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.

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.

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??

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.

Losing that feeling

I am getting that feeling again.

Can't get the drive to keep playing Zelda.

DAMNIT.

I gotta beat it.  I was doing pretty damn good at the storyline and I need to beat it.  Its a milestone for me in terms of this blog, being a game that I completed while the blog was going on.

I just don't know why I am having problems.  I will admit, I order FFXIII-2 yesterday and I can't wait to play that.  I won't allow myself to start it until I beat Zelda.  I have to get through this damn thing.

I gotta force myself to keep going however I don't feel as if it should be like that.  One must enjoy the story and the experience of the game.  One must not force themselves to get through things just for the sake of it.

Who knows, I think I am slowly getting that urge to keep going.



Wish me luck