collections 5:4

I've been waiting for one thing all summer: A game, Final Fantasy Dissidia. Truth be told, I've got a very strong background in video gaming. I've owned just about one of every generation of console system, starting with the NES and advancing through Sega Genesis, Playstation, Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Dreamcast, Xbox, Playstation 2, Xbox 360, Wii, and Playstation 3. They didn't all belong to me, but I've lived in households containing everyone of those for an extended period of time. I've even travelled through a lot of handheld systems: Game boy, Gameboy pocket, Gameboy color, Gameboy advance, Playstation Portable. If you can tell by the way every line ends, I'm a playstation kind of kid now. If you really want my thoughts, Sony just makes better products... I've had a pair of Sony earbuds that've lasted me since high school and a Sony Erickson phone too. If I was out to buy a TV or a stereo, I'd no doubt settle on a Sony model. Anyway, the game I've been waiting for is a psp exclusive: a compilation of previous Final Fantasy games rolled into one epic adventure. I think Final Fantasy is mostly responsible for why I've since departed from video games though. There was a time in my life when shooters, adventures, actions, racers, fighters, etc. were all part of my video gaming repetior. With the advent of pokemon and my introduction to Dungeons and Dragons, it was inevitable that I'd fall into roleplaying games as a writer. Ever since, I've declined on the majority of video games apart from roleplaying ones. Sure, every once in a while, I'll pick up a game or two that looks too appealing to resist, but for the most part, I'm an RPG only kind of guy- and not even all RPGs. I've essentially limited myself to Final Fantasy and that alone. Sure, I've got a dozen RPGs around that I haven't yet mastered or beaten, but they're not FF. They're not bad, but they just don't engage me like a good Square-Enix game. So my decline in video games as become one of obsession for another. So, once a year, when Square-Enix drops a Final Fantasy game, I'll buy it. And that'll be my game of the year. 1997: Final Fantasy VII, 1998: Ehrgeiz, 1999: Final Fantasy VIII, 2000: Final Fantasy IX, 2001: Final Fantasy X, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy X-2, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, Kingdom Hearts II, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core and so on. It's humiliating to think that anything can even compare to the standard I've set- so unfortunately, I'm not much of a gamer anyore. Casual at best, although at least one or two weeks of the year tend to be my imprisonment to one of those specific titles. Whichever comes out. I would say that this is a healthy video gaming lifestyle, and although I'll indulge from time to time in an Elder Scrolls game or Rockband or whatever nonsense hits the market, I'm only ever obsessed with one title. Because of Final Fantasy though, my writing has evolved. In fact, it's partially what got me into writing. Sure... I was writing Pokemon fanfics back when I was 12 or whatever, but it was the narrow, focussed story and character evolution of Final Fantasy which made me start defining characters myself. Before I knew it, characters I wrote started taking a Tetsuya Nomura-esque appearance and settings that I wrote never felt quite so right without a Nobuo Uematsu song in the background. It's part of my style- even the fashion is something that I try to exhibit in real life, whenever I'm feeling fashionable anyway. In the next two years however, we'll be seeing Square Enix drop a number of titles... Final Fantasy Dissidia, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIII: Versus, and so on. So I'll no doubt succumb to the pleasures moderately often assuming I can afford to. Will this help me evolve as a writer? Perhaps. It's true that most settings in my mind are inspired by the three dimensional settings of these games and I have no doubt that they will influence me in some way or another. Afterall, no series can make me cry at an ending like Final Fantasy.

I need something better to do with my time.