Smashing Evil With A Key

Well.


I'm not going to mince words; Atelier Iris 1 finally gave out and wound up a disappointment.  Then I wound up with a double whammy when my newly-arrived copy of Castlevania:  Lament of Innocence proved to have some really frustrating platforming mechanics...right out of the gate.  I got pretty damned upset; I can't recall when I had something in my nerd life go that south that quickly.


But all was not lost!  After some dithering, I pulled out something I should have a long time ago:  Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Final Mix.  Holy crap, I was impressed.


It's a strange thing.  I wound up with a copy of the original Playstation 2 version way back when, played it for all of two hours, and put it back into the stack.  I don't really remember why, either.  The whole Disney/Square thing didn't turn me off or anything.  Maybe it just too damned weird or something for me back then.  Then a wild Playstation 3 appeared, and along with it came both KH Final Mix compilations.


And like an ass, I ignored the games I was gifted and wound up buying Amalur.  You can see how that ended in earlier posts; repensem canicula est.  One thing led to another, and now here I am, doing what I should damned well have to begin with (nerds have nerdy life lessons, I suppose) and popping in one of my gifts.


It was a wonder to behold.  There I was, doing what should have been crappy early-game fetch quests and screwing up mini-games left and right, and enjoying every last second of it.  I got stomped by Riku McAngst and laughed.  I watched Black Mage Donald Duck give Guardsman Goofy a good jolt and laughed more.  I even got a few giggles out of the subtle references to Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Cross (hell, I didn't know Squeenix was willing to acknowledge Chrono Cross).


Does anybody else remember when us gamers thought it was all a sick joke?  When we thought that this whole crossover thing was going to be total crap and ruin Final Fantast forever?  When we were all hoping it was just going to be a failed experiment and join the scrap heap with other bullshit marketing ideas?  The joke was on us, and damn if isn't funny.


Granted, the storyline as it stands now is a trainwreck, and (before the Final Mix compilations) having to play random handheld episodes to get the whole story only makes sense in a evil corporation sort of way.  But here I am, ready to fight the tides of evil and see where this goes.


All Hail Galactimouse and his herald, the Imperial Death Star!