Stories in Role Playing Games

by Colin Stewart 

Last month, I bought a Playstation and Final Fantasy VII. With building my level, racing and breeding chocobos and fighting in the battle arena at Gold Saucer, it took me over sixty hours to finish it. Almost immediately after watching the ending, I rushed to my computer and read all the editorials on Final Fantasy VII at RPGamer that I'd been so looking forward to reading. They certainly made me think a bit, and prompted me to sprout my own opinions.

It seems that there are a lot of people out there unsatisfied with the story and the ending of Final Fantasy VII. I admit that the story of Final Fantasy VII is not flawless, and that goes for all of Square's other games as well. Why is this? With all the great stories appearing in novels and films, why can't there be a truly smooth story in a video game? I think that I've found part of the answer.

To begin with, a video game is completely different from either a novel or a film. Novels are 'just' words, and so, obviously, there are no other media to obscure the story and character development, etc. This is the reason that novels can be so long and complex and have non-linear story lines. Films are a radical step beyond novels, since they involve new media - audio and video. These elements often predominate films, and since it is easier to see and hear something than interpret it, it is harder to make film with a good story line. Also, films tend to be relatively short, and so their stories cannot be too complex.

Now, after mindless video games like Pong and Super Mario, we have developed video games with actual stories. Video games with stories now mix visuals, sounds and interaction with the player. At first, the stories were nothing special, but over time, they have evolved considerably.

Invariably, successful video games produce sequels. Because most video games are not story-driven, it is all too easy to make a sequel better than the original. RPGs, being video games, must follow the same policy of improving the original. However, as much as a video game can improve graphics and sound effects, stories (and music, incidentally) cannot always be improved. Also, with improvements on graphics and sound effects, there is greater demand for a more complex, longer, more powerful story, just so it is not overwhelmed by the graphics and sound.

Video game stories are not like those in novels and films. The stories must now fill at least fourty hours of playing time. They must be complex enough to be taken seriously. They must not be repetitive. They can't include anything that hasn't been done in a previous game, even though the format for all RPGs is fundamentally the same. They must systematically move the characters involved all over a planet, and sometimes, to other planets. They must involve numerous characters, all as different as possible, and carefully entwine them in the plot so that everyone is somehow connected. They must often involve optional characters and have sub-plots to develop these characters. The story must follow a path that will lead to events where great visual effects are possible. They must include a love story and attempt to reach every emotion on the spectrum by having flashbacks and 'character vs. self' conflicts. They have to do all of this and more, and then culminate in a final battle. Finally, they must end all unresolved conflicts in a relatively short ending.

Needless to say, it is impossible to do all of this well and still come out with a satisfactory product. You can't take a highly developed story with multiple conflicts and resolve all of them with a battle or within half an hour after this battle. No great fantasy or science fiction novel has ever done this. Square realizes this and resolves most of the minor conflicts in its games before the ending. Unfortunately, as a typical, drooling North American audience, we want everything to be resolved sharply and suddenly and smash the bad guy into millions of pieces. A good role playing game cannot do that.

Final Fantasy VII is the most ambitious RPG ever produced by Square. It mixes all the required elements and adds a few more without it being cumbersome. Square took a great risk to actually kill one of the main characters, which is a sign that the sophistication of their writing is improving. The game is by no means flawless; in fact, it has a great deal to be improve upon, but I consider it to be the best Final Fantasy in terms of a consistent story, graphics and music (compared to FF4, FF5 and FF6, which are all great games).

Don't get mad at Square for the story of any of their games. If you think you can write an original story for a role playing game that fits everything mentioned above, ship it to a country with a completely different culture than yours and expect everyone to like it, then think again.