Friday, July 5, 2013

Geekster's Whimsy: A History

Once upon a time there was a girl who totally kept to herself. She had a terribly active imagination but very little available to her to engage it. Until one fateful day, in 2002, when she saw a friend playing the most beautiful game she had ever seen....Final Fantasy X.

So amazing. So gorgeous. So. Life. Changing.

I'm totally serious.

I'm a geek anomaly. Zelda: A Link to the Past and Mario Bros. were the first video games I remember playing. I never approached the end of Mario and I only watched dear old Dad beat Zelda. I think at the ripe age of 9 I managed to make it to Turtle Rock in the Dark World before I relinquished the controller to him.

And that's where it ended.

For some reason the video game fairy missed our abode after the Super Nintendo. I lived in a video game-less abyss until my senior year in high school. That was like....10 long years of severe childhood normalcy! (Looking back, I think that's why I barely remember my childhood.) I had no idea that this wonderful, colorful, magical world still existed. To this day, I still mourn the loss of what potentially could have been this great nerdtastic relationship I could have had with my imagination back when it was in its prime of imagining. Before it got bogged down with bills, and hurricanes, and betrayal. But I digress.

It was just before winter break in my Senior year when I saw Final Fantasy X being played for the first time. It was the beginning of the ending and I was sworn to secrecy because I was seeing it before my friends girlfriend. I had no clue, whatsoever, what was going on....but something inside of me clicked. Like I knew I had to somehow form this unbreakable bond with this video game.

It spoke to me.

And like some chance encounter with the love of your life before you know them at the train station, I didn't see it again for 2 years.

In between those 2 long years I was reintroduced to this super awesome world of crazy awesome stories. I played bits of Final Fantasy VIII (which I still need to beat) and most of Final Fantasy IX (I couldn't beat this one yet cause it had to go back to major video...but I eventually did!). And I was completely enamored with this series. The amount of time and effort that went into creating these stories and the depth of the main characters. I mean whoa.

I had finally managed to get a hold of Final Fantasy X again and I played it non stop. NON STOP. Like I dove in head first, with no strategy guide (I finally got a hold of one by the time I got to the Cloister of Ice-thank goodness...those Cloisters were killer), and went until I could no more. The FMV's were beautiful....I totally cried like a baby when Yuna and Tidus kissed at Lake Macalania...seriously my favorite part....and that video was stunning.


And the ending.....I STILL watch the ending of that game. 11 years (holy crap....old....) later.

Imposhibble! No seriously. It's true.

The amazing part? I'm just as excited to play the HD remake as I was the original. I get to experience that magic all over again and retreat back to a happy time when video game developers still believed in an awesome story line with the perfect soul wrenching music to go along with it.

But seriously. All things considered, I'm still super new to this geeky world I've rightfully immersed myself in. I may have been late to the game, and I might be totally going backwards as far as video games go. (comic books are another story...I'm having trouble latching onto those...) But here I am. I have the cosplays to prove it!

(trying and failing to find the original to link back to....blarg)
(PS: Shame on you for no watermark!)
(PPS: That's totally me. And that wig weighed a ton. Another blog post!)