Why I Loved: Final Fantasy 4/2

Final Fantasy 4, which, back in the day, was Final Fantasy 2 (I'll refer to it as 2 from now on), was one of the earliest RPG's that I played. I had seen it once in FuncoLand and told my parents that it would be really amazing if I could get it. I must have been nine or ten at the time. We didn't get it then, but a week later my mom came home with a present - Final Fantasy 2! She managed to snag the last one at FuncoLand. I was on cloud nine, thinking my mom was awesome, life was awesome, and Final Fantasy 4 was going to be AWESOME! I loaded up the game into the SNES, played through the introduction, and was instantly captivated when this prologue sequence played:

I could write entire books about why I liked the original Final Fantasy 2, but I'll keep it to one main point, which is that it was a game focused on a true journey.

JOURNEY

Final Fantasy 2 has a pretty big cast of characters that cover a wide spectrum; there's Cecil, a Dark Knight, Yang, a kung fu master, and Edward, a cowardly bard, just to name a few. Each one of the characters had their own battle quirks to help them stand out and support their character background. Well, except for Cecil in the original American version. Yang had a special kung-fu kick, and the cowardly Edward could hide from  battle to protect himself. His cowardliness was amplified when you considered another member of the party was a little girl.

What was really great about Final Fantasy 2, which is something I feel not a lot of games do lately, is that they weren't afraid of telling you, "This character is now out of the story." Characters evolve, leave, rejoin, get injured, and die throughout the plot. However, no characters felt like they were just throw away characters. Edward, the cowardly prince, grew to find courage in his own story line, but was then lost during an attack by a giant monster. You bought gear for him, leveled him up, and then he's just gone, along with everyone else in your party. When you awake, Cecil is by himself, and you have no idea if you're going to find those characters again. The beginning of this youtube video shows the scene, though it's not from the original SNES version.

The story of the game progresses, with new characters joining and leaving your party. You eventually do find out what happened to Edward, Rydia, and Yang on that boat. Rydia and Yang rejoin the party, but Edward was injured and can no longer adventure with you. That's just it, no more Edward in your party, because that's how the story went.

A lot of similar things happen in this manner, some extreme, some not so extreme. The most extreme part is when the main character, Cecil, sheds his Dark Knight armor and becomes a Paladin. It's supposed to represent a complete change in Cecil, him starting over as a new person. What does the game do to help represent that in the system? Cecil starts over at level 1. It's extreme, but he also levels up pretty quickly, and it's pretty symbolic as well. The remaining party, consisting of an old man and a pair of young twins, must defend Cecil in battle and help him level up until he becomes a character that's strong enough to protect them. Even when he's reformed as a Paladin, Cecil wouldn't survive without the help of people who, in most cases, shouldn't be needed to help him at all.

When I finished Final Fantasy 2, I felt like I had been through one intense adventure. There were points when I didn't know if characters were going to stay or leave, live or die, remain loyal or betray Cecil. There was no status quo of, "Well, this character needs to stay in this party because of the art time spent on them". Everything in the journey was fluid as you went along until the very end when your final party solidified. There's a great part in the final battle where your party is essentially wiped out and the prayers of your former companions keep you going. 

This is why I like Final Fantasy 4 so much. When I think about it, there have been a lot of people in my life who have come and gone, people who have passed away, friends who I'm no longer close to, new friends who I'm closer to than ever before. And my fiancee! Did I mention she's great? People who I never imagined I would meet. Final Fantasy 4 was the same way; you end up meeting characters you never thought you would meet and seeing characters who you held very dear go away. Not only that, but you reunite with old characters and continue your adventures together. I like to imagine how cool it would be if one day all the people I ever met in my life appeared to help me in some situation; hopefully it's just posts on facebook about something and not because I'm on the moon fighting the embodiment of evil.

I'd love it if more games did this, where characters come and go, revolving around the story of your main character. It would be difficult, of course, to do this. You would have to balance it so the player just doesn't bother to form any emotional attachment to characters because of this nature. If you can nail it, however, I think you can get a story and a journey that's even better than Final Fantasy 4. And that would be amazing.