Character Death and the Final Fantasy Series: Separating Good Plots From Superb Ones.

by Matthew Furrow 

(warning: spoilers for FFIV, FFV, FFVI and FFVII)

Final Fantasies IV through VII are all excellent games, and are extremely fun to play. Each of these four games also has an engaging plot with at least decent characterization and character development. What really makes or breaks the plot of a game, however, I contend not only to be the development of its characters but also how the death and/or departure of these characters is treated. In my opinion, the plots of Final Fantasies V and VII are superior to those of IV and VI due to their more meaningful nature, conveyed by the deaths of characters in them.

What do I think character death adds to RPGs? The element of realism, and the element of struggle that defines a masterful plot. Without character death, a strugge does not seem real. A story about a violent conflict in which none of the main characters dies seems unrealistic, and it trivializes the plot if there is no suffering or sacrifice to overcome the ultimate evil or to attain the ultimate goal in a story. Character death adds realism and meaning to a plot, as well as providing an emotional way in which the audience of the plot can feel involved, as they grieve for the character(s) to which they have become attached.

It is my thesis, therefore, that Final Fantasies V and VII present excellent uses of character death to add meaning and realism to their plots. I further contend that Final Fantasy VI fails to do so effectively, and that Final Fantasy IV presents the worst case of all, in which character "death" is overused and indeed abused, as characters repeatedly "die" only to make miraculous reappearances.

One of the best known character deaths in recent RPGs must be the death of Final Fantasy VII's Aeris. Aeris' death, which is portrayed in a dramatic fashion with an effective use of a cutscene, is very well-done. It comes as virtually a complete surprise to the player; it is quick and brutal; and because of the emotional attachment which the plot of FFVII builds up in the player, it is a genuinely sad event which evokes at least moderate emotion in virtually everyone who has not had the event spoiled for them beforehand.

Aeris' death becomes a focal point for the characters for the rest of the game: Cloud now fights against Sephiroth to avenge Aeris' death, and this sentiment is shared by much of the party. The player who formed an emotional bond with Aeris will likely share this sentiment, and feel much of the same motivation. However the the player feels, Aeris' death demonstrates that the struggle of the characters is real, and that in conflict, people die. As a result, the game's plot and its characters' struggles gain meaning as a result of the death of one of its main characters.

So, too, does the death of Galuf in Final Fantasy V influence the plot of the game and the player him or herself. Although in the old SNES version, animators had only a few coloured pixels to represent Galuf's final moments, instead of the cutscene employed by FFVII's animators, his death is nevertheless meaningful as a poor visual medium of presentation is made up for in the dramatic and heroic way in which he manages to save his friends, giving up his last strength to prevent Exdeath from killing them. Once again, this adds poignancy and meaning to the plot of the game, and sharpens the intensity of Butz, Lenna and Faris' struggle. Although Cara immediately joins the party and takes over Galuf's abilities, one still feels the loss of Galuf and his unique character.

Even setting Galuf aside, Final Fantasy V has interesting and poignant moments with the passing of Galuf's former comrades in arms. Korgar and Zeza each accept death with stoicism, knowing that their time is over and that the future generation needs their sacrifice. Despite the player not having known Korgar or Zeza for very long before they die, this attitude toward death and the ultimate struggle interacts strongly with one of the major themes of the game and their deaths are highly poignant events.

Final Fantasy VI, by contrast, suffers from no deaths of major characters, at least not if one knows how to save Shadow. The most important characters to die are General Leo and Cid (again, whom the player can save), neither of whom one forms a particularly strong attachment to, given the exceedingly brief time which the player is given to form an emotional bond to them. Cyan's family perish, as well, but the player has no true emotional link with them either. As a result of the fact that one can get fourteen characters to join one's group and yet have none of them die in what is supposedly a brutal struggle, the plot of Final Fantasy VI seems in many ways surreal and lacking in depth. Indeed, due to the fact that character depth in Final Fantasy VI is so lacking (fourteen characters means not a lot of time to explore any of them), one might wonder whether having even Terra die would cause the same reaction as Aeris' death or Galuf's. It is for this reason that I, for one, find Final Fantasy V and VII to have far more engaging plots than Final Fantasy VI, and why I have replayed each of the former games at least twice, but attempting to replay FFVI just made me tire extremely quickly and give up before long.

What about Final Fantasy IV? That game, which obviously predates FFV, VI, or VII, did indeed attempt to introduce character death as an element of its plot. Instead of being an effective device, however, it soon becomes incredibly infuriating as the 'meaningful sacrifice' of a character is soon completely nullified by his or her seemingly miraculous return from the dead. Tellah is perhaps the only exception to this rule, as once he sacrifices his life for the party, he only returns to make a couple of speeches to the party. One thus does feel some twinge when Tellah sacrifices his life.

Whatever effect Tellah's death might have had on the player is quickly eliminated, however, by a short succession of deaths and unbelievable resurrections. First Palom and Porom decide to turn themselves to stone, and despite the fact that you can be laden with Soft potions, you can't get them back. Later, however, they are returned from stone by the master wizard of Mysidia, who evidently didn't think of bringing them back when they could be of use to your party. Next comes Cid, who throws himself out of your airship into space holding a bomb which on explosion is powerful enough to collapse a large hole in the Earth's surface... but who survived this somehow to make a triumphant return in the Dwarf castle, where he can fix your ship for you before... sleeping. Last comes Yang, who inexplicably decides to lock himself in an exploding room but whom you rediscover later on in the game having been rescued by fairies, who somehow must have managed to enter the exploding room from goodness knows where.

There is obviously something seriously wrong when a character can precipitate himself off of an airship into space, holding a massive bomb which blows up, and yet somehow survive both the explosion and the fall to the hard ground below. The ludicrousness of Cid's return, and Yang's, seriously compromises whatever dramatic effect their deaths may have had, and doesn't even provide good dramatic effect when they return: someone who has a remotely questioning mind will be more irritated at the supposition that the player is supposed to make--that even a heroic character could have survived such punishment--rather than overjoyed at the character's return.

In short, Final Fantasy IV drastically overuses a device which could be extremely effective if it allowed characters to remain dead, but instead in bringing them back merely adds triviality to the game instead of poignancy and a sense of loss or meaning to the plot. This is all the more frustrating when one looks back upon the ending of the game and realises that for Palom and Porom to be brought back from petrification, or for Yang to be rescued from the exploding room, bring absolutely nothing meaningful to the plot other than a fuzzy feeling to people who are not inclined to question the rather absurd circumstances in which they are supposed to be brought back.

True, this means that we get to see them at the ending sequence of the game, but if I were the designer of Final Fantasy IV and had wanted a true emotional response at the end encompassing not just one-sided joy and happiness, I would have made at the very least Yang's and Cid's deaths permament, and included a slow pan across their graves in the ending sequence as a solemn reminder of the sacrifices they made. Instead, Cecil's and his friends' struggles seem less heroic and significant when everyone, including a bunch of characters who supposedly died, reappears at the end and has a happy ending.

In conclusion, therefore, it seems evident that character death is a major contributing factor to the effectiveness of the plot of RPGs, being a large factor in how believable and emotionally engaging the plot and characters are. Although one might disagree with my personal preferences over which games are better overall, I believe that few people would contend my claim that the plot of Final Fantasy VII, with its realistic and tragic scenes of character death, is more enticing, exciting and realistic than that of Final Fantasy IV with its "oh, it's him again. Didn't he just die?" attitude. As Final Fantasies IV, V, VI and VII show, character death is an integral part of any heroic fantasy plot.