Everything in Particular

In the beginning … (for me)

I have been an avid Final Fantasy fan since Final Fantasy II (Final Fantasy IV JPN)was about a year and half into its run in the US market. My first impression of the game was not a favorable one. You see, up to this point in my life my favorite games had been Super Mario Brothers, Megaman 2, Blaster Master, Contra I & III. Basically shoot-em-up games that involve moving left and right and pushing one of two buttons (in some cases both at the same time).

Being a gamer with this background seeing the Final Fantasy II interface I wondered why in the heck anyone would ever want to play a game where they have to read so much. Not only that but you’re going through menus looking at player statistics pouring through hundreds of items in an inventory list. Why would anyone want to play this game!? Fortunately for me I was so addicted to video games that I played anything that I could blow the dust off sufficiently to get it to work in my Nintendo. Soon after borrowing it from my friend I was off killing Imps with a lowly 6 hit points, learning what a Paladin was and how such a lame-looking, turn-based battle system could actually be fun.

Looking back on my first Final Fantasy experience the part I remember enjoying the most was the part that I had the most trouble with. The three sisters battle. One sister healed, one did powerful black magic spells while the third provided a wall for the other two. It was in this battle I learned the dynamics of a delta attack and it was the first battle I had to develop a real strategy to get through. It was awesome!

Deterioration of the series

Fast-forward ten years to the year 2001. Final Fantasy X is released in December and like a mindless zombie going through the, now habitual, motions embedded in me like muscle memory I trek to the local game store and pick up a copy. The outcome of the Final Fantasy X gaming experience was … disappointing. I hated blitz ball (seen left) which is compounded by the fact that for the story to progress there are times you actually have to play it! The characters were ok I guess. The story was strange and hard to follow but it didn’t completely turn me off. Ten years of living through the same turned-based battle system was really starting to wear on me. It was no longer just lame looking anymore it was actually lame playing now too! It had been given a bit more life with Final Fantasy VII when they gave the enemies and players more movement in battle and made it 3D but even that was getting old being introduced 4 years previously.

Enter Final Fantasy XI onto the scene

This game was fun! … for a few months. It really was a fun game, but it was a Final Fantasy by name only. Because it was an MMORPG it didn’t have persistent worlds, it didn’t really have a story line (nothing very engaging anyway) and you were unable to control your entire team as each character was played by someone else somewhere in the world. When I say it was fun for a few months that is because after about three months if you were playing moderately you would be about level 30. Once you’re level 30, without investing 3 or 4 hours each night to play you could no longer progress at a reasonable rate. Take the progression away and you take away the fun of it all. This game warrants special attention however as it marks the first Final Fantasy game to introduce a new battle system. It was more active and engaging. Your characters weren’t 20 yards from the enemy running back and forth when attacking (or just standing in place and swinging a sword from BFE in the earlier versions of the games). I stopped playing Final Fantasy XI about 6 months after I started. It isn’t really a game you can get to the end of with any reasonable investment of time and so I had to abandon it. Because it really was a fun game I did miss playing it. So while my opinion of the game is that it was ultimately very fun I don’t give credit to this game for breathing new, much-needed life into the series simply because it was basically a non Final Fantasy Final Fantasy.

read on: Final Fantasy XII Revives the Series (Part 2)