…because I’ve played the original NES version three times, the Playstation version once, and I’m still confused.
As far as I can tell, it involves a predestination temporal paradox:[ul][li]The four fiends steal the power of the four orbs/crystals, open a time gate, and send Garland into the past 2000 years where he summons the four fiends.[/li][li]These fiends inexplicably fall back asleep, one for 1600 years, one for 1800 years, two for 2000 years. The fiends of Air and water awaken first, and destroy an advanced civilization, and then just sit around for centuries waiting for you to come and defeat them.[/li][li]You apparently Garland, and since there’s no trademark Final Fantasy scene where the dying villain makes his getaway, we can only assume it “took.” When he goes back to the past is a complete mystery to me – and, for that matter, why he kidnapped the princess.[/li][li]The Playstation version adds one stranger tidbit – your characters are from the “correct timeline,” before the paradox occured that changed time.[/ul][/li]
So my questions:
What is Chaos? An embodiment of an abstract principle, or just the name of a demon? Does he possess Garland, does or Garland summon him? When did Garland go to the past? What exactly are they trying to accomplish with this convoluted conspiracy?
I guess what my question really is does the plot make any sense at all? Because it frankly seems a lot like a plot from the old <i>Batman</i> TV show as it is, and usually Final Fantasy villains do have motivations, if extremely weird ones. Maybe something’s just been lost in translation?
You characters take up the orbs of light like the ancient heroes of legend. They defeat garland. They then go on to defeat the four fiends. Garland, because he was defeated, goes back to the past (presumably with the help of said fiends) and unites their power to become Chaos.
The characters, filling the orbs’ power out, go back to the past and defeast garland. This causes the fiends not to become Chaos or something, which makes the timeline false or something, which means that your legendary heroes are, well, you. Except you’d be in the wrong timeline or something. Plot wasn’t the strong point of the game.
Nah, there’s not much plot there. FF2 was the first to have a plot that you could compare to a modern game, and FF3 was a regression to the “Go to a dungeon and kill a big monster. Repeat” plot of earlier games.
Remember, at this point the standard plot for RPGs required you to save a princess and defeat an evil overlord who wants to take over the world just because. Having the damsel in distress angle over so early was revolutionary for the time (as was actually seeing your characters in battle, let alone having them stoop when their HP was low).
I can’t wait to see how 8-bit theater handles the ending, in about 3 or 4 years when they eventually reach the end, assuming the comic lasts that long.
Though hypotheically, one could argue that since you defeated choas in the olden days, the quest you embarked on in the present never actually happens, because the fiends never survived to turn the orbs dark. Causing a paradox, or something like that.
I don’t think anyone fully understands the end. I’ve read numerous debates on the subject and none have resovled the issue.
I’m looking forward to it, too. It seems to be Brian Clevinger’s purpose in life to give FFI the plot it never had.
Still, there seem to be elements of a plot, so I’m wondering if something has just been lost in translation. It wouldn’t be the first time a plot’s been lost between a Japanese original and an English version.
Both in this specifica case and in general you greatly overestimate the storytelling abilities of Japanese game makers. Sometimes they get it right, but all in all, if the story was nonsense in English it was nonsense in Japanese, too. And often they’re downright incoherent in any language.
Though I do not that with certain Cthulhu-mythos gramatical structures, it becomes more clear.
True, but I was thinking more in terms of anime. Frequently I have to see a fansub to understand what’s going on, although sometimes they release a new translation that makes a lot more sense when it becomes obvious they botched the first (as they did when they released the DVD of Evangelion). I was wondering if something similar had happened here.
Of course, you may be right that it was just nonsensical to begin with. Perhaps Squaresoft was sampling Super Mario Bros’ mushrooms at the time.