Argh!  Methinks its good to be back!

Hello, everyone!

After a bit of hiatus, I am finally back to questing, leveling, and, hopefully, for the sake of all of those who depend upon us, the four "Warriors of Light," conquering and extinguishing the dark villainy threatening the various sprite-based realms upon which my characters tread!

As the saying goes, "life happens," and so did it happen to me resulting in my having been distracted from this blogging and gaming project. As the above might imply, not only did my writing halt but so too did my in-game progress, as I had not picked up the original "Final Fantasy" (which I am playing via the "Origins" collection distributed on the PS One) until just this past weekend three-or-so odd years after I had first decided to start this blog and these play-through efforts.

Alas, however, I have finally resumed playing through Square's legendary franchise, which started off as somewhat of a hail-Mary (the first game bearing the descriptor "Final" in its name because it was expected to be the proverbial bang with which an ailing Square would have gone out in the late 1980s) yet has continued through to be one of the most enduring franchises in gaming history, one which will enjoy its fifteenth installment this upcoming Spring of 2017.  I digress, though.  In an effort to establish continuity with my previous entry, I picked up Final Fantasy this weekend, starting a new game yet one in which I would re-incarnate my original fearsome foursome with the respective names and job classes held by my previous team; that is to say, a quartet consisting of my brawny Warrior, Godel; my versatile Red Mage, Newton; my rejuvenating White Mage, Curie; and my elemental-magic-wielding Black Mage, Euclid.  I ground my characters and then saved and then ground some more until I felt up to task to take on the mad yet powerful Garland, who was holding princess Sarah captive much to the dismay of His Majesty of Cornelia who relayed the humbling news to the four among my ranks that they were indeed the "Warriors of Light" of whom legend had foretold.

After rescuing Princess Sarah the King extended his gratitude by rebuilding the northern bridge allowing the team to venture outward into the world for which we had been destined to fight.

Soon, before knowing it, the four found themselves being appealed to by a worried citizenry to to take back the town of Pravoca from the Pirates who had ravaged it.  Properly establishing these rogues to be mere scallywags and not the menaces they perhaps once fancied themselves to be, my team took down a three-by-three grid-like arrangement of these buccaneering foes.  Taking down this villainy also helped my team to get its first mode of transport, a maritime vessel docked just at Pravoca's edge!

Next I shall venture forth to investigate the deep sleep into which a prince is purported to have recently fallen and in a land populated by elves, no less!

The Four Light Warriors Shall Come….

(As a note of disclosure, I intend to replay Final Fantasy I and II via the Playstation One “Anthologies” re-release).

Ah yes, what arrangement of talents do I select to comprise my party for the long journey that lies ahead? In case you are wondering what I am referring to, I am referring to the character-select screen where the player is presented the ability to hand-pick the class of each character that is to make up his party of four as well as to name each of those characters.

I have started and re-started the game a few times, experimenting with different permutations for my starting team; finally, though, I think I have a solid foot-hold with my party initialization, electing to go with a Warrior (skillful with attacks), a Red Mage (skilled in both “white” [healing] as well as “black” [combative] magic), a White Mage (specializing in “white” magic) and Black Mage (specializing in “black” magic).  So far as nomenclature is concerned, I figured that I would draw upon the great men and women of science with my warrior as Godel (and unfortunately an umlaut was not selectable amongst the alphabet of symbols at my disposal, so “Godel,” with an English “o,” it is), Newton, Curie (for Madame Curie, just to disambiguate amongst the couple, as my White Mage is a female character) and Euclid (my Black Mage).

My party so far has been met with much hope and expectation, as prophecy has foretold that “four warriors of light shall come”—and that we are those warriors-- according to His Majesty who was in much distress when we visited him due to his daughter having been kidnapped and held in a fortress up north by the mad knight Garland.  It should also be noted that each of us in my party holds a special crystal endowed with some sort of special and mystic significance as we were each shown beside such a shining artifact when introduced by His Majesty as the fateful four of whom legend had foretold.

Amidst the beginning of my game-playing experience with this first Final Fantasy I am thoroughly enjoying the game’s aesthetic and am especially impressed at how well the game’s characters are articulated in its 2D, sprite-based realm. I am also impressed by how well the various tutorials interspersed throughout the game’s opening village of Cornelia are able to acquaint one with the gameplay mechanics.  The townsfolk are plenty helpful in explaining inventory basics as well as the magic system.

Now for a bit of grinding, as my various restarts weren’t just due to a desire for team reformation but were also necessitated by the quick demise of my party on multiple occasions due to venturing out into that great wilderness of random battle encounters and save-point scarcity before I was properly leveled up.

Final? Hardly! Things are just getting started...

Greetings, readers!

Over the past several years I have managed to collect some edition or another—whether original or re-released—of each main-line installment in Square-Enix’s epic “Final Fantasy” game saga—with the exception of parts III, XI and XIV, the latter two of which being categorical departures altogether insofar as being MMO’s while other Final Fantasy games have been more traditional linear RPG narratives.   Having come to the above realization recently while assessing my game drawer amidst pining to revisit Squall Leonhart and his crew as they sojourn to confront the evil Princess Edea in Final Fantasy VIII, I have aspired to play through each installment (that I own) of Square-Enix’s epic RPG saga, starting, of course, with the original title with its battle-class-customized quartet that valiantly started it all, some 25-years-ago, capturing the imagination of RPG gamers everywhere and revolutionizing the genre in the process.

As far as the rules of engagement that I am setting for myself in venturing to replay each among the Final Fantasys—sans III, XI and XIV—and blog along the way, I endeavor to post new entries, at a minimum, whenever:
• …I start a new Final Fantasy installment
• …I finish a Final Fantasy installment
• …there is a major storyline development
• …or just plain whenever I feel like it!

So, I do hope you enjoy my online journaling of the many exciting Chocobo-riding, Airship-piloting, Kefka-damning, Materia-hording, Neo-Bahumut-Zero-Summoning, Aeris-mourning, Emo-protagonist-guiding, Cid-encountering adventures that lie in wait.

And thank you so much for taking the time to visit and read my entries.

Please feel free to comment! ☺