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.

Pretty Epic

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

BAM

That happened.

I just beat Skyward Sword tonight and I am HAPPY to say the least.  Its a great feeling to have to complete something from beginning to end.  I think that is one of the reasons why I decided to do this blog is to help bring back that sense of accomplishment in completing things.  I like it a lot.

The total time for completion was ~44 hours.  I was unable to get an accurate time because it does not show it once the credits roll.

Thus, if we take this time played with Parasite Eve (sorry that I don't have AC:B, AC:B DLC, or Infamous.  I can't find those play times), our total time comes to:

55:23:28 hours.

This works out to be:

2 Days, 7 Hours, 23 Minutes, and 28 Seconds

That is not that bad when you think about it.

So how was Skyward Sword you might be asking.

I greatly enjoyed it.  I think that it is an amazing prequel for an epic series.  The storyline was a little slow in the beginning, however once you got going and you got all of the iconic equipment that go along with a proper Zelda game, its balls to the wall FUN.

I do think that the final boss was not as challenging as ones that I have played in the past, but maybe it is because I have gotten better at playing games.  This however should not drop the value of the game in my opinion.  Anyone who plays Zelda games needs to play this one, at least to get an idea for how it all began.

I would like to also add that while I am writing this I am jamming out to the soundtrack that happened to come with the game itself.  Didn't notice it till now.

Nice little bonus.

Play on symphony.

Play on.

To the next game......

The End is Nigh

I believe that I have about 4 hours tops left in Zelda and I will finally beat the game.

EXCITEMENT!!!!!!!

After looking online and quickly seeing what is left I am pretty sure that it will all end tomorrow night.  So mark your calendars and and make sure to stay tuned.

I have been so focused on what is going on in the game that I might be disappointed in the ending only because it is going to end.  I have taken a look at the official Zelda timeline and it makes me want to play/replay all of the Zelda games (I would have to use an emulator for a lot of them I feel).  However I can't do that cause I already have a ridiculous amount of games on my list already.


Maybe I will put that as an addendum to the list when I get through things.


HAHA  yeah right

Said Official Timeline

Just came in

This will be the last post for today, I promise.


I just wanted to say that the strategy guide for FFXIII-2 just came in today and I am all hyped up over that.

I won't open it yet though until the actual game comes in, but I can barely control myself.


I AM TOO EXCITED TO SLEEEEEEEEP

Schedule of things

I have been thinking it over and I think to help me get through things easier I am going to have to have some type of schedule.  Nothing completely finite, but more of a rough draft of what I want to do each day.

I sometimes find myself trying to figure out which system to go to in a night and I can't make up my mind.  This might help me grasp some precious time and make decisions before hand.  Also with game schedules coming up I am going to have to move things around so when I get home at 9 I am not trying to set myself up for a 5 hour bender.

So here it goes:

Monday: Console system (Currently Wii- Skyward Sword)
Tuesday: Console/FFXI/PC (I get to pick from these since this is a game night coming up soon and depending on the time I can figure out what I have time for.  Also it helps when I want to continue in the middle of a story for the console)
Wednesday: PC/FFXI
Thursday: Handheld/FFXI
Friday: Console/FFXI


I think this will help me to keep on track for now.



Lets keep our fingers crossed.

MASTER SWORD!!!!!

I am just going to state this in the beginning

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!

I finally got my favorite sword of all time.

THE MASTER SWORD!!!

I just love the damn thing.  I also had a feeling the entire time that I was going to be slowly making the Master Sword as the game went on.  And now that I have it, I AM EXCITED!!!

I don't know what I love it so much, but I think its because I don't consider it a Zelda game until that bitch is unleashed.


Top this all off with the time travelling element (common with Zelda games since the different dimension traveling of Link to the Past) and this bitch has gotten GOOOOOD.


The sudden realization of what/who Zelda is has also brightened things.  Can I say that I am surprised??

No.

But knowing where this game falls in terms of the Zelda timeline it helps make a lot of sense now.

I love back stories to games and when legends and prophecies occur.  I don't know why but it makes me as giddy as a school girl.  Its exciting.  Its probably the history lover in me, but learning this stuff is like uncovering some deep dark secret that has been kept for forever.  Or better yet, a new myth that you are reading that totally captivates you and pulls you in.

Oh yeah.  I am going to like this a lot.


Its time for Link to kick some ass.

My DS has taken a beating

I have been getting back into playing ffv more and I realized that my DS has seen better days.

DS in the dark

I know you can't see well with this picture, however I thought it would be artsy fartsy cool.

Things that are messed up on my DS:

• Won't recognize games in the game slots half the time
• The right trigger button has problems sending a signal.  You have to push the button in a specific way to make it work
• Crack in the hinge
• Freezes sometimes on start up
• Losing that luster white color

I have been tempted to get a new DS, or maybe even a 3DS, however I like being able to play Advance games on it as well as DS since I have a lot of Advance games that have yet to be beaten.  However, I do have the small foldup gameboy advanced:

I swear mine is Silver, not Purple

I was going through old things that I had and find a lot of old school Gameboy games and whatnot (original Pokemon, Donkey Kong, Zelda) and I can't believe I ever had all these titles just sitting around.

Will I add them to the list???

e

h

h

h

h

h

h

no.

Not yet at least.  As for now I think its time to juice up the ole clunker of a DS and give FFV a whirl.