The gaming world is full not only of sequels, but spin-offs. These side titles may be official canon, but they can really mess up the stories and lore told in a series’ main titles. Is is possible to take a game’s story and consider it for its individual merit when the creator subsequently fills in details in later titles? Or should the official stance of a spin-off storyteller be the account we have no choice but to accept, running the risk of having a favorite story feel tainted? A disparity between Final Fantasy VII and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII makes me wonder. The scene in question deals with the death of an important character, so, spoiler warning.
In the original telling of Zack’s death, there is a realism to it. His death seems so unexpected and sudden. He’s strong, but a few men with guns can obviously take him down. It makes him seem less like a superhero and more like a mortal who lives his day to day life in peril after abandoning Shinra. It gives his choice to run away and become a mercenary with Cloud have that much more impact. He doesn’t think that the only thing he has to fear is whether or not Shinra decides to send a small militia after him.
In Crisis Core, Shinra soldiers come at him until he is eventually overpowered and succumbs. It’s somehow less intimate. It’s a more action packed cutscene, yes, but that’s not how I originally imagined things playing out. Final Fantasy VII is a game where the fragility of life is exemplified in the death of a main character, Aerith, when she is impaled on the antagonist’s blade. It doesn’t jive necessarily with the actual battle mechanics where players can take a comet to the face and brush it off like it’s nothing, but it’s better story telling. And I just assumed that there was a suspension of disbelief when it comes to the action that occurs in the battle versus the action that occurs in the explicit story. I can’t manage to suspend the same level of disbelief when a different game, made later, tells me that “this is what happened.”
Star Wars fans experienced a similar thing with the prequels, where franchise creator, George Lucas, demystifies the force and explains it as a semi-scientific fashion. Midichlorians are the official reason the force, now. We can try to forget the prequels, and the things we hate about them, but it’s not quite possible. And future movies have to either abide by those rules or retroactively explain them away.
This is my fear for Kingdom Hearts III. I was a fan of the simple, fun tale of the first game. The second was a little more convoluted, but forgivable. But, during the long breaks Square Enix has taken between the franchise’s main entries, it’s produced a veritable buttload of spin-offs. These aren’t examples of great storytelling. They add a bunch of characters and attempt to blow player’s minds on a regular basis with hackneyed twists. Kingdom Hearts III can tell a succinct narrative, or it can tell one that accounts for all the other stories the franchise has told. Will we face the issue we often see in comics where we’ll need to catch up on these subpar titles? And even if Kingdom Hearts III finds a way to catch us up to speed in an efficient manner, will we have to deal with all the messy narrative arcs and twists that defined the spin-offs? The ones that reek of fanfiction, despite being canonical?
Then there is the Metal Gear Solid series, which might continue without Hideo Kojima. MGS is his brainchild. It’s almost inseparable from him, and part of the fun of playing the games was seeing how all the different elements of the story come together, as he imagines them. For some reason, these stories coming from the same source seems to unify them and give a value to me that I can’t explain. When other writers come on board and add to the story, it’s going to feel different. Somehow unpure. I don’t know why.
The more I see of the narrative, the more I am forced to consider when I replay earlier entries. I cannot forget them, and it seems unfair for me to just bury my head in the sand and say “nope, that didn’t happen.” Games are fiction, yes, but there’s a magic to fiction and part of it relies consistency. Ignoring a fraction of a characters timeline because I don’t like it just isn’t in my nature. It’s not my tendency when I consume stories. I guess what I’m saying is this: If you are going to produce multiple entries (and especially spin-offs) in a series that fans love, take your time crafting the story. Don’t cash in on a title, and don’t cut corners. Some of us don’t like it when you take a giant dump in the middle of a giant, fictional universe that we’ve fallen for.