Most complicated story?

[hhr1dluv]

Hey all, here's another poll, and again it's born of my lack of desire to study.

After reading the thread about best main villain exits and hearing about all these crazy things happening with time travel, and Garland, and "And..." I felt like making this topic.

Which Final Fantasy, in your opinion, has the most complex story? Or, more specifically, which FF leads you to go "What the eff just happened?!" most often? I realize this means two different things. :P You can clarify in your posts. I imagine I'll have some persnickety people saying, for example: "FF Tactics is the most complex, but understandable...FFVIII is like: AUGHHHH."

I included a few of the spinoffs as well...basically as many as I could remember/be arsed to put in (yes, I fake slang).

[black orb]

>>> Anything that involves time traveling, that mess up everything.

[Saber]

ff8 got me thinking.

[The Man]

VII. And that's not a good thing.

Though, I haven't played Tactics enough to judge its story; some people say it's even more complicated (in a good way, though).

[Wolf Kanno]

Final Fantasy Tactics, it was a true political story in which you had to pay attention and remember who is who. The complexity of its character development and storytelling still makes it one of the greatest FF games in the series. Besides, when your game features a bibliography that keeps you up to date on the plot and characters, you know its complex.

[Crimson]

Id say FFVIII due to the time thing making it hard to figure out left from right.


Although, FFVIII's complicated story compared to Chrono Cross on the otherhand....

[Wolf Kanno]

I feel time travel only makes things complicated when you start thinking about the process in itself. When you take Chrono Trigger and VIII for what they are and don't think about the physics behind it then you will see the stories are fairly simple. Its when you get people who write those 100 page essays on how time travel works in VIII and how its actual linear and not cyclical while also assuming the role that parallel worlds created by split off times affect the greater scheme of things and ultimately show that a few ambiguous notions prove once and for all without a doubt that R=U. :rolleyes2

[hhr1dluv]

Wait, Rinoa isn't Ultimecia?

:bgl:

[Fynn]

Wait, Rinoa isn't Ultimecia?

I'll have to go with Kanno for this thread. Just including time-travel doesn't make VIII's story overly complex. Tactics's is a lot more complicated, though I haven't beaten the game yet.

[Ichimonji]

FF Tactics takes the cake. As for most explained history of the world, it'll probably be FFX, or XI.

[Serapy]

I feel time travel only makes things complicated when you start thinking about the process in itself. When you take Chrono Trigger and VIII for what they are and don't think about the physics behind it then you will see the stories are fairly simple. Its when you get people who write those 100 page essays on how time travel works in VIII and how its actual linear and not cyclical while also assuming the role that parallel worlds created by split off times affect the greater scheme of things and ultimately show that a few ambiguous notions prove once and for all without a doubt that R=U. :rolleyes2

Try to replicate the VIII's story by writing an essay. Don't mention anything about the physics involved, but just mention hardcopy information given by the game's events and you'll know that it will turn out not making any sense in the end. That's because the game is meant to be mysterious as intended by SquareSoft.

[Wolf Kanno]

I feel time travel only makes things complicated when you start thinking about the process in itself. When you take Chrono Trigger and VIII for what they are and don't think about the physics behind it then you will see the stories are fairly simple. Its when you get people who write those 100 page essays on how time travel works in VIII and how its actual linear and not cyclical while also assuming the role that parallel worlds created by split off times affect the greater scheme of things and ultimately show that a few ambiguous notions prove once and for all without a doubt that R=U. :rolleyes2

Try to replicate the VIII's story by writing an essay. Don't mention anything about the physics involved, but just mention hardcopy information given by the game's events and you'll know that it will turn out not making any sense in the end. That's because the game is meant to be mysterious as intended by SquareSoft.

Its not that terribly hard to follow and it does make sense except for plot elements that are introduced and then subsequently dropped for no reason, by that I mean the GF memory stealing and Ultemacia's motive for Time Compression. I don't think there's anything mysterious about VIII just some sloppy writing and an addicting card game.

[Serapy]

Ultimecia wasn`t exactly not one of the plot`s elements, though. If you have managed to write about the backgrounds of the characters (Squall, Rinoa, Zell, etc.) then I'm sure it would be also logical to write about the background of Ultimecia because she was the main villain. However, that's a problem, since her background wasn`t not fully detailed. Sloppy writing? Well, it hardly takes countless hours to add dialogues such as "I'm Ultimecia, my goal is [sic]", "Why did I come here? [sic]", etc. which should be quite enough to complete her background information.

I don't play the card game, what a shame.. :rolleyes2

I forget to mention that I voted for FF X-2.

[Rye]

FFVIII. I just... I still don't think I understand all of the loose threads, even after all of the times I played it. xD Once you get to Disc 3, it just becomes a massive head puzzle.

[Bolivar]

There's alot of different ways to define compelexity in a story, I don't think "WTF just happened" should be one of them.

FFTactics probably had the most amount of threads, and IMO they all get tied up nicely. A chance meeting with a character in Ch. 2 could lead to him being an important character in chapter 3, having a sentimental scene in the ending, and a tragic end in the epilogue. There are many layers of exploitation to unravel, to where everyone previous seems to be not so bad (with few exceptions, there are evil characters in Matsuno stories). It might take away a bit that the ultimate user, main exploiter/bad guy when all said is done is the cliche RPG scapegoat - the lord of darkness/whatever you want to call it. It still remains one of the most complex stories in the FF Universe.

If you want to talk plot devices, I would give it to FFVII. Love triangles, en media rey storytelling, unreliable protagonist/narrator, technological symbolism which leads to societal metaphors, the way things are placed side by side to be compared, this was a big game from a literary standpoint. Add in the countless themes that are in the game, some of which simply had to be toned down for later installments due to the popular success of the franchise, and you got one of the most complex stories in the series.