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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??

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.

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