In the '90s, RPGs were a huge thing where I was growing up; Eyes on Me was played on the public radio. Everywhere you go, Japanese RPGs were the thing. Growing up in a large, extended Asian family, I would always hear all the boys fervently discussing either Final Fantasy Tactics or Sephiroth. I never knew what the big fuss was about & didn't really care about Sephiroth either (until much later!).From Brigandine to the god-awful Legend of Legaia (the only game my sis ever completed), gaming was the dominant topic among my peers. My best friend dressed up like Chun Li for a school event when kids were encouraged to wear their traditional outfits.
In my toddler years, I was introduced to NES, the penguin trying to cross Antarctica, and the infamous plumber. Games were always present in my life, but I was always ambivalent towards it. In my teens, I did play an occasional Diablo or Tomb Raider (which I suck at) but was not sucked into the gaming world until FF8 hit me like a Doomtrain. In turn, I brought FF8 to my high school and infected most of the girls in my class with Squall-infatuation. It was awesome. From then on, my gaming addiction just got worse and worse, and now I'm officially a lost cause.
During my college years, I went through a period where I played almost anything that sounded vaguely interesting; from Tekken 3 (go Hwoarang!) to Tenchu 2. My proudest moment was when I finished Onimusha 1 in 4 hours. But slowly, inevitably, I found myself drawn more to the RPGs. There is always something about a strong plot and deep characters that speaks to me. As someone once wrote in a forum online, great RPGs makes you feel sad towards the ending: you just don't want to leave that universe. I totally agree with that.
RPG-wise, I've played Shadow Hearts 1 & 2, Valkyrie Profile 2, FF8 (4 times, baby!), 7, 6, 4, and 10, Skies of Arcadia (totally underrated), Wild Arms 3 & 4, Suikoden 2, 3 & 5 & I can most probably go on and bore you to tears, so I'll save that list for another time. Currently, I spend my nights roaming about my town fishing for Bells and remember the months according to " what game was I playing then? ". I even married a fellow gamer who works in the game industry!
And now here I am, after countless RPGs and various other games, blogging for OMGRPG & dare I say, OMG? It is truly a mini, �ber-cool dream come true! Now let us all join hands and say, hip hip hooray!
