Post a Comment On: Catholic Video Gamers

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I don't know if anyone else has been following the Final Fantasy VII 'series', my take on it is that the whole thing is getting more and more ridiculous... (at least in terms of storyline). Final Fantasy VII certaily had a wierd enough plotline but the sequals, prequals and side-stories have simply squared the number of questions and expanded plot holes even further.

The identity of Cloud, the identity of Zack, the motive/origin of Sephiroth, the pantheistic planet-worship, the lifestream, the 'resurrection' of Aeris.

Does it matter? That's a good question, and I think it does, certainly so if the games are proposing themselves to be more that just mindless entertainment. Why has it happend? What is causing apparently 'serious' games to tend towards growing into illogical, confusing and incomplete storylines as the game progresses? Chrono Cross, Xenogears even FFVIII are other good examples of this.

Are gamers taking the storylines too seriously? Should the Final Fantasy VII series make sense?

Something in me says yes, that storylines should be completed, that questions should be answered. Pope Benedict in his encyclical Spe Salvi suggests that the desire that we all have for justice in life is due to a fundamental deeply held conviction that there will one day be a final judgement. Things on earth that were unsettled will be settled. The ultimate balance of injustice against God and neighbour will be put right. Our justice will be satisfied because God will bring about true justice. If we are among the saints (which I sincerely hope) we will praise God's justice as we see the accursed sent into hell.

Perhaps in the same vein, the desire for a closure and completeness to a storyline relates to a deeply held desire that is part of human nature. A desire for life to have a meaning a desire to know its meaning. Praise God that we do- in Jesus Christ.