Children Are No Longer The Future

[Forsaken Lover]

Do you guys think we'll ever see a ridiculously young party member in a future FF title? I'm talking like Porom and Polom (5), Eiko (6) and so-on.

I kinda get the feeling that, with the advent of better graphics, voice-acting and more realistic art styles, Squeenix will probably shy away from depicting small children getting shot or stepped on or whatever else can happen in battles.

[Sephex]

This wasn't Final Fantasy, but Lost Odyssey had twin siblings that were awfully young in it. The twin characters are a rip off certain twins from FFIV, but I give it a pass since the father of Final Fantasy created that game.

Anyway, in jRPGs anything can happen in terms of character design. I am sure we will see children fight the power sooner or later.

[VeloZer0]

I still think 16 is ridiculously young to see having that sort of adventure.

[Mirage]

Do you guys think we'll ever see a ridiculously young party member in a future FF title? I'm talking like Porom and Polom (5), Eiko (6) and so-on.

I kinda get the feeling that, with the advent of better graphics, voice-acting and more realistic art styles, Squeenix will probably shy away from depicting small children getting shot or stepped on or whatever else can happen in battles.

There are many games without realistic art direction on PS3. I see no reason why young cartoony 3D characters with voice acting like those in PS2 games couldn't be included in PS3 games with similar art direction.

[Jinx]

I would like for them to. I think it gives a different feel.

[Jiro]

There's always going to be a place for the unnaturally powerful toddler. On the whole though, I think that SE in particular is trying to focus on a somewhat more realistic narrative and having kids save the world is unrealistic.

[Jinx]

Having teenagers save the world is unrealistic.

[VeloZer0]

Having teenagers save the world is unrealistic.

Ding ding ding!

In my eyes it isn't really all that different having a toddler up there or a teenager up there.

[Quindiana Jones]

I'd love to see more children getting the trout kicked out of them, and there's no reason that desire couldn't include video games.

[Jinx]

Here's how I look at it. Harry Potter was smurfin' bad ass as a baby. So bad ass that Voldemort went after him.

Who's to say that another brat in the FF universe couldn't be like Harry smurfin' Potter?

[Mercen-X]

If we're trying to be more real, we should have more young childish villains. Most of the problems we see everyday are caused by unruly, undisciplined delinquent adolescents or children who have suffered some kind of trauma as abuse or negligence. I'm not saying they should be the big bad because realistically "children" are not capable of being masterminds who plan for every contingency as an arch villain should. But they can be the Big Bad's Dragon, the monster, the experiment, the perfect soldier what-have-you. "Children" saving the world..? Unlikely! "Children" ruining the world... more likely everyday.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting ridiculously young villains. 12 is the youngest I can imagine a criminal to be considering intent. (SPOILER)At such an age, they should have proper knowledge of right and wrong and understand that lying is worse than killing especially if it was an accident. Usually when a child is the cause of someone's death, the parents are to blame for covering it up, but if it was the child who lied, there would likely only be two reasons. 1) fear of consequence from adults... the child would have to have previous experience with physical punishment over "light indiscretions" to fear punishment from an adult for an accident even if someone died. 2) fear of prosecution... IMO at age 12, a child is old enough to understand that lying about an accidental death would get them into more trouble than being honest. However, if they intentionally hurt someone, they're gonna lie because they can't grasp the legal definition of murder versus the simple knowledge that they caused a life to end.
Make no mistake: you may have heard tell of a younger child explicitly stating they wanted someone to die but I deem only those 12+ to be capable of understanding what that wish truly entails. Also, the ability to prosecute a young person for murder does not apply to a young person's ability to premeditate.

An example of how children could be utilized as "villains" could possibly be an army of 12-year-olds (perhaps clones). Another example could be a small group of young people (maybe they approached the Big Bad for mutual trade such as removing horrible memories in exchange for his requisite villainous deeds).

[Jiro]

There was a case in Aus where a ten year old kidnapped and murdered an eight year old. The legal definition of mens rea doesn't account for differences in individuals.

I do agree that a child masterminding the whole thing would be incredibly unlikely though.

[Del Murder]

I think with the super-serious direction SE is taking the series, it will be difficult to pull off a child party member like Relm or the twins, unless they are those super creepy powerful children, in which case no thanks. But if the series goes back towards it's whimsical roots, a younger party member is entirely possible. Eternal Sonata is a modern game with child party members (even though the story there was lame and the kid was annoying).

[black orb]

>>> These days adults and children rock and and teenagers suck, Squarenix should have realized this a long time ago..

Since they are too stupid to realize, they should atleast put one brat and one old man in every party.

[Wolf Kanno]

I would love for the series to move away from children and teenagers (even Versus main character is basically an awkward teen in a huge crime family/shady monarchy). Adults just offer a much more rich backstory. I've been clamoring for a love story in the series between two people who were in love but broke up, because it's not the type of story you ever see in video games. You always see "young first love" but the wonderful character development you could get out of two adults who did the whole "young love" in the past, then broke up, and now are trying to sort out their feelings would be really nice. Adults just have more history, so you can do stuff like that.

Basch could have been one of the best protagonists in the series if he had been delved into a lot, I mean he lost his homeland to the empire, abandoned his brother and sickly mother to serve another kingdom, failed to protect his future king and his current king, was framed by his brother, lost his second kingdom,was locked up for a few years and tortured, and is now trying to protect and a serve a woman who wants him dead as they both try to stop the empire and revive Dalmasca. That just sounds awesome on paper but the reality is not quite as grand or interesting.

You can just get a lot out a character who actually has lived long enough to pick up some real emotional baggage, to actually have a history long enough to justify their shady past. Shadow is one of the most interesting characters in VI and he's also one of the rare characters who is obviously not 18-20 years old, considering he has a 10 year old daughter.