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rosencrantz and
irish_ais ~!
Day 01: Favorite Final Fantasy Game
HOW DO I CHOOSE
Well, in typical Sev fashion, I am going to have to choose three because I don't do decisions, but I have reason for my choices, so here goes:
My
favorite Final Fantasy game in general/overall is FFIV. This is for a lot of reasons that have nothing to do with the game itself and everything to do with nostalgia. FFIV was my first Final Fantasy - back when it was FFII - and I can remember first sitting down with my brother to play it: the boy I had a crush on in school had lent us FFII and Zelda for SNES, for one week, and I really just remember getting
hooked on FFII. Jim and I couldn't beat it in the time we had it, but after getting that taste, we would constantly petition my mother to rent the game from the supermarket. It became our babysitter: Mum and Dad knew that if we had that game for an evening we wouldn't do
anything else, including
get hungry. It was real.
So I have a huge soft spot for that game overall. I loved Rydia from the second she came on the screen, adorable little green-haired nuker. I watched Cecil and Rosa be all sweet at each other, watched Kain's awkward honor/obedience thing twist himself up in ways I was probably too young to understand, loved Edge, cheered at Yang and Edward and Palom and Porom, and cried at the frigging Giant of Bab-Il when everyone comes back to fight, I'm not lying, I still tear up at that scene occasionally because, well, we're going on
20 years of memories of playing that (yup, just aged myself, didn't I).
I made Rydia and Rosa Lego People afterwards. I mean, okay, at that time, I liked video games, but I think I would have liked them
more if they'd had girls in them - and FFII/FFIV
did. No matter what (genuine and appropriate!) criticisms you can lay on Rosa and Rydia in terms of traditional female roles and female video-game-character roles (and I have!), you can't deny that they are important in the game, important to the plot. Rosa's at Cecil's side for a lot of it; Rydia saves the day with her summons. They both defy the menfolk and fly to the moon and
won't take it back. It isn't - it was like,
oh, okay, I can identify with that. I used to pretend I was Rydia more than I should admit online.
I've played this game more times than I should admit either. I've played it on SNES, on emulator, on PS1, on GBA, on DS, on PSP. I know it pretty well. And every time I play it I still enjoy it: so there isn't a lot of gameplay involved, no customizable characters, not even really replay value (except for the DS NGP option), and yet... I still love it, because I'm a nostalgic softhearted sucker for it. It still makes me smile and sigh and stabs my heart in all the right places.
So for those reasons, FFIV will always be my overall favorite.
My
game I think is the best one is actually FFVI. It's complex and intricate in a lot of really awesome ways, with character backstories that are really fleshed out and personalities that are multilayered. It's funny and silly and heartwrenching and
sad all at once. It has a fantastic villain and no real hero / "main character", but it's led by two awesome heroines who are central to the story being told. Gameplay is pretty straightforward, but characters are sort-of customizable (Esper levelling-up) and there's some replay value in that you can pick different parties and get different scenes in-game and at the ending. It's a great game and when I think of all of them, I still think it's the shining star.
It would be my favorite, but the nostalgia-value of FFIV pushes it over the edge, honestly. I have some pretty good memories of FFVI, too, though - dual-controller SNES games where I wanted to be all the girls and Jim had to be Sabin because I couldn't Blitz worth a nickel.
My
favorite game to write for is FFVIII. As a fanfiction writer, as somebody in fandom, I think this is a slightly different angle: FFVIII was a fantastic and fantastically confusing game. And for a fanfic writer, it's still my favorite. I
still haven't run out of stories to tell in that world; I omni-ship the entire cast; I'm still coming up with theories, past and present and future and
why does no one pay attention to Ellone and the game was informative enough to give us these interesting characters, a time-twisting plotline, some father-son snippets, weird fated threads -- and yet confusing enough that it leaves plenty to write for, plenty to do, lots of things to say and explore and lots of directions to go.
It was a great game, and of the "later" FFs it is my favorite. And for fanfic, it is the winner.
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