At Replay FX this weekend!

No gameplay update today, or for the next few days. I'll be far too busy representing Extra Life at Replay FX during all my free time this weekend. If you're in the Pittsburgh area, come on out and support the convention. It's a gamers paradise! More details about the convention can be found at http://replayfx.org/

If you're there, make sure you stop by the Extra Life Booth set up right by the console lounge and say hello to our hard working volunteer staff! If you're not signed up for Extra Life yet, they'll help you out!

Doldrums to Developments

On Saturday, I went to Lake Erie with friends. Now, I honestly intended to play while I was lounging on the beaches of Presque Isle. I ran into resistance though, because the relentless day star we call our sun made it quite impossible to see the screen of my little Gameboy advance. It was not a day devoid of Final Fantasy, as I had at least booted it up before we left to do some inventory management, but I had time for little else. At least Pokémon Go was able to fill some gaps in my mostly gameless day.

Sunday was not much different in terms of chances to play FF, but there was plenty of gaming otherwise. Before brunch with family, I booted up the game for a few minutes to get a little bit of self inflicted damage grinding in. Then in the afternoon, I went to my bi-weekly Pathfinder Society game. Our GM is great, even if he does like to let us learn 'the hard way' from our mistakes. It was an entertaining session that ran late because we started late. I don't mind that, considering we played even after a rather tragic occurrence turned the GM's schedule on it's head. I faced a Monday morning with less sleep that I would have liked, but I enjoyed myself enough to not really mind.

That brings me to yesterday. I finally made some leeway, and quite a bit of it. So the long update today can be pennance for my low progress days. Now, where were we?

So the Dreadnaught had just taken off to rain destruction down on the nearby villages. As I made my way back to Altair, I passed through several destroyed towns. Altair was in bad shape too, and then I got stuck for a while, unsure what I was to do next. I knew I needed to get the sunfire, but I went back and forth between Poft and Altair a few times before breaking down and looking up what I'd missed. I needed to talk to Cid to get the keyword 'sunfire' and then talk to the princess about it to trigger the next events. I then needed to get Josef to take me on his snowcraft to the cave where the Goddess Bell resided.

I made that journey, and eventually found myself in a den of beavers in the middle of a cave. Weird. "Chit Chit Snook" they said. Also weird. There was a language barrier to be sure, but it's okay because:


Squeak Squeaker Squeakin'

hmm...

With Poe as our expert beaver interpreter, we found where the Goddess Bell was hidden. As we tried to leave the cave we were stopped by our old buddy Borghen. After his defeat, he unleashed an Indiana Jones style trap on us and Josef met his end to protect the rest of the party. For those keeping count, that's death number two for named characters. With the bell in hand, we travelled to Kashuan Keep. We had to obtain the torch that would allow us to take the sunfire so we could use it to blow up the death star... I mean... the Dreadnaught.

We met and were joined by Prince Gordon inside. That would be the deceased Prince Scott's brother who finally got over his hesitation and started believing in himself. It was fairly easy to retrieve the torch - once I gave up trying to find it myself and looked up a map. The red soul guarding it was pretty challenging for me, especially because I've been rushing through the game. I usually never bother to touch my items, but I felt it necessary to use a cottage once I teleported out of there. Have I mentioned how much I like the Teleport spell? It's extremely helpful.

Next was a looooonnng walk north to find where the Dreadnaught was resupplying. Because I somehow neglected to pick up the boarding pass hidden in the cave in Bafsk, I had to 'sneak' aboard the hard way - by beating the stuffing out of the captain guarding the entrance. This fight was also more challenging than I remember. I stepped back outside to use another expensive Cottage once I'd defeated him.

The dreadnaught itself wasn't too bad, but let me tell you, the Hill Gigas in this area are brutal. They hit very hard, and take me several rounds to defeat, so my characters were chugging potions like crazy to get through it because I was also trying to conserve my MP. After considerable effort, the princess was rescued, and the engine of the Dreadnaught went boom.

It was a quick flight back to Altair on Cid's Airship, and once there, Hilda's father, the king, started doling out tasks on his deathbed. He then immediately took the death toll of named characters to three. Gordon at least left the party without dying, and our next mission was to seek the aid of the Dragoons. To that end, the party went to Paloom to charter a vessel to Deist Castle. Leila the pirate was a suspiciously convenient option. It wasn't much of a surprise when she had her crew try to jump the party while at sea. They got REKT.

Instead of punishing her, Finn and Rey asked Leila to join them against the empire. So now I have Leila the Pirate in my party, and the navigation of the ship was handed over. Great... I proceeded to cluelessly wander the ocean until I remembered where the heck Deist was. Once there, I ventured into the castle and met with the last remaining living souls - a woman and her son who were watching over the last Wyvern. The empire had poisoned the water supply and tragedy ensued. No one could talk to the wyvern without a magic pendant, so of course it was up to us to go find one. As luck would have it, we easily found it in the wyvern cave.

Now able to communicate with the wyvern we returned to be given the last wyvern egg and tasked with taking it deeper into the wyvern cave to the lifespring or some such. Suffice to say, the deeper parts of the cave are not nearly as straightforward. That's where I had to save and quit, so you can bet your bottom dollar that I'll be hopelessly lost when I boot up the game again.

Leila, I think Eric Clapton may want a word with you.



Busy as a Beedrill

Hiya folks! No update today due to my oh-so-limited schedule. I didn't get much done in game yesterday anyway. Tune in tomorrow for a proper write up of progress from yesterday and today.

Day 8: "Reminiscence" and Clean Sewers

I didn't make much progress yesterday, as expected. In addition to focusing on my own personal Extra Life efforts, I also captain a team in Pittsburgh and serve on the volunteer board of the Extra Life Pittsburgh Guild. So you can bet that if I'm not progressing as quickly as I'd like in my 100 Days of Final Fantasy, I at least have a good excuse.

Extra Life means a lot to me because I have people in my life that I love dearly and never would have had the opportunity to meet them if their lives hadn't been saved by CMN Hospitals. I also have a bit of personal experience to know how worthwhile the funds I raise can be. Kids need to be able to be kids even if they're fighting illnesses and recovering from injuries. Extra Life helps them do just that.

That's enough serious talk for now. My progress was meager, but I still intend to update where I am in the game. I headed back to Altair to hand over the mythril and proceeded to equip my characters with all mythril, all the time. I did a little bit of gil grinding, so my current equipment is as follows.

All characters have full mythril armor and are dual wielding the mythril weapons I've chosen for them. So Finn has two spears, Rey has two swords, Poe has two maces, and I gave two knives to the Moonlight night... I mean Minwu. I know he's leaving the party soon, but I'm prepping him for the bonus content in case I want to go back to it later.

Now that my party was well supplied, I went back across the sea and arrived in Bafsk to try and stop the completion of the Dreadnaught. As a side note, in the sewers below Bafsk I was noticing that it seemed similar to the sewer dungeon in Suikoden...  Oh Suikoden... I cri evertim... You might even say that my eyes were full of Tirs. Punny pun is punny.

If you've seen one sewer dungeon, you've seen them all, I guess. I also found myself wondering why sewer dungeons in fantasy games always seem so clean. I'm not complaining, it's just funny because it probably means that NPCs don't poop. I'm going to stick with that.


Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal, Kylo!

Getting back on track, I got to the end where a familiar but shadowy figure told me I was too late, mwahaha. I named my fourth character Kylo for a reason. Spoilers, lol. He told us to bow down to the emperor, we had no other choice, blah blah blah... and generally fitting the archetype of the broody villain. He left, then Borghen laughed at us, sounding like a discount Kefka and he left too. We helplessly watched as we failed our mission and the Dreadnaught flew away.

I went back to town, hit the inn, and saved my game. That's all for the latest, so today, I'll head back to Poft and assess the damage.


Five hours down, tons more to go...

Remember to share and follow this blog to keep updated on my adventures. You can donate to my Extra Life efforts HERE, or learn about joining Extra Life HERE.

Day 7 - Something something airships

It's been a week, and I'm still enjoying myself. I'm on the second game of the twelve main numbered games I want to complete in the next 93 days so I feel pretty good about that. Granted, that was a short game with just over 18 hours on the play clock. I'm certain it will take me longer than that to finish up FFII, but still, I have about 13 weeks to get through 10 more games after this one. My biggest enemy will be my tendency to dawdle with side quests and minigames. It hasn't been much of an issue yet, but I'm pretty sure it will be soon.

Now where was I? Oh right, I was having Rey, Finn, and Poe kick their own butts to increase their stats. After a while, I was satisfied that my party wouldn't immediately be mauled by monsters, so I decided to advance the plot. It was off to Paloom to catch a ship to Poft. I visited the pub there and had my first contact with series staple, Cid.

I'm-a need about tree fiddy.

I had no money, so I still had to walk to Salamand, but the random encounters were good for my wallet. I earned enough on the way to buy some copper equipment there before heading off to the mines at Semitt Falls to rescue the miners that Josef said were imprisoned there. When I found them, I ran into Paul again, the self proclaimed greatest thief in the world, and he led everyone, including Josef's daughter to safety. I saved them by... opening an unlocked door. Cool.

With all of the prisoners on their way to safety, I went on through the dungeon to kill the boss and grab the Mithril. It was a decently challenging boss fight but a straightforward one. Dude hits really hard. Good thing I boosted my HP earlier.

Back to Salamand, and a quick chat with Josef. I didn't actually have all that much time to play last night, so this is as far as I got. Tonight will likely offer little play time too, so expect a short update tomorrow morning as well.

Current Save: 

I love Minwu's Moonlight Knight cosplay... ;)

Allow me to close today's update with a brief reminder that I'm participating in #100DaysofGaming for Extra Life. For 6 years now, I've participated in this charity gaming community to raise money for my local Children's Miracle Network Hospital. If you're enjoying this blog, please consider supporting my personal efforts HERE. If you want to do more, you can join the movement at  www.extra-life.org.

Day 6: First Steps in FFII

I honestly hadn't expected to complete Final Fantasy I in just five days, but then again, I definitely wasn't dallying as much as I usually do. I was happy to be able to start on II though, as a lot of staples of the series find their beginnings here. I also appreciate that they made such leaps and bounds in terms of story from I to II. In the first one, you have nameless heroes, and a somewhat generic 'save the world from evil' tale. It's not without it's twists, but its uncomplicated.

II on the other hand, starts out complex and downright shocking from the first moments of the game where you watch your characters struck down by much more powerful foes. You have the illusion of being able to fight back, but there's absolutely nothing you can do to prevent it. The game really makes you feel as powerless as the characters you're playing. Since I first played this one, I have enjoyed it immensely, and I know I will again during this play-through.

As expected. :)

As with the previous game, I allowed my readers to vote on names, this time in the form of categories. I wasn't all that surprised at the winner, but I was a little amused by the fact that 'Ikea furniture' (Pink) was tied with Disney Princesses (Yellow) for second place. Just two votes stood between each of them and victory.

As a consolation prize I'll tell you what they would have been named. If Ikea had won, they'd have been Poang, Skarst, Hemnes, and, Ektorp. If I had to name them after Disney Princesses they would have been Ariel, Mulan, Kuzko, and Gaston. (Don't try to argue about Gaston and Kuzko. Search your feelings - You know them to belong here.)

No, the people have spoken so I'll be naming them after Star Wars characters. Knowing the story as I do, I wanted to be sure the names I gave them were somewhat appropriate. Now obviously I could have ended up with Han, Leia, Luke, Etc, but I decided I'd take this to the new school and use names from TFA - which will result in a little foreshadowing for those of you who are familiar with the new movie, and not with this game. Just know that if you're reading this blog and don't want to see spoilers, you're gonna have a bad time.



In retrospect, Guy (Poe) might have been better named BB8... but oh well!

So as I mentioned, I started up my game and watched as my freshly named party was cut down mercilessly by Imperial forces. Cut to one of my favorite characters, Minwu, patching Finn up in Altair. I had to laugh out loud when he started calling for Rey, Poe and Kylo. Once the party reunited sans Kylo, we went in to speak with Princess Hilde about joining the rebellion, and she got all snotty, and said no. (Technically she expressed genuine concern for the safety of three teenagers.) 

After learning the Resistance Fighters' password, it was off to do exactly what she told us not to: head back to the kingdom of Fynn to look for our friend. Wait ...Finn is from Fynn. Ha! Once there, we snuck past a bunch of guards, slipped into the pub, and went to visit the dying Prince Scott of Kashuan. He told us some key information, Rey got upset that he didn't know where Kylo was, he gave us a ring, and then... HE DED.

The party made their way back to Altair, and convinced her highness to let them join. She then proceeds to trust the three newbies to go and get some vital Mithril for the rebellion and also see if they could get some information on their missing operative Josef. To be fair, she at least sent her advisor with us.

With Minwu in the party, it was time for a little self-flagellation. This game is a bit unique in it's skill based system. The more you use or need something, the more likely it is it improve. So step one was to change weapons around to be a little more appropriate for their namesakes. I gave Finn the bow that Rey had equipped, and Rey took the sword and shield. Poe I just left with the axe. There are no ships to fly, so he can just smash things the old fashioned way.

So anyway, back to the masochistic tendencies. I like to build up my party's HP and weapon skill right outside Altair by having them each attack themselves. Minwu is there to cast life when needed, but for the most part, I just have the characters pull a Fight Club so they'll get better at fighting by fighting themselves. And that's where I stopped for the day. Day six is in the books.

This HP is not acceptable!

At this point, to turn a phrase suggested by my husband, "Finn, Rey and Poe, the beatings will continue until your stats improve." Tune in tomorrow for a summary of today's exploits!

FFI Finale, now MP free!

Success! I've completed the first game in my list!

I'll be moving on to Final Fantasy II this afternoon, so because of my poor planning, it's a little too late to get name submissions and put them to a vote. Instead, I'm going to let you vote on categories, and I'll name each character after something in that category. Click here for the poll.

Nice Fortress. I'll take it.

So I last left off when I had just reached the Flying Fortress which exists because why not? The dungeon was straightforward and I easily cleared it of treasures before I went on to defeat the lovely and talented Tiamat in approximately three and a half rounds of battle. I did make sure to pick up the Admantite. It was, after all just  laying around on the floor in a random room. Hey, at least I didn't loot it out of some guy's house like treasures in later Final Fantasy games. I took it for a visit to the Dwarves in Mt Duergar - and a friendly blacksmith who was understandably excited about the whole thing.


Excalibur was all mine! Well it was FF0000's if you want to get technical.


"Well you can't expect to wield supreme executive power
just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!"

No MP Required

After some last minute shopping to grab the last of the spells I needed for FFFFFF and 000000, I was headed for the Chaos Shrine. By this point in the game, I was pretty much able to function entirely without MP due to my extensive item list. I can't recall exactly what I had when I entered the shrine, but by the end of the game, I had quite a few goodies that covered a wide range of uses, as you can no doubt see. I had items for healing, items for damage, and even some that gave me some useful buffs. I pretty much had 000000 spamming the Gauntlet, and FFFFFF spamming the healing staff, and in tougher battles, I occasionally spent a little MP on extra healing or to cast haste or other buffs that weren't available from my items.

Upon entering the Chaos Shrine, I pulled a Doctor Who and went back in time to try and save the world from a 2000 year old time loop of doom. The dungeon was supposedly straightforward, but my poor sense of direction struck again and I wandered around for a few hours as I battled the four fiends again on each progressive floor. It didn't help that I was falling asleep while playing - It had been a long day at work.

I'm MEELLLTTIIINNNGGG!

Eventually though, I reached the big baddie himself. The fight was slightly challenging, but my getting lost so much had me at a level that made it more than manageable. With a minimal amount of effort, and FF0000 dying twice, I beat the final boss with a series of melee hits boosted by the Giant's Glove that casts saber and a few blasts of Flare and Holy. Five days and done. Granted, I made use of a walkthrough, but the older games in the series almost require it if you want to avoid wasting too much time figuring out where you're supposed to go next.

Anyway:

And the rest of the text was taking too long to scroll.
I got bored and went to do something else.

It really does feel good to get through the first game so quickly. I did skip all the bonus dungeons, but as I said before, I'll revisit those when or if I make it through all of the games. Roll Credits!

Join me tomorrow for my first steps in Final Fantasy II, and to find out what I end up naming my characters based on the winning category.

Obligatory 'Release the Kraken' reference

Though yesterday afternoon was spent leveling and figuring out how to multiclass in Pathfinder, I managed to make some decent progress throughout the day in Final Fantasy. Overall it was a good day four. Now that I have an airship at my disposal, I made some really good story progress, and its starting to look like I'll be finished with it by the end of this week. I'm going to skip the bonus dungeons, but I may go back to them if there is time. Right now though, I'm focused on getting through as many as possible. I'll be pleased if I can start on Final Fantasy II a few days from now.

Not Pictured: cool sparkles.

Yesterday's session began with a quick run through the Citadel of Trials to retrieve a rat tail for the king of the dragons, Bahamut. He gave us some tasty class change goodness, and I immediately spent all my money on new spells in Gaia. As you can see, I managed to get a lovely low quality picture of the part just after the part I was trying to take a picture of. You know the one, where Bahamut is sitting there with outstretched wings amidst  the purple sparkles of dragon magic and the four heroes are standing there in their new outfits after being granted new titles? Yeah. I kind of failed to get that. So you get this much less impressive photo instead.

 As I said, once I got the class upgrade, I went shopping. Then it was time to knock out Marilith in Mt Gulg. For as well equipped as I was, it was pretty easy when I wasn't directionally challenged. I took down the boss in four rounds, and restored the Fire Crystal. Then I made my way out of the volcano, and began the search for the items I'd need to launch my assault on the sunken shrine.

I made a special visit to a caravan to spend 40,000 of my hard earned gil on a bottled fairy so I could let her out in Gaia where she'd reward me with some Oxyale which somehow lets one breathe underwater. Then I went to Onrac, made a special trip up to the waterfall to get a cube from a robot, and then took a barrel down to the bottom of the ocean. Cozy.

l33t Paint skillz

It didn't take as long as I'd expected to clear out the shrine, and I made sure to grab the Rosetta stone while I was at it. Before I knew it, I'd already reached the water crystal. The boss protecting it was an easy kill, because I'm significantly over-leveled at this point.

Feast your eyes on this stupid image I made in MS Paint to mark the occasion of the cleansing of the water crystal. Fabulous, no?

Kraken did not do me a concern, and Mr Neeson is very disappoint.

... I'm so sorry, the voices made me do it.

After that pushover, I went back to Melmond with the Rosetta Stone. I really wish it was possible to learn a long dead language in the span of a few seconds. It was essentially "Tada! Now you know Lufenian!" How cool would it be to suddenly learn another language like that?

Next it was on to Lufenia to get the chime so I could enter the Mirage tower and teleport to the Flying Fortress. Upon reaching the Fortress, I had to call it quits for the day.



Hastily snapped photo. Shinies and more shinies!

 

Play some Skynyrd!

I didn't have as much day three progress as I'd hoped. It was a busy day, and so I had very little time to play Final Fantasy. That's not to say I didn't play anything though. We spent the morning doing adulty things like tidying the house and grocery shopping, and then my husband and I met some friends at a Chinese buffet. They talked us into going to see Ghostbusters with them, and I do have to say, I went in with low expectations but was pleasantly surprised. Afterwards we all returned to my place to play a friend's recently acquired copy of HeroQuest. (Likely because of the recent popularity of this video.)

The best thing about HeroQuest is... Well it was really a lot of fun, actually. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I think we're going to play again soon. But you aren't here for a review of a remake of a classic 80's film, or review of classic 80's board game. You're here to hear about my personal experience as I replay an 80's JRPG.

So back on topic, I spent much of the little time I was able to play lost at sea searching for the port nearest to Crescent Lake. Having finally found the place and restocked my supplies, I proceeded to the circle of creepy old guys (or sages, whatever) and got my canoe.

Next I decided to follow the advice of a walk-through I've been consulting whenever I get really lost, and ignore Mt Gulug for the moment to instead go after the Levistone. I proceeded to get lost for a while searching for The Cavern of Ice. That is a scary place. Thankfully I saved just outside, because I had two party wipes in there before I made it to my objective. 000000 was basically spamming Firaga and chugging Ether the whole time. I totally forgot about the part where you can fall through cracks at first too. Pain in the butt.

'Cause I'm as free as a bird now
And this bird you cannot change

At the end of that ordeal, I got lost AGAIN searching for the desert where the airship is inexplicably buried and is inexplicably 'awakened' when you take the Levistone there. I don't know why it's so hard for me to get my bearings in this game. Usually, I tend to have a decent sense of direction in RPGs. Eventually I made my way to the proper location and the cutscene rolled. Lots of hullabaloo for an airship, but then again, this is one of the things that's become a staple of the series, so I'm not sure if this was just added for the dawn of souls remake to reflect that.

 At this point, I decided it was high time I got my class upgrades and headed over to the Citadel of Trials, and called it quits for the night. Today, I'll take on as much of the Citadel as I can before I go to my Pathfinder session this afternoon.

 

A little late for Shark Week

Shark week is over, dude.

I spent quite a bit of time on a boat yesterday, running back and forth between Cornelia, Elfheim, Mt Duergar, and Melmond.

There were a lot of sharks and sahagins and whatever those gross eyeball things that paralyze you are called. Final Fantasy I is a long chain of fetch quests and bosses, but I suppose the same could be said for tons of other RPGs. If it seems simplistic now, I need only remember that it was one of the first of its kind and really got people to open up to the genre. Even now though, I really do find it's simplicity charming - even if I got lost looking for the next point of interest on a regular basis and collectively spent what would probably amount to years at sea searching for a port that I know is 'somewhere around here.'

Now to enumerate my day two achievements. I managed to do quite a bit.

Having obtained the mystic key, it was time to revisit all my previous stops to collect the loot behind locked doors. I also took the opportunity to seek out all the best equipment, and earn enough gil to buy 99 of every available restorative item. It's tradition. Once I achieved that, I sailed around for some time looking for Mt Duergar so I could give some nitro powder to a demolition minded dwarf while Diggy Diggy Hole was playing in my head. He of course proceeded to demolish an entire strait in a matter of moments, because hey, explosions are fun.

With the path cleared, I proceeded to the dried and dusty town of Melmond. As they were having a bit of trouble with a vampire, I set out to take him down. In the cavern of earth I narrowly avoided a party wipe at the hands of a cocatrice ambush. Gold needles FTW. I also stumbled on the hall of encounters. It's a long hallway in which every step you take triggers an encounter with a Hill Gigas - sometimes he brings friends too. It was here that 0000FF bit the dust. Wouldn't you know it. I'd neglected to buy any Phoenix Downs. Rookie mistake, I know.

So the party tromped back to Melmond, and I realized there's no church there. Back to the boat then to deliver his corpse to the one in Cornelia. I also made a stop at the item shop and spent every gil I had on Phoenix Downs. After that little error in judgement, I managed to clear the cave of the vampire boss, and collect the Star Ruby. A quick trip to the Giant's cave, and I immediately parted with the gem to get the stone giant's rocky derriere in gear and out of my way, so I could make it to the sage's cave.

Yes, it was another fetch quest, and I had to take the rod he gave me back to the cavern of earth so I could finish up there. Kill Lich, check. Restore the light to the earth crystal, check. Grab any treasure I missed on the way out, check.

Look at the shiny earth crystal. LOOK AT IT!

Today I'm planning on going to get my airship. Wish me luck!

Day One Progress

The poll has spoken. As you can see from the screenshot, the names have been chosen for my party members. I played a few hours last night, and got my game well underway.

Right off the bat, FF0000 decided that dying was going to be his favorite hobby. I remedied this by taking a few laps of Corneria and getting his butt in gear. Then I had to remember how spells work, and got some for FFFFFF and 000000. Meanwhile, 0000FF is nice and low maintenance. No weapons, just good old fashioned beat-downs.

In short order, I slapped Garland around for a few rounds and rescued Princess Sarah. She gave me a lute. Then it was cut scene time as I waited for the bridge to the north to be rebuilt. Then I proceeded to said bridge and sat through the snail like words drifting upwards Star Wars style. No really. The developers were huge Star Wars fans.

Once that was done, I went east, kicked some pirate ruffians out of Pravoka, took their boat, and headed south to Elfheim. Then there was more grinding to be done to buy all the neat stuff for sale there. Adventuring isn't cheap, but thankfully all wild creatures and monsters carry cash.

Properly equipped, I set out from there to go to the marsh cave, kill some piscodemons, take the crown they were guarding, and carry it off to the keep to the north. After all my grinding, astos didn't really stand a chance. All I had to do was mash 'a' until he died. Matoya then got her eye back, and a broom reminded me how to look at the world map. Derp.

I took Matoya's super fancy potion back to the Elven prince, got his lazy bum out of bed and there was much rejoicing. Then it was bedtime. Day one of 100 is complete.


Impressions:

I'd forgotten how much grinding is necessary for games like these. Sure I could try powering through it, but then I risk a wipe and getting set back.

The story is really basic, but then again, that's part of the nostalgic charm of it all. Rescue the princess, save the world. It was a good launch point for the games that follow.
 

The Final Countdown is now playing in your head

Tomorrow's the Day. Or at least day one of a hundred. I'm kicking off my #100DaysOfGaming with the first of many, Final Fantasy I. Starting at the beginning and progressing chronologically through the series is going to be fun for me. I've played more of the series than I've missed, but it will be neat to see the progression of the titles and how each feeds into the next at least as spiritual successors.

I hope you plan on joining me on this journey in more ways than one. Remember, I'm doing this for charity, so make sure you at least pay a visit to my Extra Life Fundraising page and consider supporting the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. Or maybe you'd prefer to join tens of thousands of gamers worldwide and play for the hospital of your choice by becoming an Extra Life player. Check out the Extra Life home page to learn how.

With the daily plug done, you may remember me promising to allow my readers to choose the names for my party of adventurers for Final Fantasy I. At the following link, you'll find a straw poll filled with suggestions from friends and acquaintances. Vote for your favorite, and whatever the standings are when I kickoff my play-through at 4:00 PM (EST), is what I'll name my characters.


As a special bonus, if you make a donation on my fundraising page and write the names you'd like to vote for in the comments, I'll credit that entry with the same number of extra votes as the dollars you donate. Again, donate HERE for extra votes.

Without further adieu, Visit the poll to vote!

Character Creation

Role Playing Games mean a lot to me. I've always enjoyed stories, whether reading or creating them, and what is an RPG if not a grand story. I tend to get very attached to my characters, especially the ones I create for tabletop games. I have a habit of infusing each character I play with some essence of who I am, and explore that aspect.

I think I learn a lot from the characters I play. Some people may not understand how I could be heartbroken over a game ending, but I think the nature of RPGs is such that one is fully invested in the story, even more so than a movie or a book. I love the power of choice that comes from playing a character in a well constructed scenario. Or even a not so well crafted one.

The point is, if a movie can bring you to tears, but a role playing game can't, you might just be doing it wrong. I know plenty of people whose sole joy is the numbers and creating overpowered characters whose sole purpose is 'winning,' but I don't necessarily think winning is the whole key to fun.

The struggle is what makes a tale worthwhile. If it's too easy, if there's no challenge, then maybe you haven't built in enough humanity. (I use 'humanity' loosely for lack of a better term - I'm not sure what the equivalent word is for Dwarves or Elves might be. Dwarfitude? Elveness? Oh never-mind, you get the point.)

I often find system games convoluted for my taste. That's probably due to my outlook. I used to spend a lot of time in online role-playing games on forums where systems didn't exist. We had a really good group of players who were more than willing to introduce their own hardships and respond to situations in a reserved and well balanced way. It was one of the best games I ever played, and maybe it was just a rare and perfect coalescence of the right people at the right time. It was still a beautiful thing.  

The main point of this rant is, I tend to subscribe to an 'easily gained, easily lost' approach. If you have to really fight for it, it makes victory all the sweeter. I very much doubt that I would have had nearly as much fun playing Dragon Age: Inquisition if every choice was easy. I am far more drawn to complexity of story than just game mechanics. That and I love a good character creation interface. I'm not afraid to admit I spent hours tweaking my Inquisitor before I played. It's the same for any character I create. I love the process.

Speaking of character creation, it's was about time I started really considering my party selection for Final Fantasy I. Having given it plenty of thought, I intend to play with a fairly standard party. Warrior, White Mage, Black Mage - and swap the Thief out for a Monk. So there you have it. I am still open to name suggestions for these characters, and I promise to make it amusing, referring to each character by their chosen name throughout my write-ups.

So it's up to you, readers. Suggest a name (6 characters or less) for each of my heroes of light - make sure you specify which of the following classes you want to suggest a name or names for: Warrior, Monk, White Mage, and Black Mage. I'll choose my favorites.

Motivation in many forms

What to write, what to write. I want to maintain my daily updates and yet, I don't want to be boring either. I'm certain no one needs to hear about my day at work, or what I had for breakfast, but there might be snippets of interesting gaming related occurrences if I really comb through my day. So here goes nothing.

I started out this morning with about 20 minutes of Gems of War during breakfast. (I've already sung it's praises in yesterday's post.) My current project is trying to save up enough for celestial armor without using real world money. It's slow going but it's better than the alternative. I consider myself lucky that I'm able to make up for y thriftiness with stubborn and targeted perseverance.

After that, I headed to work and did work things. You don't want to hear about that part. It was work, and work is dull. Except for the part where a co-worker and I have a long running routine of going out at lunch to hack Ingress portals. Well I'm sure you can guess what that's been replaced by lately. We caught tons of Pokémon today, and exchanged smiles with plenty of new faces that were out and about that were staring just as intently into their screens.

I swear we see three times as many people on our lunchtime walk as we did before Pokémon Go was available. I love how it's encouraging people to come back out of their insulated little shells even in the interest of playing an augmented reality game. Ingress did much the same for me even though it was never nearly as popular as the current craze. There are some that would scoff at this.

I've heard of  the disdain for 'gameification' first hand. Someone mentioned this to me and was actually upset at the concept of doing something only for the sake of a game. Oddly, this same person had no problem with the concept of an athlete training nonstop (and being paid millions of dollars) for the sake of a game. It's all a matter of perspective. No one looks down on a football player for making sacrifices for his sport, so I see no reason to begrudge a gamer for what fundamentally amounts to the same thing. I mean, I simply fail to see how the positive impact of any activity could be considered less positive because of the motivation behind it.

The motivation doesn't matter if the job gets done. Gaming can and should be a force for good. Extra Life is a prime example that. Things like rhythm games and AR games help our primarily sedentary society be a little more active. MMOs teach leadership skills and help you build friendships with people based on personality, instead of shallower traits. Games teach us. We hone our critical thinking and logic. We develop our reflexes and attention to detail. Anyone who maintains that nothing good comes of playing games just isn't paying attention.   

Internet Currency

I've voluntarily ceased my current play-through of Final Fantasy X. I don't want to spend any more time on it if  I'll have to start over sometime in the next three or so months. It's left me in a bit of a gaming void for the time being. I do have Pokemon Go to fill it, but for the times when I need a little variety, I've gone back to wasting time in Gems of War.

It's a pretty complex game for being a match three. Being from the makers of Puzzle Quest, I already knew I'd enjoy it when I first saw it on the Playstation store. Technically it's a mobile game, but I like the console version. It's nice getting home from work, plopping on the couch, putting my feet up, and playing until my husband gets home from work. I get a good hour of alone time, save for the presence of my kitties Flik and Viktor. (Yes, they're named after Suikoden characters.)

Flik prefers to sit on the chair across from me, watching, but at a distance. He definitely prefers my husband. Viktor on the other hand, is... not a lap cat, more of a blatant violator of personal space. He has to be touching me whenever possible. Anyway, if I'm going to spend this much time talking about my hairy babies, it's probably about the time I posted some internet currency.

Flik (left) and Viktor (right) battling the forces of sleepytime.

How many internets is that worth? I'm not really sure of the exchange rate...

Anyway, Gems of War is a match three turned into a Role Playing Game. You form teams of troops and match gems to earn different types of mana to power up special attacks. Match skulls for a regular attack. Try to keep the enemy from doing the same. Then there's troop management where you level up certain units, and decide which troops work well together. You have quest battles and PVP where you can earn gold and glory in the weekly ranking to buy more troops and upgrades. It can seem a little pay to win, and you certainly can waste money on it, but I've not spent a dime and I do quite well for myself. If you're interested, my description hardly does it justice. Check it out and decide for yourself.

That's all I've got for now. Until next time!

PS: Don't forget, you can help me name my Final Fantasy characters. Comment with your ideas now, because I'm putting up a poll on this coming Tuesday so my readers can vote for their favorites. 

Shaking off the Dust

This morning, I went for a walk. I know, weird, right? But there's a good explanation, I promise. In addition to starting #100daysofgaming in a few days, I'm also participating in a self imposed fundraising challenge for Extra Life.

Like so many these days, I lead a rather sedentary life. I'm acutely aware of the drawbacks of such. So in the interest of decreasing those drawbacks, I've pledged to take 200,000 steps this month, plus an extra step for every penny I raise on my fundraising page. For someone who seemed to average about 3500 steps a day prior to this challenge, I was genuinely worried that I set the bar too high. 

Thankfully, I've recently come across a great new motivator to get those steps in: Pokemon Go of course! So of course, this morning, I was up at 5:30 AM to get dressed and go tromping through the neighborhood in search of Pokemon, Pokestops, and Gyms before the sun makes this humid summer heat unbearable. It's the first real workout I've had in a while. Though I came home worn out and sweaty, it felt good. So seriously, thanks for the workout, Nintendo.  

Don't mind the dust

After I returned from my grind session, I decided this was a good time to dig up my games. For a while now, in our office, in a forgotten bin filled with unused fabric scraps, beneath a little used antique sewing machine, there has been a little shoe box tucked between some scraps of muslin. It was from this unassuming box that I retrieved my dawn of souls cartridge, along with a bonus - my old clam shell GBA. I'd intended to play Dawn of Souls on my old DS, but for nostalgia sake, I think I'll use this.

I'm planning on posting a poll once I have a few suggestions for character names, so post  your ideas in the comments! 

Glamour Shot

On Developing Habits

One of the most important things I want to do with this blog is actually use it. So as you can see, in the interest of building the habit of posting, I've been making a new post every day. I just hope I have the discipline to continue to do so up through my team's Extra Life marathon day.

I look so cool!

Speaking of habits, like so many others, I'm caught in Pokémania - which is odd because I've never played a Pokémon game before now. I've never been opposed to playing it, I just always had other things to focus on instead of it. I've got friends who are very into Pokémon, so I've no doubt that my downward spiral into obsession will be quick and painless.

I've played Ingress for a couple of years now, so I suppose this is the next logical step. At least my habit of carrying around power banks and charging cables for my phone will be of some benefit. I only hope this won't serve as too much of a distraction while I begin my grand Final Fantasy project.

While we're on the topic of habits, I also want to remind my readers that this blog is for #100DaysofGaming in order to spread the word about Extra Life and maybe even raise a little money to fund quality of life programs for the kids at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. If you'd like to develop a habit, you can actually make a recurring monthly donation if you'd like to do more than just a one and done contribution. So if you're feeling generous and want to join the ranks of tens of thousands of heroes for kids, visit my fundraising page (www.extra-life.org/participant/katemorosky) to set that up. Ok, boring stuff out of the way.



Decisions, Decisions...

I've decided I'll begin with the Dawn of Souls version of Final Fantasy. As a friend pointed out, it will be easier for me to stick to portable systems so I'm not tethered to a console. With that choice out of the way, I'd like to offer my readers the chance to make suggestions for character names and party selection.

Leave your ideas in the comments!

Mental Preparation and Musings

In anticipation of June 14th, I've been going over in my head how this whole thing is going to work, and in the process I've been thinking about my experiences with Final Fantasy to date. I thought a brief summary was in order, and doing so will help me get into the swing of this blogging thing, so that's just what I'll do.

Admittedly, my memory is a bit hazy of the actual order in which I played these, but I'll do my best to establish a loose interpretation of a timeline. Fair warning, this might get a bit long...

As a gamer, I feel like I got a late start. Video games weren't really something girls were 'supposed' to be into when I was growing up, and so my experience was limited to watching my brother play Mega Man, or Super Mario 3 and reading through manuals to advise him on how to get past certain parts. I convinced myself that video games weren't for me because I'd only ever seen platformers, and frankly I was absolutely terrible at them.

That changed when I first laid eyes on Super Mario RPG. The game was just not very interesting to my brother, so I took over for him, and he took the back seat for once. We marveled at how quickly I was able to plow through that game... It was my first RPG ever, and it basically opened the door for everything that followed.

Fast forward to college. After meeting my sweetheart (who would later become my husband) I finally got my own PlayStation, and my first Final Fantasy game, (Final Fantasy VIII, in fact) from a flea market of all things. My boyfriend and I agreed to only play it together because I was unsure of myself, or because he hadn't ever finished it or some similar reason... An accord which I quickly broke because I just couldn't wait for him to get out of class to play.

Final Fantasy VIII showed me that games could really affect you on a visceral level - That a video game could have the capacity to make me feel something as deeply as my favorite novels. Needless to say, I was hooked, despite the notorious quote by Squall: "..."

My next foray into the series was Final Fantasy VI, which still stands the test of time as one of the best. If VIII gave me feels, then VI gave me MEGAFEELS. That's not really a word, but words can't describe the effect that game had on me. The opera story arc floored me.

I believe the next game I tried was IV, and for whatever reason, I never did make it all the way through that one. Between that battle with Lugae for which I was ill prepared and college life interrupting, it just didn't pan out, so I'm excited to try again.

After that, I played IX, and loved it as much as the rest. Vamo alla Flamenco, is still one of my favorite songs. I also happened to get thoroughly addicted to Tetra Master. It sucked me in way more than Triple Triad ever did. I did have complaints about the chibi-style characters at first, but the rest of the game more than made up for this small qualm - The character style does grow on you.

I believe after that I decided to give VII a shot, and that was another that I never really finished. I'll be honest - I was reluctant to even try it because the sprites just looked so awkward. I think the furthest I got was the casino, and then gave up. Don't get me wrong, I understand that game's impact on the rest of the series, and I appreciate it for that, but I never really bought into the hype for it. Before you get upset, objectively I know it's not a bad game, it just never really tickled my fancy.

X was the next on my list. As much as I hated blitzball, I greatly enjoyed pretty much everything else about it... except the ending because... well heartbreak, right? But then X-2 came along and sucked me even deeper into Spira and I discovered that I could repair that broken heart from the previous game if I got 100% completion. You can bet I played that game to win. Not to mention I loved it's Girl Power aspects.

At some point just after graduating college, I decided to give I and II a try in the form of the GBA Dawn of Souls remake. Those games really helped me stay sane during the strange days in which I was attempting to establish myself as an adult and a functional member of society. With little else in the way of entertainment where I was living at the time, I enjoyed every minute I could squeeze in. I most vividly remember that it had a bestiary and I was determined to collect ALL THE THINGS in both games. It kept me out of trouble for quite a while. In the meanwhile, Final Fantasy XI was swiftly reaching it's heyday, but I wasn't really one for MMOs at that point, so I gave it a pass and instead I think I may have played around with V. That's another I never finished for one reason or another.

When XII was released, I was reluctant to play at first, because the battle system was a bit of a turn off, until I figured out what I was doing. Once I got past that, I was in love with everything about that game. It felt old school and brand new at the same time. The landscapes were gorgeous, and the character development was great for the most part if you just pretended that Basch was the main character. Turns out, he was supposed to be but someone decided Vaan would be more appealing for some reason. Wouldn't be the first time a marketing department made a bad decision.

After finishing XII, I played around with going back to try and finish some of my unfinished games in the series but never made much progress because life has a tendency to take priority over gaming when you spend all your time masquerading as a grown up. When XIII came out, I was pretty underwhelmed by it. To this day I maintain that while it's a decent game, it's not a very good Final Fantasy game. Suffice to say, Final Fantasy Hallway Simulator is lowest on my list. Can't win them all, I suppose.

Sometime in the midst of trying out all of the numbered titles, I want to assure you that I did in fact beat the pants off of Final Fantasy Tactics and later Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Both are fantastic in their own way. Tactics due to its general badassery, and Crystal Chronicles for its multiplayer action. Playing through that with friends in college is one of my fondest memories.

Let's raise a glass to fond gaming memories all around! In the coming weeks I'll be traversing 25+ years of one of the best gaming franchises in existence and reliving plenty of fond memories. To say I'm excited is an understatement. Bring on the #100daysofgaming!

Welcome to my Experiment!

Hello and welcome!

As you might have guessed from the title of this post. I've decided to try a little experiment as part of my annual Extra Life efforts. If you don't already know, Extra Life is a charity gaming marathon that supports Children's Miracle Network hospitals all over North America. Participants get to choose which CMN hospital they support, so I'm of course playing in support of the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation. For more information on Extra Life, I recommend you check out their website: www.extra-life.org

Now this blog is going to be about an Extra Life tradition that is quickly gaining traction within the movement called "100 Days of Gaming". Now, usually streamers do this, but I have nowhere near the level of prowess with streaming to do this justice. However, I do consider myself a decent writer, so I've decided to blog my experiences instead. I can only hope that this proves entertaining for my readers - I'll certainly try my best to be interesting!

It should be noted that for most '100 Days' Extra Life players, this whole thing doesn't start until the last days of July, but I'll be starting early. This year's Extra Life international day of play is going to be on November 5th, but due to travel plans, we've moved the marathon date for my team, Steel City Score Attack, to October 22 instead. In keeping with this, my 100 Days begins on July 14th - A little more than a week away as of this writing.

Without further adieu, I'd like to share my grand plan for this blog:

My intention is to begin with the first game, and work my way as quickly as I can through the series. For the most part I'll be sticking only to numbered titles. If I get through those early enough, though, you may see things like Final Fantasy Tactics or Crystal Chronicles, but those are stretch goals, to be sure.

So there you have it. My statement of intent. Keep watching this space for updates and my impression of each of the games in the series as I replay them or, in rare cases, play them for the first time. Next week, I'll be starting with the original Final Fantasy. I have access to the Original Nintendo cartridge, but I also have the Dawn of Souls version for GBA. If you have by some miracle already become an interested reader, feel free to make known which you'd prefer I try.

Thanks for reading!