So. I gave in to my temptations and bought me Final Fantasy XIII. So much for waiting for a price drop.

My initial reflections on the first... 12 hours is fairly favorable. It seems that every positive is more or less countered by a negative though. I love the way they tell the story. They split the cast into smaller groups, much like they did in Final Fantasy VI. But- and you've probably all heard it- the game's level design is very weak. Sure, all games make you go from point A to point B, but few do it so linearly, even in the realm of JRPGs. The battle system is fantastic and requires a certain degree of strategy, but the ability to master several roles and to change them on the fly means that characters will develop fairly similarly to each other. The story itself seems pretty decent so far, but suffers from some overly dramatic characters, and honestly, some rather annoying ones too. Believe me, my issues with the BOY Hope doesn't end at his name. Overall though, the goods outweigh the bads, so it's actually been quite an enjoyable experience.

Essentially, this is Final Fantasy stripped down to its roots. There are no towns to stop in (that I've encountered thus far), there are no minigames, there isn't even magic outside of battles (you get restored after every battle). What is does have is a story that constantly gets pushed forward (for better or worse. Mostly by the linearity of the level design). While it doesn't feel like it's ever really dragging on, it does feel like Square-Enix missed a LOT of potential here. The stages themselves are some of the most wonderous sets I've ever seen in any game, but you're limited to the tiny little corridor of movement. Thankfully though, the game constantly awards our progress with bit and pieces of the story, so I never really minded the lack of towns and such.

I think that at its core, this is a game for diehard JRPG fans. It's hard to imagine any other kind of audience because it strips away everything but the core JRPG experience.

So my roommate has undertaken to ruin my college career by getting himself a spanking new PC. And my occasionally itchy trigger finger has firmly latched itself onto his mouse while I was trying Borderlands. Now, normally, I'm not big on shooters. And if I am, they're usually fairly plot-driven shooters like Bioshock. Borderlands is not big on story. In fact, it really take a back seat in this game. So why do I like it so much?

Well, in one short word, loot. There's some mechanism in my brain that signals gratification whenever I find stuff, and there's no shortage of stuff to find in this game. This game is like a constant barrage of dopamine in the brain. It may sound like I'm exaggerating it, but make no mistake. This is a game about getting stuff. The missions are fairly trivial, and there're a few great personalities here and there, but the star of the game is the "87 bazillion" guns you're going to find in the game. They're not always worlds different from each other, but every time you're showered with multicolored loot you get from shooting things, you'll feel obsessively compelled to sift through everything to pick and choose what you want to keep.

I'm about 10 hours in, but I feel like I can play this game over and over. The 4 character types look like they play pretty differently, so I'll probably end up creating a new character (I started with Lilith. Phasewalking is the coolest thing ever). I haven't tried any of the DLC, but I'm compelled to, by the way my experience with Borderlands is coming up.

I'll probably end up getting a copy for PS3 myself (poor me. I have no spanking new computer), and continue on my neverending quest for... more stuff.

...I can't get enough of this game! I can't wait until July 1st. Better bet I'm preordering this one like Calamity Trigger.

I'm finally adjusting (somewhat) to my stick too. It's going to be a good summer :D

RAPID SHOOTER! *PEW PEW PEW*

...God I hate that kid. So. I'm playing Eternal Sonata. This is to keep track of my thoughts, because I probably won't finish it before spring semester starts, then god knows when I'll actually get around to finishing it. I require many hours of Blazblue to sate my bloodlust after my abstinence from gaming in school. Oh. And before I go on, this contains spoilers for the few of you who are planning to play this game but haven't yet done so.

Well, I'm about 8 hours in, and it's not bad. Certainly one of the more innovative ideas out there. And how many games let you play as one of the most famous classical composers? Unfortunately, I can't really say the same for the story in Chopin's dream. Standard evil dude, mindless soliders, kids and teenagers (although their hairstyles are comparatively tame), world domination, etc. It doesn't stray too far from the well-beaten path of RPGs. On the larger scale, at least. Battles though, are quite fun. Battles are an action/turn based hybrid, with each character getting a specific amount of time to move and perform actions. I like how it starts out simple, then ramps up the difficulty every so often via the party level system. It's somewhat broken though. Special attacks can be performed with 0 seconds left, as long as you push Triangle before your last attack hits. The guard system is also a fairly involving mechanic, although they can be a little frustrating sometimes. But the best part is the light and dark mechanic. It adds a strategic layer onto an otherwise fairly plain active battle system.

Don't likes: Linear. Really linear. I mean, I don't mind linear. JRPGs are still my favorite genre of games, and most of them are pretty darn linear. But I haven't stopped in the same town twice. I'm a little put off that most of my equipment upgrades is found rather than bought. It's a small complaint, but I like walking into a new town and splurging on new weapons and armor, and equipping everyone. ...Don't ask why. Character animations could use a little touching up. Why're everyone's arms stuck at a permanent 45 degree angle with their body? It's awkward! I mean, you don't do that unless your either an Olympic lifter with pecs the size of my head, or you're a steroids user with pecs the size of my head. Which these characters aren't, in case anyone's wondering.

And the things I'm fairly neutral about... Voice acting in English isn't especially terrible. Only Polka and Beat have bothered me somewhat. I tried the Japanese voice track too. Even with my usual preference for Japanese voicing when available, this Japanese track is pretty terrible. I left mine on English, but consider me really, really surprised. And... well, color. Or rather, COLOR. Really. I haven't seen this colorful a game ever. This game makes real life look like Gears of War or Killzone 2. This game is rainbows and sunshine in game form. This game is an LCD trip. I think you guys get the point. On one hand, it's quite refreshing, but on the other, it really didn't need that much contrast. Valkyria Chronicles looked great and it had softer colors.

So. Here ends my current thoughts about Eternal Sonata. It won't win any awards (except most colorful), but it's not bad.

...Yes, this is about the Wii. Yes, it's been done by countless others. Yes, I'm not a big fan of the Wii. So let's get that out of the way first. Still want to read?

The Wii is an amazing success story. There's absolutely no doubt about it. While Microsoft and Sony went to sell their own hardware at a loss, the Wii took the market by surprise, AND made money for every console. Now, Nintendo's sitting on a mountain of cash, with the license to print more. All is well.

Or not. For a system that relies so heavily on innovation, Nintendo is stuck in the past. Partially because of its core gamer crowd, and partially because of its own business practices in the past, Nintendo's core has survived thanks to just a few franchises: Mario, Zelda, and Metroid. Now, they're all reputable and excellent games, but they're all franchises dating back to the 1980s. Mario got a facelift with 64, and only recently emulated its success with Galaxy. Metroid keeps the formula of "explore, get new item, explore more", but is the most recent to receive and update into full 3D. Zelda entered the 3D world with Ocarina, but the standard formula hasn't been changed one bit. Why fix what isn't broke, right?

Unfortunately, this is the exact problem I see with Nintendo. While I don't think they should abandon those franchises, but there hasn't been any really REALLY outstanding games outside of those 3. Which is really a shame. The most recent ones (Twilight Princess, Galaxy, Corruption), are great games, and a testament to Nintendo's developing talent, but they're not expanding. Nintendo, with all its foresight in pushing the hardware front (controls, obviously, not raw specs), fails miserably on the software front. There was once a time when I would've bought a Big N console for Zelda, Mario, and Metroid (Gamecube, although the Mario part disappointed), but the games haven't evolved with the hardware. What has been done with their 3 big franchises on the Wii could've been done just as well on (excluding graphics) a Gamecube. Nintendo's past certainly didn't help. The once nearly universal support for the SNES had been nearly completely driven away by Nintendo's refusal to acknowledge the future in CD technology. Imagine the gaming market today if Nintedo had embraced it. Sony's Playstation brand would not even exist (although Sony and Nintendo would've been working together. The Xbox brand may or may not have surfaced eventually). Nintendo would've had complete command of any third party support

I'm not saying that Nintendo's the only company that relies too heavily on established franchises. Take a look at Square Enix's fixation on Final Fantasy or Activision and Bobby Kotick's business model. In fact, every company does this to some extent. Gran Turismo on Playstation, Halo on Xbox. It's an unfortunate result of the way the entertainment industry works. However, Nintendo's the company who's been around the longest, and has done too little to even appear as if they're trying to change anything. Sure, they've created runaway success titles like the Wii ___ series. But casual gamers are exactly that. They'll play games occasionally, and once they get their fill, they stop. Once it's no longer fresh, there's no reason for them to buy more. I'm not downplaying the importance of the casual market, but Nintendo stands with a lot to lose if it further alienates its core crowd. The core crowd are the ones coming back for seconds.

I'm going to miss the Zelda series. It's my absolute favorite Nintendo franchise, and my biggest reason for my Gamecube purchase. In fact, Zelda games account for nearly a third of all my Gamecube purchases. But you see the problem? Outside of personal complaints with motion controls in general, Nintendo is not coming up with enough interesting software to entice me to buy a Wii. They're relying on 20 year old franchises feeding purely of nostalgia whereas Microsoft and Sony have been aggressively courting 3rd party developers (as well as a solid 1st party base) to bring great games onto the scene. Uncharted and Resistance for PS3, Crackdown and Gears of War for 360 (I've only listed the most well known ones established this generation), and that's not even mentioning multiplat games by other developers.

Nintendo, as I see it, is a bit schizophrenic. On one hand, it's brought a potentially great control scheme into play. Personal issues aside, there are thing you can do with motion controls that you can't do with a regular control pad (and vice versa), and it really is something novel. On the other, you've got Nintendo as a company who's afraid to deviate from the beaten path of games.

I really do want to like Nintendo. They had the absolute potential to steamroll other consoles on every front, hardware and software, but failed to do so because they're too stuck in the past. Had they repaired their connections with developers had welcomed new ideas, it would've been so much more than it is now. Here's to hoping they remedy that.

Part 1

Okay. Maybe not so much a blog than a place to put my thoughts on a game as I play through. So I don't forget them when I review them. And maybe some other stuff sprinkled in between. So... the flavor of today is...

Dissidia Final Fantasy.

Initial impressions are mostly positive. Combat is flashy and interesting, the beginning cutscene was pure orgasmic Final Fantasy fanservice, and the amount of possible customization is (prospectively) ridiculous.

Not so positives: Voice acting. I generally don't expect English voice acting to be any good, which means my standards are set pretty low to start with. And I'm saying the voice acting is atrocious. Combat. Yeah. I know I just praised it up there somewhere, but it's not without flaws. The Breaking mechanism is glaringly obvious. Once they get that Brave bonus from breaking you, there's not much to do other than hoping that you have a full EX gauge or enough reflexes to never get hit again. No mechanism to cushion that. Command system is also kind of... bad.

Overall, not bad. An obvious milking effort by Square Enix, but fairly effective, nonetheless. Completionists, go nuts.

Part 2

Story's a losing crap, but it's obviously not the focus. Unlockables are getting staggering in sheer number. But how do you get some of these trade items?! I don't think I've seen them anywhere!

Flaw of the day: camera in a corner. Hard to make out what your opponent is going to do during a chase if I'm staring at a wall.

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Random note: Bought God of War II to catch up before III comes out. You'll see people requesting the strangest stuff at Gamestop. Ancient plug-and-play controllers, anyone?