Height and Character Design Musings

April 8th, 2009

The strangest realization popped into my head when first playing Metal Gear Solid 4 roughly a year ago. In one of the numerous opening scenes, Snake was standing at the foot of a grave stone saluting. It wasn’t the obvious throwback to MGS3 that caught my attention – that metaphor was already obvious. No, what grabbed me was how Snake looked like a human, a normal person that could don a blazer, tie and pair of chinos. Normal Snake, in a normal context. Snake’s moment of reflection is then shortly interrupted by an equally real Otacon. Seeing both of these characters rendered in gorgeous photo realism certainly pulls at the game’s heritage and really draws you in.

Witnessing Snake in something other than skin tight fabric wasn’t exactly what made him seem human. It’s certainly a contributor, and presents him in a more personal light, but on pondering the idea a little, I realized what it was; these characters have legs!

The history of video games has been stunted by men and women with stumpy legs. I guess you could blame the plumer perhaps, he started it. While not true of all games and genres, I feel that in the past the build of video game characters have been presented in a rather obtuse fashion. Call it a technological thing, that resolutions are small and hence the pixel count to build a person is rather limited, you can’t argue with that. Less pixel power naturally results in less complex imagery and (generally speaking) more simplistic character designs. With these limitations in mind, when abiding by a strict pixel count, where on the human body can you cull pixels while still maintaining a “human” image? The legs, of course. Short hands, tiny head, empty torso naturally appear strange, shorter legs, I’d argue, less so.

That’s just a hand-wavy assumption though, I’ll let you judge that one yourself.

RPGs are another interesting point of discussion, due to a camera angle that looks down on its characters, the legs of many an RPG protagonist naturally appear shorter than they really are. It’s a neat camera trick. Phantasy Star was a little different in this regard, an exception perhaps.

final-fantasy-viii-8-cast

The first game that got me thinking about the legs in video games was Final Fantasy VIII. Unlike the growth stunted heroes of the previous entry, FF VIII realistically rendered their cast with human sized legs, maybe even a little longer. Since then, no legs have really stood out for me, until that of MGS4. Like FF VIII, these characters aren’t just tall people, they are tall by conscious design choice.

Another example of character height that stands out to me is village chief Bitores Mendez from Resident Evil 4. In this case, his height was intentionally standout and it works effectively in characterizing this menacing creature. Height is clearly an asset to him, unlike Ramon Salazar, another character in the same game, who’s height is clearly a challenge. There are rarely ever any (non-comedic) distinctively short game characters, which makes him all the more memorable. That and the shrill of his voice.

Maybe this commentary all sounds a little batty. Height is clearly an integral part of character design, so it’s interesting to explore its history and particularly memorable moments of its integration in video games. After all it does have an effect, it’s part of the reason why I’m quite resistant towards the dumpy characters in the Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles universe. I don’t know. Tell me some of your own ideas regarding game characters and height, and maybe this post would have been worth something beyond trail-less conclusions ^_^

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Half the Man he use to be

April 6th, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jggtImFqj3Q

Just a wee bit of house keeping to take care of. Firstly, check out another one of my posts over at Zath. This one is generically dubbed How To Improve Your Online Communication – I’m no good with titles. I really enjoyed writing this at the time, but when it came to re-reading the uploaded version, something bothered me and I not dare finish reading it. Maybe you can tell me if it’s any good. I remember it being dangerously academic at the time of writing (yet at the same time being impossibly academic, due to lack of references, read from here if you lust for empirical discourse). In anycase Simon let it through, and that’s cool.

I’ve also unfortunately suspended my crusade to take on the Final Fantasy series. Not by choice, mind you. I was lapping up Final Fantasy II on the PSone Origins disc. Thoroughly enjoying myself too, FF II is ten fold better than the original, yet amidst the RPG happy days the game freezes during a compulsory non-interactive sequence, ensuring that I can’t progress any further. This occurred once before at a determined point in the game, but thankfully I could avoid it, this time I’m not so lucky. I was planning on playing a good chunk of the series on the Playstation 3 and GBA. Not a bad choice considering the first time the first half the series (FF I-IX, maybe give or take one game) saw release in Australia was the PSone. No seriously, like Dragon Quest, we got robbed pretty bad.

The problem is a PS3 issue I think. So I simply to switch to the PS2, right? No, unfortunately not. A few months ago we got a mod chip installed on the console, to play a series of games that (like the Final Fantasys) had skipped PAL release. I whined over these titles previously. Yet, the console seems to be struck with the inability to play much at all. I’m not sure if it’s broken or what. I have to wait for my twin to investigate, so I’ve simply given up all hope for the meantime. Emulation is a possible option, but considering I have to whole series hard copy on access, there’s no reason why I should stoop so low to play the game’s that are rightfully mine (or his – my brother’s). In the meantime I’m itching to play some Dragon Quest IV on the DS, or Valkyria Chronicles on the PS3. Thinking of Valkyria Chronicles makes me urge to finish Fire Emblem Sacred Stones. Then again, maybe I ought to leave that for when I return to Shanghai. Argh, it’s too hard.

Just on that topic though, I wanted to give a shout out to this post which missed the rounds of last month’s Link Out segment. Deceptively simple differences between two of my most dearly loved titles. Who would have thunk it?

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Final Fantasy: Baited Guilt

March 15th, 2009

final-fantasy-battle-scene

Final Fantasy is cruel punishment delivered cold, in the innocent guise of obligation to bait guilt among Final Fantasy VII players.

For everyone whose played several of the numbered installments, a game like Final Fantasy Origins is an attractive proposition, a tempting entree to persuade you into giving the earlier titles a go. Two Final Fantasy games in the one package, updated graphics, reworked gameplay and some spiffy intro FMVs – it is a fair package, especially considering the relatively cheap price the compilation still fetches.

Origins is designed to make you think this way, as is Dawn of Souls on the GBA and the latest two PSP “remakes”. They are bait for bottom feeder Final Fantasy fans that want to harden up, in the business sense; an easy way to make a few dollars. In the past few years Square-Enix have pulled this trick numerous times on consumers – they’ve turned it into a well oiled machine and am now repeating the procedure for the Dragon Quest series.

As a PAL gamer, this whole phenomena is different again, the first numbered Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest titles to hit our shores were Final Fantasy VII and Dragon Quest VIII respectively. Only in recent times, as you can see. We are perhaps the biggest consumers that Square-Enix are pitching to here.

Whatever your background in this monopoly, the motive is the same; guilt the players who skimmed these titles the first time around or persuade newbies to join the fold. It’s ironic then that the first game, on the first of several later to be released compilations of Final Fantasy plays as sourly as the itents of the publisher. Imagine if all games were like this; straight reflections of their publishing giants. Would be quite telling, wouldn’t it?

If Final Fantasy #1 is the game in question, and Final Fantasy Origins is your method of entry, then I’d recommend you avoid at all costs. The Origins port of Final Fantasy is overtly archaic, maliciously so, and from what I’ve heard, a stark contrast to the walk in the park cinch of the later GameBoy Advance and PSP ports.

final-fantasy-origins-psone

On beginning a new file, the game prompts you to characterize your 4 vanilla avatars with the regular RPG suits: warrior, monk, thief, black and white etc. You also need to select names for these characters too – there are no defaults. The lack of pre-built characters alludes to the blank template story that shortly follows. And that’s pretty much what you have, the actual definition of a cardboard cut out: four light warriors come, retrieve four crystals, lock away bad guy, The End. The story, which is often meant to be the hook in these types of games is all but non-existent. It makes you hanker for motivation. The presentation, while redone to 16bit pizazz, similarly lack soul.

The free choice party selection prys on your savvy enthusiasm for selecting a balanced party. You know that a fruit salad of black mage, white mage, warrior and monk for instance is probably the ideal party set-up. Unfortunately the class balancing is completely out of wack, as it contritely balances itself through unrelated mechanics such as limitations on spell casting and lack of healing items.

Mages are weak, pathetic creatures shackled to a tight magic system where casting magic feels very much privilage. Their defence and regular attacks are weak, if anything at all. Warriors on the other hand can take off hundreds of HP in contrast to the mage’s piddly 1-20. Their defence is the same – these guys rarely take a hit (no seriously, often 1hp) despite unloading massive damage. The downside is that they are limited to simple attacking, but even with that in consideration, these guys are far superior to any other class available. Monks and thieves are both just weaker variations of the warrior type with no real intrinsic talents to speak off.

As you can see by the examples, the class system is ultimately broken, with warriors reigning supreme by a wide margin. In order to balance out the strength of the warriors, all non-mage healing in the game is reliant solely on potions. That is regular potions that cure only about 25hp. They are the only portable healing agents in the game – there are no high potions, phoenix downs, only the straight 25 hp potion – without them you are reliant on Inns and mages. This contrived way of forcing the player to include a white mage in their party falls flat on its face once the vulnerable female (yes, white mages are automatically type casted as female) loses all HP. And this often happens as their weak defences ensures that they die more often than they deserve. They are far too fragile for their own good and yet a necessary obligation for your party. Mages are like the supporting cast to the warriors.

It makes no sense that the only way to revive a fallen ally is through the white/red mage life spell or in towns and inns. Once the white mage in your party is dead, pushing on through the game’s dungeons is all the more risky, but having them in your party yields little use. So they just feel like necessary dead weight.

Anything except warriors feels like a detriment to the whole party, thanks to the issues with balancing. This class system slows down the ability at which you can progress through the game. It drops the game down to 5km an hour. Once the weaker classes are picked off, your in-game progress suddenly becomes vulnerable, so you’ll retreat back to the nearest town to revive and start over. It’s pointless mileage back and forth, over and over, and extends the play time dramatically. The whole game is like this; one slow plod to the end.

final-fantasy-origins-logo

This is made even worse by the fact that can’t save in the dungeons, instead saving is limited to inns or on the world map with given item. By then it’s often too late, and you’ll die before you have a chance to escape, further panning out the experience. Each segment of the game therefore greatly outstays it’s welcome.

On top of all this, equipment is very unevenly distributed. Every town in the game provides new weapons and armor for warriors and (ocassionally) similar classes, yet mages only ever receive two or three equipment upgrades throughout the whole game. No wonder they are so underpowered.

The classes are credence to the battle system, the veins of an RPG and they are broken from the outset. The lack of narrative to persuade you to the game’s conclusion is completely absent. Most NPCs speak pure filler, the rest are there to point you in the direction of the next location, but even these people make no sense. I quickly learnt to befriend a FAQ before the exploration became questionably trite.

That’s the bulk of it. A game built on ultimately broken foundations. It’s a tough slog, and a rough entry into the series. It’s no doubt workable, but only if you’re willing to invest, it’ll be doubly as hard for every less warrior included in your party. Two, I’d say is fairly balanced, teamed with a black and white mage. The context of this game (as the original Final Fantasy) is the guilt trip, the game itself is the punishment and together they combine for a rather gruelling package. Fortunately Final Fantasy II alleviates all of these issue and – at least so far – is 10x the product for it.

NB: This isn’t a brazened attempt at snarking, snark or no snark, this game was difficult to swallow. Also, this is what this “critique” is centered around, understanding how the game is such a grueling slog, sinister like the publisher’s side of the fence.
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