Final Fantasy Fun

Last time, we psychoanalyzed the most blockheaded hero in the history of gaming...



...and put him through his paces as a cross-dresser and champion of put-upon sex workers (in which task he failed miserably, since we left Don Corneo alive with his family jewels intact. Phooey).

Reluctantly, I must set Wall Market frivolity aside and get back to saving the Planet.

( On with the playthrough )

...With the best ever nickname for Tidus and funny commentary.

A funny thing happened on the way to Zanarkand. Go. Read. Enjoy.

(and ignore the totally incoherent I left behind WHAT.)

I wrote a "Before I start playing" post Saturday night, collecting my thoughts about the game. So that's here.

Final Fantasy VII Playthrough: Introduction.

And tonight, while putting together notes for my first playing session, I had a fit of PULLING IT ALL TOGETHER.

Final Fantasy VII: MORE OF SAME about how FFVII is actually exactly like all the Final Fantasies that came before it except II.

(This is a short somewhat tongue-in-cheek post)

So where did my evening go?

Whew! I got  bogged down rounding up all my scattered party members — seriously, we just lived through the end of the world and everything, but did they have to be difficult and run off and join weird cults and get themselves lost on mountaintops, in the depths of monster-infested catacombs and so on? — so this playthrough is once again tardy.



Hey, it wasn't that  long since my last post.

So, last time in my Let's Play Final Fantasy VI, the world went to Hades in a haversack. Miraculously, the crustal ruptures we saw in that exciting end-of-the-world cutscene did not result in Siberia-sized lava outpourings, a planetwide blanket of sulfuric acid fog/rain, or other Permian-Extinction-style armageddon. (Geology porn... bookmark for later!)

Instead, as this is Final Fantasy, Celes awakens in a blasted world that's creepy and sad and fragmented. FFXIII-2 riffed on this trope again 17 years later, and the music from its Dying World fits nicely:



Yeap, it really is that bad.

( On with the playthrough... )

And we're off! We head to the southern continent (map) to infiltrate the Magitek Research Facility in Vector, capital of the must-be-evil-since-it-has-no-name Empire.



Our goal is to rescue the Espers who are being drained of their power as fuel for Magitek.

I love seeing how Final Fantasy rings changes on its ever-accruing mythology from game to game. The draining-Espers idea evolved from Cid's innocent mistake in FFV, in which the machines he created to amplify and collect power from the Four Crystals of Light inadvertently damaged them. FFVI fuses the concept of crystals, which existed right from the start of Final Fantasy, with the separate FF concept of summons, originally a job class ability like geomancy. We'll see beings turning to crystal again in FFXIII's L'Cie, while ShinraCorp, Odine Enterprises and Draklor are all spiritual successors of FFVI's Esper-juicing factory.  

( on with the playthrough )

Before I launch into the next leg of my Let's Play Final Fantasy VI playthrough, I'd just like to note that FFVI's washed-out chocobo design is redeemed by its music of pure techno awesome:



I defy you not to bob your head while listening to that with headphones. Or, to quote a couple commenters on the above video:

question: What is it about riding giant chickens that restricts random battles? ~ The Zeldaniac

Picture this, if you're an enemy and you hear this song, are you going to interrupt it by attacking the guy riding the chicken, or are you just going to dance? ~ hoodedbro1001

Now back to our regularly-scheduled playthrough.

So, in our opening FFVI sonata, our heroes Edgar, Locke, Sabin and Terra had reached the rebel hideout of the Returners. We had just imbibed our first Backstory Dump courtesy of Banon, the rebel leader, when news arrived that the town of S. Figaro was under attack and that imperial forces were headed our way.

( On with the playthrough )

I'm a little torn here, as I've fallen a month behind Moogle University's 2013 Final Fantasy Marathon thanks to that dreaded problem, Real Life. Should I start Final Fantasy VII along with Sev and Rina? Or stick to Final Fantasy VI so I can recap in order? After much waffling, I'm going to stay the course and stick to FFVI.


It feels so decadent plugging a PS3 controller into a Mac's USB port. Gosh, it works! 

FFVI is the last non-MMO of the Final Fantasy numbered sequence of games that I haven't finished yet, because I got bogged down after the party scattered, and lost myself in Sidequests Before Saving the World. So I know most of the game, but there are still some discoveries I haven't yet made. (Note to self: do not be a completist. I often lose my fun in trying to achieve every last sidequest.)

As so often, I have mixed feelings about the games that fandom loves most, and love the games that much of fandom despises. FFVI is one of those that hasn't yet sunk into my bones like X, V, and to some extent XII, XIII and VIII.

• Is it because I prefer sword-and-sorcery, mythic worlds to futuristic dystopias and industrial steampunk?
  
• Is it because the cast was so big that I failed to bond with any of the major characters?
  
• Is it that I was playing it while busy with family stuff and grad school, so that I couldn't stay properly engaged?
  
• Or is it simply that I fricking hate clowns, a problem that has also dampened my enthusiasm for IX (Thorn and Zorn)?
  

I don't know. I remember loving parts of this game; I purchased Terra's theme as one of Uematsu's finest pieces, and I quite like some of the characters. But I feel like FFVI is my friends' fandom playground, much like those fandoms such as Sherlock and Avengers in which I don't participate, but many of my friends do. Hopefully, on this playthrough, I'll be able to immerse myself more fully.

For purposes of screencapping, I'm going to be sacrificing  sound quality a bit and playing  FFVI on my Mac via PCSX-R. (See the video info on that link for how I did it).

In-game sound is fairly good, but the FMV sound goes crackle-pop. Nevertheless, I'm really quite delighted to be playing this game on my Mac. The very first FFs I ever played (VIII and VII) were on my Mac, thanks to an emulator that friends gave me eons ago, so I've come full circle.

All right. Back into the melancholy world of angst and mecha!

Welp! Back in the "Let's Play Final Fantasy" saddle after a real life "ack, the 'rents are visiting!" hiatus.

(This chunk will be a bit short. You don't mind, do you?)

As per Galuf's last wishes, it's time for us to launch his long-delayed assault on Castle ExDeath. I would pretend that this is the endgame, except that I've played FFV before, and cannot help but be aware that this is really the "Let's go to Zanarkand / City of the Ancients / Lunatic Pandora / OOPS there's more plot"  dungeon. Still, here we are.



Krile, why are you standing in quicksand?

( On with the Playthrough )

All right, that last episode was very trying, so I have to rec this Faris cosplay to make myself feel better. Also this fanart, from Cumuluscastle.



We left our star-crossed pirate in the dark night of the soul.

( On with the playthrough )

As usual, I'd like to start my Let's Play Final Fantasy with (1) a link to Moogle University's FFV write-ups which inspired my own playthrough and (2) the opening FMV from the PS1 remaster (Final Fantasy Anthology, 2003, which is what hooked me on this game despite the flatter-than-Data's-poetry localization):



Thoughts:

• Dear Squeenix, when you turn Amano's concept art into 3D, you do not have to leave their skin the color of a piece of paper.
• It's amazing how quickly graphics look dated, isn't it? But Uematsu's music still soars.
• I adore the outrageous spines and jewels sticking out of everything, especially that pirate ship.
• Black trenchcoat? Check. Katana? Check. Bishie badassitude? Check. Sephiroth, you are a cheap imitation of the ORIGINAL appearance of this character design. Nyah nyah. 

Okay! Time to break open the iOS remaster, whose retro Amano concept art caricatures clash crazily with stretched chibis.I'll be borrowing some original-game graphics from videogamesprites.net for commentary, because I love 'em. Note: Boldface is actual game dialog, non-bold is my paraphrase, or...er...embellishments.

( On with the playthrough )