Just decided to dust off this place, starting with everyone's favorite passtime: games. After embracing Dojima as my one true waifu after playing through Persona 4, I decided to go on a massive nostalgia trip.

Starting with Breath of Fire 4, it goes through Final Fantasy 9, takes a detour through Phoenix Wright land and finally docks at Dark Cloud 2. DC2 is one of my favorite games of all time, and I am so ready to start playing around with Georama again.Phoenix Wright speaks for itself, being all-around awesome and having the best soundtrack of... everything. Ever.Objection! Cornered 1 through 5 and a personal favorite.Breath of Fire wasthatgame, that game you saw on your cousin's shelf when you were just old enough to know what the heck's going on in a video game but not quite old enough to grasp the finer points of it, that first game you picked up and started playing without any instruction and fell in love with and will always love. FF9 was a game I never got around to finishing and don't actually know what made me stop the first time, I'm enjoying it a lot. I was really young when I played it, so I can't remember a single thing that happened, it's almost like I'm playing it for firsttime. I still haven't gotten around to playing Tales of Graces, and I was (pleasantly) surprised to hear it is actually hard. Also looking at buying Dragon's Dogma, I'm a junkie for the whole giant-monster-killing-after-hours-of-painstaking-preparations scenarios. And top it all off is Blazblue, I've trying to figure out what the heck is going on in the absolutely labyrinth that is the Story Mode.

I've been listening to Santigold almost exclusively, Disparate Youth being a favorite, but Master of my Make-Believefeels like a step down fromSantogold.There's also Passion Pit's new single,Take a Walk. Powerful stuff.I bought myself the Game of Thrones books 1 through 4, I'm reading them as I follow HBO's God-tier series. Seriously, it's what's on my mind 90% of the time. I was also following Community religiously, but that ship has sailed I guess.

And that's all folks, I'll be at the Guild Wars 2 beta next weekend, thinking of going human or norn.

You just lost the game.

I want a good game. A game I can't wait to play, something so good I feel blessed just for having played a minute of it. A game that keeps me up at night, and steals my focus the rest of the day. A game that transcends its label and becomes an experience, a world you can almost touch out and reach, that blurs the line between real and fiction, imagination and rational. A game that doesn't end in the credits, that lives on, its characters immortalized, every scene and every battle remembered. A game where you weren't just an outsider looking in, you were part of it, your actions changing it. A game so good it's not enough to play it, something you just have to share with a person or ten. A game too big for only one playthrough, be it to explore new skills or to explore a different viewpoint of a problem presented to you.

So tell me, what would this game be to you? I ask because I'm tired. I'm tired of looking and seeing only executables and engines and programs where I'm supposed to be seeing a new galaxy, a new planet. I'm tired of being shown paper-thin depictions of new realms only to see through them immediately. I am desperate. I fear I may lose all the love I've ever had for the industry. I won't dwell on whose fault this is, I don't care if it is sloth or greed, if it is a single person's fault or an entire company's. I just want it to end, I want for a game to make me believe in what we, as artist and audience, have constructed in the past years.

Last game that made me feel like gaming could matter was Final Fantasy X. This was back in 2007. For the first time, I had to confront one of my most basic beliefs: that no one deserves to die. Certain events take place, and you reach a point in the game where you learn that Spira, a world with so much beauty, so much life, was forever condemned to fall in an eternal spiral of death, it's civilization slaughtered, their cities torn asunder by monsters. But I could stop that cycle, the masterminds of the entire scheme were in front of me. These people openly admitted to their crimes, and they showed no remorse in their actions. For the first time in my life I wondered if everyone wouldn't happier if they just... disappeared. Everyone asks themselves if it's right, if we shoulnd't fight it. And we do. We break centuries of tradition and bring the people true peace. The point is, video gaming taught me a life lesson. No, it taught many life lessons, and I couldn't even tell I was being taught anything.

Video game perfection

People have told me forming that deep of a connection with game may only come once in a lifetime. But I dispute that. I know that there are people out there that have learned over the years, that have truly learned the difference between a line of code and the landscape it will produce, that have learned not only to see what's there, but also what has been omitted.

To conclude, I once again ask. What game has been able to draw you in to such a degree?

I haven't updated my marathon in a while, despite having played quite a bit of FF7. I was busy being sick, for the most part, but I spent my time watching two anime: Highschool of the Dead and Gosick. Both are awesome, and I recommend them fo'sure yo. Also re-started reading Kekkaishi (v. 21 now) and I'm catching up on Bleach (despite disliking the series ever since around volume 20), and I'll probably finish watching Durarara. And to top it all off, start watching Freezing. So yeah, I won't update my page for a while. Smell ya later! (cookie if you get the reference)

So here we are, the beginning of what would later become a symbol for the JRPG: Final Fantasy VII.

Reactor 1

After some nice FMV sequences, we dive right into the center of a terrorist act by AVALANCHE (bombing an electrical plant), who are the good guys (pyromaniacism aside) in case you're wondering. The mission is to take down one of several of Shinra's reactors, which are sucking the planet's life source to provide the people with electricity (not that we'd know anything about that). We take control of the game's instantly recognizable main character: Cloud and proceed to murder two guard because they were in his way. The leader of the whole operation, Barret, isn't terribly fond of Cloud, so he joins the party to make sure he doesn't go rogue.

After going through several guards, their dogs and mounted guns (and guard-dogs with guns >.>), we arrive at the heart of Shinra's reactor and plant a bomb. But of course, the plan has to go horribly wrong at some point, so Shinra unleashes a mechanical monstrosity named Guard Scorpion, the game's first boss, to take care of our lovable rebels.

After successfully destroying the Guard, a timer starts counting down. We have 10 minutes to get out of Reactor 1, and adding a timer isn't so much to challenge as it is a way to make everything seem authentic (but then again, no matter how much time you had left, the game always makes it so it looks like you got out just in time to not die so I could be wrong). An explosion ensues, and AVALANCHE splits up until they can meet up again in the Sector 7 slums. Wherever they'll be able to escape in one piece remains to be seen...

I'm starting a playthrough of FF7, FF8 and FF9. Why? Because: a) they're awesome; b) I want to;

I'm going to post updates in my blog every once in a while, so stay tuned :D

Starting off with *drumroll* : FF7.

Midgar

I always enjoy the beginning portion of the game, and to me it's always been because Midgar felt real. The people, the locations, what people say just made such an impression on me the first time playing. The story progression at this part of the game is also well-written and sets the stage for what I consider one of gaming's finest moments.

Stay tuned for more later :)

Source.

My first attempt at my own sig :D

I'm pretty happy with the results. Feel free to criticize it, but be nice, I'm learning :P

Happy Holidays!

I recently bought Super Meat Boy.

You can see where this is going right?

I'm inclined to describe this game as Platform Hell, but that's wrong, because:

A) it's a gross understatement.

B) If it really were Hell, Meat Boy wouldn't be jumping around, he would be nicely grilled from the heat and flames and we could all eat him and sing around a roaring fire instead of crying in shame and despair.

I don't even want to hear how "oh please, Battletoads is a much harder game" and how our generation doesn't have enough hard games to toughen us up. Just because being eaten by lion hurts doesn't mean being scratched by an angry cat won't be unconfortable. SMB hates humanity with a passion, and wants to see us all suffer and die (supposedly so Meat people can be the ones to rule the Earth once again). Most of the game is spent telling yourself "next time I'll get it" and the part that's left is spent holding every swear word ever invented from bursting out your enraged mouth (in surprsing combinations, earlier I worked the words "scathing" and "henious" to a sentence that over five words for someone who sells their body). The entire experience consists of reaching very tight spaces with perfect precision and less than a split-second of time, and I find the idea laughably hard when IT CONTROLS LIKE A COW'S REAR END. I'm playing on keyboard, you see, and I fear I may break the space bar from pressing the "restart" command too many times. To conclude this miserable parade of sadness, I'll conclude by letting you imagine me buying a pound of ground beef and jamming a knife into it with a worrying amount of satisfaction that's growing with each stab.

Gotta love Glitchspot! I know leave with this lolcat: