2011 will go down in my own personal history as the year I put my love of numbers to its ultimate test.
Whenever possible, I like to go through as many consecutive installments of a franchise as I can, playing as every character if possible. However, there was one franchise with which the possibility of doing such a thing all but alluded me for years: Final Fantasy.
Oh, sure, I had II & III on an emulator several times, but they never last. Then along came the Retrozone Powerpak, which I got using most of the money I got for my last birthday. There was a false start shortly after I got it, but that worked itself out.
Finally, after more than three months, moving to a new house early in the process and getting help over another hurdle with III, I have finally gone through the Final Fantasy series up through X, beating II & X for the first time the day after moving here and just today, respectively.
Here's how it went:
Final Fantasy: 5 days (February 27-March 3)
Final Fantasy II: 10 days (March 4-13)
Final Fantasy III: 7 days (March 14-20)
Final Fantasy IV: 5 days (March 21-25)
Final Fantasy V: 10 days (March 26-April 4)
Final Fantasy VI: 12 days (April 5-16)
Final Fantasy VII: 13 days (April 17-29)
Final Fantasy VIII: 13 days (April 30-May 12)
Final Fantasy IX: 14 days (May 13-26)
Final Fantasy X: 11 days (May 27-June 6)
It's a real shame that the franchise went in the direction that it did after X. Never mind X-2, if XI was resolvable, I might actually continue this. IV: The After Years was a miracle, though I'm not including that, either.
I enjoyed myself saving each planet and, as always, possibly the universe, and through it all, one thing remained constant: It felt right because I followed the numbers. Oh, and just so there's no question, yes, I did get fresh air and socialize regularly in this process.
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