You know, after playing FF7 and FF8 pretty much back to back, I think I have to admit that Final Fantasy 8 IS my favorite one of the series. Given though that I have only played 5 thru 10, but only finished 7 & 8.

Actually I found it hard to follow 5 because I started playing the final fantasy series at 7, so to go from 3D action to 2D that doesn't have any movement when you hit or do spells was actually boring for me. I did though, get into number six for a bit, but I just never got to finishing it.

Seven was a good game, good story line, and I was one of those saps that cried when Aeries died. I have played the game multiple times and have actually bought (for the PC) after downloading a copy off of AOL back in the summer of `98. I was close to finishing Nine, but then Duc, the person I borrowed the game from, wanted it back before I could finish it. Finally 10, or X or whatever had much better graphics, but two things bothered me; the orbs, and the main character, who was a little obnoxious to my taste. I believe that is why I loved 7 & 8 much more, because the characters were to themselves and more serious, much similar to me.

I believe what really grabbed me about this game was... well, a lot of things, but mainly is the story. The story at it's core is a love story, and yes I am a sucker for those (damn me for being a hopeless romantic). The main character reminded a lot of myself. He was 17 as I was when I first played (ok technically I was 16 and 11 months when I first played). He was guarded, blocking his emotions and thoughts from other people, and having a hard time trusting anyone, especially in regards to his heart. I for one had those same issues. And even though he was so thick, someone still came by and opened him up like no other.

I believe I also fell in love with Rinoa, mainly because she was everything that I ever wanted in a girl; beautiful, spunky, girly, strong inner-self, respectable to others and herself, cute, blah blah blah. In other words, a unicorn :p

Then there were other aspects of the game that got me. The characters, the storyline, the graphics were just freakin' kick ass, the Guardian forces are cool (just gets tiring after a while), and so. But also I believe it was the fact that who i was at that time and the nostalgic memories of it all. When seven came out, I loved the commercials but I never played it until I randomly saw it on AOL server rooms and downloaded it. But after hearing about eight and now knowing what final fantasy is like, I was excited, excited to the point that I was literally spending my cash to buy the figurines from the characters to the GFs. I was also going through a lot of issues with my girlfriend, and it allowed me to escape. I always found it funny that, as much as I loved my girlfriend, a part of me yearned for a Rinoa.

All that was exactly 10 years ago, I got a copy of the first disc in September from my friend Casey, and played the rest when I got the game as a birthday gift. I would play it day to night, literally coming home from school and playing it till it was time for bed. I didn't finish it until January after leveling up all my characters and GFs to the max, and even after I finished it, I kept playing, but customizing my GFs (oh yeah, I went all the way to buy a pocketstation, which was only sold in Japan, just to level up my Chicobo). I even would fuck around with pro action replay to give my characters new powers. Seriously, I probably put the most amount of hours into this game than any other game, even after beating it.

So I think this is why I decided to play it again exactly 10 years later. This game has a special place in my heart. But there is one thing I forgot about when playing this game, how fucking hard Omega weapon was (yeah, I beat him of course :)