The Final Final Fantasy Review:
“It feels like time has been stopped for so long.”
-A Video Game Character Who Is Not From A Squaresoft Game
For the past month while playing this game, I wasn’t really in a good RPG mood, I was sort of going through a little existential crisis with my life and the genre. When you’re grinding away so you can find a purpose/stability in real life, grinding in a tiny box doesn’t entirely help. I’m saying that, but also it did help really in another way. It’s not shocking to say that I’m certain there are better (and more balanced) versions of this game (I actually have been thinking about playing through the GBA version soon ngl) but also I didn’t necessarily care because about 10 years ago before I even thought about coding my own games I was playing this one and (as mentioned in my first review for this game) I was drawn in. This journey of finishing the game was me going in and emotionally forgetting (in the sense I felt nothing) why and then discovering that again over time, Final Fantasy isn’t the best (even at it’s time) but it’s good because it is a journey and JRPGs are a chance to journey in artificial time.
A large percentage of this game is about progression: How do I get off this island? How do I find this item? Where do I go? What are these orbs? It’s all basic and the story is empty but everything is drawn by progress and the promise of progress whether it’s seeing magic you can buy eventually or jobs you will just have to try in another save file if you didn’t pick them. It’s all very bare and open but with how I tried playing this game by not really grinding I think it was pretty fun (and more challenging).
Dragon Quest 3 still better tho
“It feels like time has been stopped for so long.”
-A Video Game Character Who Is Not From A Squaresoft Game
For the past month while playing this game, I wasn’t really in a good RPG mood, I was sort of going through a little existential crisis with my life and the genre. When you’re grinding away so you can find a purpose/stability in real life, grinding in a tiny box doesn’t entirely help. I’m saying that, but also it did help really in another way. It’s not shocking to say that I’m certain there are better (and more balanced) versions of this game (I actually have been thinking about playing through the GBA version soon ngl) but also I didn’t necessarily care because about 10 years ago before I even thought about coding my own games I was playing this one and (as mentioned in my first review for this game) I was drawn in. This journey of finishing the game was me going in and emotionally forgetting (in the sense I felt nothing) why and then discovering that again over time, Final Fantasy isn’t the best (even at it’s time) but it’s good because it is a journey and JRPGs are a chance to journey in artificial time.
A large percentage of this game is about progression: How do I get off this island? How do I find this item? Where do I go? What are these orbs? It’s all basic and the story is empty but everything is drawn by progress and the promise of progress whether it’s seeing magic you can buy eventually or jobs you will just have to try in another save file if you didn’t pick them. It’s all very bare and open but with how I tried playing this game by not really grinding I think it was pretty fun (and more challenging).
Dragon Quest 3 still better tho