Plot Percentage

July 11, 2007, 2:48 PM

I've been thinking recently: How much of a Final Fantasy game is actually dedicated to developing plot and/or characters?

You might not understand the question at first but if you're developing the game, you have to always keep the story moving forward. It would be nice if your characters could just sit around, sing songs at the camp fire, and tell deep personal secrets to develop them as human beings instead of pixels. Obviously, you can't do that. They always have to be on the march, focused, and ready to conquer a very specific goal. But there seems to be a lot of filler in games and it's a good thing.

For example, in Final Fantasy X, you go to Luca and play in a Blitzball tournament. At that point in the game you're not really wrapped up with Yuna's pilgrimage so the focus of the game can be on a mini-game and it doesn't matter. In Luca, a ton of plot related stuff happens. You find out that "Sin is Jecht", you meet up with Auron, you meet Seymour Guado, and you even see Anima. But when you leave and go down Mi'hen Highroad to Mushroom Rock Road, there's no real advancement in plot. You do a lot of cool stuff, like fight with Seymour and see Sin blow up some more crap... but as far as character development... there is very little. You find out that Luzzu was the one who convinced Chappu to enlist. That's about it.

So how much of these games are actual character/plot advancement and how much are just filler, even if it's filled with really cool things (Golden Saucer, Kilika, Treno)

July 11, 2007, 5:01 PM

Well, since plot and character developments only take place in those areas inside the world map, i.e. in the major locations, I would say a little less than 50 percent of the game.

I mean, there's really not much else that goes on in the world map except battling and making it from one place to another, but almost always there is plot and character development in the major areas of the game.
Doesn't really mean that all locations present an episode where a character grows or the plot is unraveled, as is the case with places like the Chocobo Sage's House.

So, there, I repeat my answer.

A little less than 50 percent of the games are devoted to plot and character development, and the rest is filler material, i.e. time to waste battling. xD

July 11, 2007, 5:23 PM

I would have to agree that it's about half and half. But if that is the case, that there is so much filler, is that a good thing? You couldn't have so many plot advancements back to back without it becoming boring. This way each new character or plot advancement is more of a surprise and welcomed thing than something you're bored with.

Even so, there must be points in the game where a lot of plot advancements take place in rapid succession and others where there are large expanses of nothing at all. And if anything, those large expanses of nothing usually set up large revelations later in the story.

July 11, 2007, 5:41 PM

Well, the fillers do give us a break from constant development, because as you said, it would tend to get a tad boring with just plot development screaming at you in rapid succession.

So yeah, it's a good thing because it balances everything out.
Just as long as the fillers are interesting, gives us something to do, and are actually exciting, then they would fulfill the purpose, I think.

July 11, 2007, 6:07 PM

Agreed, still it's interesting how much is just pointless filler. And because it is such pointless filler, you could easily replace those scenarios with almost any other event. Instead of going into the Cave of the Stolen Faith, you could have ridden a merry-go-round and gotten the same amount of satisfaction out of it. It's just interesting what they chose to include as "filler" and what they didn't. Because it didn't really change anything at all if Lulu had guarded two, ten, or twenty summoners before Yuna... that was all arbitrary information that had absolutely no anchoring in the plot whatsoever. I suppose those choices are simply whatever inspiration hits the writer and he just prays that they are quirks everyone else can enjoy.

July 11, 2007, 6:10 PM

Haha, yeah, but they also have to stick with the point of the game, right?
Like they wouldn't just include the merry-go-round in X because it would seem too obvious that it has nothing to do with....anything, for that matter.

They at least do a good job of masking the obvious and making the fillers at least somewhat partly congruous with the game's theme or feel or whatever.

July 12, 2007, 2:52 AM

I dunno. You can pretty much do anything you want. I mean just look at the Golden Saucer. Granted Barret did get a bit of character development, along with Cait Sith... but really it could have been anyplace. Instead they picked a big carnival place.

July 12, 2007, 2:55 AM

Yeah, I guess, in that case. =\
I think the Gold Sauce was more of a compliment to the kind of darker mood of the game itself, so....meh, I just thought it was appropriate.

July 12, 2007, 3:03 AM

Well I'm sure you know that a paper or project is never the same in the original draft as it is after many serious revisions. They could have easily put something else in that section of the game and then later replaced it with that particular element for the reason you stated. But you never know what might have originally been there.