Here at PSU we always endeavour to bring you the weird and wonderful when it comes to PlayStation – after the news, reviews, and previews you’ve come to expect, of course.
Whether that be the first hour-and-a-half of Metal Gear Solid recreated in LEGO, or some particularly cool retro-inspired theme concepts for PS4, there’s always something out on the web that catches our attention.
This time around, though, it’s something a little more ‘out there’.
Over the weekend, the Internet was abuzz with news that a Final Fantasy player named ‘CirclMastr’ had managed to get both Cloud and Barret to level 99 in Final Fantasy VII. Doesn’t sound like any great feat, right? Well, the thing is, he managed to do it before the game’s first boss battle.
By his own summation, it took around 500 hours, on-and-off for two years battling low-level grunts around Midgar’s Sector 1 reactor. The reason CirclMastr decided to subject himself to this particular bout of punishment was because back in 2015 a forum poster by the name of ‘Dick Tree’ – hence the monikers given to both both Cloud and Barret above – promised to do the unenviable task only to then stop posting updates. CirclMastr obviously took issue with this and decided to finish it himself.
There’s a stream of the final moments below:
CriclMastr also took a more existentialist approach in response to people calling it ‘pointless’ by saying:
”Life does not have inherent meaning; to say that our lives are pointless and our achievements meaningless is to state the obvious. No matter how grand our achievements or how broad their scope, time turns all to dust and death destroys all memory. But that does not mean we cannot ascribe our own meaning to what we do. It is because nothing has meaning unto itself that we are free to create meaning, to make metaphor, and in doing so reflect on ourselves and our world.
Levelling to 99 in the first reactor is pointless and meaningless. So why do I do it? I do it to express my hatred, and more importantly my disdain, for Dick Tree. I do it to express the camaraderie I feel for those of us who have followed this topic for years only to be disappointed by [Dick Tree]. I do it to prove to myself that I can persevere. The act is meaningless; I give it meaning.”
Either way it’s an impressive feat whatever way you look at it.
Let’s just see what he does next!