I really should be sick of Final Fantasy by now. I've followed the series since a Nintendo Power cover showed a crude illustration of Cecil riding a Black Chocobo, and it's only gone deeper over the years. While most of the Final Fantasy games manage to tell new stories and revamp their gameplay enough to stand on their own, they still share a common set of stereotypes and ideas, and I can fully understand why many people have grown tired of the whole affair. And yet it's one of the few major game franchises about which I remain a big nerd who's willing to publicly embarrass himself.
Of course, Final Fantasy isn't as great a rallying point for mainstream geeks in the same way as Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, or Star Wars (which inspired Final Fantasy more than some fans can bring themselves to admit). You'll never see costumed throngs around movie theaters or toy stores during the latest Final Fantasy event. That's why I was surprised and quite amused when New York City declared October 11 Final Fantasy XII Day.
I couldn't resist. I wasn't all that curious about the game itself, as I'd picked up the Japanese version months ago. In truth, I just wanted to see what exactly they'd do for such an occasion, and Square's curious lack of press info about the event only spurred me on. Would every Times Square crosswalk be bookended by cosplayers handing out free demo discs? Would a giant robotic Bahamut scream at passersby from the top of that huge Toys ‘R Us on 44th?
Not quite. In fact, it was pretty easy to miss Final Fantasy XII Day unless you happened to walk by the Times Square Visitors Center and notice the un-costumed people handing out free mini-posters and postcards, promoting both the game and the Digital Life gaming expo that started the next day.
Inside, a procession of Final Fantasy XII character portraits let to a surprisingly small lobby, where some camera crews and a handful of fans, some of them dressed as Final Fantasy staples, clustered around a stage decorated with game logos and a single suit of Judge's armor.
A representative from Digital Life started off the event by explaining that everyone was there to help promote Digital Life. He was followed by a gentleman from Ziff-Davis, who stumblingly introduced the game as “the sequel to…Final Fantasy." This was met by a few snickers from the crowd. Clearly, Mr. Ziff-Davis McCorporate has never known the prosaic beauty of Final Fantasy VI's toilet-flushing scene.
The real speaker, however, was longtime Square producer/director Akitoshi Kawazu. While technically the producer of FFXII, he took the post only a year ago, after the game's director, Yasumi Matsuno, had a falling out with Square and allegedly covered himself with glue and staples before jumping out the nearest open window and singing Queen songs all the way down. He's doing better now. Kawazu, meanwhile, supervised the game's final development leg, and it's likely that he just kept things running while the co-directors, Hiroyuki Itoh and Hiroshi Minagawa, picked up where Matsuno left off. The only other Final Fantasy game on which Kawazu had any major influence was Final Fantasy II. Some say that Square gave him the Saga series to keep his crazy, game-wrecking ideas away from Final Fantasy, but that's just mean.
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Kawazu accepted an official Final Fantasy XII Day proclamation with help from Square Enix's U.S. Chief Operations Officer Daishiro Okada (he'd be the guy on the right), and then he delivered the Standard Japanese Game Developer Speech about how good it is that the games on which he works are successful and popular. I kept hoping that the Judge's armor behind him would start lurching drunkenly around the stage, but that didn't happen. Instead, Kawzau took a handful of questions from the crowd. I'd have stepped up to the mike if I'd thought of anything less insulting than “So what, if anything, did you actually contribute to Final Fantasy XII?” or “What the hell was Unlimited Saga?”
A gentleman did step forward, though, to ask about Final Fantasy Versus XIII. The Square reps told him that they were only going to talk about Final Fantasy XII today, and the man slunk back in defeat. Poor guy.
A few people asked about the battle system and any online play (no, there's none), but the only interesting questions came from fans who'd gone through the trouble of dressing up as Square characters. A young man clad as Kadaj from Advent Children (without the wig, he looked more like an extra from David Lynch's Dune) asked about the link between Final Fantasy XII's Ivalice and the Ivalice seen in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Kawazu responded that both were inspired by the same setting, but there's no story crossover. If I remember right, Final Fantasy XII is the game-within-a-game that the middle-school brats of Tactics Advance discuss and later use as the basis for a fantasy world where they have loving parents, working legs, and naturally red hair. I prefer Kawazu's version because it doesn't give me a headache.
A girl dressed up as Sora from Kingdom Hearts asked about FFXII's connection to Vagrant Story. Kawazu confirmed that the games share a lot of staff members (which we knew) and hinted at some other “connections” (which I haven't heard about). The more cynical might think that Kawazu really doesn't know that much about the game, but it's more likely that he, like countless other Japanese developers, prefers vague answers.
On the subject of cosplaying, the winners of Square's online FFXII costume contest were also on hand, and they were easily the most impressive part of the display. It's been my experience that dressing up as videogame characters is rarely a good idea, but these three pulled off Ashe, Balthier, and wedding-day Ashe amazingly well.
The presenters saved actual footage of the game for last, showing a commercial that ruins one of the earliest plot twists. Everyone applauded, and that ended things. I picked up a complimentary merchandise bag on my way out, slightly disappointed that there wasn't more to see.
However, the huge Nasdaq screen in Times Square showed a brief commercial for the game as I walked by. That's more like it.
And what's in the bag? A t-shirt and a bunch of temporary tattoos.
Damn, that's a lot of tattoos. I should wear them all at once and run through Times Square naked. There's your Final Fantasy XII Day.
And there's the back of the t-shirt. All in all, it was a really modest and limited event, and I probably would've been bored out of my mind if I hadn't already gone nuts over the whole ridiculous idea of a Final Fantasy XII Day. But maybe this'll seem relevant two years from now, when I expect Final Fantasy Versus XIII Day to close down a good length of Broadway. So don't worry, lingering Final Fantasy fans. We'll get many more chances to be geeks in public.
