One Last Tale Before the Night, One Last Dream Before the Morn: Final Fantasy

   There are many stories to be told and many ways to tell these stories.  The stories we tell are what we value and emphasize and pass on to the next generation as a reminder of what we believed in, and lived for, and dreamed of.  I dedicated this blog to the notion that video games are a medium of entertainment on both the level of both an interactive experience and sometimes a narrative journey.  It is one of the few media where the story can be optional or excluded, but it possesses stories worthy of praise and scrutiny.  I started by discussing what Majora's Mask meant to me as well as a bit about Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater and A Link Between Worlds.  Today it is my hope to tackle one installment in one of the most celebrated franchises of all time.

If you can't tell who in this picture is a man and who is a woman,
you're on the same page as everyone else.  

   The first installment of the ironically named Final Fantasy series was creator Hironobu Sakaguchi's last attempt at fulfilling his dream of being a video game designer.  At the risk of going back to college to pursue a more stable career, he put all of his company's capital to work on an experience unlike any seen in the world of the 1980s video game scene.  Creating an experience alongside the artistic talents of traditional Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano and rising star composer Nobuo Uematsu, Sakaguchi's final fantasy became a reality in 1987.  The result in those days can only be compared to the depth and immersion of games like Skyrim in the present.

   And so after the success of that first entry, the fantasy continued.  By the next entry, a more in depth story was added and the most advanced technology available was used from entry to entry to represent the worlds created for this experience.

   In 1991, the series introduced the story of the antihero Cecil, a dark knight cursed to be a pawn in darker schemes as he embarks on a quest for redemption to redeem his soul.  As it were, Cecil's adventure was the first Final Fantasy I had the opportunity to play.  Cecil's story was greatly improved by his relationships with his companions.

There was Kain, a knight torn to between the dark powers that control him and his love for his friends.

Rosa, the wizard who reminds Kain and Cecil that their misdeeds are not the measures of their hearts.

Rydia, a young girl who must forgive Cecil for unknowingly destroying her home and family.

and a host of others.

Yoshitaka Amano's cover art for FF VI, a steampunk cityscape

  In 1994, the series reached new heights with Final Fantasy VI.  Set in a steampunk universe where the source of all magic is threatened by a powerful emperor and a maniacal harlequin planning from the shadows, it follows an enduring party in their rebellion against the dark forces of their world.  Over the course of the adventure, all hope is frequently lost as evil triumphs again and again leading to the final confrontation that reaches such epic proportions I would not dare share them to anyone who has not experienced the scene.  I will however provide the musical masterpiece that completes this climax from the musical mind of Nobuo Uematsu.

   The phenomenal success of the sixth entry was celebrated as Sakaguchi's dream became an unbelievable legend.  However, 1997 brought a time of great changes.  The video game industry moved into the third dimension with the widespread success of Super Mario 64 the previous year.  Having moved away from Nintendo in favor of Sony, the makers of Final Fantasy would have to show their legendary brand could survive in this new era.  Sakaguchi and Uematsu returned while series art director Yoshitaka Amano took a back seat to new lead artist Tetsuya Nomura.  And in the midst of production, Sakaguchi's mother died tragically.

   The result of this arduous production became the most famous entry that would define the series as a whole in the gritty magically cyberpunk world of Final Fantasy VII.

Cityscape of Midgar from FFVII

Replacing evil empires with monopolizing power companies and the wooden ships and wagons with trains, planes, and motorcycles, the world of Final Fantasy VII holds depth and  significance seldom seen in a video game.

To successfully approach the story and world of Final Fantasy VII, I will not be going through the story from beginning to end as I did or attempted with previous series.  Instead, I will explore several major characters as well as themes of legacy, ambition, abuse and stewardship, life, death, and renewal among other elements across the series.

And starting with the next article, we begin with the spiky haired face of the series that showed us Tetsuya Nomura's artful vision for the first time.

First Dungeon: A Link Between Worlds part 4

Link goes to Sahasrahla where he finds out the elder's son, Osfala has gone to the Old Eastern Palace that is now presumably older than the Old Eastern Palace from A Link to the Past.  In order to gain passage to the Palace, Link must borrow a bow and arrows from Rafio.  Rafio gives them for free but with certain expiration fees (aka when you die you have to buy the arrows back).  He then sends Link away to the Palace.

Link reaches the Palace to meet Osfala, but Osfala is confident in his abilities as a Sage to take down whatever evil lies inside.  The lore and games in the series are a little vague on the purpose of sages in times without heroes, so Osfala's confidence may do itself some justice.  Of course if Osfala dealt with the villain here and now, there wouldn't be much of a game.  Naturally, Osfala gets turned into a painting, and after Link gets done dodging several large steel balls rolling down the hallway, he fights Yuga.

Yuga uses magical attacks.  Link outfoxes Yuga with the bow and arrows, and Yuga doesn't think Link is worth his time. Yuga goes ahead and turns Link into a painting as well.  With Link detained in the wall, Yuga declares nothing will stop him from getting the remaining sages and finally Zelda.  As Link remains motionless as a painting on the wall, the hero's bracelet he got from Ravio begins to glow.  As it shines a purple color, Link is freed from the wall.

Link finds he is now able to turn into a painting and interact on flat surfaces by the power of the bracelet just like Yuga.  Using this power, he escapes from the Eastern Palace to find Sahasrahla waiting out front.

Sahasrahla recognizes that all of the sages are in danger, but then an earthquake strikes.  Following the earthquake, Link and Sahasrahla find a dark force field has surrounded the Hyrule Castle.  Sahasrahla attempts to break it but realizes the only magic that can break the barrier is the Master Sword of legend.  To get the Master Sword, three pendants are required to awaken the sword.  The first pendant is the one Zelda gave to Link before all the business at the Old Palace.  Sahasrahla sends Link to retrieve the other two, and the game opens up to a much greater degree of free choice.

I'll talk about this choice in the next post.

The Princess and Her Castle: A Link Between Worlds part 3

   By order of Ravio, Link heads out to the castle to warn about the magician who has been turning people into paintings.  He is stopped by the palace guards who think Link is being ridiculous and is looking for an excuse to see the princess.  When it seems like Link won't get into the castle, Impa, the adviser and protector of Zelda, intervenes and lets Link in.

   Link waits in the great hall of the castle where he looks at the paintings that represent the events of Link to the Past (if you'd like a recap, you can read the post from part 1 that explains it).  Meanwhile, Impa goes before Princess Zelda to pass on Link's warning of the magician.  After looking at the paintings for a while, Link is summoned by Impa to come before Princess Zelda.

   As Link enters into the throne room, Zelda immediately recognizes him.  Zelda believes she's seen Link before, but she does not recognize his name.  She does mention that she shared the dream Link had at the beginning of a monster putting Hyrule in darkness.  It's important to note that this Link has never met Zelda prior to this encounter.  This is almost always the case (with the exceptions of Skyward Sword, the Minish Cap, and the Four Swords Adventure).  There is usually some degree of familiarity since the two have been bound by fate for possibly thousands of years.  In much the same way Link knows how to use a sword simply by picking one up, Zelda's knowledge of Link comes from her many lifetimes of planning for the days in which Hyrule is in danger.

  Zelda gives Link the Pendant of Courage for reasons not yet explained, and she sends Link to an old sage named Sahasrahla.  I'm not expecting you to have to remember that name, but his deal is that he was a descendant of the same Sahasrahla from Link to the Past who was the descendent of a sage from Ocarina of Time (the sage of light if I had to guess of course there were six sages in OoT and seven in LttP so maybe there is no correspondence).

  I write all of this to say that if you don't know these games that well, Zelda will get captured or kidnapped some time between now and the end of the game.  Some critics have said some very strong remarks on how this objectifies Zelda in some manner in that she is frequently kidnapped and doesn't really exhibit much personality.  Let's get the record straight on one thing.  Link just does things because he's told to do things.  I'm not saying he doesn't have some interest in the well-being of Hyrule, but he is not the strategic mind who knows how to stop the forces of evil. Zelda is the master planner.  Throughout all of time, Link receives the Triforce of Courage whereas Zelda receives the Triforce of Wisdom.  She always delays her capture long enough to allow Link to have the necessary means to defeat whatever evil he must face (usually Ganon).  It's also important to note she is the only apparent form of government in Hyrule, which may sound like a foolish means of governance, but it actually makes sense given past attempts at shared power usually lead to the person that isn't Zelda to try and take power over the land in one form or another.

  In this sense, it is sort of like a queen in a game of chess.  The queen holds the most mobility on the board, but the queen is best used when positioned to thwart enemy mobility.  It is the other pieces that take advantage of the queen's position by catching and cornering the enemy pieces to open a way to take the king.

  I will also go ahead and say things don't go perfectly according to plan, but the pieces are picked up by someone who has also been planning.  We shall see this other planner later.  For now, Link must go to Sahasrahla's house in the village.

Get Out of My House: A Link Between Worlds part 2

Ok, so back to the regularly scheduled adventure.

After going unconscious in the chapel, Link wakes up back in his house.  He looks around to see everything in its place until a man in a strange purple rabbit costume comes out.

There's some major spoilers on this guy,
so I wouldn't recommend looking him up if you don't know his deal.

He introduces himself as Ravio, and he is apparently the guy who dragged you back to your house.  He has a small winged bird friend named Sheerow.  When he finds out from Link about the magician turning people into paintings and how Link tried to fight him, he declares Link is a hero with great cheer.  He states that he is a merchant who sells items to heroes, but he is in need of a place to set up shop.  He then passively coerces Link to let him stay in his house and offers a musty old bracelet thing as rent.  To add extra worth to the bracelet, he calls it the Hero's Bracelet.

He then admits it does absolutely nothing, but it's too late because you already agreed to let him stay.  Before Link can object, Ravio sends Link out saying the kingdom is probably in danger, and he needs to warn Princess Zelda because that's what heroes do.  So Link leaves the house and goes to the castle to warn of coming disaster and the true nature of the vandalism as told to him by his mysterious friend in a rabbit costume.

Even though Ravio may seem like a handful now (and he will only seem like more of a handful in very little time) circumstances will reveal near the end why he's probably one of my favorite Zelda characters.  Generally, my most beloved Zelda characters are the ones that are helpful but also some definitive character flaw.  Tatl is bossy, Midna has ulterior motives, and Ravio likes your money and your property.  In the end, your uneasy alliances with these characters work out, but at first they seem questionable.  I feel like this makes them more memorable since you constantly find yourself guessing what they're all about.  We will return to Hyrule Castle next time

(also, if you know Link to the Past and what it had to do with rabbits, that will help you learn something about Ravio)

Ocarina of Time, The Poet's Tale and the Legend of Life

I'm taking a quick pause from A Link Between Worlds for exam week (especially since we're about to address my favorite character in that game).  However, I wanted to write something in light of having beat Ocarina of Time yet again recently.

Legend of Zelda:  Ocarina of Time is considered by many to be the greatest video game ever made.  On metacritic, it holds a rating of 99 for universal acclaim.  If you know me personally, I've never been much of a fan of representing quality by a quantifiable number, but I think it is a start in the beginning of understanding this game's impact and what it means for the art and industry of video games.  

At the beginning of my series on Majora's Mask, I briefly described the world of Ocarina of Time when it first came out.  It moved the two dimensional world of Zelda into the third dimension and took the traditional alongside the new and exciting.  There was mystery and fear and love and life and death and power and weakness and responsibility and everything that makes a legend legendary.  However, this is merely the sum of its parts, and Ocarina of Time exceeds these qualities.  While the polygon world of Hyrule has long since been exceeded graphically, Ocarina of Time was a piece of art extending beyond its story and its gameplay.  Ocarina of Time is a symphony and an epic told by a poet's look upon the universe.  

And by poet, I mean this poet.  

Sheik is one of the defining features of Ocarina of Time.  He shows up shortly after Link's gone to the future where everything is terrible and guides Link on his quest by discussing the fate of the world and the truths of life.  Sheik usually appears when Link is off to see someone or do something that involves his past in light of the present.  Finally, Sheik does so through poetry and music using the harp that has made him famous.

Sheik teaches Link:
The Prelude of Light
The Minuet of Forest
The Bolero of Fire
The Serenade of Water
The Nocturne of Shadow
and The Requiem of Spirit

With each song Sheik says these words before teaching it.

Minuet of Forest

The flow of time is always cruel

Its speed seems different for each person

But no one can change it.

A thing that doesn't change with time

Is a memory of younger days

In order to come back here again

Play the minuet of forest

Prelude of Light (technically taught after Minuet of Forest)

     There really isn't anything too poetic said with this song, but it is where Sheik gives Link his quest and tells him that the Master Sword and Ocarina of Time will give him what he needs to succeed.  

Bolero of Fire

It is something that grows over time

A true friendship

A feeling in the heart that becomes even stronger

Over time

The passion of friendship will soon blossom into a righteous flower

And through it

You will know which way to go

This song is dedicated to the power of the heart

Listen to the Bolero of Fire

Serenade of Water

(This one's probably my favorite)

Time passes, people move

Like a river's flow, it never ends
A childish mind will turn to noble ambition

Young love will become deep affection

The clear water's surface reflects growth

Now listen to the Serenade of Water

and reflect upon yourself

Nocturne of Shadow

This is the melody that will draw you 

Into the infinite darkness that absorbs even time

Listen to this

The Nocturne of Shadow!

(admittedly, Sheik is in a hurry with this one given a demon gets released into the world and the village where he meets Link is on fire.  The song itself is very chilling and really stuck out to me this time through.)

Requiem of Spirit

Past, present, future

The Master Sword is a ship with which you can sail upstream and downstream

Through time's river

The port for that ship is in the Temple of Time

To restore the Desert Colossus and enter the Spirit Temple

you must travel back through time's flow

Listen to this Requiem of Spirit
This melody will lead a child back to the desert.

The music in this game is fantastic by the way.

After hearing Sheik say these words, I realized what Ocarina of Time is really all about.  

Shigeru Miyamoto, the man responsible for Mario and Zelda and many other famous Nintendo characters made the first Legend of Zelda game inspired by the caves around his childhood home.  He revisited those caves as an adult after Mario and Donkey Kong had put him on a track for being the future of video games for the next ten to fifteen years.  Ocarina of Time is the culmination of that journey and is a timeless lesson for the target audience of children in the 90s.  It is a lesson of life.  

Link, who begins the game as a child, sees seven years into his future where all of his friends and loved ones could be one day. His friend Saria and the forest represent his past and all things that remain timeless in the past that give us our beginnings but only carry with us to the present and future in memory. Darunia the brother in arms of the fiery mountain represent the challenges of life that will not be faced alone by the strength of the bonds we build with others.  Princess Ruto of the aquatic Zora people represent the love and ambitions of childhood that will either live or be left behind with the passage of time but should be looked upon and celebrated for all they represent.  Impa of the destroyed Sheikah people represent the loss experienced in life that all must go through but the resolute strength that must be kept to keep living.  Finally, the desert, which has always represented strife and its sands that represent time, recognizes that what we do in the past is not without consequence and we can always remind ourselves of the past to do what must be done in the present.  Link saves the thief Nabooru from her mental imprisonment, and she remembers Link as the kid who had helped her seven years ago.  

Life is a matter of time, something Miyamoto recognized, and in life all things that were, are, and could be are instrumental in carrying us through.  A prelude suggests all that is to come, so the Prelude of Light suggests that though the journey is tough and there will be sacrifices, it will be vibrant and worthy of celebration if we respect the past and work in the present for a brighter future even if hardships seem to be all we are destined for.  

At the end, Sheik turns out to be Princess Zelda (y'see, you thought I was making typos this whole time, I know that everyone knows Sheik is Zelda now, but back in '98 everyone thought Sheik was a man. It was a shocking reveal.)  Zelda has lived the seven years Link has been absent, and she has learned all the lessons she taught as Sheik.  In the end, she returns Link to his childhood telling him to live now that his quest has ended.  She gives Link a second chance in life to do all he can for a brighter future following what the two  had seen and fought for as adults.  Link is a vicarious representation of that first audience back in '98 who have this game as a formative part of their childhood and all the lessons it shared.  

I feel this is really what makes Ocarina of Time the enduring title it continues to be.  

A New Link, A New Life: A Link Between Worlds Part 1

Here is the context of this latest installment.  If you don't care about the grander scheme of things and just want to know about this game in particular, you can skip this part and pick up at the Green Sentence.  This game takes place in the Fallen Timeline.  If you have read my post about all the many Links over the years, you would know the Fallen Timeline involves the instance where the Hero of Time (Link from Ocarina of Time) was defeated by the demon king Ganon.  Following this, a war was fought known as the Sealing War where Ganon was defeated by the efforts of the knights of the land and its Seven Sages.  Ganon was sent back to the Sacred Realm where he sought the land's ultimate power, The Triforce, and in this realm he built his empire that became the Dark World.

Many years later, the court wizard Agahnim staged a coup in the land of Hyrule where he seized the seven descendants of the original Seven Sages as well as this reincarnation of Princess Zelda.  The nephew of a veteran soldier for Hyrule, Link, rose up to become the next hero who freed Zelda and the Sages, defeated Agahnim and the demon king Ganon again, and restored peace to the realm.  This Link would continue his adventures in other lands in such games as Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons before going on his final adventure in Link's Awakening.  

This brings us to the present where a lazy boy named Link is asleep.  All Links begin their adventures after waking up, but it is made apparent by his best friend Gulley that this Link is consistently lazy.  Link lives alone in a house that is in the same geographic location as the house where the previous Link lived, but such information was many years ago and lost to time.  He is an apprentice blacksmith under the tutelage of Gulley's father, but his consistent laziness has made everyone call his future success in this endeavor into question.  He runs into the captain of the castle guard who leaves the blacksmith shop without his sword.  The blacksmith sends Link on an errand to return the sword as punishment for his laziness.  Upon reaching Hyrule Castle, he is told by the guards that the captain usually goes to the chapel north of the castle before going on duty.  Link also hears that there has been an outbreak of vandalism all across the castle.

Gulley and his parents

When Link reaches the chapel, the doors suddenly slam shut and the screams of Seres (the chapel priest's daughter) can be heard inside.  Dampe, Hyrule's gravekeeper, tells Link there is a hidden entrance into the chapel.  After Link gives Dampe a run around on how he's ill equipped to face whatever is going on inside, Dampe threatens to tie the sword to Link's hand on the basis that he's the only one who can be of any assistance present.  This marks two differences with this Link from all previous Links. First off, this Link pretty clearly talks as he waves his arms around like he is conversing with another person.  Second, he is incredibly reluctant.

After descending through a network of tunnels in the graveyard, Link arrives within the chapel to find a painting of the captain on the wall.  The captain is nowhere to be found, but the priest is lying on the ground, and a dark menacing figure is approaching Seres.  The figure is a magician named Yuga who holds a flaming scepter that looks like a brush.  He talks about permanently capturing Seres beauty and hanging it on a wall.  He then creates a picture frame and zaps Seres into it, turning her into a painting.  Link recognizes this guy can't be allowed to escape because magicians are almost always causing trouble.  He rushes at Yuga head on, but Yuga jumps into the wall as a painting.  Link slams into the stone wall and falls over.  Yuga thinks Link isn't worth his time, and after he hops out of the wall, he walks off with the painting of Seres.

Link passes out.  

Without Me: A Link Between Worlds Intro

Guess who's back?

       Alright, so I wasn't sure if I'd bring this back, in large part due to lack of inspiration, but with the release of Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, I felt I could at least make an effort and see what happens.  I'm going to start off by saying my initial goal was to approach games on their story aspects and share it with gamers and nongamers alike, but admittedly this is a sort of difficult endeavor.  It's sorta like handing a Wii remote to someone and telling them to "swing it like a tennis racket" and they insist they can't do it because "they don't play games." So this time, I'm going to be a little more reasonable and recognize I can't get everyone to read it but I'll still leave it open for everyone to read.

    I also recognize reading takes time (and in the case of my stuff a little effort too).  So I'll just throw in pictures so we can all be on sorta the same page.


    So why am I coming back now?  Wind Waker HD came out last month(?) and I've sung its praises and considered it my second favorite Zelda game just behind Majora's Mask.  I wrote about Majora's Mask on the basis that it was so bizarre and outside the conventions of the Zelda series while being full of symbolism.  Well, I think I want to do Legend of Zelda A Link Between Worlds in large part because it is so close to the traditional Zelda formula and yet brings something new and exciting that makes it my third favorite Zelda game.  I'll have to do it a little differently, so this will probably be a shorter series.  By shorter series I mean it will be less than thirty pages.

   Without further ado, let's talk about the boy in green.