HATERS GONNA HATE, FFX style

[Jiro]

I thought Jiro's epic rant was pretty good. I can respect a good rant, I do it all the time. But...

OBJECTION!

I agree with mostly everything you said... However, bad writing can ruin anything. ANYTHING. Laddy makes this a good point above. There is a lot of bad writing is this game. I'm not saying that every other FF game has super epic writing, I'm just saying this one, along with some infamous others, have bad writing and thus destroys, what could have been, a really good character.

Oh, you might notice that his post has been repped. That was me His post is good, I just haven't had a chance to provide a counter argument yet. I guess I'll do that now!

I don't doubt that a lot of Final Fantasy X's ideas are intentional. But intentional does not equal well-executed.

I never doubted Tidus' situation with his father and his home being genuine, I never doubted that his reaction was deserved. My issue is that it was handled with all the subtlety of a nuclear bomb. Tidus dislikes his father, yes, but this is rarely explained in ways other than him talking about constantly.

I'm glad we're focusing on Tidus, because this is by far the easiest to explain. You see, the game is from Tidus's perspective. Not just that, but he is the narrator for the first part, up until you actually reach Zanarkand. There are definitely didactic elements, I'm not going to deny that, but I think you are overstating how "bad" the writing is. We're given a pretty decent insight into the split personality Tidus has going on - his quiet, reflective internal dialogue vs his completely inane and boisterous personality shown to the others. He's blundering around like that as a cover for the fact that he is terrified of being in an unknown world. It's similar to that situation where people are nervous and so they talk too much.

I understand it's an important aspect of the plot, but they really should have used a "show, don't tell" storytelling mechanic. Tidus really only has one method of displaying his dislike for the guy: talking about it. And while I can understand the need for such dialogue, going through 40 hours of less-than-stellar voicing about his poor relationship with his father eventually gets a bit tiring.

There aren't a lot of alternatives. The fact that he doesn't bring up Sin is Jecht to his companions is a good demonstration of him trying to deal with the problem himself; later, when it is revealed, he tries to rely on his friends to pick him up. Talking about something is a good way to explain and understand something.

And again, I realize Tidus' situation in being an unfamiliar world is significant as well. But again, this is handled with little subtlety. He blatantly disrespects people's beliefs and customs from the get-go (and even as wrong as they are, he had no reason to believe this at that point). I realize he wants to go home and doesn't fit in, but after 40 hours of him speaking about this it eventually loses its sympathy.

I addressed this above. He's out of his comfort zone and this is when his insecurities show through strongest and require gross covering up. He tries to be hyper social to make people accept him but it just goes really really badly.

In short: Tidus as a character isn't a problem, it's the lack of subtlety in the writing that causes him to be unappealing as his desires and insecurities either become a topic of long conversation or handled in a way in which his motives are not well-defined. I think the character's struggles should have been weaved in to the story more through his unspoken reactions and hints rather than multiple speeches.

You are accurate, and things are not flawless. But I still think you're overstating it. This will be one of those times where our subjectivity puts us at odds, I suppose!





Also:

And the enemies you do face are just palette swapped with the odd new move or whatever. The monster designs for this game for me was just slightly dull. There's no "Whoa, that's a scary/interesting/innovative" monster.

I think you'll find that every single Final Fantasy game does the same thing.