Time Spent Since The Last Fantasy

by Nathan Mallory 

Thinking back, oh, what a difference a couple years and an Internet connection makes. Most anyone reading this has been changed in some way by the Internet's onset, many of us Squaresoft fans. With Final Fantasy VII fast on the horizon, I cannot help looking back at my past, at what I was doing a week before the last Final Fantasy game was released. I remember, back when the Super Nintendo was just entering the limelight, how I was nervous, even afraid of the onset of… Final Fantasy II! A sequel to one of my favorite games of all time. What always worried me was the idea of the Active Battle System. What?? The enemies attack you while you decide what to do? Oh no! Of course, after playing it, I discovered a great game indeed. No longer would I be worried by a challenge such as that. That was FFI to FFII.

November 1995. Final Fantasy III, destined to be a classic, was on the horizon, and I was ready to go. No longer worried, I sharpened my adventuring skills by building levels in FFII, ready for whatever happened. What I found was yet another enduring classic, and thus I was from then on in search of every great RPG I could find. Final Fantasy III brought me from a novice player to a Player. That was FFII to FFIII. Summer 1996. I had just discovered the meaning of online (Compuserve, actually, but we won't talk about that), and Chrono Trigger was being released. I talked about it online with people, and we had trivia contests of FFIII, Secret of Mana, etc. Looking back, it was the infancy of my online days.

August 26, 1997. It is merely a week before the onset of Final Fantasy VII, and so much has changed, I barely can grasp it all. So much, since FFIII trivia games in Compuserve chat forums. I now own a slew of game music soundtracks, am finally setting a course with my life, and Internet has totally revolutionized my gaming experience. Now I am not waiting eagerly for this mysterious game known only as the next Final Fantasy, I am awaiting the "English version" of a Japanese game I have already beaten! I have debated the changes made (changes I wasn't even aware of in previous games), events added or lost, and I know so much more than before about everything and everyone in the video game world. I look back on my naiveté of two years ago, waiting for FFIII, and laugh.

But not everything has changed. Even after playing the Japanese game (and understanding about 1% of the text), seeing so many pictures I could draw them myself, and owning the soundtrack, I still await Final Fantasy VII as eagerly as all the previous games, if not more, for now I know the adventure that awaits. I even marveled at the display box already on the shelves in Babbage's. Granted, there won't be the horror of sorrowful events, and the exhilaration of the new FMV in action, but the story will be there, making a complete game for me finally, as I think it will for many importing fans. It's like watching a movie with the sound off, or in a foreign language. Then one day, you have the same thing, in your own language! The feeling can be almost as exciting as my childish naiveté, waiting for FFIII.

My point? Partially in response to "Too Much Information, Too Soon!", partially to all those importers, wondering if the English FFVII will be worth it, I say this. Can you still play FFIII or II and still feel something of the same exhilaration, the same vigor that drove you through it the first time? If you can, or if you feel in any way the same as I do, then don't worry at all. Final Fantasy VII will be like an entirely new game and more. Enjoy.