 In Imagined History, Fading Memory: Mastering Narrative in Final Fantasy X, Washburn writes that Final Fantasy X "makes the relationship of memory, history, and the struggle for control of knowledge a central element of both its gameplay and its narrative." Washburn gives a synopsis of the game's alternate history and describes Spira's development as "evok [ing] a number of culturally vital discourses in Japan that the designers of the game drew on: the modernist aesthetics of evanescence, the loss of faith and belief in a society where technology and religion clash, the desire for a dream realm of memories as the source of an alternative history, and the nostalgic desire for the sublime experience of the annihilation of the past and the completion of history." Washburn uses Final Fantasy X and the analysis of its narrative to make the case for academic study of the medium and counter the critical views held by detractors like Espen Aarseth, summarizing that "The ability to complete the game requires mastering not only the instrumental controls needed to acquire and perfect game skills but also the narrative itself, the cultural knowledge of Spira that facilitates the acquisition of skills and abilities." In Languages Of Navigation Within Computer Games Flynn asserts that Final Fantasy X's navigation is a representative and symbolic language, writing that "[a] lthough Final Fantasy X establishes itself through the opening cut scene as narrative based, it becomes clear that a poetic and mythic experience of space rather than a cinematic sense of space is in operation."
