A lot to learn indeed...
If you were an RPG fan in the nineties, 1994 was a fine year to be alive.
I will never forget begging my mom, at the age of 12, to take me to the game store to pick up the greatest game of all time. It was the heaviest Super Nintendo game I had ever held in my hands, and definitely the most expensive. I did chores around the house, somehow managed to resist spending my money on the (delicious) middle school cafeteria lunches, and did everything in my power to save up the $80 necessary to buy… Final Fantasy III! This is where trolls slobber on themselves and say, “Get it right! It’s Final Fantasy VI!” or better yet, “FF VI!” Put those acronyms away before you hurt yourself, D’artagnan. I knew it then as Final Fantasy III, and that’s how it shall always remain in a fond, nostalgic, pre-teen area of my brain soul!
Sure, I could have been out meeting girls and having a social life, but the hell with it! When I saw Locke, Terra (notice I didn’t say Tina), Cyan, and Sabin in action with those beautiful 16-bit graphics, I was in heaven! Plus, it was the first time I had ever heard music in a video game that was literally moving. Fast-forward 16 years into the future to Zellerbach Hall, where the Aria from Final Fantasy III was performed live by a group I was blessed to be a part of… just think of how powerful that was. To this day, Final Fantasy III is my all time favorite game; one that Blair STILL has yet to complete. No pressure, Blair! =P
Just when I thought the mid-nineties couldn’t possibly produce another great RPG, a Japanese gentleman by the name of Shigesato Itoi created a game that was released in 1995, and presented to us westerners as the sacred and immortal Earthbound. If you haven’t played this game, quit your job, leave your kids at soccer practice (you’ll thank me later), and buy it because it is absolutely amazing! The gameplay, the humor, the creativity in it… it’s truly remarkable.
If you’re a huge Earthbound fan like me, you were no doubt devastated when Earthbound 64 was scrapped , and Mother 3 (Earthbound 2) never made it to US shores. However, one thing that’s amazing about the gaming community is its ability to perform nerd-tastic miracles. Just as fans did for Fatal Frame 3, the Starmen (Earthbound fans) of the world worked together to create an easy-to-use English-translation patch for 2006’s 32-bit Gameboy Advance release of none other than Earthbound 2. Does it work? I’m playing now, in English, and it’s bloody brilliant. Please do yourself a favor and check out Earthbound 1 and 2 (Mother 2 and 3), and of course – the game that makes Halo Reach look like Lego Star Wars – Final Fantasy THREE!
Stay tuned for news on Blair’s epic journey through FF6 FF3!
Yes, yes, I KNOW! I promise I will – one day – play through all of VI (that’s right, Mike, it’s VI, NOT III!). I was no good at games when I first picked up VI and couldn’t figure out how to get past the floating island… FFVI is epic and requires dedication; if I don’t play for a week, I forget what I was doing!
Besides, it’s Stephen’s fault for distracting me. “Since you like Tomb Raider so much, you should play Uncharted 2” he said. So what does Chris do? He buys Uncharted 2! So then I play it and I liked it so much I simply had to go back and play Uncharted 1 (which we already owned, but had never played) and then Chris installed Diablo II on my laptop so we could play co-op over the network and then we got a new board game and.. and… @_@
YES, IT’S FINAL FANTASY VI! One of the best games ever made!