I recently bought and finished Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. The original Fantasy Fantasy VII was the first RPG I ever played and it left a lasting impact on me. I did not play it until shortly before next installment in the Final Fantasy series came out, but after I finished it I spent hundreds of dollars on nothing but RPGs. I started playing the game again, and I find it amazing how quickly graphics changed. Even between FF7 and FF8 the cinema scenes are drastically different. And with Crisis Core it is the same thing. It took a few minutes to adjust to the lowered graphics and how the once state-of-art cinemas of FF7 look like sparse first-generation PS2 in-game graphics.
At any rate, my godson loved Final Fantasy: Advent Children. He did not really get the story, but liked the way it looked. And he is the only person I know who liked Cait Sith (for the two minutes he was in the film). So I let him watch as I played Crisis Core. My neck still hurts from having to lean to the side so that he could see the screen too. He made me promise to let him watch all the cinema screens, which was kind of difficult because they were so random. I definitely was not going to let him miss the end.
Fair warning here: SPOILERS ahead.
So when I beat the final boss I went and got him and let him watch the end with me. The game did not actually end with the boss fight–typical of Square Enix games. Zack, the lead character, returns to the surface after beating his former ally and the scene turns into what all the FF7 fans knew would happen at the end of Crisis Core. Zack is betrayed by the corporation called Shinra that trained him. In typical bureaucratic style they want to totally erase him and Cloud (the main protagonist of FF7 and fellow test subject who is suffering from addiction to the substance they tested him with) so that no one will ever know about the experiments Shinra conducted.
They surround Zack with thousands of soldiers and troops and then actually make the player fight this losing battle. I managed to last the whole time before the game shifted to a cut-scene to show Zack drenched in blood. Then I had to try to fight more soldiers without even having the strength (in the game) to lift my ridiculously large sword. Zack does not make it and they shoot him at point-blank range. Later Cloud manages to find Zack and Zack passes on the Buster Sword to him.
And then Zack dies. His soul gets carried into the Lifestream to return back to the planet.
I was so caught up in the scene that I forgot my godson was there. I heard him sniffing.
He was crying.
He really liked Zack and I completely forgot that even though I knew Zack would die. I tried to explain what happened when the hand reached down and pulled Zack’s soul into the sky, but he said he already knew from watching the Advent Children movie. He just did not like how Zack tried to live and still got killed. And then he said “How come sometimes heroes die?”
All I could really think to say was, “That’s what makes them heroes. He died for Cloud so Cloud could stop Shinra and Sephiroth later.”
He said he knew that, but I asked him anyway if he wished Zack did not die. He said no. He likes it sometimes when the heroes lose, but he could not explain why.
I do feel bad about making him cry, but I am glad that he seems to get that being a hero is not about always winning or always getting one’s way, it is about what a hero does and how a hero does, even if he does not really understand why that is.
I’m a huge Square-Enix fan. I own most Final Fantasy games, and I got some Star Ocean ones too, different style but same makers, great games.
I played Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus and watched (and own) Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Dirge of Cerberus seems to happen post-Advent Children (3 years after Final Fantasy VII ends).
I can definitely feel this sort of powerlessness, where, whatever you do, you’re doomed anyway. You might hate capitalism and want nothing to do with it…but as long as you need to eat, clothe yourself and such, you’ll depend on it at least marginally.
Shin-Ra represents what I like to see as the government (in general, but since I’m in North America, I see it as this one), where you can’t escape them, and while they can seem nice and protective on the outside, they can be assholes too, especially when they know they can get away with it…and there’s rarely a thing that can be done without expending enormous amounts of ressources, or possessing incredible skills or talents in some domains…and even then you may lose anyway – and if you’re not lucky enough to have enormous ressources, skills, talents, or support, you will no doubt fail, and know you will…and this knowledge is damning in itself.
For examples of ‘assholishness’, see Enemy of the State and other such movies where the government abuse their powers.
For a more real-life example, see the McDonald commission by the RCMP in the mid 80s that exposed a scheme they had of collecting files of information and exposing/outing/firing gays (or suspected gays) working for the government (in any way or form), since the 50s or 60s (in Canada). The government being one of the biggest employers (if not the biggest here in NA), this was clearly abuse, and I bet it had pretty bad effects for those affected.
The plot of Final Fantasy reminds me of Shin Seiki Evangelion. The government was essentially a corporation run by a secret society that manipulated Japan and possibility the world. I think the difference between the way the Japanese approach these concepts compared to Americans is that the latter usually presents it as a secret government whereas the Japanese present it is as the intent of the government/corporation itself. I think the Japanese version might be the mostly way such things would happen and that is what might make those stories resonate so well.
I recall hearing about McDonald’s practices in college. That is just one of the many reasons I do not buy their food.
I didn’t mean the restaurant. I meant this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Commission_of_Inquiry_into_Certain_Activities_of_the_RCMP
I found this by chance a year ago. My mother was dating a retired ex-RCMP, and I was curious about them, and I found this.
Oh and there’s more if you look up the actual report, the outing/firing gays part since the 60s should be in there. I don’t think I found it on wikipedia though. It should still be available online.