Where have all the heroes gone?

While playing Final Fantasy X, I thought of a question I’d like to ask Square (or whatever the hell they are calling themselves today. Maybe SquareStationEnixUltimaPostEA); when did you guys decide that spiky haired, angsty adolescents would make good substitutes for real heroes? Is this where we are going? I thought heroes were supposed to be brave. Sure, it’s okay to have some moments of doubt and hopelessness in the story, but if those become the primary character traits, then we are left to wonder why this person has bothered to set out to save the world at all. Why don’t we find someone who won’t complain every time a small obstacle gets in the way? I don’t remember Cecil bitching and moaning when Kain was turned by Goblez; he was upset for a moment, and then went right back to laying the smack down. We didn’t need to hear about how distraught he was, and how he could “never go on” from there. He grabbed his sword, rallied the troops and put the greaves to the baddies.

On the flip side, could Tidus be any whineier? Here’s a tip for good story telling; if the main character is too reluctant, rewrite his part! And why the hell is he so cocky in his battle speeches and so unsure of himself everywhere else in the story? It’s like they wrote the battle parts with Tidus being arrogant and cocksure, and then decided to write the story with him being a total wuss who can’t get over the fact that daddy didn’t love him. I don’t blame Jecht, either. If I was Tidus’ dad I would have kicked his ass until he stopped bitching or died. Either would have been better then dealing with that little shit stain. Everything upsets this kid. If you don’t want to face the possibility of watching your friends die, then maybe you shouldn’t go out and fight GIANT FREAKING MONSTERS. And when the girl you like is getting ready to give her life to save the world, it’s okay to be a little sad, but doesn’t try to talk her out of it! What good is it for her not to save the world? Then you’ll BOTH be dead (granted there were plenty of moments where I wished they would BOTH die and Auron and Lulu would take over and kick the shit out of the rest of the game).

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not implying that games shouldn’t have a lot of story and character development, but let’s keep it believable. Hell, I played (or read, mostly) 80 hours of Xenogears, and NEVER felt bored. That game had a GREAT, multi-faceted story with terrific characters I could really get behind. Fei was a total badass, and his troubled past only made him more likeable (the Id scenes were some of my favorites). If anything, I want to see even more emphasis of story, with richer and more 3-dimensional characters. I don’t mind sitting through a 20 minute cutscene in Metal Gear Solid, and if the main characters in FFX weren’t such insufferable emotional basket cases, I probably wouldn’t have minded there, either. But this was not the case. Instead, we were treated to a display that would make the world’s most understanding psychologist jump up and say “STOP YOUR COMPLAINING YOU WHINIEY LITTLE BASTARD! SHE HAS TO SAVE THE GODDAMN WORLD.”

It seems like ever since SquareSoft (that’s how I like to remember them) choose to try merging with everyone and their brother this has been the path they’ve been on. Hey, Chrono had spiky hair, too, but he picked the “strong, silent” path. I don’t even think Cloud was as bad as the poor excuses for heroes we’re stuck with today. It must be a symptom of the “Emo Disease” that been plaguing our fair populace as of late. This obsession with “emotion,” which really just seems to deal with be depressed and writing shitty poetry, makes me glad I am capable of expressing my anger without breaking down into a sobbing wreck. Hey, I’m emotional, too, I just prefer the emotions of “anger” and “joy” over “uncontrollable crying over stuff I can’t change or things that are not so bad but scar me terribly.” Okay, maybe I DO get angry about things I can’t change, but I don’t cry over it.

The problem is we keep buying this stuff because it’s Square. The gameplay is still standard-setting, even if they story is god-awful and the characters need a testosterone injection. But sometimes gameplay isn’t enough to take you to the end. My friend Sam told me he had stopped playing Final Fantasy XII a little while ago. When I asked him why, he said it was because after about 70 hours, he asked himself, ‘what am I doing?’ Nothing in the story was keeping him caring about why the characters would want to save the world in the game, or why it was really worth saving in the first place. That seems to be the norm in a lot of RPG’s these days; the battle systems and item collection are still engaging and innovative, but our motivation is gone when the story isn’t interesting. Hell, in FFX I ended up preferring the itea of Sin destroying the world, at least then the bitching people would be gone. Auron would be willing to take one for the team, I’m sure. He ended up kicking ass in Hades, anyway. Of course, it was with another spiky haired kid, but Sora was less of a coward then Tidus, at about half the age. Still not ideal world-saving material, but better than Tidus.

The disease has spread to characters that aren’t total tools, too, in the form of appearance. Look at the super-metro hair of Leon Kennedy, or Dante. Where do these guys have time to color and style their hair when hordes of demon creatures are breathing down their necks? They might as well at a preening mini-game where you have to comb their hair “just right” if you want to get the ‘S’ ranking for ‘Style’ at the end of a level. Jeez. It’s one thing to look cool, but this is getting ridiculous. Highlights? You gotta be kidding me.

Now Kratos, there’s a hero (and I’m not just saying that because he could be my twin brother). Bald head, goatee, loincloth, this guy is the perfect image of a hero. Not to mention the fact that he disembowels, beheads and rips apart all of his opposition. This is the kind of action we need to have more of in games. Kratos has got a totally messed up back story, and he never complains about it, it just makes him more brutal, the way it should be.

I just love the classic, strong and brave characters. Classical heroes like Heracles and Odysseus, and more modern ones like Aragorn and Batman. They aren’t perfect; they are quite human, but they fight for what is good and true, regardless of consequences. That is the kind of character that I want to see more of in games today. We don’t need to completely rewrite the book on epic action. We can evolve it, but some tried and true characteristics need not to be tampered with. If we need something new, there is always the anti-hero, but we don’t need the none-hero that seems so popular these days. That just propagates the idea that true heroes are dead, and I’m not ready to believe that just yet. Anyone else with me?

“Old prophet's land -a battlefield - Of non-believers in a violent rage - A declaration of human rights a pretext - For maintenance of a new world order - Above all written laws a growth concept - Created by the patriot of the civilized world… Heroes to us.”
-Heroes to Us, Kalmah