Hey y'all. My life is currently in a huge stage of flux and change. Part of this is cleaning out my house, starting with my room. Digging up memories, and throw away everything. I flipped open an old notebook and on the front page is a list of my favorite games, probably from 1997, or at least before Ocarina of Time came out.
Let's have a look.
1. Goldeneye
2. Super Mario 64
3. Zelda All of Them
4. Tetris
5. Star Fox 64
6. Mario 3
7. Shadows of the Empire
8. Sonic CD
9. Street Fighter II Turbo
10. Mario Kart 64
There are two weird parts of that (outside of #3 being all the Zeldas). I have never owned a SegaCD so had only played it very briefly on a friend's. I know later in life I got hold of the glitchy PC version and played it to death. I also didn't frequent arcades and didn't even know anyone that had a SNES so Street Fighter II Turbo baffles me. I did play a whole lot Super Street Fighter II on the Genesis.
A couple of pages later, it is years later. Here's another top list:
1. Shenmue
2. Shenmue 2
3. GTA Vice City
4. Ocarina of Time
5. Gunstar Heroes
6. Skies of Arcadia
7. Metal Gear Solid
8. Soul Calibur
9. Jet Grind Radio
10. Starcraft
11. Half-Life
12. Super Mario 64
13. Perfect dark
14. Goldeneye
15. Curse of Monkey Island
16. Super Mario Bros. 3
17. Phantasy Star Online
18. Tetris
19. Grim Fandango
20. Sonic the hedgehog 2
21. Ice Hockey
I like this more. Obviously Vice City made a hell of an impression on me. I still remember there was a boat mission that was on rails where you are shooting the dudes, and it was mindblowingly cool. I would probably still enjoy driving around listening to AFI's Sing the Sorrow. DON'T JUDGE ME.
Also hey, thanks Bleemcast for letting me play MGS. It wouldn't be until I was a Junior in HS that I would actually own a PS2 and get to play the full PSX catalog. Also it is worth noting that my top 2 choices are the same 10+ years later.
The next page has a wonderfully GameFAQs review of Final Fantasy V. Thanks me. I enjoyed reading this review and will shred it to prevent anyone else. But yeah, I still love the sounds the dragons make. I spent like 20 hours in the game powerleveling my jobs.
Showing posts with label final fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label final fantasy. Show all posts
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Game Boy F Part 1
 |
| F-1 Boy |
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers (Wii)
Final Fantasy:Crystal Chronicles:Crystal Bearers is great. It's probably my favorite game for the Wii. I haven't played a lot for the system, only having borrowed one for about a month now, but FFCCCB is just terrific. Shame about the clumsy clumsy title.
The first 30 minutes are the high-water mark. You're introduced too new and fantastic things one after another. You're skydiving, your driving the airship Titantic, you've got a chase on Chocobo-back. The characters all speak in this weird non-sense like the dialog was translated literally successively into 6 languages so that any wit or theatrics has been sucked out.
I don't care because the world is constantly giving you all this flavor text that scrolls along the bottom of the screen. It's not buried in menus and it's not intrusive. The world feels alive with tons of people walking around. Then you ride a train, and the train actually travels from point A to point B.
Every new area is another stunning visual marvel. You have a crashed pirate ship bathed in a blood red sunset. Stunning autumn leaves falling upon a Japanese hot spring. Farmland that stretches to the horizon. Then you're platforming through a strange netherworld riding Zhu.
The game is about picking up things and throwing them. Unlike Solatorobo, it's fun if clumsy. The monsters that populate the world are there, and you could get through the game without killing any of them (probably.) You want to fight them because destroying a whole field of monsters gives you another health bar. This doesn't matter in the short term, but you are going to wish you had more health when it comes to the final boss.
The system is deeper than that. You can throw wine at enemies to get them drunk. You throw enemy skeletons at enemy wolves and they run up to wag their tail at you. None of it is necessary, but all of it is welcomed loving detail. The game keeps track of this with an astoundingly long list of possible achievements. Discovering an achievement gives you a hint for 4 other achievements. I didn't dig into that list because it felt like a rabbit of hole of time consumption, but I did welcome how much the game encouraged you to experiment.
And this game is an experiment because it's a game by Akitoshi Kawazu. I think it is anyways. There aren't closing credits. A splash screen thanks you for playing, signed by Kawazu.
The main character never forgets he has super powers which is pretty awesome. You also turn into Silver Surfer for the final boss.
This game constantly wowed me with amazing environments. It makes up for Fragile Dreams: Farwell Ruins of the Moon having a few stunning locations, and then asking me to spend 5 hours in sewers. Don't play Fragile Dreams. Watch this trailer. Then play Crystal Bearers. It's a day at Disney Land the video game!
The first 30 minutes are the high-water mark. You're introduced too new and fantastic things one after another. You're skydiving, your driving the airship Titantic, you've got a chase on Chocobo-back. The characters all speak in this weird non-sense like the dialog was translated literally successively into 6 languages so that any wit or theatrics has been sucked out.
I don't care because the world is constantly giving you all this flavor text that scrolls along the bottom of the screen. It's not buried in menus and it's not intrusive. The world feels alive with tons of people walking around. Then you ride a train, and the train actually travels from point A to point B.
Every new area is another stunning visual marvel. You have a crashed pirate ship bathed in a blood red sunset. Stunning autumn leaves falling upon a Japanese hot spring. Farmland that stretches to the horizon. Then you're platforming through a strange netherworld riding Zhu.
The game is about picking up things and throwing them. Unlike Solatorobo, it's fun if clumsy. The monsters that populate the world are there, and you could get through the game without killing any of them (probably.) You want to fight them because destroying a whole field of monsters gives you another health bar. This doesn't matter in the short term, but you are going to wish you had more health when it comes to the final boss.
The system is deeper than that. You can throw wine at enemies to get them drunk. You throw enemy skeletons at enemy wolves and they run up to wag their tail at you. None of it is necessary, but all of it is welcomed loving detail. The game keeps track of this with an astoundingly long list of possible achievements. Discovering an achievement gives you a hint for 4 other achievements. I didn't dig into that list because it felt like a rabbit of hole of time consumption, but I did welcome how much the game encouraged you to experiment.
And this game is an experiment because it's a game by Akitoshi Kawazu. I think it is anyways. There aren't closing credits. A splash screen thanks you for playing, signed by Kawazu.
The main character never forgets he has super powers which is pretty awesome. You also turn into Silver Surfer for the final boss.
This game constantly wowed me with amazing environments. It makes up for Fragile Dreams: Farwell Ruins of the Moon having a few stunning locations, and then asking me to spend 5 hours in sewers. Don't play Fragile Dreams. Watch this trailer. Then play Crystal Bearers. It's a day at Disney Land the video game!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
The World Ends With You (NDS)
REASONS THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU (WEWY) IS BETTER THAN EVERY OTHER RPG
1. It's got like 20 god damn battle themes. Probably one of the most flawed lines of thinking in RPGs is making a 30-100 hours game with about an hour and a half total of music. That's absolutely moronic. "The battle theme is sooo good." Sure maybe in hour 2, but never in hour 36. or in hour 13. This game has like 40 excellent pieces of music showcasing the merge and clash and variety in tastes available in Shibuya (this will be important later.)
2. It's like 15 hours long. Look I fucking love Persona 4. It was also the only thing I played for about 3 months. People just don't have that time. 15 hours? That's great!
3. The game is broken up into 20-30 minute chunks. So you can spread that game playing across your commute or before bed or just whenever you have some time. Again great for people with actual lives!
4. The game is like brain training. See your fighting the battles on both screens. On the bottom screen you're using your stylus to scratch or press or flick. You might also need to blow or scream (one of the only possible negatives I can leverage at the game (it also requires you blow and scream for about 2 minutes once.) On the top screen you are using either the face buttons or the dpad to pull off combo attacks with your partner. BUT!
5. The game is only as hard as you want it to be. See you can set it to easy mode and your AI partner to auto attack. You won't do as well or get as many trinkets/bonuses for controlling both characters. If you do want it ultra hard...
6. The game constantly rewards you. Setting it on hard and bouncing the light puck between your two characters gives you the immediate benefit of "I'm kicking ass and dodging shit and totally wrecking these freak monsters." It also gives you more money and more pins.
7. There's so much shit to collect in this game. There's over 300 pins that give passive and active abilities. You can also just stick with the pins that work and just moving to the upgraded model of that pin. There's also clothes to put on your characters that give benefits inside and outside of battle.
8. WEWY is constantly asking you to experiment. Sometimes it's forcing you, but that's okay. You gotta expand your horizons (holy shit does that mean the...
9. There is an absolute connection between the way the game plays and the narrative. The way the battle system works, how your equipment boosts your stats, why there are no random battles. It's like the whole game is as cohesive as the ending of Final Fantasy Crisis Core. Every part of the game feeds back into other parts.
10. FOR EXAMPLE use specific brands in one area and those brands get bonuses in future battles in that area. The game gracefully explains this to you.
11. It probably has the best tutorial system on EARTH. See this might be going over your head and I might not be explaining what I'm talking about but the game very slowly and smoothly introduces every concept. It never feels dumbed down and it just keeps getting more complex. You keep thinking "there can't possibly be more to this battl-OH SHIT I WAS WRONG."
12. You eventually gain the ability to restart any battle you've lost. Okay here's one fault. The first two hours of the game if you lose a battle you are stuck back at the title screen. I'm not sure why they decided this should be an eventual feature.
13. BUT YOU CAN SAVE AT ANY TIME. If you aren't in a cutscene or a battle you can save. This may sound like "duh" but there are plenty of games this generation with save points and that's BULLSHIT and we all deserve better.
14. Your pins gain experience when you aren't playing. and.
15. You gain pins merely by connecting to wireless hotspots and other DSes. Remember THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU. You gotta expand your horizons. You have to break out of your bubble and enjoy the world. Play it in cafes.
16. There's this whole other pog like minigame you can play with other players.
17. Our protagonist is kind of a jackass. But he really does grow as a human being/character.
18. The post game content is plentiful. As I started getting towards the end of the game I was afraid to end it purely by how much fun I was having. Good thing there is an absolute ton of post game content in the form of challenges for each Day that unlock details of the meta-narrative.
19. There's even a gaiden side story. Alternate goofy universe adventure to play featuring all the characters from the main story!
20. There's more going on in the plot than bullshit just not going to tell you. YEESSSSSSS.
21. Scaling Sprites.
22. Shibukyu. Okay backstory. While I was walking around Tokyo one day I had a white dude approach me and go, "Do you know how to get to Shibuku?" That's not a real place. I instead told you. "Uh...ShibuYA is that way, and ShiNJUKU is that way. Good Luck." There's a play on a department store's name in this game call Shibukyu.
23. It's just like Shenmue! Taking any nerd that had a Dreamcast around Tokyo and they will at some point tell you this is just like Shenmue at some point. Granted I'm retarded and Shenmue is one of my favorite games precisely because it so well represents anywhere Japan. WEWY accurately represents Shibuya. You could probably use it as a semi-map of the area. I could identify just about every area and store presented within it.
24. It's localized just enough. Everyone still has Japanese names and the story doesn't take place in NYC or some shit. But you also don't get "san" and "kun." I think they even call "nikuman" "nikuman" and not something like "meat buns."
25. It's really fun. The battles are fast! The music is great! The atmosphere is fun! The story is on a small scale for 95% of the game. Not buying this game when it was released was a huge mistake. It didn't sell well. S-E has said they aren't going to let something like this happen again. That's a tragedy. I want Jupiter making whatever the fuck they want forever. They have some of the smartest game designers working for them. This game is a marvel on a design level. I love it and it was probably the best thing I played in 2011.
1. It's got like 20 god damn battle themes. Probably one of the most flawed lines of thinking in RPGs is making a 30-100 hours game with about an hour and a half total of music. That's absolutely moronic. "The battle theme is sooo good." Sure maybe in hour 2, but never in hour 36. or in hour 13. This game has like 40 excellent pieces of music showcasing the merge and clash and variety in tastes available in Shibuya (this will be important later.)
2. It's like 15 hours long. Look I fucking love Persona 4. It was also the only thing I played for about 3 months. People just don't have that time. 15 hours? That's great!
3. The game is broken up into 20-30 minute chunks. So you can spread that game playing across your commute or before bed or just whenever you have some time. Again great for people with actual lives!
4. The game is like brain training. See your fighting the battles on both screens. On the bottom screen you're using your stylus to scratch or press or flick. You might also need to blow or scream (one of the only possible negatives I can leverage at the game (it also requires you blow and scream for about 2 minutes once.) On the top screen you are using either the face buttons or the dpad to pull off combo attacks with your partner. BUT!
5. The game is only as hard as you want it to be. See you can set it to easy mode and your AI partner to auto attack. You won't do as well or get as many trinkets/bonuses for controlling both characters. If you do want it ultra hard...
6. The game constantly rewards you. Setting it on hard and bouncing the light puck between your two characters gives you the immediate benefit of "I'm kicking ass and dodging shit and totally wrecking these freak monsters." It also gives you more money and more pins.
7. There's so much shit to collect in this game. There's over 300 pins that give passive and active abilities. You can also just stick with the pins that work and just moving to the upgraded model of that pin. There's also clothes to put on your characters that give benefits inside and outside of battle.
8. WEWY is constantly asking you to experiment. Sometimes it's forcing you, but that's okay. You gotta expand your horizons (holy shit does that mean the...
9. There is an absolute connection between the way the game plays and the narrative. The way the battle system works, how your equipment boosts your stats, why there are no random battles. It's like the whole game is as cohesive as the ending of Final Fantasy Crisis Core. Every part of the game feeds back into other parts.
10. FOR EXAMPLE use specific brands in one area and those brands get bonuses in future battles in that area. The game gracefully explains this to you.
11. It probably has the best tutorial system on EARTH. See this might be going over your head and I might not be explaining what I'm talking about but the game very slowly and smoothly introduces every concept. It never feels dumbed down and it just keeps getting more complex. You keep thinking "there can't possibly be more to this battl-OH SHIT I WAS WRONG."
12. You eventually gain the ability to restart any battle you've lost. Okay here's one fault. The first two hours of the game if you lose a battle you are stuck back at the title screen. I'm not sure why they decided this should be an eventual feature.
13. BUT YOU CAN SAVE AT ANY TIME. If you aren't in a cutscene or a battle you can save. This may sound like "duh" but there are plenty of games this generation with save points and that's BULLSHIT and we all deserve better.
14. Your pins gain experience when you aren't playing. and.
15. You gain pins merely by connecting to wireless hotspots and other DSes. Remember THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU. You gotta expand your horizons. You have to break out of your bubble and enjoy the world. Play it in cafes.
16. There's this whole other pog like minigame you can play with other players.
17. Our protagonist is kind of a jackass. But he really does grow as a human being/character.
18. The post game content is plentiful. As I started getting towards the end of the game I was afraid to end it purely by how much fun I was having. Good thing there is an absolute ton of post game content in the form of challenges for each Day that unlock details of the meta-narrative.
19. There's even a gaiden side story. Alternate goofy universe adventure to play featuring all the characters from the main story!
20. There's more going on in the plot than bullshit just not going to tell you. YEESSSSSSS.
21. Scaling Sprites.
22. Shibukyu. Okay backstory. While I was walking around Tokyo one day I had a white dude approach me and go, "Do you know how to get to Shibuku?" That's not a real place. I instead told you. "Uh...ShibuYA is that way, and ShiNJUKU is that way. Good Luck." There's a play on a department store's name in this game call Shibukyu.
23. It's just like Shenmue! Taking any nerd that had a Dreamcast around Tokyo and they will at some point tell you this is just like Shenmue at some point. Granted I'm retarded and Shenmue is one of my favorite games precisely because it so well represents anywhere Japan. WEWY accurately represents Shibuya. You could probably use it as a semi-map of the area. I could identify just about every area and store presented within it.
24. It's localized just enough. Everyone still has Japanese names and the story doesn't take place in NYC or some shit. But you also don't get "san" and "kun." I think they even call "nikuman" "nikuman" and not something like "meat buns."
25. It's really fun. The battles are fast! The music is great! The atmosphere is fun! The story is on a small scale for 95% of the game. Not buying this game when it was released was a huge mistake. It didn't sell well. S-E has said they aren't going to let something like this happen again. That's a tragedy. I want Jupiter making whatever the fuck they want forever. They have some of the smartest game designers working for them. This game is a marvel on a design level. I love it and it was probably the best thing I played in 2011.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)