As I found the lecture on the Visual language of Video games really intersting I decided to look at this trailer for a new game which came out on the9th March on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.Final Fantasy XIII is the next installment in the long standing, successful RPG (Role-playing game) franchise produced by Square-Enix and has a large fanbase worldwide.
As there have been so many installments the franchise contains some conventions of its own creation. The most noticeable ones include creatures such as "Chocobos" and "Moogles" and the currency "Gil" which recurr throughout the franchise; this adds to the attraction the games hold to the audience.I found the fact that the visual language of games must be must be understood in a split second by the player very interesting. I will explore how certain conventions in games enable decisions to be made by the player, look at the camera positioning, colour conventions and how a high quality is kept by art direction; by using this trailer.
If knowledge of previous games in this franchise is taken into account, the player will expect a diverse set of landscapes each containing many different foes of all difficulties, of which the trailer does allude to. The landscapes have both similarities and differences, as it is a fantasy game, to the real world which affects the way the player reacts to the environments in the game, for example lava is hazardous to the player.
This sort of extrinsic knowledge covers characters as well, those which are friendly and hostile. First of all, from the trailer we see that the first two chracters are friendly due to the light tones of their attire and features, as well as the bright, open surroundings they are in. From the language they use and the focus upon them throughout the trailer we can tell that these are two main charachters who are searching for someone dear to them both. What is also interesting about the friendly, main characters is that they tend to always wear simple, battle clothing and come from humble begginnings, this is evident throughout most of the franchise. In the franchise the most important character, named Lightning in this case, usually has some tragic past, there is always a funny character to lighten the tone of the game, an outgoing motivator, a bubbly young character, a reserved and unconfident character and a mysterious sometimes suspicious character. From the trailer some assumptions can be made as to the assignment of these roles.
Conversely the hostile characters, in particular the main enemies tend to be those in power, controlling armies and create a large obstacle for our protagonists to overcome. The perceived enemies wear dark clothing, dark or silver hair and in the trailer have dark, shadowy surroundings. The lesser enemies, foes which are encountered often throughout the game in the field, are usually non-human apart from the commanded troops which always wear armour and the weapons/machinery they use. The beasts are very fierce, ugly and mutant to the player.
Similarly rewards and clues are highlighted in such a way for the players to understand immediately how to react. For example chests=rewards and glistening or lighted areas are aspects to examine.
As can be seen from the trailer, the combat sequences within the game are conducted in real-time as opposed to the traditional turn-based combat many came to expect from the franchise. The players therefore do not have to wait turns to complete actions, it takes only as long as the action takes to be readied. In the combat scenes the camera is always fixed on the leading character of the party with the ability to rotate the camera manually. If players have previous knowledge of the franchise they will notice some similarities in combat mode such as the ability to summon beasts to aid you and names of magics. While previous knowledge may help understanding it is not compulsary, making the game more accessible.
The games camera is positioned in 3rd person with the ability to zoom in and out and rotate manually, to a certain extent. Also camera settings can be altered within the menu to e.g. invert the axes. 3rd person perspective is used as the identity and actions of the characters are an important feature of the plot and so as the audience we must be aware of them and feel as though we know who they are on a personal level. The surrounding landscapes are also important and so to be appreciated some freedom of the camera has been allowed but at the same time restricted so as not to alter the feel of the game.
Within the game, as with previous titles in the franchise, there are many cutscenes which break up the gameplay to show key moments in the plot and also alter the feel of the game, examples can be seen in the trailer of the stunning graphics which are a definate attraction of the game and blur the boundaries between games and cinema.
The game, in terms of graphics is very sophisticated and realistic which brings a serious tone to the game. Along with this, the complicated processes of enhancing abilities, equipment and the use of weapons like guns makes the audience take the game seriously. This challenges the view commonly held that games are primarily for children.
Games are very heavily visually styled and crafted and are a major force in visual culture, it is therefore very interesting to analyse games in terms of visual language as it is used in a specialised way.
Link to trailer:
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