I can't claim that Final Fantasy has been the first Nintendo game that I've owned, but I can definitely say that it was the first RPG (role-playing game) that I've owned.

As a matter of fact, Final Fantasy I was my very first encounter with an RPG and this game alone has turned me into an RPG fan. As the years rolled by, I played many of the RPGs being released but my weakness has always been the Final Fantasy series.

The traditional turn based RPGs have disappeared a long time ago, with modern technology and powerful graphics forcing the genre to take a much more hands-on approach and turning traditional RPGs into a somewhat button-mashing action/adventure style of play with the reminisce of the RPG game style being part of the character development only. I guess once you take away the level grind and the equipment and all the extra character development features, the RPG becomes just another action/adventure game.

Final Fantasy Crisis Core is a good example of the drift between the traditions of the past and the new. The game was very fast paced and with the exception of a few enemies and some boss fights, the game was a complete button masher. The game's major strength was its link to Final Fantasy VII, one of the best, if not the best Final Fantasy ever made. If it wasn't for that link I don't know whether I would have bothered to play the game after my second hour into it. Now, SquareEnix has released a brand new Final Fantasy, Dissidia: Final Fantasy and in all honesty, I don't even know where to begin speculating about this game. From what I can tell so far, this is some sort of a fighting game involving characters from the previous Final Fantasy titles. Is SquareEnix getting desperate or will this game be able to link all our favorite heroes and villains of the past in such a way that is both fresh to newcomers as well as returning veterans? What is this game really about? Is it just good vs. evil; Cosmos vs. Chaos or does the story have any depth? Let's embark on this legendary journey and find out where this Final Fantasy will take us...