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Resolution Analysis Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King A game ending that I found satisfying recently was Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. For a brief overview, the player takes on the role of a young Prince-come-King who uses magical abilities inherited from a great crystal to rebuild a downtrodden city. Along the way, the player recruits adventurers to go out into the world to vanquish evil forces and gather crystals, the currency for construction. The main story was completed when the adventurers invade the Temple of the Dark Lord and defeat him, freeing the player's captured father in the process. It can be viewed here in two parts. Directly before and directly after defeating the Boss. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6viFVi6vgg Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_-KTMUIbD0 What I liked about this ending was that immediately before the final climactic battle, the player was essentially replayed his actions over the course of the game and narrated by his personal assistant. She served as a positive feedback loop by praising the player's actions and due to the placement just before the climax, it served to heighten tension by showing off exactly what the player had worked hard to achieve up to that point in the game. Once the Dark Lord had been defeated a more traditional denouement followed suit in which the player was ambushed by the Dark Lord but his subjects essentially bailed him out. But of course, not to take away from the glory of the player, the little King was able to banish the Dark Lord once and for all* shortly thereafter. After this the player was shown more cut-scenes praising his greatness and rounding out the "master of two worlds" part of their own hero's journey. *Or at least until a sequel. As far as boss fights go, I think they are absolutely essential to storytelling because they create a natural climactic encounter to finish a narrative. However, it would be great if we, as game storytellers, could use something other than Dark Lords and archetypal Villains as boss fights. Imagine a game where at the end a character must confront, say, an "internal villain" like their own lust or greed. Imagine a game where the final boss fight was your character trying to convince himself not to loot the tomb of an ancient Elven King because that is simply the right thing to do. Obviously, the correlating game mechanics needed to tell this story would have to be logical and intriguing, but also fun. To do this, however, would be challenging. A whole lot more challenging than, say, creating a Dark Lord and giving the player a sword, some hit points, and some attack power. |
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