Board Game Corner: Epic Spell Wars Of The Battle Wizards: Duel At Mt. Skullzfyre

This is a real game.

Honest.

This is most certainly a real thing.

First off, this game is not really a children's game.  While bright and colorful, the game also has some humorous, over-the-top gore involved.  In fact, the art style of this game is very reminiscent of the art style of the show SuperJail.  Continuing on with the whole "Not for children" thing, this is the first paragraph of the rules booklet.

Once upon a time, there was a world filled to the brim with radical magic.  And not pussy magic, like rabbits in hats or shit like that.  No, it was kick-ass magic, where one guy blows another guy's head off with like, a fireball or something!  You know, BALL-ROCKING MAGIC!

The background of the game goes on for a few more paragraphs, but you get the idea.  While yes, some would think this kind of violence and language is juvenile, well, they're probably right, but it's still presented in a way that made me laugh out loud while I read it.  A rule book for a game has never done that before.

The premise of this game is pretty simple... Construct a spell from cards in your hand, and kill the other players.

At the start of each round, each player draws to their hand limit, which is by default 8 cards.  They then set one, two, or three cards face down.  There are three main types of cards in this game that'll be in your hand: Source cards, Quality cards, and Delivery cards.  When you play your 'spell' of cards, you can only play up to one of each.  So a spell can contain an S, Q and D, or just a D, or any other type combination.

You play the D.

The turn order is determined like this: The player who played the fewest cards plays first.  Any people who've played the same number of cards determine the order by the number on the Delivery, in this image, 16.  That's your initiative.  If you don't play a Delivery, you have an initiative of 0.  A 0 of two cards though is still faster than an initiative 0 of three cards.

We'll take two example spell here from the internet...

Sir Lootzor's Mysterious Dragon-Horde.

Hagatha the Heifer's Crushazorian Godstorm.

This game sounds like it could be used to create a metal album...

Anyways, in these two examples, we see that all three cards share the same glyph typing.  The glyph is the symbol in the lower left hand corner.  So this means, that for each power roll, you get a die for each card that share a typing with it.  For for the Godstorm, you get the one minimum, and you get one for each of the other two cards.  If you flipped the delivery in the two spells, you'd only get one die per delivery, since no other cards in the spells share a typing with it.  Wit treasures, and added cards to spells through effects, the maximum number of dice you can roll on a power role is four.  

The cards are all designed so they  reasonably fit together design wise.  You always resolve from left to right as well.  Now before, when i mentioned initiative, I said that there's a way to get 0 initiative with your delivery, which is normally never the case.  There are cards though, that act as wildcards.  They're called Wild Magic cards.  They can take the part of a Source, Quality, or Delivery.  If used as a delivery, they're considered initiative 0.  What you do then, is reveal cards from the top of the deck until you reveal the part of your spell the Wild Magic is replacing.  Then resolve the spell as normal.  

The Sir Lootzor card above mentions treasures, so let's dive into those next.

Why yes that's a Shit Wand.  Yes, it IS terrifying in game.

So we're going to look at these three.  The middle one is actually pretty scary, despite it's name.  If you're playing with just one other person, it's pretty useless, since, well, once they die, the match is over.  But in a larger game, you could be adding +2, +4, +6, or even +8 to your power roles.  If you're rolling two dice or more, that's a guaranteed max damage or effect on your delivery.  Another important treasure type is the shoe category of treasures.  There's one shoe treasure for each glyph type (Arcane, Nature, Elemental, Dark, Illusion), and the shoe treasure acts like an extra glyph in all your spells.  This means, if you have the Dark shoes, and a spell of three Dark glyphs, you get 4 dice.  If you have a card that says "Deal 1 damage for each different glyph in your spell", it counts as an extra glyph, and thus extra damage.  The effects vary but almost every treasure is useful.  One of my favorite treasures gives all your spells +10 to initiative.  Now, the highest, naturally occurring, initiative is 20.  Normally, stronger spells have slower initiative scores, so having this treasure could jump your initiative 2 spell to an initiative 12 spell, which could mean the difference between you getting blasted and you wiping out a few pesky opponents.

The last card type is called the Dead Wizard Card.  These cards don't affect the current match, but the next one.  When you are killed, you draw one of these.  Each time a new round in the match starts, all the dead wizards draw another Dead Wizard Card.  The point of this is to give you a handicap for being killed.  The longer you've been dead, the more of these you accrue.  The effects of them are things like starting with more HP, drawing a treasure at the beginning of the next game, adding a Wild Magic Card to your hand... or even having nothing happen.  There are only a few cards that go into spells that let you draw Dead Wizard Cards, so they're usually reserved for the deceased.

When I play, normally we play to 3 wins before declaring a victor, but you could almost play this game as long as you felt like.

The game ran me $30 at retail at a local gaming store, and I got the above Hagatha spell as a promotional extra.

All in all, the game is tons of fun, and something that has a decent balance of skill and chance to keep it interesting.  If you have any more questions about it, feel free to leave a comment and I'll try to answer as best I can.

The Shadowrun Returns Hype-Train

Alright, with Shadowrun Returns being about a month away, I'm here to run the Hypemobile for it.

Not sure what an ACTUAL Hypemobile looks like... Probably not this.

So, the goal of this post is to explain what exactly is Shadowrun and Shadowrun Returns, and why should you care.  

I did a few paragraph description of Shadowrun awhile back, so the link to that is here. 

Did you read that?  So we can continue right?

No?

Fine.

Here's a few key things to take from it.

• Cyberpunk Dystopian future.  Set around 2040-2060.
• Matrix is the global internet framework.  It has crashed on two occasions, both leading to some interesting developments, like Technomancers.
• Concerning the Matrix, everyone and everything is always connected to it.  It is seen as suspicious if your ID suddenly disappears off the 'grid', so, say 'hi' to Big Brother.
• Due to some weird events, humans aren't the only intelligent species.  Metahumanity has sprung up in the form of Elves, Trolls, Orks, and Dwarves (not just little people any more).
• Also, magic has returned, and it's mechanic is still a little wonky, but it works.
• If you think the companies NOW are bad, in the future there about ten AAA Megacorps that run everything.  They are considered independent entities that can have their own standing armies and security forces.  

So generally, it's a crapsack world.

In 1993 and 1994, Shadowrun games were released for the SNES and the Genesis, respectively.  The games aren't the same game, but they were both received as underappreciated games of the consoles, becoming cult classics.  They were both action-RPG-ish (for that time), and captured the feel of the tabletop game, according to players.  I've only ever played the SNES one, so we're going on a musical safari to the land of Genesis Shadowrun.

Or one of the SNES, since my Youtube Fu wasn't strong enough.

Whatever.  Moving right along.

Then in 2007, we have the Xbox/Windows cross-play Shadowrun.  This was a First Person Shooter that was pretty much panned by fans of the Shadowrun universe.  

But now the main reason why the hype train is in town.  Shadowrun Returns.

Toot toot.

Shadowrun Returns is a PC/Mac/Tablet/Smartphone game that's coming out next month.  It's being made by Harebrained Schemes, which contains people who helped develop the Shadowrun pen and paper game.  In addition, they've brought on the people who worked on the music for both the SNES and Genesis soundtracks to work on the SR:R soundtrack.  This game was funded via Kickstarter, and received over $1.5 million from it's backers. 

 It's going to be an Isometric 2/3D Tactical RPG.  There is no multiplayer planned for it at this time.  They are focusing on a strictly single player experience.  You will be able to create your character from about 5 archtypes, and able to customize further once you gain some karma (the game's XP system).  The makers are touting their AI system, that reacts in stages, to try to realistically respond to a potential threat.  This means, that you can talk your way past guards, or stealth past, or steal the keycards, and sneak in, or just kill them.  There is a bevy of different ways you can play this game.

In addition to the game itself, there will be a DLC expansion released after the game is out that takes place in Berlin.  Also, players will have access to the same builder that the developers used to make the game, so  people will be allowed to make their own campaigns, missions, and entire storylines using the same program they used, along with some additional art assets.

I'm going to sign off and leave you with a gameplay clip from the alpha build of the game being played by two of the devs.

HYPETRAIN

HYYYYYYYYYYPE

Penny-Arcade: OTRSPOD 3 Quick Review

So, I know I touched briefly on this game a few months ago, and now I've finished it.  I had put this game on the back-burner after awhile, and forgot about it.  When I went back to it, and played it for a bit, I realized I stopped playing literally an hour away from beating it.  So there's that.

If you remember my old post (here), I mentioned a few of the gimmicks of the game; class pins, interruptions, et al.  The biggest advancement since then, is an advancement in the class pin system.  At the time, I could only equip one class pin to mix with your core class.  Well shortly after that post, I found that you can equip two classes in addition to your core.  Doing some simple math, with about 10 choosable classes you have roughly 45 total, two-class combinations.  If you want to try mixing and matching to find your play-style, this is the way to go.

Just for the sake of keeping this short, here's a bullet list of thoughts on OTRSPOD3.

• The combat is still fluid and nuanced.  You can find a general strategy that will work on most enemies, but there are some fights where you have to change things up.  
• The class system is clever.  I think the class combination system is really nice in creating interesting strategies for battle.  Some classes, obviously, synergize well together, but having the option to branch out radically adds a really nice touch.  
• The writing is a bit wordy at times, but it fits the whole Penny Arcade mold.  Tycho is verbose, and Gabe is a bit spacey.  It fits the comic well.  Whether you think this is a good thing relies on your thoughts of the writing in the strip.
• Free DLC, so there's that.  If you're playing the Steam version, auto-downloaded.
• Interrupting enemies becomes a huge priority in late game fights.  Once enemies start powering up, you'll want to keep them from attacking.
• In case I didn't mention this last time, enemies get stronger the longer the battle goes.  It's not uncommon for bosses to be at 200% capacity or higher by the time you even get then below 1/4 life.

I highly recommend this game to fans of 16 bit RPGs.  The turn based combat has enough new wrinkles to keep it interesting.  The automatic healing between battles means you're not micro-managing items and abilities that can drag down a game.  The game isn't particularly long, and it's been fairly cheap on Steam of late, so consider it if you have an RPG itch.

Podcast 02: MMOs

So we've got another non-news podcast for once!

Aander91 and myself have a chat about the differences in MMOs and our takes on the genre.

Topics include...

Open-world vs Instances
Mid-Game Grinds
End Game Troubles

And more!

Just hop on over to the Podcast tab to have yourself a listen.

Final Fantasy: A Retrospective (Part 5)

Now for the final installment!

In this one I'll cover Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XI. I'm not touching X-2 (Haven't played), XII and XIII (Too recent for a "retrospective").

Final Fantasy X (2001)

Final Fantasy X marked the series transition to the next generation of consoles.  The game took advantage of the PS2's vastly superior hardware to produce full 3D effects (as opposed to the ones seen in the previous games) and incorporated near-full voice acting.  Due to the player being able to name the main character, some scenes weren't voiced due to this.

Just gonna get this out of the way riiiiiight now.

Corny moments aside, this game made a few interesting strides in terms of gameplay.  The Sphere Grid system replaced traditional leveling.  As you gained enough experience points, you gained "Sphere Levels", which allowed you to move along a grid.  You could activate the space you were on, and spaces adjacent to you if you had the appropriate spheres in your inventory.  Now, at the start, each character was on their own path, so they were distinctive (Auron had a lot of HP and Attack spaces, Tidus had Speed and Evasion spaces), but if you used the right special spheres, you could jump into someone else's grid, or learn an ability they learned.  It was a different approach to leveling up your character and was kinda fun in my opinion.  

The next gaming convention was a slight modification of the Active Time Battle (ATB).  In past Final Fantasy games, your turn order was determined by a filling bar on the side that filled faster if you had higher speed.  In this game, the bar is gone, but you have the same concept.  The turn order is displayed on the side, but certain moves (Tidus' Quick-Hit for example) would make your character's next turn come sooner.  Other moves had a chance to delay an opponents turn as well.  In addition to all this, you could switch out your party members mid-battle if one gets hurt, or you need to switch from melee to magic.

The game also allowed you to customize equipment.  Unlike previous games, two weapons of the same name could boast different stats.  If you have a sword for Tidus, for example, it could have 3 slots.  They can either be pre-determined with some abilities, or empty, waiting for you to fill them in.  If you have the right materials, you could make a weapon that does more damage (Strength +5%) or poisons your enemies (Poisontouch).  This, paired with the ability to change gear mid-fight meant that you could switch to a specific piece of armor to fight off an incoming elemental attack, back to your other piece of defensive gear.  

Also in this game, summons (called Aeons) are only callable by Yuna, the female protagonist of the game.  The nice thing about them is that they're controllable, unlike previous "Summon for big attack, then leave" summons of previous games.  The Aeons can have their stats improved and abilities can be learned the same way you customize gear as well.  This means Ifrit, a fire element Aeon can learn Blizzaga, a strong Ice Spell, which would make him very useful against fire-type enemies since he would receive minimal damage, but do massive amounts in return.  Aeons also have their own Limit Breaks, which allows them to deal massive damage to all enemies.

"This is my Ass-Kicking pose"

The story can be a mess at times, and the main minigame, Blitzball (or as one of my friends affectionately calls it "Drown Ball") can be hit-or miss for people.  Overall though, it's a solid entry into the series and is pretty fun to play.  

Final Fantasy XI  (2002 PC/PS2, 2006 Xbox 360)

Final Fantasy XI was Square Enix's first MMORPG, and predates World of Warcraft by 2 years.  Now, what this game does is... well, a lot.  It offers 5 playable races: Humes (general all-around stats), Elvaan (Tall elf-like, good Warriors), Tarutaru (Smallest race, cute, strong with magic), Galka (Strong bear like people, good Strength), and Mithra (All female race of agile cat-people... This is Japan after all.).  There are also 20 different Jobs (classes in other MMOs) that you can play as, but only 6 are available at the start.  Unlike other MMOs, you can switch your Job at your "Mog House", which acts like a safe haven of sorts. 

 Until you hit level 30, you can only be a Warrior, Monk, Thief, Black Mage, White Mage, or Red Mage.  Upon reaching that milestone, you can undertake quests to unlock the other 14 jobs, which include series staples like Ninja, Samurai, and Dragoon.  Not all the quests are easy though.  Some you can undertake at 30 by yourself, others, you may need a party of 6 at level 50 to unlock a job.  

In addition to being able to change your job to fit your mood, you can also synergize your Job by having a sub-job.  Upon reaching level 16, you can do a quest to unlock the sub-job ability.  This allows you to equip a second job.  You would get all the benefits of the second job up to the level cap of 1/2 of your main job.  For example, if you have a level 10 Warrior and a Level 10 Monk, going Warrior/Monk means that you'd be a level 10 Warrior, and a level 5 Monk.  But if you also had a level 2 Thief, and went Warrior/Thief, you'd be a level 10 Warrior, and level 2 Thief still.  The subjob doesn't bump up levels.

This system plays out nicely overall.  If you want to kill for items (farming), you could go Thief as a main (for the Treasure Hunter ability, which helps drop rates), and sub Warrior for extra attack and defense.  This sort of  hybrid gameplay made the game feel fun.  When I played the game solo, I'd want to unlock other jobs just to try other combinations.  Of course, as in any MMO, there's a generally perceived "Right" way of doing your class-subclass combo, but still, it's fun to experiment.  

There are three starting areas, which are major cities in the world.  in addition to doing missions for them to progress the story, you can switch your citizenship for a fee.  You need to make it to the city and go to their embassy, and request a change of country, and BAM, now you can do their story missions.  There's a LOT of content in this game, and a lot of endgame stuff I've never even played.  

This is not a very PVP-centric game.  There's passive PVP in "conquest", which basically amounts to "kill monsters in this zone with your country's sigil buff active, and help them take over".  If the monsters kill a lot of Players, the Beastmen take control of the zone, which means that there's no real PC help in that region.  If your country controls the area, you can buy some simple items from the outpost, and deliver Outpost supplies, which allows you to warp from the region to your home country, and vice versa.  

STAY AWHILE AND LISTEN

The soundtrack is pretty good, not just by MMO standards, but by game standards.  Series veteran Nobou Uematsu had a hand in helping with the soundtrack, which showed in the quality of the music.  

This game is still going today, albeit with a smaller fan base.  The strong PvE endgame are good reasons for this though.  The community is pretty open and friendly.  The graphics are a little dated, and the combat may feel slow at times as well.  The game is still receiving new content over 10 years after release, which is astounding.  Once this game goes free-to-play though (if it does), you can be certain I'll be diving back in for another go.

Final Fantasy: A Retrospective Part 4

So after a brief hiatus from this series, I return!

And luckily, it's a topic I can't shoehorn Alpha Protocol into!

Haha, suckers.

Anyways, onto the next game.

Final Fantasy VIII (1999)

So, This is a pretty polarizing Final Fantasy game.  I'm going to list a few of the features in this game that may have deviated from the norm.

• A "Draw" system, where magic was 'stocked' from enemies, items, or points of magic in the world.
• The "Junction" system, where the characters equipped summons in order to get stronger.  The 'junctioned' summon (called GF's for Guardian Forces) enabled the character to boost their stats by equipping the magic they had stocked.  For example, you could junction Fire to your Attack, but Fira would give bigger effects.
• Interactable summoning sequences for the GFs via the ability called "Boost" to increase damage.
• An in-game Collectable Card Game called Triple Triad, where the cards could be found through special events, or using the ability "Card" on some enemies.
• Dynamic Skill selection.  Similar to equipping "Command" materia from Final Fantasy VII, you could equip abilities from GFs to your character, either passive ones (like HP + 20%, or Str +40%), or active ones like Card, Item, or Devour.
• Monsters that level-scaled with the player.

So, those are a few of the new things that changed in Final Fantasy VIII.  Many people felt like this game was too easy due to these changes, since if you could junction the status effect "Sleep' or "Death" to your attacks, you'll put the enemy at a huge disadvantage, or that simply grinding GF abilities would give you a huge boost if you turned monster Cards into items.  

Hi, my name's Quetzalcoatl, and I'm your guide to breaking the game.

Another reason people dislike the game is due to the lead character, a brooding, introverted, anti-social, loner named Squall.  Through most of the game, he seems his teammates more as annoyances than as comrades.  He's the type of character who feels like people are better off on their own so they don't get hurt by others.  He has his reasons for thinking like this due to being abandoned by the one person he looked up to when he was a child.

The rest of the cast includes a hot tempered brawler, a peppy girl, your former instructor (who's younger than you are), a wanna-be ladies man, and a young lady trying to lead a revolution against the government.  

All of the main cast, save for Rinoa, the revolutionist, are members of an academy called SeeD, which basically trains the students to be mercenaries for hire.  Remembering that this is a JRPG, the main cast is between 16-20, meaning that they've had combat training from a young age.

Also in this game, instead of buying new weapons, or finding them in chests, you upgrade your old weapons.  By finding magazines throughout the world, you'll find exactly what items you'll need to make your weapon more badass.  If you just happen to have the ingredients though, you won't need to find the corresponding magazine (I usually end up skipping the second gunblade because I found the items for the third).  

Personally, I rate this game above Final Fantasy VII on any list I make for the series.  I find the character development of Squall to be interesting.  It doesn't hurt that Triple Triad is probably my favorite JRPG minigame ever.  

Also, dat intro movie

Badass

Final Fantasy IX (2000)

Final Fantasy IX returned to the series roots.  It returned to the higher-fantasy roots of the series before VI. It also returned to allowing you 4 members of your party to use in combat, instead of 3.  

Honestly, I played this game years ago, beat it, and forgot about it.  The game didn't leave a huge impression on me.  I need to replay it to refresh my memory better.

The beginning is pretty funny though.  Doing mock-battles with fake magic was fun.  Using "FX-Comet" for 0 damage was funny, due to it's impressive looking nature.

Something happy from the game

And we'll wrap it up here for now.

I'll post Final Fantasy X and XI in the next, and final edition of Jama7301's Final Fantasy Retrospective Special Extravaganzapolloza!

Album Review: That Handsome Devil Pt 1

Alright, so I'm going to take a small break from game related updates to post some album reviews!

I'm going to start by posting a short review of a few albums by That Handsome Devil.

Part 1 of the reviews will contain the following albums: That Handsome Devil EP (2006)

Part 2 will cover their first full album, A City Dressed In Dynamite (2008).

Part 3 will contain a review of Enlightenment's For Suckers EP (2009) and The Heart Goes To Heaven, The Head Goes To Hell (2011).



That Handsome Devil

Godforbid invites you to take a trip with him.

Tracklist

1. Standing Room In Heaven
2. Yada Yada
3. Sleep It Off
4. Elephant Bones
5. Dating Tips
6. Miss America 
7. James Dean

The album starts off with a very somber sound.  The slow, rhythmic upright bass almost lulls you into a trance as the guitar and drums are used intermittently until the vocals kick in.  Instantly, you're transported to a dingy bar where the live act is capturing the mood of the room.  This song is how THD establishes their big band influence ever so slightly.  The tempo fluctuates gradually from slow to an almost moderate pace, while almost never breaking that trance it establishes early.  During each of the slower portions of the song, you can still find that hypnotic bass riff droning in the background, providing a base for the rest of the melody to be built upon.  In what will become true THD fashion, they end the song with an audio clip that has some slight relation to the song, this time being a phone operator answering a call to heaven.

Immediately you're presented with an upbeat drum beat that welcomes you to Yada Yada.  From here, you can definitely hear some of Godforbid's, the lead singer, unique vocal stylings in the way he slides from note to note.  The Big Band influence is still here as you hear horns in the background during the verse.  The chorus kicks up the energy another notch as the guitars pick up.  Honestly, I can't figure out a proper interpretation for this track.  It's a short track that's a lot of fun rhythmically though.

The energy keeps up as the scat styled intro of Sleep It Off rolls in.  The trumpets provide accents ever few lines, but the really interesting part comes when the strings pick up in the chorus.  During this time, violins provide a contrast to the upbeat sounds the verses provide.  Also, the verses seem to hide some kazoos... so there's that.  It's funny to me how upbeat they make a song about someone drowning their sorrows in alcohol.  The way I hear the song is that someone gets near-blackout drunk trying to forget something that had happened.

Then we break into the Surf Rock inspired Elephant Bones, which most people will know from Guitar Hero 2.  The verse of the song is very chilled and relaxing with the sparse guitar and it's warbly tone.  The simple bass line is the driving force of the non-lyrical sounds during the verses.  Then when the chorus rolls around, we're met with a more distorted version of the beach themed guitar tones.  The song wraps up with a sound clip that would be at home in a 1950's commercial or talk show.  This is the first time they use such a clip to close out their tracks.

Speaking of Talk Shows, Dating Tips starts off like a fanfare from a talk show.  Then it rolls into a lackidasical beat that Godforbid raps slowly over.  Simply put, Dating Tips is all about relationship advice. The validity of the track's advice is up to to interpretation, so use your own discretion.  This is a song that simply has to be heard to believed.

The tone shifts back to melancholic as Miss America starts, almost as if to cause a mood whiplash.  The keyboard is almost haunting at times in it's use during the verses.  The song highlights how messed up life can be, despite appearances of normality.  Most of the things mentioned in the song are things that are very real and could happen to people around you.  Someone taking an anti-depressant, but then having it make their condition worse?  That's a very real situation that some people face.  

Then we start James Dean, another song that covers a heavy topic: money and fame.  It's a hard  song for me to cover honestly, since it's about wanting to die young in order to be remembered.  

So that wraps up the first installment of this album review for That Handsome Devil.  Part 2 will roll out sometime in the near future.

Linearity vs Sandbox Style.

Let me start by setting the scene here.  

Game A is a game that offers no real exploration and your path is set from Point A to Point B.

Game B allows you to roam around in a large area, and you can get from Point A to Point B by various means.

When asked which is right, you'd get a mixed result.  After all, platformers like Mario and Sonic are type A by nature, whereas games like Grand Theft Auto fall under type B.

When asking someone about Linear games, you may get responses like "easy", "boring", or "insults my intelligence"

You smug bastard.

But is this really the case?  Well, in a word, no.  There are games that are fairly linear through and through, but most games fall in between.  Now, I'm going to rip into a game that I like very much below: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

The story of GTA:SA was well written, the world was expansive with several full cities to explore, and tons of little side missions you could undertake.  But in terms of story, it was fairly linear.  You had to do mission A to mission B, and all those side missions you did had no real bearing or relation to the rest of the game.  If you did some side missions for Cesar, it didn't relate towards doing missions for Smoke or Ryder, and vice versa.  While the world is open, it's not a truly open game.  for that to work, mission order would be very important, at least in my book.

Hey Niko, my world feels more alive, and it's on older hardware.

Another prime example of this type of open world/closed story would be Saints Row 2.  Possibly my most favorite Sandbox game (Have yet to play through SR3) with 4 major storylines.  The problem is though, apart from the radio newscaster keeping up to date with what you do, the rest of the world really doesn't.  The Ronin aren't intimidated by the fact you killed Mareo.  The Samdi don't flinch or change at all once the head of the Ronin has been burned at sea.  

This was such a huge opportunity to blend the stories together.  Instead they feel detached and kind of annoying.  The story is great, don't get me wrong, but with such a fragmented story, the world kind of loses some of it's vibrancy.  It's a game world with lots to do, with a good story, but the story segments don't interact.

Then we look at a game that looks linear on the surface, but is possibly one of the most open games I have ever played.  Alpha Protocol.

You thought you heard the last of me?  HAH!.

After the introduction missions, you become a rogue agent.  It's your task to uncover what's going on.  You can do operations in either Moscow, Taipei, or Rome.  I did my first operations in Moscow, then Taipei, then Rome.  What happened though, is that what I did during the course of one mission was brought up later in another.  The fact I took a non-violent approach in the first few missions in Rome meant that I gained respect with the person who flagged me down for my 4th mission in the city.  

Moments like that floored me in that game.  

Above: Me

The scope of that game was massive.  It's a game with so much replay potential.  What will happen if I let the Middle Eastern Arms-dealer bribe me?  What if I execute him?  What if I arrest him, but later do something different?  Each thing you do has an impact on how the rest of the game plays out.  Even doing a small, side objective during a mission can reveal startling things about your supporting cast.  

Going back to missions in Rome, because i did missions in Moscow before going there, I heard one NPC try to blame me for what happened to weapon shipments in Moscow.  Now, when I first played this game on PC (very poorly mind you), I went to Rome first, and that guy said he had no clue what happened.  In the post-mission wrap-up screen, I actually saw one of the changes made to the world when it said that I was under suspicion due to what that guy said.  

In that aspect, Alpha Protocol is one of the most Open games I've ever played.  

Going back to the subject at hand, if you step back from how grandiose a world looks (like GTA) it could still end up being fairly linear.  Then you look at one that looks nearly linear as hell (Alpha Protocol), but it can be a very complex experience.  

Now, examples aside, since I have a knack for rambling, is how do we make a better game using these two formula?

It's hard to say.  if you can make a tightly controlled game that feels open through non-explorable means.  That's better to me than a game that's wide open and easy to explore, but feels kinda dead inside.  

This is how Liberty City felt to me in GTA IV.

Linear and Sandbox, When you think about it, they're usually in the same game.  Open world, linear story.  A truly open game though, would require such an astronomical budget that I don't know if any AAA company would want to take that risk.  I hear Bastion is good at crafting the narrative around you, but I haven't tried it for myself.

I'm interested to see which way this goes honestly.  A linear game can be far more fun if the ride is worth it.  Half-Life 2 is a very linear game, but the way the set-pieces and the dialogue is delivered makes the experience feel more natural.  Sometimes Sandboxes get to big for their own good, and can't really deliver these memorable moments because they're spread out too thin to make an impact.  

The Franchise Debate

Gaming is a strange creature when it comes to franchises. Gamers will say that series X needs to die, or that Series Y is past it's prime and needs to just fade away.

A few series come to mind when I think about franchises that people think need to die.

Call of Duty and Final Fantasy.

A thought occurs to me concerning call of Duty. It seems that they're (Activision) are taking an annual sports game approach to it. It's just a tuning on the multiplayer, with a token single player campaign. in the same vein, playing the career mode in Madden can be seen as training to help you grasp the game before you take on your friends. If we look at Call of Duty from this perspective, why doesn't it deserve to be made each year in the same vein of a Madden or an MLB The Show? I think since it isn't seen as a sports title, it doesn't deserve that sort of reasoning for an annual release. The last two Madden releases (Madden 11, and Madden 12) both sold millions of copies. While nowhere near the explosive sales of the last two Call of Duty games, it's still showing that annual releases make money, despite being just a small visual upgrade, updated roster, and tweaks to gameplay. If you look at the maps as the "roster" of the Call of Duty games, the update seams a little more reasonable.

Now I'll stop going in circles to mention something that irks me about the series. A Call of Duty game that's a year old will still sell new for 50-60 dollars. Compare this to a new sports title that sells for around $20 after it's been out a year. This is what irks me. I can still see Modern Warfare II selling for $20 new... It's a unique situation where you have a game that's almost the same as a sports game (Hell, they should just start calling it "Call of Duty 2013"), but it's treating each game as if it's a separate series.

Now, do I think that Call of Duty should die? No, no I don't. It has a right to exist, and Activision would be stupid to stop making them. The games are consistently among the top selling games each year, so throwing that revenue away would just be dumb. Would I like to see a little more difference between the titles, yeah, sure. But why would you change what works? That's like telling an NHL game to to change some core values around all the time. The NHL series has been praised as one of the best sports franchises around because EA Canada has the core mechanics down to near-perfection. What they do is add more, subtle, realities to the game. Stick breaking on some shots, screening the goalie, checking over the boards... Little details, but help refine the game to feel authentic. I feel that Call of Duty is reaching that same platform. I hear people saying that Black Ops multiplayer was really balanced, so they could experiment or tweak the gameplay to make things more realistic or fun.

The biggest issue for this though, is that they have different developers for their games. Between Treyarch and Infinity Ward, they have two different teams working on different versions. This means that gamers can't get a consistency with their games because the formulas make subtle shifts each year.


To get away from the Call of Duty talk now, we're going to take a look at the Final Fantasy series. This series has been around since 1988 or so. There are 16 games in the main numbered series (1-14 + x-2 and 13-2). Add with that the side series like Tactics, Mystic Quest, and some remakes, you get a lot of games released for this series. Now, some would say that many games might be too many, but there are differences that differentiate each game from each other.

Because I've already documented the differences, I'm just going to leave these here...

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

The changes may be subtle, but they are large enough to be noticeable. Switch from I to II, you go from standard fight => levelup formula to Fight => skill-up based on what you use. From II to III you lose the skill-ups, but you gain a primary class system. From III to IV, you go back to standard Fight => Level-Up, but you gain a diverse cast of individuals with their own skills and special abilities.

Simple changes, but enough to notice differences.

Now, how does this play into "this franchise needs to die"?

Simple really, if a game can keep making simple to substantial modifications to the RPG formula they helped define, they aren't stagnating. They're changing things up. Final Fantasy XI, an MMO that predates World of Warcraft, XII, attempts to bring combat without the "whoosh effect" and being transported to a special battleground. It also allows you to customize how the AI behaves. XIII brings back a class system with a huge twist, being able to change during combat. You can bemoan that the stories aren't as good, or that they focus too much on graphics, but you can't really say they aren't doing anything with the series. The benefit of the series is that the games are all independent of one another, apart from the sequels.

Is this a series that I think should die? Nope. This is another series that has a wealth of ideas they could return to. If they wanted to make a game with a classic job system, they could. If they want to keep trying new things, yeah, they have that option. A big problem though, is people becoming jaded to the point where nothing can live up to the games they played first.

But Nostalgia... that's a topic for another time.

Humor in games

As I write this, I'm still uncertain as what I'm talking about, so this may ramble.

I like video games that can handle heavy issues, but by that same token, I also like games that can make me laugh. Like, genuinely laugh with good writing and situations.

I think Eastern RPGs are better at this than the American made ones.

I get the feeling that a lot of North American based RPGs go for this overt, heavy-handedness that is fine and all, but when the game feels like it's always weighting down on you, you need a reprieve. And this is where the pacing of the game comes into play.

I'm going to reference some games below, so I'm going to try to avoid major spoilers, but I promise nothing.

You have been warned.

We're going to start off with an easy example. The Opera Scene from Final Fantasy VI. The setup, one of your main characters (Celes) is going to portray the role of the Opera's lead actress Maria. She does this, because they need to coerce the pilot of one of the only airships in the world to help them. The ruse works because Setzer, the rogue, is in love with Maria and is going to kidnap her during this performance.

Now, amidst all this, the main goal of the party is to get to a floating continent and stop the madness of the Emperor and Kefka. Hence the need for the airship. Pretty urgent stuff right?

Well even with all this chaos going on, the game manages to be funny. Back at the opera house, Celes is trying to act out the main role in the Opera. At times, the game will prompt the user for input on the lines. If you read the script beforehand, you should be able to pick out the proper lines. If you're feeling a little curious, you get some amusing dialogue that's pretty dissonant to the theme of the show. Even funnier is what happens if you purposfully botch the dialogue roughly 3 times. You get a game over. Seriously. That's hilarious to me. You have to reload your game... because you can't remember lines properly.

The in game reasoning is because you blew your cover, but whatever, that's boring.


Persona 3

The entire premise of this game is that the world is going to end in one year, and you're the only one who knows this. Throughout the school year, you partake in normal school behavior during the day, and basically demon slaying at night. This naturally leads itself to some interesting changes from the urgency of the Shadows, to the humors of a standard high school life. You're entire party could be brooding for a week due to circumstances, but them it's a trip to Kyoto as a class trip! And here is where the boys get caught in the hotsprings spying on the girls. The changes aren't too extreme, but they're natural enough to make you appreciate how the game shifts.

To give a quick counterpoint, Bethesda games like Fallout and Oblivion, (core game only) have yet to really make me chuckle or laugh at what's going on. Yes, I get it, the world is huge, but it seems to be lacking something. The random happenings that make things funny. Things like seeing a person trip up the stairs would be a nice touch. What about having events tied to specific days of the year? I know Oblivion kept track of time, it could've had a festival of some sort that wasn't story driven.

I know JRPGs get a lot of crap for being linear and pre-planned, but sometimes the writing makes the game world feel so much more alive than a huge open world game.

I'm going to cite a Western game that gets humor right though. Portal. The game is legitimately funny. The writing is great, and it has this nice contrast to the core game.

Contrast I think is one part of gaming that can be overlooked by developers sometimes. The furthest some games go into humor is a quick quip or one liner, but not scenarios where humor can naturally occur.

I know I've rambled a bit here, but writing this made me realize that I appreciate a game that can blend humor in with foreboding. It makes for a nice break in the sense of dread, and can sometimes help spur me on.

Choice in Gaming

I touched on this briefly in a comment I made on the FPS post, but I figured I could go into more detail here.

Choice is a huge part of gaming. From playing Monopoly, to Dungeons and Dragons, to your favorite video games, you want to have a direct impact on what's going on around you. In Monopoly, it's deciding whether to build, buy, or even to sit in jail for a turn. In essence, your choice is shaping every aspect of the game within the confines of the rules. In a tabletop RPG, you can go about your missions via diplomacy, stealth, guns blazin' or any other option you can think of. But it seems when it comes to video games, you always run into a section where the choice you would make, isn't a choice presented to you.

The reason for this is obvious: if a developer tried to come up with tons of potential options for every situation, the game would require many, many disks (even on Blu-ray) and a monstrous budget to cover all the art objects, animation differences, voice acting... everything.

Well, why isn't this an issue in board games? Well, for one, they have clear-cut, concrete rules. You can't steal in Monopoly, because you'd face repercussions from your friends.

Obviously, choice isn't really an issue in a tabletop RPG, because 90% of what happens is based off choice. Don't want to shoot the monster? Go ahead and pistol whip him, or try to push him off a building edge. Want to bail and leave your team to die? Seen it happen. Want to steal from allies? Totally possible if you play your cards right.

But what about a video game? Let's say I'm having a conversation with this dude and I don't like him, and I just want to end it abruptly. Well, if the game doesn't give me the option to shoot the guy in the face, I can't. And this always seems to happen... The player sees the bad guy early in the game, but can't do anything about it, even when fully armed. If you're playing a character that doesn't care what happens to themselves, why shouldn't you be able to try to take down a bad guy, even if he has guards outside the door?

I know you've all come across this sort of situation, where you WANT to do something, but you CAN'T. Sometimes, for me at least, it can break the flow of the game. Wouldn't you just LOVE to be able to ignore the shoehorned in love story, because it doesn't feel right? Or how about being able to have more choice than being either Paragon of Justice or Giant Douchebag? I'd LOVE to see a morally grey area explored. The problem with the Morality systems (inFamous, Mass Effect) is that they only reward people who follow along one path. If you think about all the shades between "Good" and "Evil", you really are leaving about a huge chunk of options. Sometimes people only act a specific way to unlock the next power or reward in that alignment. If given the option to save the bad-guy from falling off a bridge or killing him, a la Scar from Lion King, if I'm playing a reasonable character, I'd kill him. But in doing so, I'd earn Evil points, and gain nothing if I've been relatively good up to that point.

So, why should I be penalized for not following the strict moral code? i hope that in the future, when hardware increases, we'll be allowed the option where we can be in the middle of the morality scale and not be "behind" our Evil/Good counterparts in terms of strength. Sometimes it's cathartic to do something bad, especially when we feel justified doing it after having our good efforts undermined by the douche. As often in real life, decisions are not black and white, so I wish I could hold my games to that standard... But I can't. I know of the limitations, I know of the costs, but... It doesn't stop me from desiring it. A game where the main character reacts to a situation in a way where it feel natural to the persona I have carved for them.

I feel grateful though, to tabletop RPGs for allowing these morally grey areas to exist. You may not agree, enjoy, or even like hearing about them, so if that's the case, feel free to skip these next paragraphs.

I'm going to give an example of a situation where Agency was in full force. Agency is the concept that the players are in a world where their decisions have actual consequences. In a DnD game with some friends, I was playing a thief who was paranoid of people, especially those close to him. One friend was playing a boisterous Warlord (kept the party alive), and a stoic Ranger (NEEDS MORE DPS). One day, I felt a bit slighted by the Warlord, so one night, while we had camp made up, I slipped a note to the DM, and made my roll, and ended up stealing 500 gold from him. He had no idea it was missing until the next time he tried to go shopping for gear. In retaliation (he found out that I stole from him when he saw my fancy new stuff), he decided to steal stuff back from me. He ended up taking a few gems from me. Well, to be fair, I 'loaned' them to him so he could get new gear (and pay me back with interest of course), but he said that he was going to pay me back. I snuck into his room at the mansion we were guests at, took the gems, and set fire to his gear. Naturally, the whole room went up in flames, his weapons he crafted for selling melted, and he lost a lot of non-combat gear.

Now, this whole chain of events was entirely detrimental to the group, but it was fun. It was in the character's personae to act this way. Why should my paranoid Rogue trust that he'll be paid back? Why should an honorable, seasoned Warlord take that kind of guff from a guy who's only along due to circumstance? When a character takes a persona all of their own, choice becomes much more powerful, and Agency is in full effect.

That's the kind of experience I want to have one day. I know a multiplayer experience like this is long out of reach, but a single player experience where are choices aren't confined on such a binary scale. Hell, I'd settle for a triangle shaped morality meter, one that offered a third option. Like acting out of Greed, Charity, or Violence.

April 20th News Podcast

New news Podcast under the Podcast page.

Topics include

Call of Duty

EA

Madden

StarCraft II

And more!

Podcast 01: Console vs PC

Using the fancy media bar, you can listen to the first Fans On Fire Podcast.

Podcast? Podcast

So, we're doing podcasts!

UncloudTheSky95 and myself have made a podcast for this fair blog.  If you've noticed the bar at the top of the screen, you'll notice the fancy new audio player.

So I decided that, instead of being obtrusive with the media player, I opted for something smaller, with our playlist hidden by default.  To view the playlist (which will have both podcasts, and gaming music), click the 4 horizontal bar button on the top of the screen, across from the play button.

Hopefully this will mean more content from us, for you.  You lucky people.  Our hope is that we can add more podcasts, either single person, or panel style, onto the site, which might lead to more actual posts.

Any questions comment below.

If you have any podcast requests, you can leave a comment and we'll consider it.

Alpha Protocol Review

So here's the deal...  This game is stellar.

Alright, let me expand on this, when I say 'stellar' I don't mean "perfect".  I mean "What I like it does pretty well".

We'll do a part-by-part breakdown here of what the game offers.

Overview: This is an espionage RPG.  You are a spy.  You are well trained.  This means, that even with 0 skill points in an ability, you can still be successful at something.  If you have 0 points in say, Shotguns, it just means you're not Blasty: The Shotgun God.  You're just Michael Thorton, Shotgun User.  This is a game that mixes research, reading characters in conversation, and gunplay.

Dialogue - There's a LOT of it.  Each thing you say has a chance to sway someone's perception of you.  You may get them to like, and hate you, all in the same conversation.  Having allies is good, but having someone fear you could be just as effective in this game.  The way the game handles conversation is not with the traditional "Pick a specific line to say", you actually pick the tone and attitude with which you say things.  Also, your choices are on a timer, meaning you have to pay attention to the conversation.  The timer pops up usually when someone else is talking, so your response feels more organic than the unnatural pause you'd find in other RPGs.  This makes conversation more engaging to me.

Characters - So far, the characters are diverse, yet believable.  Each person seems like they could actually be a real person in their own way.  Voice acting is pretty solid as well.

Gunplay - Third-person, over the shoulder gunplay.  Pretty standard.  Up on the d-pad brings up your weapon menu (2 guns you bring in with you, with 3 different types of ammo for each). Right pulls up your gadget menu, where you'll find your grenades, healing kits, etc.  The amount you can carry is limited by your perks, and your armor.  Left pulls up your active skills (like Chain-Shot: A pistol only ability that slows down time so that you can line up 2-3 shots in rapid succession, 2 minute cooldown at first).  Down switches the shoulder which your shooting over, something pretty handy in a firefight from cover.

Personally, what I've been trying to do is stealth takedowns.  Or if the takedown fails, melee combat.  I also carry a silenced pistol and an Assault Rifle.  I try to focus on stealth, but can shoot my way out if need be.

Story - The story is straight out of a Hollywood movie.  It's full of revenge, backstabbing, government cover-ups, special agents, and Paramilitary Organizations.  You get yourself involved with the Chinese Secret Police, the Triads, the Mob, CIA, and more.

Odds and Ends - One of the things I like about the game is simple.  Replying to emails.  When you find some dirt on a company on a mission, you email it to yourself, and you can view it from your safehouse.  From there, you have 3 options.  You can send the info to your friend in the media, for a reputation bump and a small monetary compensation, you can blackmail the company for a good chunk of change, or you can forgo that and sell the intel on the black market to the highest bidder.

This game makes you either regret, or embrace your decisions.  Spare an arms dealers life?  Well you can either arrest him, or take his bribe of weapons, money, and black market dealer contacts.  But he may come back to haunt you in the future.  Or you could just kill him to remove a potential threat.  If you go all gung-ho on a mission, you may end up pissing off the CIA and they may send more reinforcements for your next mission.  this game is very ambitious when it comes to consequence.

I love playing the spy role.  I read the dossiers on everyone.  I gather intel from the black market, from missions.  I like knowing about these people.  Reading can give you a leg up in a conversation, you can find out what they like, or dislike, and turn it against them. A good piece of information can sway a conversation.

Downsides - Some of the character models can look a little weird at times.  Not quite uncanny valley weird, but not top-shelf graphics either.  A few bugs like bullets occasionally passing through a wall, or the rare freeze are all that's plagued me thus far.  If I can play through this game, and encounter only these bugs, I'll chalk this up as a good purchase that's not broken.

Recommendation - If you're looking for a pretty smart, third person RPG, you could do much worse than Alpha Protocol.  Gunplay is average, but you're here for the story and role-playing.  You can make your Thorton behave just how you picture a spy to act.  He can be the Suave Bond, the Hot Headed Bauer, or the sneaky Bourne.  Or a mix of all 3.

Catch-up Post

So... since I'm the only one really posting here... periodically... shut up, you know what I mean.

Anyways, here are some quick-reviews for what I've been playing of late.

Saints Row: The Third
I am a child.  I enjoy spending most of my time in this game doing running melee attacks.  They are all sorts of gratifying.  In fact, I plan on getting the unlimited sprint JUST to do that.  Speaking of upgrades, you buy them in this game.  Yeah, money has a better purpose in SR3 than SR2.  In my current Saints Row 2 file, I'm sitting on half a million dollars, and nothing to spend it on but property and ammo.  In Saints Row: The Third, you buy your upgrades with money.  Things like More ammo for guns, more grenades, followers, more sprint/health, etc. The catch is, you still need a required Respect level before you can purchase these unlockables.

Gun play is a bit different.  Your radial menu replaces the dedicated grenade slot with the specialty weapon slot (like my attack drones).  The upside is that the d-pad now selects which one of the four grenade types you have equipped.  The button layout is different, but the new layout allows you to aim down the sights easier (helpful), and have a dedicated grenade button (which I accidentally hit instead of the "shoot fiery lead based projectiles very fast" button).

DC Universe Online

Anybody remember when Sony charged you to play this game?  Financial bust is a term for that plan.  Now that it's Free-To-Play though, I hear it's doing decent financially.  So there's that.

Now enough business talk... how does it play?  Fun.  Fast frantic action.

You can play as either a hero or villain.  Then you choose your type of power from a pool of things like Nature, Mystic, Gadgets (wheeeeeeeeeeee), Fire, Ice, and a few others.  You then choose a Mentor.  If you're a hero, your choices are Batman (gadget-type), Superman (meta-type [ice, fire, general genetics mutations]), or Wonder Woman (Mystic powers).  The villain's line up is the Joker (Gadgets, my current mentor), Lex Luthor (Meta) and Circe (Mystic).

After you choose your powers, you choose your weapon of choice (Bow, brawling, martial arts, dual pistol, assault rifle, dual wield, hand blasts, one handed weapons, two handed weapons, and a few others).

So, with powers and weapon and costume picked out, you begin your adventure.  In this game, you'll be fighting against the opposite faction (both PvP and PvE) as well as a common enemy in Braniac.  So as a Hero, you may end up fighting against the Joker or Penguin at some point.  And as a Villain, you can expect Batman or The Flash to show up on your mission log.

Movement is broken down into three choices.  Super Speed, ala the Flash, Acrobatics (climbing and scaling buildings with gliding and a slightly faster than normal run speed), or Flying.  I chose Acrobatics, since you don't need to fight with a camera and it's fun for exploring.

one last game to throw in...

Dragon's Blade for the WP7.

It's a throwback to early Final Fantasy games.  You grind, you try to earn money, you learn spells by buying them.  You start with a party of 4 characters that you make by selecting from about 7 classes.  The bonus is that you can create new characters at the inn (3 of them), but they start at level 1.  So my starting line-up was Porshe the Templar (Hybrid between a healer and a tank, Mystic Knight for those who've played FFV), Singarith, a Warrior (standard tank), Dave an Archer (Can attack all enemies in a line from him, but more enemies he hits, the less damage the arrows do), and Carde the Mage.

After playing a bit, I realized that the Archer and the second tank didn't fit how I wanted to play, so I remade Singarith as a Juggernaut, a light armor wearing Brute who uses two handed weapons for massive damage.  And then I replaced the archer with a Cleric named Kat for healing.

Now combat is fairly simple, but what's interesting is that whatever character is at the front of your order, is more likely to be attacked.  So the top two are the targets of most attacks.

Another interesting thing is that each class has their own innate chance like thingies.  Example: the Templar has a chance to protect allies, Archers occasionally produce a "hail of arrows" when they attack, which attacks the enemies again, and slows them down, Mage sometimes recovers mana and boosts damage of spells for a turn after casting a spell, the Cleric sometimes can heal the whole party a small amount when they cast any of their spells, and the Juggernaut has a chance to hit all enemies after attacking one enemy.

For a free phone game, it's a good time kill.  I play it on the bus to and from school.

Final Fantasy Retrospective: Part 3

So we've hit another big one.

Final Fantasy VI.

Often claimed to be the best numbered game in the franchise.  This game featured a staggering cast of playable characters.  Over a dozen unique characters will join your party.  Unlike previous games though, you will be able to switch them out almost at will. (whereas in previous games your party was pretty much locked in as the plot dictated).

No normally this many characters can seem overwhelming or even excessive, but this game weaves them all into the narrative well.  Each individual character has their own personality and backstory.  This was a pretty impresive feat to accomplish without voice acting to give you a distinction between them.

Starting off as a pawn for the Empire, Terra, a strange girl who can use Magic, an art lost for ages.  This sets up a story touches on the topics of knowing who you are, the burden of free-will and expectations, and a little bit about family values.

The infamous Kefka is the primary villain in this game.  He's a psychopath who holds no qualms about doing anything for power.  Seriously, the lengths this man will go to is sometimes startling.  Everyone around him are his pawns in his eyes.

If you take one thing away from this, it's this: Play this game.  Shut up, listen to me.  Play this game.  This game is a piece of work.  This is the type of game that makes me play games.  I can put up with the endless re-releases of games, yearly Call of Duty, and flops like Duke Nukem for a game like this.

Seriously, do it.

Also, the soundtrack is one of the best in gaming.  The melodies fit very well with the game.  Very memorable.

Final Fantasy VII

Hoooo boooy, what have we here.  The game that brought the series in full force to America.  The first Final Fantasy to go into depth (graphically)

Final Fantasy VII builds off some things that Final Fantasy VI brought into the fold.  The Magicite system from VI for character improvement returns revamped as the Materia system.  The desperation limit breaks from VI become more common as Limit Breaks become their own meter to fill.  And Kefka is renamed Sephiroth.  I kid I kid.

This game was so huge, it spawned at least 4 spinoffs.  The first one that comes to mind is Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, a delayed sequal to the original that has you play as Vincent in a Third-Person Shooter/action game.  The CGI Movie Final Fantasy VII Advent Children is another sequel to the game.  Then we have Crisis Core, a prequel to Final Fantasy VII, that puts the player in the head of Zack Fair, the main who helped shape Cloud into who he is in the base game.  Another one that gets an honorable mention is Last Order, an anime short that takes place before the events of the game.

So yeah... the game is popular.

The thing is... I don't think it's as good as Final Fantasy VI.

I kind of want to replay it to see if I can notice some extra subtlety in it, or something.  But for now, it's not as good as VI to me.

The story is good.  A heroic sacrifice or two never hurts.  It's always nice seeing a villain descend into madness though.  And boy, does Sephiroth have that in spades.  It's great that's he's just not balls-out crazy right away.  Well, he is a little crazy, but he gets even more so as the game proceeds.

Also the game has some of the more notorious optional bosses.  Ruby and Sapphire Weapon can either be a pain in the ass, or easy, depending on if you know how to abuse the system.

We're getting to the point where I would recommend the games I'm writing about, so I don't want to type too much about the plot.  So go play these two... Do it.

I'm serious.

Final Fantasy Retrospective (Part 2, or "Wow, it's been 2 months since an update")

Alright, been awhile. Anyways, here's the not-that-long-awaited part 2.  

Final Fantasy IV (1991 SNES, 1997/2001 PSX, 2005 GBA, 2007 DS)

Alright, now onto the good stuff.  Final Fantasy IV is a stellar game, plain and simple.  This game has strong characterization.  You play as the captain of the Red Wings of Baron.  The Red Wings, are an elite airship army for the nation of Baron.  After a few incidents in the plot, Cecil is questioning his loyalties to his king.  Eventually, he goes through a transformation to purge himself of the blood on his hands and becomes a Paladin.  

This serves two purposes: The plot reason is to help Cecil come to terms with his life and indicates a full realization of what he must do and who he is, as a person.  Gameplay wise, it changes Cecil from this HP siphoning damage dealer to a naturally protective support character.  When an ally has low HP, Cecil will automatically guard them.  

This all aside, the game is a pretty damn good.  Depending on the version, it can vary from hard, or fairly easy.  The SNES version is actually considerably harder than the DS remake.  The SNES version required a considerable amount of grinding vs the DS one.  

Good soundtrack, good characterization, good story.  Final Fantasy IV gets a recommendation from me if you're looking for a good JRPG.

Seriously, that’s all you get for FFIV.  Intentional yo.

Final Fantasy V (SNES: N/A {in N.A.}, Playstation: 1999, GBA: 2006, PSN: TBD)

Alright, now we’re a little obscure.  Final Fantasy V is one of the unheard of games.  Until a few years ago, I had never played it myself. 

If there is one thing you take away from this little recap it’s this: I love their Job System.  It’s absurdly fun to mess with.  Seriously.  Want to play a Ninja in heavy armor?  Well level as a Knight for awhile, learn “Heavy Armor” then just equip the ability when you turn Ninja.  Ta-daaaaa.  It is the precursor to the job system in Final Fantasy Tactics, which is a good thing (That had a stupidly fun job system as well).

Anyways, this game has a decent-to-good story, and the gameplay/combat is more fun than normal because of the way you can build your characters. 

Also introduced in this game is Gilgimesh, who later becomes a recurring character in later Final Fantasy titles.  Also, his theme music, Clash on Big Bridge, pretty awesome. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CMTXyExkeI

or for a more epic version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHbYIbleQP8

The story involves stopping Exdeath, the big bad, from sending the entire world to the Void, nothingness, fates worse than death, unlife, et al.  It’s up to you, Bartz, your faithful steed Boco (a chocobo, naturally), a crass pirate, a princess, and a badass grandpa (Thanks TVTropes). 

If you’re going to pick up and play this game, grab the GBA version.  It’s received higher scores than the PSX counterpart.  The PSN version hasn’t been released Stateside as of yet.

Final Fantasy Series (A breakdown) Part 1

This is a personal breakdown of the Final Fantasy games I've played.  Any release dates posted are drawn from Wikipedia since I don't have a super-tronic memory.


FINAL FANTASY (1987)

The inaugural game in the series was simply, Final Fantasy.  This, along with the Dragon Quest series, helped cement the RPG genre as we know it.  Top down maps, with turn based combat soon became the norm.

The game itself is pretty standard.  At the start, you built your party of 4 by combining any combination of the following classes: Monk, Warrior, Thief, Red Mage, Black Mage, and White Mage.  Late in the game, each class turned into a better version of their starter class through an all powerful class change.
Monk was your two handed fighter that needed no weapons.  High HP and multi-hit attacks were his trademarks.  Turned into a Martial Artist.
Warriors were your weapons and heavy armor users.  They could boast high Vitality, so they took less damage usually.  Turns into a Knight
Thieves were the quickest of the group.  They didn't hit hard in combat, but they could pilfer goods from the enemy.  Turns into a Ninja, who can then throw things... and move even faster.  With many attacks.
Black Mages could use damaging/crippling magics against the enemies.  Black Wizard gets access to the strongest Black magic in the game
White Mages used healing and buffing magics on the party.  White Wizard gets the strongest buffs and heals.
The Red Mage was a combination of the White and Black Mage, but wasn't as proficient at either.  Can cast decent spells, but not the strongest from each color.  Also can be used as a backup melee fighter.  I don't know why they didn't call it the Gray Mage though.  Red Wizard gets some of the medium-high spells from both schools.  (Like 7 or so on a scale to 10.)


Anyways, the party (I went with Fighter, Monk, White Mage, Black Mage on my PSP playthrough) starts off as a small group of do-gooders that go around doing heroic things like saving princesses, until an event occurs and you're called upon to save the world.

The story, is kinda lacking.  The gameplay is definitely monotonous.  It's a grind.  The original NES version is difficult.  The PSP version?  Not so much.  Part of the difficulty comes from getting lost.  This game can get by on it's historical merits, but to some, that's enough.  It can be entertaining enough to keep you playing for a few hours without realizing.  You're not going to get attached to any of the characters.  It shows exactly how the massively popular series started.  It may have a few gray hairs, but it's worth a look for those curious about the franchise origins.


Fianl Fantasy II (1988)

I haven't played much of this one, but I will say this... The NES version is BRUTAL.  At the beginning, if you don't stay on the intended path, you will encounter insanely tough enemies... and you will die.  Not a supposed-to-lose die, but a Game Over die.  The main premise is that there's a war going on, and an invading Empire has taken over the kingdom.  You are recruited into the resistance after a scuffle with the Empire left you and two party members unconscious, and the main character's brother missing.

That's right, they introduced characterization.  One of the more interesting things in this game is the dialogue system.  At certain times, you can either learn or say key words.  these key words can be used to grant entrance to places, or to see extra snips of conversation with the NPCs.  It's actually a pretty interesting concept for a video game.

Magic and weapons work like this, the more you use a specific spell or weapon, the better you get with it.  Granted, your characters are naturally specific at the start (Main character is better at swords at the start than axes, Big guy is better with Axes than staves, the chick is better with Bows than swords).  You buy magic and "Affix" it to a specific character, then poof, they can use it.  Using it makes it stronger and more effective, so grinding serves more purpose than just levels.

Speaking of levels, there's no real "level" system in the game.  You get stat increases at random after battles.  If your character does a lot of damage over the course of a few fights, then his strength will increase.  If they take lots of damage, their HP and Vitality will go up and so on.  A dynamic stat system like this falls in the middle of the "Pro-con" scale. At least for me.


Last in this part...

Final Fantasy III (1990)

Here we are, number 3, and the last NES release.  Granted, it never came stateside til the DS port, but whatever.  You start off as a young teen who falls into a crevice after an earthquake.  You are then deemed to be one of the "Warriors of Light", along with 3 others.  Then this rag-tag group of peoples are supposed to save the world.

The notable addition in this game was the base for future Job Systems.  You can change a characters class from say, Warrior to white mage, with the only downside is that you'd be in a weakened state for x amount of battles after the change.

I've only played a bit of the DS remake, so I can't go into full detail about this game.  I will say I do like how they tried to incorporate a job system here.  I'm a fan of how FFV (Later) and FF Tactics (Later) have used these systems.  The penalty for switching classes is a bit harsh, and it makes it difficult for experimenting with party ideas, since you're weakened for so long after a change.


That wraps it up for this part of the breakdown.  Not much to work with here, since I never played much of 2 or 3, but next up is Final Fantasy 4, 5, and maybe I'll get to 6.