Nuki News #31: FFIV - Reflections

Final Fantasy IV…! A classic JRPG and not only is it my first Final Fantasy I played, but my first JRPG in general, aside from the pokemon games, of course. I got to play it on my beloved Gameboy Advance. When you’re younger, you don’t scrutinize details as much in a story, so I never really understood until replaying the game this month just how absolutely cheesy this game’s plot is, ahah. There’s a character who betrays you 3 times over, multiple side characters seem to ‘die’ only to come back from the brink of death with little explanation if any. The world itself runs on macguffins, and the game basically set the standard of putting plot twists in a story for the sake of escalating drama. 

Still, I love playing it even 12 years later. And to be fair to it, the game was released in 1991; the fact it had a coherent plot at all with characters that have(albeit shallow)recognizable personalities was pretty novel back then! I think it did enough to pull me into the world and story and not seem like a text adventure game. I think the aspect that stuck with me the most has to do with one of the big twists of the game- the villain you’ve been fighting this whole time, Golbez, turned out to be the main character(Cecil)’s long-lost brother! Granted he was being mind-controlled by some throwaway baddie who was supposedly pulling the strings. The story gives a lot of unspoken weight to the value of familial bonds, which stuck with me to this day. So much so, that it’s the reason I have Monty the Bear! Yep, that’s why I’m writing about this today, ahah.

I’ve admittedly wanted an older brother figure in my life- and what most don’t know is I am an older brother myself! I’m not a very good one though, I mostly just acted as a ‘second mom’ to keep my younger siblings in line. I felt like the main character, Cecil, at times in my life, where I had to confront myself and in doing so, let go of my negativity or judging self. In FFIV, Cecil practically becomes speechless for the rest of the game upon realizing he was fighting his own family the whole time, and reflected on his own actions, even going so far as to say “the roles could have easily had been reversed” where he would have been manipulated into doing evil things. In that respect, Monty is kind’ve a stand-in who gets to reflect back to me in a quiet non-judging manner. Like a filter that lets me see where I’m going wrong, and realizing what negative things I am doing that I should let go of! 

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As an example, when I moved out of my parent’s house to live with my boyfriend, and got my first ‘real job’, I recognized quickly I had to keep my mind very open, be proactive, and most of all, kind to all the new people I meet, and worked with, regardless of the challenge they presented to me or the difficulties I was going through myself. It wasn’t easy either, I almost got fired just a few months after being hired because I wasn’t a very quick learner. I felt I could have easily ended up blaming other factors on my situation. “My job training wasn’t good enough to prepare me for what was expected, my boss offered terrible non-advice when I was having a tough time. I was uncomfortable and had to worry about other things like finding an apartment.” 

While I did believe some of these excuses were true, and weighed on my mind, I fortunately didn’t let myself fall victim to those circumstances in my mind. Monty was my way of thinking “is it about me? Do I need to hold this or that against this person?” and the answer was pretty much always ‘no’. Because I reflected on the situation, I faced myself and rose to the occasion, avoiding getting fired and even moved up to be a top agent on my team from being the last. It was definitely a case of things getting darker before the dawn, but only I could bring about that dawn for myself. 

It’s interesting how media can influence or impact you in those ways. It doesn’t need to be a perfect story or depict well-developed or deep characters either. You no doubt found some kind of life impacting lesson for yourself from a game, yeah? I’m curious about what game it was and what you got from it! Let me know. :)