11
Dec
2019

The one where he stans Vivi.

categories: RPGs; word count: 389 words

When Bub and I started Final Fantasy IX together, one thing became clear — Bub was, again, as they say, “down for the life” of Vivi Orniter, and one thing was clear: we were keeping Vivi in our party for as long as the game let us. That wasn’t a problem though, because as the game’s black mage, it was actually to our advantage to level him up and ensure that he learned the most powerful black magic spells as we came across equipment that he could put on that would teach them to him. So I didn’t have a problem keeping in my party as often as humanly possible. (For the record, my favorite character in the game is Dagger/Garnet.)

Through equipping my Bub for the final fight, Necron became… let’s just say that he became bearable. I’m aware that for most, Necron is an extremely difficult final boss fight. But with my Bub equipped, he became bearable enough to defeat. One thing that Bub did make clear though was that he did not like Kuja, and the longer that Kuja remained on the screen, the more annoyed Bub got. Toward the end of the game, when you see Kuja more, and you actually have to fight Kuja before advancing to the part of the game before the final boss, Bub got so annoyed with Kuja’s continual existence on the screen that he left the room and, as I’ve said to friends of mine that I game with, “left me to my own devices”. I managed to get through fighting Kuja and, as I’ve also said, “cleared Kuja from the screen” so that Bub could come back and resume gaming with me. Strangely enough, Bub was just fine with Kefka but could not stand Kuja. Maybe one day I’ll find out why…

He did like the game enough to where when he could hear music from the game playing, as long as he wasn’t distracted by something else, he came in my room. That amused me a lot, I’m not even going to lie.

Thanks to equipping my Bub, though, I did get to see the credits in this game roll without having to look them up on YouTube. I did like the part where we actually defeated the final boss of this game, just like with VIII…

10
Dec
2019

Another game that we played together.

categories: RPGs; word count: 439 words

When Bub was young, I made the promise to myself (as mentioned in a previous post) that I was going to game with my children if they were interested in gaming with me — and although Monster is interested as the urges so strike, Bub is generally “down for the life” as the Generation Z kids say — but that I was going to introduce him to as many of the Final Fantasy games as he was willing to play with me. One of them was obviously Final Fantasy VIII, both the original version on the Vita and the remaster that just recently came out. The first of those two mentioned got Bub known in various gaming communities, to great amusement.

Bub, equipped to me and with only minimal assistance — having the game set up so that he would not quickly fail, having Rinoa as ready as she would ever be to go into Angel Wing, having Quistis ready enough to go into Limit Break with Mighty Guard, defeated all three forms of Ultimecia in fifteen minutes flat. I provided only the assistance that he needed. As an adolescent, I could never defeat her on my own. She trounced me. And with Bub on my lap, playing the game with him, helping him play the game, he trounced her. He danced all over her. And did I mention the fact that, before this battle, he proceeded to do this to Ultima Weapon in seven minutes as well, getting us the Guardian Force Eden? I didn’t even have time to attempt to Draw Apocalypse off of Ultimecia, because Bub was trouncing her, and I didn’t want to ruin what was clearly a good thing. Thanks to him, though, I got to see the ending of the game for the first time on my own without having to look it up on YouTube. Clearly my child makes final bosses cower. I will give him that.

I just set him up so that I know he’s not going to immediately fail going into final bosses, and I provide technical help when and where needed, as well as additional help on request and when it becomes clear that it is necessary. Bub just makes the final boss cower in fear. This is a final boss that frequently makes neurotypical gamers cower, though. She consistently ranks high on all-time lists of final bosses in terms of difficulty. Bub danced all over her like nobody’s business. I will give him credit where credit is due for making final bosses cower, though — he has developed that pattern, as many of you will see in later posts of mine.

09
Dec
2019

And we quickly moved on from there…

categories: RPGs; word count: 486 words

Bub’s second foray into Final Fantasy, and his third RPG with me, was Final Fantasy VII. He was around two years old when we played this game for the first time together, although we’ve revisited it over the years since it became a clear favorite of his. The only exception is that I have never actually played through Aerith’s death in front of him. I always play through that part of the game when he is asleep, and then we pick up afterward and continue playing together for… what I hope are obvious enough reasons given his age and the fact that he is autistic. So far, it hasn’t bothered him any, although I might introduce that part of the game to him at a later date. Probably much later if any of you catch my drift. I’m not looking forward to that.

Being autistic, there are certain parts of games that I have to skip through playing with him that neurotypical kids his age might not need to have skipped through, and this is one of them (Snow vanishing in the Sunleth Waterscape in Final Fantasy XIII-2 was another one). I don’t mind it, but it’s good to know, and it’s better for both of us that I do. It makes the gaming experience go a lot more smoothly to skip over these speed bumps.

Bub enjoyed all of Final Fantasy VII — what he saw of it, anyway — and was even the one to trigger Omnislash to kill Sephiroth (and surprisingly, got to see Sephiroth die). I took his small hand, extended his pointer finger since we were playing the PC version of it together, and helped him press the button that would trigger Omnislash. So not only did I equip my Bub for the final battle, but I made sure that it was he that triggered Omnislash to kill Sephiroth. I guess he can thank me when he’s older for that if it’s important enough to him to thank me for. Or not. Either way, I’m fine with it. And seeing Sephiroth die didn’t actually bother him at all(, although seeing Aerith might have since she was someone that you were supposed to grow to like, and seeing the death of someone that you were supposed to grow to like is supposed to be sad and traumatic, hence why I have shielded him from it so far). Through playthroughs, he’s also made it clear that his favorite characters are Cid and Vincent, which should surprise no one that actually knows Bub. I expected him to take a shine to Red as well myself, but so far he hasn’t shown an inclination toward Red.

Since this is a game that he’s liked a lot, I’ve made sure that we have it on multiple consoles.

And we do have the (first part of the?) remake on pre-order! We’ve actually had it there for a little while.

08
Dec
2019

It’s someone’s first Final Fantasy!

categories: RPGs; word count: 378 words

Bub’s second video game was Final Fantasy VI, which was also his first foray into the Final Fantasy franchise. As evidenced by the picture, and as the Generation Z kids say, he was “down for the life”. He thought he was helping the characters that I was controlling by putting his hands on top of them when they moved, which was adorable, and I managed to get a picture of it. That’s still one of my favorite pictures…

Not only is it one of my favorite games because of the compelling storyline and diverse characters, but I liked it because it was the first Final Fantasy game to have a female as the main character. I’m always down to play a game that has a female as the lead character, and I liked the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy for that reason. There was also the fact that as soon as we could go there, we went to Dinosaur Forest and pulled the old “Ragnarok Trick”, which involves using Ragnarok’s Morph ability to turn Brachiosaurs and Tyrannosaurs into items in the World of Ruin to get the full experience for the battle without actually having to fight them (or fight them minimally), getting a lot of experience in a short amount of time. This is an easy way to quickly level up characters, gain AP once you can equip Espers to them, and prepare for the final boss battle. Or you can just do what I like to do (am I the only one that can do this? drat), equip your Bub — play a video game with your primarily non-speaking autistic child in your lap or near you — and have him direct you via primarily non-verbal communication or press buttons with assistance from you, and have Kefka go down so fast that you barely get any time to appreciate the background music playing during the final battle. I actually had to find it on YouTube to listen to it, that was how short the final boss battle was. You see, Bub has a knack for helping make final boss battles easier as long as we do not walk into them grossly underleveled and have enough items to last throughout the battle. I think our battle lasted like six minutes.

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