Once again we return to the realm of Final Fantasy X for another episode of Vicarious Gaming 101. This episode we saved the Chocobos! I don’t really know how exciting that piece of information is but for me it warranted an exclamation point. Seeing as how I have played very small bits of Final Fantasy games in the past I really didn’t know what a Chocobo was. I hear Leah muttering under her breath sometimes about how much she hates the beasts because of the stupid mini game associated with them in another game but that didn’t tell me what they were, just that Leah hates them.
To me these stupid Chocobo look like giant walking chickens that you can ride on. I suppose I don’t understand the necessity to save them but it did allow me to watch an interesting boss fight. This particular battle pitted Leah against a giant fiend that could push the party backwards and, if left unchecked, eventually off a cliff. This mechanic was sort of interesting for me because I wasn’t expecting any sort of environment to play a part in a turn based battle system like FFX’s. I was pleasantly surprised to see this included in the game and it makes me wonder if there is more of this type of interaction in this game or if it was just a one off type of thing.
Aside from the battling a Chocobo eating fiend I also learning quite a bit more about spells, status effects and special moves from Leah. She is educating me about what dark attacks do, what it means for a character to be silenced and exactly how a Grand Summon is different from your everyday vanilla summon. I honestly often feel overwhelmed by the amount of information required to operate a RPG. I know I discussed this last time but it really does blow my mind. I’m not sure that I could figure all this out on my own with either A) asking a crapload of questions 2) having someone walk me through the game or iii) having a strategy guide open at all times. It makes me wonder how people getting into RPGs for the very first time figure all of this stuff out. To Leah navigating the menus, managing her characters health and status, and upgrading people through the sphere grid all seem to come as second nature. For me it is a scary world of HP, AP, MP and words I don’t understand.
Ultimately all of that got me thinking about what I really want to get out of this experience and it dawned on me last night, I want to be able to confidently play a RPG and at least understand what is going on during battles by the end of this. I’m hoping if I pay attention to more than just the sound of Tidus’ annoying voice I’ll be able to pick up vocabulary and skills through this that would have taken me forever to figure out on my own. Does anyone out there have any good stories about their first RPG experience that they would like to share as I go through this process?
