This is one of a series called “30 Days of Video Games“, an exercise on daily writing.
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In a previous post, I had detailed out one of my favorite moments of video gaming, during Ocarina of Time, when a young pre-teen Link first encounters Ganon face-to-face and rashly challenges him with a wooden shield and a hand-me-down sword. Ocarina was a hallmark game for Nintendo, and the use of then state-of-the-art Nintendo 64’s graphics engine was best shown in that scene, where a resolute Link is able to express emotion & thought for the first time, and the game’s tone is set on a more serious note for its duration.
But, it’s not the best. Ocarina of Time might have been the best video game ever made, and its cut scenes are incredibly well done, but no game has ever got the narrative power of the cut scene better than those of the Final Fantasy series.
Choosing one out of that series is tough – technology and growth being what they are, the quality of the games steadily improved over the years. Final Fantasy VII was a huge step forward from its predecessors but now the limitations of the platform are pretty apparent. Final Fantasy 8 is incredibly well done as well, being that first step into the quality that one expects now from Square Enix. I have a soft spot in my heart for Final Fantasy X, but that might not be due to the game, but who I had played the game with. It might also be due to crashing a wedding by sliding down anchor chains from an airship. Either way, Final Fantasy X is my answer.
I picked XI when I did this last year, but X definitely had some awesome and moving scenes.