Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I teach an IB Theory of Knowledge class, and I have found the chapters in this text and others like it useful for explaining difficult philosophical ideas to students. The series, in general, is an excellent way of helping bring philosophy to those who might have difficulty with primary texts. It is especially useful for helping bring people into philosophy through a topic of interest to them, like Final Fantasy. I love FF and I found the text insightful and accurate. I would not have thought that FF had much philosophical content, but the authors do a good job of bringing it out.

I am a huge Final Fantasy fan, and so when I saw this little book sitting on the shelf I just simply had to pick it up. I originally thought that this was going to be a joke book judging by the pictures of the philosophers dressed as moogles on the front and the tag lines on the back such as: "Does Cloud really exist (or should we really care)?" and "Are Moogles part of a socialist conspiracy?" However, this book is actually at its best when the chapters take Final Fantasy extremely seriously and go in depth into the stories of the various games. What spoils the fun a bit are a few chapters that use Final Fantasy as a gimmick to talk about things that have little to do with the games themselves. If you are willing to suffer through a few bad chapters, the good chapters will at the very least provide some new things to think about for some of the best Final Fantasy games that may just help you see these stories in an all new light.

The book is split up into 5 parts with 2-3 essays in each, and each essay is written by a different author. The book therefore lacks a cohesive structure and feels more like a grab bag of topics taken from various games. The games are not given equal treatment either. Many of the essays focus on Final Fantasy VII, and the newer Playstation-era games in general are favored in the discussions over others. The Final Fantasy games 1-5 get practically no serious discussion at all. If you expected a book that would systematically go game by game and breakdown the philosophical ideas behind each then well, it's not like that for most of the games (except maybe for Final Fantasy VII). This book was written by American gamers/philosophers, and it shows. There is a grand total of one essay in the entire book which tries to link plot elements to eastern philosophical concepts (in doing so it becomes the highlight of the book in my view) while the others tend to reach for connections to western philosophical ideas. Overall, the philosophical ideas dominate the talk while various Final Fantasy games are used as sample cases for the ideas under discussion.

Shockingly, the book is at its best when it is devoid of humor. The best essays were the ones that took the subject seriously and really went into the ideas and themes behind the stories in the games. Will the citizens of Spira face a crisis after the fall of Yevon and Sin? Is Cloud's journey really to stop Sephiroth, or is it a personal journey to become more honest and live an authentic life? How are the fears and thoughts of Vivi related to the fears and thoughts of Kuja? When the essays are good, they are actually quite good. Most of the good ones center around a plot analysis of the stories in the games. In fact, there are even two really good essays dissecting the plot of the movie, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. I found the discussion of the ideas behind the movie to be more interesting than the movie itself! It almost made me want to see the film again (almost).

Unfortunately, a few of the essays are complete turds that use Final Fantasy as a gimmick to talk about some unrelated topic. Do you care what criteria there should be for judging the quality of video game graphics? How about an analysis of how materia customization makes your experience personal? Are the lifestyle choices of Final Fantasy characters philosophically acceptable? Can we be sure we are calling Cloud Cloud when we refer to him as Cloud? (?...) Or worse yet, how about a very long essay asking whether or not we should "thank" the heroes of Final Fantasy for saving the world? The only thing I am sure of is that we shouldn't thank the people who wrote these. Oh sure, these chapters throw in little cute things like "Could Cloud Strife Beat Superman in a Fight?" to try and make the experience seem less dreadful but, like Jar Jar in Star Wars, the jokes only serve to make a bad situation even worse. Most of the bad essays appear at the front end of the book as well, making you grind through the crud first to get to the really good stuff.

Despite the bad ones, I really enjoyed this book and was very satisfied when I was through reading it. It has a lot of careful analysis on the stories of past games and it was fun just to think about some of the concepts in those games that I seemingly overlooked. Yeah, it could have been even better if a lot of the essays that were only loosely related to the games were cut in favor of a deeper analysis of the themes in the games themselves, but there is enough here that is good to recommend this book to big fans of Final Fantasy that might enjoy taking a philosophical look at their favorite games.

Do not buy this book. It is riddled with inaccurate details and is obvious some of the authors did not play the games. I regret buying this book because I think it is a great injustice to the fans of the series. These pop culture books are often interesting and make some good thinking points, but this is not one of those books. Out of the entire book, there was only one chapter I thought to be well written. I have played every single game in the series including XI and was upset to see one author name Cloud Strife as the main protagonist in Final Fantasy VIII. The facts are constantly wrong and the philosophical ideas are something anyone could think up regardless of what you are talking about. A friend of mine told me not to get this book, but I didn't listen and now I'm out a few bucks and an hour or two of my life. Do yourself a favor and go play a Final Fantasy game and don't waste time reading this garbage.

Anyone who enjoys both Final Fantasy and the subject of philosophy will find this book to be entertaining. While it tends to be light on either subject, depending on the chapter, there's enough here for readers of any level of philosophical background to enjoy.

Rather than one large work written by one author, the book presents readers with a collection of essays, split into chapters for their respective subjects.

The essays vary in quality. Some of the stronger essays present solid arguments on a subject and can be very convincing. One early essay, which discusses Kefka's insanity, presents a strong and well-organized argument against what is considered the typical outlook on the character. This, and other essays of this caliber, will truly amaze and convince you to see things in a new worldview.

Other essays don't fare so well. And while none of them are truly horrible, there are two or three that are quite painful to read. Some essays barely connect Final Fantasy with philosophy at all, merely peppering their essays with game references just so they could get their work into the book. In fact, some of these works feel like slightly modified college theses. Thankfully, it won't take you long to pick out these stinkers.

Overall, Final Fantasy and Philosophy is a decent read. And while the skill level won't win over any hardcore philosophers, it's sure to give a satisfying experience to the curious.

I found myself almost scared off of this purchase by the 1-star review above, but having gone ahead with it just to see what mysteries it actually contains, I can honestly say it is more than worth the money. Having just completed my undergraduate studies for a B.A. in philosophy, while running a Final Fantasy oriented blog (KaizoPapercraft) in my spare time, I feel I am entitled to comment both on the philosophical and fan-based elements of this piece. It delivers on both fronts. The facts are accurate and the observations are appropriate. While this isn't something I think someone with a PhD would find all that enlightening, it is written as a happy medium: simple enough for a thoughtful gamer to follow (with all the necessary references to track down the original ideas and authors alluded to), but stimulating enough to give someone with training a good time, reflecting on a classic series.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone with interests in both philosophy and Final Fantasy.

Contrary to what other reviews left by others may say, I am halfway done with it right now and find it to be mostly fascinating. It is true that on quite a few points, they were either written in an extremely confusing matter, making the objective harder to understand by the time you reached the end of the chapter, or just carelessly written in such a way that makes you wonder "okay...so what?". I am not one to say "Do NOT buy this book!" because I think it's all a matter of opinion whether you will like this book or not. And while I am by no means a professional on philosophy, I feel that this book has a number of interesting points that many otherwise may not have considered before.
My recommendation: Find a way, either on Amazon.com or if possible somewhere online, to read &/or glance over parts of the first chapter. That will at least help base your judgment off of what you-yourself feels versus just reading someone's review on it. Good luck & happy reading! ^_^

A good book for people unfamiliar with popular thoeries and theorists, good as a starting point I think.

Possibly focuses on Final Fantasy VII too much, and the writing style can be somewhat patronizing in parts.