Clocks are Full of Elixir

Confused? Well, I'm replaying an old favorite video game: Final Fantasy VI. It originally came out for the Super Nintendo and you may know it as Final Fantasy III. Y'see, back in the day, Japan actually had about three more Final Fantasy games that we in the States did. Japan's Final Fantasy IV was actually only the second game released here, so we knew it as Final Fantasy II. FFVI underwent a similar name change for it's US release. Then someone at Squaresoft apparently decided that life would be much easier if Final Fantasy games had the same number in Japan and America. So Final Fantasy VII was known as such worldwide, even though it had only been preceded by three games over here. And when Square started re-releasing some of the older FFs for the PlayStation and including some of the formerly Japan-only titles, they used the Japanese numbering.

So where was I? Oh yeah, the title. Well, one interesting thing about FFVI is that clocks are indeed full of elixir. Walk up to pretty much any wall clock in the game (there are a few exceptions), search it, and you're the proud owner of an elixir. Considering that elixirs fully restore your hit points and magic points, it's a pretty good deal. But there's only one elixir per clock, so it's not an endless supply.

I usually find that old RPGs are still a lot of fun. As I've said before, RPGs are heavily based around telling a story, which doesn't tend to date the way the graphics do. And since the fighting controls are menu based, you don't have problems with the controls not being as responsive as they are in modern games. Even though Final Fantasy games have stayed the same in a lot of ways over the years, it's fun to see changes in gameplay that either influenced a later game or never really showed up again.

Just in case you're getting the only half true impression that my life is nothing but video games and the internet, I did had something of a social life this week. Jen came by to visit yesterday. Since Jen now lives out in Michigan, I don't get to see that much of her these days. We were hoping to have some more people join us, but unfortunately, that didn't pan out. So we just hung out in my living room and chatted for a while. It was a good time, though it did remind me how little time I spend with any of my few girlfriends. It's not so much by choice; distance and time just seem to get in the way. I suppose I should probably make an effort to meet more women around my age, but I've realized that I don't know what women my age do.

Despite the very hot weather, Andrew and I are finally getting around to doing some much needed painting. He's working on the front door and I painted one of our basement windowsills. It's a bit of a slow process, but the heat does make the paint dry faster. We'll probably get some more done tomorrow.