The “My History With…” series are my thoughts back when I was a kid to young adult, about when I got games of a series, my initial thoughts about them, and other thoughts about the games. I stick to games I have or had, not one I played for the first time when i discovered emulation or modern system remakes. 

I started my journey in the Final Fantasy series started later than Dragon Quest/Warrior, but i fell in love with it as I did DW. I loved reading as a kid and my love for sci-fi and fantasy really drove me to the FF series seeing how Dragon Warrior was always more medieval fantasy. The longform storytelling here of having an objective for your party and solving problems along the way, or not knowing who or what you’re fighting or fighting for made me want to keep playing as I grew up. Even as a kid I didn’t mind grinding that much (though now with emulators you got that magic fast forward button). I should really start seeing down with these again with some the remakes and rediscover my childhood joy. For this I stuck with ones

ONTO THE GAMES:

One the first rpgs I played, can’t remember if I played this before first owning Dragon Warrior 3 though. I got this for Christmas one year and spent the afternoon at my grandparent’s pouring through the maps and Explorer’s Guide to learn all the ins and outs and see the maps. I was especially happy when I got the Final Fantasy strategy guide from Nintendo Power one Summer (I still have it too!)! As hard as this was and the backtracking sucked (Marsh Cave in particular) I loved it and would grind and explore for hours. Took me a lot of tries dealing with rng to make it to the bottom of the Chaos Shrine to finally defeat Chaos and end the time loop but it was worth it. The remakes of it really did improve the graphics and music, along with adding more to the background and lore of this world. Still a favorite! What’s kinda funny is compared to other strategy guides for FF1, the Nintendo Power one tends to still be the one I refer too, even if I have to remember the later changes in spell and item names. XD

I think this was my first SNES rpg and still holds a place in my heart, especially now since getting into emulation and game hacks and finding amazing ones for this and FF 3/6! Even back then loved the storyline and the linear progression of the plot, the cast was amazing (and no my spelling of Kaine isn’t like Kain in the game *wink*). I’d pour through maps of this for a long time and compare notes from Nintendo Power issues and more. I learned of many of the secrets from Nintendo Power including the item split glitch which I still use to this day in vanilla and hacks when available. The final battle amazed me as well as the ending since this was the first rpg I finished that had an epic ending.

 

My favorite of the Final Fantasys right here! Even with the downsides of the game like practically everyone able to use the same gear and spells and the plot feeling like a fetch quest for the World of Ruin, I still love it. Even if the WoR is finding all of your heroes you learn more about their backstories and motivations. Like FF9 the cast varies of everyone’s skills, backstories, tragedies and so on, so this is another FF game where you can easily see yourself in one or more of the heroes and say “Hey that’s me!” The graphics and soundtrack for this are amazing with some my favorite tracks being the ending theme, Searching for Friends, the Magitek Factory and the battle themes. Even the remakes bring more to the lore of the FF3/6 world and check out the numerous hacks for this too! The final battle against the twisted and perverted Goddess Statues leading to the final battle with Kefka was amazing and a rough fight set to the epic Dancing Mad and the 20 minute ending theme was a game changer to me. The ending still makes me cry to this day, especially that epic music build up right before the very end of the game’s ending sequence.

The first FF for the 32-bit era was a favorite of mine when I got it from a friend. Graphics blew my mind back then that the FF series could make it to 32bit in this way, though now the blocky graphics look funny. Loved the soundtrack also. Never finished this one but I want to come back to it later. Enjoyed learning about the plot and Cloud’s mysterious backstory, the storyline of saving the environment and the planet, and the mystery of Sephiroth. I don’t have much of a history that I can remember for FF7, but one these days I’ll sit down with the og FF7 and play through it one way or another.

As I wrote in “Sad time with FF8”: I tried this sometime ago, finally got a hold of a guide and learned I was near the end of Disc 1 (good!) but missed a lot of weapon upgrades, resulting me my strongest stuff being Summons, which turned me off. I didn’t enjoy the plot that much though I would be willing to give this game another chance someday. This was another game given to me by a friend with his PS1.

FF9 is my 2nd favorite Final Fantasy after 8. Square really hit a home run with this last entry on the PSX! The graphics are beautiful in all ways during battle, overworld and the FMVs are still mind-blowing. The soundtrack is one of my favorite FF soundtracks and will hit all kind of emotions. The entire cast is deep and not cookie-cutter of different jobs and all have their own character arcs and reasons. Like FF3/6, there’ll be one or two heroes that you can really relate to and say “Hey that’s me!” I got this when a friend had given me his PS1 when I was a lot younger and this and others helped start my Final Fantasy collection. Speaking of emotions, try not to cry during the ending and “You Are Not Alone.”

FF10 I got when a now ex-friend gave me his PS2. I was totally blown away by the graphics and the hard hitting soundtrack! That opening blew my mind when Sin attacked the city during the Blitzball tournament! Finding out as I went along the game was flashbacks in flashbacks and started in media res was a big game changer! I did like the combat system and being able to switch members in and out and in again too. I’ve never been big on the Sphere System, but one day I’ll sit down with this again more to grind it, especially late game. Fact that you can turn your party into any type of class on the Sphere is amazing!

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