« Lord of the Rings: War in the North Teaser Trailer Released
Final Fantasy XIII has more flashbacks than an episode of Lost »

After reading the first part of this you might come to the conclusion that Final Fantasy VII specifically is a soap opera. So to prove that it’s the entire series, part 2 will not mention FF7 at all.

As before, beware of spoilers below.

Someone Pretending to be Someone Else

In a typical soap opera, this usually means there are twins involved. Both are involved in an accident, one dies. But which one? Before anyone realizes it, the live twin pretends she’s the other, and takes over her dead sister’s life. Sometimes all a case of mistaken identity needs is someone who looks similar to someone else. But even this is optional. I once saw a small bit of a soap opera where one woman was blind, and a man who she actually hates managed to have a relationship with her because he pretended to be her boyfriend (who was conveniently missing).

By now you must be thinking I’m going too far. There are no blind characters in Final Fantasy! True, true (as far as I know). But there is at least one character who not only pretended to be someone else… she pretended to be another gender. Faris Scherwiz of Final Fantasy V appears to be the male captain of a pirate ship. He is the strongest member in the party once he joins you. Oh and he’s also a she. And she is really Sarisa Highwind Tycoon, long lost sister to Princess Lenna. That’s right. He is a princess. She was separated from her family when she was young and raised by pirates. That has to be the plot of some soap opera out there.

Final Fantasy XII has the more typical soap opera impostor twin. Basch’s twin brother Noah, aka Gabranth, pretends to be Basch and frames him for the murder of the king. The murder starts a war, Basch is seen as a traitor, and in general bad stuff goes down. All thanks to one guy pretending to be someone else. Typical.

Eyepatches

There is always an eyepatch. Always.

In Final Fantasy (IX), there is Beatrix.

Amnesia

One of the most commonly used plot devices in soap operas is amnesia. Do you need someone to do something completely out of character? Want someone to conveniently forget something? Simply give them amnesia! Side effects include the option to pair the character with someone they actually hate, and the ability of other characters to lie to the amnesiac. Do anything with amnesia!

I promised I wouldn’t talk about Final Fantasy VII, so I won’t mention the time Cloud lost his memories while he was poisoned.

Instead, I’ll talk about Terra Branford of Final Fantasy VI. Terra is at first controlled by the Empire. She is a tool and has no feelings or thoughts of her own. This is thanks to a slave crown she wears. When this crown is removed (surprise surprise!) Terra suffers from amnesia. “I was a tool of destruction and evil? Hmm… Can’t say I remember that.”

Another instance of amnesia occurs in Final Fantasy VIII. Here pretty much every playable character except Irvine Kinneas suffers from memory loss thanks to magical beings whose purpose is… to cause long term memory loss. Yeah. There’s no better way to cause plot twists than to reveal something that a character has conveniently forgotten until the middle of a game.


Rating:
(Avg: Need 5 votes)
 


« Lord of the Rings: War in the North Teaser Trailer Released
Final Fantasy XIII has more flashbacks than an episode of Lost »

7 Comments »

Dear Guest, please login to comment

Login with your Wirebot account

Create New Account | Forgot password?

OR login with Facebook


Please keep the comments clean by not posting advertisements, profanity, or personal attacks. Terms of Use.

Does Mystic Quest count as playing a Final Fantasy game? No? Oh, well. Now that I’ve mentioned it, please allow me to revisit my, ahem, totally legal version of the game.


xD Couldn’t you also end up with Red13? If you really messed up with everyone? xD If not, you should have.

Sorry! But I think it’s true! Especially ff7. I guess the main difference is that the acting is better. But I mean.. ff13 even makes it so you have to go through battles as fast as you can! A majority of that game looks like it’s cinematics and story. Really… convoluted and twisted story. Someone “dies” but then it turns out they’re not dead. Someone has amnesia.. but then it turns out they were only pretending. I’m just waiting for the eyepatch to show up. Soap operas always have an eyepatch. <<


^ IRIS is a Korean drama.

Ewww. Please don’t compare Final Fantasy stories to soap operas. The plot may be similar sometimes, but FF games aren’t to similar to soap operas since they know how to present a well-balanced story in an even-paced and fashionable manner.

Yuliya you never beaten a Final Fantasy game!? Shame on you! Lol jk jk… maybe. It took me my 4th try in playing FFIX to finally beat the game. That’s because I get bored of grinding, so I stopped, then replayed the game over again. I don’t even want to say how many times I’ve played FFVII to the near end.

I love the FFVIICC screen shots. So sad. I’m getting teary-eyed already. I like the fan art too. I also debated whether Cloud should take Tifa or Aeris around Gold Saucer. smile


DannyTruong - 03/18/10 10:22 pm

YULIYA! I missed you and ur blogs XD haha
Yes thats what I’ve been telling EVERYONE. This is like watching Smallville or some other WB show. The WB has more in common with Final Fantasy than Iris does.

Smallville is a teen drama with super hero elements--same goes for Final Fantasy. But I love both to death raspberry

Iris? O_O

Aww I missed you too Danny! I had to get my life and schedule in order. And now my husband got me sick. : D

And MAN these two ff posts took me over two days to write. GAH!


^Unless you’re playing ffX and have to deal with Tidus’ incessant whining. Also, Spanish telenovelas are exactly the same way!


Good thing about FF is that, you don’t have to see the main character cry in every other episode. I’m talking about those romance dramas where there is someone crying 3-4 times in just about every single episode. Well, at least that’s what happens in the Korean Dramas I used to watch.


YULIYA! I missed you and ur blogs XD haha
Yes thats what I’ve been telling EVERYONE. This is like watching Smallville or some other WB show. The WB has more in common with Final Fantasy than Iris does.

Smallville is a teen drama with super hero elements--same goes for Final Fantasy. But I love both to death raspberry



suggest a link

Follow Us


Newsletter

Tips

We love to hear from our users, so if you have anything you would like us to write about let us know by emailing us at tips@wirebot.com.

MustRead


Popular Blog Posts

Categories


Archives


Tag Cloud

About Wirebot

Wirebot is not only a source for gaming news, reviews, and updates on the industry, but also your entrance into a community of gamers who care about frags and experience points just as much as you do. It is a place to talk, grow, learn, laugh and breathe games. Wirebot hardwires you directly into a system that tears down the wall between writer and reader where your input is just as important as ours. Welcome, stay, contribute, game.

The Bloggers