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When I was younger my father played a lot of videogames with me. We had several games on 8-inch floppy disks for the Apple II, as well as games for the Super Nintendo. However, our videogame obsession didn't begin until we got our first Playstation.
1997 was rather memorable because it was the year my father introduced me to RPGs. I recall having an eventful grocery shopping trip with my father. We were in the small electronics department where he showed me a new game called Final Fantasy VII. My father told me that he was going to get it because "it was really good" according to game magazines. I recall telling him not to buy it, but did he listen?
Although I had previous experiences with RPGs, Final Fantasy VII was the first RPG I enjoyed playing. When I started playing it developed into an obsession. I recall waking up at 6am so that I could play the game before I went to school. Also, there was several times where I lost track of the hours I sat in front of the television to play it. At the time, I didn't quite understand the main plot of the game because I concentrated most of my time on killing monsters. Despite the plot confusion, it did not deter me from playing.
As the game was ending, I remember that my hands were shaking during the final battle against Sephiroth. It was an exciting moment for me back then. It was the final boss for the first game I ever finished. Although it is embarrassing to admit, I even called my dad while he was at work to tell him that I finally beat the game.
Although Final Fantasy 7 is a single player game, my father and I spent a lot of time playing it together. We would often watch each other play it, help each other gear up our characters, do quests, and fight bosses together. I even remember my father waking me late at night asking me to help him find the sunken submarine. Also, we didn't play this game once. We played it numerous times. If I recall correctly, we might have played it about five or six times together. Fortunately, our RPG obsession did not end there. We went on to play several other RPGs including Parasite Eve, Final Fantasy VIII, Legend of Dragoon, and Brave Fencer Musashi.
When Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was released in 2005, it brought back a sense of nostalgia. It had been eight years since we last played Final Fantasy VII and to prepare myself for the movie I had replayed the game. During that time my father thought I was crazy for re-playing a game we had played numerous times.
While watching the movie for the first time, the visuals and the story were not the things that drew me in. It was the music which made me ecstatic. The soundtrack had a mix of new songs and old songs from the game. It was the familiar songs such as 'J-E-N-O-V-A', 'Kata Tsubasa no Tenshi', 'Aeris' Theme', and the battle theme which captured my attention. Initially my father was not interested in the movie, but after four months of nagging he finally gave in. Although he didn't really comment on the music itself, I could tell he recognized a few of the songs and jingles. For instance, in the scene when Loz's cellphone started ringing my dad suddenly said "oh Tifa won!" because Loz's ring tone was the victory jingle from the game.
What became of the father daughter video gaming duo? Nothing much has changed. It's been fourteen years since we started playing RPGs and we still continue to do so today. However, I am now the one who buys games for him to play.
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