Help! Final Fantasy as a model for a book?

[Devor]

I just sketched out a loose outline for the climax of a novel, maybe the first in a series, and it's epic. Too epic. Final Fantasy epic. Different magics and characters come together in a complicated mess of world-altering mayhem. And it doesn't help that the characters all have Asian-sounding names.

Is this a bad direction? Is Final Fantasy a bad model for a book series? Or do I need to tone it down?

The story takes place in one region of the world, which is slowly being conquered, until the characters are driven into retreat. Conquering the region helps the bad guy to acquire a magical energy, which he hopes to use to create a cataclysm - something which should make the world better, but really won't. The good guys stop him, the bad guy goes kaputz, but bad things happen anyways and the region (though not the world) gets messed up. Future stories would take place in the aftermath of the climax. Oh, and characters may die.

Is that too much for a book? How long of a story am I looking at?

[Queshire]

I -like- final fantasy, it's one of the biggest video game franchises in the world for a reason. Also, there's plenty of JRPGs out there, unless it's blatant, I don't think people would call it a final fantasy clone. that said, I would say that your story sounds like it'd be a really long book or multiple books to me.

[Ankari]

Nothing is too long, as long as the telling is good. Just divide it up into multiple books like Queshire said. But why do you say this is too much like Final Fantasy? Are you using any ideas from them that would be considered intellectual property?

[Devor]

But why do you say this is too much like Final Fantasy? Are you using any ideas from them that would be considered intellectual property?

No, nothing like that. But I am intending to try and fit this into a single story, so I can have others follow up. I guess it will have to be pretty long.

[Phil the Drill]

I've often pondered doing something that would sort of parody Final Fantasy, as I'm a big fan myself (from my article and multiple posts about it), so I think it's not a bad idea to model a series of books around something similar to the games. As long as you don't get to "philosophical" with it, which I think most FF fans would know exactly what I mean by that.

Most of the Final Fantasy characters don't really have Asian sounding names. Maybe Yuna and Rikku and some others.

[Queshire]

remember, those games are from Japan so the Japanese names are like English names to us here.

[Phil the Drill]

remember, those games are from Japan so the Japanese names are like English names to us here.

What I was saying is that most of the names even in katakana aren't typical Japanese names. For instance テラ is Terra. I've never seen anyone named Terra in Japan.

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Final Fantasy is a good series of video games. Even some of the most adulated entries in the series, though, typically have pretty childish/simplistic stories and characters. I wouldn't use it as a model for prose fiction.

[JCFarnham]

Final Fantasy is a good series of video games. Even some of the most adulated entries in the series, though, typically have pretty childish/simplistic stories and characters. I wouldn't use it as a model for prose fiction.

Exactly, I love FF games with all my heart (though I'm terrible at them..) but they do seem to rely very heavily on the stereotypes of Japanese and even Western fantasy fiction. Usually a hero is a hero and that's that. The Worlds they create however...? Well that right there is the series' strong point [besides superior game play compared to other similar titles, though even that's debateable now days].

If you're going for a Final Fantasy feel it's all in the world and the mash up of cultural architypes

I wouldn't say it's a bad thing, no.

[Jon_Chong]

I can see where your worry might come from. Final Fantasy is a game and that medium carries its own sets of tropes, cliches, expectations etc. Books, even if they are fantasy, carry their own set as well. As such you sound like you're worried that the tone and look and feel of Final Fantasy is wrong as no one has ever done anything quite like it. Here's a couple of reasons why.

Western Fantasy tends to shy away from Asian influences if they can help it. Looking at the market right now, most of western fantasy is consumed by western influences. Granted, this is slowly changing, but it's as if there's a stigma about using Asian influences in western fantasy.

Games are an extremely graphic medium and the mess of movements, flashy sword duels and spell animations and effects that can and will translate into a headache to write. Unless of course you have an excellent command of description, this is going to be a lot of work and a lot of revision just to get a single spell "looking" and "feeling" right.

That said, is Final Fantasy inherently bad? I don't think so, so long as you're not blatantly ripping off the games. Just because it has not been done before does not mean it is inherently wrong. In fact, it is not a stretch to say that a good half of our innovations are based of people "doing it wrong". Though some of these can be attributed to blind luck... Ahem. I digress. My advice? Do it. Write it out. Even if it never gets published. Even if it never makes it past your computer screen, the experience alone of writing it is worth its weight in gold. So do it!