Vinnk Wastes His Money Part III: Final Fantasy Potion

On last weeks Podcast, I talked about the Final Fantasy “Potion” energy drink. 4cr listener Fish asked for some pictures of the drink sensation, and since we are happy to give the fans what they want, here is the text of my podcast segment (spelling and grammar errors intact) along with a few pictures that I took. Enjoy!

Vinnk Wastes his Money Part III: Final Fantasy Potion

Final Fantasy XII is huge in Japan. In the first week of its release it sold over 1,800,000 copies. The game also sold for approximately $80 a copy so Square-Enix must have realized that Final Fantasy fans have some disposable income. But how to capitalize on it? They will of course have the usual, Soundtrack CDs, action figures (that cost $30 and have no movable parts), maybe a spin-off Anime show, or a CGI movie that makes no sense to anyone who didn’t play Final Fantasy VII.. er.. I mean XII.

Then along comes Suntory with the idea to take all the excitement of life renewal and put it into an energy drink. Behold! “Potion!” These tiny blue bottles of energy drink are just what you need when you feel low on HP and high on Gil. (Gil being the currency in the final fantasy universe). You see these drinks, which are only 120ml (or half a gulp for those of you who don’t know metric), and they cost 2 and a half US dollars (which is like a pound and some pence or 50 rupees).

So I decided that I wasn’t going to try it. I would save my money for more useful things like new shoes, laundry or a phoenix down. Then my Birthday came around. My friends and I decided to celebrate at a hip-hop club called “Bash”. That’s right, a hip-hop club, in my small town. My town is so small it doesn’t even have a starbucks, but it does have a hip-hop club. This club is roughly the size of the bathroom of an America hip-hop club so everyone got to know everyone really quick. This club had cheap drinks and a carpeted floor. A very bad combination, but I am not going to explain why.

The party was in full swing and I was dancing around to the bad music and sweating like Sub-Zero in the Super Nintendo version of Mortal Kombat. I was getting a bit exhausted and was going to take a break when my good friend Ben handed me something. It turned out that he had bought a 6 pack of the aforementioned “potion”. It turns out that Ben is a healer and when he saw me he must have assumed that I was low on hit points. If he saw me dancing he would also assume that my character class was “berserker”. I took the small vile and downed it in half a gulp. It was a bit dark so I am not sure what number flashed over my head, but I felt about 4 hit points better.

At this time I should probably point out that I only have a total of about 17 hit points. I figured this out while playing Final Fantasy. I think I could survive about that much damage. You see that’s usually how much damage a punch or kick takes out of a player. In fact I could probably survive more than that, but when you get into the 30 and 40 hit point attacks you are getting hit with fireballs or shot at. I don’t care how much experience you have, you get hit with 3 lighting bolts in one battle, you are dead. Dead and crispy. But that is neither here nor there.

Anyway, at the time I though this potion was pretty cool. I couldn’t really remember what it tasted like but then again I don’t remember a lot from that night. About a week later I saw some at the local supermarket. I though I would like to give it another shot. Now here is where my odd sense of logic and keen skill of wasting money come into play. As I said each bottle of this stuff is like 2 dollars (or two and a half, depending on where you buy it). Which is WAY too much. However, if you buy the 6 pack for $11 it is less than 2 dollars a bottle (approximately 40 gil or 35 GP). Of course I only really wanted one, but for some reason this seemed like a better idea at the time.

So now you all must be wondering… How does it taste? Well you see it tastes… well… It tastes “blue”. That’s the best way I can explain it. It is blue flavored. It is sort of sweet a bit sour and tastes a tad like medicine. It has caffeine in it (not that that affects the taste). All in all, it is not a delicious drink but it it’s not too unpleasant either. For the price, I would rather be drinking something else. But of course it’s not about the taste is it? It’s about the health restoring powers. I guess after drinking potion I do feel a bit better. The same as anytime I have an overpriced Japanese energy drink. I think most of that is just psychological. You know, “If it cost this much, it has to be working!” The caffeine wakes me up and in that respect I have more energy. What I don’t have any energy to do is buy more of the stuff. I still have 5 of them left as it is. I will probably keep one in my bag in case I am ambushed by a bunch of imps on my way to work tomorrow. And really the potions are not so overpriced when you think about it. I mean, after all now I can cancel my health insurance and substitute it with another 6 pack. Wow, think of all the money I will save. Money I can wastes on something else I don’t need.

Until then, this is your Uncle Vinnk reminding you that for relaxing time, make it Suntory time.