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Dreams from Another World

Why a lot of promising stories are being ruined by Time Travel

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Rpg Maker
, 02-08-2012 at 08:37 PM (487 Views)

So my roommates picked up Final Fantasy XIII-2 a couple days ago, and somehow I was excited. I convinced myself that there was no possible way a final fantasy story can get any worse than the original Final Fantasy XIII, and that this game would be the key to redeeming the awful narrative of the original game. Come to find out, its worse than the original. Its just..terrible.

For one, the game misuses time travel and use the concept to stuff a bunch of crazy random nonsense in the game. For every bizarre or weird thing that happen, the game blames it on a paradox.


Oh my god a flan, why are we fighting this thing? Paradox.

FF XIII-2 could have had a decent story, but it almost makes time traveling such a dry genre or storyline. Its convoluted, melodramatic and stupid. And the thing is, FF XIII-2 is a lot better than the original in terms of gameplay and content, but how can they ruin such an expertly crafted world? The mythology of Final Fantasy XIII is just superb, why would SE ruin this by a stupid time travel plot is beyond me? Moreover, they could have used the entire sequel to flesh out Lightning( Dont get me started on a lack of good female protagonist, next blog anyone?)

The Final Fantasy series isnt the only culprits behind ruining great stories. My other favorite series, Lost and Heroes eventually become Time Travel stories.



Its not that these stories are bad, certainty better than FF XIII-2, but I just liked them a lot more when their complexity came from relationships quarrels, and foreshadowing that brought tension to the story lines. I never finished either series because time travel is becoming cliche. Nobody is really making good use of it anymore.

One would ask, well arent you making a time travel plot? Yes, but time travel in my story just brings tension to the plot, it doesnt drive it. Stories do not need time travel to become complex, and I think people should focus more on characters and narratives and less about anomalies in time.

I dont know, every time I start a story and it has time traveling, I grow to hate it entirely. Just seems like a cheap move since this tends to happen later on in shows and movies.

( This blog shouldnt detour you from getting FF XIII-2, but its isnt saying get it either, if that makes any sense.)
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Comments

  1. Fang's Avatar
    Yeah, time travel tales do tend to get a bit messy if not done right. I honestly haven't played many games with time travel in them but often my brain just gets all knotted comprehending the plot.

    It took me years to realise that FFX's alleged time travel wasn't that at all...
    Updated 02-11-2012 at 12:14 AM by Fang
  2. Rpg Maker's Avatar
    Exactly, Final Fantasy X is a time travel plot, but its really easy to understand and suits the narrative. Idk, maybe its just me, but I just noticed how much I lose interest once stories become time travel heavy. Gotta still beat FF VIII lol but I just remembered that had time traveling and I never finished. Do I hate time travel? I think a little and maybe thats what this blog is getting at.

    Kinda weird since I am doing a time travel plot--which is "time" consuming. Its like writing the world over a bagillion times. Got easier once I focused more on the characters though. Anyway, I would stay away from this games story; I beat it and I still dont understand it exactly lol

    At this point I dont want Square Enix to continue the Chrono series,thats for sure.
    Updated 02-11-2012 at 01:47 AM by Rpg Maker
  3. thi766's Avatar
    There's no real time traveling in FFX - Tidus just travels from the dreamed, summoned world to the real one, then believes he is in the future (because he is told the city from wich he came from is supposedly dead, but he actually doesn't come from "that" Zanarkand, he comes from the "dream" zanarkand)

    As far as FF8 is concerned, i believe it is some weird complex imagination thing where Squall is just imagining stuff in his consciousness based on memories of what he has lived, but he's actually dying in his "final" dream ("final fantasy") - I believe it's some reflexion about dreams and reality, demonstrating that dreams are just as valuable as reality, and there is no real difference between the two, as the two only exist first through your "consciousness".
    (either that or FF8's story is just flawed)


    Anyway, i'm not interested in XIII-2, it looks really boring and unisteresting to me, and the story looks boring maybe less because of the time travelling thing than because of the bland uninteresting (and only 2) characters, a MONSTER (???) party member and the kinda chessy wannabe villain... it's just so......... ... ... well anyway gameplay - wise it looks great, but gameplay doesn't make a game worth buying in my opinion.


    I haven't played LBP in a long time (and i also took a serious break from creating), but i didn't forget your game. I hope to one day see and play the finished product of your project, and i believe it is definitaley worthy of being Mm picked. So hopefully, at least your level will get Mmpicked because it really deserves it.

    You seem to be good at story writing and stuff, and i don't have anything against time travelling plots, and you seem to make good use of it so i think you willl make something awesome. Even if the story is weird your game would probaby still be the best ever made because technically it would just be so awesome. (i haven't seen anything of it but for some reason i just believe it will be awesome, because you seem really talented in logic and all that and the concept is great)

    -thi
  4. Rpg Maker's Avatar
    Ehh yea I was looking for the sequel to Aurora Somnis when I visited your page a couple weeks ago! lol jk breaks are good. Honestly I took some time off as well from creating, but I want to finish in time for Xenoblade coming in April.

    Final Fantasy X does seem like a time travel plot until this truth is discovered though, at least a little bit since Tidus constantly compares the times of Spira to his own( though Zanarkand looks more like the future than Spira did). Its defiantly not Chrono Trigger though. Cant really comment on FF VIII's story further, but I am playing it now. Just heard some friends talking about how it was a time travel story with Rinoa and Ultimecia. Sounds pretty convulted, but I got to finish for myself.

    About FF XIII-2, I found those two characters more fleshed out than the entire cast of the original( not that thats exactly hard to do but..) and the villian is suprisingly good, even though he looks like a Soul-Edge wielding generic villian wannabe. His motives are actually more realistic than say Sephiroth, or Kefka and is one of the better FF villians surprisingly. But yea, I dont think you would like it though; I dont. It doesnt really seem to expand on the story of the original. Like Lightning seems like a completely different character in this one.

    About the writing...Im not sure how effective it is. I certainty played my share of RPGs, but this is the first full story I have written. It does show I have some bizzare ideas, but I try to make the actual story familar. I typically use that "familiar,yet, foreign" slogan a lot. Meaning the world is pretty outlandish, but players should feel comfortable once they actually start watching the story. Hopefully you guys like it, because like you said, its pretty hard to get into an RPG if the story isnt remotely interesting.
    Updated 02-11-2012 at 02:20 PM by Rpg Maker
  5. Rogar's Avatar
    I think pretty much any time travel story will start to show cracks if you examine it closely, but they can still be enjoyable by diverting attention away from the logic. FFXIII-2 fails to do this for me, but I'm still enjoying it more than XIII because of the freedom and exploration. I hate farming (especially Long-gui) but went through with it because it was the only thing standing in the way of my first platinum trophy, yet right now I'm farming monster materials to get my ideal monster pack, just because I want to. So maybe you should give the game a try, Thi766?

    Hmm, either I totally missed that Zanarkand was a dream, or I forgot. I may have to get that FFX remake after all.
  6. Rpg Maker's Avatar
    You should! I am getting it too. I finally finished FF XIII-2--it got better towards the end, but with Tales of Graces F around the corner and Mass Effect 3...I dunno lol
  7. Jonarrthan's Avatar
    TBH as far as story goes I can't be bothered anymore. I find the better the story in final fantasy games the worst the game is. (mordan games I mean not older) personually I loved FFXII due it's battle system and the free romaining aspect. the story may of been nothing special but my main problem in FFXII was the gamebits which played the game for you and bosses that took days to kill because of there rediculas HP. but in FFXIII auto battle is just put there which takes the fun out of fighting. even though the battle system is terrible. but if FFXIII2 is not linear and got some good battle systems I will buy it
  8. fumetsusozo's Avatar
    (RPG Maker> Dont get me started on a lack of good female protagonist, next blog anyone?)

    Same here. you know my opinion when it comes to that. :P
    and no surprise about FF13-2 having a bad story when the first did not. to be honest out of all the FFs i've played, 7 and up. i've only liked 7 and 9 at all.... 8,10,12 and 13... even though i did not buy 13 since i read about it online. all have at least IMO bad stories. *mew
  9. Shadowcrazy's Avatar
    why is there no like button for blog posts? :/
  10. Rpg Maker's Avatar
    Hmmm that is a good question. I like the idea of likes versus ratings, because its kinda weird rating blogs in general.