This post may or may not be 17 years overdue.
After the Bad Dream this morning, I decided it was a perfect opportunity to make good on that promise I keep making to myself to start walking and get some exercise. Riding the exercise bike has not been particularly eventful. When I'm bored, I can just get off. If I go for a walk and get bored, I still have to turn around and come home.
I can also get lost and rub my heels raw with shitty shoes, but what are the chances of that happening?
...
Yesterday morning I finally beat FF4. I promised myself I Would Not Give Up. It's been six years since I started this game, and it was high time I finished it, if only so I could say I could. And I did.
And I didn't particularly like it. :/ Sorry. *dodges bricks*
A lot of the earlier FFs have story lines that smack of a very straightforward "Save the crystals, save the world," single mindedness, with not a whole lot going on under the surface. FF4 has some memorable characters, but not a whole lot else to write home about. FF4 is the one where they go to the moon. The end. I'm moderately miffed that characters come and go (and try to kill themselves repeatedly) without so much as a how do you do. So, yeah, Edward was kind of useless, but I would really have appreciated the opportunity to work with him and remedy that. In the end, I probably would have picked Cecil, Rosa, Edge, Rydia and Kain anyway, but maybe I wanted to work with Cid or the twins for a while to see what they had to offer.
Okay, so I'm guilty of liking FF5, which is essentially the same thing with fewer characters and a less memorable story. But one of those characters was Faris (I needs me a modern Faris. Oh sure, not all female characters are consigned to the back row these days, and kick significant amounts of ass, but they're still all pretty, and that kind of really bothers me,) and FF5 had the class system, which I am a huge fucking geek for, I am not even kidding. I would rather have four nonnegotiable characters with a wealth of abilities to pick from that the over-abundance of characters as in FF6 (another unpopular opinion, I know! Why not just shoot me now!)
I sort of felt like you never got to know or care about those characters in FF6, except for the most popular three or four among them. And if, like me, you don't know that you're going to need damn near all of them, you stick with and level up the four you like best when possible, then you're fucked when it comes to the final dungeon.
...Which is why I have played this game at least four times and never finished it. The last time I played it is the furthest I'd ever gotten, and when I got to Kefka's tower I was so disgusted I turned it off and haven't looked back. (Being as it's only one of two games I have left in my collection that I have not beaten, I plan to remedy that...right after I replay BKO :D)
I still think FF9 is the One That Got It Right, and I can honestly say I've never been really excited to play a new FF game since. FF9 forces you to spend time with each character throughout the story, so you get to know and care for each one, but in the end you still get to choose who to go to Memorium with. While it doesn't have a class system, it has it's similarities. I'm sure I'm not the only one who dedicates their sad, sorry life to tracking down and synthing every single piece of equipment so characters can learn every spell and ability, no matter how trivial. So, okay, the plot is a revised, embellished FF4 (Get the crystals before the bad guy, who is, surprise! my brother. Kind of,) there's enough going on outside the scope of the main character to keep it interesting. While I can hold my own in Tetra Master (for the love of god, don't ask how, but I've come pretty close to compiling a complete deck) I still swear by Chocobo hot & cold. If Square made a CH&C game (for the DS, tell me that wouldn't own) with a few dozen levels/terrains and nifty rewards, I would play that shit so. hard.
And most importantly, I did not want to punch Zidane in the face. After FF7 (finished, don't really remember what it was about, exactly) and FF8 (never finished, fell asleep too many times), I really don't know what more you can ask for.
And FF12 brought me Larsa, but IDK, any game that plays itself leaves a little to be desired.
tl;dr: go read this nifty post Terra made about video games, which is longer than mine, but better, and with pictures.
I can also get lost and rub my heels raw with shitty shoes, but what are the chances of that happening?
...
Yesterday morning I finally beat FF4. I promised myself I Would Not Give Up. It's been six years since I started this game, and it was high time I finished it, if only so I could say I could. And I did.
And I didn't particularly like it. :/ Sorry. *dodges bricks*
A lot of the earlier FFs have story lines that smack of a very straightforward "Save the crystals, save the world," single mindedness, with not a whole lot going on under the surface. FF4 has some memorable characters, but not a whole lot else to write home about. FF4 is the one where they go to the moon. The end. I'm moderately miffed that characters come and go (and try to kill themselves repeatedly) without so much as a how do you do. So, yeah, Edward was kind of useless, but I would really have appreciated the opportunity to work with him and remedy that. In the end, I probably would have picked Cecil, Rosa, Edge, Rydia and Kain anyway, but maybe I wanted to work with Cid or the twins for a while to see what they had to offer.
Okay, so I'm guilty of liking FF5, which is essentially the same thing with fewer characters and a less memorable story. But one of those characters was Faris (I needs me a modern Faris. Oh sure, not all female characters are consigned to the back row these days, and kick significant amounts of ass, but they're still all pretty, and that kind of really bothers me,) and FF5 had the class system, which I am a huge fucking geek for, I am not even kidding. I would rather have four nonnegotiable characters with a wealth of abilities to pick from that the over-abundance of characters as in FF6 (another unpopular opinion, I know! Why not just shoot me now!)
I sort of felt like you never got to know or care about those characters in FF6, except for the most popular three or four among them. And if, like me, you don't know that you're going to need damn near all of them, you stick with and level up the four you like best when possible, then you're fucked when it comes to the final dungeon.
...Which is why I have played this game at least four times and never finished it. The last time I played it is the furthest I'd ever gotten, and when I got to Kefka's tower I was so disgusted I turned it off and haven't looked back. (Being as it's only one of two games I have left in my collection that I have not beaten, I plan to remedy that...right after I replay BKO :D)
I still think FF9 is the One That Got It Right, and I can honestly say I've never been really excited to play a new FF game since. FF9 forces you to spend time with each character throughout the story, so you get to know and care for each one, but in the end you still get to choose who to go to Memorium with. While it doesn't have a class system, it has it's similarities. I'm sure I'm not the only one who dedicates their sad, sorry life to tracking down and synthing every single piece of equipment so characters can learn every spell and ability, no matter how trivial. So, okay, the plot is a revised, embellished FF4 (Get the crystals before the bad guy, who is, surprise! my brother. Kind of,) there's enough going on outside the scope of the main character to keep it interesting. While I can hold my own in Tetra Master (for the love of god, don't ask how, but I've come pretty close to compiling a complete deck) I still swear by Chocobo hot & cold. If Square made a CH&C game (for the DS, tell me that wouldn't own) with a few dozen levels/terrains and nifty rewards, I would play that shit so. hard.
And most importantly, I did not want to punch Zidane in the face. After FF7 (finished, don't really remember what it was about, exactly) and FF8 (never finished, fell asleep too many times), I really don't know what more you can ask for.
And FF12 brought me Larsa, but IDK, any game that plays itself leaves a little to be desired.
tl;dr: go read this nifty post Terra made about video games, which is longer than mine, but better, and with pictures.