I always find a bit of gentle snark to be an effective way to deal with frustrating elements of properties I otherwise enjoy. ;)
With regards to FFX in particular, I actually feel rather ambivalent towards it. Back when I first played, I wasn't familiar with anti-organized-religion tropes, so I read Yevon as some weird pagan religion and wasn't inclined to question the party's rejection of it. And even now, while the presence of the modernist myth of rejecting tradition to attain freedom is impossible to overlook, the game still supports other, more interesting interpretations (most notably the rejection of the scapegoat mechanism as a tool of cultural preservation, a la Rene Girard).
With that said, I suspect that the reason for this complexity may be due to FFX treating Catholic elements as pure window dressing and focusing its critique on Japanese religious traditions. (I ran into an interview some years back where one of the game's major creative voices effectively said as much.) Unfortunately, FF's antagonistic tendencies towards religion generally lack that sort of nuance when dealing with religious traditions that aren't native to Japan.
July 9, 2020 at 12:20 AM
I recently came across a Youtube Channel by Ikkin which has some awesome videos on the how FFXV can be seen as supporting the Catholic Faith.
I really love her videos because she offers a sophisticated analysis of the game in the same way that I attempt to do through the reviews in this blog.
If you have played FFXV or if you don't mind massive spoilers, check out her videos, she has a 3 part series on FFXV.
I hadn't even touched FFXV prior to Ikkin's reviews, but now I am getting engrossed in it so hope do to some more posts on this game once I have completed it.
I love how in her first video on FFXV she makes a general analysis on how so many FFs are anti Catholic in story pointing out the 2 worst culprits FFX and Tactics, she does it in a really amusing style that is brutally true. As I said, watch the whole thing if you don't mind spoilers:
"Final Fantasy XV- THE Catholic FF?"
1 Comment -
Thank you very much for the kind words!
I always find a bit of gentle snark to be an effective way to deal with frustrating elements of properties I otherwise enjoy. ;)
With regards to FFX in particular, I actually feel rather ambivalent towards it. Back when I first played, I wasn't familiar with anti-organized-religion tropes, so I read Yevon as some weird pagan religion and wasn't inclined to question the party's rejection of it. And even now, while the presence of the modernist myth of rejecting tradition to attain freedom is impossible to overlook, the game still supports other, more interesting interpretations (most notably the rejection of the scapegoat mechanism as a tool of cultural preservation, a la Rene Girard).
With that said, I suspect that the reason for this complexity may be due to FFX treating Catholic elements as pure window dressing and focusing its critique on Japanese religious traditions. (I ran into an interview some years back where one of the game's major creative voices effectively said as much.) Unfortunately, FF's antagonistic tendencies towards religion generally lack that sort of nuance when dealing with religious traditions that aren't native to Japan.
July 9, 2020 at 12:20 AM