indigozeal (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
indigozeal) wrote2013-06-27 04:49 pm
indigozeal) wrote2013-06-27 04:49 pm
The empire strikes out
I've begun playing Baten Kaitos, and last session, I happened upon the game's main plot, about the machinations of a power-hungry Empire. I got Legend of Heroes 3 a couple days ago, and the only story the manual mentions is about the looming threat of a rapacious Empire. I open an article about the revamped Final Fantasy XIV, and the new plot, meant as FF6 fanservice, centers on an expanding Empire.
I know only one of those titles was made in the last five years, but: enough with the freaking Empires already. It's not like there are multiple surprising directions in which that plot can go. I wonder why I spend so much time with dinky amateur RPG Maker titles, and yet I remember the plots: a little girl is trapped in an otherworldly art museum; a mute hikikomori neglects real life in favor of exploring malevolent dreamscapes; an amnesiac is guided by a psychologist to sort through her remaining shred of memory and recover her identity. Yes, there's a common thread throughout these games of surreal mindscapes turned tangible, but it's one that invites variation and imagination. The progression and denouement of the Empire plot is predetermined virtually from its inception, and yet so many RPGs default to it.
(That said, I can think of a couple cases where an Empire plot was explored from a legitimately new perspective, but both diverge in significant ways from the traditional yarn. The Angelique side-story novel Beneath Wings of Black is set in an Empire whose reach is total, with no legitimate challengers to its dominion, which allows for an intriguing exploration of the decadent culture and economy of a world that gives its foremost citizens no real option to be good. The tale focuses on a distaff and relatively upstanding member of the royal family legitimately wronged by his kin and follows him and his supporters as they are thoroughly corrupted by what they have to do to grow powerful enough to pose a legitimate challenge to the establishment. Additionally, the Silver Star games of the Lunar series - which is quality but no bastion of nontraditionalism - feature a looming Empire that must be challenged by a few plucky kids, but said Empire isn't yet all-powerful at the start of the game; it's relatively nascent and hidden in a region sealed away from the rest of a the world, which doesn't even know of said Empire's existence at the beginning of the story. When it finally breaks its bonds at the game's climax, its dominance over the rest of the world is instant and total, not protracted over the entire length of the narrative, which is devoted more to exploring the historical issues and racial injustices that enabled its rise. That said, Silver Star's Empire plotline is still backseat to a strong character- and values-based conflict.)
.
I know only one of those titles was made in the last five years, but: enough with the freaking Empires already. It's not like there are multiple surprising directions in which that plot can go. I wonder why I spend so much time with dinky amateur RPG Maker titles, and yet I remember the plots: a little girl is trapped in an otherworldly art museum; a mute hikikomori neglects real life in favor of exploring malevolent dreamscapes; an amnesiac is guided by a psychologist to sort through her remaining shred of memory and recover her identity. Yes, there's a common thread throughout these games of surreal mindscapes turned tangible, but it's one that invites variation and imagination. The progression and denouement of the Empire plot is predetermined virtually from its inception, and yet so many RPGs default to it.
(That said, I can think of a couple cases where an Empire plot was explored from a legitimately new perspective, but both diverge in significant ways from the traditional yarn. The Angelique side-story novel Beneath Wings of Black is set in an Empire whose reach is total, with no legitimate challengers to its dominion, which allows for an intriguing exploration of the decadent culture and economy of a world that gives its foremost citizens no real option to be good. The tale focuses on a distaff and relatively upstanding member of the royal family legitimately wronged by his kin and follows him and his supporters as they are thoroughly corrupted by what they have to do to grow powerful enough to pose a legitimate challenge to the establishment. Additionally, the Silver Star games of the Lunar series - which is quality but no bastion of nontraditionalism - feature a looming Empire that must be challenged by a few plucky kids, but said Empire isn't yet all-powerful at the start of the game; it's relatively nascent and hidden in a region sealed away from the rest of a the world, which doesn't even know of said Empire's existence at the beginning of the story. When it finally breaks its bonds at the game's climax, its dominance over the rest of the world is instant and total, not protracted over the entire length of the narrative, which is devoted more to exploring the historical issues and racial injustices that enabled its rise. That said, Silver Star's Empire plotline is still backseat to a strong character- and values-based conflict.)
.