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Zoning Out

I caught the wrong BART home from work today, I was all the way to Walnut Creek before I noticed. Oops! Took an extra 2 transfers and 45 minutes to get home.

I blame it all on Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. I often play my GBA to kill time during the commute home from work. Sometimes I read, but often I find my brain too frazzled after a long day to make much progress on a book. Video games are the perfect way to relax and zone out for a while, though not usually to the degree that I don’t notice which train I’m on...

FFTA is a fantasy RPG, a genre I played for hours on end back in junior high but have not been willing or able to invest the necessary time in since, until now. I’ve been playing for 38 hours so far, for some odd reason the game keeps track of how long you play it. In the game you build up a “clan” of characters and accomplish missions by winning a series of battles. Each battle takes place one of 30 or so different terrains, a little chessboard with hills, rivers, buildings, etc. where the action unfolds.

First you select up to 6 members of you clan to deploy. Each member has a specialized job, such as soldier, archer, hunter, white mage, black mage, and on to the more esoteric like beastmaster and time mage. Each character gets a turn, and on each turn you can move and fight or cast a spell on enemies within range. The characters are endearing little cartoon half-human half-animal critters: reptile men, elephant men, and so on.

Interestingly, no one ever dies in this world; after exhausting their allotted hit points a character gets “K.O.ed” and is out for the rest of battle but fine thereafter. I assume this is intended for the benefit of younger players. I wonder, though, is it really so vital to shield them from the very concept of death? And on the other hand, is it healthy to imply that you can attack someone with swords and burn them with magic fire without doing any lasting damage?

posted by The Jabberwock @ 11:10 PM