Emotion in RPGs?

by Jim Kearney 

I think about when I was playing VII and watching the FMV scene open where Aeris is slain. I watched the sword slide through her, and at first I was shocked. Then, here's the next thought that popped into my head - "Damnit! After all the earth shattering techniques Aeris has endured, a simple sword stroke kills her?!". Then, after that, I thought "Well...that sure stinks. Now I lose a member of my party, and my main healer." This scene CANNOT make me sad, and here is why - I am unable to make myself believe that VII is anything like reality, and therefore, I am unable to draw any sort of emotion from watching a scene from VII, or any game for that matter.

I can remember many of the powerful events from the FF series, and will name a few ( FF1 really didn't have any emotional moments ).

From IV - The loss the bard's wife, Tellah's death, when Yang sacrifices himself in the machine room, Palom and Porom's sacrifice, the transformation of Cecil, the revelation that Golbez is Cecil's brother, the death of Edge's parents.

From VI - ( Been awhile since I played this one ) Celes' suicide dive, the invasion of Empire into Esper World, the entire Phunbaba situation and Terra's inability to fight, the entire Rachel situation, the death of the Figaro twins' father, the death and departure of Cyan's family, Shadow's dreams ( I have not seen all of them )

From VII - ( Been awhile for this one, too ) Barret's situation with Marle, and Dyne ( I think that is his name ), Aeris' death ( obviously ), Tifa's feelings for Cloud, the Nibelheim burning, Red XIII seeing his petrified father.

From IX - There was next to no emotional scenes in this, although I thought it was a strong story element when Dagger cut her hair with Zidane's dagger.

This is not even close to a comprehensive list of the story implements and twists that might have an impact on someone, but do you want to know what event affected me the most? It was a scene from FFT. When you head to that little windmill looking thing and have to fight Algus, and he shoots Delita's sister for no apparent reason other than to spite Delita...I was thinking "What a bastard" because that had direct implications into my life, with people taking unecessary actions to hurt me. You have to realize, with VII, that Aeris was in Sephiroth's way, and that she was not a helpless little girl. Sephiroth had a reason to kill Aeris. Algus did not have a reason to kill Teta. She was in every way helpless and ignorant of the entire situation, unlike Aeris. This irked me, just a BIT. But, no other FF event has ever incurred an emotional reaction from me.

And, I often wonder WHY Square feels it has to include a tear-jerker in all of its RPG's. First of all, I like an interesting plot. I am an old school RPGamer, I started with Final Fantasy 1 when I was...oh, maybe 6. I've played through all the Final Fantasy games except VIII. I've even played Mystic Quest and FFV on emulator. However, I am not enraptured by complicated love triangles or tragic deaths. It has been done, and repeatedly so, by hundreds of authors and playwrites throughout the course of history. You think that Cloud has struggles? You should see the angst in Shakespeare's Macbeth. My point is that the RPG companies are leeching off of ideas that have already been expressed by greater minds than their own, to give games the majority of their plot content.

Another point I would like to make is the state of the RPGamer community. Maybe its just me, but I don't really even look for powerful emotion in games. I like a strong and interesting story, but I would prefer that companies would spend more resources in developing a strong gameplay system, or better graphics, or a beautiful musical score, than trying to make me wonder about the mysteries of life, love, or whatever cliche'd theme you want. Personally, what drives me is THIS life. I love RPG's, I owe much of the wisdom I have attained in my life to the themes presented to me at an early age by RPG's. However, I am my own person. What makes me cry is seeing a person I care about and who cares about me suffer. I would think that some are "in love" with certain RPG characters; what I say is that we need to keep any emotional attachment to characters in RPGs in check, because we as a gaming audience are privy to so much more information in an RPG than in real life.

In closing, I would like to say - Enjoy your RPG's! They are a wonderful hobby. But don't let RPG's, or characters in them consume your thoughts and your lives. Keep in mind, these RPG's are just games. If you allow yourself to become enraptured by these games to the point where you cry when a character dies, or get physically angry when someone doesn't like a certain game or character that you like, then once you start to encounter this life, you may be woefully unprepared for how things work outside of an RPG.