• 6Dec 12

  Quest for Remaining Dragons - Dragon Quest Marathon

  I'm going to keep this short. As per the title, I'm going for a Dragon Quest marathon! As crazy as that sounds, I won't be playing all of them. Inspiration drawing from the fairly recent annoucement of DQVII remake with DQVII being my first ever DQ game when I was a kid. Course I never finished it. With that I mean I won't replay the ones I've beaten or spin offs. So pretty much 1 - 9 except 4 as 4 is the only one I've beaten.

  I figured I do this marathon eventually and how much grinding and tedious questing this will be but Dragon Quest has always striked me as an odd series. It's so simple and yet, it has a strange addictiveness and charm that you can't deny. It's such an old school game that hasn't changed in all its time but it's a formula well versed and well loved.

  I will be playing pretty much the remake versions of all the games that have them. Hopefully I can finish this marathon to completion but you never know. I might go mad from grinding.

  Anyways, wish me luck as I venture forth in beating the rest of these "dragons".

  • Posted Dec 6, 2012 8:13 pm GMT
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• 31Jan 12

  Final Fantasy, the things I just wanted to say ~ Pt. 1

  I forgot I had such a thing called a blog since I haven't updated this thing in quite sometime and I feel as though this is a good time to do so.

  Firstly, I'm doing well, I haven't been keeping up with anyone's blogs, or who even exists on my friends list still because quite frankly, I can't be bothered to keep track. How's school one might ask, it is fine, my last semester and the job hunt and cert acquiring has begun.

  Anyways, what I really wanted to talk about was the Final Fantasy series in general. As many of you know, or don't know, my favorite series has been Final Fantasy. I've played through I to XIII, the many spin offs including the awful Crystal Chronicle nonsense, the Tactics series and I guess the others? The ones off the top of my head are those added on Final Fantasy VII nonsense like Dirge of Cerebeus and Crisis Core. It's a series I've grown up with starting near the end of my elementary days when a friend of mine came over and told me about Final Fantasy VII, I came to wanting to learn more and eventually acquired a copy of Final Fantasy IX (my favorite game of all time), I then got Final Fantasy VIII and traded it with my friend temporarily for his copy of Final Fantasy VII. It was a blast, my days windled down playing these fantastic RPGs as my old gray PS1 slowly came to its end.

  I eventually heard about Final Fantasy Origins and decided to quickly get it, not knowing anything about the original numbering system or the original games at all I had set out on a quest to learn more. Playing Final Fantasy Origins when I was still young was quite a different experience, it wasn't like the PS1 Final Fantasy's in which I was easily accustom to, it was very old school, very simple and basic in what it could do. But I still loved it, I enjoyed it, the beautifully done sprites (at the time) made me fall in love with it. I never properly understood Final Fantasy II on Origins back then as it never explained it's levelling system but I enjoyed it almost as much as I did with I. These were the Final Fantasy's I had growing up, I absolutely loved the series.

  Let's skip ahead to a time when I learned about the series and the confusing numbering system and the mixup with II and IV, and III with VI. I eventually got Chronicles and Anthology making my collection essentially complete, but where was III? I looked all over the Internet to get some understanding of III eventually landing on the SNES Final Fantasy III which was actually VI. At that point, I just gave up, I had no idea where to find III and even if I did, I doubt I would easily acquire a copy of it. So in turn, I set my eyes on the spin off, Final Fantasy Tactics, I saw this once on sale during Christmas but had no idea what it was like, I decided to give it a go. Now, this was my first taste of a strategy/tactical RPG so you can imagine I was pretty confused at the gameplay. None the less, I gave it a go and didn't fully appreciate its slow pace and I was just unaccustom to the gameplay. As such I just decided against playing it.

  The PS2 was released and I got my hands on Final Fantasy X, the same day, the same friend who lent me Final Fantasy VII came over to watch some of the gameplay. We were in awe, it was one of the first games where they didn't have the levelling system, we were just impressed by the early game damage when Sin attacked. When the underwater portion came we were sold, we were amazed and I just kept playing. I eventually came to a halt at the game when I couldn't beat Sanctuary Keeper (yes I remember the name, because I spent days trying to kill this thing) so I just left it. Later down the road, Final Fantasy XII came out and I had to play it. (If you haven't noticed, I have a bad habit of never finishing a lot of my games). Right from the get go, I hated it, the combat was different, everything was off, at that point I, like many today said "Final Fantasy has gone downhill".

  But how could I possibly say such a thing? I, a loving fan of the series for such a long time. Disappointed by a simple aspect of CHANGE, simply cry out the downfall of the series. I was young, I didn't understand my emotions and the concept of accepting that things simply change. Needless to say, after XII, I didn't touch Final Fantasy for a long time and instead turning my attention to other series like Dragon Quest and Star Ocean and many others. Final Fantasy has led to my love for the JRPG genre, rather, the RPG genre in general.

  So why am I saying all this? The story is simple if you know that some of my favorite Final Fantasy games today are actually Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy I & II and Final Fantasy XII while my least favorite are Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy X (to some degree Final Fantasy VIII). Odd how that worked out eh? In my story I've clearly expressed my hate for Final Fantasy XII and yet...it's one of my favorites now. I had to accept that it was different, that it wasn't like the games I was so used to. Is it like Final Fantasy IX? No. Is it like Final Fantasy VI? No. Do you see what I'm getting at here? So many people are SCREAMING for Final Fantasy to go back to its roots, to go back to how THEY remember it. I think it's quite sad, people like this who aren't willing to enjoy a game of the same series because it's nothing how they remember to be growing up. Is it the same? Absolutely not. Is this a bad thing? In some cases, it can be, but in the case of Final Fantasy, a long running series in which has been around since the 90s? I would say no. There are people are complain that the JRPG genre needs to evolve, it needs to...should I say it, CHANGE? But at the same time these people are whining how Final Fantasy hasn't been the same. I'm confused here, how does the genre evolve but at the same time, stay the same?

  There are series out there who never change, namely Dragon Quest or Pokemon and yet they are praised for being the same, while at the same time criticized for the very same thing! I feel as though people are never sure what they want and complain for the sake of complaining. People want Final Fantasy to change, people want it to stay the same, I don't know what Square's doing to satisfy both crowds. It's funny because the people saying how Square can easily slap a game with the name Final Fantasy and it'll sell, but at the same time it's hurting them because it reminds people of the past games, it reminds them of previous Final Fantasy's. A brand is a double edged sword I guess, where it can both benefit and hurt a company's reputation. I'm not sure if Square's realizing that and instead releasing all these games under the FF umbrella. The funny thing I think is, if Square were to release 13 versions of say, Final Fantasy VI, the same kind of game, the same gameplay, with slight tweaks, would the criticisms be the same? Instead people would whine about the rehashing, the recycling, the yearly releases etc. People complain for the sake of complaining and they don't ever stop. It's something I've learned to deal with. In short, Square changes it up? People complain. Square does the same thing? People complain. You can't win. I blame this on how cynical gamers have become today.

  But the main point of all this is, why the hate on Final Fantasy XIII? Yes, it's different, it's not like the past games. Is it linear? God yes. Is the story atrocious? Yea probably. It's a poorly executed one at anything. Is the gameplay solid? I'd say so, it's a streamlined version of Final Fantasy XII, a game in which many HATED so I'm glad they brough a modified version of it. As someone who absolutely loves the classics, like, the classics of the classics (Final Fantasy I & II), I actually...like Final Fantasy XIII. Crazy right? I know. It's a fun game, had an incredible soundtrack and had ONE annoying character, Snow. When I play Final Fantasy, I'm expecting different, I'm expecting it to feel like a brand new game. Because that's what Final Fantasy has ALWAYS been about, about mixing it up, about changing the battle system, the world, the characters, the story, the style of music and much more. Despite the numbering, it was essentially a different game every time. And yes while it did have some resemblances amongst each other, which is no surprise since the developers obviously want to keep fans of one game to play another and provide them some sort of feeling of familiarity.

  Lastly, I don't have Final Fantasy XIII-2 yet, but I'm sure I will enjoy it to some degree.

  Now I must make this sort of abrupt closing because it's nearing 2 AM and I'm awfully tired. In short if you didn't read it, a long time Final Fantasy fan, grew to accept the changes the series will often and has made quite frequently in the past, liked Final Fantasy XIII, will probably enjoy it.

  This is just what I wanted to say, my thoughts on the Final Fantasy series. I'll probably write more about it as the thoughts come to me.

  • Posted Jan 31, 2012 10:44 pm GMT
  • Category: Opinion
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• 11Sep 11

  Summer Has Drawn to a Close

  First and foremost, sorry I didn't reply in my previous blog to any of your comments. I forgot I had posted a new blog and I hardly check my profile. I would reply now, but it almost seems a tad late and almost pointless.

  Secondly, I finally finished, my Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor playthrough. You can check it out in this very handy dandy playlist thingamajig over on Youtube right here. All 6 routes, from start to finish, just over 100 videos. It took me a long time to get through all of it, lots of rendering and recording to be done, decent job I'd say. My first ever completed video playthrough, feels like a real accomplishment.

  Thirdly, I've recently finished Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Gotta say, very solid game. The stealth mechanics and the various different paths to take are just so well done. The gunplay is decent, can't say I like it enough to play it like a cover shooter, but I know some people have. The game offers different ways in beating it, different paths to find, and many other intricate things that just make it so well rounded. There's still some polish to be had when it comes to things like AI, and there's some design choices like bosses that weren't as well done as the rest of the game, making it rather disappointing to see.

  

  The AI isn't the smartest, but they sure are fun to fool.

  The city hubs though are a blast to explore, there's just so many hidden things lying about. The hacking mini game is pretty solid, not overly complex, but not too simple and pointless that it'd be a tedious thing. The endings I thought were rather lame, they didn't feel like endings. Not to mention the ending is dictated at the very end with some buttons, I personally thought that was a poor choice. Aren't games like Deus Ex supposed to be all about choice? And consequences? This almost feels like another Mass Effect where they give off this illusion of choice and consequence only to have one end. If you want to see a game that does choices and consequences right, you play a visual novel I suppose.

  But overally, very fun, very solid. I would recommend.

  Anyways with that, all I have to say is summer is coming to a close and I'll have to be starting school tomorrow. Which means possible less frequency around here on GS, but that's prob for the best. Final year of college, I'll have to be putting my best effort into my c|asses.

  • Posted Sep 11, 2011 7:33 am GMT
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