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Final Fantasy Fan Day
Watch as Jeffrey and James go on an ADVENTURE to the Sony Metreon to get down and dirty with the rest of the Bay Area RPG freaks. Jeffrey reports on the festivities while James provides... interesting commentary... yeah.
2:15 - Jeffrey Faden reporting from the Sony Metreon in San Francisco. James has been here with me since 10:00 today - I believe he's stuck in the Airtight Garage Arcade, though - he's playing Marvel VS. Capcom 2, and he's probably up to about 30 wins on the same credit by now.
2:40 - Argh. The overhang isn't providing any shade anymore. Forgot to say that earlier today, the Metreon had a day-early release of Gran Turismo 3, so there was a long line for that, as well. I had to wait on that to buy Final Fantasy Chronicles, which, incidentally, I now have. Damn, James STILL isn't here.
2:50 - By the way, the first costume I've seen is of a certain Squall Leonhart. And James probably doesn't want to wait on line so early.
3:25 - God DAMMIT! James still isn't here. Anyway, in the meantime, I've seen Seifer Almasy and a white mage, and was about to be interviewed when I was found to be too young.
3:30 - Saw a twin white mage and Selphie Tilmitt.
3:40 - Saw another Squall.
4:05 - Less than an hour and still no James. Maybe he went and saw a movie.
4:35 - Having saved my spot, I ran around the Metreon, observing the hideously long line, taking many cosplay photos along the way (two of which were from the previous show).
Holy crap! It's Viv--
No, it's a black mage.
Um. James here, in line, barely standing after waiting for Jeff to come check on me in the arcade, and that was after I racked up 30 --
Yeah.
Jeff tells me I missed 4 Squalls so far... Whatever. I never got to play FF8 anyway. That Rinoa was a BIT chunky. Geez, what's with all the fat chicks in FF lead female cosplay, uh, hats?
This bass SUCKS.*
Jeff tells me that Aerith from last year is Garnet. Figures. *bounce* *bounce*
Anyway. I had racked up 30, count 'em, 30 wins before a SRK wiped me out in the end. Then I LOST MY (game) CREDIT CARD and waited around for 2 hours, watching hideous MvC2 gameplay. It's worse than the stuff at the mall, even. Jeffe said he'd be going down to eat or something, and then, uh... I... (unintelligible)
Wow, you readers are lucky you don't have to see my handwriting here.
But then I found Jeff outside, and realized that he was also waiting for ME.
We're RIGHT up against the Speaker of D00m, and it's starting to turn my head into [insert funny FFcreature hahe] pâté.
4:55 - Seems I've found James. He was waiting for me upstairs and I didn't see him.
Yeah, but now they're getting easier to listen to. Kinda like... ack, my brain's too fried from bass 'n MvC2... this had better be worth it! (famous first words)
6:13 - What a nice party. Too bad it's OVERFLOWING (the PS Store is small). I didn't think they expected so many people to come. There are FF Movie figurines, and a raffle for a special edition Seiko FF Movie watch. Local radio station Wild 94.9 is here, responsible for the Speaker of D00m, but lots of nice background music, and the raffle for tickets to a special FIRST screening of the FF Movie. FF 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, T and CT are playable, and a Square employee demoed a playable version of FFX. Much fun. People had a laugh at Lulu's weapon, a moogle doll (Me: "It hits like Eiko!") and another laugh at me naming Crono "Dildo" and displaying my screen on all the display screens across the store. More about FFX... very amazing, is all. The graphics are, of course, astounding. The scene we saw was of Tidus facing off with what I believe to be Yuna's guardian, and then meeting up with Yuna, Wakka and Lulu. Other things of note: Yuna summoned Ifrit at one point, putting the player in control of it. There were no experience points recieved after battles. ATB is gone, replaced with a turn-based system. Tidus is on crack.
Jeff didn't get too far in FFT. I think that's exactly the wrong kind of game to display at a convention, even if this is the FFF at the Metreon. Too much thinking is involved. Course, that's the main problem with showcasing FFs 4-9 up for grabs to demo - nobody gets anywhere, and they don't seem to enjoy it too much. Wonder what the place would've been life if they made it a Marv--
7:10 - I beat this guy from TL (Paul) at a Chocobo Racing setup. Heh. I got many more photos of cosplayers, including Porom and Palom, who I think were the best.
Well, I destroyed this one kid in CR even worse than Jeff did. See, rent a crappy game to review every now and then and you might win something later, like this rubber Chocobo piggy bank!
Say something, Jeff.
No.
Okay! =D
12:45 - Well, we're back home, and we've played some FF Chronicles (all right so far)... and Super Mario Advance! I bought a Game Boy Advance at the Metreon! Now, one WILL ask, "why do they sell Nintendo peripherals at a Sony store?" And I would answer, "quit talking to yourself."
Luigi can jump really high.
Jeffrey is in Dark Blue.
James is in Dark Green.
*I was. =)
Unfortunately, I'm farther back in the line than I was back at the FFIX Consumer Demo Day back in October 2000 - but we're just waiting to get in, not in line to play a game. I'm sporting no costume this time, though I'm wearing the shirt I recieved last time. (James is wearing the mswamp.com shirt.)
...Crap. The sun's slowly eating our shade.
*Afterthought: That DJ ruled.
It's been playing from a nearby speaker right next to us ever since we started waiting. Lucky for me, I've only been here 10 minutes.
The line moved... and there's a black mage, another Squall, and another Rinoa.
Oy. These speakers ARE loud.
Wonder if we'll be able to sum this whole trip up on the bus, seeing that now we're too burnt out to say much.
After we left to eat at Mels Diner, a nostalgic 50's place, we found that there was no re-entry into the store, so we just hung out at the arcade some more, and then took the bus home.
