Final Fantasy 12 - PS2 (part 1)

Well, we all heard about the security breech on the Playstation Network of the past few weeks. Some guy hacked in, got access to about 80,000 credit cards, and now Sony's in a big mess. After a few days of trying to repair the network, they just said it wouldn't work, and are going to create a new one from scratch. Yeah, it seems like a Matrix movie plot, but no, it's real and a lot of people are upset. I think you can finally play multi-player games on it now, but I actually I was more worried about my trophies. A bit frustrated with it all, I just went back to Final Fantasy 12. Good ol PS2 gaming.

The thing about Final Fantasy 12 is that I never completed everything in that game. For the avid player, that's what FF games are about - you play it through once to get the feel about it, but you play it again to sweep up the nooks and crannies. The first time I finished it, I spent about 60 hours and made it past the boss with no problem. This was 2005? Bush was still in office. I remember not enjoying it much, but something rushed me. Then again, how can you tell someone you didn't like the game if you spent 60 hours on it? It's getting to the dessert portion of the meal and then telling your mate that, "well, this place kind of sucked". No, I like 12, and I like it a lot more this second time through.

So what did I miss? Pretty much everything. I didn't have the Zod spear; I didn't get the Genji gear; I finished the game with like four Espers. I finished about 20 Hunts, just to get by. It's interesting how little you have to do to complete a Final Fantasy game. I wish they remade this game for the PS3 and put in trophy pack. Hell, I wish they did that for every previous Final Fantasy game.

So starting over. Was it hard? Not really. Playing the game again was a bit odd for the eyes, as I had to go back to 480i, standard definition gaming. But I got used to it about three hours in. One thing that changed was that I got the Brady Guidebook this time, and well, I'm playing it as a cheater. Is it really cheating if you still have to DO the tasks? Sure I have access to maps, boss weaknesses, and just the general feel of the future, but I still had to play the game. Do I still die? Well, rarely. I think I got the game-over screen once. I took the wrong turn in the Fey Wood when my party had no reason to be there. Anyway, back to the game.

I really like this game. Sure it's the most different of the Final Fantasy series by far. It's engine and battle system is ported over from Final Fantasy 11, and the world of Ivalice is quite different from Spira or Gaea. So what's great about it? The characters and story. That's for another post. Right now, I'm 62 hours in, and walking through the city of Giruvegan.

Final Fantasy 13 - PS3

Like every other RPG fan in March, I took time out of my schedule to play Final Fantasy 13. Scoreless screen shots and reviews have been written on the game and I might as well try to write one also. I'm not going to lie, this isn't a game for everyone. It's not much of a RPG game, but it is a very beautifully crafted cinematic piece of work. I'm about 26 hours in and I'm not sure if I would class this as an interactive movie or a really linear episode of Final Fantasy.

The story begins with a band of outcasts are being chased down by the local government of Coccoon. They are seen as diseased elements and all those that come in contact with them are to be "purged"; they are the L'Cie. It's not long that you realize that Lightning, a former captain of the military is the main character. Snow, the young leader of the resistance group, NORA (No obligations or Authority?), gets sucked into the mess because he's trying to save his fiancee. His wife-to-be has already been changed from L'Cie to Crystal because she had fulfilled her "focus". This will inevitably happen to all L'Cie. The other three characters that get dragged into this are Sahz, Vanille, and a boy named Hope. They later meet a fighting woman named Fang, who is in search of Vanille; she plans to rescue her.

These six characters are in search of an author. No, not really, but they are in search of some answers as to what is the connection between Coccoon and Pulse, legendary city outside of their world. They're also wondering if it's better to fulfill their focus and become crystal, or run away. They've already tried running. So they decided to take up a third alternative and rush towards the highest office of the Coccoon order, the Sanctum, and ask for answers.

So if I had to guess what happened at the game designer's table at Square-Enix, I'd have to say they were trying to concentrate all the "good" stuff in Final Fantasy and take out all the "bad" stuff. The players love the feeling of beating a boss, so let's make it so that all the battles are pretty similar to boss battles. Players loved the seeing Cloud, Squall, or Tidus slashing monsters in the air, so why not make it so that you'd get to see that in every battle?! Sounds great so far. People love cinematics, lets give them more than they've ever seen before; how about one after every chapter! Now to the bad stuff. Players didn't like talk to people in towns, let's just take out towns. Let's take out weapon shops, item shops, magic shops, and inns and put them all neatly in a save-point. Let's take out that tedious aspect of healing yourself after the battle also. Well you get the point. It's evolution, sort of. I'm not saying I don't like the game, but it sure is a different approach to Final Fantasy.

For the best, longest, and funniest review of Final Fantasy 13, please see Action Button.net's review. It's 18,000 words, and pure entertainment.

Final Fantasy - NES, NDS

Well, it seems odd to have a video-game website that mentions Dragon Quest but not Final Fantasy. To tell the truth, I'm such a Final Fantasy fan that I actually thought I'd dedicate them all on a separate sight. That didn't go so well. So now I'm just going to port over some of the results from that sight.

I've played Final Fantasy about 11 times in my life, it is just one of those games that I can play over and over just to see if I can still do it over again. It's like a Rubix cube for me. So when I found out that they did a re-release for it on the GBA with extra dungeons, I jumped at the chance to play it once more. I won't go into the details, but I will just port over the results from my other blog, the Final Fantasy Challenge.

(from September of 2007)

So as you can guess, the posting isn't going to catch up with the gaming. I need to back-track and talk about the end of Final Fantasy one.

The fight up to Tiamont took up 12 hours, but the optional bosses took up another 8 hours. Our friend Garland was the culprit the last boss. Channeling the powers of time and evil he becomes Chaos. By the time I got there, I was a whopping level 77. The last time I played and beat it, I was level 43. This game definitely was made easier. Also back then my strongest weapon was the Masamune and the Excalibur, now I had the Ultima Weapon and armor that never existed back then. It was just a breeze. Well here are some stats, and I'm on my way to Final Fantasy II (not the one with Cecil, but the one with Firion).

Chaos Shrine - defeated Chaos (level 77)

• Game Time: 21 hrs 28 mins
• Total Time: 21 hrs 38 mins (10 mins added)
  
• Days: 9 of 80
• Bestiary - 93%
• Weapons Completion - 99% (missing Assassin's Dagger)
  
• Optional Bosses - 100%
• Optional Quests - 100%