I remember in band class I used to sit next to a trombonist named Jeff Smith. I must have been in last chair or something at the time to be sitting next to the trombones. Anyway, Jeff offered to sell me a Super Nintendo game called "Final Fantasy II". I can't remember why I actually bought it from him. I don't think I had heard of it before. I never played a role playing game before that except Zelda. I believe I bought it from him for $20.

Anyway, I immediately fell in love with it. I loved that you could name the characters. I also liked that it was the first video game that I played that had a real story with characters with different personalities that you actually cared about. I think I had started to write "The End of the World" already and so I was kind of in that fantasy zone already. Also, the graphics and music were unmatched at the time. I couldn't believe that there was actually a musical score with synthesized instruments that actually kind of sounded like the real instruments to me.

Anyway, I remember that Chris Shea also played the game. He was a big fan of "Edge" the ninja in the game and so he inserted Edge into our "End of the World" storyline. In fact, Chris added something about us having to search for crystal pieces which was also inspired by the game. I believe I named the main character in the game Noel and that Kain was named "Jim" after Jim Falk. I think that Noel's love interest was named "Emily" because I had a crush on Emily Ayres at the time.

I played that game through several times, changing the names of the characters as my friends changed. I would change the name of the love interest in the game as I "fell in love" with another girl. I think the last love interest in the game was named "Kim" so I think the last time I played it through was in 10th grade.

I still have the game and I have no intention of parting with it. It started the whole Final Fantasy interest in my life and I can still pick it up and play it and get a little bit of that feeling that I had when I was a kid. I know...I'm a dork.