I’m tempted to go on a shopping spree.
Lately, I’ve been wanting to upgrade my graphics card. From ATI’s 9800PRO to Nvidia’s 7800GS. My main reason is of course, less lag in FFXI. There’s a lot of people in dynamis but I can still manage somehow with some effects turned off. There’s also 2-3 LSes, sometimes in full alliance camping Ullikummi at sky and making things even more worse than dynamis.
Also, FF12 has been released. I just downloaded the opening movie video last night. Impressive. Makes me want to buy PS2 even though I know I’d end up spending more time in FF11. But I also want to buy PS3 instead.
Now that I think of it, I’m quite a Final Fantasy fanboy.
It all started when I saw my friend playing FF3 (will be using Japanese numbering of the series). The concept of running around, upgrading equipment, random battles and levelling up from gaining experience points from them simply amazed me. It was my first time looking at a game like that.
Back then I was around 11-12 years old and never understood a single word of Japanese but still enjoyed playing that game. Exploring dungeons, getting my first airship, going around talking to NPCs, not knowing a clue of what’s going on. But exploring was what kept me playing.
Then came FF 1 and 2 (also Japanese), it was a special white cartridge with both series in them this edition also had a full strategy guide which I referred to frequently, to progress.
Few years later, I got my mum to buy me a Super Nintendo with that WildCard device. Basically, you buy games in floppy discs and load them on WildCard. The games come as cheap as $2-3 SGD. The only downside is you have wait for the game to load. Some games use up to 3 floppy discs and can take up to 5 minutes to finish loading before you can play.
This is when I started playing and completed FF4 and 6, but the US version.
Sometime around here, I also bought the first generation Gameboy and playing FF Legend, Legend 2, Legend 3 and Adventure. FF Adventure is like Zelda except you can level up and choose to upgrade 1 out of 4 attributes each time.
If I could remember correctly, FF Legend was about climbing a tower, getting to paradise. Legend 2 was something about Valhalla and Apollo stuff. Legend 3 was about time travel. I think I liked 3 best.
I played FF5 a bit. The JP version. And stopped as I got stuck somewhere. Sadly, until today, there’s no US version of this game and I still wonder why the hell SquareEnix doesn’t make an English version since they already made an English version of 1,2,4,6. And guess what? There’s English FF1&2 on Playstation and Gameboy Advance now.
Next up, I played FF7, the PC version. It was quite a bad experience because I was on a 4MB AGP card back then and could only play on 1/4 size of a full screen. I tried playing again after I upgraded to a 32MB PCI graphics (stupid move) but couldn’t play because of driver incompatibilities. I completed FF7 without killing some of the weapons here. I think it was Ruby and Emerald weapon. I would very much like to go back and challenge them but I think I lost my save file. ( T-T)
For FF8, I played it on Playstation, I stayed away from the PC version because it was terrible. The resolution on the PC was simply disgusting. But I never completed it. I think I was on disc 3 before I lost the motivation to complete it.
Never touched FF9 & 10. I do have those PS discs for FF9 though. Played a bit of FF Tactics. Cool sound and graphics, but stopped early too.
Right now, probably 4 out of 10 1-hour bus rides I take a week, I play FF1,2 and Tactics (GBA) on my Nintendo DS. I’ve completed FF1 (in full English!) and stopped at the last dungeon in FF2. Now playing Tactics and still enjoying it so far. I also have FF4 GBA waiting for me, which I’m trying to stay away from until I finish 2 and Tactics.
Looking forward for FF:Crystal Chronicles on the NDS since I didn’t get to play it on Nintendo Gamecube. I hope the storyline and gameplay is the same overall.
Fuck, there’s FF in almost every year of my life. >_>
But I’m grateful. [:D]