Games That Shaped Me

Nintendo Gamechat episode 6 asked what nine games shaped who I am as a gamer. That’s a tough one! I might sometime do mental gymnastics to figure that out — some Atari games may be contenders — but there’s at least one game the easily stands out above the rest. I emailed the podcast to share one game that shaped me big time. Here’s what I said: “This is tough. I would need more time to reflect. But the #1 game that shaped me is Final Fantasy III on SNES. It was my first JRPG, and the first time I learned that a video game can also be an immersive and engaging story with both depth and breadth. Nothing I had played before was anything like it. In fact, when I first played FFIII, I totally didn’t get it. It seemed terrible: boring, weird, complicated. Maybe I expected a hack-n-slash or action-adventure. I did not expect command menus, random encounters, or tons of text dialogue. Long story short, my best friend taught me how to play it. Once I learned the basics, it all clicked, and the…