I recently finished playing Final Fantasy 9 from the Playstation
Network and had a number of thoughts on the themes of the game from a Catholic
perspective.
Character
and identity
A large and recurring theme in the game is
that of identity, and to its credit the game features some well crafted
characters that are appealing and interesting. The game's leveling up pathways
for each characters differ, as does the equipment they can wear and the
abilities they can learn, something that I really like as I think it reflects
faithfully the principle that each individual is created by God for a definitive
role or purpose and that they find fulfillment in living according to their
design.
Ultimately every human person has been
known by God from eternity inasmuch as God has known Himself from all eternity
and each person reflects or embodies in creation an attribute of God Himself.
In the loving gaze of the Son proceeding from the Father is contained the
blueprint for all created persons. When we speak of vocation it is the
objective fact that God has designed you to encapsulate in your life and
personality a certain fundamental truth about Him.
We find this in FF9 in a way we don't see
in FF7 where Cloud can essentially be molded by the player into whatever role
the player wishes, or in later FFs where over time characters move out from
their given roles. In FF9 there is an understanding that it is good to have an
identity, that the quest of finding out one's identity is a worthwhile project
and that fulfillment is somehow to be found through living in accords with that
identity.
Each character in FF9 struggles with these
issues of identity and almost half of the characters realise that they weren't
who they thought they were to some degree, they then have to adapt to the
reality of who they really are and discern how this is to be lived.
From a Catholic perspective some come
through this crisis better than others. I think Garnet comes out very well, she
integrates the fact that she is a summoner and not the biological child of the
queen very well, she is honest with herself and those near to her that her
background is more complicated than it seemed and yet she realises that 'who
she is' is shaped by more than just biological factors and that her calling is nonetheless
to be future queen.
Steiner comes through his crisis fairly
well as he realises that essentially to be a good knight requires him to serve
the crown faithfully but that of even greater importance is to obey the moral
law written in his heart.
Vivi is a very interesting character and
probably my favourite character in the game, he has the most explicit identity
crisis when he discovers that he is manufactured and manufactured to carry out
an immoral purpose.
Vivi doesn't at this point reject the fact
he is a black mage, something which could have happened, or alternatively
decide that he has to be an evil black mage. Vivi seeks to realise how being a
manufactured black mage need not mean living a destructive life. Vivi's powers
and abilities which being a black mage endows him with, can be used in a good
means. In both the case of Vivi and Zidane the
ability to make friends, to experience loving relations, seems to bring life to
their unfortunate inherited natures of being creatures intended to destructive
purposes.
Here is a glimpse of the reality that each
of us, regardless of how messed up our family background is, possesses a
fundamental vocation to love and that in loving others the meaning of our lives
in illuminated. When we love and give ourselves in love we come closer to
enabling who we really are, in God's plan, to surface.
Reality
of Objective Moral laws.
Final Fantasy 9 actually does fairly well
here, much better than 10 or 12, there are clear “conscience characters” such
as Vivi and Steiner who are reliable in asserting the moral order. Everyone
knows that the mage-manufacturing is objectively wrong, that it is an
undignified way to come into the world and a perversion of the natural creative
order- it doesn't need to be vocalised, it is presumed quite rightly that what
is going on is wrong and that an objective moral law that is being broken.
Interior
Struggle to pursue the good.
We don't see too many occasions where
characters have to fight their fallen side and selfish inclinations to do what
is right, perhaps in Steiner as he vows to rescue to princess or fights to the
end to try and defend the castle. The good characters generally find it easy to
pursue the right course. When it comes to the struggle to remain pure and live
a chaste life, there are some problems with modesty on behalf of Garnet and
clearly Zidane has issues with the ninth commandment. Overall however the game
is not generally impure, even if there is no recognition of the battle to
remain chaste which we must all undertake and the virtue in being victorious in
this fight. That Cid experiences a punishment for his womanising behaviour is
treated with humour, but certainly it seems that after the experience of having
been a variety of different creatures, he is quite sure that he is now going to
remain faithful to his wife, nor does he have any resentment towards her but
realises that her punishment on him had been deserved in some sense.
Divine
Providence
working through free will.
There is no reference to providence or the
concept that there is higher power at work in bringing about the good. There is
some irony in that Garland's
instruments to destroy Gaia end up destroying him. That evil destroys itself
through its wicked schemes is an important truth that the game seems to echo a
number of times.
Self
sacrifice for others
On quite a number of times we see
characters choosing to stay to fight with their friends when the friend wishes
to go on a solo vendetta. There is a very strong emphasis on the value of
fighting for the good and being willing to join another in his own personal
struggle for what is right. At the end of the game we even see Zidane wishing
to undergo great danger to be with Kuja, and even possibly to save him, he does
this on the basis of understanding that he could have easily become like Kuja,
and also after recognising that Kuja has been responsible for teleporting the
party into safety.
Basic
Christian Theodicy-
Monotheism, Goodness of creation, understanding of eternal reward/punishment
based on moral behaviour.
After having commented on how
supportive the game is to a basic Christian worldview we finally come to its
major weakness! Unfortunately, the game has major problems in the area of the
natural theology. Only gradually do the problems become apparent and they are
generally confined to the last disc. I will outline three problem areas.
1) The game has the typical FF poison of
viewing souls as recyclable, the idea that, after you die, your soul returns to
the planet, to then, at a later point be given to another individual. This idea
essentially does away with any concept of reward or punishment for good and
evil, and the fate of each is exactly the same- essentially annihilation. This
means that the whole emphasis on identity and character present throughout the
game is rendered rather meaningless for ultimately you have no lasting identity,
you are a recycled soul that will, very soon, sink back into the mush of soul
energy. The nature of the soul is even more
problematically presented as the game explains how the souls of the dead that
are inside the planet can be sucked up to be used to power airships, and indeed
to animate artificial creatures. This undermines the previous strength of the
game in emphasising the dignity of the individual as a person with a unique
identity and so the player is ultimately left very confused as to whether his
life has any meaning at all, or indeed, whether his life actually is uniquely
his own or is some kind of reincarnation job.
2) Then there is the problem about how the
game answers its own ongoing question of "what is the meaning of
life?" The issue is significant for Vivi because he does not have a clear
identity/ character which can easily offer his life meaning. Vivi, at one point in the game, perhaps
its highest point, considers what it means to die and whether life continues
after death, the moment is profound and well crafted.
Sadly the conclusion he comes to at the
end of the game and the solution that the game promotes is the following: A)
that 'our memories live on' and B) that we should live life “to the full”
while we can. With respect to the first 'solution' (A)
the game proposes a bizarre theory that all life, apparently having evolved
from space dust, has a connection to each other and that the connection carries
the memory of lower life forms- I'd like to see how consoling that doctrine is
to someone on their deathbed. It is philosophically ridiculous for obvious
reasons. Even if we take the view that memories have a physical side to them
and are in some way impressed upon the brain, it is certain that a rock or a
particle in space cannot possess a memory, Furthermore, even if memories are
simply physical qualities of the brain, the brain is not, in its entirety
transmitted in sexual reproduction. Aside from the nonsense pseudo science, at
its most basic sense, Vivi's first solution is not evil and it has some basis
in scripture. In the Old Testament there is a strong sense at times that it is
a good thing to be remembered as an honorable person in order to be an example
and encouragement for future generations. The point is however; our memories do not
live on somewhere out there, floating around in the sky. Our memories do live
on, in as much as God wills it, as infused knowledge in the separated soul that
has gone forth to be judged by him
The second solution (B) is much more
pernicious and undermines a lot of what is good about the game, it is
fundamentally the assertion of atheist existentialists- that life is
meaningless but enjoy the ride and forget about how meaningless the whole thing
is.
What should have Vivi said from his position as living before
divine revelation? Well, ideally Vivi could have concluded A) our memories live
on and B) Our lives have value from the good we achieve in them. C) The good we
perform goes with us into the unknown of the next life to bring us some kind of
reward.
3) Finally, in terms of natural theology,
the game suffers, in its closing few hours, from a bizarre theological idea
that all life, all souls, all existence, somehow depends on this giant space
crystal and that if the space crystal is destroyed everything falls into
annihilation.... The Almighty space crystal which is completely inert, indifferent,
unthinking, rock is somehow the source of the existence of life- both spiritual
and physical. Furthermore, the Almighty space crystal needs its creatures to
defend it! Finally, the fact that the crystal is a thing, existing in the
universe, causes anyone with a little bit of philosophical reasoning to
realise that a thing,
existing in the universe, itself composed of parts cannot be the eternal
uncreated, source for the universe. Because the crystal is a material thing we
can reasonably ask "how, indeed, did this crystal get there?"- Things
don't simply exist they require an explanation. Even if the space crystal is
the cause of other material life, the space crystal needs an uncreated,
eternal, spiritual, immutable cause.
Conclusion
Overall I enjoyed playing FFIX- from a
gamer’s point of view the game has a lot going for it- the music, the battle
system, the lightheartedness, the character development. The game is also the
very peak of the psx graphical capabilities. The battles system had fewer
cracks in it compared to 8, which could easily be broken by the gamer and the
summons are a lot shorter to watch! I’m probably rate it above ff8 and ff12 but
under ff7 and 10.As the game went on I was disappointed with the nonsense Japanese
new agey stuff that infects the otherwise healthy portrayal of characters
trying to work out their place in the universe. The plot isn't as insidious as
FFX, Xenogears or Final Fantasy Tactics but it isn't a preparation for the
Gospel by any means.
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