Final Fantasy

SquareEnix has re-released Final Fantasy 1 for the iPod. I bought it almost immediately off the Apple AppStore. It was only $9 (which is about the same price as a novel on the kindle, so not bad). I've been playing it on the train to and from work, lost in a happy cloud of nostalgia and awesome.

I've been playing the Final Fantasy games since the first one was released for the NES. I fired it up on a friends machine, and played through to the fight with Garland.

Which, was a bit of a mistake.

You see, the original Final Fantasy on the NES had one save slot. One. And starting a new game effectively blew the old one away. My friend was pretty mad at me, needless to say, and I was banished from his NES for a period of time. I forgot about the game.

Final Fantasy II (North America) came out for the Super Nintendo. I knew about it because I read about it in Nintendo Power magazine (remember that?). There was something different about the game that appealed to me. There was a story, and characters that grew and changed over the course of the game. There was a huge world, and a stupendous amount of things to see and stuff to get. I begged my Dad to pick it up for me next time he was in The City (I lived on a farm, you see). And, miracle of miracles, he did. I missed the bus to school the first day I played it. I laughed at Edward the bard. I cried when Tellah cast Meteo. And I actually got to the moon on the Big Whale and finished the game.

Yeah, one of the few games I've finished.

Ever since, I've made an honest job of trying to finish all the other Final Fantasy games as they come out. Sometimes I've succeeded (VII,X), sometimes I've come close and suffered the loss of a save game with 80+ hours on it (III). Othertimes, I just grew bored with the mechanics (VIII, IX, X-2, Tactics). Regardless, it's always held a special place in my heart.

A few months ago, I went to see a symphony perform the Prelude and One Winged Angel.

I cried during it.