I figure since this is a gaming company I should take a week off to talk about my preference in video games starting with my favorite, Final Fantasy VI or as it was known at the time Final Fantasy III for the Super Nintendo.

Back in 1994 I was a young lad of 9 years who loved video games.  It wasn’t that I just was lazy and didn’t want to go outside or anything along those lines; The simple fact of the matter is that I was really good at video games and got engrossed in the challenge.  At the time we owned a Nintendo and I desperately had been wanting a Super Nintendo but my parents thought it was too expensive and why should I even bother wasting my money on another game system.  Since it’s release I had tried everything to get my parents to buy me one but ended up settling for those special weekends where I earned the precious time with a rental SNES from the local Safeway for being good or whatever metric my parents were using to judge me at the time.
It was not until one fateful night when a friend of my older sister had come by when my life was changed forever.  She brought over a few SNES games during one of my very rare times with the rental system.  She put in a cartridge and I turned the system on and saw this.

Something about this game was different than every other game I had played before.  The mood of the initial startup screen prevented me from hitting start and just playing; I just sat and watched in awe instead.  This game was special and I played it every second I possibly could that night and the next morning.  Needless to say I was hooked.  I wanted a copy of that game for my own and a SNES to go along with it so bad that I actually came up with a contract, well a 9 year old’s version of a contract, so that they would purchase the dream machine for me and I could play Final Fantasy III again.  They caved and soon I was the new owner of that wonderful grey piece of plastic and circuit boards, sadly though there was no copy of Final Fantasy to be purchased at the store and my parents told me I didn’t need it anyway because it came with a game and that should be good enough for me.

One step closer to gaming bliss I spent the next year using every opportunity to rent Final Fantasy III from our local Blockbuster to play it. Sadly with the time between the rentals my game was always erased the next time I picked it up and I had to start all over again but I didn’t mind, I simply loved that game and my parents must have noticed because in early 1995 my parents told me they would buy the copy of the game for my birthday and we set off in search of that little cartridge.  After a weekend of searching we couldn’t find a copy anywhere and I was almost crushed but a small glimmer of hope was still there.  We had one last store to check almost an hour away that thought they might be getting one the next day.  My dad and I arrived at the store the next day 30 minutes before it opened just in case there was another like me looking for the same elusive copy. The shop opened and there the game sat in it’s black and purple box with a moggle sitting right on the front, shrink wrapped and brand new.  The total cost was $65.42 which was astronomical for a game back then but I didn’t care; I wanted it and I think I almost cried once it was in my hands.

My First Love

Now why is this game so dear to my heart? It simply is the perfect mix.  You start out with what is now a very standard formula for final fantasy.  The evil empire is up to no good trying to collect anything for a long forgotten war where magic was common place.  Your characters have so much unknown about them that you are compelled to play to find out every tiny detail of who they are and what their purpose is.  The game is captivating from the very beginning and doesn’t let up.  As soon after Terra escapes the control of the empire you are off on your adventure to confront evil picking up unique party members who have very well defined personalties.  While today this formula for a way to start any Final Fantasy game it still seemed unique at the time and even in many latter replays it still holds up.

Without giving too much away about the story just in case someone who hasn’t played the game stumbles on to this article the game is large.  One of the greatest joys I had playing the game was leveling up my characters. This was not like it is today when characters who are not in your party still gain experience when you are not around; Nope you have to take each character out and make sure they get their time fighting baddies.  With 14 playable characters, two of which who were secret, and one who could actually die quite early in the game this was no small feat. Not to mention that sometimes you HAD to split up you group to accomplish the story, something I am still a fan of to this day.  The gaining of experience wasn’t as bad as it may seem.  The music for Final Fantasy III was simply amazing and while repetitive it made time slip by and could bring out very strong emotions in the player, be it the opera scene or the revival of a loved one.

Simply put Final Fantasy III is my favorite game in the entire world and will remain so until the end of time.  It spawned my interest in the series and I played the previous two games and have continued on with the series since then taking each game as a unique story with it’s own strengths.  Haven’t played any of the Final Fantasy games yet?  What are you waiting for… GO!