Your Overall Final Fantasy Experience

[Esmoire]

The idea I have with this thread is just answer a set of questions about your experience with Final Fantasy. Questions like:

What was your first Final Fantasy?

First one

Which Final Fantasy was the first one you finished?

Hmm... Had a thing of playing RPGs but never finishing them for a long time. Think the first time I actually finished one was FFIII, on the DS release, which was my first time playing that game in sincerity.

Did you explore more of the series afterwards?

Yeah! I played every game released in America for over a decade... started the first one a few years after it came out but I kept apace after that. I kind of lost interest starting from X and only got to playing the newer games recently.

Which Final Fantasy carries the most weight in your mind(or lives there rent free)?

I don't think FFVII is the best game of all time. I think the story, character, battle systems, and more, are nothing impressive. In my mind, it's not my favourite Final Fantasy. Not even my top five.

But it's hard to deny it is a cultural touchstone for the entire gaming medium. It changed JRPGs, the series, and the public eye of what it could be, forever.

On a personal level though, I got to go with Final Fantasy IV. The storytelling can only really be explained as something of a poetic epic, where the literal and metaphorical alike manifest in the game world. Like, Cecil literally has to ascend Mt Ordeals as a Dark Knight, battle his inner darkness, and only then can he find the light within, to cast off the weight of his sins. Even that encounter is a measure of penance, where you cannot strike that which is the darkness within, to not become the monster you wish to elude. I think FFIII and FFV have better gameplay overall but the story of Cecil has always resonated well in my mind. He's also my videogame crush. xP

Care to just gush about your favorite Final Fantasy moments over the years?

A few years ago I did a marathon of playing through as much of the series as I could in a short time. Played through the first ten games and it was amazing to have them fresh on my mind so I could see just how fast the series could grow, follow the flavours of the era, and remind me of why I loved it so much.

[Vyrerus]

Cecil is a cutie patootie

Hehe, when I was young I always had a thing for Rydia, because she is all green.