Fictional AI and Bad Writing
I recently wrote about generative AI's negative impact on imaginations. How, when a magical cure-all exists, people just use it, without checking whether it works or asking about any negative effects.
I've been seeing this in the last three entries of my second favourite game series, too.
Trails
Nihon Falcom's RPG Trails series is one of my favourites. We're 13 games in, and they've all been telling one, long, continuous story since 2004. So far, it's variously taken place in four countries across the west and centre of the fictional continent of Zemuria over seven in-game years. The end is finally in sight; after the next game, we'll be entering the fifth country, set in the continent's east, where we have been told the series will end.
The quality of the moment-to-moment and individual plot writing for each game can vary. It's pretty easy to recommend the first five games, except for the fact that the series' treatment of queer people is negative to neutral. We've been stereotyped and portrayed variously as predatory1, traumatised2 or tragic3. Aside from those issues, I adore the overarching story they're telling and the world they've created. It's all so well fleshed out. The music is phenomenal, and the turn-based gameplay is exactly the kind I love.
The characters are where Trails really shines. Almost everyone is well-written, each with their own motivations, strengths, weakness, idiosyncrasies, habits, favourite foods... they feel so real. When it's moved onto new countries, the series has always brought back a handful of old characters in interesting but believable ways.
One of your party members in the first trilogy is the granddaughter of one of the most famous engineers on the continent. Her grandfather studied under the greatest engineer of all time alongside two other disciples, and they all live in different countries. This young girl shows up in the eighth game, in another country, after a four-game absence, as she has moved internationally to study under one of her grandfather's fellow disciples. It's something I didn't foresee, but as soon as I saw her, I understood her reason for being there even before she explained it.
The heiress to a major weapons and technology company is a party member in games six through to 10. It's well established that her mother, the company's chairman, is well-connected, both within the country and internationally. She has professional relationships with politicians, NGOs, research groups, and more. When I saw the heiress sitting with the daughter of a foreign head of state and a star employee of a major international NGO, I was initially surprised, but it made sense. They both knew the NGO employee; the NGO employee had gone to school with the heiress and worked with the head of state's daughter on her country's development. What's more, they were all about the same age, and all three want to do good for the continent. Once again, I didn't see it coming, but their reasons for connecting were immediately apparent once I thought about it a little bit.
You can see throughlines in how people behave and what they choose to do, too. In a recent game, it was mentioned that an engineer from the Empire of Erebonia was working on limb prosthetics. I was delighted when I heard that, as in a previous game, he had been directly responsible for one of the most powerful warriors on the continent losing his arm. I assume he has moved into limb prosthetics as an act of atonement, and I can't wait to see the warrior again in future, with his new arm. The engineer's reasons for working on prosthetics have not yet been stated, and no one has said anything about the warrior in question receiving a new arm. But it is clear here, from knowing the characters, to see how this would have come about.
The three latest games, all set in the Republic of Calvard, still have some of those thoughtful connections. But there are times when it chooses to wave the magical AI wand in ways which weaken the writing.
Marduk's AI
Marduk Total Security Company is a private military company that has a strong foothold in Calvard. It has developed a risk analysis AI that alerts the company when something bad is going to happen, and where, so they can send people to investigate.
You know how, when kids play, someone inevitably claims to have an everything-proof shield? Or a weapon that can easily cut through anything? And that makes the play less fun for everyone else? Marduk's risk analysis AI has the same energy.
While you eventually find out the reason for its existence, it's never explained how the AI works. At no point is it elaborated on in any way. In the plot, its only visible function has been to get particular people in specific places at the right time. The characters don't even know how it works.
Marduk are at the cutting edge of a lot the technology we see in Calvard, in terms of both weaponry and literal rocket science. To have their employees not understand their own machine is jarring, at best.
You later find out there is a very good reason for it existing. However, the writers didn't need to use it like this. They could easily have come up with other reasons for people being places. Take the below screenshot:
Kasim is a senior Marduk employee, and the above screenshot depicts him as he arrives on an island. In this scene, he states he is here because the AI flagged the island as a problem.
Everyone else has gathered here because they received an 'invitation' from one of the most wanted criminals on the continent. The writers could easily have extended the invitation to Kasim, or Marduk could have forced their way in because the company noticed that a number of the most powerful people in the country were all heading there at the same time. The latter would have been a great way to demonstrate the company's surveillance capabilities and their desire to gather intelligence, no matter who it pisses off. But no; they had to use their AI.
It's so... dull.
In the following game, a number of main characters have gathered to find some criminals who have fled to the city of Anchorville4. After some investigation, we narrowed down their hideout to a handful of possible locations. Rather than investigating a bit more or looking at their evidence from another angle, they... pulled out the AI.
The AI wasn't even necessary here, because immediately after this line, we got a call from the bad guys, in which they clearly showed they were at the logistics centre.
I suspect the reason they keep doing this is so that we remember the risk management AI exists, as it became plot-relevant at the end of the third Calvard game. However, the way they've deployed it throughout Daybreak and Horizon just makes it look like bad writing. Every time someone mentioned it, my wife and I would roll our eyes. Falcom had to force the AI down our throats in the same way the real-world big tech companies do.
It's possible Marduk's AI will become even more relevant and we'll get more explanations on how it works in Horizon II... But it being recontextualised later doesn't make up for it being bad earlier. If you have to wait for someone to play three or four long, long games before your bad writing makes sense, that's a problem. I've had a number of other narrative issues with the Calvard arc, particularly in Daybreak II, but this is the one I've found the most baffling.
The Real World
I couldn't help but feel that the writers' use of Marduk's AI reflects their own opinions of the technology; that it's a mysterious entity that is excellent at what it does. This, of course, could not be farther from the truth, but it would explain why the company has begun to use it.
I know generative AI and regular AI are not the same thing, and I tend to make a point of not conflating them. I have deliberately done so in this piece because I feel like this is what is happening here; that Falcom is conflating the cool, world-saving tech in their game with the destructive generative variant we see in the real world. Knowingly or not, it's doing PR for generative AI, even though the two iterations of 'AI' are completely different.
Ultimately, I still enjoy the series, and would like to keep playing, but I simply cannot stomach knowingly playing a game whose developers use generative AI in the process of making it. I plan to play the Trails in the Sky: Second Chapter remake and Horizon II to round out their respective subseries and finish on a mostly complete ending for both. But if they don't drop the technology, I won't be joining them in Eastern Zemuria.
It is frustrating to see so many people in the world use generative AI despite the well-documented negative effects on society and the environment, people's own cognition, and the fact it will probably cause a recession soon. It is more frustrating when you see it happening from people you respect, or from creators whose work you love.
1 In this house, we do not talk about Angelica Rogner. I know Olivier had similar issues initially, especially when it came to Josh, but he's not as bad as he used to be, and he has so much more going on than Angelica. He's also less... handsy. Don't even get me started on Shirley fucking Orlando.
2 There is one (1) genderqueer character and this applies to him.
3 There is one game in this country to go, and I'm hoping this tragic plotline will resolve nicely. It's been handled well so far.
4 The link is not important, and only exists because I adore the Anchorville theme.
