26th September 2022, 5:02 AM
I gotta say this whole series he's doing has been amazing. This time, it's "the opening takes too long!" Maybe not every game needs a half hour's discussion on 1960's era nuclear deterrence before you've snaked up on a single loose monkey.
I will absolutely disagree with one thing though. Do NOT start a game off playing as someone other than the main protagonists in an RPG. You seriously risk making that alternate character more interesting than the main character and people will spend the remainder of the game complaining about their lame Shonen protagonist that wants to be a pirate when he grows up when they could instead be that honor bound knight that got framed for a crime he didn't commit. (I'm looking at YOU Final Fantasy XII!) Sure, there's famous openings like temporarily playing as Richter for a single boss fight in Symphony of the Night, and of course that audience subversion in Metal Gear Solid 2, but in my experience more often than not you're going to disappoint your audience. Also, in medias res can be fun, but don't fall for the temptation of doing it in such a way that you "flash back" to months earlier and have to play a significant chunk of game to "catch up" to that prologue point. Just make that the start of the gameplay AND the narrative and hint at earlier story beats as they play.
Well, alright as far as quick "get to the point" intros in RPGs go, Final Fantasy VII actually does the best job of just about any FF game. Now personally, I've always loved Final Fantasy VI more, but if I'm being entirely honest with myself, it's cutscene explaining the war of the magi and the current state of the world with an empire bent on domination followed by a couple Star Wars references chatting about your main character's slave-crown followed by opening credits during a long slow march to Narshe? That wasn't the quickest smoothest intro. I'm used to it and I loved it as a kid because I hadn't seen something so cinematic employed in a game's intro before that, but Final Fantasy VII? The credits are before the title screen, so they can be skipped easily, and there's ZERO text or dialog in that opening cutscene, which just quickly shows a flash of Midgard city life, a view of how dirty the city and it's reactor smoke is, and then your main character jumping off a train and IMMEDIATELY fighting some guards before dialog even begins. You're in the game in about a minute, and it's still conveying everything you need to know to understand the most basic things regarding that world, and more details are drip fed to you through dialog from there. It's also a good example of in medias res that just throws you in the middle of a mission without flashing back and forcing you to "play" Cloud's trip to Midgar or the earlier part of the mission for several hours to "catch up" with that intro. Final Fantasy V, which I played later on, also does a good job of getting you into the game fast. A meteor crashes into the ground, you and your chocobo ride over to check it out, and then goblins. Final Fantasy X is just... way too confusing at the start of the game. Fast as it gets you into the action, the sides of it's narrative are too slippery to get ahold of and you just sink into that pitcher plant of "what? WHY?" all too quickly. Sure it gets you to the action, but you don't have the slightest clue of anything in this world and you're led to false conclusions very fast in a desperate attempt to get some idea of what's going on. I don't even mean intentionally misleading stuff. I mean "so Auron's his uncle?" stuff. Granted, it all gets smoothed out in the next hour or so, but even that time skip to suddenly exploring ruins to help Rikku reclaim some old junk you're still left wondering "alright... this is boring now because I don't know why I'm doing this". The narrative doesn't actually give you anything to get ahold of until you get through that SECOND section with Rikku and finally meet Wakka, Yuna and the gang. Then it's a good story.
Chrono Trigger also has a pretty good quick opening but it tosses you into the other end of the pool, which is that you get to explore it's "peacetime" mechanics in the game right from the outset at the fair before ever touching fighting mechanics (aside from Gato, man let me tell you something I love Gato, Gato has metal joints). That's another way to do things, because you're still playing the game but you're dealing with mini-games, exploration, and conversation mechanics. (Admittedly, JRPGs aren't exactly known for stellar conversational mechanics). Heck, all that goofing off at the fair ends up paying back in a big way later on. Watch your behavior!
All in all, I suppose this was just a rant on what I personally prefer in an opening, and an admission that my favorite Final Fantasy game and likely still my favorite JRPG of all time doesn't have the best opening.