Let's (let my daughter) Play FFV

[Yerushalmi]

So my daughter Rivka was bored today and I decided to finally introduce her to the wonders of Final Fantasy. She's been listening to the music for quite a long time, but up until now she didn't fully understand that the music came from somewhere.

Since FFV is my favorite so far of the series, we started with that one. I'll be at the controls - moving the characters, fighting in the battles, changing around equipment - but she'll be the one in control. She'll decide where we go, who we talk to, what we buy, and what classes each character will take.

Oh, and have I mentioned that she's only two years old?



I'm afraid I don't have screenshots for parts 1 and 2, but I'll see if I can't provide them for further installments (if she's interested in continuing).

---

The game starts off with the king of Tycoon approaching the Hiryuu, and Princess Lenna coming out after him.

"She's a princess?"

"Yes."

(Lenna is now my daughter's favorite character.)



Lenna begs her father not to go, but he says something has happened to the wind and he must check on the crystal, and he flies off.

Now we see pirates. "Who's that?" Rivka asks, pointing at Faris.
"Faris. He's the king of the pirates," I say, attempting to avoid giving her spoilers.

Rivka is no fool and proceeds to use female pronouns when referring to Faris.




The rest of the intro plays through, and we finally get control of our first main character! Rivka immediately tells me to ride the Chocobo in the wrong direction, but eventually we find our way to the Meteor at Tycoon where we find... two goblins carrying away Lenna! We must save her!

Our first battle begins. I explain that these are goblins. Rivka points to the main character and asks:

"What is he doing?"

"The goblins are trying to kill him, so he has to kill them first."

"Oh."

And we've rescued the princess! Rivka is overjoyed. We now get to choose our main character's name. Rivka is embarrassed about being asked what to name him, but after a little bit of back and forth she finally settles on naming him after her brother, Berele.

---

Berele and Lenna hear, find, and wake up Galuf. Galuf has amnesia!

"Why?"

"Because he hit his head."

"Why?"

"Because he fell down when he came in the rock that fell from the sky."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"Why?"

Lenna says she needs to go to the Wind Shrine to find and rescue her father, and Galuf decides to go with her.

"We need to save Princess Lenna's father!"

Something in how she says this makes me certain that she only cares because it's Princess Lenna's father.
And she's very disappointed that Berele won't be joining them on their quest.

[Jinx]

This is the most adorable thing ever.

SCREENCAPS NEXT TIME, PLEASE

[Formalhaut]

I'm loving this so far. But yes, screencaps would be absolutely awesome. You're daughter is so cute!

"Why?"

"Why?"

"Why?"

[Yerushalmi]

(As I said earlier, there are no screencaps for parts 1 and 2, but I definitely intend on bringing them for part 3)

After this scene, Berele returns to his Chocobo and we begin riding back in the direction we accidentally went in the first place. Suddenly Boco stops short, throwing Berele off. Rivka laughs.

Boco makes fun of Berele for a bit, and then we continue riding northwest until - the ground opens up under us! We jump! We are attacked by more goblins!

"We need to kill them before they kill us!"

After defeating the goblins, we continue riding forward, jumping over pits that open up below us, and Berele starts crying.

The reason you don't remember that part is because I'm talking about the real Berele. I calm him down and return to the game (good thing this isn’t a video Let’s Play).

Then we find Lenna

"Princess Lenna!"

and Galuf, and offer to join them.

"We need to look for Princess Lenna's father!"

She definitely wouldn't be this enthusiastic if it were Galuf’s father we were saving.

And now we enter a cave! We begin exploring it, and are attacked by steel bats, white snakes, and other monsters.

(in every battle) "We need to kill them before they kill us!"

I'm starting to get worried about how enthusiastically she's saying this.

---

We come upon a pirate, and find a treasure chest with a leather cap inside. I ask Rivka which character she wants to give it to, which I will do for all new weapons (so long as the answer doesn’t entirely matter, like right now, before we have job classes). She gives it to Lenna. Of course.

We enter the pirates’ secret hideout.

"Pirates!"

A pirate almost catches us,

"Pirates!"

and Galuf and Lenna decide they want to steal the pirate ship. So we begin sneaking past the sleeping pirates-

"Pirates!"

Yes. So we begin sneaking past the-

"Pirates!"

Yes, Rivka, pirates. We begin heading towards the pirate ship.

But it won't move, and we get captured

"Pirates!"

by Faris and his

"her"

pirates. There's a mention of Lenna’s medallion.

---

The scene reopens with all of our characters tied up in the hold. I point out to Rivka the wave-like noises being produced by the game, and remind her that she heard those noises when I last took her to the beach.

"So where's the water?"

"Outside. We can't see it."

"I want to see the water."

"We can't. The pirates captured us and tied us up and we can't move."

(worried) "So what are we going to do?"

She’s really becoming invested in the story here!

We are called up on deck and suddenly released. Faris has deci-

"Pirates!"

Faris has decided to help us get to the Wind Shrine! Lenna asks how it’s possible the ship can move if there’s no wind, and Faris calls out for Syldra to reveal herself. The great beast’s head rears up out of the water and gives its cry, and Rivka is impressed. “Again!” she demands, and gets upset when I tell her I can’t replay the cutscene.

The pirate navigates for us to the Wind Shrine. When we get there, I ask Rivka where she wants to go (in case she prefers heading to a town first or whatever). But she points directly to the Wind Shrine, so in we go.

---

When we enter the Wind Shrine, we can see a staircase to the right, and people to the left. Rivka has not been raised on the universal laws of RPGs that say “Talk to everybody”, and says to go straight for the staircase. We climb the stairs, and Rivka guides us through the dungeon, until we reach the first save point.

"I don't want to save."

What.

I ignore Rivka's demands not to save and do so over her continued protests (I'm certain she has no idea what saving is, but she wants nothing to do with it). We continue climbing the stairs.

"We need to look for Princess Lenna's father!"

As we climb the stairs, we find a leather cap which Rivka gives to Berele, and then there's a little figure of a flying creature that I initially mistake for the Hiryuu and am thus surprised when it turns out to be a boss. We defeat the WingRaptor handily.

---

When we reach the next and I ask Rivka where to go, she points to a random corner in the room where there is nothing. I go there. There is still nothing. (The irony is that I've just discovered there's a secret passageway on that very floor - but in the exact opposite corner of the room.) Then she points back to the stairs we just came in by.

"Um, Rivka, we just came from there."

"I want to go down the stairs!"

"Ooookay..."

We go back down the stairs and go backwards through the dungeon. I save again at the save point

"I don't want to save!"

and Rivka takes us all the way to the entrance. Just before we have to choose between leaving the building and talking to the group of people to the left of the entrance, Rivka changes her mind and decides she wants to go back up the stairs. So in we go, past the save point

"I don't want to save!"

(to myself) If we're going to be wandering back and forth like this, you'd better believe I'm saving.

and all the way back until we finally reach the top floor, and enter the crystal's room. I remind Rivka that this is where we last saw King Tycoon.

"Where is he?"

"I don't know. He's not here."

"Oh no! Where is he?"

Berele comments on the fact that the crystal shattered, and I remind Rivka that we saw it explode at the beginning of the game. And then, flashes of light! We see the other crystals! Starting with the fire crystal.

"I want to see the crystal explode!"

"Um, no, Rivka! That's bad. We want to save the crystals, we don't want them to explode."

"Oh."

Then we see the water crystal.

"I want to see the crystal explode!"

"No, Rivka, I explained to you, we don't want the crystals to explode."

"Oh."

Then the earth crystal.

"I want to see the crystal explode!"

"Rivka..."

"Okay."

And we finally get our first jobs! I open up the job screen for each character in turn and ask Rivka to choose who gets what jobs. She selects as follows:
Galuf: Blue Mage
Berele: White Mage
Faris: White Mage
Lenna: Blue Mage

Huh. That... probably isn't good.

Lenna points out that there's a warp portal to the outside of the building behind the altar, and I start heading there, but Rivka won't hear of it. She demands we take the stairs, and take the stairs we do - walking alllll the way down, floor after floor, until we reach the save point

"I don't want to save!"

"Too bad."

and past the save point to the first floor.

When we reach the first floor, Rivka finally agrees to talk to people! We talk to three of the random people wandering around (and I give my characters some desperately-needed healing from the healing vessel they have with them), but NOT to the important-looking guy in the middle of the room. I'm sure that won't come back to bite us at all.

With all Rivka's intentions in the Wind Shrine complete for now, we head out the door, and I save again.

"I don't want to save!"

"Rivka, we have to save."

---

STAY TUNED FOR OUR NEXT EPISODE: I wish I had a clue what will be in it.

[VeloZer0]

I am not what you would typically consider a 'kid person' but I am really enjoying this. I would way rather go with more frequent updates than screen captures.

[Pumpkin]

This is excellent. The constantly repeating "Pirates" reminds me of my son. He's so happy with himself when he discovers what something is that he just repeats it over and over.

I also liked Princesses when I was a little girl.

Funny story, when I was 4ish I played FFVIII (barely, couldn't even get to the fire cavern) but in order to play it, my mom had to sneak the disc in because I refused to play disc 1. I wanted to play disc 3 because it had Rinoa on it and I thought she was pretty. My mom tried to explain it was just a picture and she would be on all of the discs but I wouldn't hear it. Disc 3 or no disc. She explained it isn't possible to start on disc 3, it wouldn't let you play, just tell you to put in disc 1. I didn't care, it was disc 3 and only disc 3.

[Jinx]

I'm going to steal your child. She is so adorable. <3

[VeloZer0]

And we finally get our first jobs! I open up the job screen for each character in turn and ask Rivka to choose who gets what jobs. She selects as follows:
Galuf: Blue Mage
Berele: White Mage
Faris: White Mage
Lenna: Blue Mage

Huh. That... probably isn't good.

I think as you go along you are going to have to slip in some secret grinding sessions while she isn't looking.

[Formalhaut]

Your children are just adorable. "Pirates"

And can I just say, a video let's play would make me crack up with laughter. And making "awwwwwww" noises too

[Mirage]

If you had one more blue mage instead of one of the white mages, you'd be golden. Blue mage is incredibly powerful, if you just raise them well. Which I think Rivka won't let you do.

[Yerushalmi]

If you had one more blue mage instead of one of the white mages, you'd be golden. Blue mage is incredibly powerful, if you just raise them well. Which I think Rivka won't let you do.

Blue mage is incredibly powerful. I particularly love White Wind. And since Rivka already sent me right back into the Wind Shrine (and I'm the one who controls the battles, not her), I was able to encounter a Black Goblin and learn Goblin Punch from it fairly quickly. I plan to continue learning everything I can, provided of course that I can get into the battles in the first place.

[noxious.sunshine]

I didn't have a PlayStation - or any other gaming system when my daughter was that age. So, 13 was the one she got introduced to (she was... 3 I guess). I think I had Fang as the "party leader" and riding the chocobo.. P said "Ooooh Mommy! I like your big chickens!" I explained to her that it was called a "Chocobo" and then she finally settled into calling them "Chickabos".. Her favorite thing is Chocobo racing, and like you, I'll let her hold the extra controller to "help" me, but she's not stupid. She knows it doesn't work like that. She goes along anyway though. We've been playing 7 lately. She -looooves- Cait Sith. xDD

Your daughter sounds incredibly adorbs, though, and like everyone else - pics!

[Yerushalmi]

like you, I'll let her hold the extra controller to "help" me

FFV for the SNES never came out in English, so I'm not using a controller - just an emulator with a fan translation on a bog-standard PC. Rivka's not pressing any buttons at all, she's content with just telling me where to go.

[Jiro]

Your daughter continues to prove that she is adorable, even if in a somewhat terrifying way. She's adding a very "reluctant hero" element to this; she wants the crystal to explode, she wants to murder goblins (before they can get you), and she wants to just wander around. It's just cute.

Does she have any opinion on the music yet? Does she wish it were louder and more metal?

[LadyYunaFFX2]

I'm going to steal your child. She is so adorable. <3

And if Jinx doesn't, I will ... somehow =P

She sounds so cute.

Overall, very well written out description of the game, how it goes and everything.