My Birthday Presents to Me

Purchase Date:  9/14/12

Darkstone: $3

RPG Maker: $9

Jade Cocoon: $26

Star Ocean: $34

Earlier this week I had a birthday, September 11th to be precise (and 29... for anyone who was interested enough to ask which birthday it was).  Yes, of course it does suck to have a birthday overshadowed by such a nationwide event, and of course unlike the unlucky people born on christmas or another major holiday, an event that is undisputedly a complete tragedy.

It doesn't really get me down so much, but I do still try to treat myself to a little extra birthday present each year.  This year of course, I opted for another trip to gamedude to knock a couple of titles off the list.  Of course, this was icing on the cake of what was already a fantastic birthday (My wife surprised me with tickets to see "The Book of Mormon," took me out to dinner in Hollywood and then baked me a birthday pie... I'm not a huge fan of cake), but tradition is tradition.

On Friday of this week I ended up working from home (a.k.a. opting to do housework instead of actual work) and used the opportunity to pick up Jeremy (my gamedude shopping cohort) and head out.  I knew I going into it that I was going to pick up pretty much any of the cheaper games on my list that they had in stock, as well as one or two of the ones I was actually really looking forward to playing.

Once I arrived I mulled over the shelves for the titles I immediately knew I wanted, and for the most part came up empty handed.  I guess that's not entirely accurate, they did have a good selection, and all the games you would expect were there, all the Final Fantasies (aside from tactics, which is the one I was crossing my fingers for), Vandal Hearts, Breath of Fire, Arc the Lad... all the big names.  I was particularly looking forward to a few of the more obscure titles.  There is a copy of Persona sitting on the shelf there for about $100 that haunts me every time I pass it by, but I have a feeling I may be able to find that one cheaper elsewhere.

Then I moved on to find which of the cheaper titles I was able to scrounge up and found Battle Hunter, Darkstone, and RPG Maker.  Satisfied with those, I went down the list of games I was looking forward to and came up with Jade Cocoon and Star Ocean as my top picks of the moment.

While at the counter to make my purchases, the clerk opened the games and inspected the disks.  Upon inspection, he found that Battle Hunter had prominent radial scratches near the edge of the disk, and therefore suggested that I don't buy it.  Satisfied with the recommendation I only bought the other four games instead.  Upon purchase, the clerk offered me their rewards program, which I honestly found more beneficial than most any other rewards program out there (especially the utter bullshit that is the Game Stop "points" program... a million fucking points and they'll give you a promotional keychain or some crap they got for free... awesome).  Its your typical rewards punch card, however once full (ten punches) you will get $50 off of any game or $50 worth of used DVDs or Blurays... not too shabby.  This actually miffed Jeremy a bit, as he had just spent the same amount as I (and honestly does so more often than I do) and was not offered the same deal (by a different clerk, the clerk ringing me up actually offered him the rewards system post purchase).  But I guess the upside to that (if there is one) is that Gamedude is obviously not likely to push a bunch of superfluous peripherals, pre orders and rewards programs on its customers like some other retailers.

When I got home and began looking over the booklets (one of my favorite things to do immediately after purchasing a game), I did get a little bit of bonus nostalgia, still included in the case of Star Ocean after all these years.  I will leave you today with the the tiny insert that I hadn't seen in a long long time.