With over fourteen volumes created and released since its initial launch in 1987, it would be hard to argue against the fact that Final Fantasy is one of the most popular and commercially successful role-playing video game (RPGs) franchises of all time. Ever since I started playing video games, I remember Final Fantasy always being present in some way, even though I never really played it. Which makes me wonder- why? What’s all the hype about, and what makes it so special? Not to mention, what is the game even saying/actually about? Over the next few pages, it is my hope to be able to try and start answering some of the aforementioned questions, and to be able to provide a close reading of what I’m calling level 0, which you play before the opening credits. Through this close reading, I hope to bring to light some aspects of the game play that I initially did not consider, and to argue that I believe Final Fantasy to be an engaging and complex metaphor for capitalism, the way our society engages with it, and about the exploitation of labor.
So, what even is Final Fantasy? In short, Final Fantasy is a role-playing video game published and developed by Square, and had its North American release on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987. The game’s plot follows a rather chivalric tale consisting of four individuals known as the “Light Warriors” who each are responsible for one of four elemental orbs that have been “darkened” by evil, and whose mission is to defeat the evil that plagues the kingdom and save the world. Sounds cute right? I mean, what more could one want? Final Fantasy’s got all the elements of a juicy plot, it appears to bestow upon the player a high degree of control and power, and it creates opportunity for a rather fun and unexpected adventure/experience. Nonetheless, if one looks deeper into the game, and ponders on what’s actually happening in the game, one could argue that Final Fantasy is really just an interactive simulation of a capitalist society. To explain this, I’d like to first discuss and expand on some of the mechanics of Final Fantasy’s game play, and how it is that some of its most basic elements buy into capitalistic notions. Before doing so though, I think it’s important to note that while I believe Final Fantasy is engaging with concepts such as the free market, societal makeups, and labor, I actually think it’s a rather easy game to “play” and engage with, but is intentionally built to have multiple layers of complexity, which is why I think it’s an incredibly clever game.
So first, I think it’s appropriate to discuss the mechanics of the game, and to touch a bit on the actual gameplay. This might get a bit complicated, so stay with me folx. Now, before the game actually starts, the player is tasked with selecting which four “Light Warriors” will be featured throughout the game, with the choices being “fighter, thief, black belt, Red Mage, White Mage, and Black Mage,” and with each class of character having different powers and abilities. Here’s the first red flag: note that even though the game tries to present the illusion of choice from the very beginning, at the same time the game makes it clear that a player’s success rests in part on what cost-benefit analyses the player makes when selecting their party. This is because each character’s powers and abilities are different, and they are there to either aid or harm the player in their quest. Once selected, one is immediately thrust into the game, tasked with exploring the kingdom/open continent as part of the quest, and is able to do so by moving one’s chosen party representative around and throughout the game map. From the start, one is asked to engage with the game’s primary mechanisms, them being turn based battles, the use of different “moves and spells,” and the notion of “leveling up” by defeating monsters and foes as one travel throughout the kingdom’s towns and dungeons. Here’s the thing though (and the reason why I’m arguing this whole thing is about capitalism), even in Level 0 (or prologue), where one would expect to simply start learning how the game works, there is so much that needs to be done in order to be able to be successful on your very first quest. Meaning that, from the beginning, the game demands the player engage with the market, buy/trade goods, spells, and services in order to be properly equipped for battle, and to work (i.e. defeat monsters) for the resources necessary in order to progress. In the first few frames of the game, all that one can access are the king’s castle, the towns/shops surrounding the kingdom, and finally the woods/shrubs where the monsters are hiding.
Moreover, I think it’s also important to note that the game makes subtle hints towards having you engage with the market by providing your party with gold to start purchasing goods and spells from the moment the game starts, and by also making the first couple of battles really difficult to win, thus leading you back to the market to restock on potions and spells. Not to mention that if you die, there’s the slippery slope of not only having to pay 40 gold coins to revive each of your party members, but also having to buy potions to restore their full health (the clinic only revives your party members to 1 HP). And on top of that?? You also have to pay 30 gold pieces to save your game when you go to an inn (Nintendo. 1987)!!
As you can imagine, this is starting to sound a little expensive, so what do you do to get more gold? You take your party out into the woods to fight a bunch of monsters, through which you earn more gold /experience points and are able to buy more goods/spells. What do we call this? Exploitation of labor on behalf of the king who’s enlisted the Light Warriors to save the world. Right from the get-go, the game requires you to enter this capitalistic cycle/means of survival, which is something I had never thought about when playing Final Fantasy or really any other game. So what is there to make of this? Is there any significance to this cycle, or is it just how things are? I would argue that if we look at current games now, and think about the societal implications of having games where you do have to spend actual money in order to acquire currency within the game (take Fornite as an example), we should really look back to games like Final Fantasy and think about what systems, mechanisms, and concepts these early but foundational games cemented into the gaming canon.
Works cited: Final Fantasy, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_(video_game)