Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #77569 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780470415368
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

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.

Customer Reviews

Useful
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.

If you like Final Fantasy, DO buy this book
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.

A Fun Read
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.