Final Fantasy: Now with blood and guts |
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Reports from the floor of this year's Jump Festa event in Japan suggest that Square Enix is developing the Playstation 3 title Final Fantasy Versus XIII with more mature audiences in mind. How might the inclusion of gratuitous violence in a high-profile title affect the series as a whole? |
Journalists attending Square Enix's closed-door video presentation at this week's Jump Festa event have been shocked by the level of gratuitous violence displayed in the Final Fantasy Versus XIII extended trailer. Games Are Fun reported:
Surprisingly, there were actually some gruesome scenes of necks breaking and blood splattering not common in other Final Fantasy games. In addition to having some interesting swords, the main character in the trailer also has the ability to teleport as he teleports up and kills other soldiers that were descending down on him.
The prospect of neck-cracking and blood-spurting in a series that until now has limited itself to cartoon violence comes as something of a surprise, especially when one considers that director and character designer Testuya Nomura is best known for his action RPG, Disney tie-in Kingdom Hearts. Perhaps the risky choice for a decidedly gorier role-playing game testifies to the comparative absence of stigma against violent entertainment catering to kids found in Japan. Take, for instance, the tremendous popularity of the blockbuster action movie Battle Royale, which depicts an entire grade of school students mercilessly offing one another.
In Columbine-wary America and Europe, by contrast, selling violence to kids, while often profitable, is increasingly drawing the ire of concerned moms and zealous politicians. While no one is expecting the new Final Fantasy title to be Grand Theft Auto, unlike Rockstar Games Square Enix carries the baggage of an expansive adolescent fan base to consider. What will happen when young fans of Kingdom Hearts beg their parents for the newest Testuya Nomura title if Versus XIII ends up being a foray into M Rating territory? Will mothers find their kids hopping from Donald and Goofy directly to Resident Evil 4 by way of chocobo and co.? Few may be lining up to protest gruesome first-person shooters, so long as parents and the ESRB are on the scene to curtail childhood gunplay. But one needs only consider what Rockstar has been facing to wonder if Nomura is perhaps risking his so far squeaky-clean reputation. Recently, Rockstar was forced to change the title of their edgy boarding school title "Bully" to "Canis Canem Edit" in Europe due to preemptive complaints by parents concerned (unwarrantedly) that the game encouraged the player to prey upon the inherent disadvantages of weaklings and peaceniks. This comes just after Rockstar was pressured to give Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas an adults only rating when it was discovered that a minor hack could uncover a gratuitous sex scene called "Hot Coffee." While no one is expecting Nomura to have kids beating hookers to death in stolen cars, one cannot help but wonder what might come of a skull-cracking, blood-spurting Final Fantasy. If Square Enix chooses not to back off from the premise of a disturbingly violent game incorporating the flagship title's popular mythos, they might just end up brewing a shitstorm of controversy when the game hits North America. Or, perhaps, no one will notice, and Square Enix will have taken a triumphant risk in seeking to recruit a broader base of more mature gamers.As for angst-ridden Versus XIII's seeming preoccupation with the story of Shakespeare's Hamlet, the homage featured in the trailer seems, if nothing else, a little out of its element. Sure, the prince of Denmark resemble's Nomura's bad-ass hero in his black clothes and brooding demeanor. But calling on the bard for atmospheric resonance in a beat-em-up like, say, Capcom's Devil May Cry, would be like casting Lawrence Olivier as a blood-soaked, ass-kicking action hero. Hamlet may sentence to death his brainless school chums Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but did he cunningly lure them to the gallows and soliloquize mournfully on the matter, or did he materialize before the baddies and ferociously snap their necks?
When you think about it, a spiritual successor to melancholic young Hamlet already appeared in a Final Fantasy title. Remember the spoony bard that spent half the game in bed?
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