I initially planned for my next post to be about anime, but I just finished Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake (shortened to DQ3 from here on out), and I feel like I have to get these thoughts off my chest. Before I dive into the game, however — and yes, there will be spoilers for two rather old games — I need to first talk bring up Final Fantasy X (shortened to FFX from here on out). I’ve always been a big defender of Tidus, because I feel that brash, half short, half pant wearing protagonist is often unfairly maligned at least in the JRPG circles that I’m aware of. Of course, people’s opinions are what they are. If their reaction to Tidus’s many antics is to visibly cringe, then it is what it is. Who am I to say that cringing at Tidus is wrong if that’s how you honestly feel? But you can always try to look at any situation from a different perspective and thus come to a different understanding — and understanding that doesn’t have to replace your initial reaction but add to it. I will also contend that FFX is (likely inadvertently) a look at DQ3 — or various stories like DQ3 — from a different but very important perspective.

Fundamentally, DQ3 is about going on an adventure to save the world from a looming threat. Basically, the big bad. The evil that will never die. For as long as there is light in the world, there will be darkness yadda yadda yadda. You know the drill. Every story is archetypal at its core, then we layer on the fat. In recent years, however, we lay them on thick and high. Personally, Rebirth fattened up FF7 a bit too much, but that’s a rant for another day (or maybe never). But back in the 80s, we didn’t lay it on very thick. DQ3’s archetypal story doesn’t get a whole lot more complicated that that. Dad, known by many as Ortega, went on a journey to save the world, but he tragically never came back. Hell, nobody really knows what happened to him. And now that we, the Hero, have come of age, we’re also spurred to follow in our father’s footsteps. Along the way, we meet a colorful cast of characters who’ve all met Ortega. And let me tell you what? They adore shit out of that guy. They still wax poetic about him to this very day. In fact, there’s a race of faeries who completely despise humans… but that Ortega though!!! One faerie helps you only so you can hopefully help Ortega out. Basically, our father was the bee’s knees.

But as I neared the end of the game and learned more about what befell Ortega, I did not feel for the man. I didn’t care to praise him as everyone else did. To me, he’s just the generic hero much like the character you’re playing. Instead, all I felt was pity for the mom. It is perhaps misplaced pity. After all, she’s sad about her missing husband, but she isn’t mad about it. She understands, and she never hints otherwise. But in the end — like father, like son/daughter — our Hero also gets trapped in the underworld. You may have beaten the big bad, but you can’t leave. Much like Dad, you can’t even say your goodbyes to your mom. (Canonically, that is. Gameplay-wise, you can always just magically teleport back home. Hell, in the post game, you can even kick Shen-Long’s Xenlon’s ass and make a wish to revive your father. But that’s all nonsense story-wise.) The mom thus loses both her husband and her child and never hears from either of them again. What a kick in the balls.

Fast forward all the way to 2001 and FFX is finally out for everyone to enjoy. Like DQ3’s Hero, Tidus has to leave the comforts of his home in order to go on an adventure and save the world. He doesn’t get a choice, though. He’s dragged kicking and screaming into Spira’s current affairs when all he wants to do is play blitzball. Like DQ3’s Hero, Tidus lives in his father’s shadow. Jecht is a sports superstar at home, and while he isn’t quite as revered in Spira as Ortega was in the world of DQ3, Yuna is dismayed when Tidus opens up about his true feelings towards his father. Naturally, as we watch our blond hero run around Spira, pouting left and right about his dad, it’s not hard for a lot of players to view him as childish, petulant, bratty, etc. And what’s his reward for saving the day? Funnily enough, Tidus doesn’t get to go home either. Shit, the home that he knew wasn’t even real and neither is he! DQ3’s Hero can at least revisit his home where Mom greets him happily. Tidus’s memories of his mother is tainted, because some people naturally don’t cope with losing their significant others very well. It’s fascinating how the games parallel each other despite being 13 years apart, and even more fascinating how FFX subverts so much of such a simple narrative in DQ3.

Ultimately, I’m writing this post because I can’t help but feel for Tidus, because I’ve been there. Dad’s never around, and even when he is, he doesn’t even bother to be much of a parent. But like Ortega, Jecht’s doing a really important thing! Or so you’re told. As a child, you’re the DQ3 Hero. Dad’s doing it for the family so he’s awesome. Why should you believe otherwise? But as an adult — or even just a teen coming to grips with their own place in the world — you have to reflect and wonder, “Is Dad really all that great? Do I really want to grow up and be just like him?” Again, DQ3’s Hero manages to save the world but to what avail? The big bad swears that he’ll return. And so the Hero starts laying the foundations for future generations to follow in their footsteps much like they followed in Ortega’s footsteps. Fittingly, FFX’s narrative is all about breaking out of the cycle that Spira is trapped in. Tidus and Yuna follow in their fathers’ footsteps, but only to a certain point. (Let’s ignore the fact that Sin comes back in some stupid novel where Tidus apparently dies from an exploding blitz ball). Yes, Jecht and Ortega arguably did what they had to do given how they were essentially trapped in the end, so neither of them are bad men. But that’s besides the point which is that you can be a good man, but still a bad father.

(Though to be fair, even Ortega in his final moments wrote in his diary that he regrets leaving his family behind. And as Jecht came to grips his mortality, he also left recordings behind for Tidus.)

So in summation, Tidus is that same DQ3 Hero going on the same journey, but we’re looking at the same story from a completely different perspective. Obviously, there’s a whole lot more fat in FFX. Storytelling has come a long way in the 13 years between the two games. There’s some stuff about dreamers, ancient civilizations, the evils of organized religion, blah blah blah. But strip all of that away to look at the core of Tidus’s relationship with his absentee father. We as a player, after playing both games, get to ask ourselves if the Ortegas in our lives are more like Jechts. And if you grew up playing JRPGs in Japan, I have to imagine this is why FFX resonated with so many people. Yes, there’s the obvious fact that it’s just a really good fucking game. And of course, it tackles the relevant cultural issues plaguing the milieu of the time like putting the burden on young women to sacrifice themselves for the good of the nation, Wakka’s penchant for Othering the Al Bhed, the fear of technology, literal undead fogeys refusing to give up even the tiniest scrap of power, so on and so forth. But as far as Tidus and his father are concerned, their relationship is so crucial to understanding how perceptions of fatherhood has evolved. Those same kids who played DQ3 all those years ago get to take off the rose-colored glasses and see their fathers (and parents in general) for who they really were: not perfect, reverent figures like Ortega but flawed people like Jecht.

This isn’t really a post about bashing Ortega, because DQ3 is what it is: an 8-bit game from the late 80s so it had to be economical about everything including its narrative. Ortega is a legend. Simple as. Rather, I just felt compelled to defend FFX once again.