This was the first game that made me cry back as a kid because of the ending, and used to be my favorite game for many years. In fact this was the game that cemented me as a videogame fan.
I'm saying this because playing it nowadays feels weird. Unbalanced, ultra-decisive leveling system that discourages intelligent play, some barely designed dungeons and nonsensical characterization plague this game. The game is about appreciating the process of creation to make a commentary on the conflict between nature, spirituality and modernity, yet it doesn't evoke any reaction other than contemplating how pretty the game looks like. Why did Quintet make this a JRPG? Fuckin' Enix, you don't have to infect everything with Dragon-Quest-itis. It's lame because you can see the ideas right there: You're the active participant in the process of creation, and life flourishes, society is tainted by the loss of respect towards nature and spiritual values, and the overworld is our Earth.
At the end of the game you defeat Ragnara, which is pretty much the devil. And then you're going to disappear, but Divina (God) gives you the chance to spend your last day with your loved ones because hey, let's make the most of what is left from life, even if I don't have much due to some weird clinical condition, but let's be grateful for what God has already gifted me. Control is returned to you, and you have the best day of your life, you hug your mum and your best friend whom you adore, thank you Melina for always being there for me even at my lowest, I love you. You can play around, greet your neighbors. However it will have to be over. You look at the pond to think about the future, but there's no reflection. You can't live forever, and once you're sure you have done everything you wanted and accept that it's really over, you can lay off in your deathbed and have your final dream. You dream of being a seagull, the first being you ever encountered that could travel between continents, because flight is freedom in this game. You fly, free of the shackles of this world towards the sky, and look back and think about the creation you have helped bring forth in your final dream while the music insists on keeping on and you feel your life fading away, and it's this moment that you realize that you can finally be happy, because you know that having lived has been worth it.
I'm still alive two decades later though. Thank you.
I'm saying this because playing it nowadays feels weird. Unbalanced, ultra-decisive leveling system that discourages intelligent play, some barely designed dungeons and nonsensical characterization plague this game. The game is about appreciating the process of creation to make a commentary on the conflict between nature, spirituality and modernity, yet it doesn't evoke any reaction other than contemplating how pretty the game looks like. Why did Quintet make this a JRPG? Fuckin' Enix, you don't have to infect everything with Dragon-Quest-itis. It's lame because you can see the ideas right there: You're the active participant in the process of creation, and life flourishes, society is tainted by the loss of respect towards nature and spiritual values, and the overworld is our Earth.
At the end of the game you defeat Ragnara, which is pretty much the devil. And then you're going to disappear, but Divina (God) gives you the chance to spend your last day with your loved ones because hey, let's make the most of what is left from life, even if I don't have much due to some weird clinical condition, but let's be grateful for what God has already gifted me. Control is returned to you, and you have the best day of your life, you hug your mum and your best friend whom you adore, thank you Melina for always being there for me even at my lowest, I love you. You can play around, greet your neighbors. However it will have to be over. You look at the pond to think about the future, but there's no reflection. You can't live forever, and once you're sure you have done everything you wanted and accept that it's really over, you can lay off in your deathbed and have your final dream. You dream of being a seagull, the first being you ever encountered that could travel between continents, because flight is freedom in this game. You fly, free of the shackles of this world towards the sky, and look back and think about the creation you have helped bring forth in your final dream while the music insists on keeping on and you feel your life fading away, and it's this moment that you realize that you can finally be happy, because you know that having lived has been worth it.
I'm still alive two decades later though. Thank you.