I've FINALLY been able to play a little bit of Suikoden 2 yesterday. Since I'm in the boring part (the one you have to go to Muse to escape the Highland Army), I used the Mathilda glich and got to level 42... in the first 3 hours of the game *sadistic smile*.

You all know the Mathilda glich, right? Following to northwest of Muse you can find some Mathilda soldiers protecting the border that takes to this part of the country. You're not allowed to pass, but if you push the doors you'll be able to get in.

And since I was inside the Mathilda-Muse border, I went to Highway Town and recruited Humphrey and Futch. Man, it wasn't quite an easy task, since I was in level 11 and the monsters that surround the area are around level 40. I had a hard time surviving attacks that shouldn't spend THAT much HP, but at least when one battle was done, Riou jumped from level 11 to level 40 in ONLY TWO BATTLES. Amazing, man!! I didn't have the same luck with Mukumuku and Nanami (and I wish Jowy wasn't in my party, since he's gonna betray Riou anyway), who kept dying over and over... Somehow I managed to survive and now Riou, Mukumuku and Nanami are level 38 *evil laughter*.

In the present moment I'm in Muse. I don't really like the parts of the game where you can't recruit nor have your HQ. Thank goodness this part is somehow fast (specially if you know exactly what to do and if you are in a high level *giggle*).

Now, back to work!

I was watching some Final Fantasy Orchestrated music a few while ago. Man, the Final Fantasy series soundtrack makes me shiver!! And notest that I'm not the biggest fan of the Final Fantasy series... I hate to admit this, but the soundtrack is much better than the Suikoden series (except for Suikoden 2 Opening. Seriously, the only openings that can get close to it are Liberi Fatali from FFVIII and the Opening Theme from FFXI). I didn't want to mention One-Winged Angel because it is one of the better theme songs I've ever heard.

I believe that each Final Fantasy has a remarkable song... at least from VII to XII. (majority of the ones I played) I'd like to review a few of these songs.

FFVII: I don't need to make any comments 'bout One-Winged Angel, right?
Fine, let's move on.
FFVII has possibly the best soundtrack of the FF series. No wonder why everybody likes it (even though my favorites are VIII and X). Aeris Theme in the Piano Version is always something nice to hear. I don't know why, but it always reminds me of dewdrops. I wonder if that was Nobuo's intention.

FFVIII has the excellent Liberi Fatali. I also like Eyes on Me and the Balamb Garden Theme.

FFIX... honestly, I don't really like this game, but the opening theme is somehow very cute. Vamo alla Flamenco is quite, quite, quite addicting.

FFX... To Zanarkand and Suteki da ne Orchestrated Version are simply PERFECT.

FFX-2: it isn't a proper game of the series. In fact, I dislike it. But the ending song, 1000 Words, is very pretty.

FFXI: didn't play it. In my country we don't have internet connections for PS2 exclusive use, so I just kept watching the Opening. Excellent dramatic rhythm.

FFXII: Kiss me Goodbye is, imo, the best romantic theme song from the series.

Another game I'd like to mention is Kingdom Hearts, which had a few songs (I mean, I think it was a few...) composed by Master Uematsu. The March Caprice for Piano and Orchestra is delightful.

What else...

Whatever. I hate having to conclude my posts with a meaningful phrase.

I was playing Suikoden 2 yesterday and remembered a weird bug, I don't know if anyone has already been through it: during the Neclord events in Tinto there's a part in which Riou is automatically controlled (to be more specific, it's the part where he goes down the cliff and finds Jess and Hauser ready to invade Neclord's fortress). If you go down the cliff in a certain point, there's a bug that locks Riou between one side and the other, and Riou just keeps walking from one side to another and the only way to stop it is reseting the game!! I'm lucky I saved in Tinto before this could happen, but... man, that's annoying!

The only way I thought of escaping this bug is trying to go by exactly in the middle of your way down. Lucky me that this bug only occurs once in the game, and that is in this part.

Some other "happy stuff": I've FINALLY got Georg Prime in my party! Weeeee. Can you believe he died when I was confronting Lucia in my way to Greenhill? I forgot there was a recovery and save point as soon as you enter the place, so I held up my strongest runes. As a result I almost got a Game Over in this part. Lucky me I've got Tengaar and Riou alive in the group. Tengaar is quite strong and Riou... well, he's the main character, so he's GOT to be strong, ain't I right? (oh, yeah, my party was: Georg, Kahn, Valeria, Tengaar, Riou and Nanami - and Nanami pretty much sux at this part of the game. I kinda like her, but thank goodness she's gonna die)

What else...

Oh, yeah. I wonder if anyone has chose to flee from Tinto during the Neclord events, when Nanami says she wants to getaway. I was very curious to know what happened and the results were quite interesting: McDohl (he was in my party at this part of the game) and Tengaar join your party and you all flee from Tinto and go hide in Crom. Crom is attacked, so you follow to Tigermouth. Tigermouth is also attacked, so you go to Drakemouth. While running away from the zombies, you are saved by Georg Prime. After that, you go to Drakemouth and Riou passes out. Nanami says it's wrong to run away and that she was selfish. Then, you find Shu, Apple, Flik and the others. Shu slaps Riou in the face because Riddley has died in the battle (honestly, I hate Riddley. The guys just loves to get in troble) while Riou was absent. Well, in the end you'll have to keep on fighting anyway, the only difference is that you'll have to carry on without Riddley. That means that when Nanami dies you'll not be able to ressurrect her later in the game.

Well, whatever. I think I'll just keep playing while I still can.

FINALLY beat Luca Blight. People were right 'bout him: after you beat him in the first time you finish the game, in the second time he doesn't seem to be THAT hard to beat.

And since I'm writing 'bout this part, I'm gonna babble a little bit more 'bout the parties I used this time and stuff (well, it is my blog anyway...).

First party: Flik, Sheena, Anita, Clive, Yoshino and Meg. In the first time I confronted Luca in this second gameplay (I died at the first duel) I only lost Camus. The party was relatively well balanced, so I didn't really have problems. In the second time, though, I lost Flik in the middle of the battle. Nooooooooo!!!! Why Flik???? Only because he had the Ressurrection Rune???? That's unfair!!! UNFAIR, I SAY!!!!!
I really got it wrong choosing Sheena, his Earth Rune wasn't really useful (but it sorta helped me keeping this party alive). Maybe I overestimated Flik's party but... oh well, whatever, at least I won.
Modus operandi? Nothing special, really. I based my turns considering that Luca was going to evade physical attacks, so I equipped Lightning, Wind and Water runes in majority of my party members (not only Flik's). Anita has the Falcon Rune, which makes it possible to attack without being counter-attacked. But still, she was pretty weak compared to Valeria, so when the Falcon Rune worked the damage caused was very low. Yoshino was with the Wind rune, so I left her healing right after using The Shredding. Meg was also not good, so I also left her healing. Her attack skills are awful!!!
The interesting part is that Clive was also pretty bad. His attacks barely cause 100 points of damage. Yiques.
Anywa, I won the battle.

Second party: Viktor, Camus, Shiro, Stallion, Gadget and Nanami. Shiro and Stallion were equipped with the Lightning Rune (and I found out that Stallion is pretty good with magical attack). I think Viktor had the Hazy rune (the one that can avoid physical attacks) and the Wind one, I think. Camus had only the Rage rune and didn't last too much. I only had time to use the Explosion. Gadget had no runes, but he could damage Luca and receive small physical damage either. Nanami had the Fire and the Water rune, so she was quite useful attacking and healing. I only lost Camus in the two rounds, so no problem.

Final party: Miklotov, Valeria, Wakaba, Luc, Riou and Tengaar. Man, that was Luca's fastest defeat I've ever seen! Miklotov was pretty weak, but still resisted bravely. Valeria owned almost all the attack with the Falcon Rune and still caused a Critical Damage!!! (Valeria, I love you!!!!! Marry me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Wakaba also didn't get unbalanced and resisted a lot of hits when I used her rune (I forgot the name, sorry). Luc was equipped with the Lightning rune and the Water Rune (besides the Wind Rune, which he already owns), so you can imagine the disgrace he could cause. Tengaar also had the Lightning and the Water rune, so she helped quite a lot (I also loooooooooove Tengaar). No one in Riou's party died (by the way, Riou also had the Lightning rune) in both times I confronted Luca, so you can imagine the party was quite overpower.

First duel... I died. That was soooooo humilliating that I simply had to reset the game and start it over. The second battle was pretty fast (and furious, let's say) and... Wow, I beat Luca with ONE SHOT! WOW, MAN, I'M SUPREME!!!!!

After all this haze, I rushed to Banner Village so I could put Tir McDohl in my party. Oh, man, now THAT'S a strong character (but I still didn't beat the giant butterfly).Oh, well, whatever. I feel so relieved. I thought I would spend a few more centuries in the Luca battle, but it happened to be real fast, so I guess next month I'll be able to finish Suikoden 2 and write something 'bout it.

About Shadow of the Colossus... I didn't play it anymore... I have to finish it before I start another PS2 game (well, that's my principle: keep playing only one PS1 game, and only one PS2 game). As I said before, the game is very nice and beautiful, but the controls don't make me want to play some more.
I guess I defeated the annoying colossi, I'll just stick with Suikoden a little bit more before I go back to the Colossus World.

Back with my "Suikodenic" posts. I've just gone to Gregminster to ask for Lepant's help. After that, I chose Valeria to my party. I love Valeria, she's damn strong and the unlimited Falcon Rune. She and Anita can be quite a great help.

I didn't get to the confrontation with Luca Blight yet. I mean, I already know what's coming ahead, but the game always surprises me. I didn't finish my preparations and my characters' level is still very low. I also don't know who I'm gonna take in the battle. I already recruited at least half of the 108 Stars of Destiny, but I don't have a favorite party. I mean, I like to use Viktor and Flik in battle, but in the Luca Blight battle you have to put them in different parties. I guess I'll equip runes in everybody and choose randomly the parties.

I remember the first time I confronted Luca... Goddamn, I think I took three game overs only in the battle part. I also died at least twice in the duel.

Anyway, I'm gonna play a little bit more. I wonder if I'm gonna finish the game this year...

It's been only a few days since I last played, but for me it's like a whole century. Being somewhere where there is no game or internet is not fun at all. Anyways, while in my "video game isolation", I thought 'bout playing some oldies again, like Final Fantasy X (ok, technically FFX is not OLD, specially compared to Suikoden 2, which I'm playing now). It's been a while since I played it, but I think it was the last Final Fantasy worthy of its name. There was another game I've been wanting to play, but I forgot which was. I think I'll play some PS classics, like FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, Legaia and Chrono Cross. These games are very nice, but from those I only finished FFVIII and Chrono Cross. I also want to make a nice review of each one of them, but since I'm in the last year of university, I don't think I'll be able to finish them all. Too bad, I have so many games to finish in such a small amout of time... I'm not saying I won't be able to play anymore, but considering the fact that I'll have to work full time, I think it'll be hard to play while thinking of what to write on my reviews (and I'll obviously write a review for each of the games I finish). I ended up not finishing Shadow of the Colossus too... that's too bad... The problem of the games of SotC style is that it requires a lot of patience, since you easily get irritated with the awful controls (and at the same time you wonder how the heck a game with such awful controls and camera can be so amazing). I was planning to finish SotC from this gameplay, start another one and THEN make a review. Again, I don't think I'll have enough time for this. I'll probably only finish Suikoden 2 this year... maybe another RPG or something, but very few games.

Ok, vacations are almost over and I barely finished Suikoden 1! Goddamn, I was planning to climb to the secret garden in Shadow of the Colossus, finishing all the Suikoden series once again (and goddamn, I need to play Suikoden V again... I love that game), finishing Resident Evil 4 again... The only thing I managed to do in the end was to finish ICO and write a review. I don't know if it was a good review or not, I always end up forgetting to mention important aspects of the game, like scenaries or soundtrack. Well, at least I always try to comment the gameplay and the central plot (and that's why I like to finish a game before writing a review - and that also explains the reason why I never play too many games at the same time).

There was a lot more I was planning to do, like doing some fanarts and stuff. I didn't have time for that either. I ended up finishing only one drawing (which I started at the end of the year of 2006). I don't plan to post my drawings here unless I get really good at drawing.

I already said I was playing DON, right?

What else... well, I played one more chapter of SuikoGaiden yesterday. Tarnation, I hate not knowing the japanese language...
But with a little bit of hope I'll be able to understand the entire game 'til the end of the year!

*Listening*
- One-Winged Angel (Orchestrated) - Final Fantasy VII (oh, man, it's been a long time since I last heard this... recently I've been hearing only the Advent Children version of this song)
- Stomp into my beat - DDR (it may not seem, but I kinda like dancing games)

Ok, ok, I was gonna keep going on Suikoden 2, but I ended up playing D.O.N. (yeah, that fighting game at Super Smash Brothers style). Oh, man, THAT's what we can call guilty pleasure (specially if you count the fact that I hate Dragon Ball series). I'll be sure to write a nice review once I'm done with it (which make take a while, since I'm out of free slots in my Memory Card).

I also thought about start playing something that is not Suikoden, but the fact remains that after you get addicted to Suikoden, no other RPG seems to be good enough.

Vacations almost over... I had hopes I would be able to finish the 6 Suikodens and FFXII and would still have time to play something else, but that ended up not happening. Since I had to work and study (yes, in my vacation), I played very little (like I said a million times: there are many games that I bought, played for about 15 minutes then left them in a corner). I also spent a few hours watching anime, making some AMVs, reading... man, I can't seem to remember having such busy vacations!

FINALLY finished Suikoden at 100% (I mean with all the stars, I don't think I found all the books and sound sets, for an instance). Man, it took me the entire morning to find Crowley in the cavern in Qlon!

Well, I think I'll beggin Suikoden 2 again, but I guess I'll finish Shadow of the Colossus before... or maybe Okami.

My vacations are almost over... I was planning to finish the entire Suikoden series (yeah, including Suikoden 4, one of the worst games I've ever played) before the classes begun, but I had lot less time than I thought I would have... and maybe this year only tends to get worse, since I'm at the last year of my graduation course. Besides, I already have to work and stuff, so I only get weekends to play.

Anyways, whenever I play Shadow of the Colossus I get damn irritated because the controls and the camera are awful. At these times, even ICO gets easier to tolerate.

Okami... everybody says it's one of the best games ever made, but I actually found that very boring.

I also have a lot of games I wanted to finish. I hated FFXII, but I want to finish to know the ending. I also bought Grandia 3 and Shadow Hearts: From the New World quite a while ago, but only played once, then left them behind and played Suikoden (there's no way out: once fan of the Suikoden series, always will be).
I wanted to finish Resident Evil 4 once again so I could write an acceptable review, but I already lost my patience to do it. I remember when it was released I was so addicted I finished once or twice a week only to make a speed run (lowest time: 2 hours and 15 minutes, if I remeber correctly).
I didn't finish Soul Calibur 3 nor Tekken 5 yet. I think I also lost my patience with fighting games. I ended up leaving Bloody Roar: Extreme behind either. There is also Disgaea (which I didn't like because I don't enjoy tactical RPG) and some other games I can't remember now.

Everytime I finish Suikoden, it feels like a part of me is missing (or maybe I'm just being a little dramatic)...

Well, what the hell, I'll play Suikoden 2. I'll finish Shadow of the Colossus some other time.

For goodness sakeness, how irritating can Shadow of the Colossus be???? The first colossus are actually quite fun to defeat, but in the moment you have to defeat the Colossus of the Islands, it starts to get sadistic, annoying and mean. I already defeated the Colossus of the Islands, but only after getting damn irritated with the annoying camera (which responses are damn awful). Now I just headed for the Flying Dragon Colossus... which got me definitely pissed off, so I stopped playing. I seriously can't remember why the heck I thought it was a masterpiece!!! *makes an angry face*

No, I can't say the game is totally terrible. The beggining is fantastic and quite fun to play. But in the moment you beat the 10th colossus, things start to change... the colossi start getting frustrating, the camera only seems to get in the way...

Remind me to write that on my review.

*man, I do like the title of this post. I think I'll write it again in my SotC review either!*