Gaems..dunno what to play =/

Ok, so I finished up Dragon Quest IX and Demon's Souls and now I don't know exactly what to play next. Ys Seven and Eternal Poison will be here soon, so I've left out the psp from this random selection in an effort to decide what to play next. I've taken 3 Fortune Cookie Picks from Backloggery, from the following unfinished games on these consoles: PS3, PS2, PS1, DS, GBA, PC. Basically what it does is take a random game and suggest it to you, apparantely it is always right. ¬_¬

#1 Yggdra Union: We'll Never Fight Alone (GBA) ~ Hmm, I've tried the start of this game and liked Riviera, which was the first game in the Dept. Heaven series. Might give this a shot, as many people go on about how good this is. Its a tactical RPG with quite a unique flavour to it, as with many Sting games.
#2 Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard (DS) ~ I can't play this yet, not finished the first game and probably will not for a while. Its a hardcore dungeon crawler, with a really cool old school feel in places. Some people say it was a step back from the first, others say it improved upon things slightly. I'm enjoying the first game, getting through it slowly. I'm a bit worried about the fact that your quest log can only have a maximum amount of ongoing quests in this one though. I don't want to have to play with a walkthrough so I don't screw myself over. I'm not using one for the first game and I'm doing ok.  Its rewarding when you progress down a floor or level up enough to take on the enemies or FOEs, but I can tell the first stratum boss is gonna kick seven shades of shit outta me.. -_-
#3 Vagrant Story (PS1) ~ Another highly regarded game which I've not finished. I tried to play this a few months ago when I joined up with the RPG-a-thon on backlog but got frustrated with it and quit. Some of the things about it haven't aged well and pissed me off (camera for one). I ended up getting disorientated and lost. I really should put some more time into this and see where the story goes. Its supposed to be a very good action RPG from the ps1 era. I played it for around 2 or 3 hours last time I played, and I think I was nearly used to the gameplay mechanics. There was one I can vaguely remember that pissed me off slightly, and it was something to do with accuracy in combat, the Risk element...I think. It just seemed unessecary (I can't spell..)

So which one am I gonna play outta these? I'm not too sure. Think I'll put Vagrant Story in for another blast. The story is supposed to be really good. If it annoys me I'll play some Uncharted 2 multiplayer or do some DQIX postgame. I'll probably end up playing Ys Seven when it arrives though.

Now Playing - "be a good little sacrifice now!"

I've been putting in more time to Suikoden Tierkreis (DS) the past week or two. I don't usually follow guides the first time I go through a game. Or if I do, I try not to over-rely on them..anyway, something about my first foray into the Suikoden series meant I needed to loosely follow one and that is the recruitment in the games. They typically have 108 characters you can recruit, known as the Stars of Destiny. So I've been trying to get all of them but I missed one which you had to get at one point in the story, and that meant I couldnt get another because the first one, Wustum is a prerequisite for the other character. This was like..25 hrs in to the game, and I had actually considered restarting so I could get all 108 and the good ending, but meh...I can't be bothered doing it all again. I'm slowly working through this, its a fun game, but has a fair bit of glitches and problems, one being the fact that it is WAY too easy. I haven't died once yet, around 30 or so hours in. Still, I am really liking the story, its unravelling slowly, but keeping me interested. There is a huge amount of dialogue and I think the story is quite cool so far. I've got a bad feeling it is gonna be really predictable though. 

I was having a look round the PSN store the other day and realised that there is quite a bit of DLC for the Disgaea games, some of which is free for the 2nd game. So I guess I was inspired to play it to snag the DLC while it was free(I reckon the 2 initial characters will actually remain free though.) I was intending to keep this game to play on holiday, but I started up Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days (PSP). I was a big fan of the first game-I played the psp version and was really impressed with the voice acting, humour, craziness and depth to the srpg battles and customisation. There is usually tonnes to do in Disgaea games as well, and the 2nd one is definitely no exception to that. I'm a couple hours in so far and it seems that there is a little more to do than the first game (but I can't be sure yet)-you've got the Item World, Dark Assembly, Felonies, Dark World, DLC characters, Geo Panels, Magichange, Transmigration, Apprentices Extra Gain and many other facets to the game. There are so many ways to make your characters stronger and so many things to do in this game. Story-wise, it hasn't impressed me as much as the first game: Disgaea: Hour of Darkness/Afternoon of Darkness/Disgaea DS so far at least. Although, I am only on episode 4 or so. It may well improve..I reckon its gonna be predictable though. The characters for me aren't quite as cool as Laharl and Etna-they were hard to top. Adell-the main character is a bit too cheesy. He's kinda reminding me of Snow from FFXIII and some others that I can't remember. He's sort of a cliche "I fight for my family and never give up!" kinda guy. Rozalin is a bit more interesting, she's pretty sadistic and pompous but with what looks like a soft side (*cough*Laharl*cough*). I find myself laughing at her lines more than the main character's so far. Axel is sort of funny as well, in a pathetic kind of way.

Recently I had a bit of an urge to play some Castlevania games, and after listening to some of the music on youtube while I studied, I picked up Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PSP) and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1) at the recommendation of some backloggers (onion and wenchwogg)

I actually got all the way through the original Rondo of Blood on the Dracula X Chronicles collection on psp in 2 days. It can be a hard game, but if you make sure and unlock Maria, it becomes a LOT easier. Some say it takes all the challenge out of the game..I guess it does kind of. Still, pretty good game, there are some nice aspects to it. Its got the hardcore platformer feel of the older Castlevania games to it, a good soundtrack and some pretty smooth graphics depending on what version you play of it. I definitely enjoyed the remake but for some reason that one got me stuck for long periods of time more than the original one did. Perhaps it is a bit harder, or maybe it is because I remembered how to beat a lot of the bosses second time round. Anyway, you are definitely getting a good deal when you buy Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles-it has the remake of Rondo of Blood and you can unlock Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night (perhaps worth buying it alone for SotN)

I'm considering playing Curse of Darkness soon, and possibly picking up Lament of Innocence to fill another hole in my Castlevania 'collection.' I lack a lot of the consoles needed to play the older games, but I've still got a fair few of the games. Hopefully I'll get some of the older ones some time, I'll have a look on the Wii's Virtual Console soon perhaps.

I've been wanting to pick up a couple more artbooks, get more into collecting them. Reckon its Disgaea inspiring me as always, I love the character designs. There are a couple Disgaea artbooks and game guides out there, and one Etrian Odyssey one I want. Its an expensive interest though. 

Final Fantasy Challenge roundup.

Thought I'd do a bit about what my recent runthrough the Final Fantasy games has shown me.

I didn't play all of the games recently, just some of the ones I hadn't beaten. So here is a list of the games in the series I have, and their statuses. (B=Finished, U=Unfinished) Bold and Italics are ones that I played as part of the challenge.

Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls

Final Fantasy III

Final Fantasy IV

Final Fantasy V Advance

Final Fantasy VI Advance

Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VIII 

Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy X 

Final Fantasy X-2

Final Fantasy XII

Final Fantasy XIII (just arrived)

Spinoffs/other games

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII 

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I played through the ones above, got to the very end of Final Fantasy X and got stuck on the boss. That kind of put a halt to the finishing of the last 2 in the series, I will go back to them at some point after I play XIII which just arrived today. =D

I've found that the series doesn't necessarily evolve a whole lot. I guess you could say the series is similar to Dragon Quest in that it really doesn't want to let go of a lot of the concepts and recurring ideas. This is arguably a good and bad thing-some of the games feel way too recycled in my opinion, with more or less the same character types, summons, espers, spells, items etc all cropping up in each of the games. However, you could say that if it isn't broken, don't fix it. 

The early games (I think of I through V as a group) have similarities between them, and follow the same kind of progressions of story, questing, exploring (with ships, airships, etc) and the battle systems seem all very similar in a simple oldschool turnbased way. I and II to me are very similar, III and V are similar in terms of the job system, which adds a lot of customisation to the game, and makes for hugely replayable and grindy games(in a good way). IV is maybe more like VI, but with an oldschool flavour. After those ones, I think FFVI tried to take things in a new direction, putting life into the characters, improving on the level of scripting from the older games. (IV and V had tried this, but not as effectively in my eyes) The way that VI is scripted really impressed me-the characters have nicely fleshed out back stories and personalities (amazing when you think about the number of characters, only 1 or 2 of which have little story behind them), couple that with the soundtrack(who many consider one of the best in the series, if not the best), and one of the craziest, most sadistic villains in the genre, perhaps in gaming as a whole, and you have a really incredible game. FFVI and the subsequent games all seem to have some kind of love theme somewhere in them, quite often right at the forefront, like in FFVIII, IX and X. This for me adds an immense emotional charge to the games, and is a welcome additionin terms of a recurring motif(even if they do make me cry sometimes =p)

Building upon the success of VI, the PS1 era of Final Fantasy could begin, and this is where many consider the true gems to lie. FFVII brought in cutscenes to add to the atmosphere and move the story on in ways that RPGs before that didn't. I remember playing this for the first time at my friend's house way back when it came out. I knew after that, I had to have a PS1 and this game. Something about it amazed me, this was at a time when I really hadn't played many jrpgs. I love the way that all the way through the story of VII you are constantly chasing Sephiroth, it builds the story up into a climatic final battle, to put an end to the terrible things he has done. (Like killing Aeris T_T) As for the FFVII spinoffs, well...Dirge left me a bit dissapointed, but Crisis Core really clears a lot of things up and adds to the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII very effectively through Zack as the protagonist. Many people consider VII to be among the best of the Final Fantasy games, and I am among those people. I couldn't help but be drawn into the world which is being torn apart by the Shinra Corp's exploitation of the lifestream. They paint a cold, grim futuristic environment. The characters as well, I really felt for the characters and the ordeals they go through. (Aeris is dead, time for some SNOWBOARDING) It is quite a sad tale. One flaw with the game is perhaps the translation. PSX era JRPGs are known for their poor translation of the scripts, and this is no exception ("this guy are sick"), to the extent that many people are completely put off the game, regarding it as a confusing mess. I would say that VII is slightly overrated in some cases, but still it is up there among my favourite games. =p

So this brings me on to FFVIII, which for me seems like one of the most experimental out of FFI through X (I haven't touched XII, and not enough of XIII yet to comment.) They had a lot of ideas for this one, and mashed them together. The resulting game...well..it divides opinion to say the least. It seems to be one people either love, or hate. I am somewhere in between, but I like more about it than I dislike. A lot in VIII is really unbalanced, or seems kind of broken, perhaps. Or maybe it is just easy to get through in a multitude of different ways, which I like. There are so many ways to strengthen your characters and succeed if you are able to grasp the awkward gameplay systems.

I'll be writing up a review of FFIX at some point soon as I really enjoyed it, and was planning to review all the games I played as part of my challenge. IX is one where they take things back to the roots, cliches and all, and polish everything up. It has great charm I think, memorable characters and really intriguing locations. 

I've still to finish off X and XII, but will go back and give them another go after XIII at some point.

So have my feelings for this series changed at all since I've played a couple of them back to back over the past few months? Not much, I still love the series, but I think its golden age has passed. The games each person played first seem to have a special place in their memories, and it usually them that stick out among their favourites. That is probably the case for me, as I like VII and VIII, but through this, I realised there are a lot of gems in the series, especially the often overlooked VI and IX. Critics of the series might say that it really isn't very unique and doesn't change an awful lot, which is true in some cases. They might also say that the series is average for the most part compared to other JRPGs. I might agree with this some of the time as in some cases some of the battle systems and gameplay mechanics are very simple, and some of the characters and other aspects feel recycled and bland, but for me, I have had a lot of fun with the games, and I really hope that the series doesn't fall into mediocrity. Now, the interesting thought comes when you think about this, has it already fallen from grace? Is it evolving as a franchise at all? If it is, is it taking things in the right direction? I'll leave that thought there, and leave you with some lists.

Favourite characters

Final Fantasy IX-Vivi, Freya, Steiner, most of the characters in this game I liked

Final Fantasy VII

Favourite endgame battles

Final Fantasy VI-This is just gorgeous, one of many amazing moments in FFVI

Final Fantasy VII-Climatic, dramatic and powerful. When One Winged Angel started up, I was blown away.

Final Fantasy VIII-So much unique in this game, and I really liked the idea behind the story in this one. 

My 3 favourite Final Fantasy games

Final Fantasy VII (the order for these changes all the time in my mind)

Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy VI

Now Playing - "Don't drink the water if it smells funny."

Sorry for the lateness of this, I was out at the weekend and stayed over at my friend's on Sunday, so couldn't post this. Still, I don't think that it is quite apocalypse-causing material, but I like to have an order to things and stick to them. So here is what I've been playing this week.

I've been putting a lot more time into Dragon Age: Origins (360) since last time I posted on here, I got through Orzammar which was the last of the main story quests you can choose to do in an order you want. Now I'm mucking around Denerim, doing sidequests and going on with the Landsmeet part of the main quest. I got my Drakescale and Dragonscale armour! =D Really good stuff, I play it on and off, but when I do play it, it really sucks me in and gets me addicted. Its really well written, but it seems to lack a bit of polish in some places. Perhaps the combat could be better, although I imagine it would be a LOT better on the PC, where you can pause it and move to an isometric camera angle like in the Baldur's Gate games. The combat seems a bit frantic with the enemy AI clashing with your AI controlled party members, especially when choke points like a door or small rooms are involved. Still, definitely loving this game, one of my favourite 360 games that I've played so far, at least out of the RPGs. I love the detail Bioware put into the Codex in the Mass Effect and Dragon Age games, like this reference to Mass Effect in Dragon Age's codex: 

"Mass will have an effect," he says.

As long as it lifts us out, I figure.

Should have specified "within my lifetime."

"Gives us time to talk", he says.

"How's a dwarf get named Shepard?"

Up yer shaft.

"No really, because blah, blah, blah."

Axe answers, but I still hear him.

Drip... ground.

Drip... ground.

Worse than his talking.

Think I'll drop out for some air. 

Excerpt: Dwarven Verse in One Volume

Selection: Load Limit Reached

Anonymous scratching recovered from a cage hoist... eventually."

I had been mucking around with Etrian Odyssey (DS) in the first few floors, watching some videos and following some hints on sites to try and get ahead in this game, which I think I've got down. I've got a trick with the Chop skill on some of my secondary guild members to bring in money whenever I need it, its very slow paced and grindy this game, but enjoyable once you get a feel for the game. I've kinda put it on hold for now. I started up Golden Sun again, going through that and I'll probably come back to EO soonish so I can put more time into it and hopefully the 2nd before the 3rd in the series comes out.

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (PS2). I had a savegame on this from a couple months back and decided to pick it up again. I got through the last couple missions of the game and finished it off in a day or two. Took me about 11 or so hours  I think, and the challenge really dropped off in the last stages of the game, which was odd. You get to go to some really cool areas though, I was thinking it was quite average for the early parts of the game, but when you get to see the scenes in Midgar and past that point in the story, it really started to grow on me, even things that bugged me like the camera, controls, ammo system, money/exp system and targetting reticule became kinda forgotten cos I had started to enjoy it more. So pretty good game, more for FFVII fans than anything else though. It still feels a bit clunky on the gameplay side though.

I played loads more of Halo 3 (360) and Halo: ODST (360) multiplayer at my friend's place, ODST has grown on me a bit since I first played it and thought a lot of things were odd about it, like the darkness and how hard it is to see things, and the noises, stamina and health system. Firefight seems a cool multiplayer game, its basically like Horde in Gears of War 2, or Nazi Zombies in CoD:WaW if I remember right. Your basic survival mode, facing up against waves of dudes. For Halo fans, there will be a Halo Reach beta coming out soon if you have the ODST disc. Wednesday this week I think it was. (Although that was just what I overheard on Xbox Live, so that might not be right)

I was aiming to get the max map completion and all the Alucard endings in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1) and managed that near the start of the week. The only thing I need to do now for 100% is get all the items and beat Richter mode which is unlocked after clearing the game I think. Actually, there are Axe Armour and another code  that I forget, but I think they are hidden extras. I might get around to some of that stuff in a few months or somethng, since I really like this game. Definitely among my favourite Castlevania games, if not my top. Really good controls compared to some of the other metroidvanias which take some steps backwards at times, as well as brilliant music and graphics for a quite old PS1 game. The inverse castle felt a bit like lazy game programming, but it was interesting to see some of the areas with a different feel. After a while, it did feel completely different. 

I've started up a new save on Golden Sun (GBA), after I originally beat the game, but lost my cartridges for both GS and the sequel GS:tLA... T_T Thats what happen when people borrow your games, seriously... So I wanted to play through Golden Sun and the 2nd, Golden Sun: The Lost Age before Golden Sun DS comes out at some point, possibly getting 100% in this one if its not too hard, as I've played it before many times, I can refer to guides if I need without spoiling stuff too much.

Now Playing - "Now your job is finish."

Sunday, and time for another Now Playing post. =p I kinda like having things like this set to a certain day. Makes it slightly easier to manage, and prepare in time. Anyways, enough of my thoughts. 

So this week, my Final Fantasy Challenge more or less fell to pieces. I had set out aims for the final 2 games in my head, and put them up on my Backlog page. I was aiming to beat both by the time FFXIII hits in March. So I was away last weekend at my grampa's place up north for his birthday and obviously didn't get a chance to play any more of Final Fantasy X during the weekend. Which I wasn't too bothered about, since I was right at the end stages anyway, and figured I'd only need an hour or so more to beat the game.

Final Fantasy X (Beat in the first 2 weeks of February)

Final Fantasy XII (Beat in the 2nd 2 weeks of Feb/early march)

But there was an unforeseen problem, a spanner in the works perhaps. On getting back from the weekend, I plugged onwards and got to the final save point, only to find Jecht pretty damn impossible. I've grinded a bit since then, and can get to his 2nd form, but I've given up for now. I'll come back to it, but I really don't think I'll manage to finish X and XII before March now. T_T

And its kinda putting me off playing games in general, this whole FFX thing, since I don't particularly like the game that much, and just want to finish it so I can move on to FFXII. I mean, gaming should be about enjoying games, having fun in my opinion, not having to force yourself to play them. Which is kind of the case now. I reckon I would have enjoyed the game more if I hadn't had such a harsh self-imposed time constraint on finishing it. If I had maybe taken more time and done some of the sidequests it might be easier, I guess I can always still do them. I'm still not entirely convinced if I like the game that much..the characters annoy me to the very end, as does the voice acting. Even in the final cutscenes before the boss, at such a crucial place, it seems not quite up to scratch. Check up on youtube.

 I wanted something that I know I enjoy, so where better to look than Castlevania, one of my favourite series. I recently shelled out a fair chunk of money for the Castlevania: Symphony of the Night PAL collector's edition that comes with the soundtrack and artbook (and is worth quite a bit.) So I thought I'd stick it on, I REALLY like SOTN. The first time I played it was on the PSP-the version that comes squished into the rather awesome compilation Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, which I'd definitely recommend. Since I played it then, I really liked it (in fact, I've always been a fan of the metroidvania Castlevania games) and always kind of wanted the true original version of Symphony of the Night, or Akumajō Dracula X: Gekka no Yasōkyoku​ (悪魔城ドラキュラX 月下の夜想曲, officially translated as Devil's Castle Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight. So now that I finally have it, I'm loving it! Getting to play it on a decent sized screen, with better audio output really gives it what it deserves. I dunno what they were thinking when they ported it onto the Dracula X Chronicles UMD. For some reason they put a border around it so it didn't quite fit the whole screen. Sure, you can fiddle with the settings a bit, with the option to customise the size and background image from a select few, but it probably would have been better in my opinion to maximise the usage of the PSP's decent sized handheld screen. Anyway, enough of my pedantry. The music in this game is absolutely amazing, Castlevania games are well known for their scores, and this one has a lot of my favourite songs. Michiru Yamane, who has worked on a lot of the Castlevania games, I feel really has done well with this soundtrack. She composed the majority of the songs on the OST. Seriously, I can't praise this game enough, it is both amazing visually and in terms of audio. (Perhaps with the exceptions of some of the English Voice acting, but hey, I can overlook that) Actually, now that I think about it, some of the scripting could be a bit tighter, but a lot of PSX era games had that problem, minor though it may be in my opinion. 

Whoa, I didn't mean to more or less review Symphony of the Night o.o That is an idea for the future though, if I get through the FFIX onwards reviews from my FF Challenge.

So, if you are still reading, well done! You get a cookie because I went on much longer than I wanted to. 

Other than those games, I've been trying to finish off Dragon Quest: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (DS.) I managed to beat it on Saturday, after a rather scary trek through the end area. I went into the final battle massively unprepared-I hadn't saved in ages, and forgot to take a lot of the decent items out of the bag for use in battle. Somehow I managed it though, it was one of those cases when all my MP was almost out on all my characters, so if it went on much longer I wouldn't have been able to survive for much longer.

I really enjoyed the game, probably the only bit I didn't really like was marriage bit. Seems so random and forced. I could only really choose Bianca since it seemed to make more sense than the other 2 who I didn't know. Real marriage doesn't work like that though...anyway, it was pretty cool how your kids inherit the power, and surpass you and your wife. Kinda DBZish, like Goku and Gohan. Hell, Parry even looks like Gohan due to the Toriyama character designs. Awesome stuff!

I picked up my Etrian Odyssey save again today, grinded a bit and did some more quests in the 1st stratum of the labyrinth. I can tell so far that I'll like this game if the difficulty doesn't get massively out of hand. I've heard it is brutal, and I do like some challenge but when it starts to get ridiculous, it can take the fun out of games.  Oh, before I forget, I tried the Half-Minute Hero demo on PSN, its better than I expected. Its quite unique and has a good sense of humour. I'd recommend it from what I've seen.

Now Playing - "Ridess zee Shoopuf?"

Final Fantasy X (PS2) - I started this up the other day after beating FFIX, so far I am about 14 hours or so into it. I had a bit of a preconception as to what it was going to be like. The addition of voice acting is, for some fans, signs of progress in the franchise. As the first Final Fantasy game on the PS2, it brings improved graphics and audio quality to the field.

For me so far though, the voice acting isn't anything to be too pleased about. Pretty much all the time it is terrible. Its like the voice actors don't know what the context for the script is. They take long pauses in all the wrong places, and a lot of the inflections sound off, or wrong.

And its really too linear for my liking. You don't get times when you have a bit of freedom to go looking for sidequests further afield, you don't get too explore optional stuff on a world map. Nope, doesn't seem to be any of that. FFXIII is gonna be just as linear... T_T

Oh god...and don't even get me started on Tidus or Blitzball. I'm not feelin it yet, and Tidus is an annoying little prick.

I guess I should say something good for it, since I am kinda enjoying playing the game. I'm finding it quite addictive and compelling. The story so far, and the battle system seem quite enjoyable. The battles particularly-they are quite dynamic and fast. Coming straight out of the slow ATB battle system of IX, it seems good since it flows quite well, you have some nice camera switches, good animations, and the ability to switch your party members and equipment on the fly. Each of the characters are good against certain kinds of enemies so far, like Flyers, physical resistant ones etc, so I've found myself using all of them equally. 

The spheregrid and the fact that you don't actually level up or gain stats outside of the spheregrid is quite odd, and its something I'm slowly getting used to.

Dragon Age: Origins (360) I've not played much of this since last time, but early in the week I downloaded some of the DLC. They sold it pretty well to me, going through all this story about the Soldier's Peak fortress etc, then asked if I wanted to download it. I couldnt say no after hearing all about it T_T

I beat it and the Shale DLC pretty quickly, and got some good stuff out of them. I can finally wear the Juggernaut Plate Mail I found in the Brecilian forest ages ago! =D I think I'm quite far through now, as I've beaten the Elf quest, Mage quest and Earl of Redcliffe recruiting part. Just Orzammar next and then I'll be able to move on to the next part of the story. I'm gonna put some more time into FFX though, so this'll have to wait for a bit.

I started up a new game on Friday and beat it in the same day, since I was a bit RPG'd out. Castlevania: Judgment (Wii) got some average to ok reviews and I had tried a bit of nearer Christmas. The waggle motion controls were a bit confusing, so I tried the tutorials before playing this time. I've actually been getting used to it quite nicely. I am on Easy mode (cos I suck at Fighting games, seriously), but I've been putting some time into beating it on Story mode with all the characters. Apparantely you unlock another bit of the story once you manage that. Yeah, you get True Story mode, which lets you get the true endings for each character. 

Oh, there is an option for Gamecube pad controls, which I like when they put in games as motion controls can be really frustrating in some games. I've not tried it out, as I trained so far with the Remote and Nunchuk controls, but I might plug a GC pad in if I can find one.

So far, the style is very unusual. The characters are probably the most unique thing about it, but I'll definitely say I don't particularly like some of the outfits. Graphically the game isn't amazing, but its quite polished and looks pretty good-it doesn't seem to have any bugs or glitches so far. Some of the Hyper Attacks are really cool. I'm quite liking it so far. I have a few minor gripes about it, the camera is pretty damn bad at times, it constantly moves to try and stay behind your shoulder, only it seems to cause more problems than anything. A lot of the characters seem to be quite unbalanced, with some pretty broken moves. Its kinda flawed, but I had some fun with it.

See the picture? Thats Maria Renard from Symphony of the Night, Dracula X Chronicles, Rondo of Blood and a few others. This reinvention of the characters is one thing people seem to have disliked about the game. I quite like Maria's wierd style, but a few of the others aren't particularly brilliant.

Now Playing - "Jason sans les Argonauts"

Here's what I've been playing this week, more of the same, still slugging through 3 RPGs, as always it seems. I'm really enjoying all 3 though, so perhaps 'slugging' isn't the word I am looking for.

Final Fantasy IX (PS1) - I progressed a bit further into disc 3, where the mysteries of the story start to unravel. Things are starting to get interesting, as I have a lot of good abilities and equipment on my characters. They can deal a LOT of damage each turn. Zidane dishes out 3500+ each turn with his normal attacks. And Vivi has some kickass spells-Flare, Comet, the 3rd level elemental spells. I think I'll be able to finish off disc 3 pretty soon. Depending on how long Disc 4 is, I might beat this before the end of the month, but I dunno.

Saturday: Onto disc 4 now, and I'm probably going to try and race on with the main story becuase I am quite confident with my levels and gear, but not entirely sure. I've not played through this before, so who knows? There could be a massive difficulty leap on the last disc.

Dragon Quest: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (DS) - I started playing this not too long ago, so I had something portable, and I've quickly put in over 10 hours to it. So far it has been very similar to DQIV DS, with lots of religious themes(I think though, that is the case for all DQ games) and charm in abundance. I love the names of a lot of the monsters: Eyepod, Combatterpillar, Moosifer..etc heheh. Some are ridiculous, but kinda awesome. There is something about the Dragon Quest games I really like. They are very old school, simple, but quirky RPGs that are really fun. Of course, they are not going to be for everyone. Some people are really put off by the grindy nature, but I enjoy the combat, especially given that in this one, you can recruit monsters occassionally after battle. That is one thing that could easily add on some depth, and put on a couple extra hours here and there to your play time.

Dragon Age: Origins (360) - I haven't put much time into this since last time because I've been trying to beat FFIX before the end of the month, and any time I am out on the bus or whatever, I've been playing DQV. So although its been on the backburner a bit, I've been trying to progress in the Fade section of the Circle of Magi quest.

I'm playing it as a write this actually, I don't particularly like having to fight all these enemies with just my protagonist. Staying alive is quite tricky when they gang up on me. So I've put the difficulty down and I'm seeing how that is gonna affect things.

I just got the Spirit Shapeshift ability in the Fade. Cool stuff! Looks like some kind of wraith =p And now I have the Burning Man and Stone Golem shapeshift abilities. I hope I get my party back soon.... T_T

Sunday: I've pretty much been playing this all day today =p Its somehow really addictive at times, its really well written and very compelling. I finished off the Circle of Magi part of the main quest, blitzed through the Shale DLC and now I am going through the Wardens Keep DLC. Good stuff, I really am impressed with the codex and the amount of sidequests. 

Kind of related, I spent most of Friday trying to hunt down the collector's edition of Mass Effect 2. For some reason, I didn't think I would need to preorder it, and it is only being sold in Game and Gamestation stores apparantely. I asked the staff in all 4 of the stores I went to and it seems it was pretty much they got just enough for the preorder numbers, and then after that, they wont be getting them in again. 0_o So...I went on ebay and absolutely skinned myself for it...I had it in my mind that I was going to get what I set out for. I will preorder next time. Let us never speak of this again. lol... *better be the best damn game ever*

Anyway, some of the stuff I'll possibly be playing and talking about soon(incase I forget)

Resident Evil 4 (Wii), Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (PS2), God of War (PS2), Castlevania: Judgement (Wii), Doom (PS1). Those will be secondary to the Final Fantasy games for now though, I still have a bit of IX, X and XII to get through before XIII hits. If I get a bit bored of the games I'm playing, I'll probably stick on one of those short(ish) games.

Oh, if you are wondering why I say "Saturday" and "Sunday" above, its because I started writing this on Thursday or Friday, and its kind of an 'as I play' thing. Hmm, I might actually do another diary/blog style review or playthrough of a game, like I did for Dragon Quest IV. I quite like that idea.

Now Playing - "Conqueror of the skies"

I've been away for the weekend, so I didn't have much time to write this Now Playing up. Anyway, here is what I've been playing and my thoughts.

I played lots more of Final Fantasy IX (PS1) before Friday, got to where I think is the end of disc 2, seeing as how it feels pretty climatic. Kuja and Queen Brahne etc are fighting it out, and we are just about to head into the fray for some stupid reason. Garnet's fault....Then again, Kuja and Brahne are quite important characters, so I would imagine we would need to fight them at some point anyway.

I just did the cutscene where Brahne unleashes Bahamut on Kuja and his silver dragon. Bahamut's design is quite cool in IX, perhaps apart from the slightly strange oversized claws on it's wings. The above pic is unrelated, well...its not from FFIX, per se. Its one of the Bahamut forms from Crisis Core if I remember right. I can't remember the name...which annoys me.

Bahamut is featured in a lot of the Final Fantasy games. Along with Leviathan and Odin, its one of my favourites. It has really cool design a lot of the time, which I like. Link

Other than FFIX, I've been putting a fair bit more time into Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS) which I picked up not too long ago. I played a couple more hours over the weekend, but died a LOT, so my actual game time reads around 8 hours or so, despite me only playing that for the weekend when I was away. 

OOE is the last metroidvania I need to finish, and man...it is HARD! It changes quite a few things as well, which i really like. It ditches the manga style characters and cutscenes of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin, the earlier DS incarnations of the series, instead taking a darker, more sombre and well drawn style. It lets you go to other areas via a world map, you aren't confined to Dracula's Castle like a lot of the other games. It also has a female protagonist, the super sexy Shanoa =p. I think this is the only castlevania game that has one, excluding characters like Maria and other unlockable characters.

I'd definitely recommend Order of Ecclesia, but newcomers to the series might not want to start with it. I've had to use quite a few tricks I've picked up from other games in this to survive, like cancelling dodges with attacks and cancelling attacks with dodges, similar to the idea from Super Smash Bros Melee, and a lot of other fighting games. The difficulty is definitely one aspect that might put people off.

I gotta get back to FFIX now, before my screen gets burn in ;o lol. Things are getting interesting in it. 

Now Playing -"I no can eat!"

I put a bit more time into Dragon Age: Origins (360) this week. I am now doing the 2nd out of 3 recruiting ally bits in the main story, I chose to go for the Circle of Magi 2nd, mainly cos I didn't know how to get to Orzammar..hopefully that will become more apparent once I do this bit. I am still really liking this game, such a lot to do! I had a quick look at the sub quests on the Chanter's Boards, Mage Collective and the other organisation I cant remember the name of . Perhaps too much to do...I doubt I will do all the quests in this run through, as I am intending on doing another after. I started up an Elf Mage as well, to have a look at the Origin story. I am gonna try and do all the origin stories in addition to beating the game with my current character. Then we've got the expansion coming out in March at some point, which from what I've heard, will add a LOT to the game. Good times!

I started up Final Fantasy IX (PS1) shortly after beating VI on the GBA as I'm running low on time till XIII comes out and gonna struggle to beat IX, X and XII before then... So far (I'm about 7-9 hours in IIRC) I am liking the game world, quite a lot of charm to it. Quite cool character design. That, and the music in some places combine to really remind me of the original Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles (GC). I am enjoying the writing and scripting so far, it has this kind of subtle wit to it I think, which is cool. The fantasy world is quite cool, I've been really intrigued with the city of Lindblum, which is on the cusp of Steam Power, and is quite developed industrially. Some of the areas seem a bit..unimaginitive and derivative, perhaps cliched, like the rather badly named "Evil Forest" and the "Ice Cavern". I mean, these places look nice, and the music went well with them, but they just don't seem like a lot of imagination went in to making them. Ice Cavern is like the kind of thing I imagine a board of designers would come up with if they were brainstorming and just wanted to leave early-an almost perfectly linear 10 minute dungeon with walls you can press X on to burn away to reveal treasure. I am really tearing into this dungeon for no apparent reason. Its really not that bad. 

I like the Black Waltz mages that I fought, and the way the story is taking a dark turn with the Mages and attacks on Burmecia. I wanna play more and see what happens, but I got a bit frustrated with it last time I played. I was in Gizamaluke's Grotto and got a game over, putting me back to the last save point which was in Dragon's Gate, before I did the Marsh bit to get Quina. So I lost around 2 hours or so. I wish you could Save and use Tents in the world map. I've got a bad feeling however, that I can...and I just need to use that Moogle Flute right? If so, I will kick myself repeatedly in the face, and then maybe the PS2 will get a kicking. =p 

Ok, so after playing a bit more, I know realise you CAN save and use tent in the World map...how annoying. I wish I knew that earlier, before I got that game over that put me a few hours back...

The characters in FFIX are quite interesting-I like Vivi and the direction they could go in with him in terms of character development and Steiner is cool-quite funny, in a deluded and pompous way.

Other than that, I've played a little bit of Planescape Torment (PC) just to check it worked on my new laptop with Vista. Thankfully it does, but I'll have to play more at some point. Theres a good chance it'll have bugs and glitches that I didn't experience yet. I put Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (PS1) into my PS2 just to see if the mega scratched disc I got off Ebay for £1.15 works, and it does! PS1 discs are damn durable =D I was amazed to see that I still have my save from way back on the memory card, I had forgot that. Think I'm gonna start over again at some point though.

Me and my cousin played some of the Horde mode on Gears of War 2 (360) and some Fifa 09 (360) for some multiplayer laughs.

A few days ago, I finally finished Final Fantasy VI Advance (GBA) as part of my FF challenge. I had to put in a couple more hours than I thought I would, to get past the barrier they try to put in your way. (At least I see it that way) If you don't know what I mean, I am referring to just before the last dungeon, Kefka's Tower. As you go into it, they ask you to form 3 teams, of up to 4 members each. Now, you don't need to put 4 in each, but each of these teams HAS to fight about 3 bosses each, which can be tough. So I basically grinded up a bunch of the characters I was never intending to use in the Maranda Desert against Cactuars and the worm things I can't remember the name of. They give good AP, gil and pretty good EXP.

I was really impressed with a lot of aspects of FFVI, but I think I'll leave my full impressions to a Review I've been intending doing.

Final Fantasy VIII Review.

Thought I'd do this before I forget the stuff that I was going to say in this review. [I have memory like a sieve.]

So, on with the review! Final Fantasy VIII was released back in 1999 on the Playstation, and was ported to the PC the year after. I haven't played the PC version, even though I cough*downloaded it so this review is for the Playstation version. Oh, it also has been put up on the PSN this year, to join a couple of Square's other PS1 RPGs. 

[This will possibly contain some spoilers.]

Gameplay

This is the main area which puts people off this game. It has got a LOT of criticism from people over the years, usually the tedious draw system and unusual junction system is what puts most people off. After FFVII, I think they wanted to try something slightly different than the Materia system, and this is quite a bit different, but with some slight similarities. 

If you haven't played it this is what it is like briefly. Each character has no set class or job, so in the same way as VII, you can shape the stats and abilities as you wish. The main way in which you can influence your character's stats is the junction system. You can equip or junction GFs(summons) to your characters, which lets you junction magic to that character, based on the abilities that Guardian Force knows. It is the magic that boosts your stats, which is one thing that can be annoying (if your character doesn't have much magic available.) I don't really see why they abbreviated so many of the abilities so strangely. Maybe they had to fit them into the menu screens(which there are a lot of, some of which are quite badly organised.) The abilities, I remember a lot of people didn't understand a lot of the GF's abilities when they played it. Mag+20% raises a character's Magic stat by 20%, but then you have stuff like GFHP+20% and SumMag+10%, which raise that GF's stats, HP and Magic respectively. I dont see why they couldn't use GF or Sum for both, woulda made sense, or just lose the whole abbreviation thing. I am getting into minor annoyances I know... Some other ridiculous named abilities: Expendx2-1 and GFAbl Med-RF. Its not only the names that are odd...some of the Command Abilities like Devour, Darkside etc really aren't explained well. Its kinda hard to tell what some of them do, sure I can look on a guide, but I'd rather be able to tell from within the actual game. I don't think I equipped any of them very often. Anyway, I think that is all the negative stuff I got to say about the Junction system, there are some interesting positive points to it as well. Late on when you get a lot of decent magic you can really boost your stats really effectively. Magics like Quake are pretty good to put junctioned to attack, to do anywhere near decent damage physically. You really need to boost your attack or magic stats if you dont want to rely on spamming GFs every turn against every enemy(which I did for most of the game until I got decent magic) Then you have status magic, like Blind, Berserk etc, these can be junctioned up to St-Def (status defense) or St-Atk, which either give you some resistance from that ailment or a chance of inflicting that status with each physical attack, and the percentages are based on the amount of the magic junctioned, and also the spell equipped. Similarly, you can also put elemental spells to elem-atk and elem-defense to get either resistance from elemental attacks like Firaga, Blizzaga or Thundara or a resistance to the element equipped.

So there are a LOT of customisation options, but I kind of felt that the clunkiness and awkwardness of the junction system was the main flaw in this game, as any time I was struggling with the game, it was usually down to problems stemming from the Junctions; either I didn't have the right spells to junction up to help me, didn't have the right setup, and tweaking it led to me getting past the bit that was giving me problems or the GFs I had equipped didn't give my character the ability I needed. ie. imagine I was going up against enemies that inflict a lot of status ailments, like the Marlboros (which are apparantely one of the strongest enemies in the game.) You would need a couple St.def slots available on each of your characters to protect against Bad Breath, which inflicts all statuses. Now, not all the GFs learn the abilities that give you multiple slots. I can't quite remember if there are items to teach your GFs St.defx3 or the other ones, but this really adds to the challenge, the fact that you might not be able to junction multiple spells to defense. You can equip weapons, but no accessories or armour to help at all, that was one thing I think it coulda used, this game. 

The draw system is one thing that really frustrated me in this game. Its not like the other Final Fantasy games where you either learn the spells and have unlimited supplies, based on MP or some such. Each character in FFVIII has their own stock of finite magic, which can be drawn from enemies and Draw Points in the world, or refined from items/cards(which I'll come to later). This actual drawing is done through battle mainly. Each turn your characters can choose to draw a spell from an enemy, and they receieve somewhere between 1 and 11 each time, based on their Mag stats. So to get 100 of each spell on each character, it can be very tedious. You can usually incapacitate the enemies and just keep drawing over and over to max out that spell, perhaps Haste'ing your guys to help out, but I still lost interest after a while, and could have put more time into drawing spells early on. It would have probably helped. Anyway, this is what usually annoys people about this game. 

Still, it isn't the only way to get magic in the game, and it perhaps isnt the most efficient either. You can learn some quite helpful abilities from the GFs, in the form of the RF abilities, which refine either items, medicine or spells from items or cards from the Triple Triad minigame. Some of the Rarer cards refine into some really awesome products, like one of the brothers cards, which refines into 100 Dino Bones. Do that and you are pretty much set for 100 Quakes on all your characters if you refine the Dino Bones into magic. Refine cards like Laguna and you get even better results. You can get some really good spells in the game, like Auras and Heros, which is one of those ways of doing the end boss that a lot of people see as 'cheap.' I dunno, its in the game, so you might as well use it if you got it. Meltdown is pretty damn awesome as well. Anyway, I'm basically saying that there are a lot of ways of doing things in this game, a lot of things to exploit or just to make your characters strong. Which is definitely a strength of the gameplay in FFVIII.

So I would say there is a lot to do in terms of customisation and lots of interesting gameplay elements, but I feel that some of them are a bit 'hit or miss', maybe flawed in some aspects.

Gameplay ~ 7/10

***

Story and Characters

The story follows the characters Squall Leonhart, Zell Dincht, Quistis Trepe and Selphie Tilmitt initially, who are part of Balamb Garden, an institute for SeeDs. From what I can tell, they are essentially mercenaries...but early on, I really didn't like that the SeeDs weren't explained too well. Even by the end, I think they aren't really fleshed out very much. More back story and explanation would have been good there. An example, the SeeDs were formed initially to deal with the sorceresses, thats about as much as you get there. And Ultimecia's motives are never really explained much, even at the end she only has a few nonsensical lines. 

But anyway now, the story.

Squall and the others get roped into a few missions near the start, like clearing up problems in the Dollet area. Gradually, more and more responsibility is heaped upon Squall and the others, and they head off to Timber, to help out with a resistance faction, where the party meets Rinoa Heartilly, who will become a central character before long. 

The story starts off quite slowly, and really doesn't pick up speed till the later discs I think. One thing that kind of frustrated me initially (but I can see why they did it now that I've beaten the game) was the way they really didn't give an awful lot away at first. There is a lot of mystery, and things to do with the plot are left largely unexplained until later. For example, when you get on the train to Timber (I think), Squall's party fall asleep or unconscious and control is shifted to another group, Laguna and his two friends, Kiros and Ward. The strange thing is, Squall and the others are aware of their actions, and refer to it initially as the dream world. The connection between the two worlds, times, Ellone and the sorceresses is fully explained as you reach the later discs. The mystery really keeps you interested, I found, even though it was quite slow moving. 

I like the way that Squall was done. At first, he is your typical brooding, quiet teenager, he sits in his room at Balamb and thinks, but he slowly opens up later on, with the help of Rinoa and the others.

By the end of it, I was quite interested to see what would happen. It starts to get quite confusing with all the talk of time magic, but the story really grew on me right up till the end, by which time I was quite impressed with it. Lots of emotion really pulled the game through, because some of the characters are quite bland and I think could have been better developed.

Story & Characters ~ 7/10

***

Graphics

I remember playing this game back nearer the time it came out and being really impressed with it. Especially the summons and cutscenes. Man. The cutscenes in this game are really done well for the most part. Playing it now, it looks a bit dated in places, like the character polygons (or whatever they are...I just wanted to use that word =p) but I still think the graphics hold up today, which is very good considering its more than 10 years old, more than that, I think the graphics are actually better than the next game in the series, Final Fantasy IX (released in 2000.)

Graphics ~ 8/10

***

Audio

The music for me in this game was good, but didn't really seem to have as many really memorable tracks as some of the other games, like Terra's Theme and Darkness and Starlight(the opera theme) from Final Fantasy VI and One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII. Thats not to say there aren't any good tracks in the FFVIII soundtrack. The Extreme, which plays at the final stages of the game, is amazing. It kept me on edge throughout. 

I really liked the music that played when you were doing the sorceress stages in the game as well, like Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec which plays when you are going to assassinate Sorceress Edea in Deling City, one of the quite dramatic bits of the game. That disc ended quite nicely I thought. Very atmospheric and intense music there.

What else noticeable? I quite liked the strange music you got when you were in control of Laguna et al in the dream world and Lunatic Pandora. It gives it this unusual otherworldly feel I thought. The latter song while not exactly amazing, gave it atmosphere and kind of fit. I think they tried a lot different in this Final Fantasy, some of it worked and some didn't exactly work so much.

These videos are two of my favourite tracks from FFVIII. There are plenty of atmospheric songs in the game.

Audio ~ 7/10

***

Overall, I enjoyed the game and quite like some aspects of it, like the relationship that forms between Squall and Rinoa and the way the characters grow (if only a little) throughout. The story, by the end of the game, and assuming you understand what is going on, is really quite epic. I love the idea of time compression, and moving through time and space to face Ultimecia at the grand finale, its a brilliant notion.

Overall ~ 7/10

Now Playing - "How can you transform into something so sexy?"

Now that I have a few less games on my plate, I am trying to put some more time into Final Fantasy VI Advance which I think I am getting nearish the end (probably about 5 or 10 hours away.) I've just got past a kinda frustrating bit in the story where I need to go around getting everyone back in the party. You'll know where I mean probably if you've played the game.

Now I'm just getting some of the Espers and grinding up my characters, but I've lost patience with it slightly-there is quite a bit of grinding to do to get all your characters sufficient in enough of the spells, which I want them to be before I go to the end game stages. A lot of my characters have no magic whatsoever and are a good 10 or 20 levels lower than my main party...so I think I've quite a bit to do.

I'm still really enjoying FFVI, once I beat it that'll be just FFIX, X and XII to beat in my Final Fantasy Challenge before XIII comes out in early March.

Final Fantasy I

Final Fantasy II

Final Fantasy III

Final Fantasy IV

Final Fantasy V

Final Fantasy VI

Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VIII

Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy X

Final Fantasy XII

Also, since I last wrote one of these Now Playing posts, I got and played Muramasa: The Demon Blade. Its a really gorgeous looking game, and one that I was looking forward to for ages since I played Odin Sphere. I bought it just after Christmas and finished it a couple days after starting it. Its not long, but its a really cool game. I'd recommend it! I might do a review of it at some point, since it is one of the Wii games I really enjoyed, despite a few minor annoyances or flaws.

I also finished off Final Fantasy VIII, the ending was pretty damn cool once I eventually got past the awesomeness that is Griever, he wiped me out a couple times with Shockwave Pulsar or whatever it is called. I was gripped till the end, cos I ended up fighting the final stage with just Rinoa and Zell and the music is awesome, it kept me on edge!

It says I'm also playing Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Warrior Monsters as well, but I haven't really touched them at all for a while. I'll need to rectify that I guess.

Since I never really explain the quotes I pull out of games, music, movies or tv that I choose for these Now Playing posts, I thought I would for this one for a change. It is a quote from Kisuke from Muramasa: The Demon Blade describing Yuzuruha(sp?), the Kitsune from his story. Pic above, the one with the parasol thing.