The Legend That Was Ended

Legend of Dragoon  PS/PSP
That feels amazing to say that.

I have finally completed Legend of Dragoon!!!  YAY!!!

12 years and ~70 hours later I am done.

I don't know why but it feels as if a huge weight is lifted off my shoulders.  A giant sigh of relief that I have checked off a game that has almost been a cornerstone to this blog and my backlog.

Legend of Dragoon.

Wow.

Ok.  I am done now just blabbering about how wicked cool it is that I have completed it.  I will do a celebratory dance later.  On to business.

Some time has passed since I completed LoD (Legend of Dragoon).  This was in my master plan.  I wanted to make sure that I had time to breathe, process all that had happened properly, and then compare my memories from years ago to now.  I wanted to make sure that my thoughts are properly projected onto this medium.

I loved LoD when I was young.  Around the age of 15 I was into FF games and anything Square made.  Besides Nintendo (which at that time was my first big developer that I liked) I had learned that Square games were things that I would always go out and directly buy.  No questions asked.  I would be at the store no release day and be buying the game.  Or I would have a preorder in so that I would get the games on release day when I was in college.  I would get upset when I wouldn't receive the game on release day.  I have luckily grown since then, and I have learned how to relax and wait for a good deal.  Yet I still find myself buying main FF games sometimes at midnight release.

So I was young and so attached to this company that made games that enlightened my mind and led me on journeys across far off realms, allowing me to escape my own tortures.  So I see this game, LoD, and I figure that it has to be good.  So I buy it (or I got one of my parents too.  I can't remember).  I buy it and take it home.  4 discs.  "Man", I thought, "if it has 4 discs then it has to be amazing.  Cause FFVII was 3 discs, FFVIII was 4, so the more discs the better". 

I popped the game into my Playstation and started to play the game.  And I loved it.

I can't remember exactly all my thoughts and emotions from then, but I do know that I greatly enjoyed LoD.  I thought the graphics were great.  OH LORD there was voice acting in it (something new to me in console games), you could transform into a Dragoon and summon a Dragon and cast magic.  I can see myself now sitting on the carpetted floor of my father's bedroom playing this game with wide eyes trying to absorb everything that flowed out from the TV.

I do remember things that I didn't understand or care for at the time.  I didn't like how you were limited to 32 items in your inventory, that you had to use the addition system.  I didn't have enough hand-eye coordination to master that.  I didn't like how you had to plan things.  I love RPG's, but as a kid I wasn't that good at thinking ahead and planning that well.  I sometimes found myself just charging forward into battle and trying to make it work.  Thats how I ended up stuck at the final boss and not able to defeat him cause I was unable to plan ahead and overlevel, and have enough healing items to keep me alive.

Stuck.  For almost 12 years.  Now we come to today.  We come to a time in which I am older and am able to plan and strategize better.  I know not to always rush into battles without thinking of the setup.

I respect the limitation of 32 items.  It makes me plan and think.  I like it.
I like the addition system.  In fact, its one of my favorite parts of the game with regards to fighting.   I have written about it in the past and I still respect those views.  It beats a lot of the bad things.

Bad things you say???
Yes.  There are some things that I have issues with.

First, translation.  Maybe things have just improved over the last decade, but the wording for things on LoD is horrible.  Sometimes it is hard to make connections with things since the dialog makes you want to rip your eyes out and boil them.  It made the story hurt me sometimes because I couldn't keep up with things.

The bad translation also lead to problems with story flow.  I talked about this earlier some, so I won't expand too much on things.  I think though that translation issues partially led to sudden, random points to the plot that were added with no back story to them.  I understand sidequests and small diversions to the main story, but that didn't happen here.  You had to suddenly do these things that took you way off from the main flow of the plot.  Along with this was the fact that certain elements to the game were not explained or brought to light, however they served a purpose.  The Sacred Sisters of Mille Seseau should have been explained more.  Tell me what their importance is to the story.  Make me care more about them.  Damnit, that is all I want.

Well, that and more.


In the end I feel like the love of this game that I had built up when I was young was partially burst.  I am glad I replayed it and completed it.  Its a small personal goal that I was able to check off.  Would I play through LoD again?  I think probably not since I gained all I needed from the game.  I do think that it needs a sequel since it would be another revenue stream that SE could use, and many fans would cheer it on.  You could almost do anything you wanted with a sequel since so much time has passed since LoD came out.  I would definitely play that for sure.  For those who haven't played it yet, if you like classic games from the PS era then you should give it a shot.  On the PSP its a good play.  However, I think thought for now my time with Legend of Dragoon is done.  Good game Square, good game.

Skyrim

Plain and simple.

Skyrim.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Awesome Sauce

I picked this beauty up over the Steam Summer Sale.

This epic game that Bethesda made.  The amazing American (Western) RPG.  The Elder Scroll series which is the answer to Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Breath of Fire, and all of the other incredible JRPG's.

My thoughts on the matter are it might not be a complete JRPG slayer.  Its a good game.  There are some issues though with the draw of it.

The graphics are amazing.  When you have a PC that can handle this game on full then it will definitely rock your socks off.  I wish I had real HD monitors that would allow me to experience this in its full glory.  Plus there are plenty of mods that help to increase how good the game is displayed.  A lot of mods.  And this type of mod is one that I find myself getting a lot.  I found a website through Kotaku about a player who has over 100 mods to create an amazing experience.  You can find it here.

Because of all the different mods there always leaves open more and more things to add on.  Like left hand rings, an amazing storage area, etc.  Mods are good and bad at the same time.  If you use them in ways that don't break the mechanics of the game and give you an unfair advantage I don't see an issue with them.  Mods for better graphics.  Mods that allow your followers to understand your commands better.  Mods that help to organize your storage in your home (not increase your on person storage) are all things I don't see a problem with.  I do think mods that cheat your stats and give an unfair advantage are cheating.  Yet who am I to say its cheating.  Skyrim is so massive and open that one could say that there is no "correct" way to play.

That leads me to the next point.  Being open.  Really open.  OOOPPPEEENNN.

You can do whatever you want in almost any order.  You can spends days just doing sidequests and never finish the main story.  To me its almost just too big.  I get too distracted with things and then its hard to reign myself in and continue on.  I don't want to miss a thing (queue song in your head....now). I want to experience everything there is in this digital realm to stimulate my synapses with pleasure of the game.  But I fear that I will miss things.  Its that fear that makes me hesitant.  Hesitant to turn the machine on and return.  Its something that I feel whenever I play Fallout 3 as well.  Both are Bethesda games.  Both make me really like them, but then also get sick with the amount of things to do.  Its hard to fathom what I need to do to be the best or to really enjoy everything.

Damn you Bethesda.  Maybe that is what they think WRPG should be.  Completely open.  Its something that I think maybe needs to be toned down a little.  Yes you should have a role where you can adjust it to however you want, but I think there should be some limitations.  Those limitations help someone like me keep focused on the main prospect of the game.  I need those.

Now some people might say I should just not play these games.  They may be right with those statements.  But I like the games.  I like what they have going on within them.  I need to learn how to deal with the expansiveness of the games and eventually I will greatly love them.

UPDATES A PLENTY!!!

Like the title of the entry says:

UPDATES A PLENTY!!!!

Over the holidays I went up to North Carolina to spend time with my mother.  My wife, Jacob (the pup), and I had a blast up there.  Its so nice to breathe in the fresh North Carolina air.  Things were simple up there with on big stressors.  Nice to relax.  Nice to collect our thoughts and prepare for the final drive for the rest of the year.

Nice to catch up on some games.

I have yet to update my backlog page, but I will do that soon.  I didn't want to screw up my chances of getting some badges on the site when I added some new games.  I beat Mega Man X, and with the progress I made over the holiday I can get a badge on the site.  Yet if I put my new games up on there then I reset my progress made to the badge.  So I am going to wait to figure out what needs to be on there before I add things.

Hold on a second.  Did you say progress???
Yes I did.

Over the weekend I completed one game and beat another.

YAY excitement!!!

I completed Legend of Dragoon!!
It took 12 years and ~70 hours, but I have done it.  I am still formulating my post for this in my head since I have so many mixed feelings from what I felt as a child playing this, and my internal processes from completing it now.  Once I have those completely sorted out things will be put to digital pen and paper and all will be available for your eyes.



The game I beat was..

BAM!!

I finally beat FFXIII-2.  I finished in just over 48 hours, and with 123/160 fragments.  I owned the final fights.  Got all 5 stars for each battle.  Now that I have finished the game, I am going to go back and complete all the quests and achieve all the fragments so I can list this as a completion.  I would love to have this as a completion, plus I feel that I can get the platinum trophy that comes with this easily.  

I too am still forming the entry for this one.  I will be doing one on beating it and then will add one once I complete it.  I think I deserve to do this for sure.

You might be asking why I keep saying beat and complete.  With the Backloggery when you finish a game you must list if it is a beat or a complete.  Beating a game is just completing the main story line to the game.  Completing the game is finishing the main story line, then collecting all the side items, completing side quests, obtaining all the trophies, etc.  Completes are harder to get but that is how it should be.  I like to have as many of them as I can get.  

I am going to work on updating The Completed List with Beat games and Completed Games.  I will toss this into the updates that I have planned for the site.

As for now, thank you for coming by and reading.  I will have more for you soon.

Frequent Posting Update

I just wanted to post that I am working on a couple of projects right now.

First: I am currently working on a couple of posts to go up while over the break.  Just in case anyone wants to read over the holidays.  I guess here you go.

Second: I am going to post more things on this blog.  Random posts, funny things I see, stories, reviews, etc. I think if I just keep doing posts about my progress on games (which will continue to occur, so don't worry) then the blog won't be used as efficiently as I think it can.  Its no secret I have ads (look above and to the right).  I do my best to limit those ads because I hate blogs that just have them all willy-nilly about the place.  On the other side of things though I would like to make a little money off of this site so I can feed my addiction.

Don't worry though.  I will never do a review of a game or product just to plug it and get cash.  I give my poorly typed opinion on things and that is just how it is.  I will continue to limit the ads as best as possible, but as of now I have no plans to take them away completely.

Third: Please follow my twitter.  I use my main twitter handle for now, Badfish54.  I have that set up to post when I have to entries in, but I will start passing on random info from there too.

Fourth: On Facebook as well.  Getting Through the Games.  That is the page.  Come on by and like.  It is still a work in progress.

Fifth: You may notice that I am going to start mentioning other blogs.  I think all bloggers need to look out for each other.  So as I read around if I think its a read then I will post it up on here.

Sixth: I have decided to work on a book.  I have never written one before but I thought it would be cool to try and put some of my random ideas to page.  I have a great one (I won't tell what it is about) and I will update people on how that goes.  Currently I have 3 pages written.  YAY!!!


Thats all for now.  

Getting Through...

I have OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and nervous tics.  Or a least I was told I had that when I was young.  It may be something else, but I have grown up and taken meds for that and other things.

I wanted to talk about the issues I had growing up that maybe the game world helped and/or hurt.  Some of these problems other gamers probably have.  Hell, I know a lot do.  A lot of people have these conditions and I just wanted to talk about myself and how I have dealt with things.  So a little backstory.

When I was around the age of 5 I was diagnosed with ADHD (or maybe ADD, how knows.  I know later on I was told I had ADHD).  They put me on the standard then, Ritalin, and I took that twice a day everyday.  I was lucky to have the summers off of my medication where I could be a wild and crazy kid (great show).  That would end though when school got close though.  Back on the medicine I would go.  That is how things went until middle school.

Around 6th/7th grade I started to have OCD tendencies they said, as well as nervous tics.  I had problems with stuttering and making a clicking noise in my throat.  They also thought I was depressed and they redid the medications.  I went from Ritalin to Adderal (a version of which was sustained release), Prozac, then Luvox, then Paxil, then Wellabutrin.  I also started to take Clonidine around 8th grade and continued that until 10th.  That was a fun drug.  Nothing like almost passing out through the day cause the stuff is an anti-anxiety drug with a wonderful side effect of knocking you on your ass.

The worst OCD tendency that I had was with my writing and typing.  I would be writing things and I would make . really big and cause they were perfect when I originally put them down.  0 and 8 were the same things.  I would keep making them bigger and bigger.  This started around 3rd grade when I started at a new school (damn you Country Day).  This then turned into me writing something and I would cross it out or completely scratch it out.  I went through a lot of pencil erasers doing this.  I would have written the world/letter/number perfectly, but in my mind it was horrible.  I had to fix it.  And when I did that I would feel like I made another mistake so I would eradicate that.  And so on and so on.  Numbers were the worst. I had to start doing all my math problems in Roman Numerals just to get through math classes.  I constantly felt like there was no end in sight.  With typing I would write a sentence and then erase the whole thing cause I felt that I didn't hit the keys just write.  After you finish a sentence you normally put 2 spaces after the period.  I would hit "space space, back back, space space, back back, space space, back back" cause I needed that pattern.

My tics were the worst part though.  I had one where I would imagine a wheel spinning in my head and I couldn't make my mind make it stop spinning.  So I would suddenly concentrate completely on this wheel going around and around nonstop.  It would sometimes take me almost 5 minutes to calm things down.   I had a horrible tic where I would shake my head violently over and over again throughout the day.  I started messing up the muscles in my neck and giving myself daily migraines.   I had a horrible tic where I would shake my head violently over and over again throughout the day.  I started messing up the muscles in my neck and giving myself daily migraines.  Of course all the anxiety caused by all of this caused it to be even worse.

So some how I made it through many years of all of that, and I made it to high school.  In high school things got changed up and I went from Adderall to Concerta 54, the high dose.  Then in 11th grade I was switched to a non-stimulant drug called Strattera.  They made the switch cause my doctor finally realized that my tics were still there.  Those started to calm down, however my throat clicking and stuttering still continued.  Something no one really knew was that when taking Strattera it amplifies your emotions and feelings, and being a hormonal teenager things were great.  NOT.

I became really depressed and had many a dark thought.  My grades started to slip and it only just plummeted.  I think the only reason I made it through was cause I got to the summer and I went off all my meds.  I was free and able to figure out what would make me feel better.  What could I do to take control of my mind??  What the hell is the answer???

Well, I spent a lot of time watching M*A*S*H.  Besides doing that (its a great show may I add) and watching a lot of other things and building up an enormous collection of movies and TV shows, I played games.  A lot of games.

I have been playing games all of my life.  One of the constants that I have had.  I am a big lover of RPG games (if you haven't figured yet).  During this summer period I played a lot of RPG games and they helped me to get aligned right.  Once my senior year started I had a munch better mindset and I went back on the Strattera.  I killed it that year.  My grades shot through the roof and I made honor roll for the first time ever (hell I made it multiple times).  I had my first real relationship and got into college.  I started to play FFXI as well and that helped me to reward myself with playing.

Then I graduated and I made the decision to come off all my medication entirely.  I felt that I had trained myself enough to make it without the meds.  And so I did.  That was in June of 2004, and since then I have been med free since then.  I went through college without anything but my only ability to figure out how to control my mind.  I then went through grad school and now have a job and an amazing wife and been med free.  Its a great feeling and I think besides the wonderful people in my life that have always supported me, I think that games helped me to get through things.

The pattern that many games have where you have to do the same thing over and over again helped my OCD tendencies big time.  I quickly set into things and could keep going with them cause of this pattern.

Another aspect of the games that helped me was the ability to escape.  FFXI helped with this greatly since I was completely immersed in another world cause of the MMO platform.  With games however I could escape.  When I got hyper anxious or nervous about things, or I got over stressed, I knew that I could turn on a machine and escape for awhile.  This type of therapy helped my brain get into a new place and a pattern, while part of my brain sorted out the details of the madness of my life.  I never felt bad when I played games (except when I would die and not saved for a while.  DAMN YOU when that happened).  I only felt pleasantness.  Some people might say this is not the way to approach things.  That you need to take things head on.  They would be right with that method.  I would do that eventually.  I just needed to do something to take the edge and craziness of the world out of my mind and sort out how I wanted to do things before I did them.  Then once I was done I would take care of my problems.

I kicked ass in college and grad school using this method.  I don't think that I even thought of it as one then.  Looking back now I do consider it my own little therapy method.  It feels good to be able to step out of this chaotic swirling vortex of anger and stimulus that we call life so one can look back on things and sort it out.  With work and all nowadays its hard for me to find the time to just turn on a new world and step out for second.  I do my best to do that and this blog helps me to do so.  My tics have been minimal (knock on wood) with controllable ups and downs, and my OCD is pretty contained.  My ADHD is still around, but I have lost the H awhile ago.  I know how to let my mind wonder and bring it back in.

I was able to grow up and assert more control over my emotions and mind.  Control my anger and sadness. Do all of this cause I had games to help me.  I can be in control without them now.  Its not an addiction at all.  I can play games just to play them and enjoy them when I want to.  But when times get tough I can turn on the machine and step out for a few.  Take a mental 3 hours or so when I can find the time.  Its something that I know is possible and will enjoy for the rest of my life.  Games have helped me so much and I intend to help them back.  And by doing that I plan to play them and beat them.

Plus, this is much better than relieving my frustrations with alcohol, smoking, drugs, or violent sex.

DON'T DO DRUGS

Dragoon Power Bitches

If any of this seems redundant its because I am not checking my earlier posts to see if I have talked at all about things.

Why you ask?

I am lazy.  The idea of combing through many posts of information makes me want to hurl right now.

Look.  I had a long day yesterday.  Had to spend about 10 hours on a bus travelling for work.  It surely was a blast.

Time Travel Forward.

Found at http://www.lightspeed.cx/

I started this post on 10/24.  I just started back on this on 11/1.  Why?

Well.  I blame it on a bitch name Sandy.

AP/Weather Underground - NOAA satellite image 10/28/2012

Hurricane Sandy to be specific.

On October 26th, my birthday, my wife and I flew to DC so that she could run in the Marine Corps Marathon with her father.  The race was on the 28th.  We knew before heading up that Sandy was coming, however we knew the marathon had to go on.  We were to leave to come back to Savannah on the evening of the 29th.  All planned out and good to go.

On the 27th we started to get word that maybe we should move our plane back to after the race, but we wanted to spend time in DC with friends and family, and we thought we would be good on Monday evening.  Mostly cause our brains were telling us that DC wasn't the direct target.  I mean I have been through a couple of these things before and I know how to call a hurricane target.

So Sunday, October 28th arrives.  My wife and her father wake up and they head out on the metro.  They start the marathon at 7:55 and proceed to kick some ass.  I met up with many friends, including we$$, and we went all over DC and VA on the metro and by foot to catch them at different points.  It was so exciting to cheer them on.  The adventure of tracking them and catching the right metro was great.  I still remember the face my wife gave when she saw us around mile marker 22-23.  She just had this surprised look like she didn't know we were going to be there.  Then she smiled and we cheered her on.  We met her at the final hill at the finish line and I even jogged with her some (I am sooo out of shape) to help her get through that last part.  She finished around 5:50 and is officially a marathoner.

YAY!!!!!!!

I really am proud of my wife for completing her first marathon.  She is a marathoner.  Thats so damn cool.  I think I am more proud of her than I would be of anything else.  Even completing this damn list.  GO MARATHON WIFE!!!

If any of you would like to follow her blog you can check her out here.  Its a great blog for people who like running, or want to know more about it.


Back to the matter at hand.  Se we get back to the hotel and discover that OUR PLANES HAVE BEEN CANCELLED!!!.

NOOOOO.  That cannot be.  We had plans.  We were going back.  Alas, all the airports from DC and north of were shutdown starting Sunday night.  We were stuck in DC until Thursday at the soonest.  November 1st.

So after I got things squared away with work, and we found out we could stay in the hotel (2 bed/2 bath/ with a kitchen so it rocked), we settled down and decided to make the best of things.  It was around this point that I realized that I was glad I brought Legend of Dragoon with me.

I started at this point during the downtime to really point some work into LoD.  We would get trophies and spend time with we$$ in DC, but during the downtime when the wife and her father were resting or napping cause they were exhausted from the marathon, I would game like mad.  I think I got a good solid 9 hours extra in on things.  Which helped me to get pretty far.  I have really kicked ass with the additions system and Dragoon levels.

Wait a second.  What are the additions?  Well, its something nifty that Square put in.  Instead of most RPG fighting where you just click attack and your character does that, you are presented with a closing square that you have to hit the X button just in time to score an additional hit (ahhhhh see where addition comes from??).  Additions don't just give you more SP that allows you to transform into a Dragoon, nor just causing a hell of a lot more damage, but it also breaks up the monotony of things.  Yeah you can get through fights by just hitting the same button over and over and over again and not pay attention, but I have found that this can get old.  Having to time things so you can get extra damage, plus have to level up your individual additions adds an extra uniqueness to things that keeps me interested.  Your character don't gain that much when they level up like other games.  Instead the real determining factor is how proficient one is with using additions.  That is where you get your true strength from in the game.  Even with Dragoon transformations, because you are so limited with what you can do when transformed you have more power with the use of additions.

So I find myself now on Disc 4, with almost all of the side stuff done.  Like most RPG games grinding is what I am doing now.  It can be draining on one though.  Doing the same things over and over and over again is so BLAH at times.  The additions system helps some, but I think I am going to finish the last side quest soon then head on to complete the game.

I loved this kid when I was a kid.  It was amazing and I blew it up in my mind that this was the end all Square game that needed more advertisement than it actually got.  I still think that Square could build a lot with the Dragoon series, but there are a lot of flaws in this game that I wouldn't have picked up as a wee lad.  The translation for the game is kind of hard for me to get through.  I don't know if it is that or something else but the storyline just seems to happen without any transitions.  Things just happen and you have to go with it, no explanations at all.  It can be a little disconcerting cause you have to just go with it.  Blah.  It can ruin the flow of things.  I am doing one thing with the storyline and then suddenly I have to do something else just cause I was told to abruptly.  I NEED BACK STORY PEOPLE!!!

I will keep people updated on things.  I am hopping to have this game completed soon so I can get done with Battlestar: Galactica on Netflix.  Then I can watch the new series online and read the books.

AHHH!!

I have way too much on my to do lists

Mega Man (Rock Man) Rocks in X

I was working on my Legend of Dragoon post before my wife and I left to go to DC last week so she could run the Marine Corps Marathon (it was her first marathon ever).  She totally rocked it as well.  I am so proud of her.

I will finish up my Legend of Dragoon post, plus talk about our experience up in DC and then the subsequent being stuck in DC soon.  I wanted to talk about another game I just completed.

MegaMan X with no upgrades

MegaMan X with upgrades.  Pretty badass, minus his thunder shins

I have loved MegaMan since I was a kid. The original games on the NES were a bitch to beat.  I attribute this to the fact that back in the day everything was harder, including kids growing up.  We didn't have as many limitations by people or people looking out for us.  There was a constant concern of natural selection taking over and we would end up dead in the street.  This mentality also was taken into video games.  Many people have played the original MegaMan games and never completed them, myself included.  It was so damn hard to get through the levels to the bosses for each stage and not just having to beat them.  Some of them had an easy mode that you could try to use to help get through the game, but still it was hard as hell.

There are many trademarks to MegaMan.  Dr. Light, Dr. Wright, the ability to take your enemies ability and use it.  Robots Robots Robots.  It is fun.

Now MegaMan X is a reinvention of the MegaMan series for when Capcom decided to develop the MegaMan for the SNES.  It has 16-bit graphics, new characters, new story, and takes place ~100 years in the future.  MegaMan X was made by Dr. Light in the past but locked away due to certain factors.  If you are really concerned about the back story to him, you can find it here.  

X has an added bonus to him from MegaMan in that you find capsules with Dr. Light's hologram in them giving X newer armor and body.  I don't know why but when I was a wee lad I loved this concept of upgrading beyond just getting new abilities.  It was so cool looking for upgrades, heart tanks, extra energy tanks.  I loved it.  I needed it.

Maybe this is what fueled my wonderful OCD.  Who knows.

So now that I have laid down the foundation for MegaMan X and my attraction, the question is why did I just play it?

Well, the reason is I needed something to break up the monotony that has been going on in terms of the games that I have been playing.  I love RPG's.  I love them oh so much.  But when you play a whole lot of them at one time then it feels as if your life is dragging on and on.  Just grinding away the days.  Because you have to spend a lot more time on a RPG (on Legend of Dragoon I am currently around 56 hours) you need a break.  And MegaMan X provided that for me.

I was able to beat Mega Man X in maybe 7 hours tops.  I did a full Complete as well and have updated Backloggery to reflect that.  All upgrades and tanks and weapons GOT bitches.

I guess this is when I talk about Mega Man X and its coolness factors and all.  It was cool.  It did well in terms of setting off the X series of games.  I will be playing the other X games, mostly cause I have them on my list, but because I like the series.  Because I am playing my SNES for the most part on a PC emulator I get the added benefit of having save states.  I love save states.  I can instantly save anywhere and return to it whenever.  Its great.  But I think this can also damper the experience sometimes.

Instead of having to deal with dying and then going back through the stage, or replaying the boss again and again, with whatever energy I have left over in terms of my weapon energy usage, I got to cheat the system and restart exactly where I was.  I used this to help me with the final boss fight for the game cause I could save state each time I landed a hit on him so I would not lose my process.  In normal play you would have to keep track of passwords that you get when you complete stages or whatever, but the save state process knocks all of that out.  It cuts out the fine property of the game where you have to be really careful and plan things out.  You can't explore too much or you have to start alll over again.  That is something that is nice for someone who wants to experience the game as opposed to someone who wishes only to complete things.

I try and not to play through just to play through.  I like to experience the story and all.  However the other part of me is like "Hey dude.  There is this ability with the emulator that you can use.  Might as well."  So I did my best to balance the two and didn't abuse the system.

Bottom line time.  Should people play this.  I think everyone should play this that has every played a Mega Man game and enjoyed it.  It is different but the same.  I guess you could say it is a same difference.  Its a great game.  I am glad it is not something where it is a completely different path from the original series.  Its a great game and keeps to a similar route, maybe just off to the side.  Like a highway access road.  Yeah.  Like that.

Play it!

Live Streaming

I am slowly cross referencing my Backlog page and the List to make sure all the games are accounted for.  It will take sometime to do that but I will make sure to continue with the longer posts more frequently once I have that done.

I wanted to inform everyone that I am going to Live Stream my games that I play on my PC.  This will include Steam games, Emulators, PC games, and FFXI.  You can find the channel on twitch.tv that I use at:
www.twitch.tv/Sargon54


Stop by anytime to catch me on there.

Time travelling with FFXIII-2

So I think that during my hiatus from writing one of my biggest accomplishments gaming wise has been working on FFXIII-2.

Before I went away for a long time I was having some issues getting into the game.  I felt the story was a little too campy and the leveling system was quite complicated.  I was very overwhelmed with just the enormity of things that one could do.  At least that is how it felt at first.

After almost 40 hours into the game and coming up to the end of the normal playthrough I have really started to like this game.

The graphics are great (which is a normal for SE).  The worlds pull me into them and make me feel as if I am there.  The colors are bright and crisp and how they style the future is amazing.  I do think they could have added some off the beaten path locations in each timeline and not just in one zone, but I am ok with things.

The battle system I think is much better than in FFXIII.  In FFXIII (which is really the only FF game this can be fairly compared to) you had multiple characters, but you could go through the whole game with just the same 3.  The stats were predetermined and there was not the much individuality offered to the characters.  I like what SE did with FFXIII-2 though in terms of having 2 characters and then a slew of monsters that you can place in the party with you to fight.  Noel and Serah can develop jobs however you want, and their is even more customization with the benefits that come with selecting which jobs get large nodes and which get small nodes.  To further elaborate on this (cause I needed to do lots of research) if you have Ravager select a small node, then you just get a STR and MAG increase.  If you have Ravager select a large node then you get those basic increases plus a bonus for magic.  Commando does STR bonus.  Some of the jobs allow for one type of bonus if you select a large node on an even level, while another bonus for an odd level.  This makes you have to plan things out more and for a RPG that is an element that I like to see.
The monsters have only one job depending on what they are.  They will only be COM, RAV, SAB, etc.  You can't have them change.  They have a leveling system as well that is similar to that of the one for Noel and Serah.  The biggest customization benefit they have is in their abilities.  Each monster can only have 10 abilities at one time.  They all have 1 ability that is locked.  This is important because you can have monsters level up and then infuse their abilities into another one, thus getting rid of the first monster, to make the second more powerful and to benefit the party more.  I haven't explored that much into this, yet it will probably become more of an impact when I get into post-game play.

The story.  The big thing with FF's game is the fact that the story has many twists and turns, comes out of nowhere and smacks you in the mouth, all while taking you on an amazing journey.  It needs to draw you in and not notice that you are escaping from reality for awhile.  The question then is as follows:
"Does Final Fantasy XIII-2 do this"??

Its a hard question to directly answer.  The story does have some twists, but not as many as I am used to in a FF game.  Maybe its cause I am watching Battlestar Galactica and have played waayy to many RPG's, but I am able to figure out what is going to happen.  I am not a surprised at things that I normally would be.  That is not to say the story is good.  To refrain from spoilers the way that SE has taken on the idea of time changing and paradoxes is interesting since it is different than what we normally think of when we talk about paradoxes.  I like the idea of time travel and different universes and all of that.  Its crazy the creativity that people can come up with.  Its because of this element that they are able to add the slight bit of openness to the game with the ability to go to different areas and get sidetracked with completing quests and getting fragments.  FFXIII had you just go along a line without being able to deter.  FFXIII-2 allows you to run around and do different things without having to stay on the same line.  Its nice to have this as I am someone who really does miss running around world map and spending tens of hours doing non main story stuff.

I am now in the middle of Episode 5 and I am really starting to figure out why what has happened has happened.  I like it.  My goal is to have the main storyline done by the end of this week, and then start to work on the postgame play next week.  There is a lot of things to do and I am excited.

Been a long time...

God it has been a long time.

An exceedingly long period of counting that concerns seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, etc. has passed.


And I have been nowhere to usher those (oh few you are) through the journey that we call completing a shitload of bad investments.


Lets do a little self imposed Q&A on what has happened:

Where the flying f**ktards have you been?
Well kids, I have been here, at my computer.  Also over yonder on the couch.  And upstairs sleeping in the bed.  Plus there is hanging with the wife and the pup.  Oh, and that work thing.  Blah to work I say.

There be an issue with the work thing?
Well, work has been pretty intense lately.  There was a chance that the wife and I would be moving but things unfortunately fell through.  So I have been picking up some extra shifts at work in the morning to make some extra cash.

Ok, I am bummed for you since things haven't gone well.  Have you kept up on the games?
Heck yeah.

Really?
Yeah

Really??
...ehhh.  To the best that I can.  With so much work lately I have tried to do my best to get through the list.  I will also say that I fell prey to the Steam Summer Sales program (maybe one of my biggest enemies) and I got some games off of that for my PC.  At least I got a great deal on them.


Over the months I have been working as consistent as I can with getting through the games (always insert title when you can).  I use Backloggery as my main tracker of all my games.  I routinely praise them for such a great site, and they deserve it.  Its so simple and easy to use.  Nothing complicated or annoying notifications that you get at all hours of the day.  This is one of the main reasons why I haven't been keeping up with my blog really.  Cause my thinking was I could just update things on my Backloggery page and those that really wanted to could follow me there.

Ok.  So why decide now to start back on the blog?
Well I can only do so much with Backloggery.  I like to write out my thoughts sometimes.  Elaborate on what my brain and feelings are saying to those out there in cyberland.  Those are really the main reasons.
I think I also have some grand delusion of being famous on the internet for something that does not involve a sex tape.

Note: I do not have a sex tape on the web.

The Q&A session is now over.

Let me catch you up on things.  I have completed a handful of games, added a good amount of games.  And I am carrying on.  That is all that one needs to know.  I am going to update the List so it reflects what is going on.  I should have a new post in the next couple of days.

Caves be a bitch!!

I hate caves sometimes.

I am working on the Sylvan Cave in FFIV right now.  Its an optional area that gives you some summons, some good items, and lets you meet up with a special guest.  It is also a huge pain in the ass to travel through.  Crazy ass monsters always jumping out and attacking.  Using their fire spells which causes me a ton of pain since I left all my fire resistant gear behind.  

Blah.

The worst thing is that I collected many chest and items, and then my GBA fell off my table and reset.  

REALLY!!!!!!!!!

So now I have to reclaim a lot of that stuff I had already obtained.

Back I go

Its Been Awhile

Wow.

Seriously.  Wow.

It has been way too long since I worked on this.  Why have I been gone?

Kidnapped?  No.
Murdered? Clearly no.
Turned into a tree hugger and decided to give up all modern technology?  HAHAHAHAHAHAH.  No.


Its a mixture of reasons really.  I haven't felt a huge drive to really write about things.  I haven't really even played that many games really.  Mostly just FFXI until I played Diablo for a couple of hours yesterday.  That got me going again.  Got that urge flowing.  That need to escape.  I am such a damn junkie.

My computer had also been on the fritz for awhile as well.  I had a driver issue between iTunes, my game keyboard, and some other things so I ended up just redoing my windows 7 installation.  Now I have no problems.  I am soo damn happy for that.

The final reason has been things at work have been chaotic.  As of right now there is a good chance that I might not have a job come July 1st, and the stress level is insane.  And by insane I mean:

Things have started to look a little better on the job front, and there is a good chance that the wife and I (and of course Jacob) will be making a move somewhere, but that won't be decided until later.

With all that established I just want to quickly summarize things.  I have gotten quite a bit in FFIV.  I am currently underground, and I have discovered that Cid did not actually die.  So at least one less death.  HAHA

FFXI has gone well.  I went to town and I got my SAM up to level 60 and that is amazing.  I am really liking that job and will keep you updated on that.

I put much time into Diablo like I said and I made it to floor 5 with no problems.  Going to grind for awhile there and then will keep moving on down.

Sorry about the short post.  More will come.  I swear.

New Directions (I hate singing teens)

After getting through AC I decided to take a couple of days off to just relax from video games and recenter myself.  I think I got caught up in the drive to clear off as many games as I could in a small amount of time that I didn't take the time to enjoy things.  So I have been watching Eureka, Deadliest Catch, and Hulu.  A lot of Hulu.  I love me some Hulu.  Its good to just relax and rest.  Well that and I have over 400 episodes of shows on Hulu sitting there and waiting for me to watch for the past year, and that number grows every week.  Sigh.


During this restful time I thought it would be good to get back into FFXI.  Its nice to do this.  I have a freeworld to do things in without have to follow too much of a linear path to a conclusion.  Yes.  I love the missions and quests and fights, but I could spend my whole day crafting if I wanted to (I would get a lot of Hulu watching done, thats for sure).  With that in mind I wanted to get on a theme of some sort.  So what should I do???

What should I do???

I know.

Get all my jobs up to at least level 20-25.  That is what I will do.  I only have warrior, dark knight, dancer, and ninja over that (they are 95, 60, 52, and 50 respectively).  So I need to get the other 16 up.  Some are close (paladin is at 19), while others are far (bard is the farthest at level 3).  So its time I start to play some catch up with my jobs.  Most everyone else has almost all if not all in the 90's.  Its great to have a lot of variability when it comes to what you can help people with.  Especially since all I have had was my warrior (WAR) and it has been quite limiting.  Also, I have a lot of low level


So I started off with a job I never really wanted much to do with.  Well, not that much with (I HATE bard (BRD)).  That is white mage (WHM).

Not me, but a WHM in AF gear

I had mine at lvl 11 and decided to take it with a basic equipment load to Gusgen Mines and joined a burn party.  A burn party is one that is made up of many people all synced to a low level, attacking the same enemy.  With the Ground of Valor system, all we have to do is kill certain enemies a set amount of times and we get a reward of experience points and other things.  The more pages (like contracts) you do, the more experience you get.  So its easy to rack up a lot in a short amount of time.  So I worked with WHM and went from lvl 11 to 25 in 2.5 hours.  I accumulated about 52k experience.  It was purely insane.

This experience not only allowed me to rack up my WHM with lots of spells and help me to grow and like my WHM.  It also resparked things for me in the game.  I was pumped.  I wanted to lvl EVERYTHING.


So what to do next??

The races in Dragoon Relic Armor

Thats right.  Dragoon.  I have long thought about taking Dragoon to the top with my wyvern buddy.  So I repeated the process again and took my DRG to Gusgen Mines and went to town.  I got my DRG up to lvl 30 and realized that I like this different type of Damage Dealing (DD) job.  WAR is a DD and a backup tank.  You can do a lot of damage with a WAR, however DRG's bring something new to the table with their agility and piercing damage.  And those damn wyverns helps as well.

So now that I got DRG up, I decided it was time to work on a good sub for my WAR, my DRG, as well as a good DD itself.

Samurai

Kind of badass

SAM is a great DD.  Their inherit ability to build up tactical points (TP) to use weapon skills, as well as abilities to increase stats that relate to attack and accuracy.  AMAZING.  Since they use a Great Katana which is a two handed weapon, when you sub them onto a WAR or DRG (a WAR using a Great Axe, also two handed) you will have a powerhouse.  I can just say this.  I really got into SAM.  I felt like I was working with my WAR again.  It just felt natural.  I like going into battle and charging up and knowing that when I hit the monster I am doing some serious damage.  Plain and simple.  I am starting to love this job.  Hell, there are great possibilities with this subbed onto my DRK as well.

Back to the matter at hand.  I get my SAM up to lvl 31.  I got out of Gusgen Mines and made my way over to the Crawler's Nest where I picked up with another burn party (there seems to always be one there anyways).  I think now that I have grown to like SAM, I might shelve my earlier goal of all jobs to at least lvl 20-25, and take SAM all the way up.  Its fun.  I am having fun.

Holy hell do I love FFXI.

Don't Pick a Favorite

Seriously.  Don't.  Cause they might die.

This is going to be a spoiler post.  I am just going to start that off right now.  If you don't want any spoilers for Final Fantasy IV, then stop now.  Do not continue.




Now.  A shitload of characters die in this.  You start to like some and then BAM.  Death.

I am now about to enter Babel Tower, and just picked up Edge to join my party.  But thats not what I am talking about.  No.  Lets discuss the members of my party that I have lost so far, and I am maybe at the halfway point.

First to go, Palom and Porom

Edward, not dead however he is out sick

Tellah, sacrifices himself

Yang, another sacrifice

Cid, yet another sacrifice

That is 6 people (excluding Edward makes it 5) who have sacrificed themselves for the good of the party.  I understand that its for the betterment of everyone, however Palom and Porom dies so soon after you get them that I am still trying to get my head to stop spinning.  Its completely crazy.  I have experienced party member death before.  One of my fondest memories of a FF game is in FFIX when Blank saves the party and is eternal placed in Stone (yet the party seeks out a way to cure him of this status and he is released later on).  There are other instances as well, however FFIV strikes me so hard because they happen one right after the other.  Its like the creators didn't like their creation so they wanted to come up with a way to clear the lot of them as quickly as possible.

Silly creators.

The other thing that strikes me is how they tell how Rydia, one of the main characters of the story and the lone Summoner, goes from a young girl to 17 in a flash.  Normally you would be like What the Hell????  But Squaresoft had this planned out.  After you are separated from your party you have to keep going and you eventually get the band back together.  Rydia explains that she was sent to the World of Summons (I probably have that completely wrong, sorry) where she learns more spells, aaaannndddd even though she was there for a short amount of real game time, time in this other world flows faster so several years have passed.  BAM!!  Explanation has been provided.

So now that I have talked about that, I feel like there may be more deaths to come.  Who knows.  I have half of the game to go.  Many many things can still happen.  I am enjoying the game so far and its nice to be reliving this older game.  

Freaking Conspiracy

Assassin's Creed


Completion time is unknown.  I couldn't find a clock for the game.


Finally have another game done.  I know I haven't really kept you abreast to how this one has gone lately, however I have been all over the place and really had to force myself to keep on point with completing this game.

I am happy.  This is the first time since I started using the Backloggery that I have a completion done.  I am sooo happy.

So lets talk about Assassin's Creed (AC).

It was a good game.  Graphics were nice, the story line was good.  I really have no big complaints about things.

Well.  I take that back.

The controls were a little buggy, the game became quite repetitive, and the ending was just...well...blah.

I liked the game for tying up the loose ends that I developed when I started the "trilogy" with AC2.  I am glad they improved the game with AC2 (however that in itself does have glitches galore.  I LOATHE YOU AC2 FOR ROBBING ME OF MY PLATINUM TROPHY).

So what are we dealing with in AC??

Don't want to see him in an alley

You have above a man by the name of Altair.  He happens to be an Assassin.  He loses his rank within the clan and must redeem himself by killing a number of targets.  This is all meant to protect an artifact.  Beyond that I will not venture too much into the story.

This is a video game that bases itself on this conspiracy about Templars and how they have affected the world.  Things that they are hiding and what their aim to humanity is.  It brings that added level of intrigue to things and keeps you wanting more.  Knowing what I know from the other games in the "trilogy" it gets all sorts of crazy after AC.  

What its all centered around

The above is the mysterious artifact that the story revolves around, as well as the "trilogy".  I won't go into details about it since that would ruin many many things.  You must play to learn.

Why do I keep saying "trilogy"?  Well, There is AC and AC2.  AC3 will be released later this year.  However there are 2 "sequels" to AC2 that make it more than just 3 games (use those math skills you learned in elementary school people).  AC3 will be based during the Revolutionary War period so I am excited to see how they are going to involve some more modern elements into things.  EXCITEMENT!!

Back to things.  Should someone play this game?   Yes.  Its a great series and thus you need to know how things began.  Will I play this again??  No.  I did a full completion of it now because I didn't want to deal with the clumsiness of it again.  Experience it at least once.  It might just change your world.

Checking In

Damn.

Just damn.

I am failing at keeping this updated.  I don't know exactly why either.  I haven't been keeping up with my gaming that much.  Been reading a lot.

Mostly though I have been spending a lot of quality time with my wonderful wife.  Its been amazing.  Definitely something that has helped destress myself and everything that is going on with my work.

I have thus not been working too much on things since we have been touring town and exploring the fun things around Savannah.

In downtime I have done some work on Diablo which I am proud of.  Gotten to lvl 9 for my Warrior, and to floor 3.  Got my ass almost handed to me by the King Lich.  Luckily I was able to town portal out of there and then log for the night.

Seems I will have to work on my lvling first, then go back in there.  I only have 65% hit rate, which is a suckfest.

I will update things (I promise) soon.  With my sports dying down at work now, and moving onto only one sport going to playoffs, things will be easier for me.  I won't have a damn soccer game every night (sooooo exhausted from that).

Hoping to get this going again as well.  Also, you can always track me on Backloggery.

Holy Fish!!! (Mackeral)

I know I have been away for awhile and that is in part due to work.  I have been working a lot of late night games and events that I get home exhausted.  Once that occurs I just don't feel like putting words onto paper (screen).

I was checking up on things today with the blog, thinking of a post when I saw that I have surpassed 2000 views. WOW!!!

I know that most of this might be spam sites.  I need to figure out how to counteract that activity.  However still. I am impressed.


Now what have been up to lately??  Well.  I have been working a lot on FFIV, and on Assassin's Creed.  I have been working on FFXI too since We$$ is able to get on more now.  I am trying though to keep my play time on FFXI down so I won't get absorbed into that too much and forget about everything else.

I have been working hard on AC lately.  I have decided to get a complete on it since it will be my first complete since I started using Backloggery.  I have been working a lot on my Backloggery page.  If you wanted to keep up with my daily progress it is the best way to go about it.  I posted a link to my page on the links section of my blog.

Exchange Rates

I have been thinking for awhile and I believe that it times for some changing.

Not some big life changing thing, nor a mid-life crisis.  Heck I am only 26.  Not there yet.


No, I need to juggle up my groups a little bit in terms of the console selection.

Currently I have Final Fantasy XIII-2 on the playlist, however I think I need to change that.  I just beat FFV and Crisis Core, and I am currently playing FFIV.  I also am working a lot on FFXI so I feel like I am just surrounded by fantasies that are all final (joke joke).

Seriously though.  I never thought I might get sick of Final Fantasy games.  I love the series.  Thats very easily known.  However I need a change though, especially on the console side of things.

I think the best thing to do is to switch FFXIII-2 out with Assassin's Creed.  I never did play the first game in that series and I now have that plus Assassin's Creed: Revelations.  So what I plan to do is to start playing AC.  Then after that see how I am feeling and reevaluate if I want to start up FFXIII-2 again.  I know for Group III I have FFVI slated to play.  I am going to see about changing that as well whenever I get to it.

FFVI has been something that I have been debating on what to do.  I do own it for GBA and I am pretty far on it.  I know the story of it however I am willing to restart it again.  If I did that I would want to purchase it for the PSP and play on there.  I do favor playing handhelds on my PSP and when I get the chance I like to play games on it.

However do I really want to spend money on something that I already have??

Knight on!!

Things have been a little slow lately.  I blame it on the fact that I have been pretty stuck on my comp as of late just making sure that the final adjustments are made and everything is running properly (i.e. testing its processor power in many ways, including FFXI and Half-Life at the same time).

Because of this I have been having issues committing to playing FFXIII-2.  That and the fact that I have been working every night since last Thursday and that will continue until Tuesday.  I haven't had the drive to really sit down and get working on FFXIII-2.  Since I am in the beginning stages of the game it does require a lot of effort to go through all the tutorials and get the basics of the story down.  My hope is to do that next week, however I have been contemplating switching it out for Assassin's Creed (AC) so I can not be completely over FFed.  I still have sometime however to make that decision.

Instead lets focus on FFIV.  I had made a lot of progress with FFIV awhile ago, but then as always I stopped playing it for awhile.  I tried my best to figure out what was happening in the game but I could not for the life of me figure out things.  Thus I decided to delete a 30 hour saved game so I could start from scratch.

I like the story of Cecil and his journey of being a Dark Knight and finding the "Light Side".  I love the Dark Knight job and its mystery that surrounds it.  Also the armor for it is pretty damn sweet.  Its my second favorite job in FFXI as well.


Its pretty late now and I think that I am going to call it a night.  However I will have more to talk about as I play further along.  I got a 2 hour one way bus ride tomorrow, so I will have enough time to play on.

Sorry about the delay, but good news

A week ago my desktop died.

I was mad.  Really mad in fact.  My hard drive seemed to have corrupted again and it would not boot through. This had been probably the 4th time it had done this and I knew that I could just keep cycling of formatting, reinstall everything, and then it crash again.

So after talking with my wonderful wife we spent the money needed and I got my computer parts for my new build.  YAY!!!

Once I got them in I spent about 2.5 hours of painstaking, massive concentration requiring, building of the computer.  I followed the manuals and the videos for building that Newegg.com provides (available here) and was able to put it all together.

Then I turned it on and...

IT WORKED!!!

I was soooo excited.  I could barely contain myself.

Once I got that done I searched for anyone that might be able to get me a copy of Windows 7, however that failed.  So I broke down and bought it.  Got it installed yesterday and have been working on copying all my data over to it today.


Man, this comp is fast.  I mean really damn fast.  Its pretty much exactly what I wanted.  My wife has told me that I need to geek out more but I am afraid that if I don't contain myself it would burst like a dam and I will never stop.  wheeeeeeeeeeeee


I have yet to test FFXI or any other games on it but I can only imagine how fast it will be once I get them up and running.  I can't wait to play games without having to put things on the lowest setting.  ahhhh  going to be so nice to do.

I really do like Win7 though.  Don't get me wrong.  I would probably get XP tattooed on me if I wanted to.  I will always have that as my favorite OS.  Hands down greatest thing Microsoft has done in the last decade or so.  Win7 though is not buggy to me.  Well, not yet.  It is very clean and bright.  Easy to read.  Warm and inviting even.

I know the history of Vista and all, and I am glad to see that this doesn't have all those issues with it.


Now, in terms of the games.  I have started FFXII-2 and I am still trying to figure out what exactly I want to say about its beginning.  It will be a good post.  I have also been working on FFIV as well and you will see those posts soon.  I promise.

As for now, I am going to keep fiddling with AMAZINGNESS!!!!

Another one down

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII


Finally got another one done.  Heck yeah.

Final completion time:
41:36:03

Take that and add it to total and you get:
140:41:31.

This works out to be:

5 Days, 20 Hours, 41 Minutes, 31 Seconds.

Its weird that it has taken me this long to beat Crisis Core.  I think the only distraction that I found with this one was the fact that the Missions can take soooo long to complete if you plan on doing a 100% completion.

Did I beat all the missions??

...no.

I just couldn't keep going.  I was sitting there on the edge of the end and the call of another game off the list (+FFXIII-2 calling out to me) I decided to take the plunge.  Will I go back later and replay the game in the New Game+ feature and do a 100% completion?

Yes.  That won't be for a little while though.  I need to decompress some.


Lets get to the game though.

I liked the story a lot.  Its weird when you play a prequel and you know how things are going to end.  The real talent in the game design rests in how the story is made from already existing elements.  I think they did a great job at answering a lot of questions that people probably had on the origins of some of the characters for FFVII.  I had always felt as if FFVII started off like you were in the middle of a conversation and didn't know how it started.  Crisis Core helps to show that beginning.

The cut scene graphics in it are amazing.  Hell, once you get to the end a FF fan will love the ending sequence.  I believed that it was done to the best of anyone's abilities.  Another way to say that is that it was simply a masterpiece.  No better way.

Now I did not enjoy the final boss battle.  I honestly felt as if it could have been a lot harder, but it was quite the dud of a fight.  I am used to something that is the culmination of all of your hard work and skills that you have learned in the game.  It must test how you use your items, spells, time, and strategy for a final reward.  The End.  Crisis Core didn't have that to it.  They spent more time making the missions harder than the main story I believe which shows they are working on the idea that the main story should be easy, but those that want an extra challenge can go out and find it in the side quests.  I don't like this.  I want it to be all challenging. Make me work.

Crisis Core is also quite linear in terms of what you can do and where you can go.  I like an open world concept.  I like going wherever I want to go at any time.  Crisis Core cuts your legs out from under you with that.  Yes it is a PSP game so you can't go all epic like Fallout 3, but you could at least add some more areas to things.  You spend most of your "exploring time" in missions, revisiting the same places over and over again that it gets hard to stomach.



Lets get down to it though.  I will replay this game later on in life to get the 100% complete.  I did have multiple saves so I could enjoy the different cut scenes in the game.  I wanted to play this game to determine the pre-FFVII storyline.  I don't think though I would replay it simply for the storyline again.


However:

Zack is a bad ass.  I do believe that any of the cool points that Cloud has were only given to him by Zack.

Plain and simple.

Loving it

I think that I am officially obsessed with Backloggery.

I spent almost 4 hours last night inputting games that I have beaten and not beaten into the site and I have almost all of them.  I would add more if I could remember all the games of my youth without having to have them in front of me to remind me of them.

What sucks is that I keep checking my page on the site and not really working on Crisis Core which I need to do.  I am working on the missions for it so I can have a complete for it, as well for better items and whatnot.  The repetitiveness of it however is very taxing on my concentration.

In laymen terms...it bores the shit out of me at times.

I know I have written about this in the past, but it is the slot system that does it to me the most.  I like to get my rewards for fighting immediately and not have to wait for an almost completely random system to award them to me.  I would also like to see where my exp status is.  I digress though.

I am working on completing Crisis Core tonight.  Not much good comes on TV, and I am almost done with season 6 of Law & Order, which has an amazing season finale to it.

So I will have my PSP plugged in and charged as I battle on.


Also, you will notice on the List page that I have almost hit 90 games.  Yeah.  I added a lot of games to the List.  I don't plan on adding anymore for a bit.  The reason I had not had a lot of those games on there was because I didn't feel as if they should be on the List.  They were quick purchases.  However as the Backloggery as taught me though I need to count those games as things that are holding me back.  I can't just pick and choose.  Thats how I ended up in this situation in the first place.

Writing this blog has helped me to stay committed to objectives that I have.  To sit down and say that I will accomplish this task now and not be distracted.  Screw you ADD I say.  Sometimes we just have to find a tool or something that will help keep the nose to the grindstone.  Hopefully in the end its something that we learn to maintain and cherish.

AMAZINGNESS

So I was reading my google news page today and saw this website that had the title of The Final Fantasy Challenge, found here

I realized that this author was doing something pretty similar to what I am doing with my List, just happens to be with Final Fantasy games.

Upon further reading I found that he was using a website called Backloggery, which allows one to make a list of games completed and, most importantly, uncompleted.


I swear its like a gift from above.  Its a system that will take my list to a whole new level in terms of me keeping track of things for myself but for others.

I am working on loading all my games onto this thing, and its a beast.  I am doing the games I have beaten as well as those that I have beaten in the past but have not made it on the List (pre-list, haha).  I think that I will not put all of these onto the List since some of these include games that don't really have an end.  Maybe not.  Maybe it will all go on there.

It might take me a whole night to do this but I am seriously excited.  Is that a bad thing??


I am going to work on adding the link to my backloggery account to the List page, as well as to my main screen so you all can look at it.

I will still use my List and Completed List pages along with Backloggery.




This thing has taken a whole new level I feel.

Bad to the core, rule updates

I don't think I could get into the battle system found in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII with the slot machine like mechanic.  It just does not appeal to me that much.

The game itself is very good, and the prequel element of it for FFVII is great.  It is a story that needed some background established and Crisis Core helped to do that (it did not do it completely and thus I don't consider it a be all end all set up, but still good).

The reason I don't like this damn slot machine thing is because I like to level up when I am supposed to level.  Yes the system does that automatically for you so you don't have to wait, however when it comes to materia level up I feel as if the system is almost completely random for it.  That does not make me happy.  Not one bit.

I have been casting Thundara over and over and over for about 30 minutes and still nothing.  It has been on enemies that are challenging for me, so I ruled out that possibility.  So what the hell is the reason then?

It is so damn frustrating.  The summoning aspect of it is a bitch until you get the items that help to boost the chances of you getting that roll, but even still.  There are some fights where I am really killing myself for a summon.

Maybe its big over in Japan, but its not my liking.  That says something since I like many game elements that have been brought over from the land of the rising sun.

Things have to be different from the usual FF battle system since it is more action/adventure then RPG than the other games (except FFXII and on).  But those games were able to tie a pretty decent battle system into place without having to rely on chance.

And if you know me I hate relying on chance.  It angers me.  And you won't like me when I am angry.


The good news about it is that I am in the final area of the game.  You might be thinking why didn't I start back over on this game like I said I would for any game that I play on the list.  The simple reason is that I do remember the story, and the last time I had played it was in December.  I am currently working on all the side missions that you can do to get some cool items and level up.  I am currently level 57, and from what I have found that might be a little overleveled.

No biggy.  I am a big fan of the overkill.



In other news, I wanted to further explain the grouping system that I set up.  I explained this earlier but I will reiterate.
Each group has 3 systems on it and FFXI.  Thus there are four games per group.  Handheld, Console, PC, FFXI (usually addon missions, quests, and whatnot).  Crisis Core is in Group I as a Handheld.  Once I beat it I can advance to the Handheld game in Group II, and then Group III.  Same for the other games.  I however cannot advance past the groups that I have setup (currently Groups I-III are created).

Why do this you ask?  Very simple.  I beat 3 handheld games, now I need to work on the other systems.  It makes me work on the list more because I will not create another Group (thus Group IV) until I have crossed off an entire Group (thus beaten all games in Group I).

Its all about accountability and I like that.  I need that not just for this blog but just in general.

Some games will be like Crisis Core in terms of me completing them quickly.  Other however will require a fresh start and will take longer.  This will in turn require me to put my nose to the grindstone.  Not too much that I won't enjoy the game itself, but just enough so that I do not become distracted with other things.

I believe that it has lots of potential.



"...go fill up a glass with tonic rocks..."

Updates

So I made some changes to the blog today and going to change some of the ways I do things.

First, I changed the List Page and created a new page that will contain all the completed games on it.  I wanted to do this so it would make the list easier to read for me but also for you without having to scroll around looking at what is not crossed off.  I can also keep track what I have beaten to keep a count of how long until I can get a new game.

Second, I will be making "groups" of games to play.  It will be a way for me to make a course of what to play in what order.  I pick one game for each system, plus something to do on FFXI in terms of a mission pack.  I thought this might be easier than to just randomly pick games cause there are so many games that I want to play.  If I beat a handheld game I can either go to the next group, or wait to finish the group that I am in before I proceed.  However I can not go past the groups that I have planned.


Here are the Groups of I have so far:

Group I
1. Crisis Core PSP
2. Diablo PC
3. FFXIII-2 PS3
4. FFXI -Crystal Add-on/ZM

Group II
1. FFIV DS
2. Diablo II PC
3. Assassin's Creed PS3
4. FFXI - Moogle Add-on/ZM

Group III
1. FFVI still making a decision on the format
2. Diablo II: Lord of Detruction PC
3. Assassin's Creed: Revelations PS3
4. FFXI - Shantoto Add-on/WoTG

The Fantasy Lived

Final Fantasy V


I have been able to successfully complete another game.  YAY!!!!  Spread the joy!!!  WOOOHOOO!!!


It has taken me years to finally get through FFV, however I am glad to say that I was finally able to do so.

The total time taken for completion was:

43:39 hours.

I am going to set up a counter on the List page to keep a running tally of the total time played, however as of right now, it is:

99:02:28 hours.

This works out to be:

4 Days, 3 Hours, 2 Minutes, and 28 Seconds, or 4.127 Days.


Ok, so I added almost 2 complete days to the tally with just FFV.  Not bad at all.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

I think about the fact that it has taken me years to play almost 44 hours of a game and defeat it. It's really weird and crazy when you think about it. If I would have just played 4 hours a day I would have beaten it in a little under 11 days roughly.  I just didn't play straight through either.  In typical Final Fantasy fashion of me playing, by the time I made it to the interdimensional rift, also known as the very final area, I was almost overleveled and had mastered many jobs (as a side note, overleveled is at least 46, which is strange since I am used to having to be level 90 for one to be overleveled).  Thats what is so unique about FFV from other Final Fantasy games.  your level raises slowly, however mastering a job is completely separate and faster.  Plus it is the most important part of the game in terms of battles.  Not your level but your job mastery.

It was nice to get back to what I call the crystal era of the FF series.  The crystals have always had a large part in the FF series, and can be found in different forms later on (FFVII uses materia as the "crystal").  The modern games, FFXI excluded, have really gotten away from the crystal motiff.  When you look at FFI - FFV thought it is right in your face.  Hell, FFI is all about crystals and I sometimes felt as if FFV was a "reboot" of FFI since its quite similar, but you give voiceless, no personality characters from FFI, well, character.

Its fun and so interesting though how different the crystal era is from FFVI and on.  It is very japanese and fits the original mold of a RPG that stems greatly from Dungeons & Dragons.  To me its like visiting a historic site and seeing how things used to be.

Were things horrible back in the early FF days?

No.

They were what was wanted and needed back then.  What we have today, well, its different from the past, however if things were reversed people would still complain.

With that rant over lets look at FFV more.  I had issues with it in the beginning.  It did struggle to get started with story and your abilities, however with lvl/job grinding one could easily overcome that.  Once that asshat Exdeath comes in, that's when the story kicks off.  Moving between different worlds, fighting against the Void, multiple forms of the final boss.  These are all things that I have encountered before, however it pulls at my gamer's heart.  Its what I grew up with.  Its what I know.  Its what I want.

I would like to also mention how they brought a new character in.  The crystal era saw games that only allowed 4 or 5 characters at a time that were playable in battle, FFV included.  4 characters can battle, but you can't switch out any other characters because there were no other ones.  So introducing Krile might be a little tough when her grandfather Galuf dies.

Square-Enix (SE) (or Square Soft) could have had you find a new person, or worse toss a new person in there quickly who knows Galuf's abilities.  Luckily they didn't.  They introduced Krile while you had Galuf still.  She had a purpose in the story before she first fought.  This helped for me to get to know her.  Then Galuf sacrifices himself to save the party and Krile, who is in the scene and not just travelling around the world where you are not.  This is good because she is already there and not just suddenly showing up.  Then Galuf sends his abilities down to a weak Krile instead of her just knowing them out of the blue.  In fact you fight with her at least once before this and she is such a weakling.  I believe they handled this quite well to appease people.

So what to say in the end? I am glad I finally beat FFV.  I liked the story and how it compliments the series. I believe a die hard FF lover should play it if they haven't already, but if you just don't like the old school ATB battle system and having to grind, then you might want to skip it.

Also, stay away if you can't handle Dragon Suicide.  Trust me.  It came out of nowhere and totally took me for surprise.