Slave to Squeenix

[owlmoose]

So I really didn't need another game right now, and I told myself I was going to be good and wait, that if nothing else I really ought to finish Phoenix Wright 3 before picking up anything else for the DS, but then one thing led to another and somehow I found myself in a game store on the way home from work today and... well. You know how that goes.

So I'm probably just barely an hour in -- Rydia has just joined the party after being "rescued" by Cecil -- which means I really don't have much to say about the characters or the story yet. Of course, the funny thing is that since I've been in Final Fantasy fandom for so long now, I've heard bits and pieces about a lot of things, so I built up all kinds of expectations in my mind -- Kain will be angsty, Rydia will kick ass, Edward will be a spoony bard. And it's too soon to say how any of these impressions are measuring up, except that Rydia is a whole lot younger than I was expecting. I had no idea that she was going to be a kid! Or is it just that Cecil is older than your usual FF lead? Anyway, it'll be interesting to find out.

One thing that does have me annoyed already is the inability to control the game with the stylus. I am, in fact, quite bitter about it, because the whole reason I waited for the DS version rather than just buying the GBA was because pressing little buttons can be hard on my hands, and from the small amount I played FFIII, I found using the stylus instead to work really well. But in this you can't use the stylus in battle at all, and my attempts to use it to navigate on the map have been relatively disastrous. So I'll do the best I can with the keypad, and silently stew all the while, and consider whether I really do want to wait for the FFVI to come out on DS after all.

Comments

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

Good to know re. the ages. They struck me as a little older, but then FF heroes often do. But they aren't teenagers, anyway, which is unusual for lead FF characters.

Thanks for the sympathy re. stylus. I'll just have to try and avoid marathon gaming sessions. We'll see if I can manage to be good. ;)

[lassarina]

I actually can make a decent case for why they should be 20 and 21! Without spoiling you, even!

When you first meet Cecil, he talks about how he was adopted by the King and raised by him (implication: as the heir to Baron.) Kain, same deal. Presumably they have both spent their entire lives in intensive training to be important men and, therefore, would be very well-educated and trained in the military, since Baron's is a militaristic culture. In my headcanon, most young men in Baron go into the military at sixteen; so they would have had four years apiece in the military of a country whose entire mindset revolves around the military. Add this to the fact that they were intended to inherit the kingdom, and they would be very mature and competent.

(Please forgive me; I can tl;dr meta about this game for DAYS.)