I had purchased Final Fantasy 13 the day it came out, March 9th, 2010 for the Xbox 360. I?ve beaten it roughly two years later, for the PS3 on February 1st of this year. Why did it take me this long to beat it? Hard to say what was the major culprit here, the initial confusing story or my procrastination (probably the latter). Don?t get me wrong, after delving about 110 hours into this game (I really wanted to get all the trophies.) I really enjoyed my experience, even the story. It?s just that I was barely able to understand what was going on due to some of the terminology that was used, particularly l?Cie, fal?Cie, and cie?th jargon. It confused the heck out of me and I only managed to get up to acquiring Odin whilst playing the 360 version. A year later, I had gotten myself a PS3 so I traded for the PS3 copy and that ended up sitting around as well. Fast forward several months later, I decided to stop screwing around and tackle this beast of a game and immediately regret pushing it aside for so long once I?ve beaten it. I have a new appreciation (and understanding) of this game.

Upon looking at the battle system, it seems daunting and confusing on screen but it is surprisingly simplistic. It kind of reminds me of Final Fantasy X-2?s fast paced battle system as something is constantly going on. In 13, you only really control one character and the others do their thing regarding whatever role they are shifted towards by use of the paradigm shift system. There are set roles that every character can be assigned depending on which combo paradigm you use. For instance, you can have Lightning in the sentinel role (a tank class) provoking enemies while Snow & Vanille goes commando (physical attack role) on them as they are focused on Lightning. There are multiple variations that you can create and more roles become available for each character as the story progresses. This system offers strategic thinking on how you approach enemies and these decisions become critical for boss fights. If you end up getting defeated, the game is surprisingly forgiven as you don?t have to restart from a recent safe point and you can retry as many times as you want. As an added bonus, after every battle you are fresh as a daisy for the next battle as all status ailments are removed and HP if fully restored. Best gameplay element ever. Thank you Square Enix. Thank you. (More like it?s about damn time?)

?Leveling up? your characters may look similar toward Final Fantasy 10?s sphere grid but you would be wrong. It is a mere illusion as each character becomes stronger by a set path through the crystarium system. Sure you can choose which role to level up first but you ultimately will get the same result as everyone else playing the game. There is a threshold everyone meets and each character only learns certain moves, for instance, each character has their own signature move and noticed that some characters learn deprotect in the saboteur role, while others learn daze instead. No character learns both. It is an interesting concept but taking the time to invest Crystogen Points (CP) (this games version of experience points) to these roles takes way too much time.

It is understanding that a lot of people didn?t like the linearity of this game but then again all the main Final Fantasy games are linear. (Minus 11 and 14, which are MMO?s.) The thing is its a lot more noticeable as there is an absence of inn?s, towns, and the constant need to buy new weapons & accessories that each person has equipped but you don?t really have the means to until you reach Pulse, when the game finally opens up. For the most part of the game, you?re moving forward (there?s a life lesson somewhere here) to the next destination which is a cut scene, then a boss fight, followed by another cut scene to further the plot along. (Standard affair for RPG?s.) To me, this Final Fantasy cuts the BS in terms of story progression, which is a good and bad thing. It is good as it speeds up the story along with less management of equipment and hardly useful NPC?s (can?t have the hero?s screwing around with arcade machines while the world is in danger), however sometimes these ?distractions? are a good indicator to unwind a bit due to the constant battles that you?ll encounter along the way as you will kind of get burnt out by them.

In previous Final Fantasies you can explore a town to uncover treasure, meet people, and poke your head in peoples houses, whereas in XIII the only interaction is floating chests, jumping to scale terrain, and Cie?th stones when you finally get to Pulse. Other than that, the core gameplay elements are mainly contained within battles. This is why people are upset. There is no relative break from the story/quest and the sense of exploration is gone. The Latter is a big let down because the environments are breathtaking to look at but you can?t really do anything to explore each area. You?re just passing through, no real sightseeing to be had. Seems like a bit of a waste, but then again retracing your steps isn?t really a productive gameplay mechanic. Though, it would have been nice to be able to do something else besides sightseeing.

Before I get to the story, which I will save for another post, I?m going to discuss the soundtrack. In recent years, there really hasn?t been much in terms of game soundtracks that I would consider something worth downloading or purchasing. Only a handful of games come to mind such as Mega Man 9, God or War 3, and the Mass Effect series. Regarding Final Fantasy 13, its soundtrack astonishes me. The fact that Nobuo Uematsu didn?t have any part in the soundtrack certain made fan?s apprehensive in getting this game, but it didn?t faze me. To me, I was indifferent and somewhat glad that someone else is getting a shot at composing a Final Fantasy game. It?s nice that Square was generous enough to give Uematsu a break from Final Fantasy, though it?s short lived since he ended up composing music for FF14.

Masashi Hamauzu (I know more people helped him) did an exceptionally job as I feel that FF13?s soundtrack could be one of my top favorite soundtracks from a video game. It seems he has incredible musical range as he created a heartfelt blues track Daddy?s Got the Blues that could be part of Cowboy Bebop to a not-so-bad rock track, Snow?s Theme. Vanille?s Theme has a happy/sadness feel to it that perfectly reflects the character it?s based on and some elevator-esque music; The Yaschas Massif is delightfully relaxing. (Beautiful flute-work on that track.) My top favorite track is Saber?s Edge, the obligatory boss music captures the intense vibe handling those encounters.

For those who complained that the Victory Fanfare didn?t show up this game around, I didn?t miss it. Not one bit. I?ve gotten kind of burnt out from hearing it all the time, especially since I decided to beat the Final Fantasies game that I haven?t tried or lost interest in. Besides, I think it?s about time that they retire it and create a new victory theme. Hell, I would even settle for Chrono Cross?s victory theme for a Final Fantasy game. (I think it?s the superior victory theme, in my opinion.) Some things don?t have to be consistent.

Overall, the soundtrack is beautiful to my ears and I highly recommend a listen to, even if you aren?t a Final Fantasy fan. I kind of wish I had gotten the collector?s edition of this game, that way I can own the soundtrack as well. Oh well, maybe I?ll find it available somewhere on-line.

My time playing this game felt worth its value. Sure it?s slow to pick-up and it?s definitely linear but I truly loved this game. Next post will be about the story so expect spoilers and complaints.

Final Fantasy III and XIII: First and Second Impressions

I've stopped playing Final Fantasy 3 (for the DS) awhile back last year and have been severely procrastinating on finishing this title for several reasons. First, it still feels daunting attempting to play them all, as there are other games in my library and future releases that I really want to play. And second, the game is, well, incredibly bland, story-wise, music wise, and the characters themselves.

Am I'm not sure where to exactly begin as I have been nitpicking this game during my play-through. So far I've accumulated 22 hours of game time so I have a basic understanding what to expect of the rest of the game. I'll keep this brief as I haven't really made much of dent on the review and I got a feeling it will be a long one with lots of ranting. Here is one aspect I found strange with FF3, there is a penalty for switching jobs. It's minor as they call it "adjusting" and all you have to do is just participate in a couple of battles before you "adjust" to the chosen job. It makes sense thinking about it as it takes time to adjust into a new role (like at a given job), but why is this necessary? All this does is hinder you and makes you less likely to want to change each character's job. Regarding this, I've felt comfortable staying with one particular job for each character with only changing when a new set of job's become available. For now I'll just leave it at that.

Now on to Final Fantasy 13, another game on the procrastination train. Right now I'm heavily indulged in this game despite the negative criticizing from most reviewers. Yes, it's linear but all the other Final Fantasy games are linear, it's just more painfully obvious this time around as there are no towns to explore. The music I've grown to love and the characters and story are really grabbing its hold on me. It makes me wonder why I waited so long to play this game. The battle system reminds me of FFX-2 as you can switch roles on the fly, (except no clothes changing sequence) and it creates better strategizing during each battle. So far the only downside is that leveling weapons takes forever especially since there is little to no gil to be found early in the game and that the game can be brutally hard at times.

I'm going to continue to finish 13 before I delve in 13-2 so I'm all up to speed on the story and such. 3 I'm in no rush to finish as I'm viewing this as a means of personal torture but I will for the sake of actually finishing this review of it and personal pride to say I've beaten FF3. I can tell you now; it ain't going to be pretty review.

We all have some sort of bad habit that is sometimes hard to break. Whether it's smoking cigarettes, chewing nails, or splurging on unnecessary items. For me, it's buying games that I either never touch or finish. In an attempt at keeping a New Years Resolution, I'm going to go through my current stash of games and actually beat them all. I may jump around in an attempt to not seem bogged down with one certain franchise like I was doing with Final Fantasy so here is my list of games that I either I didn't play or have beaten yet:

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks

Final Fantasies 3, 4, 5, 12, 13

Mega Man X4-X8, Mega Man & Bass

Beyond Good & Evil

Xenosaga: Episode One

Xenogears

Wild Arms

Darkwatch

Arcana Heart

Suikoden III

Shadow Hearts Covenant

Shadow of the Colossus

Dark Cloud 2

Halo 3

Jade Empire

Metroid Prime Trilogy

Star Fox Adventures

Rumble Roses

Super Mario Galaxy

Super Paper Mario

Yoshi's Island DS

Mega Man Zero Collection

Mass Effect

Mario & Luigi: Super Star Saga

TMNT2: Back from the Sewers (This is a Game Boy game.)

Dragon Quest 9

Dead Island

Enslaved

Uncharted (the first one)

Tomb Raider HD Collection

Heavenly Sword

Metal Gear Solid 4

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core

Blazblue 2: Continuum Shift

Darkstalkers Chronicle

Whew, that's a lot of stuff to go over. Looks like I won't need to purchase any new games this year. By the look of things, I haven't gone through games that came out two decades ago. Craaappp. Oh well guess I'll be saving money this year...

I had purchased a 3DS a month ago solely so I can buy this game (and a couple of other Nintendo exclusives). Having the idea of a possible throwback to Super Mario Bros 3 intrigued me, as this was the first video game I played the most of as a kid. In a sense, Mario 3 started my hobby into gaming nearly 20 years ago. (Man, I'm old… ) After finishing every level and collecting every star coin that was cleverly hidden, I've met with mixed feelings regarding Super Mario 3D Land.

First of all, the gameplay is simply what you can expect of a Mario game, fantastic visuals with engaging gameplay and at times challenging platforming segments. What more could you ask for? But for me there was something amiss with this title that didn't satisfy my gaming appetite.

The best way I could describe this Mario title is that it grabbed gameplay elements from previous Mario titles and blended them together. Take the flag pole and Bowser defeating of the first Super Mario game, add the power ups of Mario 3, and add in Mario 64's 3D movement and abilities. (Oddly enough, no nods to the original Mario Land game.) This may sound great in theory, but each Mario game conflicts with another, especially 3's and 64's.

In Super Mario Bros 3, the game was a solid experience where Mario went through level after level within a set path. A point A to point B with several obstacles in the way including a time limit. However, in Mario 64, that time limit was gone and Point B was less defined, as you have to explore and figure out what the star hint meant when entering each painting. This different gameplay mechanics conflict with each other in 3D Land as I wanted to explore but couldn't as I had a set time to actually do such a thing. I think the game would have been a bit better if it stayed 2D like the 2 New Super Mario Bros games.

Once I completed this game, I was a bit surprised to learn there were 8 additional worlds to tackle once you've beaten the main game. These worlds offer a bit of difficulty to transverse through as additional obstacles are placed in order to overcome them. On the plus side of the additional worlds, the tanooki suit with the ability to transform into a statue becomes immediately available and the option to play as Luigi once you completed the first additional world. Being able to play as Luigi is purely cosmetic as playing either character offers no real difference in gameplay mechanics, though Luigi sounds funnier when he falls off a stage. Beyond that there isn't much else once you finished the special worlds other than have a couple stars appear on the save file. (Woohoo.)

This is a solid title that will most likely move 3DS's off stores shelves but the content is lacking in my eyes. The world's I was talking about is usually only 5 levels long and all follow an extremely linear path. Some variety in the maps would have been nice and having an overall theme to each world like the original Mario 3 game. One level has snow, the next is has lava pits and then a underwater level, what is going on here?! And one more thing, where are the kooplings? They debut on Super Mario Bros 3, yet are absent in the game that pays tribute to this title. Instead we have the mini-boss of Mario 3 and his female version counterpart. I shake my head in shame for this lack of inclusion since they finally reappeared in New Super Mario Bros Wii.

The 3D aspect of the game is a plus as it enhances the visuals to make everything, well pop out in terms of the level designs. It definitely makes the gameplay more appealing but makes some of the jumps harder to line up. Expect to fall to your doom time after time again thanks in due to this.

Well this ends my review/rant on the game. I just gotta take this with a grain of salt and appreciate that Nintendo made another superb Mario title and just let it be. I just feel that the content they added suffered when they are paying homage to one of the best selling gaming titles of all time (and not to mention beloved too). Still Mario games will always have a bit of nostalgic flare to them so even a nod to a previous title is always appreciated to us old fogies. But if they are going to give a nod to nostalgia, I just hope they give more than the bare-minimal in terms of content.

Playing Final Fantasy 3 is getting nowhere right now as I have lost all interest in the game despite delving around 23 hours into it. I have been playing other games on and off but right now I somehow ended up back with Mega Man but with the X series this time around by beating the first entry followed with Maverick Hunter on the PSP. I'm gonna hold off for the time being on a blog review of Mega Man X as I have played two other Mega Man games that people may have not heard of Mega Man: The Power Battle and Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters.

Upon finishing all the Mega Man games in the Anniversary Collection, their are two additional games Capcom added that is unlocked by certain conditions. (Beat whoever.) Essentially, The Power Fighters are a boss fight only fighting game that pits you against various Robot Masters from Mega Man's 1-7. These games took place before the time line of the 8th entry of the series so in a sense this is a prequel to 8 but an actual story is mostly non-existent.

With each of these titles you can beat the game in about less than an hour toppled with the fact that it's extremely easy to beat. There is no penalty to being defeated as you can just press start to continue with full health and whatever weapon energy fully recharged. It is a bit odd that you only go through 6 Robot Masters instead of the usual 8 but all that would do was make the game 5 minutes longer so it wouldn't make much of a difference. This game was created for arcades so it makes some sense in a way to make it that long. Overall there isn't really a whole lot to the game other than that. You can choose between 3 characters in the Battle game and 4 in the Fighters and all of them pretty much plays the same other than getting one different ability from Eddie the walking tin can. I thought it was interesting that it can also be a two player game to co-operate against the Robot Masters but not really necessary since the games aren't all that difficult. (Though in the Battles game you get an different ending if you beat the game with two characters instead of one.)

Dr. Wily when defeated floats around in his capsule and a timer starts counting down. At first, I thought that I must defeat him in order to achieve some kind of "Perfect Ending", however it turns out that defeating him in this time limit only awards additional points to your overall score. (By the way, at that point I realized a score was being tallied.) This was a completely pointless addition to the game.

This music was mehh. They remixed the Robot Masters themes somewhat well and was refreshing to hear a reinterpritation of the scores but it didn't hold my attention long enough to care. Another strange thing they did was use different Robot Master themes with other Robot Masters during a match. Several times I would fight one Robot Master and go, "That's not Hear Man's theme, that's Gyro Man's." I guess they didn't want to remix the themes of every Robot Masters. Perhaps they didn't want to spend the extra money or got lazy at the end of the development cycle. It was interesting to learn that Wily was working on Zero of the X series at that time, mostly feeling that Bass is a failed creation on how much of a d-bag he must be. It was enjoyable and surprising to see the Robot Masters do new tricks but the game was wayyyy too short and easy to beat that whatever they did, I just didn't really care. Though it is worth to check out at least for novelty sake, especially if you're a Mega Man fan.

Final Fantasy II: This time it's not Final Fantasy 4

After the first Final Fantasy game, it's clear that playing the Final Fantasies that I haven't finished/played will be a daunting task, however I shall persevere. Learning that the second Final Fantasy in the states is actually the fourth in the series never really fazed me. It peaked my interest for a few minutes but I didn't make me really care about playing the real Final Fantasy 2. I'm sure Square at the time had their reasons on why they didn't import this game to the states.

One of the first things I did was changing Maria's name as I felt it was an incredibly lame name for a Final Fantasy character. I'm so used to names that I would never think of in these games that I became used to the exoticness they gave me. A regular name that is common kind of ruins it for me so I named her Asuna (from Negima) and I became at ease. (This is more of a personal thing than an actual complaint.)

Now the story I liked a lot over the predecessor. Instead of 4 heroes chosen by destiny, we have 4 orphans running from an imperial army that eventually joins a group of rebel's. (This plot sounds familiar...) It's clearly an overall improvement but not by much as the 4 main characters hardly talk at all and they usually have little to contribute when they actually do talk. Another interesting element is that certain characters join your party at times throughout the game. Initially, you start with 4 but the 4th goes missing so the 4th slot is filled with plot driven characters. This becomes interesting because as the story progresses a couple of those 4th characters end up dying helping the 3 main characters, which took me by complete surprise. I didn't realize how early they implemented those in game moments in the franchise. Here I thought they started doing that in the 4th entry of the series.

The battle mechanics is quite impressive. Instead of leveling up each character, you can level up the aptitude of each weapon that each character wields. By doing this, you can develop each character however you like. I made Firion, my healer that can also deal physical damage; Asuna (Maria), a dual-wielding swordswoman (her strength sky-rocketed by doing this); then I turned Guy into a black mage. The 4th character I just gave a couple of spells and mainly just attacked with whatever physical weapon they initially had.

Just like it's predecessor, tons of grinding and random battles are involved in this game to the point of extreme annoyance. Three steps, battle. Another four steps, battle. Two steps, another battle! Arrghh! Trekking a dungeon takes hours this way and not to mention how much aggravation it produces. Here's another thing I never understood, completely empty rooms, (The first FF had this too.) just monster after monster encounter within a half a step of each other. It serves absolutely no purpose other than to aggravate you even further in hopes of proceeding to the next area. I fail to understand the point of adding that in there. Is it supposed to be a "trap" that you fall into? If it is, it's a really lame way of "trapping" someone just so they could prolong the dungeon. (And there are countless rooms like this.)

Despite my rant about random battles, there is a silver lining in them. Thanks to all those battles I engaged in, my party is able to level up faster. Too bad it makes the boss battles a breeze to fight through, as even The Emperor was incredibly easy to knock down. Sure, it being an easy battle is nice and all, but a little challenge that makes you sweat a bit makes defeating the opponent more satisfying instead of just feeling like I'm just hurrying to finish the game. Some variety in difficulty would be nice. Though my wish was granted when I started to delve in the additional content…

Souls of Rebirth is the additional content Square added to the Dawn of Souls port that contains a quite intriguing storyline. It follows the characters that died within the main game so it's up to them to find out why they are in limbo instead of heaven (or hell). Personally, I found the story ten times more interesting; however, those characters were pretty damn weak. I think I died 50x by the time I actually got to the end of the dungeon they start you at, as I didn't really strengthen up the characters when I was playing the main game, with the exception of the Dragoon whom I beefed up considerably. Once I got to the town I called it quits, as the next area had enemies that was twice as hard to defeat. I would have to delve a considerable amount of time just leveling alone in order to move any further in that portion of the game and I just don't want to take up any more time playing this as I would rather move on to the next FF game. But I will come back to it on another day when I actually beat the rest of the Fantasy games.

After finishing this game, I thoroughly enjoyed the game to some extent. It was a little weird having to look up key terms/words in order to advance the game but it wasn't overly difficult to move along, though an over world map would have been nice to figure out where I was going.

Before I wrap this up, I will have to say that The Emperor is quite an interesting villain. With Dissidia out showcasing each main hero and villain of each Final Fantasy game with a fleshed out personality and voice, Emperor Mateus became a villain I've grown to love hating. (A moogle in Duodecim describes him as a "pompous ass in gold". Couldn't have said it better myself.) He's devious, manipulative, and a vile human being that always has a scheme up his sleeve. He contrasts heavily against Kefka as the Emperor is haughty and proud of his intellect whereas Kefka is downright insane wishing only to bring chaos. Thanks to him, I would love to see a remake of this FF title with a more fleshed out story as I believe this game as potential to be a great hit. The interaction between each character could be developed further with the updated graphics but only in a ****similar to Dissidia. Plus, that dancing sequence towards the end would actually be bearable to watch. (That moment just made me shake my head in shame after that sequence was over.)

Overall it was a semi-great experience. The music was great and a bit underappreciated. I would say Pandemonium and the regular battle theme was my top favorite. Although there were numerous aggravating parts, the game held up pretty well till the end. I just wish the encounter rate wasn't so damn high. I might score it better.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a PSP off of a co-worker when he told me he was going to purchase a newer one but in silver. Once I had bought it from him, I promptly purchased Dissidia and Duodecim as soon as I had the chance to. After I had finished some grueling schoolwork, I delved into the first Dissidia before I leaping into the second one. (Which I'm currently playing.)

When I first heard about Dissidia, I wasn't too sure how Square was going to translate Final Fantasy into a fighting game. They have put FF characters in a fighting game (Ergehiz) but that was more of the typical fighting mechanics seen in most anime fighting games (Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, etc.) you see today. Much to my surprise, I'm very impressed with what they created.

Dissidia's game mechanics are deep and it's what you would expect in a typical Final Fantasy game. You equip weapons, armor, accessories, and summons; gain experience, and learn new abilities as you level up. The way this translates in a battle effects how quickly and effectively you can defeat your opponents, even if they are a higher level than you. One of the fighting mechanics that intrigues me the most is the bravery meter. This meter increases the more you land bravery attacks so when you use an hp attack (to actually lower the opponents' hp) it does damage according to the amount of bravery that was accumulated. This offers variety than your typical fighting game where all you do is mash buttons to lower an opponent's health bar. Square Enix, I tip my hat to you.

The story, on the other hand, isn't really all that special. It's interesting seeing familiar characters interacting with each other but that's about it. Dissidia's story is bland as bland can get. Within each character's story, some sort of personal conflict is verbalized as they are trying to find their crystal. They resolve what's eating them, fight the main villain of the game they came from, and group up when said crystal is found. Rinse and repeat to the next character until everyone finds his or her crystal before going on to fight Chaos, the main villain in this game. There is a plot twist; however, it's a copy and paste from one of the Final Fantasy games. Again, nothing special. To quote from another review of this game, it's pretty much pure fan fiction.

Each story section is divided up in a world map that, to me, resembles the over-world map in Super Mario Bros 3. You move on squares, defeat a level/enemy in order to move on, collect items along the way and defeat a boss at the end; though in some world maps of Dissidia a boss may not be at the end, then possibly view a cut scene. This pretty much makes up the entire story mode.

Next up are the voice actors. I have to admit, some grade "A" acting was produced here, especially Dave Wittenburg's Kefka. After witnessing his performance, I really want a remake of FF6 and not in the FF4 bigheaded, little body type, a full PS3 game with 13's graphics. The others take some getting used to but mold in their roles quite exceptionally, except with Clouds' and Sephiroths'. I still can't get over the fact that the same guy who does Superman is also voicing Sephiroth, that and the fact that Cloud has to pause in between almost every sentence. It completely dumbfounds me they had the voice actor do that.

I found the game to be incredibly difficult at times, especially when you get to the boss of each map. They usually are a couple of levels higher than you and make you work for that victory. In some maps in each characters story, there is an optional enemy to encounter that is usually well equipped and 10+ levels higher than you. It is possible to defeat them but not really necessary unless you really want to grab every treasure chest that is on the map. The most difficult part, in my opinion, was the final boss encounter with Chaos. Why the heck did Square have to make him so damn hard!? Ungaahh! What I didn't understand is why I had to fight him 3x in succession, especially if you beat him twice and then get defeated, you would have to refight him again those 3 times. Square, was that really necessary to do?

Getting equipment/accessories for your characters is quite easy to do as you pretty much receive stuff just by defeating enemies in the game. Honesty, I'm not sure how exactly it works but whenever a chocobo "sings" after each battle there is a good chance that you gained some item. Usually it's something that can be used in order to exchange for something for a better equipment or accessory. I find that chocobo to be annoying at times. I end up talking to the screen saying, "Go away. You're bothering me." Oh well, at least it's useful for getting you items that boost the experience gained after each battle so it's not as bothersome as I think.

Another feature added was accomplishments. This is pretty much the flea market version of achievements on Xbox and trophies on PS3. Though you they work the same gaining them, the accomplishments are useful as they reward you with items/accessories when you gain them instead of a adding to a non-important score. The only crappy part of them is that most are hidden so you have no idea how to earn them until a message pops up when you go to the menu screen.

Well, that's Dissidia in a nut shell. The only people I can see playing this is anyone that has played more than one Final Fantasy game before. I highly doubt someone who either plays Street Fighter or Call of Duty will shine to this game. Despite it being a fighting game, it is a quite lengthy game, as a matter of fact; I wouldn't be surprised that this has the longest play time completing the story mode alone. Though I would say Super Smash Bros Brawl story/adventure mode was a bit long, along with any number in the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja series, Dissidia launches it clear out of the water.

Ah, the first Final Fantasy that started it all. Hironobu Sakaguchi's ironic swan song that ended up lasting far longer than anyone in Square's company could have ever imagined. I've never owned this game despite my 40+ game collection for my NES nor did I knew it existed as I never pondered in my youth, "Where's the first Final Fantasy?" when I delved in Final Fantasy II for the SNES. The game now would be useless to me, as I no longer own a NES system as it was sold without my okay in a garage sale. Luckily, I picked up Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls a few years back so I'm prepared to play this game, especially since it's now portable. I know it's not exactly the first Final Fantasy game but it's close enough for me. When I first bought the game, I only reached level 20 before losing interest in it completely. With no. 2, I only walked around the first town you're in, just to see what it was like.

The natural thing to do was to start a new game so here's the party I created. My line-up is as followed; a Warrior named Mugen (From the anime, Samurai Champloo), a White Mage named Konoka (From the anime, Negima!), a Thief named Bacon (see what I did there), and lastly a Monk by the name of T. Jaa (couldn't fit his whole name). The last one is named after martial artist Tony Jaa. (If you're curious about him just look him up on youtube.) At first, I thought my line-up was good, however I realized after playing a great deal of the game that all I really had is one magic user. I began regretting my decision early on as I didn't have much of a strategy other than mash the A button.

This game is simple, however I still needed Gamefaqs in orders to move along. Not for the boss battles, just figuring out where to go next. There is barely any indication of where or what I should do to continue my quest. By accident, I managed to get key items that I never understood what they were for. Who knew that the levistone would grant me access to an airship? I thought it was for reaching the floating castle to relight the last crystal. And the rat's tail downright confounded me. No one ever explained in game that it was for upgrading my parties' class. Some clarity or hints would have been nice with this game. (That dancer in Cornelia was hardly useful after beating the Lich.)

Just like in FF6, random battles appeared way too frequently. Trying to navigate a dungeon becomes monumental as every other step impeded my progress. In certain areas of a cave/dungeon, stepping on specific tiles will trigger a battle that's usually next to a chest. You may think that this is an annoyance but it's an unintentional exploitation for me. "Why?" you may ask. The enemies reserved for these instant battles offer a great deal of exp points when defeated. This is great way to grind a couple of levels before fighting any boss. The one enemy I killed the most, Earth Elementals. According to the bestiary, I've kill 274 of them. You could say I had gotten a bit carried away with the grinding…

Doing this grinding trick made the game 10x easier with my party, however I never realized that doing the Soul of Chaos dungeons (the new content) weren't part of the main quest. After defeating Lich, I headed straight over to the Earthgift Shrine and began getting my butt handed to me time and time again by the bosses within. I admit that wasn't my proudest moment but it did teach me a lesson, steer clear of new content until you're done with the game (or least close to the end).

When I upgraded my party's class, I noticed a significant difference on what they were capable to do. First off, Mugen and Bacon can now use magic and Konoka was able to wield top tier white magic. T. Jaa turned into a Master and now he can also be called a beast. After I unequipped him, his attack power caused 1000+ damage to pratically every enemy. My jaw dropped in disbelieve as up until the upgrade, my warrior did more damage than him. On a side note, Konoka's & Bacon's HP at level 60 was 777. Just thought it was interesting to mention.

Once I was able to reach the final dungeon/area, I decided to re-do the Soul of Chaos dungeons. At level 60-ish it was significantly easier to over come. I breezed through them all but it became tedious with the last two dungeons. After getting to floor 10 and beyond, I just wanted to throw the game into oncoming traffic instead of going through another floor. At least I managed to level my party to level 80 when I did finish those dungeons and not to mention some epic gear. By the time I did fight the last boss, Chaos, I was way overpowered for him.

Some of my gripes for this game have already been brushed upon: the short intervals between battles, and no indication on where to go next. I also noticed an abundance of color swapped enemies as you go through the game. I think there were at least a dozen different goblin enemies that had different color palette as the game progressed. This is a very cheap way of cutting corners during development but it is understandable considering the financial troubles the company had during it's development in the mid 80's. The only other thing was the lack of magic you can teach your party. Being a wizard granted top tier magic but only for the white and black wizards. And if you have anyone else, you would have to upgrade the classes in order to gain access to them and they're the low tier kind.

Musically wise, there are some strong contenders for being my top favorite. I really love the battle theme, as it doesn't get too annoying to listen to after the thousandth battle you enter. Gurgu Volcano and Floating Castle is very soothing considering that you are in a dungeon filled with countless enemies. Definitely not an all-bad soundtrack to listen to, especially when you are on the road and the only thing to occupy yourself is music.

As far as Final Fantasy goes, I think I've said my peace. My time playing was somewhat enjoyable except for getting lost and having to grind a couple of times. If I chose a grading system it would be a 4 out of 5 or in Gamespot's system a 7.5. Not too bad, not too great either but I wouldn't recommend it if you never played an RPG before. It just has it's place in history and keep it at that.

Since I made one about Mega Man, I feel obligated to play the Final Fantasies that I never bothered to play/finish. I have all the titles; it's just that the idea to sit down and play them all sounded like a monumental task to me. (Seems like a recurring theme with me.) Real life calls me and making the time just doesn't happen. Plus, procrastination can really get a hold of me sometimes.

My first Final Fantasy I played was no. 2 for the SNES but in actually it's the fourth in the series. (Someone screwed up in the sales department when they imported the game to America.) 6 I have played during my vacation in Florida in 2009 and absolutely loved it, as Kefka quickly became my favorite FF villain.

7, 8, 9 I absolutely loved so much that I beaten them more than once and defeated the so-called hardest bosses. (I may have mentioned this before.) 10 and 10-2, I loved the story and was mighty impressed with the sphere grid that was created for it. On a side note, if there were a way to get rid of the usual gain-exp-to-get-to-the-next-lvl, that would be the way to go. With 12 and 13, I delved in a certain amount of time playing the games until I lost interest, twice with no. 12.

Here's a quick statistics of my current FF gaming scores; 6 games I've played to completion, 3 I've played but never finished, 2 never touched, and 2 I touched without much of any play time. By looking at this, I'm roughly halfway through playing and completing all of them. Not bad now that I think about it.

Unlike the Mega Journal, I'm going to go in chronologically in order from the first game. Gotta have some kind of consistency here and I will try my best to be away from WoW, Halo, and a few others games so I could actually finish this journal this year. (Upon writing this I have finished numero uno FF so expect a sooner update than what anyone thinks.)

Before I started this journal series about Mega Man, the idea to re-beat 4 and 9 seemed like a good idea at the time. Fresh from beating number 10, I feel more inclined on ramming my head into the wall instead. I'm all Blue Bomber'd out. Instead, I'm just going to reflect a little about 4 and 9.

I know it's been about two months since my last entry. Once I wrapped up Mega Man 10, I went straight to my 360 to play Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2. After I've gotten all but one achievement in that game, Halo: Reach became my new go to game. With the Cataclysm release, World of Warcraft has partially sucked me back in but not as much as Halo. Anyway back to Mega Man.

Looking back at the series, I couldn't help but adore the gameplay mechanics. It's simple, yet challenging like the original Super Mario Bros. You shoot nearly everything in sight, topple a boss, grab his weapon, and then move to the next stage. In every game, each robot master has a theme (water, ice, electricity, fire, etc.) and Dr. Wily is always the culprit behind everything going on. From 1-10, very little has changed except adding a minor ability in Mega Man's arsenal. Analyzing why these games are so appealing to so many people is what I think are two components gamers look for, creative level design and a challenge.

In every stage, it reflects the robot master you eventually end up fighting. (Even some of the enemies sport the theme.) This creates an amazing use of creativity from the designers' that show off these worlds. It's a style of their own that people try to imitate. Just look at the artwork involved. They took great care in crafting these games. (Probably not so much with 5 and 7.) But the primary aspect, I believe is the challenge these game offer. I admit, they made me curse like the Angry Video Game Nerd on crummy games but it was satisfying seeing that ending credits scroll from the screen. Mega Man 4's ending did just that; it satisfied my gaming appetite. It was just pure win for me.

Out of the entire robot masters, Dive Man was my dastardly arch-nemesis as he was the one that I had the most frustration with. (Some would say Ring Man but not me.) He would spam his missiles and I would get caught within them almost every time. Eventually, I had gotten his pattern down to the point where I could defeat him without taken any damage to myself. You can say I was a bit obsessed with defeating him.

My most memorable moment with 4 was definitely fighting Dr. Wily for the last time. It was intense as the music was awesome to listen to and it amped my heart rate as I tried to beat him. Very rarely has this happened during gaming and the only other time that has was with another fourth title, Resident Evil during the fight against one of Salazar's bodyguards.

Mega Man 9 definitely sits high as an amazing Mega Man game. To me, it's as good as 2, 3, and 4. It was difficult but not too bad and the soundtrack is on par with 2's, 3's, and 4's. This was my first downloaded game to my 360 and I spent an entire Sunday delved in beating this game. This reminded me why I liked 4 so darn much.

So here's my quick best of's and a top 10 Mega Man music levels. Because everyone likes useless top whatever lists, then debate who goes where and who should be on it.

Best overall soundtrack: Mega Man 2, Mega Man 9 for a close second

Top 10 Robot Master Stage Themes:

1. Snake Man

2. Metal Man

3. Bomb Man

4. Dive Man

5. Skull Man

6. Gemini Man

7. Galaxy Man

8. Crash Man

9. Splash Woman

10. Shadow Man

Bomb Man definitely doesn't get much love but then again, even I don't know why I like his stage so much…