Seriously, though, Isn't This Where I Came In with this game?
Like I was saying in the post I linked to above the jump there, a lot of what's going on in the real world right now seems very similar to what was going on in the real world back in October of 2016. We just had summer Olympics; the US presidential race looks about the same as it did in 2016; this is coming about a year after I got a different vehicle, albeit for different, and in this case, much better, reasons than I was doing so when I started this.
But the expression that comes to mind here is “the more things change, the more they stay the same,” and it's coming to mind for a reason. A related expression I've been known to use at times like this is “things are different now,” and that applies, too, because, well, they are different now, as well. After all, it's been eight years since I started this thing, and changes were unavoidable. I'm that many years older now, which means I'm damn near 50 now. Not as close as I was to 40 as I was when I started this, but still close enough to make me think about it, if only because I'm named after one of my great-grandfathers, who died at the ripe old age of 52.
Also of note on that front, my dad and my Grandma Jean also left us while I was working on this, at the ages of 74 and 89 respectively. It's been a couple years since my dad died, and a couple more since my grandma, and I'd be remiss if I didn't say that I still miss them both, and all the departed relatives I'd gotten to know more than I can really say in this particular space.
It's kind of a fitting thing that I'd more or less lead off with that here because one of the major themes of Final Fantasy 9 is just what all this life and death stuff is all about, anyway. The big moral of the story, or at least the one I'm taking away, at least, is that it's all up to us what we do with it and how we handle it. Kind of like how the first three Back to the Future movies got summed up at the end of the third one: your future hasn't been written yet, and it's essentially up to you to make of it what you will. I've got other thoughts along those lines, but I'll get to those later. First, I'd better talk about the game itself.
This is actually my favorite of the PS1 era games, to be honest. I've played all three, and I still have them in my collection. If you've been following me here for most of the time I've been doing this whole blogging thing, you've probably seen that I've done a fairly substantial portion of the previous game in the series as well. While FF8 had its moments, 9 here had what I thought was a good, solid story that it actually stuck to the whole way, beginning to end. As I was saying above, the story was mostly about exploring what this whole life and death thing is supposed to be about, what it all means. I forget where I read it, but I read somewhere that big portions of that were supposed to come from the perspectives of Vivi and Kuja, and I can see that, now that I've actually finished the game for myself. Vivi was the one to say that he actually felt bad for Queen Bhrane when Kuja got her about halfway through the game and needed someone to explain to him why that was. Kuja somehow got that life had meaning after all, just as his was about to end. Maybe it was seeing the heroes fight off death itself to keep the universe going even if life is always ultimately finite that made him see that, but maybe I need somebody to explain it to me.
I like the gameplay in this one. It was nice to have one last game in the series, at least to my knowledge, where the playable characters all had fixed classes and roles. For me, at least, it made it a little easier to develop plans and strategies. Many of the other games, starting as early as the original Final Fantasy 2 on the Famicom, had somewhat different mechanics than that, and the only game where I really got the hang of it was FF6.
On a similar note, all the characters seemed like their own unique individual characters, for lack of a more creative way of putting it. They all had their own personalities that developed along the way. Steiner was the dutiful knight of the kingdom who finally learned what that meant, for example; there's what I said about Vivi above; Quina was the gourmand who learned that making food for people had a component that came from the heart; Freya eventually got her lover back even if he didn't remember being in that role before the game, just to name a few.
Another great aspect of the game is the music. I've been a fan of the music in the Final Fantasy series for almost as long as I've been playing it, and this one is no different. The battle themes are certainly memorable, which is a good thing for as often as they wind up getting played. Same goes for the overworld theme. I think I like Final Fantasy 8's soundtrack a little better, which is one of the few good things I'll say about it, but 9 is still a solid game in its own ways, too.
Overall, I stand with what I was saying before in that this is my favorite of the PS1 Final Fantasy games. I like pretty much everything about it. As of right now, it's the only one I've actually managed to finish, and the fact that it's got good art, music, characters, and gameplay really went a long way towards making that happen. I'm not sure I'd have stuck with it for nearly as long as I have otherwise. Certainly not long enough to finish this.
This, of course, brings us to what's coming up on this front. The only real answer to that I've got is I really don't know. I've got a ton of options for things I could do. That's nothing unusual. I've always got plenty of things to work with, not only for gaming material, but with just about everything else. The problem is deciding which thing I'm going to do. In terms of gaming, for the moment, the most likely thing is the original version of Final Fantasy 7, since it's the only one I haven't done here. It might be awhile before I get to it, though, because I'm going to need at least a bit of a break from all this to get my bearings straight. Plus, like so many other things I've got going on right now, one of the questions I'm considering is just how I want to go about it. These written things are kind of difficult, but I don't have the equipment to do full-on Let's Play videos, let alone streams. If I want to go that route, I'm going to have to invest in a new computer, at least, and probably a better camera, maybe even a separate microphone. All that would most likely mean also having to learn some sort of editing as well. I'm not sure I've got the sort of money available to do all that in a timely manner, let alone to learn how to do it all properly.
But that's just one of many things I'm trying to decide right now. I'll give it all some thought and let everybody know what I come up with. Hopefully, that won't take too terribly long. There's also a chance there'll be a Coffee Time video along the way. Regardless, we'll see you soon.
Until next time.
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