Further Defense of Final Fantasy Tactics

by Alex Baker 

As I sit here reading the latest batch of editorials on FFT’s controversial religion, I have to keep asking myself if I missed something. I mean, I must have. I played through the game and thoroughly enjoyed the depth of the story, and also the way it addressed so many social and political topics. However, never did I feel it to be insulting. Granted, I’m not a Catholic, but what I read didn’t seem to actually be attacking Catholicism.

It is, of course, undeniable that the Ajoran Church of FFT bears several striking resemblances to the Catholic Church of our world, but under the circumstances, that’s desirable, and logically, unavoidable. True, you could have had a generic RPG religion in which they worship some fancifully-named goddess, and beyond that, no other definition was given to the faith. However, doing so would effectively make the dramatic story slightly ridiculous. Also, given how closely FFT’s world mimics ours in the age of aristocracy, having an utterly dissimilar religion would looked mismatched, to put it lightly.

The thing I’ve noticed the most is how quickly the Catholics shriek "They’re targeting us, the Catholics! It’s a direct attack on our faith!" But, if you look more closely at things, I don’t really think that’s the case at all. As I said, the parallels between the Church of St. Ajora and the Catholic Church are obvious, but that does not mean they’re the same institution. Think. FFT takes place in a time period and geographical location extremely similar to that of feudal Europe. In addition, the political system is also very similar to that of Europe’s feudal castes. Further, the aristocrats of this fictional, Europesque land believe their lives of privilege and power are God-given, and therefore indisputably legitimate. Again, this mirrors Europe in centuries past.

That in mind, wouldn’t the next logical expectation be for them to have a religion similar to that of Europe’s? Recall that the Church was directly or indirectly responsible for many of the beliefs, practices, disputes, and mannerisms of the time. Thus, the Ajoran Church shares many of the practices and beliefs of Catholicism, as well as a comparable system of hierarchy within the church. However, I don’t see a parallel for the Zodiac Stones, an important part of the Ajoran religion, in Catholicism. And without the Zodiac Stones, there would be no demonic element in the religion. Actually, there would be no religion at all, since the faith was founded around the belief that Ajora and his disciples used the stones to become "Zodiac Braves" and defend the world from the demonic onslaught. Players of the game later discover, however, that the stones in fact allowed one to summon and be possessed by demons, thus making the cornerstone of the religion a lie. Now, before you jump to the conclusion that the game is stating that Catholicism is a lie, I have a different theory. I think it’s saying that a lie, if told by the right people for long enough, can become perceived as the truth. However, just because it looks like the truth, doesn’t always mean it is.

If you wanted (though I’m not saying that you necessarily should), I guess you could apply that argument to Catholicism, but that’s really not the message I got from it, nor do I think that was the intent of the writers. Just because the Catholic Church of centuries ago was used as a reference to promote continuity of the time period doesn’t mean they were trying to attack the modern Catholic Church. By the logic of the people so enraged by FFT, because Lord Dycedarg was presented as a power-mongering, heartless, evil man capable of killing family and strangers alike with impunity, it was therefore the attempt of the writers to demonize nobility everywhere, and modern aristocrats of Europe would be justified, and even expected, to pitch a bitch about the game. Of course, that stance appears ridiculous to everyone, but if re-examine the complaints of those Catholics who feel slighted by the portrayal of the Ajoran Church, it’s an even weaker argument than the one I’ve just presented.

What really amazes me is that people have zeroed in on this single facet of the game. The storyline is much deeper and more complex than simply fighting a group of demons hiding behind the Church. In fact, debatably, religion isn’t even the most important point of the storyline. The nature of friendship, betrayal, politics, prejudice, life, honor, class struggles, and corruption are all addressed continually in the game, and are in many ways far more central to the plot. Granted, in the end, you do end up confronting these demons, and they are catalysts in the story, but they’re not necessarily the focus of the story. Amazingly, though, all of the attacks on the game have made no mention of the other parts of the story, leading me to believe they totally missed the point.