Final Fantasy XV & The Trouble With Interconnected Stories

As I got a little bored during the exam period, it suddenly occurred to me that there was a working PS4 with Final Fantasy XV in the Cendana buttery. While I’d heard about problems with the storytelling, I felt that the best way to verify them was to play the game myself. Having done that, I think I have an idea of what the designers wanted to achieve with the story, but failed to do as well as they would have liked to. If it wasn’t obvious already, there will be lots of spoilers.

For those unfamiliar with the game, Final Fantasy XV is about the journey of Prince Noctis and his companions as they struggle to reclaim his throne from the Niflheim Empire. Initially, Noctis believes that he is off to marry his childhood friend, Luna, as part of the peace terms with Niflheim. However, things take a turn for the worse when they discover that the signing ceremony of the peace treaty turned into a bloodbath, resulting in the death of Noctis’ father, King Regis CXIII, and the empire seizing control of the crown city and its crystal. With no way back, Noctis and his friends journey on in search of a way to defeat the empire and reclaim their home.

An important bit of context is that the whole story of Final Fantasy XV was planned to be told via different media. There’s the movie Kingsglaive that details the fall of the crown city from the perspective of the king’s elite guard, the anime Brotherhood that tells how Noctis came to meet his friends, and a few more such releases. As such, the main game covers events primarily from Noctis’ perspective, which opens itself up to storytelling problems in terms of what knowledge can the player be assumed to have. On top of that, there are tensions between narrative and gameplay demands, ie, what works best for narrative flow may not be what works best for gameplay experience. For this discussion, it’ll be easier to start from the dissonance between narrative and gameplay progression.

Kicking things off, as beautiful as the world of Eos is, a point of criticism is that the game isn’t open world all the way. Once Noctis and gang leave for Altissia, they can no longer freely drive around the world, but are shuttled from one main objective to the next. Granted, the game allows for a return to the open world through reminiscence to allow the player to complete unfinished side quests, but, there is a palpable loss of freedom. Gameplay wise, this might sound like a bad idea, but I believe it was a sensible decision given the urgency and gravity of the story by that stage. The gang leave for Altissia so Noctis can gain the aid of Leviathan, the Hydrean, with the long term goal of defeating the Niflheim empire and reclaiming the throne. They are leaving behind those carefree days of wandering to pursue a clear objective, and the removal of some player freedom to craft a more controlled story is appropriate. The tone would suffer badly if the gang (or player) decided to casually go chocobo racing right before the meeting with Leviathan, which was meant to be a magnificent set-piece battle. At this stage, the story is building to a climax, and the main characters throwing off their responsibilities right before that would be jarring. Essentially, the developers have a story to tell, and the player cannot be allowed to derail it.

In addition, Noctis is only beginning to shoulder the heavy burden that comes with being king, and must quickly mature to take on his father’s mantle. After Altissia, the gang are on a train headed straight for the empire’s capital, Gralea, with the aim of reclaiming the stolen crystal. Any stops and quests along the way are scripted, and the player has no choice but to clear them in order to advance the story. Basically, the story experience is now completely linear, and I think that’s perfectly fine. Consider that Noctis went through 2 traumatic events in Altissia, the first being the death of his fiance Luna, and waking up after a coma to find that his friend Ignis has gone blind, presumably after an effort to rescue him. With these burdens, Noctis has to move forward, lest those sacrifices be in vain. As such, the transition from open world to linear storytelling reflects the maturing of Noctis, as he can no longer do whatever he wishes with the new responsibilities he must learn to accept. While I would love to explore the continent the Niflheim Empire calls home, having that option makes little sense in context, as Noctis and gang have an urgent job to accomplish, and they can’t just wander off wherever they please in the middle of enemy territory. So, the transition from open world to linear story mirrors the growth from adolescence to adulthood, with its loss of spontaneity and increase in burdens to shoulder.

The tension between narrative and gameplay progression is at its peak in the infamous chapter 13, where Noctis is separated from his friends and stripped of most of his abilities, as he struggles to survive the horrors of Zegnatus Keep. It does not help that the antagonist, Ardyn, repeatedly reminds him about how powerless he is over the intercom. In terms of story, this chapter is clearly meant to be the hero’s dark night of the soul, his lowest point, and the game mechanics exemplify that perfectly. However, from the perspective of gameplay, this sudden shift is extremely jarring. The typical flow is that of getting stronger and overcoming greater challenges, and any deviation from this linear progression can feel like a betrayal of expectations. The large majority of chapter 13 as a result feels more like something out of the survival horror genre, making it feel even more out of place in the game.

What I believe is that this tension could have been mitigated if the various character episodes, currently released as DLC after the game, had been integrated into the main storyline. First off, some gaping plot holes could have been patched up. A major example would be that of Ignis going blind. In the main game, Noctis falls into a coma after his encounter with Leviathan, and just wakes up to find Ignis without his sight. There was no foreshadowing or omen that such an event was going to occur, which makes the plot twist border on incredulous. Now, if the content of Episode Ignis had been included, it would have nicely covered those missing events, while giving Ignis’ character development the spotlight. It would have given the player an appreciation of Ignis’ resolve and self-sacrifice as he implores the Kings of Lucis to lend him power normally reserved for royal blood to save his friend. It enriches this little tragedy, as although the Kings of Lucis show Ignis their favour, their power burns his eyes out because he is not royalty. So, when Noctis finally awakens, the player can now share in his guilt. Noctis may or may not know how Ignis ended up that way, but he feels guilt because he failed to prevent his friend’s injury. As for the player, the understanding of that guilt comes from having played as Ignis, and knowing that there was no way out of that situation apart from Ignis’ sacrifice. Basically, it is as though the player himself was responsible for Ignis’ plight.

In addition, more than just great character stories and filling in plot holes, the character episodes would also prepare the player for chapter 13. Each character episode is largely a single player experience that occurs chronologically before chapter 13, and each of Noctis’ pals has a trial of their own to overcome. This sets up the expectation that Noctis will have his own trial to overcome alone, cushioning the impact of the separation from his companions as he would be the only character that has yet to have a solo experience. As for the gameplay experience, I would agree that it is too much of creeping through corridors and avoiding encounters as much as possible. While it was set up earlier that the imperial capital was under the influence of a crystal jammer that negates most of Noctis’ abilities, this is also the point in the story where Noctis accepts his burden as king and puts on the Ring of the Lucii for the first time, granting him abilities to help him survive his trial. While the ring makes combat possible, it is a slog without the usual abilities, making avoidance the preferred option. Perhaps an improvement would be including the stealth kill mechanic usually available in infiltration missions, where Noctis can instantly kill a target if he sneaks up behind it. There would still be tension in avoiding and sneaking up on enemies, but now without the player feeling too powerless. I doubt there’s a perfect solution to this, but smoothing out the ludonarrative tension can go a long way in making a game more palatable.

As such, when there is a large mythos filled with many interwoven stories, as is typical of most Final Fantasy games, extracting a complete story can be quite the challenge. While slicing the stories based on character perspectives sounds fine in principle, it becomes problematic when the chosen perspective is missing some major plot points. And, a weak plot will likely generate more ludonarrative tension. Besides, a major theme of Final Fantasy XV is the friendship between the 4 characters, which would be strengthened all the more if each character had enough room to grow besides simply supporting the main character. I’d say that this story is best told with the additional perspectives of Ignis, Gladio and Prompto, and I hope future updates and the PC version will address this issue. After all, Noctis wouldn’t have made it all the way without his friends.