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Back to Square IV: Platypus Nostalgia

The First Final Fantasy title was a major event in the formation of my creative imagination.  I was fresh from my first reading of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and primed for the idea of exploring a fantastic world peopled with strange heroes and even stranger monsters.  A friend and I teamed up and spent months carefully working our way through the world of the four crystals armed with a whole host of maps, charts, and strategy guides.  We never quite beat the game.  I believe baseball got in the way.  In my mind, only a short time passed before another Final Fantasy title hit the shelves -this time with a much expanded world and more intricate plot- and we were off again into a world of adventure.  This time, we did beat the game and hang up our controllers with honor.  More Square Soft titles came and went, and I have to confess to never having gone back to either of the first two games in all the years that followed.

It was with a sense of delight, then, that I noticed yesterday Final Fantasy IV (released as Final Fantasy II in America) popping up on Steam for 50% off.  I scooped it up this re-launch (originally created several years ago for the Nintendo DS) and have played a little less than the first two hours.  The updated graphics, sound, and (I think) translation, are a welcome change, but all of the old fun is there as well.  We'll see how my trek progresses over the months to come as I look at this child-hood favorite through adult eyes.  Whatever I discover, you can be sure that I'll share it here at Platypus of Truth.

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