Looking back on my gaming past there is this one thing that has always bothered me. It's not spending a 100 hours in Morrowind, or standing in line all night in the freezing cold to buy a Wii. It's not even joining an older bearded man in his van to warm my hands at said launch day event. I'm actually not sure I regret any of them, except maybe going into that van, that could have ended badly. No, what I have always regretted has to do with one of my favorite games of all time Final Fantasy VII. As a kid I absolutely loved this game, the memorable character, the fantastic story, the clever Materia system, I loved it all. However for some unknown reason I never defeated Sephiroth. I got to his second form, that borderline homoerotic one winged angel thing. Thinking back it might have been the frog transformation that got the better of me, I could never remember the right item cure that and would simply try everything, wasting valuable turns.
Now more than a decade later I have been slowly replaying the defining role playing experience of my childhood, thanks to the excellent Playstation emulation of the PSP, until I last night came face to face with my pretty boy nemesis. I was at a mere level 50, and got my ass handed to me, but after some leveling in the surrounding areas and dropping by Rocket Town to stock up on Maiden's Kiss I tried again. On my second try this god-like boyhood rival of mine offered little resistance. A few hits with Ultima and the bitch went down. Kicking his ass felt so good that I actually booted up my last save this morning just to beat him down once more. Triumphantly I can now check off 'Finally beating Sephiroth' at the top of my bucket list.
