incredibly plain, and you simply do not get FFXVI if FFXIV didn't pick itself up from the dirt of 1.0 and rebirth itself! 16 is absolutely coated in the remains of things that 14 has stepped away from. I look forward to your analysis of FFXVI but I hope you have a chance to take a trip to Eorzea and play FFXIV because I think you'll have some interesting thoughts afterwards. BUT ANYWAY to actually engage with the content of the particular video, great job, fantastic stuff. FFX is possibly one of the genuinely strongest, genuinely masterfully good FF games when you take together the themes and gameplay and technical execution, and your perspective on it was refreshing.
Every one of these that you make i get a little bit closer to playing a final fantasy..... the real question is which one I'll end up starting with 😂 you made 10 look so good - so sad!!!! So investing 😭😭 and Vivian did a knockout job with the game you didn't want to play lol, I love the description of "digital archeology." Finally, please bring up more Moby Dick in your videos. No video essay is complete without Moby Dick.
X is a great game to start with! The combat system is simple and intuitive in what you need to do, and Yuna's pilgrimage is linear and easy to follow, so you'll never get lost on where to go. The sphere grid may look intimidaring, but on Standard mode it's mostly a linear affair to all characters except for Kimahri, so it's nearly impossible to fuck up big time. Great starting point!
Don't do any side objectives, if you want to try it. Because dodging lightning in the game will make you want to be touched by lightning in real life. And don't get me in that Chocobo race. Or Blitzball. It's not worth your sanity over
At 45:32 actually he has a very basic Japanese theme as the foundation of his character but to be fair I need to replay the game to speak whether it was relevant to the rest of the game. And admittedly it never really develops from what I remember except to have a beginning and an end with no real middle.
I do appreciate XI's inclusion in the analysis. It pains me to acknowledge how correct Vivian is, though. Level 80+ was a fatal blow for the majority of the player base. It drove off a lot of players with grind content with no story to hold it together. Ultimately empty until Seekers of Adoulin. I am genuinely jarred by just how hostile optimization has become since my departure. Unfortunately, the strongest aspect of XI. The community is gone from the game. Or more accurately, has grown too small to sustain its own design, as a result all its interesting rough edges were smoothed away. XI was a hostile world you weren't supposed to tackle alone. It forced social interaction in a way modern mmos cannot. It was an ecosystem that punished you with tedium for daring to go in alone, for trying to do things the easy way. Oh but exhilarating it was to overcome the challenges of each expansion. Those bosses and those stories have left a deep impact on my psyche. One that spurs me to try and write stories that make others feel like I did playing this game all those years ago. Wow, that was long-winded. Anyways, FFXI. Amazing game, don't play it.
I bought Final Fantasy X on the Vita when the HD Remaster of it and X-2. I heard so many laudatory comments about it, I was honestly excited to play. And this game broke me. Because what I had was the absolute opposite of what I've been promised. The empty, plastic looking world lead to an absolutely terrible story, and one of the worst (video game) romance ever written. Now, I do appreciate romance. I have strong opinion about DQ5's bride. I love Bravely Default 2. I would have loved to be emotionally manipulated, to feel anything towards this story other than the absolute certitude it was never going to work (and, with this ending, maybe it's for the best honestly.) I thought if I couldn't appreciate such a monument of (J)RPG history, maybe (J)RPGs weren't for me anymore. Maybe, gaming wasn't for me. Later that year, I played Wild Arms, then Dragon Quest VII, and realized I still did, in fact, loved video games and (J)RPG when they were good. So... Watching this video, that naturally lead to a question. Can I forgive FFX? A game that gave me such a scar, yet still get validated by everyone. (FFX-2 is great however) I don't want to give it a second chance. It's too late for that. But maybe, I can let it go, and not let it hurts me anymore. I can, however, appreciate the great things that came from it. X-2, to begin with (an actually joyous, fun game). And "The Skies Above" (the greatest reinterpretation of Zanarkand ever made. At least, the greatest official one). Both managed to get out of FFX's ascendency and free themselves. Maybe, I'll be able to, one day.
People who say X is the best entry point in the series wound me because the game is so dated in many ways. Even in 2009 when I played it for the first time I thought it was an awkward relic and victim of the time it came out. Play other FFs then play X when you have a grasp of what makes a Final Fantasy just that.
PS2 era may have been the best FF era. X is one of the better FF games, top 5 easily. XI was the most profitable, and was only beaten by an MMO it gave birth to (And the WoW immigration lol) XII may have been underrated but is considered by many fans as the last great FF game. XI is my favorite, and what actually got me into FF seriously. It is one of the darker titles. It also has Morpher aspects. Morpher was only in one other FF, Tactics Advanced. It is rare somewhat. Vince did it to some degree however.
I haven't played FFX so I can't say if I agree or disagree with the thumbnail, so I'll ask: Does the game have a funny cat in it? The answer to it will define if its a masterpiece or not.
I'm a little conflicted on the XI analysis. Like yes the end game content is a time investment but that's the post game basically. Like this is what the players who have been playing forever have been doing sure but like just playing it i feel he didn't really cover the game fairly. Like there's lots actually to help new players. Sparks, trusts, and Rhapsodies are all there to give new players a way to actually experience XI. I don't know it just felt a bit disingenuous to me to only look at what you do when you've finished the stories not going through the game itself.
18:30, yeah, Wakka x Lulu was just so lazy imo. It feels like they just wanted Wakka to be a dad, but diddnt want to make a new character, so they just put him with whatever woman he happened to be closest to.
I continue to not have played any of these games, so it's very hard to come up with a like. coherent response to your ideas, which as far as I can tell are as good as usual, and certainly as well argued But it's been a few days of meditation and I think I've got it: Lulu's cleavage is pretty great ngl. the rest of her design also, but like in a way that doesn't detract from the main star you know? Wish that were me. What? My opinions on the art of game design and storytelling? What am I a video essayist??? Jeez
Video games need more Ishmaels. So many games have protagonists that seem like nobodies but actually turn out to be somebody, either because they were secretly royalty, or secretly a superhero, or whatever. Plenty of games have no pretense and just start you out as somebody and have you end up as someone even more than you started as. But it seems like very few games have a main character who actually is a nobody, and remains pretty much a nobody the entire time, even though they get wrapped up in all kinds of fantastical things. Video games seem to be built around the idea that the player can only get a sense of accomplishment if it turns out they're more than they are, if they take on a giant god monster and people really notice, and they get statues made of them, or have giant parades or whatever. Heaven forbid players get a sense of accomplishment from actually accomplishing something in the game they're playing. Games seem to need to reinforce that by telling players how great they are, that they could only have done it because there's a secret no one knew about them until now. But I say it isn't necessary. You can just be some dude, or some kid, or whatever, and have fun in a game without being Superman or Prince Biggus Supremis or becoming God King World Savior. Sometimes other people are that, and you just get to be along for the ride. And that's pretty fun, too. Anyway, FF12 is underrated, and so are all of its characters, and people should play it.
Love your analysis, as usual. I’ve only played FF 4,6,9,10,12; and while VI was great, X is the only one that really means something to me in a lifelong kind of way.
Tidus doesn't narrate FFX from after his death. He narrates it from that crappy hillside outside of the Zanarkand ruins when he thinks they're going to get the Final Aeon and that Yuna will soon be dead. Wouldn't mention it except that you make a particular point of his being dead. Sorry to be that guy.
Mercifully, I don’t think this changes much, considering where Tidus is emotionally at when they reach Zanarkand. When I first saw the scene on the cliffside, I interpreted the line “listen to my story, this may be our last chance” as being directed at the audience and the scene to immediately follow being a separate conversation of reminiscing in the group, separate from Tidus’ narration (also influenced by Tidus’ voice acting in the game, including the following scene, never having the same register as the narration)
@ProfessorBopper it certainly still ties in with the themes you mentioned regardless. Sorry, I'm a massive FFX nerd. Sadly enough it's probably the only thing in which I'm an expert lol. I really enjoyed the vid in any case
I forgot about the Lulu x Chappu thing. Man, Wakka is diabolical. I liked your exploration of Tidus forgiving Jecht. Unfortunately, blitzball sucks and the sphere grid is 'what if we made leveling up excruciating,' so the game is mid. And as a wise man once said, "I'm not here for Mid." Then again, it does have Yunalesca... Cool video series. Now i just have to beat 13 before the next video comes out (haven't started it yet)
@@ProfessorBopper At least 50% of the resentment towards the game comes from trying to sincerely engage with the side quests, honestly. It's hard to care about how pretty the environment is when you're trying to avoid lightning for hours.
@@shytendeakatamanoir9740 The fact the sphere grid becomes a really bad system once you start doing sidequest high level content doesn't help too. Like, your reward for engaging with all those super high level side stuff is that now you have a party of identical characters that all spam attacks for max damage and sometimes do an overdrive (meaning the ones with the better overdrive (rikku) are the ones that are objectively better). The game being more fun and more engaging when you ignore the side content is a shame. I will defend blitzball forever though even if I definitely don't have the time to allocate to playing it nowadays, as a kid it was really cool. (but then again I'm someone who liked ff9 card game so....)
Final Fantasy X: 0:00
Final Fantasy XI (by Vivian Aladren): 22:17
Final Fantasy XII: 40:02
Got my wife to play through FFX since I talked about how important it was to me as a kid. She's nearly at the end of it and agrees with me that it's wonderful. Also, we both think Tidus is a very well-realized 17-year-old main character
The side quests in 12 aren't just monster hunts, most of them are actually neat little contained side stories that help the vast world feel more alive. Hands down, 12 has my favorite bonus content of the series because of this.
Not only that, a lot of the hidden bosses are great and sometimes even required in order to take on the other secret content in the game. It's got quite a lot of layers to it if you look at the game past the main campaign.
I have a 2 year old and I sing them suteki da ne as a lullaby. This kid is doomed.
13:40 I totally didn't start crying during this scene bro. FFX is a treasure.
I've never thought about Vaan that way. Thank you for that perspective.
your literary comparisons give me life
One thing I've always thought was really cool about FFX is how you hear the final boss music just a few minutes into the game. It's used as hype music as the Zanarkand blitzball tournament begins, and is punctuated by the cheers of the crowd. It's especially fitting, since this particular tournament is supposed to be commemorating Jecht. But the very same cutscene also has Sin appear and attack Zanarkand, so the theme punctuates both Jecht's legacy as a blitzball player and as Sin.
When watching that cutscene on the first playthrough, it's kind of confusing what's going on, because the game hasn't yet explained what blitzball even is yet. Both Sin and the blitzball tournament use a lot of water imagery, so cutting back and forth between them I was definitely left me feeling like "wait, is this not supposed to be happening?" when Sin is attacking. But revisiting that cutscene after completing the game, it's super cool.
I remember feeling like that too and I thought it was just me being dumb, I'm glad that I am not alone having been super confused by this cutscene initially!
2:32 isn't the narration supposed to be right before zanarkand? that's what the intro sequence is about.
I'm mostly certain (but haven't played in a while so maybe not) that there is no narration after zanarkand.
Exactly
Just about to comment this. The narration stops after the campfire at Zanarkand.
Hi Bopper, I just wanted to say I've been really enjoying this series. As someone who's been a long time enjoyer of Final Fantasy but who doesn't have a, for lack of a better term, "arts degree brain" it's been really interesting to see your perspective on the various titles, and how in some cases we've both arrived at more or less the same conclusions despite approaching the games from very different places. My only issue so far has been the way in which you use the active voice in your writing, but I also recognize that's more a pet peeve of mine against the humanities in general rather than anything in particular you're doing on an individual level, so I don't know if that's a particularly useful piece of feedback. In any case, I'm looking forward to the next installment.
Thank you! Do you have an example in the video? I’m curious but am also in a daze after getting the editing done and hardly remember anything I said
@@ProfessorBopper To first provide some context and make sure we're both on the same page, I'm coming at this from the perspective of writing in the active voice versus the passive voice. My understanding is that this distinction is basically the difference between saying "this work is about X" versus "I see this work as being about X" or "one could interpret this work as X". To my mind, the former often reads in such a way that it passes a threshold beyond assertive and into domineering or condescending: "My understanding is the correct understanding. I am the sole valid authority on this subject. Anyone who disagrees with me is wrong". In contrast, I see works written in the passive voice as being more open minded and collaborative: "I see it like this, but that's just my take. Other people might come to different conclusions, and that's perfectly okay". One frames the reading as objective truth, the other as subjective interpretation. I understand that the former tone wasn't what you were trying to strike with your video, but it is how things written in the active voice can sometimes read to me.
In terms of examples, I didn't think to take notes or write down timestamps while I was watching so I unfortunately don't have any exact sections to point to. As a broader example, let's consider a running theme throughout your series of the Final Fantasy franchise being in conversation with works of English-language literature like Moby Dick. Are there parallels that can be drawn between the two works? Certainly (as a disclaimer, I haven't actually read many of the works you cite so I cannot definitively say that this is the case, but for the sake of argument we'll say it is). Were these parallels the result of the creators' familiarly with the works in question? Conceivably; I don't know how widely those works have been translated, and by extension what sort of cultural penetration they have in non-English-speaking countries such as Japan, but it is at least theoretically plausible. However, to say that the franchise is in conversation with those works implies, to me at least, a level of intentional reference and homage that I don't think is present in Final Fantasy. I certainly wouldn't rule out the possibility, but I feel successfully arguing that point would require a level of supporting evidence that you do not provide in the video. e.g. an interview with the game's director in which they specifically reference said work as an inspiration. This lack of corroboration combined with the aforementioned tonal implications of the active voice gave parts of the video a sense of not-entirely-founded confidence in a "Trust me bro, I know what I'm talking about" sort of way. That sense in turn somewhat detracts from my enjoyment of the videos.
All that being said, the fact that I'm the only one bringing this up means it's probably just "a me problem". I don't think it meaningfully diminishes from your work, or that it's something about your writing style that needs to be changed in any particular way. As I said previously, I've been enjoying the series so far and am looking forward to its continuation. I'm very much in the traditionalist camp who disliked the move away from turn based battles, so XII and onward is largely uncharted waters for me.
@@gilbat1 thanks for the response! I don’t remember if I talked about this directly in the first part, but my goal with the literary connections isn’t to say “Final Fantasy VIII is directly influenced by this specific Romantic or Gothic novel,” but to connect Final Fantasy with a larger artistic context/lineage. So, it’s less about proving that Kitase or Nojima read Wuthering Heights in preparation for VIII, and more looking at how these works separated by time and culture intersect and elevate one another. It’s an analytical style that doesn’t work with the scientific method or even other fields like history. It’s very unique to art and I can imagine it’s quite jarring when you’re trained in another field.
Same for the active voice. For humanities writing, every thesis has to be debatable. It’s just good practice and for readers it can get you into the ideas and the arguments much more quickly. You can bracket every word in these videos with “in my opinion” and you would be correct to do so. As a TH-camr/public speaker/teacher/entertainer/whatever you want to call it, I need to keep stuff well-paced, active, and engaging and the active voice just makes that much easier. It can be a hard switch to flip, but just watch these videos (and any video game analysis video) with “in my opinion” as an underlying truth for every line spoken. Because it is just all my opinion and interpretation (and all from my own personally preferred analytical framework) and I don’t really want to pretend otherwise
@@ProfessorBopper If I understand you correctly then, it sounds like the intended framing is to present them not as iteration or response, but as a case of convergent evolution. The works' similarities are due to them speaking to shared or overlapping aspects of human experience, rather than one directly replying to the other. To be honest I'm still not entirely sold on that model of analysis, but the choice is understandable given your background and the limitations you're working under.
As a side note, the channel New Frame Plus has its own series on Final Fantasy that I think serves as an interesting companion piece to this one. In it, they look at the franchise from the lens of an animator and how advancements in technology over the course of Final Fantasy's history have expanded the range of how the games' stories can be presented and told. A particularly noteworthy moment for me was a comparison made between the spritework of the SNES era and stage performance.
I remember being introduced to the idea of a "focal character" as an alternative to defining a character in a story as a "protagonist." I'm rusty on it, and I only really encountered the term in college, but hopefully it can enter more people's vocabulary when talking about games with narratives like XII and VI.
I thought to bring this up when Bopper mentioned the complaints of people who find Vaan lacking as a protagonist. It's probably true that the idea of a "good final fantasy main character" is an almost morally thick concept, and one which, if adopted, can unintentionally limit the understanding of what could be an even richer experience for a player.
However, I think it's also the case that, as a culture, we bring up the question of a strong or weak protagonist before almost anything else when discussing what makes a story tick. I think if you do that too many times too mechanically, you run the risk of limiting storytelling itself, or at least closing yourself off for a while from other means of appreciation. I'm not the biggest fan of XII necessarily, but I can 100% imagine a universe in which VI was criticised for similar reasons. What saves it from the criticism, at least from my limited perspective, is years of fans referring to it positively as "the final fantasy game without a main character." If people accept a narrative choice as intentional, they're much less likely to reject the choice. I also just, y'know, really like VI though, so I don't know, ha!
Great video as always of course! So close to XV I can smell the saint-esque agony. Yippee!
I think two important things to appreciate medias more deeply are 1) assume artists are competent and 2) assume artists make mistakes. It's a bit contradictory but hear me out.
First you often see overly negative criticisms that stems from people not liking something and assume it's because it's objectively bad rather than something with meaning, and not giving an artist the benefit of the doubt of trying to figure out what they're going for is going to leave you not engaging with things because of first impression which sometimes can mean you miss out on incredible things, or even when it's not incredible, simply having an appreciation for the work and passion that went into a project can bring much more positivity into your life than trying to just find the crack in someone's work.
But also another issue is that some people will also not acknowledge that just because a work is done with purpose and just because you like it doesn't mean it's flawless. Acknowledging faults or blind spot in a piece of art shouldn't lessen the enjoyment of the art (unless those faults are stuff like bigotry recontextualizing the entire thing in a very bad light), and art is such an iterative process that some things are bound to be there kinda just because, not everything has meaning, maybe a character is from a first draft and never was cut until they were too deeply woven into the story to be removed despite their presence undermining the themes of the story. Just because a work or an artist is good doesn't mean you should try to find had hoc explanation as to why a flaw is actually a quality. Because again, understanding the little cracks in a work of art can also give an appreciation for the work that went into it.
Point I'm trying to make here is often the perception of what a work is can really alter how it's received and taking it for what it actually is can be really difficult but it's often really worth it to try and take a step back to do that. I always feel it's so much more fullfilling when I hear analysis of something that challenge my perceptions, or when I take the time to do that myself.
Sorry if this was a bit long and barely an answer to what you said, this is just a thought that sprouted from your comment =p
@@Laezar1 Nah, don't apologize! I liked reading it, and I'm glad my thoughts gave someone their own!
I'm pretty sure Tidus narrates from the point they rest in Zanarkand (opening cutscene before start screen and first cutscene in a new game)
The whole aspect of Forgiveness that was brilliant to me when I finally discovered it, is that true forgiveness is actually a power move.
It's not about saying "What you did wasn't wrong," or "You are released from justice" or even "You've learned your lesson so I accept you again." It's not a matter of anything that the transgressor has done. It's the victim saying "I release myself of the pain caused by the memory of your actions." You give up the perceived power and leverage over the transgressor by being the "victim" or "in the right" and instead are allowed to move past the incident.
To see Tidas be required to forgive Jecht to break the cycle of Sin is to see an acknowledgement of wrongdoing and a release of the self from the burden of said wrongdoing. It is the hardest and most vulnerable part of healing because it requires you to acknowledge and *move past* the pain.
That seems like a great game that I'd love to play one day, because it's certainly not FFX.
FFX is about Tidus deciding to become an abuser and betray the girl that, for some unknown reason, has fallen in love with him.
And somehow, he ends up being forgiven for his selfishness despite having done nothing to deserve it.
The triumph of the abusers. The triumph of the lies.
@shytendeakatamanoir9740 genuinely what the hell are you talking about?
@@ahumanbeingfromtheearth1502 Tidus' last choice is extremely selfish. He doesn't free Yuna, he just traps her in a different cage. Now, her world doesn't revolve around Sin, it revolves around him and the hole he left in her heart (She's doing pretty fine in FFX-2, and will receive freedom, at last, which is the reason X-2 is brilliant and necessary to the story, but I digress.) It's more subtle, but it's still the same old cycle of abuse repeating.
Tidus lied to Yuna. He hid the truth and tried to solve things by himself like a big boy, sacrificing himself in an ultimate act of selfishness.
Tidus is the villain, and just because the game seems to refuse to acknowledge it doesn't mean we shouldn't.
@@shytendeakatamanoir9740this is such a weird take I'm not even sure how to respond. You can argue he made the wrong choice by not telling her, but going from that to "he's an abuser" is WILD.
@@ahumanbeingfromtheearth1502 You have a character who starts the game by questioning the unjust system at play, and being brutally honest (that's what Yuna sees in him that makes her eventually fall from him). He pushes Yuna to hope for another way.
But in the end, he openly omits the truth and decides to do things behind her back like everyone else before. That's a hero to villain trajectory. It couldn't be more obvious.
He persuaded himself it's for "the greater good", like all the ones before him, but, in the end, he's no different.
If he opened to Yuna, and convinced her to follow his plan, I'd buy this carefully crafted lie he told himself and, apparently, convinced everyone (and that's a testament to the storytelling everyone seems to believe it. Maybe because the game itself seems to believe it as well.)
This isn't even a wild theory. It should be pretty obvious to everyone trying to engage with this story.
I just have to say your analysis of FFX was phenomenal. I've been playing it for over two decades. Spent too much time thinking about it, parallels in it to real world things, thematic stuff, etc. etc... and still, got a lot out of this and new things to think about. Great work.
You rock for actually including FFXI in your retrospective
As someone who’s been tempted to start FFXIV, I really loved the analysis of XI here. It’s the entry that seems to be one of the least talked about but it seems fascinating in how enduring the game and the community has been over the years.
your analysis is really great, the love you have for beautiful story aspects is really apparent
Dude, your videos are so thoughtful. You actually got me to change my perspective on ff8. Subbed and liked.
10 was my first and started my long journey through the series! These videos have me super ready to playthrough every single game again! And maybe finally get around to 11 this time!
Your piece on FFX took every thought that remained from the first playthrough that enchanted me with the story of Tidus and Yuna, and just put it all together as a culmination of what the story had made me feel, love, and cry over. Expertly done.
Calling 2003 a fossil of your memory is the first time someone has called me unc 😞
If it makes you feel any worse, I am routinely called Unc at work
It will never not be super weird to me that two of Final Fantasy's properly numbered games are MMOs. It's an absolutely wild decision.
A+ video.
And at the same time it makes perfect sense. If final fantasy has any identity is that it's always experimenting with new ideas for what it should be. So in that sense putting mmo's in the lineage of the series is an acknowledgement of that.
11, strangely enough, is the FF Ive most been able to get into as someone whos played most of them maybe a third in and loves dragon quest.
It seems like ffx discourse as a whole has moved on from the "ffx is anti-religion" 2016 buzzfeed era of lazy surface level analysis. Imo at least, its more-so deconstructive of specific elements, rather than a holistic condemnation.
Why am I always so toxic?
Fslur
Get your life together
I left a comment already, but I've been playing X recently and had a funny thought. Tidus turns the story into a tasteful isekai.
When I say "tasteful" I hope that doesn't sound too judgy. What I mean is, we share in Tidus' perspective as an outsider to place, but Tidus has only so much interest in being a player vessal. He has a specific relationship to his dad which exists before we ever touch the controller, and that relationship's changing dynamics both mater externally to the plot and also internally. X is equal parts concerned with exploring a new place as it is exploring a new person.
I am grateful that you're finding a way to speak of the MMO Final Fantasy games even if they're not your cup of tea or you don't have the time to fully immerse in them. They ARE an important part of the series lineage, and I've never been satisfied by people that write them off because they don't want to pay a subscription fee or engage with multiplayer aspects or whatever. They carry forward the themes and the things that they do inform the ones that come after! FFXI's influence on FFXII's battle systems is incredibly plain, and you simply do not get FFXVI if FFXIV didn't pick itself up from the dirt of 1.0 and rebirth itself! 16 is absolutely coated in the remains of things that 14 has stepped away from. I look forward to your analysis of FFXVI but I hope you have a chance to take a trip to Eorzea and play FFXIV because I think you'll have some interesting thoughts afterwards.
BUT ANYWAY to actually engage with the content of the particular video, great job, fantastic stuff. FFX is possibly one of the genuinely strongest, genuinely masterfully good FF games when you take together the themes and gameplay and technical execution, and your perspective on it was refreshing.
I love ALL Professor Bopper videos!!!! ❤
Every one of these that you make i get a little bit closer to playing a final fantasy..... the real question is which one I'll end up starting with 😂 you made 10 look so good - so sad!!!! So investing 😭😭 and Vivian did a knockout job with the game you didn't want to play lol, I love the description of "digital archeology."
Finally, please bring up more Moby Dick in your videos. No video essay is complete without Moby Dick.
X is a great game to start with! The combat system is simple and intuitive in what you need to do, and Yuna's pilgrimage is linear and easy to follow, so you'll never get lost on where to go. The sphere grid may look intimidaring, but on Standard mode it's mostly a linear affair to all characters except for Kimahri, so it's nearly impossible to fuck up big time. Great starting point!
@@eezack1 thank you!! That's really helpful 🙏
Don't do any side objectives, if you want to try it.
Because dodging lightning in the game will make you want to be touched by lightning in real life. And don't get me in that Chocobo race. Or Blitzball.
It's not worth your sanity over
I started with IX and I'm still chasing the high of playing greatcl JRPG like that
At 45:32 actually he has a very basic Japanese theme as the foundation of his character but to be fair I need to replay the game to speak whether it was relevant to the rest of the game. And admittedly it never really develops from what I remember except to have a beginning and an end with no real middle.
I do appreciate XI's inclusion in the analysis. It pains me to acknowledge how correct Vivian is, though. Level 80+ was a fatal blow for the majority of the player base. It drove off a lot of players with grind content with no story to hold it together.
Ultimately empty until Seekers of Adoulin.
I am genuinely jarred by just how hostile optimization has become since my departure.
Unfortunately, the strongest aspect of XI. The community is gone from the game. Or more accurately, has grown too small to sustain its own design, as a result all its interesting rough edges were smoothed away.
XI was a hostile world you weren't supposed to tackle alone. It forced social interaction in a way modern mmos cannot. It was an ecosystem that punished you with tedium for daring to go in alone, for trying to do things the easy way. Oh but exhilarating it was to overcome the challenges of each expansion. Those bosses and those stories have left a deep impact on my psyche. One that spurs me to try and write stories that make others feel like I did playing this game all those years ago.
Wow, that was long-winded. Anyways, FFXI. Amazing game, don't play it.
Yesssss part 4 let's go!!
I bought Final Fantasy X on the Vita when the HD Remaster of it and X-2.
I heard so many laudatory comments about it, I was honestly excited to play.
And this game broke me. Because what I had was the absolute opposite of what I've been promised. The empty, plastic looking world lead to an absolutely terrible story, and one of the worst (video game) romance ever written.
Now, I do appreciate romance. I have strong opinion about DQ5's bride. I love Bravely Default 2. I would have loved to be emotionally manipulated, to feel anything towards this story other than the absolute certitude it was never going to work (and, with this ending, maybe it's for the best honestly.)
I thought if I couldn't appreciate such a monument of (J)RPG history, maybe (J)RPGs weren't for me anymore. Maybe, gaming wasn't for me.
Later that year, I played Wild Arms, then Dragon Quest VII, and realized I still did, in fact, loved video games and (J)RPG when they were good.
So... Watching this video, that naturally lead to a question.
Can I forgive FFX? A game that gave me such a scar, yet still get validated by everyone. (FFX-2 is great however)
I don't want to give it a second chance. It's too late for that.
But maybe, I can let it go, and not let it hurts me anymore.
I can, however, appreciate the great things that came from it. X-2, to begin with (an actually joyous, fun game). And "The Skies Above" (the greatest reinterpretation of Zanarkand ever made. At least, the greatest official one). Both managed to get out of FFX's ascendency and free themselves. Maybe, I'll be able to, one day.
People who say X is the best entry point in the series wound me because the game is so dated in many ways. Even in 2009 when I played it for the first time I thought it was an awkward relic and victim of the time it came out.
Play other FFs then play X when you have a grasp of what makes a Final Fantasy just that.
Nick Carraway of a Nick Carraway is going to haunt me I fear
PS2 era may have been the best FF era.
X is one of the better FF games, top 5 easily.
XI was the most profitable, and was only beaten by an MMO it gave birth to (And the WoW immigration lol)
XII may have been underrated but is considered by many fans as the last great FF game.
XI is my favorite, and what actually got me into FF seriously. It is one of the darker titles.
It also has Morpher aspects. Morpher was only in one other FF, Tactics Advanced. It is rare somewhat. Vince did it to some degree however.
I haven't played FFX so I can't say if I agree or disagree with the thumbnail, so I'll ask: Does the game have a funny cat in it? The answer to it will define if its a masterpiece or not.
Yes!! In fact it has an entire race of funny cats in the Ronso, with one being a party member even :)
@@garbcat It is still beaten by Suikoden IV, by this metric though (just by this metric)
Hmm the ff11 background was rather... Superficial, but hey, I still appreciate this iteration being covered
I'm a little conflicted on the XI analysis. Like yes the end game content is a time investment but that's the post game basically. Like this is what the players who have been playing forever have been doing sure but like just playing it i feel he didn't really cover the game fairly. Like there's lots actually to help new players. Sparks, trusts, and Rhapsodies are all there to give new players a way to actually experience XI. I don't know it just felt a bit disingenuous to me to only look at what you do when you've finished the stories not going through the game itself.
Nice to hear you also think FFX is the best one!
If you like weird/wacky/interesting quests I'd recommend OSRS.
God damn that FFX battle music hits hard. Also FFXII is the best, fight me. FFX is a close runner up tho.
18:30, yeah, Wakka x Lulu was just so lazy imo. It feels like they just wanted Wakka to be a dad, but diddnt want to make a new character, so they just put him with whatever woman he happened to be closest to.
nice...
I continue to not have played any of these games, so it's very hard to come up with a like. coherent response to your ideas, which as far as I can tell are as good as usual, and certainly as well argued
But it's been a few days of meditation and I think I've got it: Lulu's cleavage is pretty great ngl. the rest of her design also, but like in a way that doesn't detract from the main star you know? Wish that were me. What? My opinions on the art of game design and storytelling? What am I a video essayist??? Jeez
Video games need more Ishmaels.
So many games have protagonists that seem like nobodies but actually turn out to be somebody, either because they were secretly royalty, or secretly a superhero, or whatever. Plenty of games have no pretense and just start you out as somebody and have you end up as someone even more than you started as. But it seems like very few games have a main character who actually is a nobody, and remains pretty much a nobody the entire time, even though they get wrapped up in all kinds of fantastical things. Video games seem to be built around the idea that the player can only get a sense of accomplishment if it turns out they're more than they are, if they take on a giant god monster and people really notice, and they get statues made of them, or have giant parades or whatever. Heaven forbid players get a sense of accomplishment from actually accomplishing something in the game they're playing. Games seem to need to reinforce that by telling players how great they are, that they could only have done it because there's a secret no one knew about them until now.
But I say it isn't necessary. You can just be some dude, or some kid, or whatever, and have fun in a game without being Superman or Prince Biggus Supremis or becoming God King World Savior. Sometimes other people are that, and you just get to be along for the ride. And that's pretty fun, too.
Anyway, FF12 is underrated, and so are all of its characters, and people should play it.
Love your analysis, as usual.
I’ve only played FF 4,6,9,10,12; and while VI was great, X is the only one that really means something to me in a lifelong kind of way.
Yo, prof *also* has goth lady hangups? Rad!
Tidus doesn't narrate FFX from after his death. He narrates it from that crappy hillside outside of the Zanarkand ruins when he thinks they're going to get the Final Aeon and that Yuna will soon be dead. Wouldn't mention it except that you make a particular point of his being dead. Sorry to be that guy.
Mercifully, I don’t think this changes much, considering where Tidus is emotionally at when they reach Zanarkand. When I first saw the scene on the cliffside, I interpreted the line “listen to my story, this may be our last chance” as being directed at the audience and the scene to immediately follow being a separate conversation of reminiscing in the group, separate from Tidus’ narration (also influenced by Tidus’ voice acting in the game, including the following scene, never having the same register as the narration)
@ProfessorBopper it certainly still ties in with the themes you mentioned regardless. Sorry, I'm a massive FFX nerd. Sadly enough it's probably the only thing in which I'm an expert lol. I really enjoyed the vid in any case
FFX had enough gravity to make me think I liked Final Fantasy as a series, even though it really was only FFX that I kept coming back to.
Bro you gotta give FE6 players a content warning before you say “Arcadia” so many times
I forgot about the Lulu x Chappu thing. Man, Wakka is diabolical.
I liked your exploration of Tidus forgiving Jecht. Unfortunately, blitzball sucks and the sphere grid is 'what if we made leveling up excruciating,' so the game is mid. And as a wise man once said, "I'm not here for Mid." Then again, it does have Yunalesca...
Cool video series. Now i just have to beat 13 before the next video comes out (haven't started it yet)
FFX might have the worst side quests in history
The trials where you slowly ride the roller coaster and make tetris pieces on the floor are dreadful
@@ProfessorBopper At least 50% of the resentment towards the game comes from trying to sincerely engage with the side quests, honestly.
It's hard to care about how pretty the environment is when you're trying to avoid lightning for hours.
@@shytendeakatamanoir9740 The fact the sphere grid becomes a really bad system once you start doing sidequest high level content doesn't help too. Like, your reward for engaging with all those super high level side stuff is that now you have a party of identical characters that all spam attacks for max damage and sometimes do an overdrive (meaning the ones with the better overdrive (rikku) are the ones that are objectively better).
The game being more fun and more engaging when you ignore the side content is a shame.
I will defend blitzball forever though even if I definitely don't have the time to allocate to playing it nowadays, as a kid it was really cool. (but then again I'm someone who liked ff9 card game so....)
I politely disagree. NeverKnowsBest is a hack with surface-level observations who attacks his peers.
Excited to watch your "bullshit and fucking clickbait" in a few hours
gotta hit that dislike right out the gate XD 9 is almost great and 12 is flawed. the rose tinted glasses 10 fans have is more powerful than 7 fans
(X was the final FF game I played, literally cannot have rose colored glasses)
@@ProfessorBopperliterally?
Oh shit I just found your channel through the Gen 2 video.
Interesting. PS1 era FFs are my shit, FFX is my shit, Gen 2 is my shit. Perfect find.