More Anime-bait please

You know by now that I'm an eclectic gamer- I pick up any and everything and don't allow the concept known as 'Genre's to stop me unless they truly are reprehensible- such as the survival game genre. (That concept has only ever thrived as an addendum towards other more complete genre ideas and I will die on that hill.) But recently I have to admit to being blown away by a few of the action games that we have been gifted as of late- a couple in particular, that speak to the scale of big budgets that we except to be realised. It isn't often I have to sit back to take in the insanity of the spectacle, and you can kind of start longing for that sensation after a while. When you don't get it from the grandest TV or the most exciting movie- I guess that's just another way that gaming leapfrog's traditional entertainment.

Black Myth Wukong has been on everyone's lips who gave it the good old shot, and I think that might be because of the blockbuster energy that the game just exudes- not in the tired 'game large for the sake of being big' Ubisoft trite; nor the 'we literally hold our consumers hostage with our entrenched multiplayer systems then brag about the player retention' Activision method; but rather the 'everyone shut up and listen- this game is the one' kind of way. And we've had actually a few games like that this year, funnily enough. It's not perfect and it doesn't do everything, but that it does set out to do it performs exceptionally at- but what take the cake for me with Wukong is the presentation.

From the very first cutscene you know right away that the name of the game is 'taking the action to the limits of extreme' in a manner you only really get out of the most bombastic anime. Wukong and Erlang, themselves inspirations for some of the most iconic anime rivalries out there, literally fly through the air propelled by the the force of their colliding staves- like a Wuxia movie, only with stunts that are animated and therefore don't feel stiff and on wires. The gigantic scale of the Heavenly Kings leering down on the battle are just the cherry atop the cake. And you know what- that isn't even the best that the game has to offer.

Action games that can transfer the energy and excitement into both their gameplay and their storytelling are far and few between- and off the top of my head I can only really think of Devil May Cry from 3 onwards as a definitive comparison. In those hands you get the kind of set-piece moments that hang around in your nogging for months even years after in fond reminiscence- and that is by no means an easy feat to achieve. Particularly in gaming- big set pieces can be so very difficult to make land as well as they did on the paper when first conceived- and maybe it's the years worth of those pretenders and attempters that made me so very unprepared for moments that would send me back to the giggling glee of childhood just like Black Myth is stuffed with.

Another contender has been my time with Final Fantasy XVI which, true to it's recent processors, is full of eye-popping spectacle moments that regularly blow you away as you sit back in sheer awe. This is actually nothing new for Square Enix or Final Fantasy, it seems this style of cinematic excitement has been their go-to since at least the days of Final Fantasy XII if not before. In fact, some describe the style of Final Fantasy as a bit desensitising in their more hyperactive throes- and to that I will say: there were moments during Final Fantasy XIII where I literally did not know what I was looking at one screen. Cluttered designs are no stranger to the halls of the Enix.

But XVI manages to bridge the gap between spectacle and gameplay which we don't always see teased. Even more so than Final Fantasy XV before it. Give us a big Kaiju fight and we'll remember it- let us partake in a Kajiu fight and we will love every second of it! There's something novel and cool about taking control of giant country-side destroying mega-forms for a brief amount of time to really stand-out through an otherwise jam packed adventure story. And even beyond that we get to face up against the very forms of godlike power themselves- playing against the man-versus-goliath visual often. There's even some great main story boss fights against aggressive and spectacular monsters with the kind of attack sets that make you just want to zone out and appreciate the intensity of it all.

I like to call these 'Anime Bait' moments, because they do tend to cater to the standards of excessive maximalism when it comes to action set pieces that Anime champions. A design standard of 'if I can imagine the coolest still frame moments for a conflict, then all I need to do is transition to those moments as smoothly as possible to get cinematic signatures'- and it proposes the kind of thrill-based eccentricity only really successfully catered to by animation. We're talking set-pieces that are all about embodying something primal, from pure crackling energy to effortless weightless grace to dying beauty and birthing monstrosity: these are the moments that memories are made of.

And I want more of them. Yes I do, I love this times. More than any action movie, no matter how expensive the budget- these are the kinds of visuals that speak "big budget blockbuster" to me. The only case in which such features don't tick off my 'possible embezzlement' alarms. 'Anime-bait' may sound vapid, and some times it can totally be, but even in their most infantile and blunt- the best anime astound in the understanding and manipulation of visual art- much more so than any other genre in the medium. Matching that in the 3D realm is that step beyond the pale that video games can trail, and modern AAA games lacking that can of visual excellence just don't sell it to me anymore. So for the next $70 'premium' title I see on the shelves, those are the kind of visuals I'm going to be on the hunt for. Like a true Anime weeb. 

Final Fantasy: Crisis?

 No victory fanfare yet

I love Final Fantasy. Don't we all? A majestic and magnificent anthology of high fantasy ever whipping us into vast and impressively woven worlds of magic, destiny, gods and spikey haired protagonists wielding impractical weapons. It's about as classic as a Japanese franchise can get if we ignore the existence of Dragon Quest which I am inclined to do because I sorely detest that entire franchise. (Don't ask.) Final Fantasy is one of those comforting pillars of the industry, a grandfather you know is always going to be there whom even though he learns a new trick every now and then, slips off the turn-based coat for a live action vest for a brief spell, he's ever the familiar relative. You'll recognise the monsters, the gods, the themes, the character archetypes,  that unerringly unchallenging moral compulsion. For a franchise helmed by so many talented visionaries over the years, it's actually somewhat surprising how uniform the franchise can be at times.

Of course, that isn't to say that I think the series plays it safe. God no, how could I even envision such a sentiment in a world that also boasts Ubisoft? In fact, lately is feels like every single entry from the Final Fantasy brand has taken considerable risks and come away healthier for the plunge, (whether I like to admit it myself or not.) Final Fantasy XV did away with vast parties of characters spread out across the world and affixed us with the core four, Final Fantasy 7 Remastered took an entry that many considered sacred and changed significant chunks of the narrative- and Final Fantasy XVI is preparing to take the biggest plunge yet, throwing the franchise back to it's euro-medieval routes that it shed over 25 years ago. Seriously, there hasn't been a medieval entry in this franchise since, I think, Final Fantasy VI. (Although even that did have steampunk motifs. You have to go further back for strict medieval.)

But do you know what might just be a bigger risk than even all that? Square Enix's bizarre trajectory to turning this gaming wide franchise into a console exclusive! This I can't even pretend is a modern development for them, Square have been trying this for since the dark ages. Final Fantasy XIII was inexplicably an Xbox exclusive right the heck out of nowhere, Final Fantasy VII was intended to be a Nintendo exclusive until a falling out over hardware led Square to move to Playstation as their soul distributors for a while. Final Fantasy XV might be the only one out of the pile to release for everyone, everywhere- and even then it couldn't quite make the leap to PC on release because Square are utterly clueless when it comes to PC ports. (Just ask the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Port. You'll have to ask a few time however, I hear it goes deaf during loud scenes.)

And it is that trajectory which I believe has some part to play in the many reasons why it could be that Final Fantasy XVI is said to be tracking at lower pre-order numbers than Final Fantasy XV had. (That is apparently accounting for the switch from a multiplatform release to a single platform; but you never know with Square; they might just be idiots.) Enix are having themselves a little bit of a tizzy according to reports, a bit of a light panic, as they wonder what exactly could be wracking their chances of eclipsing the FFXV pre-order numbers like they no doubt promised their investors, all the while having nightmares about what will happen if the game goes on to sell poorly. Personally, I don't think it will- I think this franchise has it's entrenched fans and they will rush to it, alongside YoshiP diehards who have stuck staunchly with FFXIV before now- but my speculations are merely that: speculations. Who can say what the winds will bring?

I know for a fact that Square Enix are down one specific pre-order that they had for Final Fantasy XV when that game was gearing up. Mine. I haven't pre-ordered Final Fantasy XVI. Wanna know why? Because I can't. I don't have a poxxy PS5! And of course, that mere fact makes me a non-entity to the Square Enix team. They don't consider me a person and my lost sales figure might as well be dust in their 'enlightened' eyes; but I think this actually has had a more significant effect on the proliferation of Final Fantasy XVI than Square have considered because get this... I don't care about Final Fantasy XVI. I love the franchise, I've played as many as I can get my hands on. But I couldn't care less about XVI's marketing or release. Why should I? I'm been chosen as a non-customer against my will. Therefore I haven't engaged with it, I haven't watched the trailers and I don't even know when it's release will be. And I'll bet I'm not the only Final Fantasy fan feeling like this.

Never underestimate the power of word of mouth, because sometimes that personal little head-to-head can spread as much wildfire as the world's most expensive marketing campaign! Back in the day I was a damn marketing solider for the Final Fantasy machine! I would tell everyone I could get my grubby mitts on just how incredible this game was going to be and exactly why they needed to play it too, because I was swept up in that tidal wave of excess exposure just as the marketing gods intended! When you've caught the heart and minds of your audience that much the game pretty much starts marketing itself. Content creators, fan forums, friends of friends; everyone else is doing the heavy lifting as the release of your game become elevated above the basic moment of a product launch and becomes an 'event', worthy of getting excited for! I'm sure FFXVI has some of that going on as well, but is it nearly as much as the previous game?

Final Fantasy XV got a crazy amount of coverage in the lead-up to it's release, in a manner that whipped up all the fandom into a frenzy over what was coming. FFXV didn't just exist in trailers, it existed in an entire expanded demo which was released alongside a port of FF Type-0 that everyone had to play for themselves. It had a presence at every gaming show. There were livestreams with the cast and developers talking about their work on the game and how important it was to them. And in those scant few weeks before the dropping date, the FF team weren't just doing interviews talking about the game, they were working social media like a machine. Final Fantasy was getting new trailers everyday for the 30 day lead-up until the dropping date. And yes, these 'new' trailers were just 15 second cut-ups of gameplay, but that was enough to make sure you weren't thinking about anything but Final Fantasy XV in those precious moments before the drop. Final Fantasy XVI just simply hasn't had nearly that amount of game marketing dominance. There's no real competition. 

 

Or perhaps this just isn't the Final Fantasy that people want it to be. Maybe the general populace have grown so used to the modern/sci-fi direction that Final Fantasy has rocked for two decades now and they simply don't want a return to medieval fantasy. Maybe people think of the dark fantasy takes on this genre and consider that where the spirit of the genre currently rests, with the From Softs and the CDPR's of the world. Maybe people just don't care about Final Fantasy XVI because it isn't the game they want it to be, and thus didn't show up for the pre-order numbers. I certainly don't see it that way, but I'm not the majority of the populace- now am I? Still, I'm sure that at the end of the day the team will work it out and get the numbers that they need. Especially considering that, despite it's success, FFXV lost support before it's full cycle of DLC. Here's hoping XVI at least gets to tell it's full story!