Thoughts on Square's Game Design

by Jared Housh 

I have greeted each of Square's new American releases (especially the Final Fantasy series) with a certain sense of impending doom. Will the new addition live up to the same standards as the previous master-works. Will it invoke, in me, the same feelings: the incredible desire to hang on to my controller on for just a few minutes more, the feeling of having somehow escaped my daily routine? The answer thus far, to my disbelief, has been a resounding Yes!

As a would-be game designer I have often wondered what it is that makes the Final Fantasy games so eminently playable and why it is missing from so many other games. I think that I may, finally, have answered that question (if only in my own mind). To me, the defining quality of all the Final Fantasy games I have played to date is, simply, their completeness.

Characters with stories that make sense exist in a believably seamless world and face obstacles and situations that, while often challenging and unusual, do not derail the plot. Most notably, there IS a plot. Not your run-of-the-mill video game plot but a good story where, like reality, you AREN'T able to see the complete road map. You may catch a glimpse of what the future holds but you never know what may lie between you and that moment (prescience IS a curse :). Often modern games either face the player with a complete lack of plot AND apology, or a shamefully obvious plot that reduces the game play to 12-step (or, more often 500-step) program.

In each FF I am astonished at the obvious attention to detail. From the way the sprites are tiled to create lush, beautiful environments (Take Narshe in FFIII US) to the simple and believable interactions with NPCs to the complex overlapping of plot elements and the game environment. You can see the careful hand of the game designers and programmers throughout. Every part of the game has its own unique ambient feeling accented with great graphics and carefully chosen music. In each of those environments the NPCs and PCs found there contribute to and are part of that feeling. We all have a home-town. Why are so many game characters drifters?

To this already formidable arsenal (At least with respect to most video games) Square adds a useable (dare I say even "user-friendly") interface that allows you plenty of options but steadfastly refuses to detract from the game play. Interactions with the combat engine, the townspeople, and the environment are always simple one, or occasionally, two-button transactions. The flat-line learning curve allows you to concentrate on what should be (and is too often not) the focus of a game: the game.

When I do finally sit down with a few competent designers and programmers to make my contribution I am going to make every effort to keep these tenets in mind. I wish a few more game developers would do the same. Game elements do not exist "despite the game" they are integral. When it comes right down to it the question is simple: "Is what we have made complete, simple, elegant? Will it stand on its own?" Even in game design, as Square so eloquently proves, Occam's razor prevails.