RPGs and OCD
I love role-playing games. I like the tabletop style RPGs like what you see from companies like White Wolf and Wizards of the Coast. I also like console RPGs, like the Final Fantasy series and the Phantasy Star series, which you see on consoles like the PlayStation, PlayStation2, and the Dreamcast. I have a little problem, though. I've mentioned it elsewhere on this website. I have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. I'm quite the nit-picker, and nothing has more nits to pick than an RPG.
One problem with console RPGs is that I can't go back and pick up a conversation I might have missed if it's a one-time chance. I ran across this little problem not too long ago when playing Final Fantasy VIII for the PlayStation. I finally took up playing it through not too long ago, around Thanksgiving. At the part where Squall and company were heading out of Timber after Seifer messed things up with President Deling's live TV broadcast, after leaving the house the party met up in to discuss what to do, I saw Watts in a soldier uniform run in at the bottom of the screen. I didn't know that was Watts, and I thought he was a real soldier, so I panicked and ran off instead of talking to him. I didn't want to be spotted, after all. After speaking to Zone, disguised as "Mystery Man," the game progressed. It is therefore obvious to me that speaking to Watts there wasn't necessary to complete the game. I already finished Disc 1, and saved my progress a few times, before realizing my mistake. Instead of saving on more than one file, I'd been saving on the same file, so I can't repeat the scene. I'd have to start all the way from the beginning to get back to seeing Watts in disguise.
I don't wanna start from the very beginning. I especially don't want to read through the tutorial at the beginning again. It's rather lengthy, in my opinion. I also know, as I said already, that it's not necessary to speak to Watts in disguise to progress through the game. On the other hand, I really don't want to miss out on anything, including speaking to Watts in disguise. I know what he says from reading the Final Fantasy walkthroughs on GameFAQs, but the character's don't, and I want them to know as much as they can. They'll probably still act the same either way, but this is just my nit-pickiness in action.
Ah, hell. I'm already leaning towards deleting my save file and doing this over again, anyway. I know how to go through this more quickly now. As a side note, I really wish the game didn't make me feel so rushed. Squall has his fire cave thing and the Dollet field exam on the same day, a late night with the graduation party and then with Quistis later, and then the whole mess with President Delling and Edea. It's just one rush after another. I really like building up my characters, but I don't want to while they're supposed to be doing something else, supposedly on a tight time table. Missing Watts in uniform was probably just a simple mistake rather than my Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, but I don't know if my OCD is causing me my concern over having missed Watts, and my desire to go back and start over. I have several other RPGs I'd like to go through as well, and I don't want to keep doing one over and over again, or obsess over any details, either. Sigh. I'll just have to remember to save on multiple files from now on.
Do I have any readers with this or a similar problem?
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Final Fantasy VIII, Squall, Seifer, Qustis, Edea, President Delling, Zone, Watts, Timber, and the Final Fantasy series are copyright SquareSoft.
The PlayStation and the PlayStation2 are both copyright Sony Computer Entertainment. (Also see here for the PlayStation site.)
The Phantasy Star series is (I think) copyright Sega. The Dreamcast is certainly copyright Sega.
White Wolf is copyright White Wolf.
Wizards of the Coast is copyright Wizards of the Coast.
I hope that's all the trademarks, copyrights, and whatever not owned by me. Whatever the case may be, any such trademarks, copyrights, whatever not owned by me but mentioned anywhere here or elsewhere is not a challenge by me to those trademarks, copyrights, or whatever.