FF and World Cultures

RPGC Community The FFCompendium Forum
#1

Note that since FF6, many FF games use the real-life culture of a area in creating the continities.

FF6: Europe, 18th century
FF7: America (around the post WW2 area?)
FF8: Western Europe (and Mediterran)
FFX: Japan (and other Asian countries)
FFXI: United Kingdom, Middle Ages.

FFXII: Eastern Europe/Middle East (with United Kingdom/India influences such as accents and terms)

  • Ondore and residents of his city bare a “Indian English” accent
  • Bangaa speak in “Scottish English”, heard more clearly with Ba’Gamnan and his group forcing it.
  • The Viera talk in a “Irish English”.
#2

I wouldn’t really agree. FF is a meld of styles and themes found across the globe and across history and the future . FF6 is steampunk, for example; no European country ever looked like that. FF7 is a mix of shiny futuristic gleams and dreary Depression-era browns. FFXI and FFXII are generic fantasy worlds with a few futuristic touches. The accents are part of the localization team trying to give over personality as indicated by style of speech, something which is natural to Japanese speakers but harder to tell in English.

All in all, most of the games have their own unique style which may be more Western or more Eastern in a particular game, but can’t really be said as coming from one specific area.

#3

Where do you see the Mediterranean influence on FFVIII, fractyl?

#4

What Cid says is true for most FFs, however, I believe FF7 is a little different.

FF7: America (around the post WW2 area?)

Actually its pretty clearly supposed to be America(and maybe the industrialized world in general) in the 1980s-1990s.

For instance, I always thought that the Golden Saucer is clearly some weird indictment of Las Vegas and Disney World. A spectacular enterainment hub existing over desperately poor people who make its existence possible.

More importanlty, the whole theme of an immoral corporate power that provides luxury for an oblivious middle-class, while also creating and exploiting unseen slums, is really a modern idea. Cid says that FF7 combines the modern world with 1930s depression; yet I think the creators were really aiming for 1990s depression in Third World countries and American ghettos.

#5

Rigmarole: Easy, certain locations like Edea’s house.

Cidolfas: Its true, as Square’s people pic a area on the world to use as a palette to add in needed fantasy elements of a FF game. Even in the FFX offical book, they mentioned to have used japan’s culture while creating Spira (Pyreflies and Yuna’s FFX attire are good examples of this).

But FFXI is sorta true, as I only covered the first four installments of it. The fifth reflects the middle east, using elements of the Persian Empire.

#6

Actually, I read that it wasn’t Japan they used, but an island south of Japan… I totally forget the name though. -_-

Edea’s house just looked like a house to me. It could have been from anywhere.

Curtis: Perhaps the mood or themes of FF7 reflected America in that times, but we’re talking about the styles of the locations. I don’t think America ever had anything that really looked like the Shinra HQ (or Midgar in general, in fact). And let’s not forget places like Wutai and the Forgotten City.

#7

I’ll throw “cyberpunk” into FF7’s style just because. (Shiny tech and experimentation on humans, anyone?)

#8

I didn’t get any Mediterranean feeling from any event in Edea’s house. If it were Mediterranean Edea would invite everyone to dinner every Sunday and wouldn’t accept amnesia as an excuse :stuck_out_tongue: Family ties and things.

#9

Cidolfas: It was Japan, just that Besaid was modeled after Okinawa which is part of japan.

Edea’s house is surrounded by ruins homeage to Greece. In fact, the city of Deling City has a french-style to it.

Actually, Midgar has a New York feel to it (Depression in case of the slums). Cosmo Canyon like the grand canyon. In the case of Wutai, Japan (post WW2)/china designs were used.

Generally, it’s the general culture. But it’s how they are interpeted by those like Nomura that enriches the imagination.

#10

I love the FF XII accents. The game could be blasted for its unsatisfactory storyline and shallow characters, or the wacky battle system; but the voice acting is more than adequate. I find that the British accents give this game a certain theatrical aspect. How about the Marquis Ondore? Ein, zwei, drei, achtung – as soon as I heard his voice, I thought that Marquis is about to belt out Der Commissar, or Rock me Amedeus
Al–Cid was fun to listen and observe. I couldn’t put my finger on the origin of his accent at first, but then his ”ladies man” attitude gave me the clue. But of course, he is a Moroccan of royal bloodlines, who most likely pursued his higher education in one of the elite French institutions, where he acquired the expertise in womanizing :wink:

#11

Obviously, FF contains cultural references, I’ve spotted many on many games. However, they tend to be blended, that is, you find bits and pieces all over the place, instead of specific regions wholly devoted to a single culture. And of course, there was a lot of invented stuff. But there have been exceptions:

-Nearly all of the games have the by-now-clichéd Altered Medieval European setting common to most Fantasy RPGs;

-FF6 definitely had a partial "Steampunk " feel to it;

-FF7 had a Cyberpunk feel, but areas like Wutai (Chinese/Japanese) or Cosmo Canyon (Native American) were notable too.

-FF8 was mainly Modern Occidental (that is, current American and European) culture;

-FFX’s southern islands had a very Polynesian feel to them.

-FF Tactics was definitely European Dark Ages, down right to the political power plays, betrayals and corruption of the Church.

#12

Fractyl, our use of the word culture probably just differs :wink:

#13

Don’t forget the connection Final Fantasy IX has with real world culture. Although it is blatanly obvious. xD

#14

Ωmega: Thanks.

On FFX and asian culture, Tidus and Yuna happen to have a association with the taoist symbol, the Yin-Yang.