Why I Did It: An Author's Introduction

by Stephen Davis

All right. You can call off the cops. Take down the roadblocks. You've got your man. I confess—this story you are about to read is not entirely original… or, I should say, the plotline is not. But before you all start gathering a posse to hang me from the nearest elm tree (or telephone pole if an elm tree doesn't happen to be in the vicinity), allow me to explain.

Three years ago, I stumbled upon what may be, in my opinion, the Holy Grail of video games. It was a four-disc PlayStation RPG (that's role-playing game, to the six people who don't know) entitled The Legend of Dragoon. I popped it into my game system, and immediately became engrossed. I mean, this game was the greatest thing I'd ever seen! It didn't happen kick-ass special effects like the Halo series, or a Michael Giacchino-conducted score like Medal of Honor, or even a pink Caddy to run over hookers with like GTA: Vice City. But you know what grabbed me? That's right: the story.

I may be the first person to say this out loud, but the storyline is what I love most about video games. Sure, awesome SFX are great, but that's like the snow on top of Mount Everest. The story is the mountain, man, and without the story, you know what you've got? Just a big melting pile of snow. Nobody wants to climb that!

And I know some of you die-hard RPG fans are saying, "Hey, what about the Final Fantasy series? Or Chrono Trigger? Those games are classics!" I'm not saying they aren't. I'm simply saying that The Legend of Dragoon was so much better, and its sprawling saga made for a much more epic tale. While the Final Fantasy series is larger, it just doesn't have that inner spark that its four-disc counterpart possesses. And yet, The Legend of Dragoon was buried in the hype from the release of Final Fantasy VII, and got consigned to the $9.99 bin at Wal-Mart.

It took me three months to beat the game (it wasn't hard; I just had so much on my plate—school, band practice, and my writings), but when I did, it was like a huge weight had been lifted from my chest. And yet, I was saddened, because I loved the game so much, and would miss playing it again with the wide-eyed fascination of a first-timer.

And that's when the idea hit me.

Let me explain: I had also been re-reading the Dark Tower series (Books 1 through 4; Book 5 hadn't come out until a few months later) at the same time I was playing this game, and I realized something. The epic feel of The Dark Tower could very much be applied to The Legend of Dragoon. That, coupled with the question of "What if Stephen King had written The Legend of Dragoon?", set the wheels in motion. So the question became "What if I wrote it, applying some techniques learned from the King, and made the story even more epic and, dare I say it, Kingish?"

So, when I finished the short story I had been writing ("Last Stop," which earned me an A- in creative writing class three years later), I immediately jumped into the project like a bankrupt man jumping off a skyscraper circa 1929. And, four months later, I had over 400 pages complete. It was basically a step-by-step retelling of the game.

Then the editing came.

Let me recap one of the major "flaws" the game had: dialogue. Because the game was Japanese in origin, the dialogue was translated into English... and very badly, I might add. The story, which takes place thousands of years in the past (or future? or alternate reality?), used some 1999-era phrases (i.e. one of the characters uses the word "bitchin'"), which took me out of the story. So my first job—revise the dialogue to make it apply more to the times.

Then I made the story darker, and eventually I even sprinkled some DT references into the saga (for example, the Tower itself is mentioned several times in passing). It was for my benefit, simply because I knew Sony would never allow me to publish this tale, so I could do whatever the hell I wanted with it. And, eventually, I was finished with the revision.

The result? An epic tale even better than its original. While I loved the game very much, I feel that this treatment of the story is the true one. Maybe it's a sense of propriety that comes with writing it. I don't know. I can tell you it's more enjoyable to read, and several of my friends agree that it is probably one of the best fantasy stories they've ever read (and they are EXTREMELY critical). It reminded me a lot of The Talisman, full of DT references but not really DT itself.

But now I am probably boring you all to death--sorry about that. But before you jump into the story that will follow, I would like to take this time to thank the people who helped me on the journey of writing this.

First, to the creators of the game at Sony. Without you, there is no story. Just get some better translators next time.

Thanks to JD, John, Sara, Emily, Tasha, and Sherman for their criticism. Especially JD and Tasha, who poked so many holes in the original version that you could grate cheese with it.

Thanks also to the lovely Leanna, who read this story my senior year and proclaimed it "a lot better than the crap I'm reading for English class." Now do you see why I love her so much?

And thanks to you, whoever you happen to be, because you're reading this story... and without you, the tale is nothing more than dust in the wind.

Stephen Davis

November 12, 2006