Fun times in Final Fantasy

I have played the Final Fantasy series since the very beginning, and I do mean the VERY beginning.  I think that the online version of FFXI could stand a few changes, but as an MMORPG goes, it's awesome to finally play it in an online environment.  There are so many ways to get Cheap FFXI Gil in the online version. 

In February of 1988, a friend of mine from school, a Japanese Foreign Exchange student, was sent the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) from Japan.  His family sent many games with it, and among them was Final Fantasy.  At the time I was not aware that I was among the VERY first in America to play this title.  The game had been released in early December of 1987 in Japan, and did not get released in America until 1990.  As we played that game, neither of us with any clue that it would be a full 2 years until America had a chance at playing it.  My friend would translate little things about the game into English so that I could understand what we were doing in the game.  I was hooked from the very first.  As Japan released sequels I kept in touch with my friend who had gone back to Japan to study in 1991, and subsequently I was given his NES console (a Japanese version) so that he could send me the new titles as they became available.  Shortly after his return to Japan, he sent me Final Fantasy III, which wouldn't even be released in the U.S. until a 2006 remake on the Nintendo DS.  As I look back at the awesome bond we formed playing this game on the weekends well into the wee hours of the morning, I can't help but feel like I was privy to something that few others in the U.S. ever had a chance to do, as well as having the chance to play several of the games that didn't even hit U.S. Stores til many years later, I formed a lasting relationship with someone from another culture, through one of the most popular video game franchises of all time.

Best of all, me and my Japanese friend still play FFXI online together!