Off-Topic: Fantastic Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy protagonists from 1-10
(image from the Final Fantasy wiki)

Basketball is clearly one of my obsessions, but another thing that takes up quite a bit of my free time (when I’m not teaching, writing, being a husband or being a dad), is video games. And the video game franchise that has captured my imagination most deeply?

Final Fantasy.

So I’ll take a break from basketball first (I’m still finishing up the postmortems for Orlando, San Antonio, New Orleans and Portland) and talk about this most excellent game series.

What makes this series of games so great? Where do I start?

The soundtracks! Star composer Nobuo Uematsu is just a wizard when it comes to scoring video games. My favorite tracks are “To Zanarkand” from FFX, “Theme of Love” from FF4 and “Celes Theme” from FF6.

Nobuo Uematsu
(image from myspace.com)

The game play! It’s really your run-of-the-mill cycle consisting of the following: explore village, stock up on weapons/items, fight monsters in dungeon, solve puzzle, fight boss, level up, rinse, repeat. But the FF series is considered a pioneer of the genre, and is generally responsible for bringing it, and consequently this kind of game play, to the mainstream.

Different battle systems for the different platforms
(image from the Final Fantasy wiki)

The characters! If Nobuo Uematsu is the master of FF music, then Yoshitaka Amano is the character captain of the best FF games. The design of the characters is just so… memorable!

Yoshitaka Amano's art for FF7
(image from firsthour.com)

The stories! This is all series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s doing. There’s always at least a handful big twists in each FF tale, and they never fail to tug at the heartstrings. The best FF stories also make gamers ask some deep, even existential, questions.

Hironobu Sakaguchi
(image from crunchgear.com)

My Final Fantasy highlights:

First FF game I ever played: Final Fantasy 7 on the PS1. I know, I got into it pretty late, but this game just opened the wonderful world of the role-playing games to me. It’s not the best FF, but it’s certainly one of the most memorable.

(image from emuparadise.org)

Favorite Male Character: Tough tough, but I’d have to give this one to Tidus from FFX. His fish-out-of-water tale was really refreshing for the series, and his emotional connection with his dad and Yuna just made the story all the more poignantly powerful.

(image from gamerdna.com)

Aerith
(image from giantbomb.com)

Terra
(image from videogamegirlsdb.com)

Favorite Female Character: Toss up between Terra Branford of FF6 and, of course, Aerith Gainsborough from FF7. Terra was a summoning bad-ass, and was the first female protagonist until Yuna in FFX-2 and Lightning in FF13. Aerith needs no introduction if you’re a fan of the series. She made video game history. Nuff said.

Favorite Non-Human Character: Mog/Moogles. They were so cute and they acted as save points in FF9! Playable in FF6! Lulu’s weapon in FFX! So versatile and so adorable!

(image from videogamelists.com)

Favorite Antagonist: Sephiroth is pretty bad and broken, but he comes a close second to Kefka Palazzo from FF6. When I saw Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in “The Dark Knight,” I couldn’t help but be reminded of Kefka. They were both clowns with devious plans, and, to quote Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred, they didn’t really have any motive except they wanted “to watch the world burn.”

(image from voiceactingalliance.com) 

Favorite Summon: Knights of the Round from FF7. Damn long, but the first time I saw it back in my teens my jaw hit the floor. Cinematic video game awesomeness.

Most Underrated Game: FF9. Underappreciated because it didn’t continue with the futuristic-steam-punk tone of its two predecessors, FF9 largely went under the radar for the younger set. I myself only finished it this year and, man, I wish I had played it years before. I believe it’s the embodiment of how the original creators of the series really wanted to do it.

(image from gamerdna.com)

Favorite Game: Most people will probably say 6 or 7, but I absolutely fell in love with FFX. It was the best mix of everything good about the series: great graphics and sound (voice acting for the first time!), improved battle system, streamlined exploration, flexible character customization, epic summons, deep characters and relationships, and, of course the clincher, extremely heart-wrenching story. Phew. Played and finished it at least twice.

(image from hotandcool-games.com)

If you’re also a fan of the series, or you just started playing it and want to know more about it, or simply want to know why I’m so geeked-out over this, you can watch the Final Fantasy Retrospective on GameTrailers.com.

(image from giveforfree.com)

“I will… never be a memory.” – Sephiroth from FF7