Grinding for JP: How Final Fantasy Tactics Teaches Perseverance

Introduction

Gamers talk about the grind, the act of slowly inching towards a numeric value, or of working tirelessly towards a goal. This act seems to consume so many mechanics and aspects of games, including the wonderful Final Fantasy series. However, there is one game in the series that arguably uses this act of grinding for the benefit of the player. Final Fantasy Tactics uses its story about the quest of Ramza in a cutthroat, political, and backstabbing kingdom in a civil war and matches it with gameplay mechanics about working through small goals towards larger ones. As part of a network of interrelated games, the Tactics series includes the original on the PlayStation, a spin-off on the Gameboy Advance (Final Fantasy Tactics Advance) and its sequel on the Nintendo DS (Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2), and the remastered port of the original game released on the PlayStation Portable (Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions). While all of these games share similar mechanics and could apply to this chapter, it is the story of War of the Lions that proved to be the definitive one for the research.

In a series of great games, Final Fantasy Tactics can feel like an outlier for its break from the norms of the JRPG genre. Instead of the character-focused story arcs and development, this game sees the player engage in continual strategy-based battles, moving units across the game board to fight the opponent. However, this game’s new set of mechanics and systems encourage the player to engage in different types of thinking and processing, focusing on long-term goals over short-term ones. With this focus on playing smarter, instead of impulsively, Final Fantasy Tactics requires the player to endure or persevere, leading to a more satisfying experience. Not only that but learning perseverance from this game has additional benefits to the player, allowing them to be more successful in life and overcome challenges. Psychologist Angela Duckworth has done extensive research into the benefits of perseverance and grit, finding that those who develop this attribute are more successful than those with pure talent (Duckworth, 2016). In this way, playing one more random encounter on Mandalia Plains can give you the grit and determination to accomplish other difficult things, such as completing college or securing a desirable job.

What is Final Fantasy Tactics?

Developed by the same team behind the strategy games Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics incorporates many of the same mechanics and style of that genre. It is a strategy role-playing game (SRPG) that is a spin-off of the main series, incorporating known elements and characters (Cloud is a playable character, chocobos are present, and Matoya Cave is an allusion to the first game of the series) that takes place in the medieval-inspired kingdom of Ivalice. In this game, players command small groups of their party in encounters on three-dimensional isometric battlefields, strategically moving and attacking with their units. Class specialization is also a key component of this game—a borrowed Final Fantasy trope—where each unit can learn abilities within in order to advance along the branching job tree. These mechanics then lead to a unique Final Fantasy experience, one where the player plans and maps out not only the physicality of moving their units, but also how they assemble their teams, how to combat the checks and balances of the game, and the long-term goals of job-planning.

Coming back to the genre of the SRPG, you can trace its origins back to wargames which then were inspired by another tactical game, chess (Peterson, 2012). Chess too is a game of coordinating units, managing threats, advancing across a game board, and thinking in the long-term as well as short-term. Playing Final Fantasy Tactics then feels similar, where players are much like chess masters who must be calculating, objective, and play into the endgame (a term from chess outlining when some pieces must be sacrificed in order to achieve the desired victory).

Unlike real-time strategy games such as StarCraft or Command and Conquer, which emphasize concurrent playing—hence the “real-time”—SRPGs like Final Fantasy Tactics rely upon alternating turns, as well as progression outside of each match. Actions within this game award you with experience points to level up your base stats, while job points are given toward mastering the skills of your unit’s job. Thus the performance in each battle can lead to future successes, future jobs, and long-term effects for your team in a compounding way (much like traditional RPGs).

The differences in this game separate it from the main series. This game uniquely affects gamers in a way to teach endurance and perseverance. Grinding through Final Fantasy Tactics is different than the grind of Final Fantasy VII. By playing this game, each battle prepares gamers to have grit and to stick it out to the end. Below are three different ways that Final Fantasy Tactics teaches perseverance in the player through its story and its game play mechanics, and why that matters to gamers.

Problem Solving in Final Fantasy Tactics

An interesting subplot in the complex story of Final Fantasy Tactics is the relationship between the commoners and the nobles. Throughout the game, there are instances where the nobles disregard commoners and treat peasants as inferiors, leading to the frequent revolutions and uprisings apart of the War of the Lions. This reactionary spirit is also found in the Corpse Brigade, who find ways to use their limited power, influence, and resources to fight a losing battle against the nobles and the Church. The Corpse Brigade exemplify the game play mechanic of problem solving, as they use any tactic they can to fight against the societal pressures that drove them to seek revolution (such as holding Elmdore for ransom).

This story arc of the Corpse Brigade is similar to the mechanics of the game, where players of Final Fantasy Tactics must work within limitations to persevere. Some of these limitations include how the permanence of the movement phase (no undo option), and when units die, there is a window of three turns to resurrect them with a Phoenix Down, or they are permanently dead (a mechanic known as perma-death). Thus, these mechanics require what is known as “strategic decisions,” as the consequences of your actions have to be weighed before you make your decision (Child, 1997). The psychology of these strategic decisions means that gamers have to choose among actions that have gravity (not being able to redo movement, and the threat of perma-death) and engage in a conservative play style, leading to longer turns. Thus the psychology of strategic decisions is implemented in the mechanics of this game.

These mechanics value long-term thinking, seeing the bigger picture, and not rushing through things. This affects the play style, and how gamers solve the problems they are faced with—defeating the enemies in the battle. Final Fantasy Tactics, like other strategy games, increase perseverance as there is a direct connection between playing strategy games and learning problem-solving skills (Keller, 1990). The continual process of evaluating where to move a summoner and how to utilize a monk’s Doom Fist leads to greater levels of perseverance. Thus, like the Corpse Brigade, gamers choose to fight within their restrictions, hopefully to a better end than that doomed mercenary group. Gamers learn that they can overcome the challenges of one more random encounter and that your careful work and problem solving will pay off in the end.

The Grind of Battle

This game begins with the kingdom of Ivalice just recovering from the Fifty Years’ War against Ordalia. This ordeal has ramifications on the story of the game, especially on the power vacuum that is caused by the death of King Omdoria. Immediately after the lengthy and tedious war with a neighboring kingdom, the people of Ivalice find themselves in a fight for succession known as the Lion War, as each side aligns with either Prince Goltana (under the banner of the Black Lion) or Prince Larg (under the banner of the White Lion). This conflict was bloody, ruthless, and full of complex motives and political intrigue. Within this storyline comes the majority of the drama of Final Fantasy Tactics, and this complicated and lengthy war for the throne of Ivalice is reminiscent of the grind of battle. The people of Ivalice had just persevered through fifty years of war, only to then engage again in a civil war. This story mirrors the game play mechanic of the grind of battle, and how it teaches perseverance to gamers.

While most games in the Final Fantasy series implement random encounters, they serve a much different purpose in Final Fantasy Tactics. In the main series—like other JRPGs—the random encounters and boss fights are a second part of the game. These encounters are interspersed within the actions of the overworld: exploring, solving puzzles, revealing cutscenes, etc. You could even argue that these battles and encounters pause the “real game,” and break the flow of playing a Final Fantasy game. However, in Final Fantasy Tactics, the other familiar parts of the game are stripped back to their barest parts. Gone are games of Blitzball, Triple Triad, and Chocobo breeding; the overworld is a simple map with lines and dots for the locations; and it wasn’t until the PSP port that the cutscenes were animated. Instead, this game is all about the grind of battles. While the story itself is an intricate and branching web of politics in the vein of Game of Thrones, this story is not the focus of the game, but rather giving the motivation to persevere through the long and arduous battles.

Play sessions of Final Fantasy Tactics are typically one grueling battle after another in constant succession. Like the story of Ivalice’s Lion’s War following the Fifty Years’ War, there is almost no break in between the battles. And another way to look at what makes the battles in Final Fantasy Tactics different is how they feel. The battles of this game feel more like a raid from online MMORPGs, which require the balance of multiple moving parts, as each unit has a specialization and role to fill, while also anticipating the opponent’s next move. The experience of Final Fantasy Tactics battles are tests of endurance and perseverance, which can be cut short via the turbo functions of emulators (as evidenced by Twitch streamers of this game). This game is about the grind of battles, but in a good way, as the game is built around glorifying this mechanic and making it fun.

Growth and Jobs

As the story of Final Fantasy Tactics continues, Delita joins with Prince Goltana and rises through the ranks. As he works in the background of many of the pivotal story points, he increases in strength, ability, and gains the trust of the Black Lions. His ascension through the hierarchy showcases his perseverance and dedication to his wants. He takes control of his own destiny, and over time works with both sides to double cross in order to realize his grand ambitions. Delita’s character then mirrors the mechanics of this game, as he grows and adapts, advancing in his jobs and responsibilities in order to have upward mobility. Delita exemplifies perseverance through progression, growth, and in a way the job tree that is core to the game.

Thus the third way that Final Fantasy Tactics teaches perseverance is through the growth that comes out of each battle. Turns out that these two—growth and perseverance—are directly correlated when playing games (Sproule et al., 2011). By building instances of growth and progression into the game, Final Fantasy Tactics encourages gamers to see the potential of their long term goals, and what they can accomplish as they persevere. While the main series of Final Fantasy games have this in spades (try maxing out your stats and characters in Final Fantasy II), what makes Final Fantasy Tactics unique is the branching job tree.

In many ways, this game is a “choose your own adventure,” in that you get to build your own dream units, of which there are so many options and paths to get there. Say you want to have a dancer, do you go the squire > knight > monk > geomancer > dancer route, or do you go the squire > archer > thief > lancer > dancer route? And that is just one job, some are more complex than that (mime has nearly a dozen paths to achieve). Instead of one direct, linear path of evolution—like with Pokémon—there are so many different paths and various levels or tiers of jobs. This means that planning out your ideal build can take some time, and some effort, and some perseverance.

Getting your ideal job combination then takes time, as well as a lot of effort. Lots of random encounters to grind up to what you want. And maybe you don’t know what you want out of your unit. Improvising is possible, but it leads to stumbling into the systems and the mechanics, eventually learning them and wanting to utilize them. You learn how important it is to focus on the long-term consequences of your actions (learning stone throw can lead to something greater down the line). The complex job tree with its interlocking branching paths teaches perseverance as it requires careful learning of skills from job points to eventually advance to the next level, and the next level, and the next level.

In a blog post for Psychology Today, Christopher Bergland (2011) writes about the neuroscience of perseverance. As a world-record-holding endurance runner, he writes about the chemical processes that happen in our brains to enable us to endure. He refers to a dopamine cycle or a repeated process where our brains release dopamine, the pleasure chemical (Bergland, 2011). When we do something pleasurable (such as finish a race, or finally defeat Wiegraf), our brains create dopamine. And our body craves having dopamine again, so we try to recreate that scenario by running another race, or playing one more random encounter. This spike in dopamine and our body’s craving for it again can be seen in the repeated rewards we receive for our short-term achievements towards our long-term goals.

Delita’s character is driven by his long term goals. He sees the big picture and how he wants to shape the Lions War. He perseveres by advancing through the ranks of the Black Lions, and his upward progression is similar to the advancements and growth gamers cultivate within their units. Like mentioned earlier, the units in Final Fantasy Tactics grow and advance in levels with each battle. And as gamers accomplish these smaller milestones, there are spikes of dopamine which encourages the perseverance necessary to work out the larger goals of the branching and complicated job tree. It turns out that when individuals are rewarded for their efforts, they are more likely to persist (Eisenberger, 1992 & 1994). Thus, Delita embodies the advancement of playing a tactical game, and his perseverance is an example to gamers.

The importance of grit

The climax of the game ends with Ramza and his allies successfully destroying Ultima. Their hard work pays off, and yet it is because of the historian Arazlam that this story is even told. Their victory is manipulated and twisted throughout time, in order to fit the politics of the day, and so Arazlam digs through the history to recount the true story of this game. This means that Arazlam’s motives and character mirrors that of Ramza, who persevered until the end, despite repeated obstacles and difficulties. And this story mirrors how the gameplay affects the player, who also like Ramza or Arazlam perseveres.

This game then is a training ground for perseverance. This game teaches players to problem solve through the definite consequences of their actions, to love the grind of battle, and to map out and plan their units’ growth. This psychology of Final Fantasy Tactics then teaches gamers to persevere and to endure. But what does it mean to have that attribute or skill? Why would players want to learn perseverance? What does that mean to them?

It turns out that perseverance is tied directly to the psychological concept of grit, as defined by Angela Duckworth. Her research on the psychology of achievement, and why people succeed compared to others, led to her theory on grit as being a combination of perseverance and passion (Duckworth, 2016; Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007). Duckworth wanted to know why some individuals achieved their goals, while others did not. Talent did not seem to be an indicator of success: lots of brilliant people fail and lots of skilled athletes don’t win the gold medal. She found that grit is what correlated strongly with achievement, and in many ways could even predict success (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007). Her theory then explains how perseverance combined with passion can lead to success, such as patiently raising your mime in Final Fantasy Tactics over the course of many long battles (a job that requires skills from most others in the game, mimes require five levels in Dragoon, Geomancer, Orator, and Summoner alongside eight levels in Squire and Chemist).

In her seminal book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Duckworth explains some of the benefits of grit. The grittier that a person is, the more likely they will enjoy a healthy emotional life, and benefit from greater skill (which is different than talent, which is something you are born with; skill is something you practice). This concept of grit was first explored in 1940 by researchers at Harvard who administered the Treadmill Test with 130 sophomores at the school. This study asked participants to run on a treadmill set at a steep angle and a fast speed for as long as they could, with the average time being four minutes. This experience was chosen because running that hard was not just a test of physical strength, but also of strength of will (Duckworth, 2016). And it turns out, that how long participants were able to run on the treadmill was a reliable indicator of psychological adjustment through adulthood. Decades later, George Vaillant is the lead researcher still measuring the effects of the grit displayed by these participants who ran as long as they could on a treadmill and what that meant to their future.

There is a growing interest in the psychology of grit and how to measure it, as some of the current surveys don’t quite capture its nuance (Credé, Tynan, & Harms, 2017). Perseverance though seems to be more prevalent, as it seems to be an important component of grit (Credé, Tynan, & Harms, 2017) as well as resilience (Robertson-Kraft & Duckworth, 2014). Related to perseverance, resilience is defined as successfully adapting to overwhelming adversity and stress (Robertson-Kraft & Duckworth, 2014). Which in many ways describes the challenges and obstacles of Final Fantasy Tactics. Perseverance makes up grit and resilience. Perseverance is discipline, hope, and dedication. It is wanting so badly to earn enough job points to finally have a bard, and working at it through repeated long-form battles. It is working towards your long term goals of having the perfect team of units with maxed out stats. And perseverance in Final Fantasy Tactics leads to grit for accomplishing our other goals.

Conclusion

The mechanics of this game are interlocking systems that work together to create a unified experience. Game scholar Ian Bogost (2008) described this in his book Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism, stating that video games are made up of mechanics that work together to accomplish the whole. There are many aspects of this game (interlocking mechanics) that work together to accomplish the goal of teaching gamers to persevere. This isn’t just exclusive to Final Fantasy Tactics though: video essayist Alex Van Aken (2017) argues that fighting games such as Absolver also teach us perseverance through similar processes. Through the process of persistently learning, adapting, and surviving, players learn to persevere in spite of challenging mechanics and more skilled players (Van Aken, 2017). Patience is what is needed to succeed in Absolver, as well as Final Fantasy Tactics.

Perseverance as a trait is what separates winners from losers in sports and life (Bergland, 2011). Learning perseverance from this game gives us as players the ability to persist in other challenges. To find little rewards along the way to our long-term goals. The interlocking mechanics that Bogost describes include perma-death and permanent movement, lack of an overworld and instead a focus on battles, a complex job tree with seemingly unobtainable combinations and evolutions, and many more. All of these traits of Final Fantasy Tactics lead to an experience in learning perseverance. Perseverance and grit are valuable, as they lead to success in various activities, from winning the national spelling bee to finishing boot camp at West Point (Duckworth, 2016). If we want to persist in other areas of our life and have a story of overcoming the odds we should learn and cultivate perseverance.

 

 

References

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