Final Fantasy and Philosophy: The Ultimate Walkthrough (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series) [Paperback]

Jason P. Blahuta (Editor), Michel S. Beaulieu (Editor), William Irwin (Series Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470415363 | ISBN-13: 978-0470415368 | Publication Date: October 12, 2009 | Edition: 1

An unauthorized look behind one of the greatest video game franchises of all time, Final Fantasy

The Final Fantasy universe is packed with compelling characters and incredible storylines. In this book, you'll take a fascinating look at the deeper issues that Final Fantasy forces players to think about while trying to battle their way to the next level, such as: Does Cloud really exist (or should we really care)? Is Kefka really insane? Are Moogles part of a socialist conspiracy? Does the end of the game justify the means?

As Mages, Moogles, fiends, and Kefka are mashed together with the likes of Machiavelli, Marx, Foucault, and Kafka, you'll delve into crucial topics such as madness, nihilism, environmental ethics, Shintoism, the purpose of life, and much more.

• Examines the philosophical issues behind one of the world's oldest and most popular video-game series
• Offers new perspectives on Final Fantasy characters and themes
• Gives you a psychological advantage--or at least a philosophical one--against your Final Fantasy enemies
• Allows you to apply the wisdom of centuries of philosophy to any game in the series, including Final Fantasy XIII

Guaranteed to add a new dimension to your understanding of the Final Fantasy universe, this book is the ultimate companion to the ultimate video-game series.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Final Fantasy is one of the greatest video game franchises of all time, and its universe is packed with compelling characters and incredible storylines. With this book, you'll be able to apply the wisdom of centuries of philosophy to any game in the series, including Final Fantasy XIII. Everything you'll need to achieve a greater understanding of Final Fantasy is here. As Mages, Moogles, fiends, and Kefka are mashed together with the likes of Machiavelli, Marx, Foucault, and Kafka, you'll delve into crucial topics such as madness, nihilism, environmental ethics, Shintoism, the purpose of life, and much more. And of course, your intellectual status will be forever changed upon reading this book.

Guaranteed to add a new dimension to your understanding of the Final Fantasy universe, this book is the ultimate companion to the ultimate video game series.

About the Author

Jason P. Blahuta is an associate professor of philosophy at Lakehead University and has contributed to Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy and Terminator and Philosophy.

Michel S. Beaulieu is an assistant professor of history at Lakehead University.

William Irwin is a professor of philosophy at King's College. He originated the philosophy and popular culture genre of books as coeditor of the bestselling The Simpsons and Philosophy and has overseen recent titles including Batman and Philosophy, House and Philosophy, and Watchmen and Philosophy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (October 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470415363
• ISBN-13: 978-0470415368
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #139,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fun Read, January 30, 2010

By 

M. Digiordano - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Final Fantasy and Philosophy: The Ultimate Walkthrough (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series) (Paperback)

This is definitely a fun read, and also a very quick read. For those who are used to reading philosophy or professional works on cultural studies, this comes across as very light reading. I would imagine for those who are unfamiliar, it is a pretty accessible approach to some philosophical ideas in a very user friendly context. Despite some of my complaints, i generally enjoyed this text. However, I think in some ways, this is both a benefit as well as one of the downfalls of the text. If you are used to reading philosophy/professional criticism, some of the articles come across as being fairly juvenile, in the sense that I feel like there are a few articles that seem like there were written just to talk about final fantasy and philosophy but that the process was something like, "hmmm..., let's see, what philosopher do i want to talk about? How about (insert name)." and then they proceed to simply pick a final fantasy work and glue the two together in a somewhat mediocre kind of way. Also I think that some of the writers had great ideas, but lacked stylistically. Also, such articles such as the one on Roland Barthes and readerly versus writerly text has far more leanings towards literary theory than it does philosophy, apart from being extremely repetitive and not very mature in style.

On the positive side, i think that there was a strong slant towards existential thought, which I think is very fitting for the final fantasy series, especially in the cases of final fantasy 6, 7, and 9. These were overall well presented and very fitting, as the ideas of filling the void by creating an authentic existence, nietzsche's "death of god", etc. are some of the strongest topics in these games. The only thing i would've wanted to see here is these ideas strongly presented in FF9 rather than Vivi's fear of stopping which seemed to be going the right direction (in the heideggarian sense of being being affected by the consciousness of death) but instead focused on justification for his fear, which i consider a less relevant topic. Anyways, I won't continue too much on this, at any rate, there were a fair number of very pleasing articles.

I seriously recommend this book to any fan who enjoys cultural studies.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining but Inaccurate, February 6, 2010

By 

Alyssa B. Goss - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Final Fantasy and Philosophy: The Ultimate Walkthrough (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series) (Paperback)

This book is amusing at times. I was annoyed by the condescending attitude of some the chapters. Most of the concepts mentioned in the book are ones commonly held by fans to begin with. The main usefulness of the text was in aiding me to understand some aspects of Hume's and Kant's philosophies better.

I can't say how accurate the philosophical information is, being less well-versed on the subject, but accusations of inaccuracy regarding Final Fantasy games is correct. There's one long essay where the authors apparently didn't know that FFVII and FFVIII are different games. Cloud, Seifer, Aeris and Sephrioth are all described together as having come from the same game. I think they're describing Squall when they talk about Cloud but it's hard to tell.

I think if you're going to print an essay and receive payment for it you should at least be familiar enough with the work you're discussing to identify the main characters correctly.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Final Fantasy "VII" and Philosophy, October 5, 2010

By 

BlitzSage - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Final Fantasy and Philosophy: The Ultimate Walkthrough (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series) (Paperback)

The Pop Culture and Philosophy series is useful for anyone wishing to apply philosophy into books, movies, tv shows and games by giving introductory philosophy. For this, I would recommend the book for anybody that has played the games so that it can help you think about aspects of the games in philosophical ways. For instance, the chapter about Kefka's insanity might make you view him differently as a character. You also will look at Wutai in a different light, and many other things in this book will help. I recommend it rather highly.

However, you do get what you pay for. It is a book on pop culture, which implies in the name, popularity. That means that most of you familiar with games that do not have the number 7 behind them will get a little tired of hearing FFVII mentioned all the time. And as other people have mentioned, there are some inaccuracies. But I think it's ultimately tolerable. If you buy it it will help you bridge connections between philosophical thought and a series you love. I recommend it.