A Cast of Thousands... Zack Fair

Normally, I would loathe the idea of using a Final Fantasy protagonist as an example of a character that I considered personally important. What could they really teach me but how to wield a sword or bask in melodrama? (Though I admit, I do like me some melodrama.)

In the case of Zack Fair - particularly the Zack Fair of this year's Crisis Core - I'm of a different opinion. Yes, he still has the spiky hair and gargantuan sword that make fanboys croon, but he's also something that's become a special rarity in the JRPG sub-genre: a hero.

[Spoilers of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII ahead.]

I remember playing Final Fantasy for the first time on the NES. I controlled four stalwart heroes who fought to save the world. Not because their friends were in danger, nor because of their troubled past or any other particular motivation. Their only reasons for doing so were that somebody had to, and they could. This was the early era of video game storytelling. Characters were one dimensional. Final Fantasy's "Four Friends" saved the world because that was what heroes did.

Fast forward to Final Fantasy IV on the SNES. A storytelling masterpiece, to be certain, but at the same time I led Cecil through fighting his inner demons and testing his friendship with Kain, something was being lost. Certainly this did not become apparent to me until years later, but from Final Fantasy IV onward, in both Final Fantasy and other JRPG series, it was no longer considered proper for a character to be "just" a hero.

In modern-day JRPGs, a protagonist's motivation to save the world comes from one of three places. The character either has deep-seated personal (read: emo) reasons to be involved in the conflict (Cloud Strife), is stupid enough to have blundered in by accident (Lloyd Irving), or is in fact just a reflection of the player (Hero of Dragon Quest). This is not to slight the modern JRPG; I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy the presence of melodrama, simpleness and personalization in my games.

But Zack Fair was of a different breed. True, his friends were involved in his conflict, but he himself stated that he never wanted anything more than to help others. Despite his cheerful and lighthearted attitude, he was never presented as stupid. He even escaped the mute trap of the player-defined hero. For the first time since Final Fantasy III, Square Enix presented a protagonist who was simply a good person.

Zack was the modern evolution of the original "Four Friends" concept (there is a delightful comparison in the existence of his three friends Aerith, Cloud, and Angeal). While his conflict with the Shinra Company was slightly more provincial than their world-threatening encounter with Chaos, it followed the same simple themes of good vs evil and the fight for nothing else than to uphold that standard. At the same time, I never felt that Zack was one-dimensional or without realism. Zack wasn't and immeasurable and stoic paragon, he was just an altruist who liked to smile.

This belief of his led to one of what I find to be the more dramatic lines of video game history:

Lazard: By the way, what's your dream? To become 1st Class, I would assume?
Zack: Nope. To become a Hero.



Square Enix managed to throw away the complex and overbearing storyline of Final Fantasy VII and focus on the simple concept that they began with years ago: heroism. It seems simple at first, but the simplicity and integrity were what made Zack Fair such an interesting character.

His spirit was undeniable as well. In stark contrast to his virtual doppelganger Cloud, Zack met every situation with a smile and a laugh, or at the very least his utmost determination. The value of his character was universal. There was no need for a lengthy monologue to explain why I should like Zack Fair. It was immediately obvious, and it only became a more powerful sentiment as time went on.

From his initial meeting with Aerith to his final confrontation outside Midgar, Zack constantly displayed his selfless nature. Though it may have been difficult to get over the fact that I knew Zack and Cloud were closely linked, I had to notice that in Crisis Core, Zack put his life on the line for a Cloud he barely knew. In fact, when Cloud lies unconscious and Zack is caring for him (once again with nothing but a smile on his face), their relationship is so uncertain that Zack asks him a question:

"We're friends, right?"

For Zack Fair, heroism wasn't about the fact that Shinra had wronged him. It wasn't about the fact that a friend had betrayed him. It wasn't about a village burnt down or a shadowed past. That makes him special, because in this genre we really don't this that anymore: Zack Fair performed his heroic acts because, well, that's what heroes do.