Top 10 Memorable Lines in Final Fantasy Games

(This, believe it or not, was rejected from Gamefaqs for being "too narrow". Oh well. We can enjoy it here, since it took me hours to put together!)

In a series like Final Fantasy, where every game is an epic quest, there are many things said that stand out. These are just some of the memorable lines that may have made you smile, stop and think, or even shed a tear.

10: "...That is my story." - Auron Final Fantasy X (PS2)
The full line: "Legendary guardian? I was just a boy. A boy about your age, actually. I wanted to change the world, too. But I changed nothing. That is my story."
The phrase "my story" was certainly used frequently in this game. When the party finally gets to their destination, Auron reveals that he wavered the first time he came to Zanarkand. This causes Wakka to comment that even legendary guardians choke sometimes. Auron's response is this line. Sometimes it's hard to remember that this tough and experienced warrior was young and naive once too.

9: "........Whatever." - Squall Final Fantasy VIII (PS)
"Whatever" is the full line in this case. Squall uses this word so frequently in the game it's basically his catchphrase. It's certainly the word most associated with Squall. It's his universal answer to everything, even if he might not always say it aloud.

8: "...I just can't handle the pressure..." - Irvine Final Fantasy VIII (PS)
The full line: "I...I can't...I'm sorry, I can't do it. I always choke like this... I try to act all cool, joke around, but I just can't handle the pressure..."
Irvine is the sharpshooter from Galbadia Garden who joined your team for the purpose of assassinating sorceress Edea. Once everything for the plan is finally in place, it's time for Irvine to take up his gun and do his job. But he's only sitting there, shaking. Squall yells at him, but all Irvine can do is speak this line. The once seemingly confident lone wolf shows his true colors.

7: "...I've lost all sense of purpose..." - Locke Final Fantasy VI (PS)
The full line: "I wasn't able to save Rachel... I've lost all sense of purpose... My life will have no meaning until I can right this terrible wrong..."
Rachel was Locke's love, and she lost her memory while trying to save him from a collapsing bridge. Later she was badly hurt in an Imperial attack. Locke feels responsible for this, and goes on a quest for the Phoenix esper, which he hopes will save her. He speaks this line in the Phoenix cave, when you find him again in the World of Ruin. It really makes you feel for Locke.

6: "...I'll control the world with fear..." - Rufus Final Fantasy VII (PS)
The full line: "That's right. I'll let you hear my new appointment speech. …Old man tried to control the world with money. It seems to have been working. The population thought that Shinra would protect them. Work at Shinra, get your pay. If a terrorist attacks, the Shinra army will help you. It looks perfect on the outside. But, I do things differently. I'll control the world with fear. It takes too much to do it like my old man. A little fear will control the minds of the common people. There's no reason to waste money on them."
After his father is killed, Rufus is quick to arrive at Shinra headquarters. He meets up with Cloud and his party on the roof of the building. Rufus doesn't waste time before he details exactly how he plans to control the world. Chilling.

5: "...I am becoming one with the Planet." - Sephiroth Final Fantasy VII (PS)
The full line: "A lost treasure house of knowledge. The wisdom of the Ancients... I am becoming one with the Planet."
This dialouge is classic because becoming one with the planet is the main line associated with Sephiroth. In the temple of the Ancients, Cloud and Aeris see a flashback of a recent encounter Tseng had with Sephiroth. Tseng tries to question Sephiroth about the temple, and this is his answer. His insane plot is finally about to be revealed.

4: "...I'll be your knight." - Squall Final Fantasy VIII (PS)
The full line: (Rinoa...... Even if you end up as the world's enemy, I'll... I'll be your knight.)
This line is thought rather than spoken, but for a man of few words like Squall, that's to be expected. While in space Squall discovers that Rinoa has taken on the powers of the sorceress. When they land, she's taken away to have her powers sealed for the safety of the world. But Squall comes to her rescue. Alone again, they talk in a meadow by Edea's house. Rinoa worries what will happen if she gets posessed again. Squall doesn't respond verbally, but we get to see what's really in his heart.

3: "...What irony..." - Freya Final Fantasy IX (PS)
The full line: "Ahahaha...What irony. To find the man about whom I have dreamt endlessly......only to discover that he cannot even remember who I am!"
Freya's love, Sir Fratley, went out on a journey around the world but never returned. So she went out to search for him. To her great joy she does find him alive, only his memory is completely gone and he doesn't remember her at all. Vivi asks Freya if she is crying, and this is her response. You can really feel her pain.

2: "...You know what they say about the leading man?" - Balthier Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
The full line: "Princess! No need to worry. I hope you haven't forgotten my role in this little story. I'm the leading man. You know what they say about the leading man? He never dies."
At the end of the game, Balthier is aboard Bahamut trying to keep it from falling and crushing the city of Rabanastre. His odds of survival don't look very good. Ashe asks him if he understands what he's doing. This is his response. Balthier refers to himself as the leading man several times throughout the game, but you can't help but smile at this one.

1: "...But...not like this..." - Sephiroth Final Fantasy VII (PS)
The full line: "....I've always felt since I was small...That I was different from the others. Special, in some way. But... not like this...."
This line comes during the infamous flashback, where Cloud is telling the group what happened in Nibelheim when Sephiroth disappeared. Sephiroth is in the reactor, investigating the mako mutated creatures stored there, when he starts to come to the realization that maybe he too was created this way. Maybe he is one of these monsters. This line really shows the human side of Sephiroth, before he is driven mad. It's the last line Cloud recollects before finding Sephiroth in the Shinra mansion basement.

The Final Fantasy series is full of memorable lines, and this is just a few of them. I'm sure that future installments in the series will have memorable lines of their own. And it doesn't matter if the dialouge is spoken or displayed in a text box. Every Final Fantasy game draws you into the story and gives you characters you care about, whether you hate them or love them.

How I Found Video Games, Or How Video Games Found Me (part three)

In case you're too lazy to scroll: part one part two

Part Three: Another Game In Town

As I mentioned at the end of my last entry, I wanted a N64 for Christmas. Why? Because a new Donkey Kong game was coming out for that system. A SNES was no longer gonna cut it.

I made it very well known that I wanted an N64. So come Christmas morning I unwrapped all of my gifts.

No N64.

But I can't say this was a video game system free Christmas. Why? Because my SISTER, who barely plays video games, got a Playstation. Yup. A Playstation.

Let me backtrack a minute. I still don't know why my parents chose to give the Playstation to my sister. I wound up playing it way, way, way more and currently have it in my home. Why they got the system at all was because my dad heard it was better or something.

Neither the Playstation nor the N64 were new systems at this point. No way. They were a few years old in fact. I didn't know much about the Playstation. The most I knew about it was from seeing the demo system in Toys R Us (I thought the controller was the weirdest bulkiest thing ever and I thought the symbols on the buttons was a strange choice.) and reading an article that pitted it against the Sega Saturn in an issue of Zillions. (LOVED that magazine. If they still made it, I'd still subscribe.)

Oh, and I also vaguely knew something about a game called Final Fantasy, but I'll get to that in a minute.

I was kind of annoyed that I wanted an N64 and didn't get one, but my sister gets this Playstation and doesn't even play video games. But being a video game freak, I consented to play it anyway, of course. We had two games: Toy Story 2 and Crash Bandicoot: Warped. I remember when I first tried to play Toy Story it told me I couldn't save because I didn't have a "memory card". This concept was foreign to me. Why did you need a separate thing to save the games on? I made my dad go out and buy one.

Back to my N64 saga. After Christmas I had acquired a good amount of money. I was in high school by this point, my senior year, believe it or not. (That SNES had lasted a long damn time.) We went shopping one day and we were able to leave when I spotted a video game store. I ran inside and the store was PACKED. But I saw a box that had not only an N64 but it was bundled with Donkey Kong 64. So of course I bought it. My parents were not pleased. But I was happy.

I'll make my thoughts on the N64 brief, because honestly, it was the most useless system I ever owned. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Donkey Kong 64 and the price of the system was worth the game. But I never really got into the other games for the system. In fact the only other game I ever owned for it was some stupid Kirby game that felt like it was for 5 year olds. I really was more interested in the Playstation. So I guess in a way my parents had done the right thing. (Pretty shocking, I know.)

Back to the Playstation. As I said before I had heard of a game on the Playstation called Final Fantasy. Some of my friends were playing it. They all talked about a guy named Sephiroth. My friend tried to explain it to me once but she got as far as it was about a guy named Cloud before my eyes glazed over and I lost interest. RPGs were not my thing. They reminded me too much of Link. Plus, they looked too complicated for my action/adventure themed brain. I was determined to steer clear.

My sister, however, was interested. She wanted this game. So she instructed my father to go buy it for us. (Dad was feeling extra generous this holiday for some reason.) He came back with Final Fantasy VIII. My friends, of course, had been talking about Final Fantasy VII. But we didn't know any better and neither had dad. FFVIII was the newest FF title out there. So my sister sat down to play.

I, meanwhile, played through all of Toy Story 2 and all of Crash Bandicoot: Warped. (Both were enjoyable games, especially Crash Bandicoot, which was right up my alley.) My sister, in the mean time, was playing with Final Fantasy VIII. I find it horribly boring to watch other people play video games, so I had no idea what she was up to. She told me about how there was this guy named Seifer who teased this guy named Zell which made Zell flip out. And there was this cool cowboy guy named Irvine. She also had no idea how to play. She dragged Squall's dead body around for a long time because she didn't know how to bring him back to life. (The game eventually gave him some pity HP, I shit you not.) She drove around in one of those rental cars searching for the Tomb of the Unknown King for HOURS. Seriously, HOURS! I tried to help her find it, but we were both overwhelmed by this world map. It was nothing like the games we were used to. (Too much like Link.)

I avoided the game for awhile. But then something bad happened. I had beaten Donkey Kong 64, Toy Story 2, and Crash Bandicoot: Warped. The only game in the house that I hadn't beaten...was Final Fantasy VIII.

So out of boredom and boredom alone I picked up the game, mostly as a joke. And I don't remember when the joke ended and the addiction began but I quickly became hooked. I was all over this game. The junction system confused the heck out of me, it was ages before I figured out how to boost a GF, and forget that card game all together. But I found myself really liking the game. It wasn't like Link at all.

So I made it through Disc One and most of Disc Two with no major problems. By the time I got to the fight with Fujin and Rajin in Balamb the only GF's I had were the ones you started the game with. Yeah. I know. So anyway Fujin and Rajin kicked my ass all over the place. I tried time and time again but all I did was die. I got so frustrated I remember very well throwing the controller to the ground in a fit of rage. I was starting to not like this game anymore.

Then one day at the mall I stopped by the video game store and saw a strategy guide for the game. I opened it up and flipped through it. And there I saw everything I had missed, including a ton of GF's. I remember being amazed you could draw GF's out of some bosses. Well oh crap, I thought. I really messed up big time. So I bought the guide, went home, and decided the only thing I could do to play this game right was start over. So I did. And I will fully admit that I've never played an RPG without owning a strategy guide since.

So in the war of the Playstation vs. the N64, the winner was clear. Parents: 1, Me: 0. If it wasn't for them, I'd probably wouldn't have played a Final Fantasy game until years later, if ever. Weird, really. Go figure.