midi – videolamer

Many people have probably already figured out that I am a huge video game music buff. More than half the music on my computer is from one game or another. And after much contemplation, I hit up iTunes and purchased the complete Final Fantasy XI OST for $16. For 51 songs, I couldn’t afford not to buy it.

I can already hear you moaning over the fact that I went the iTunes route, but I have to say they have a great selection of Final Fantasy music. They have all the major OST’s, covering the entire series. They also have some Black Mages in there for the hardest of the hard core. It’s also really good that I don’t have to wait like two weeks before I get the music, like you do with importing.

Anyway, after downloading the entire suite (which only includes the first release of the game, not the expansion packs), I have to say I’m enjoying the music immensely. → 2 h4rdc0r3 4 U.

Developed by Enix

Published by Nintendo for the NES

Released 1989

What more can be said about the original Dragon Quest? As the story goes, it was Enix’s attempt to bring American style Role Playing Games like Wizardry and Ultima to Japanese consoles (a game called The Black Onyx introduced the genre to Japanese PC’s a year earlier). This attempt gave birth to a cultural phenomenon, as well as the most popular franchise in Japanese gaming.

A sight so beautiful it almost hurts.

Yet while most know about the Dragon Quest series in general, not many people ever discuss the original game. It may get a few paragraphs in “history of RPGs” or “NES classics” articles, but it is often overlooked by its biggest competitor of the time: Final Fantasy 1. For many gamers, FF is the only early RPG that matters for anything. You can find hordes of paragraphs detailing how great FF1 was for its time, how great it still is today, how it is so much better than Dragon Quest and that it is Squaresoft that should be considered the father of RPGs. → Sly 3: Honor Among Reads