it all began when
i saw this sphere of you
Yuna
I made some interesting choices when I was delving into the wider world of videogames, because I didn't know any better. The first games I really got into were Crash Bandicoot and Pokémon. I still wasn't that used to seeing women in a starring role, and my local game store had a standee of Yuna from Final Fantasy X-2 that I kept being drawn towards. She simply looked so cool: I'd never seen anything like it. When I got my own PS2, I got FFX-2 to go with it.
I knew nothing. But what I did know was that the opening blew away my tiny mind. I had no idea what X was but X-2 was fun. It was so eye opening to have a party of three women that bonded and were not at each other's throats. And I really liked Yuna - that she had her own freedom to walk her own path and enjoy the world that she saved on a new adventure, that she yearned for someone she missed and even if she never got him back, his inspiration to her alone gave her the strength to take that first step. And that's worth everything.
A Thousand Words was the first time I cried at a videogame. I realised there could be strong narratives and that they could really move me, and there was so much more time to explore it than in an hour and a half movie or a book. Thus began my love affair with JRPGs. I never finished that playthrough of X-2 - somehow I made it to the final zone without putting any of the girls in a white mage dressphere - but it's very dear to me. And Yuna, especially. When I played X, she really cemented herself in my heart. She's such a good character. It's really no surprise to me that many have followed in her footsteps with their determination to save the world, even at the cost of their own life. [Yuna / Final Fantasy X]
and i'll do it without
false hope.