#or a badass bounty hounter ?

[lune-de-miel-au-paradis]

Because I have to suppress this self, in order to behave normally in the outside world, I have to get along with these types of protagonists.

[translationandbetrayals]

My apologies to Shadow (FFVI)

This is a #personalstory post related to something that happened to me while I was playing for the first time Final Fantasy VI (ファイナルファンタジーVI Fainaru Fataji Shikkusu), in the ZSNES emulator.. something I still can't forget and hunts me in my nightmares.. I hope writting about it helps me to let it go.

 I don't know if someone is going to read this, but if you are and you haven't played this - for me - masterpiece, then:

------------------> https://zsnes.uptodown.com/windows ------>

https://www.emuparadise.me/Super_Nintendo_Entertainment_System_(SNES)_ROMs/Final_Fantasy_III_(USA)/33709  (the game is called final fantasy III on its first launch in the USA).

Before confesing my horrible sin, a little summary about the game. Two separated worlds: the human's and the esper's (maginal beings) in consequence of the catastrophic "War of the Magi". This happened a thousand years before the game takes place... Now we live in a world in which magic had being forgotten..

 The concept of magic gradually faded to legend and myth as mankind built a society extolling science and technology..

but it seems to be needed for militar matters: the actual empire, ruled by the emperor Kefka (definitely the baddest badass antagonist that you cant help to love), pretends to conquer the world, and in order to achieve this, they command the execution of an exhaustive investigation to puzzle out the hidden, buried mysteries of the espers. The actions taken in the process were brutal, including the implement of genethic techniques in human beings, trying to reach the power possesed by the espers.

My adventure begins around the events that take place in the mines of Narshe, where this human-esper awesome beautiful girl, Terra, eternal slave of the empire, is left in freedom by frozed esper who destroys Terra’s mental imperial controllers. Without any memories, she is helped by this awesome cool boy, Locke Cole (who I hated I first but I ended pixel-arted him), a bounty-hounter member of “The returners” (opositants of the empire). Ok so now Im getting overwhelmed trying to summary the main plot of the story (im even googling summaries but its just too much for me to handle)… The story is SO huge, the places are SO many, the characters are SOOOOO AWERSOME, I just cant summarize any of this, really. Actually, to get to my point there are only a few things that need to be said:

 The gameplay is like every other previous final fantasy: overworld map, dungeons, towns, battle screen (menu-based, but it gets better and better, changing with different characters). As you keep going, you will find new characters that you will be adding to your party, leaving you afterwards with the awful decision of which characters to keep in your party (when you reach the maximum of four). I just can’t explain how awesome this game’s characters are; everyone has its own amazing story, its just so magical, I lose my sleep thinking in how can the creators have such a beautiful creativity, it amazes me so much.. From Locke, the bandit with a heartbreaking past, passing through Celes, an artificially created general of the empire, to the young king of Figaro, Edgar, and his missing brother Sabin (<3), to the honorable knight Cyan, to… ok, there are fourteen permanent playable characters, so im not going to define everyone, but I need to make a respect pause before mentioning the name of the character who is the center of this post…..

Now, here he is: 

I highly doubt any of you (or no-you if nobody read this (?)) have seen a more awesome figure in your life. I mean, just look at him! Even in his pixelated version he irradiates awesomeness!!! He’s a ninja with a freaking Doberman called Interceptor, who intercepts the battles to bite the enemies!!! He never talks about himself, but when he does, it is making reference to probably horrible things that happened to him, making reference to his “killed emotions”, and describing himself as a merciless killed; he catched my attention fully at the moment he first appeared. This person joins your party at some point in the game, and later he just goes away, going his own path… just, disappearing like the wind. it’s so damn sad L Well, Shadow is a mercenary and there’s no much information about him (there are lots of theories but nothing confirmed, as far as I know). He likes eggs and hates dreams. He uses shurikens during battle with the grace of a god. His name is Shadow (I know, right?) シャドウ『クライド, and I love him. We had so many adventures together, I NEVER left him behind from my party, I kept leveling him up.. I … We even faced a goddamn Train together (Yes, there’s a GhostTrain boss in the game) .. I never wanted it to happen.. but it did.

I will say it shortly because it still hurts. In one of the climax of the game Shadow sacrifices to save the team, telling us to keep going while he takes care of the enemies. At this point of the game, my team’s mean of travel was an airship (you mainly travel by foot or chocobo <3 in the game), so when I managed to escape, my team needed to jump of the floating continent we were, towards the airship. Then,  the game throws at me the option to “Wait” before I jump. I didn’t want to  WAIT, my team was in danger, the future of the humanity depended on me, I couldn’t allow the calamity of Kefka to rise!!!! I didn’t wait, I jumped. And I kept playing. As I played and played, I waited shadow to appear, but he didn’t. I missed him so much… I had leveled him so much… I just wanted to see his awesomeness and interceptor’s cuteness once again… And then, it happened: I was playing with a friend in FACSO (the faculty where I study), when suddenly, a friend of his appears: “What are you playing?” he said. We showed to him and his eyes brighten: “My favorite game!!!!”. I got excited and showed him in what part of the story I was, when he asked me to show him my party. As I did, his look started to change “Oh, you didn’t save Shadow, what a shame” he said. I got instantly petrified: “What?”. “Yeah, you know that you could have waited for him in the floating continent, right? It was obvious”. That was when my world teared apart. I left Shadow behind. He sacrificed for me, and I left him behind.

I started the game from a previous save (the floating continent part was around 54 hours played, and then I had like 80 hours, it was almost at the end of the game), but It was never the same. I felt my betrayal in every shuriken I made shadow to throw, in every level I made him gain, In every bite interceptor did. I finished the game with my shadow leveled to 99, but I never felt like I made it up for him. In this post, I just want to shout my love for shadow and ask for his forgiveness ~ And for all of you (or nobody) who still haven’t played this game: Wait for shadow. Wait for him, or you will regret your whole life; the price I’m still paying.  

Honorable mention to Final Fantasy VI: One of the best stories I’ve had the luck to play, a great team, original enemies, perfect music, a real gift for the humanity <3 Thank you, Square (now Square Enix), for developing something that is so great, it escapes my understanding 

Gabriela Rebagliati

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuvSDedrtKM