With My Last Breath, I Spit At Thee

by Joe Nuccio

(Note to readers: This is an editorial, albeit an unorthodox one. Don't be fooled by its opening; I merely consider it to be the most effective way to get my point across.)

"With my last breath, I spit at thee; For hate's sake, I stab at thee!..." - Captain Ahab "Moby Dick"

...Blood. My blood, running down my brow. Not much, but it was there. I glanced at my comrades - they were all still alive. The Black Wizard was hunched over in pain, but the White Wizard had a cure spell ready. We had weathered fire, ice, lightning, and more fire. We had jumped out of the way of a hideous crack in the earth that opened beneath our feet. The foul demon squinted at us in the light. It was still alive, but barely. Deep cuts and bruises covered it from top to toe. The Master and I stepped forward, ready to finish the job. Excalibur began to swing. I smirked.

The demon croaked out: "...Cure...4..."

Shock. Disbelief. Despair. Fear. How could we win now?

Half-heartedly, we kept attacking, though we expected precious little. The Black Wizard fell. The Master fell. The White Wizard's last Cure 4 spell went to keep me alive. Then she fell.

Just me and it. It moved first. It smacked me in the face. It could've just killed me with one more Nuke. But no; it just reached out and smacked me. Toying with me. Having its fun. It smirked.

Blood poured down my face. Captain Ahab poured into my soul.

"With my last breath I spit at thee..." The demon blinked in surprise.

"For hate's sake, I stab at thee!..."

And, presently, it died...

.........

What you've just read is a true account of the ending of my first jaunt through the world of Final Fantasy I, over ten years ago. The final battle with Chaos, told from the point of view of my kinght. Correction: me. For as far as I was concerned, I was my knight. And everything happened as was told; we were doing fine, it used Cur4, we started dying one by one, it could've killed me but used a wimpy physical attack instead, and I killed it with my last blow.

This remains one of my most vivid memories, thanks to Captain Ahab. And reading through the many erudite editorials written about the importance of the ending and the nature of an "effective" villain, I couldn't help but wonder why no one seemed to address where "the twain doth meet:" the final battle.

Let me play devil's advocate with my example, and show why FFI might not score very high in either the ending or the villain departments; of course it's all subjective, but I wanted to present a "worst-opinion scenario" to emphasize my point. Though Garland did a better job of being a villain than, say, Malroth in DQII, my thought upon seeing him in the final room wasn't so much "Cool! What a plot twist!" but more like "Don't tell me the supreme villain is that ANNOYING PISSANT from the VERY BEGINNING OF THE GAME!" And ending-wise, the quote that comes to mind is Bill Murray from Ghostbusters II: "That was good, Lewis. Short and...pointless."

Yet the exhilaration I felt upon winning the game was very real. Where'd it come from? Not the villain Garland. Not the ambiguous ending. But the final battle itself. Captain Ahab said it best, but another description comes to mind as well: "Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat." Sure, it's cliched. But how often have you actually done that? How often has the spirit of Ahab welled within you, giving you the last ounce of oomph needed to thrash that ugly bugger before you? Those who've felt the Ahab within them know what I'm talking about. Those who've never felt that way are missing out on one of the greatest gaming experiences I can describe.

I've purposefully refrained from examining today's crop of games in this light, since the question "Did that final battle bring out the Ahab in me?" is just as subjective as most of the other "criteria" for a "good" RPG. My goal is to present the Ahab factor as a possible consideration. And I'm genuinely curious as to what final battles people tout as "the best they've ever had." Feel free to attack, to say "Chaos was a pansy, but Creator/Zeromus/Lavos/Sephiroth was a REAL battle!" Get in touch with your inner Ahab!

And now, if you'll excuse me, there's a large white whale knocking on my door. Wonder what he wants...