(Note: I've had this post largely written for a while, but due to recent travails, I haven't been able to finish it until now. Rest assured I have not been pulling your leg and putting off various commitments to write umpteen pages on Final Fantasy. Those same travails, however, mean that I'm not able to futz with the original-rez pngs right now to make them a more-legible size. I apologize and ask you use the magnify functions on your browsers.)
A few years ago, in post titled "Do I...like Final Fantasy?", I wrote in regard to the first installment:
I regard it, somewhat abstractly at this point, as a good game. I don't think I'd ever play it again.
Well, I put the lie to those words: I played it again recently. (...Relatively recently. See below.) The main impetus was, as with The Goonies II, Jeff Gerstmann's NES ranking project, where he relegated the game to what most consider a low berth (the mid-hundreds) because he likes Dragon Warrior and doesn't like Final Fantasy and doesn't like that many people like Final Fantasy and not Dragon Warrior and Gerstmann, despite being a games journalist with an extraordinary breadth and depth of knowledge, is a very "my way or the highway" type of person (particularly nowadays, unfortunately, but that is another post).
(AN ASIDE: I think the ubiquity of and common experience with Dragon Warrior - where it was included for free with Nintendo Power subscriptions - actually torpedoed the franchise for a good, long while in the States. It's not by any means a bad game, and I remember getting enjoyment out of it, but it was published over here three years after its Japanese release date, and it is the most aggressively basic RPG, painfully linear and uncreative, both strategically and tactically. It is a game of extraordinarily limited options, where there is one single right thing to do, one single path in every scenario, and while that is fine, and even desirable, for the My First RPG it is, it can be...well, downright painful. I know, logically, that there has to be way more to the series now, but there's a part of me to this day, 35+ years later, that recoils inwardly a bit at the prospect of the idea of playing a DQ game, at what my mind will tell me will be an endless, mindless procession of rote actions: "A Slime draws near! Command?" "Thy Hit Points reduce by 3." "The Slime is running away.")
Well, I came away with my positive impression of Final Fantasy intact. Reinforced, even: replaying it today gave me an appreciation of how the game is, like, well-designed and intuitive. The entire inland sea is effectively a tutorial area. The early dungeons are actually organized smartly to teach the player how to conduct an effective search of dungeons and how important areas and items are earmarked.
I'd even defend the much-maligned mechanic where your warrior steps forward and flails at air if they were commanded at the start of the round to attack an enemy that's felled before they get a chance to act. For one, I honestly don't think it's unrealistic, so far as a video game fight goes: your little people get their marching orders before the battle is joined, and it makes sense, in the fog of war, that some soldiers are going to be left with nothing to do if you overcommit resources to a given foe. For another: I think the mechanic is actually useful. It kept me engaged. I wasn't automatically pressing "Fight." I had to think of how much damage my various party members would likely deal, and to which enemies I should dispatch them to minimize the damage I'd take and the resources I'd expend.
The game also offers a lot of variety and player choice. The composition of your party; the order in which you tackle the game world; the spells with which you equip your casters: Dragon Warrior - and I don't mean to make this a DQ vs. FF post; this particular comparison just did come to mind after the Gerstmann video - would not consider this level of player agency in its rigidity.
I also have to say: it feels good to play and finish a classic long-form game. Don't get me wrong: Dead by Daylight is an endlessly creative game, and I've had lots of fun with it, and I've enjoyed many indie gems on Steam and GoG of varying scope and ambitions. But there's something about playing through a long, foundational game like Final Fantasy that's like a meal, you know? Nutritious; like I'm returning to the roots of it all, like I'm getting back to the heart of things.
I decided in my playthrough to go only by info in my memory - no looking up spells to see what they did (even though that info was available from the start for NES gamers via the manual). I tried not to grind, but I did at a couple points stop to get up enough cash for some useful equipment. (This worked just fine; grinding actually isn't necessary.)
Also: as detailed at depressing length, I ran into a roadblock 'round about the Gurgu Volcano due to my party composition. Detailing this imbroglio took much of the wind out of my sails for detailed journaling of this playthrough - and the later stages are a bit less detailed as a result. Onward!
I mentioned previously that I'd been helping a family member recover from a long-term illness, and that while the treatment was successful, our time together ended badly for our relationship. We were incommunicado afterward. I learned today that this person is having a horrendous unexpected follow-up medical procedure—life-changing, and limiting.
The difference now is that I can't go and help this person due to the safety issue that led to communication being severed the last time. The issue rests with the person, and the conversations I've had today make it clear it's still very present. They have ample resources for care, but I feel absolutely awful about not being able to be there for, at the very least, emotional support. I can't safely do it, though, due to their behavior and choices.
The ramifications from this issue may affect my housing situation, which I thought had stabilized. On what time frame, I don't know. This obviously would have ramifications for the various projects on which I'm working; I can't say for certain right now. I may have to do nothing; I may have to do everything. I have to wait and see, and prepare.
This isn't a very useful post beyond "something big and negative is happening," but I'm not in a place to say much of anything useful right now. I feel I should say something, though.
A notice that I've started putting updates for the Translation Project up on my Tumblr. The updates organically fit into a new project I've started there, brief comments on media I've enjoyed during the previous month, inspired by a series from a friend of mine on the platform; I've found it a good way to share stuff I've enjoyed in a fairly au courant manner without letting everything pile up at the end of the year. It's also handy if you want your updates interspersed with commentary on updates of the NES Jaws game and The Exorcist III.
The upshot is that the reformatting work is almost over, and I'm about the enter new translation territory again. However: I have a couple new professional projects that have been and will be taking up more time than usual in the near future. I'm particularly honored to be chosen for one of them, and I can't wait until the title is announced to PROCLAIM MY INVOLVEMENT, but it does mean slower progress for the moment on the hobby Project. There is progress, though, thankfully, and I'll be keeping everyone updated more frequently.
OK: I'm past the halfway mark in volume in translating the script. Two things:
- I took a chunk of time to address a long-outstanding issue and replace some lost material. I've mentioned previously that early in the project, without my awareness, there was a well-meaning attempt to lighten my workload by using AI to translate material and edit some stuff to get it within character limits. The results weren't usable, and I asked that this attempt be discontinued once I found out about it (and for the script to be entrusted to me solely). The person's intentions were good, but this was not how I ever wanted the translation to go.
Unfortunately, the files with the original, unaltered translations were no longer extant after this editing; I had to retranslate these files, which accounted for about a dozen out of the 80-odd files in the overall script. (I've since kept local copies of what I've translated, so this issue won't arise again.) - The tech side found an improved script extraction process that's yielded a more-complete, better-formatted set of script files. I do, however, have to move the script from the old files to the new files, do a bit of reformatting, and translate the newfound lines, which should take two to three weeks. (This is my fault for not using the new files earlier; I underestimated the extent of the improvements the new files would bring.)
So there's a bit of health work underway, but it'll end with a more-complete script that, as was always my intention from the very start of the project, is completely human-translated. There's more and surer progress on more fronts, and video files are getting subtitled. Again, this is not the rate of progress I wanted, and I apologize for being indisposed for an extended period, but we're making strides into new territory now, on surer footing.
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