As far as I can remember, it was mainly just my obsession with cataloging things at the time. I particularly appreciated how the various Final Fantasies intertwined with each other – common enemies like the Bomb or Behemoth, for example, or even weapons with the same name – and had an urge to put it all in one place. All the other information just expanded from there while I was at it. I had a lot of spare time; I’d written a bunch of FAQs before that, as well as shrines for RPGClassics.

FF6 was the first one I ever finished and hence the game that got me started on the series, so it will always hold a special place in my heart; and FF7 was just so amazingly cool at the time. I also loved FF12’s localization. However, they all suffer from a variety of flaws. I have to say (and I swear it’s just a coincidence) that I feel FF9 is the most solid game in the series.

I’m not going to say that any individual character is my favorite, but I do really enjoy the interactions between characters. FF9 is excellent (with the exception of Freya) at giving characters a fully rounded personality, and illustrating that by having plenty of dialogue between them; it’s not just “let’s get to the next goal”. Zidane is generally the catalyst, of course, and is a very fun character; Steiner’s feelings about him grow throughout the game in a way that arguably is more satisfying than Zidane’s love for Garnet. I also enjoyed Eiko’s self-imposed love triangle with herself, Zidane and Garnet. Even Amarant’s continual confusion about Zidane is entertaining. I thought Kuja was a dumb protagonist to start with, but the last ten hours of the game turn him into an extremely tragic figure.

In general I just liked the variety of the gameplay, the surprising maturity of the plot, the perfect challenge level (not too frustrating, not a cakewalk), and all the various nods and references to other Final Fantasy games.

I’m sure they’re out there, but to tell the truth I haven’t really been part of a video game “community” in quite some time. I resolutely stick to single-player games, none of my “real life” friends play RPGs, and the one site whose forum I do read regularly (RPGamer) is more centered around news than discussing old treasures. I personally don’t enjoy, in the immortal words of Joss Whedon, “opening up to see the tick-tick-tick of a heart” of any work – who’s your favorite character, what if this guy went up against that guy in a fight, alternate interpretations of the story – so that kind of thing doesn’t appeal to me.

I feel that while some Final Fantasy games have stood the test of time (FF5, 6 and 9 in particular), some of the older ones (FF1-2) are almost unplayable in their original form, while for others, particularly FF7-9, the jagged graphics may turn others off. Still, there’s plenty of goodness and fun in many of them. I particularly enjoy the sprite graphics of FF5 and 6 – “retro” gaming is very in, now, on iPhones, Android, Flash games, indie games, etc. – and there’s a simplicity to it that new fancy games don’t have. The video game industry – particularly the RPG industry – seems to be stuck on learning all the wrong lessons, so it’s definitely nice to go back to a simpler time with more solid offerings than the flashy, ADD-causing products of today.

The interview was a lot of fun. My memory’s a bit fuzzy, but I think I got in contact with him via a freak coincidence – someone who read the site actually happened to know him. We had to go through a Squeenix publicist, but she was really laid-back and didn’t bug me about any of my questions. Richard was very frank about things and gave me a ton of information – he even roped in some of his other localization co-workers to offer their insights. Doing interviews by e-mail is a very freeing format, since there’s no time pressure.

Unfortunately that was the only contact I ever had with Square Enix, and of course Richard no longer works there.

I’m afraid not. It’s one thing to start a website at 19, or a blog at 27 when you’re still single, but another thing entirely to do so when you’re 33 and have a wife and baby daughter. 😎 I was contemplating doing something similar to my blog but in much smaller format (say a paragraph or two) but I couldn’t find a good platform for it. There are always ideas percolating in my head (I’ve always wanted to try to write a book of some kind), but it’s the lack of time and energy that does it for me.