Guild Application Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XV are Inversions of Each Other

[reakain]

(Apparently forum thread posts have a limit of 10,000 characters, so, uh, this is missing the last third.)

Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XV are Inversions of Each Other​

Now, to begin, realize that I’m going to massively spoil both games as part of this analysis. One of these games is a decade old and the other is two decades old, so I think that’s warranted, but if you haven’t played both of them, then I recommend doing that first because you will get a lot more out of this article.

Like every other “hero saves the world” RPG, both games have to grapple with the concept of the “greater good” and when is it alright to sacrifice individual happiness for society at large. How this ultimately plays out is always dependent on the personality of the protagonist, so let’s examine our two protagonists first.

The Protagonist​

The protagonists of our narrative are Yuna and Noctis. (Tidus is a viewpoint protagonist, but Yuna is the main character of the narrative as a whole. I’m not going to expand on that here.)

Yuna​

Yuna is summoner royalty. Everyone knows her dad and reveres him, and she has grown up benefiting from support provided to her because of him. In turn, she has spent most of her life trying to carry on the work he did.

Yuna holds big feelings for the world and her role in it. She’s empathetic to everyone she meets, and routinely chooses to take on the suffering of others. She prioritizes others first and foremost.

She is doted on and supported by her friends and guardians, but demurs from their care, routinely apologizing when they support her. They routinely need to remind her that they chose their role, and do not blame her or fault her for needing their support.

Noctis​

Noctis is the prince of a powerful nation. His father is well-respected, and he has benefited from the power and support provided to him because of his father. He is routinely apathetic, selfish, and ambivalent to the burden of responsibility his father carries, and dismisses that he will also one day carry that same weight.

Noctis denies the experiences of the rest of the world, and avoids becoming involved with others. He will still assist others, but with the expectation of getting something in return the majority of the time.

He is doted on and supported by his friends, and takes that attention and affection as expected. He complains about things taking time, needing to get up early, and everything in between. They shrug off these aspects, and clearly still choose to care for and support him. Despite his own petulance, he does also still show care for them.

The World​

The worlds in FFX and FFXV are incredibly similar. Again, here, the worlds are parallel, and the only difference is what elements are brought forward to the player’s attention, or left more to the background.

Technology, Magic, and Abuse​

Both worlds are technologically advanced, but that technological advancement is unequally distributed, and restricted by various organizations and groups. That technology is also used by powerful people to cause abuse and harm.

Final Fantasy X places technological advancement in the background. Technology is advanced, but that has been suppressed by in-game elements and stigma, such that we don’t feel like we’re in an advanced world. We have chocobo power, and magic is center stage with summons and spell-casting and the temples.

(The chocobo wheel powering the ferry image goes here. Chocobo power!)

In contrast, FFXV brings the technology forward. We’re driving around in a fancy car, there’s airships and guns everywhere, we gave gas stations and street lights and smartphones. Technology is everywhere, and while magic exists, and we use it, it isn’t as forward. Our car uses an engine, not a magic core. We can use magic in battle, and we meet the summons, but they’re treated as gods rather than standard magical entities, and we can’t really summon them at will.

Decline and Collapse​

Both worlds are actively experiencing the apocalypse and slow death and destruction of everything they know.

In FFX, Sin is the harbinger of the end, and early on they actively bring attention to the fact that Sin comes and destroys everything when too many people begin to congregate in one place. Sin is a great big giant magical monster, and specifically the player and Yuna and her party need to stop it to save the world.

In FFXV, the end of the world is…. Muted. It’s really not discussed for most of the game unless you go out of your way to look for it. It’s happening. The days get shorter, the monsters that come out at night are dangerous and get more and more dangerous. There aren’t really… people, except at large city centers. But these elements aren’t discussed by the narrative. You’re just out running around trying to find a way to get to your fiancee. The world is ending, but that isn’t relevant to you.

The Narrative and Gameplay Flow​

Right, so, we have our setting, and our protagonists, so let’s move on to the narrative itself and how it interacts with the actual gameplay and flow of the game (because these are games, not books, and the gameplay should relate to the narrative). For this we’ll look at our resource growth, and then the actual shape of our gameplay and freedom of exploration.

Power and Resources​

As we play through FFX, we collect summons, grow in power, and amass allies to support us, including non-party members like Cid, Brother, and O’aka. This culminates with the attack on Sin, using the airship, while the whole world sings the Hymn of the Faith to support our fight. It’s very moving, and really lends itself to the sort of “grandness” of what we’re doing. We feel like the righteous hero trying to right all the hurt of the world and fix everything.

By contrast, in FFXV, as we progress through the game we lose resources and support. First our father and our kingdom, then the oracle (our fiancee), our fancy car, and even one of our party-members is permanently maimed. For a while our party members are picked off one by one, and we even have all of our combat abilities and weapons taken from us. The final battle of FFXV is fought one on one, after you leave your party members behind while they hold off an endless horde of demons. Heck, the last third or so of the game is played entirely in the dark, with no sunlight whatsoever. There’s nothing triumphant about it. It’s heavy and it hurts.

Exploration and Game Flow​

Both games have a section that’s sort of a straight line and a section that’s open world and you can hop around, but the order is flipped.

FFX begins as a straight line, you can only go forward and follow the path. You’re on a pilgrimage, so you’re directed. You gotta pray at the temples, and you only see the world map when it pops up showing the next destination on your straight line traversal.

(photo of the map pop up go here)

The “pilgrimage” is revealed some two-thirds of the way through to in fact be a funeral procession. Yuna has been knowingly going towards her own death and sacrifice this whole time, and there is no way to change her mind. Tonally up to this point the game is… Soft. Maybe a little somber. The railroading and tone combine to make the game feel directed, but unhurried. Once you know it’s a funeral procession, everything clicks into place, and the cheerful interludes feel forced, but the path feels inevitable.

I know a lot of guides talk about the world opening up once you reach the Calm Lands, but it actually… doesn’t particularly open up? The Calm Lands is just big. There are a couple more things you can do, but it still feels like one location on your straight path gameplay. You can’t go back to Besaid at this point. But as you near your final destination, knowing what’s at the end, the narrative starts to feel both hurried and anxious. You know what’s coming.

(overlooking zanarkand here)

However, when you reach Zanarkand and Yuna rejects her fate, the world opens up. Right after she chooses to live and you fight Yunalesca, you gain the airship, and the world actually opens up. You can go anywhere you’ve been and even a number of exciting new optional places. Opening up the world at this point feels like finally taking in a breath. Like everything is properly alive once more. It’s hopeful, it’s uplifting. The world is bright, and we’re taking our steps into a new, better future, even when we don’t yet know how we’re going to do that.

(appearance of the airship go here)

Even when Maester Mika panics and gives once he finds out we’ve destroyed Yunalesca, it doesn’t really seem to deter our party at all, nor pull the narrative back to the somberness of earlier in the game. Instead they simply move forward, broadly barrelling towards the ending with a lot of brightness and energy - despite knowing what will happen to Tidus at the end.

(bye bye master Maester Mika image)

On the other hand, FFXV starts as an open world. We begin with plenty of things to explore and ways to ignore the “main story.” Heck, we can spend in-game months running around with our bros for impromptu adventure and camping and shenanigans before we ever even make it down to Galdin Quay to hear that the ferry is blockaded. Narratively, Noctis and his party have been sent by others on this quest, and none of them really seem to prioritize it. They treat it lightly and tease Noctis about going to get married.

We get a bit of seriousness once we get the ferry set up, but even that is… short-lived? Once we meet Cor, we get a very vague, undirected goal of “finding the power of your ancestors.” Then you’re left to your own devices. There are storyline tasks, but they are never particularly treated as being so important or pressing that you can’t stop for a bit to go fishing or snap some photos.

 

[Dany28]

Nice work

 

[reakain]

Thank you! And now that you've posted maybe it'll let me post the rest of it!
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The open world is very open and while there is a lot to do, so much of the world is so very empty that it can feel a bit… unsettling. You’ll get creepy enemy troops dropped on you with regularity, and occasionally find someone whose car has broken down, but more of the world is kind of empty, with derelict buildings and overgrown fauna. Add to that the caveat that, especially early on, it is incredibly dangerous to be outside of designated safe spots at night. Night exploration has your car blocked by hulking enemies dragging themselves out from the inky blackness of the asphalt and assaulting you. Did I mention that night time is really dark? Like, really really really dark.

(photos of hanging out at a random parking spot at night here)

It does a good job of setting up the idea of something being not right but in a way that doesn’t linger in the forefront of the player’s mind or attention. You can’t linger on the end of the world, there’s fishing to do.

(fishing photo! That big catch!)

Then you actually make it to Altissia, and things start to shrink down. You can only go back to open world exploration by talking to the magical time-travelling dog, set up for player convenience. And then, after Altissian, you are literally railroaded, in that now you’re on a train. You have the car, sure, but your driver is blind. Where your heading feels a little bit aimless still, rather than directed. Narratively you were given a tip for where to get another family relic, and then Noctis wants to go to the homeland of his now-dead fiancee. You even start to see some fractures with your bros, where Gladio starts pressing on you to act more like the royal weight you bear, and less like a whiny brat.

Partway through the ride to the dead fiancee’s homeland, you lose Prompto, and with it a lot of the character-driven cheer. At this point there really isn’t anywhere to go but forward. The script really doesn’t provide any clear reason for why the characters would choose to go chase after the McGuffin crystal, which hasn’t been shown or discussed as being able to solve any of the nebulous issues or hurts you’ve experienced, but this, paired with the narrowing down of the actual gameplay levels and traversable spaces really puts the player into Noctis’ headspace of there’s nothing else to be done.

They compound and continue this trend by taking away all your allies and skills within the gameplay, and then give you one last frantic push to get to the crystal while you leave your friends behind, and you get there desperately hoping that is will magically solve everything (without necessarily being able to articulate what “everything” even is). And instead it traps you, and tells you you will be trapped for ten years (while your friends are outside, in danger) and then you will die. And then the game literally drops Noctis into an empty void.

After this is the final push, where you get to briefly reconnect with your bros, and see how destroyed everything has become. At this point, again, you can’t really go back. It’s just a railroaded straight shot to the end. All of this is done to not just whittle down Noctis’ hope and desire to fight and stay alive, but also the player’s hope that this can end in anything but tragedy.

Final Notes​

I’ve outlined how each game presents their elements, highlighting what’s different or the same between them. Even the gameplay and progression is inverted in multiple elements. I want to finish this by re-iterating that both of these games are looking at individuality and self-sacrifice, and when and how that choice is made.

When Yuna does finally reject her own sacrifice, she doesn’t do so for herself. The thing that makes her decide to do so is that she would have to sacrifice other people. Even for impermanent peace, she’ll happily sacrifice herself, but she is not willing to sacrifice others. She ultimately chooses to live for the same reason she had chosen to die: for others. It’s also why she couldn’t know what would happen to Tidus before the end of the game.

Yet, when Noctis finally accepts his own sacrifice, he does so for himself. Sure, he wants to protect his friends, and he cares about them, but he accepts his sacrifice because the events of the game have worn away at his willingness to stay alive. He accepts his role and his fate, not because he particularly cares about saving the world, but because he has been worn down and there’s nothing else left for him.

Yuna chooses to live for the sake of others and Noctis chooses to die for himself. They are inversions of each other, as well as an inversion of the expected paths of RPG protagonists. The selfless one must choose to live, and the selfish one must choose to die. I think it’s neat.

 

[RETRO-VETRO RETRO-VETRO]

Good work, man!