My Life As A Writer: Final Fantasy XIV: A Narrative Reborn (Part One)

Introduction

I maintain that most game designers, developers, and publishers are incompetent at narrative and storycraft. They should not, as a rule, attempt to mix narrative and gameplay because they are so enthralled with the former that they forget what business they are in and then they get indignant at being called to account for their incompetence and waste of time and resources.

Likewise, I maintain that authors and writers should not deal in game design. The two disciplines are significantly different and require not only dissonant mindsets but also do not engage the same skillsets, and when you have authors meddle with game design you get misses more than you get hits- and yes, that often includes famous examples such as Gullimore del Toro's involvement (however minor) with Death Stranding.

"Often" is not "Always", and there are examples of narratives incorporated into games that actually accomplish the goal of establishing a synergy between the two. The Final Fantasy franchise is often brought up, correctly, in listing those exceptions to the rule and the second MMORPG in the franchise--Final Fantasy XIV ("FF14" hence)--is one such example of success.

As the subtitle implies, this series focuses on the narrative in the initial relaunch of the game, version 2.0 and its later patches, subtitled "A Realm Reborn" ("ARR" henceforth). I will not address the original game, save as it relates to the subject at hand, and the same will apply to the expansions. Expansions will get their own series in the future. This is also not going to focus on the lore; there are plenty of videos on YouTube that go deep into the lore of the game. This series is about storycraft foremost; lore will be addressed only as it applies to storycraft.

There is no spoiler protection. Even Shadowbringers is past the protection date now, so it's all fair game until Endwalker releases later this year, at which time I will observe spoiler protection solely for Endwalker until this time next year. This is your warning.

Finally, this is a parallel to the gameplay-focused review on my main blog; if that's what you're after, you want to go here instead.

What Failed Before

The original version of FF14 actually had a decent narrative. That wasn't the problem. The problem was technical and ludological, such that the narrative was dragged down by bad game mechanics and coding; the documentary about 1.0 gets deep into it and you can that series here to view at your leisure.

When the new team took over the game, they also took over the game's narrative and here is where the brilliance of the team's collective acumen began to make itself felt. They were compelled to take a trashfire of a game and rebuild it into a successful MMORPG, something that had not been done before at all, and furthermore they had to do while they kept clear the brand identity of Final Fantasy. This was a tall order, and the first issue was how to deal with the end of 1.0 and its narrative.

1.0 ended with you--the Warrior of Light and his party--failing to stop the Calamity from happening. At the last moment, your ally Archon Louisoix Levelleur cast a big spell that threw you into the Lifestream while he made a final attempt to mitigate what was about to hit; the attempt to mitigate did succeed, but Louisoix disappeared never to be seen again. Survivors soon realized that they could not, no matter how they tried, to remember the Warriors of Light. The following five years were those of tension and rebuilding and thus both chaos and opportunity. That's when 2.0 picks up.

Making Lemonade of Lemons

The new team now had to figure out how to relaunch the game. Of course this had to include how to get players to (re)invest into the game emotionally, and that's where we see how good narrative choices--informed by technical and ludological necessities--can take a necessary task and transform it into narrative excellence.

The first smart choice was to decide that a big consequence of 1.0's ending be that of realm-wide amnesia regarding the original characters. By making the big spell have the effect of wiping memories of the original player-characters, continuity issues were avoided; the NPCs would remember that the original Warriors of Light existed, but no more than that. This opened liminal space for players to occupy with their new characters- the new Warriors of Light.

This was a technical necessity, since there was no way for character data to carry over from 1.0 to 2.0. All players had to start over with new characters. By framing the new narrative from the start as you playing a newly-called hero, and one from someplace outside where you will adventure, the ARR team exploited the same narrative framework that we see in classic adventure fiction such as you see with Howard's Conan and Burrough's Mars and Venus books. Returning players would be soothed over the loss of their past work, and new players would be reassured that returning players would not have an insurmountable advantage.

The smart decision was to again choose a Chosen One narrative that is on-brand for the franchise. The opening movie has you explicitly called by the Mother Crystal, Hydaelen, and blessed with her mark: the Echo.

The Echo is the narrative conceit that allows the player to plausibly experience coincidental events that nonetheless advance the narrative as well as provide an explanation for gameplay mechanics. The writers are free to impart relevant information only as the player requires it, even if the timeline otherwise forbids it. The character can experience flashbacks of events that were not or are not present in person to witness, see things from perspectives other than his own, etc. as it would benefit the player.

It is also in this opening scene that the narrative of the entirety of ARR is framed, as well as that of the entire game up through the upcoming launch of Endwalker, and the use of both visual and audio to efficiently transmit vital information to the player. In that framing scene, the player knows that he is the Hero and the black-clad mage is a villain if not THE villain, and he can reasonably expect to keep encoutering that mage or others like him as the narrative unfolds. You need no knowledge of 1.0 to get going; this is good narrative framework in action.

Because the game allows you to play as any available race, and (usually) as either sex, one constrait the narrative writers have to contend with is that they cannot use the protagonist's inherent characteristics as plot elements. Instead, they have to work around a void--a space-filler--in their narrative crafting and as such they make your character a mostly silent protagonist that reacts instead of acts ala Half-Life's Gordon Freeman.

Getting Started

The framework makes getting going easy. After the aforementioned movie, you make your character. When you enter the game you get this cutscene or something like it; this is specific to if you choose to start play in the city-state of Gridnania. If you choose Limsa Lominsa, it's a trip aboard a ferry. For Ul'dah, you're again in a wagon as you reach the city proper.

From here you're directed into your city-state and begin play. I'll get into how that narrative framework already begins to work its magic tomorrow.