Nandemoyasan
Standing guard
- AKA
- Johnny
To me, it all falls horribly flat. FF9 got a little dodgy, but this was just utter tripe to me. It's been many many years since I last played it, but frankly, it all came off as the kinds of characters designed by a marketing firm trying *way too hard* to appeal to a teenage audience.
Tidus' issues with his father make him seem entitled and Jecht's character is not presented as a fleshed-out person but merely an object of Tidus' ire. The entire dynamic between them is shoehorned into a 'why weren't you there for me Daddy' plotline. They are utterly two-dimensional to me, and the entire idea of examining dysfunctional familial relationships is handled about as carefully as someone picking up a hot pan with tongs instead of potholders.
Yuna is also a character whom I have no desire to empathize with. The idea that she has to sacrifice herself to save the world seems like it should produce a lot of questions in her mind that simply never get asked. She comes off something like a guided missile that Tidus is trying to reprogram the guidance system to, in-flight. For her to only begin questioning her purpose near the end comes off as too little, too late.
Auron may be cool and have the best VA work in the game, but he still gets relegated to mostly being Mr. Exposition. The rest of the party have about as much personality as a doorknob, and I remember absolutely nothing about Seymour.
And that's the worst part of it all, is that I can't be arsed to care about the characters or the story much at all. It just doesn't have that quality that 'fictional histories' (Tolkein spoke of this in the foreword to his revised edition of Lord of the Rings) need to have to bring them across as living, breathing worlds in the reader's mind, but leans more toward allegory, which Tolkein said specificially LotR was *not.* His thinking on the subject was that (and I may be paraphrasing slightly here) "allegory exists in the purposed domination of the mind of the author over the mind of the reader."
That's a pretty good description of how FFX makes me feel. It's like it's telling me "this is the hero, and you're supposed to feel this way about him, and this is the heroine, and you're supposed to feel this way about her, etc etc etc." It doesn't seem like it was made for a person who wants to experience a story and think about it, but merely to sell merch and stimulate fandom.
So, that's my rough take on it all. What about its story appeals to you? Why do you like it? Should I give this another shot? X and X-2 Remastered are on Steam, and I've considered giving it another shot, to make sure I am not crazy. How does your take differ from mine? Or, are there other things about the game that I may have forgotten, which make it enjoyable for you?
AAAaaaand, go!
Tidus' issues with his father make him seem entitled and Jecht's character is not presented as a fleshed-out person but merely an object of Tidus' ire. The entire dynamic between them is shoehorned into a 'why weren't you there for me Daddy' plotline. They are utterly two-dimensional to me, and the entire idea of examining dysfunctional familial relationships is handled about as carefully as someone picking up a hot pan with tongs instead of potholders.
Yuna is also a character whom I have no desire to empathize with. The idea that she has to sacrifice herself to save the world seems like it should produce a lot of questions in her mind that simply never get asked. She comes off something like a guided missile that Tidus is trying to reprogram the guidance system to, in-flight. For her to only begin questioning her purpose near the end comes off as too little, too late.
Auron may be cool and have the best VA work in the game, but he still gets relegated to mostly being Mr. Exposition. The rest of the party have about as much personality as a doorknob, and I remember absolutely nothing about Seymour.
And that's the worst part of it all, is that I can't be arsed to care about the characters or the story much at all. It just doesn't have that quality that 'fictional histories' (Tolkein spoke of this in the foreword to his revised edition of Lord of the Rings) need to have to bring them across as living, breathing worlds in the reader's mind, but leans more toward allegory, which Tolkein said specificially LotR was *not.* His thinking on the subject was that (and I may be paraphrasing slightly here) "allegory exists in the purposed domination of the mind of the author over the mind of the reader."
That's a pretty good description of how FFX makes me feel. It's like it's telling me "this is the hero, and you're supposed to feel this way about him, and this is the heroine, and you're supposed to feel this way about her, etc etc etc." It doesn't seem like it was made for a person who wants to experience a story and think about it, but merely to sell merch and stimulate fandom.
So, that's my rough take on it all. What about its story appeals to you? Why do you like it? Should I give this another shot? X and X-2 Remastered are on Steam, and I've considered giving it another shot, to make sure I am not crazy. How does your take differ from mine? Or, are there other things about the game that I may have forgotten, which make it enjoyable for you?
AAAaaaand, go!
but I just love Blitzball.
