One of the Best
I can’t tell you if it happens the moment I finish certain games. When the game I’m playing becomes one of my most beloved. But without a doubt, after time, there are some games I’ve played that stand out far above the rest. Guild Wars, GoldenEye 007, Super Mario Bros. 3… all of these are games that the memories stick with me. And Final Fantasy X is very much in their company.
This game first came out in 2001, the year I graduated. I spent part of the Christmas holiday with a friend, James, in San Antonio. He had recently gotten the game and was in the middle of playing it while I was there. The graphics were amazing. That was my immediate draw to the game. But as I watched him play, so much of the game felt larger than most. The soundtrack, the world, the story. It was grim, sad, and kept me wanting to know what was going to happen next.
I left San Antonio long before James beat the game. I myself didn’t own a PlayStation 2, so I had no means to play it for myself. Months went by and I didn’t think about it much. I was very much a Nintendo fanboy so I spent my time playing Gamecube. Around my birthday in 2002 (I think) I took some of my birthday money and bought a PS2 bundled with Gran Turismo 3. One thing Nintendo didn’t have was a realistic driving game that was anything like GT3. So without much thought about Final Fantasy X, I snatched up the console.
I don’t remember when I finally bought Final Fantasy X. It was long enough that the game had dropped in price. I remember seeing it on display at a music and game store in the Manhattan Town Center Mall. It was $20 off or so and it really wasn’t until that moment that I thought about all those great experiences again. The more I thought about it, the more I figured it was a no-brainier to pick up.
I played it, several of my friends played it with me, and after several weeks, I beat it. Like I said in the beginning, I don’t know if at the moment I saw the ending that I was hooked on Final Fantasy or not. But sometime between now and then I’ve become quite a fan.
Let’s move ahead about 10 years. The PS3 is out and the PS2 is quickly becoming “retro”. Ouch. Very quietly it’s announced that Final Fantasy X is getting an HD remake. WOW! I’m excited! All of a sudden, I have the urge to re-live the story all over again. But if this game is coming out soon I didn’t want to dilute the experience by replaying it now. So I hold off.
Weeks go by and there’s no news. Months go by… maybe it was cancelled. There were never even any screenshots shown. But Sony press conferences come and go, and not even an acknowledgement of the game. Then about 6 months ago, some news that not only will it be Final Fantasy X, but it will also include X-2 and many of the international features that never made it to the US game! Then the soundtrack starts showing up on news sites and Youtube. Finally it’s a real thing.
This weekend, the game finally materialized. I relish these experiences as an adult, because it makes me feel like a kid again. I was always anticipating some game back when I was younger and it always felt like forever before it released. I probably haven’t felt like this about a new game since Skyward Sword. And this isn’t even really a new game!
I’ve been playing it pretty hardcore since Thursday night. It’s as much fun as it ever was. Between X and X-2, I could play them both, then just immediately start back at the beginning of X and have just as much fun as the first time though. Partly because the games are so lenghty, but mostly because they’re just so good.
I would love to watch Andrea play the game through. It’s such a great game that the only part that sucks is the lack of people to share your thoughts and feelings about it with. I know she respects that it’s one of my favorites, because she pre-ordered this remake for me before I did! I suppose that is enough for me.
Crossing State Lines
I can’t remember the last time I crossed the Kansas border. It’s been years for sure. But recently we headed to Denver for a Boston Bruins vs Colorado Avalanche game. In the last two years Andrea and I have grown an affinity for watching Hockey. If you look back far enough on this blog I talked about wanting to get into the sport but not sure who to cheer for. I proclaimed at the beginning of the season that I would choose the team I would follow by whoever one the Stanley Cup that year. So in the 2010-2011 season, every team competed for the NHL Championship… and me as a fan for life. I was that close to being a Vancouver fan, but Boston won 4-0 in Game Seven.
We had great seats. We were up high, but right on center ice. It was a great view and a great game as Boston won 2-0. It’s always cool going to any game like that and seeing the same guys you see on TV all the time.
My Entourage
After the game, we headed back to the hotel. Saturday was a fun day. We went to the Denver Museum of Science and Nature. It was a pretty neat place. There’s a TON of stuff for kids and I really want to bring Luke back in a couple years when he’s old enough to have fun with a lot of the different exhibits. The museum offered pretty basic information, but it covered a really broad spectrum and had great exhibits that showed how things worked.
I learned quite a bit of stuff I didn’t know in the nature museum. Like beavers lips close behind its teeth so it can carry sticks without swallowing water. And that caribou are the only species where females grow antlers.
After the museum we went to a place downtown in Denver called the Cherry Cricket. The place was jammed. Definitely not Denver’s best kept secret, there were more people in the place than live in my entire town. It was a pub type atmosphere but got great reviews for its food. We decided it was worth waiting 30 minutes for a table… I’ve waited longer for worse food. And the food here was superb. I ordered some kind of specialty burger medium rare, and it was outstanding! Best burger I’ve had in a long long time. Good beer on tap too. Worth tolerating the crowd and the wait for sure.
It had a name, but I only remember how it tasted.
That afternoon we took a short drive up into the mountains and just kinda roamed around with no particular place to go, and no idea where we were going. It was actually snowing on Saturday, so that made for some absolutely breathtaking scenery. I really wish we could have spent more time in the mountains. I’m not a big city, big crowd, guy at all. Get me off the beaten path and let me relax and take in creation. That’s exhilarating to me.
It was getting dark by the time we made it back to Denver. We headed back to the hotel to decide where to eat. We settled on a unique little pizza place of which I can’t begin to remember the actual name. I just remember I kept calling it “Joe Blow’s”. A joke which I probably took to its absolute limits. It was good though. The Pizza was sold by the POUND and had big thick crusts, but wasn’t greasy. Joe Blow’s was probably the least populated place of the entire trip. The waitress was fun and quirky, but it could have used some atmosphere. It felt like an old Golden Corral. I remember Andrea watching a lot of soccer on the TV while I enjoyed one of the local brews… Coors Light.
It was a good trip. I’m really glad we went. Now it’s time to hunker down for what we are calling, “The Year of Boring” as we save up for a house. Still a year or so out on that project.