Final Fantasy: Challenge Accepted

When it comes to video games, I sadly lose just a little of my nerd cred.  That’s not to say I don’t play video games. I do. It’s that I usually love the original and notsomuch the follow ups.  Sonic the Hedgehog = win! Sonic and Knuckles = meh.

So when Chris, a frequent reader, did a shout out request that I write a post about the original Final Fantasy, I thought, hey!  That I can do!  It also made me realize that I hadn’t written a video game centered post yet (bad Hot Nerd Girl, bad!)

Just a side note: my current PS3 video game of choice is Red Dead Redemption.

So Chris, here you go, this one is for you:

So here’s the deal with OG Final Fantasy. It’s one of those games that revolutionized the way we play video games at home.  It introduced to video games what nerds had been doing for years with card games: role playing.  It was inspired by games like The Legend of Zelda but it had something other games didn’t; a company desperately trying to claw its way out of bankruptcy.  Desperation can result in misfires but it can also result in inspired works of art.  Square gave Hironobu Sakaguchi unparalled control and resources to create an NES game that would save an entire company.

No pressure.

Tracy vs. Chris: The Finalist of Fantasyness-e-ness

Why the name Final Fantasy?  Because our hero Hiro wanted to retire and figured this would be a standalone game.  Boy was he wrong.

Sure, the graphics were pretty sweet for the times but what really hooked me was the music.  Mood is everything for me.  It allowed me to forget the 26 pixel characters I was staring at and embed myself in a world of mages and moogles.  We owe that gorgeous score to Nobuo Uematsu.  FF was revolutionary in that you could choose between 6 different classes of characters.  You have Fighters, Thieves, Black Belts and three different kinds of Mages, White, Black and Red.  My personal favorite was the Red Mage because they were decent fighters but could also cast magic which is awesome.  I’m in to the all-in-one.  The differences between the types of magic are thus: white is defensive and is what you use to help out the other members of your group; black is offensive and is what you use against your enemies; red is a combination of white and black.  See?  Red = awesome.

warrior of epic light fail

Another draw FF had for me was the lack of side quests.  Give me a mission and let me do it mmmkay?  I remember playing a computer game as a kid that was all about pirates.  The game was awesome but there were so many things to do along the way that I could never get past the damn pirate ship level.  In FF world people give you hints.  Sweet!  You listen to them and move on.  Really, it’s a win-win situation.

And there are crystals.  I’m a girl, I like shiny things.  ‘Nuff said.

There’s no denying that FF is a Japanese invented game but I appreciated the fact that they brought in legends from around the world and incorporated them (ie, naming a weapon Excalibur) into the story.  It helped to bring the theme of destiny into the forefront and really, it’s all about destiny.  Good must triumph over evil, right?  Although, the evil forces may not be what you were expecting.  I don’t want to give away too much of the plot.  If you’ve played it then you already know; if you haven’t, well then, you can get it on multiple platforms these days, even your phone.

Just watch out for Cid.


Comments

11 responses to “Final Fantasy: Challenge Accepted”

  1. What about OG Mario Brothers? Oregon Trail and Paper Boy? 🙂

    1. Oregon Trail??? Dang girl! That’s going waaaaay back! Haha. It WAS awesome though, can’t deny.

  2. Bravo! Makes me want to play FF!

  3. Donivan Gillis Avatar
    Donivan Gillis

    Your allusion to 8-Bit Theater made me so happy! Though I am suprised that you love Red Dead Redemption if you dont like tons of sidequests. That game is a huge sandbox of sidequests. I guess thats the beauty of Rockstar games though. They give you unlimited amounts of things to do and yet still make it fun and accessible for people.

    1. Some are better than others. I actually prefer Wii games in general because I like the smaller controllers.

  4. Well done! An absolutely brilliant review! Thank you for entertaining my request.

    1. My pleasure! I love a good nerd challenge 🙂 Thanks for the suggestion!

  5. Rich Wells Avatar
    Rich Wells

    Cid’s name was probably inspired by the Spanish story “El Cid”. The Tale of El Cid was one told by Spanish minstrels and bards called jugulars. It was a well known story throughout Spanish cities and towns as it was told in town squares across the land; each bard had a different interpretation for the tale. It is also believed that there was an actual Cid de Castilla who took the kingdom of Valencia from Moorish rule through certain artifacts that were found in Valencia. Some people claim that they found his two mythical swords La Tizona and La Colada which he used to slay actual Moorish kings. cristobalcid9 says: One legend tells that El Cid was killed in a battle with the Moors, but then later was resurrected to help finish the war. This may explain Cid’s constant reappearances in each game. 🙂

    1. I figured as much, though I’ve never heard it specifically stated. It is in line with them bringing in legends from all around the world. It’s interesting also that his character is a different in each version and you never quite know what you’re going to get with him. Wonderful history lesson Richard!

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