30 Question Video Game Challenge

I shall have new content shortly, as I have ten rolls of film to develop. Unfortunately, I also need a new camera; I don't really want to switch to a digital SLR, but developing film is expensive and it's getting steadily harder to find places to buy film in the first place. :/

In the meantime, I'm blatantly stealing the following from . I believe that it's supposed to be a question a day, but flooding inboxes with a question a day would be incredibly obnoxious of me.


Q1 - Very first video game.

Some of my earliest memories are of playing arcade games like Donkey Kong, Frogger, Galaga, and (Ms.) Pac Man, but I can't narrow down the very first.

Q2 - Your favorite character.

I have an abiding affection for Chris from Suikoden III. She's a tough cookie, but charmingly naive as well.


Q3 - A game that is underrated.

Parasite Eve. One of the best games published by Squaresoft in the late 1990s, unfortunately overshadowed by the inferior latter-day Final Fantasy games.


Q4 - Your guilty pleasure game.

I don't have guilty pleasures.


Q5 - Game character you feel you are most like (or wish you were).

I'm partial to radical idealists. Most games don't have anybody that I identify with, but Final Fantasy Tactics had a slew (Ramza/Agrias/Orlandu/Beowulf/et al).


Q6 - Most annoying character.

The protagonists of Final Fantasy VII-XII. Every one of them grated on my nerves, though for different reasons.


Q7 - Favorite game couple.

Alex and Luna (Lunar: Silver Star Story)

Those two were actually convincing as a couple, whereas the vast majority of romances in video games seem horrendously contrived.


Q8 - Best soundtrack.

Super Castlevania IV stands out in my mind, but there are also a plethora of RPGs that had excellent scores.


Q9 - Saddest game scene.

The death of Sniper Wolf in Metal Gear Solid. I've never cried at a scene in a book, movie, or video game, but that got me closer than anything else.


Q10 - Best gameplay.

Katamari Damacy had a very intuitive control system, though no game I've yet played has been without at least some gameplay issues.


Q11 - Gaming system of choice.

SNES. Not my first or last system, but easily the one with the games that I had the most fun with. I'd still be playing mine if the controllers weren't bereft of life and resting in peace.


Q12 - A game everyone should play.

Sadly, there's no game that everybody would enjoy, so I'll say Silent Hill. At the very least it will bring some families together when the kids rush in screaming in the middle of the night and demand to sleep in their parents' bed from the nightmares.


Q13 - A game you've played more than five times.

Chrono Trigger, it's one of the greatest games ever made and the large number of endings necessitated playing through multiple times to get them all.


Q14 - Current (or most recent) gaming wallpaper.

Final Fantasy VI: To Narshe


Q15 - Post a screenshot from the game you're playing right now.

How about some art instead? I'm on the second Digital Devil Saga game at the moment, though it's exactly like the first, which is kind of boring.


Q16 - Game with the best cut scenes.

Suikoden II was able to do a tremendous amount of character development with 108 characters through its cutscenes, far more than most games can do with a cast that is a fraction of the size.


Q17 - Favorite antagonist.

The Boss from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. You can get a lot farther by crafting a well-rounded antagonist who is defined by concepts like loyalty and sacrifice than by using a generically evil, cackling villain.


Q18 - Favorite protagonist.

Ramza (FFT) and I are on the same wavelength, though there's a lot to be said for the ones you create and make all of the decisions for.


Q19 - Picture of a game setting you wish you lived in.

I'm a fan of small towns or villages surrounded by wilderness or farmland in the real world, and that extends to video games as well.


Q20 - Favorite genre.

RPGs, though I'm pretty diverse in what I'll play.


Q21 - Game with the best story.

I thought that Valkyrie Profile was strikingly inventive, and I'm always partial to stories that pull from mythology.


Q22 - A game sequel which disappointed you.

Chrono Cross, which sucked all of the whimsy and joy out of its far, far better progenitor Chrono Trigger.


Q23 - Game you think had the best graphics or art style.

I never cared about graphics all that much, but back when I played World of Warcraft there were some areas I regularly went through just because they were pretty (Eversong Woods, as an example). RPGs in general tend to have really nice concept art, as well.


Q24 - Favorite classic game.

One of the NES' staple series, MegaMan, which I spent a lot of time on as an adolescent. Honorable mentions go to Metroid, Legend of Zelda, and Castlevania.


Q25 - A game you plan on playing.

Ugh. Backlog. Long list. Odin Sphere and Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne are the ones I'm looking forward to the most.


Q26 - Best voice acting.

Not a single bad performance in the Metal Gear Solid games that I can recall.


Q27 - Most epic scene ever.

The final battle with Kefka in Final Fantasy VI, where you ascend a misshapen tower of bodies until the top is reached and his final form comes floating down (at which point you kill him with little effort).


Q28 - Favorite game developer.

The now-defunct Black Isle Studios. Atlus and Nippon Ichi put out a lot of great games as well, while Squaresoft and Enix did a lot of great things in days gone by.


Q29 - A game you thought you wouldn't like, but ended up loving.

I was skeptical of Resident Evil 4, and it ended up being the best game in the franchise.

Of course, the "press X not to die" events were kind of a drag, but nothing's perfect.


Q30 - Your favorite game of all time.

Chrono Trigger. Fun, quirky, and possessing colorful characters, an engaging story, melancholy beats which were legitimately sad, and humor that actually made me laugh. Earthbound is right there as well, for many of the same reasons, though the battle system keeps it from taking #1.