It's the winter of 1992-93. A girl sits alone in a quiet, sunlit bedroom, the morning's rays flickering down onto her carpeted floor. She's home from school today - maybe her mom called her in sick, maybe there was a doctor's appointment. But she's here now, and the cold winter morning still sits peacefully outside her window. She sits down with some excitement in front of her SNES and little television and grabs the rented copy of Final Fantasy II, pushing it down into the console with a k-chunk. The story comes to life on her screen, and there are many enemies to be fought and characters to be renamed before she gets to the end. All she can hope is that her mother will let her keep it an extra day.
That's what video games mean to me, this snowy time of year. Each season has its video game nostalgia for me, but this is one of my favorite memories of winter. So needless to say, I was a little surprised when these memories came flickering back when I popped my brand new copy of Bravely Default into the brand new 3ds my partner got me. The gameplay and character system are a lovely throwback to the days of Final Fantasy II and III (which we Americans later found were actually FF IV and VI), with the separate screen for party management and the turn-based battles. I've actually heard some people say that it's a Final Fantasy game without the franchise name on it, which might be true. It's got the later FF additions we came to love...the job system, the spell names. But there's just...something...this game captures that few other RPG's have captured since childhood. And I'm at a loss to describe exactly what it is.
