It's funny how, even with a Pile of Shame so large it spreads over twolists, I still find ways to avoid it in favour of revisiting games I've played before. The most recent example of this trend is Final Fantasy XIII, a game I haven't touched since its original release five years ago. I've been toying with the idea of going back to the game for a while now, but the deal was sealed while reading fellow duder @grantheaslip's 'Revisiting FFXIII' series (which I recommend checking out if you haven't already, as it's a fantastic dissection of the game that serves to highlight a lot of the its often-overlooked qualities). Last weekend, when looking for something new to play after finishing Far Cry Classic, I turned away from my Pile of Shame, grabbed the game off my shelf on impulse, and popped the disc into my 360.

I think it's fair to say I was worried about going back to Final Fantasy XIII for a second go around. While I enjoyed the game back in 2010, it's far from my favourite entry in the series, and I was worried the passage of time might have dated its positive aspects, making the more unfavourable parts of the game seem even worse. So far, at least, that's not proving to be the case. I hit the start of Chapter 10 this morning (which is roughly just past the game's halfway point, from what I can recall), and up to this point I've been having a lot of fun playing the game and watching the story unfold. If anything I'd say I'm enjoying the game a bit more this time around, since I'm not constantly referring to the in-game datalog to bust all its crazy jargon. Turns out those opening few chapters are a lot more tolerable when you don't have to keep stopping to complete the required reading on terms like fal'Cie and l'Cie.

But that's not what's prompted me to write this blog. The catalyst for this particular entry instead pertains to, of all things, politics.

This week in the UK, we held our general election. I won't bore anyone with too many details, since this is a video game website and I'm sure a lot of people come to places like Giant Bomb to get away from that sort of thing. I'm not here to talk about the results of election day - more specifically I want to look at the run-up to it, and the election campaigns mounted by some of this country's political parties in an attempt to garner support leading up to the polling day on Thursday. What does any of this have to do with Final Fantasy XIII? Don't worry, I'm getting there.

The last eighteen months or so have seen a lot of focus (some might say a disproportionate amount) on the UK's immigration policies, and the stances of all the major political parties with regards to this issue. It's been held up as one of the most important issues in a lot of pre-election build up, it's featured prominently in the parties' manifestos, and with one or two exceptions, it's being portrayed in an incredibly negative light. There's an undercurrent of demonisation of immigrants running through British politics at the moment, and it's evident in things like the Conservatives' ill-advised 'go-home van' initiative, not to mention the rise in popularity of parties with strong anti-immigration policies like UKIP.

And it's not just the party political broadcasts that are doing this. It's an attitude that seems to have crept into all kinds of media over the last year or two, stealthily worming its way into news broadcasts and onto tabloid front pages, and from there into the hearts and minds of the nation's people. Every day the British public assaulted with negative rhetoric about those not native to our shores. That rhetoric in turn shapes the thoughts of the public in some pretty troubling ways. I play darts with people who spout nonsensical phrases like "Britain is full". I work alongside folks who say pretty terrible things amongst themselves about minority groups on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong, these are (by and large) good people. We just live in an environment where political and media rhetoric has made these viewpoints the norm through scapegoating and scaremongering.

If I'm on the verge of losing you then don't worry, because I'm finally getting to the point where this all ties back into video games.

My time spent with Final Fantasy XIII over the last week has demonstrated that the worlds of Cocoon and Pulse aren't that ideologically removed from our own. In fact, Cocoon is a pretty convincing allegory for the UK - it's a sheltered "island" community with a largely prosperous citizenship, ruled over by a seemingly benevolent force in the Sanctum and its fal'Cie, which takes care of their social welfare in return for hard work and obedience. However, there's also an ever-present fear of the "outsider" that pervades Cocoon life - the perceived threat of Pulse, and the demonisation of its inhabitants (and its l'Cie in particular), all despite the lack of any concrete evidence of that threat existing. When the Pulse Vestige near Bodhum is revealed to house a Pulse fal'Cie, it and everyone who comes into contact with it are 'Purged'. Everything of Pulsian origin (and everything tainted by it) is rounded up, and sent back to where it came from. Starting to sound familiar?

This state of latent xenophobia is maintained and perpetuated not only by the Sanctum government, but by the media as well. Throughout the entire game, news broadcasts are shown that paint the Pulse l'Cie you're playing as somehow dangerous, even sub-human. The effects of this propaganda manifest at their strongest in the game's seventh chapter, in the city of Palumpolum, where Snow and Hope are beset by a militant mob of Cocoon citizens. Not long after this they, along with Lightning and Fang, are tracked and assaulted by the anti-Pulse task force PSICOM. It's a little more heavy-handed and violent than the 'go-home van' approach, but the principle is still pretty much the same.

Final Fantasy as a series is no stranger to treading this kind of allegorical ground. Final Fantasy X in particular stands up as a pretty scathing observation of organised religion, from what I can remember, with its corrupt maesters, overbearing Yevoners and giant whale demon literally named Sin. Final Fantasy XIII isn't quite as on-the-nose with its social commentary, but it's undeniably there. It's pretty clumsy and heavy-handed, but that's true of most of Final Fantasy XIII's plot, and I love the game in spite of that. The further through the game I get, the more I think I love its underlying themes and message, too.

What makes this second playthrough of Final Fantasy XIII even more interesting to me is the way its narrative is told from the perspective of these outsiders, these "evil" Pulse l'Cie who once felt at home in this land and are now being castigated for no other reason than their supposed difference and "otherness". Yet we as players are exposed to the explicitly human side of these characters, their hopes, fears and dreams, and their individual reasons for fighting onward and not giving in to the government-and-media-driven machine that wants to purge them from Cocoon. Final Fantasy XIII portrays its demonised minority not as ethereal boogeymen, as the Sanctum and Cocoon media would, but as human beings. It's a refreshing narrative stance that not only highlights the common ground between the l'Cie and their aggressors, but also exposes the Sanctum's bigoted propaganda for what it is. The fact it sheds a little bit of light on a real world issue that matters to me in the process only serves to extend the impact it's had on me this time around.

It's been five years since I last played through Final Fantasy XIII. Consequently, my memories of its ending are pretty hazy. I've just hit the tenth of its thirteen chapters, but I believe the remaining sections of the game continue to reinforce this theme of "we're not so different, you and I", particularly when the gang hit Gran Pulse in Chapter 11. I also seem to remember it heading down the "the Sanctum is corrupt and influenced by the machinations of evil, uber-powerful fal'Cie" route, but that's probably a real-world political allegory best left for another blog altogether. I'm really excited at the prospect of seeing the rest of this adventure through in the coming weeks, and I hope it continues to be an enriching and insightful journey through a fantastical world that might not be too far removed from our own after all. Thanks for reading guys, take care and I'll see you around.

Dan

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Currently playing - Final Fantasy XIII (X360)

I love this.

This is amazing. Definately one of the community spotlight.

While I like the angle, I feel like almost everything else in FF13 there isn't enough content in the game to fully flesh out this kind of concept. I mean I understand why you see it in the game but you are only seeing it because its on your mind(confirmation bias).

Sure there is that angle but every character in these newer games has to have some sort of obstacle and I feel like with those two it was just something like "lets just make them outsiders".

I miss characters like Zell, who has a nice secure home, hobbies, with a mom you can go and visit. He is outgoing and loud in a sort of contrast to his super peaceful hometown.

Every character in FF13 is either emo, insecure or unhappy.

That's a fascinating take on FFXIII. I'm not familiar with British politics except in broad strokes, but it sure seems like a prevalent attitude here in the States, too. People with a stake in the changing of the status quo will always try to push that agenda, and people as a group tend to love to be afraid of an ambiguous "they" rather than take the time to learn and experience the individual.

As to FFXIII's take on this, I see where you're coming from.. It's certainly a fascinating theme to take away from it, i hope future FF can explore larger political topics like this while taking the time to craft a more personal story as well.

@gamefreak9: I think you're right that I'm seeing it more clearly now because it's currently on my mind. One thing that didn't occur to me until right now is that the first time I played Final Fantasy XIII was almost exactly five years ago, against the backdrop of the previous UK general election, but I wasn't drawn into this particular aspect of the game's world (probably because I was concerned with other aspects of government policy - I was a university student, so education and tuition fees were the high-priority subjects for me at the time). That being said, I don't think I'm projecting anything onto the game. It may not be fully fleshed out, as you put it, but I think it's undeniably present within FFXIII's story and world-building, in such a way that the player is free to draw their own inferences about it (a welcome rarity in a game with a story that can often be as subtle as a jackhammer with its exposition).

I wasn't a big fan of the cast of Final Fantasy XIII on my first go round, with the exception of Sazh, who I thought really evolved beyond the comic relief trope that he seemed tied to in the game's opening sequences. This time I'm still not feeling most of the characters, probably because of the melodramatic monologuing they all seem contractually obliged to take part in, but I do think that stuff drives home the humanity of characters when it's juxtaposed with the villainous caricature of the Pulse l'Cie propagated by the Sanctum. Weirdly, the one character I am really warming towards this time through is Vanille. When you go into the game fully aware of her eventual character arc, the obnoxiously chipper front she puts on in those opening chapters make a lot more sense.

@sparky_buzzsaw: I regret not reading more of Edward Said's work at university, as there's clear potential to tie all of this into his theories of Orientalism and "the Other" that I'm really not qualified to pursue. There's probably a better case to be made in terms of comparing all this stuff to the general Western attitude to the East, and the Middle East in particular. I think you could draw some interesting parallels with the concepts of terrorism and associated Islamophobia, as there's definitely something in the militant nature of l'Cie and their fal'Cie-imposed 'Focus' that lends itself to that allegory. I guess this angle just seemed a bit more pertinent given the current climate over here.

@dankempster: I can't say as I'm familiar with Said. Wish I was. Curiously enough, when 9/11 happened, I was at the start of a world history class just starting to delve into the Middle East. It was a coincidence shared by many, I think.

Anyways, I wonder what sorts of trouble Final Fantasy VII would drum up these days with its acts of terrorism. Hm.

@dankempster: Great blog sir! I've had a strange urge to give FFXIII another shot recently and this reading might be the push I needed. I was so disillusioned by the gameplay style and the jargon that I gave up on FFXIII after 20 hours, but I think I let that jargon get in the way a bit too much.

@sparky_buzzsaw:Or FFVIII's PMC main characters. The main cast is just a lovable bunch of teenage guns for higher who cut a swath through an entire continent and run assassinations.

XIII is still terrible in my opinion, much like the state of UK politics lately.

Still on the bright side SNP did great and they've got less aggressive immigration policies.