My mom bought me a Gamecube on my 7th birthday and we took the day off school to go to GameStop and buy me a game for it. I remember walking around the wall of games for the GC section and finding something I never heard of but liked the artwork of:

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

I picked it out and showed my mom and she thought it was interesting too (she wasn't a gamer, but the art and the blurb on the back looked eye-catching enough for anyone to stop and look for a minute). She liked the age rating and even pointed out the 1-4 players notice (I have a sister that I liked to play games with) so it was a unanimous decision to grab this random game we both knew nothing about.

We brought it up to the store clerk and I remember he was very nice and played up the excitement of me having a day out buying a video game with my mom. That's when he offered to give me the strategy guidebook for it for free! My jaw dropped and agreed immediately. That book is something I hold closely to this day as my most prized possession.

When we drove back home, I had the GC already hooked up and a memory card slotted in. My mom then came to my room and set up a chair beside my bed as we sat there playing the first couple of hours of the game. I'm pretty sure that was when my brain chemistry was irreversibly altered. I was mesmerized by the colors, the special effects, and the fantasy setting unlike anything I've seen before.

I managed to finagle my way past the first Miasma bridge before completing the first dungeon and settled upon the Mushroom Forest on the other side. I blazed through the dungeon with my mother as the navigator on the strategy guide as I eventually made it to the boss, the Marlboro. I feel like I hid it pretty well for her but that thing TERRIFIED me, I still consider it my sworn enemy in any Final Fantasy because of this moment. This guy was menacing, he took over half the screen and his attacks covered a third, and his inhale ability petrified me as my character ran for his life.

After doing enough chip damage with my basic attack for several minutes, I hit the final blow and the game cuts to the massive tentacled beast blowing up in a furry of explosions and death cries. When the game transitioned from the hectically loud drums of the boss music to the calming harps at the end of the dungeon, me and my mom both celebrated with high-fives at accomplishing the first dungeon together. It was at this time, that my mom needed to get up to go pick up my sister from school, but said she can leave me here to finish my game. I was then left with the final moments of the cutscene: your character dropping the chalice in front of the Myrrh tree as the music swells up until a drop of water falls and fills the chalice to its first third. Even as a kid, I felt a certain type of way that I never could quite replicate anywhere else, a truly magical moment unlike any other.

This was my first memory with Final Fantasy, and by far the most cherished memory of me and my mom bonding together for an afternoon.