Countdown... (T-minus 1 day!)

I got home from work today from my 10-hour day (50 hour week) hoping to find Final Fantasy waiting for me, but NO it's still not here. Damn it, I should've requested them to send it Red Label instead of UPS ground. Anyways, tomorrow is Saturday so the chances of the games arriving are slim. Then again, UPS does deliver until 5pm. I hope everything goes well. Then the carnage begins. The world of chocobos and crystals awaits!

Until then, I will rest up.

Final Fantasy III received! (T-minus 2 days!)

So yesterday I received Final Fantasy III. I bought it from Ebay and it was a pretty good sale. Although it was a used copy, it came pretty much like new. Everything was there and I was excited to listen to the Final Fantasy scores again. I'm definitely excited.

I have already begun my planning for Final Fantasy I. I have played that one many times and the thing I always ponder in the beginning is which characters to start with. I'm not trying to challenge myself so I don't want to use three Fighters and a White Mage (or worse yet, the most difficult one being four Black Mages). The easiest one would be Warrior, White Mage, Black Mage, and a fourth character to even them out. The Fighter seems good for the beginning because of his lack of a need for weapons. This could be great since in the beginning because you need every penny you can get in the beginning.

Oh well, now I just have to hope that the game comes by Saturday. Until then, I'll just be waiting.

DS has arrived! (T-minus 6 days)

After a three week waiting period of ordering the limited edition Red & Black Nintendo DS, it finally arrived this week. I had a fun time learning and getting used to it. Of course that's $160 bucks down the drain. I guess it's not a big deal when you're working. I have begun the arduous search for the rest of the GBA versions of Final Fantasy games. Looks like I'll have to suffer and get some of them on eBay. The worse part is that it will come with nothing but the cartridge. I hate that, but I really can't justify getting like six new games. Another week of work awaits.

the problem of Work (T-minus 11 Days)

I decided to do some calculations for today on time. Due to some freak occurrence and timing, both my supervisor and co-worker quit last week; one left because of personal reasons, the other finally left for her one year internship in China. I work in a small office of a tractor distribution center, and the work that was once done by four persons is now down to two. I'm going to be doing 10 hour days for the next few weeks. I guess with 11 hours at work, that leaves only like 4 hours of free time in my life. It's not going to be easy to put Final Fantasy on. But I do have the weekends... oh yes, the weekends.

Final Fantasy XI Noob (T-Minus 13 Days)

So for the past two days I have been learning how to play Final Fantasy XI. The game has a very steep learning curve, and while last week I was trying to figure things out by myself, this week I just gave up and started asking some of my friends. Yes, they did twink (to be helped out by a higher level player) me. My buddy with the nickname CrystalKain lent me 50,000gil to start, but unlike the real world, you can't just buy stuff and equip it. Everything has a level requirement. So I'm still struggling to get the ins-and-outs of the MMORPG.

I'm taking baby steps. I finally learned how to heal (or rest for that matter). For the longest time I thought it was by use of INN or potions, but instead there's a Heal function where the character just kneels and recharges as time goes by. Next I learned that playing with a mouse is tiresome and inefficient. Everything can be done by the Keyboard, and done faster. With simple little things like that I started gaining levels regularly. I'm still not used to using the CHECK function to see the strength of monsters (or MOBS as they say), but it's saved my life a couple of times.

As for my character? I was using the Thief because he can find Gil faster, but now I've switched to the White Mage because of his healing ability. If anybody ever wants to find me, I'm Stabino on the Garuda server.

As I play this game more I am scared to think about how I can document me playing it in its "entirety" for the FFChallenge. It's going to take a lot of limitations and timers. I'll be rethinking it in my week of work. Ten-hour days everyday from here on, more money, less time. It's a way of a yuppie's life (except I don't make as much as one).

A problem with spending (T-minus 15 Days)

I start searching for deals on buying the games today. Wait, you don't have all the games? Why of course not. I played them when they first came out and basically wasted a fortune on them when I was a kid, but they were traded away or lost in some condition. Plus I want to play the updated ones on Gameboy Advance and DS. What I have with me now are:
Final Fantasy 1,2, 4 (Wonderswan Color, Japanese)
Final Fantasy 6 (SNES, as FFIII)
Final Fantasy 7,8,9 (PSX)
Final Fantasy X (PS2)
Final Fantasy XI (PC)

Now here comes the painful part. I'll have to buy a Gameboy DS. Besides that I'll have to repurchase all the Final Fantasy games coming before FF7 as well as Final Fantasy XII. It looks like it will be a big dent in the wallet, but I'm sure I can resell them easily. As for retail prices go, Amazon.com seems to be the lowest (along with free shipping).
Here are their prices:
FFI & II ($20)
FFIII DS ($25 used)
FFIV ($20)
FFV ($27)
FFVI ($30)
FFXII ($30)
That's about $152 total. It seems like a expensive endeavor, but before we jump to conclusions I will venture into the world of Craigslist and Ebay for cheaper alternatives, especially if I'm willing to stomach used versions.

Embryoic thoughts (T-minus 16 Days)

So the idea of a Final Fantasy challenge came to me when I was walking through the video-game section of Best-buy one day. I thought, "wow, I used to really love these games when I was a kid. Wouldn't it be cool to go through some of them again now." And there it was, I caught myself thinking of final fantasy II (or 4 in Japan) and the many hours that I spent on it in elementary school. The second impetus for this challenge came from my recent participation in a "real life" RPG called sfzero. They do tasks for points and levels. The players make up the tasks, and the completed tasks get a net sum for completion but additional points from votes of other players. The thing that interested me is their enthusiasm for documentation. Now that everyone can afford a digital camera, visual evidence can easily be done. With the advent of You-tube, one can also post video evidence. And finally, the third thing that spurred my interest in taking the ridiculous (and yes, it is ridiculous) task is a search on Wikipedia for Final Fantasy. The articles on Final Fantasy show that most of the pre-CD games (1 through 6) have been remade for the GameBoy Advance with new dungeons and characters. That really excited me because those were my favorite ones, not the new graphically intense ones (although the first 6 were notable for their graphics in their time too). So now I'm excited and am getting ready for the challenge.

The problem is setting up a guideline for the challenge. First I wanted to do them in order, straight through 1 to 12 and not any of the spin-off titles. As much as I love Final Fantasy Tactics and X-2, I don't think I have time in my life to play those again. Next I want to document the number of game time used in the challenge, putting in a total game-time for the completion. Next I want to limit the number of GAMEOVER's I get. It would be unrealistic to think that I can beat all of them without dying, so I think I want to give myself 12 for the entire game, but additional ones will be counted as penalties. So if I can make it through FF 1 to 4 without dying, I'll have 12 passes for myself in the later ones. It will be like playing the Hard Core mode in Diablo 2 (another game I love). Furthermore, I do want to get the best gear and finish the hardest sidequests of the game. What's the point of playing them without truly appreciating them? I plan on taking out the Weapons in Final Fantasy 7 again, and probably getting the Hero's badge in Final Fantasy 10 again. Let's hope my enthusiasm does not wane by then. Another guideline that I would like to establish is that once the game time hits a certain number of hours, I will move on. I don't want to linger in Final Fantasy 5 for 200 hours (which might happen if you want to master every job-class). I'm guessing 120 or 150 hours. The last guideline is the use of strategy guides and FAQs, and as for that I am going to say I will use those. Nobody knows all the secrets of every FF game and remembers them. It might be one thing to research on that to get Lulu's Onion Knight doll in FF10, but to actually do the task is a totally different thing. My thing is that I will not use game enhancers, but I will read guides and walkthroughs. This is probably going to be like Calvinball, where I'm going to make up the rules along the way, until a "contest" appears.

Another concern that you readers are wondering is what I might do for Final Fantasy 11, it's an online multi player game after all. For that one, I am just going to finish as many quests as I can. But will I use help? yes, I am. I will start from level one, but let's face it, nobody can SOLO through a MMORPG. I'll have to think more for this one, but there are 15 days until September, so something like a solution will show up.