Over the past year or so, several members of The Backloggery have been participating in a Final Fantasy Marathon started up by Noi. The main goal is to play as many numbered games in the series as the participants can (mostly being limited to what they have on hand) before Final Fantasy XIII is released. While not an official participant in the marathon, its very existence has encouraged me to play through a few of them on my own: I, II, III DS, IV DS, VI Advance, and most recently X.

Final Fantasy X has an odd distinction of possibly being one of the easiest in the series and also one of the hardest. It all depends on how you want to play it. If you’re just there for the story, then overall it’s pretty easy to just breeze on through. There are a few stumbling blocks, of course; namely certain boss fights that can be a bit gimmicky, but a little planning tends to make them not much of a problem. On the other hand, if you want to experience all that X has to offer, you will be beating your head against the wall and possibly breaking your controller many, many times.

The name of that frustration is minigames: chocobo racing in the Calm Lands, blitzball everywhere, lightning dodging in the Thunder Plains, butterfly catching in Macalania Woods, and playing red light green light with the cactaurs on Bikanel Island. Whichever poison you choose to go with first, you will probably hate them all by the time you’re done. Final Fantasy X is a turn based jRPG. It’s not exactly the type of game where you’d expect to have lightning fast reflexes, but that’s exactly what you’re going to need to slog through most of these freaking minigames. Lightning dodging is exactly that, you wait for a flash of white on the screen and hope that you pressed the button at the right time to avoid getting hit. If you got hit by the lightning, you get to start all over again. The requirement to get the item you want most out of this particular minigame? 200 consecutive lightning dodges. You cannot switch screens or the dodge count will reset. You cannot save or the dodge count will reset. You have to do it all in one sitting. And if you don’t have Enc None (an ability that turns off all random encounters) on your armor then your chances of making it to 200 just dwindled to nothing.

The other minigames can be as equally frustrating as lightning dodging, though not quite as mind numbing. Chocobo racing is dependent on your ability to control the movements of the bird. If you have any sort of trouble on the first three exercises, then you will likely be working on it for a long, long time. Butterfly catching, while not in and of itself incredibly difficult, does require a certain amount of patience and the will to not break your controller if you miss the time limit yet again. Red light green light with the cactaurs is probably the easiest out of the bunch, but may require a few resets depending on whether you want the named spheres or not.

And then there’s blitzball. Blitzball at its heart is a sports game structured around RPG elements. As with most team sports, the point is to get more goals than the computer controlled team you’re playing against. In the meantime, every action performed by players accrues experience points, just like regular RPG combat, and they get better at certain aspects of blitzball as they level up. You can also have them learn techniques from their opponents. Most of those techniques involve status effects. Let me tell you, it’s very satisfying to inflict status effects on players you don’t like. Very satisfying.

Next to Final Fantasy VIII’s Triple Triad, I’d put blitzball up there as one of the best designed minigames in the series. But even if you do like blitzball, the requirements to get the prizes you want out of it will try the patience of anyone. You have to win League Seasons (which are 10 games each) and Tournaments (which are 2-3 games each) to get Wakka’s overdrives as well as the second item used to unlock his ultimate weapon. Nearly half of my game time got sucked up by blitzball. I’m not too happy about that.

Knowing all of this, it’s very easy to see why many players never got around to completing Final Fantasy X. The minigames and their varying levels of difficulty and frustration are ridiculous when compared to the rest of the game. It’s really a shame too, because for me, Final Fantasy X has one of the better plotlines in the series.

Sure, X has the distinction of being the first game in the series to have full voice acting, and opinions on it vary wildly. Personally, I thought it was pulled off rather well, but for other people it just didn’t work. It’s mostly a matter of taste, but can certainly affect a person’s enjoyment of the overall game since it’s a pretty all-encompassing level of voice work. Nearly everything the main characters say (or think in Tidus’ case) are voiced. If you don’t like their voices, you’re not gonna want to hear it.

The game itself is gorgeous. The plot is a beautiful tale of life, death, sacrifice and everything it entails. The visuals were stunning for its era and still hold up well to this day. The music was what you’d expect from a Final Fantasy, lovely and fitting for the backdrop of the game’s world, Spira. The characters were engaging, and better than usual for me. Even the characters I initially didn’t like had their moments of redemption. All except Seymour. But, well, it’s Seymour…

I think the story for Final Fantasy X is the one out of the entire series that has stayed with me the longest. It was different without being unrecognizable from the rest of the series. None of the other numbered, or unnumbered, Final Fantasy games managed to get as much of an emotional reaction out of me as X did. Despite the ridiculousness of the minigames, it was well worth playing. The story alone made it worth it, and that’s exactly what I want in a good RPG.

Well, I’ve been considering writing about this for a little while, but always decided against it because of the slightly personal nature of the subject matter. But after recent events, I’ve decided it’s a consistent and interesting enough subject to at least put my two cents in about.

I have a bit of an anxiety problem. It’s nothing that I need to see a doctor for (at least, I don’t feel the need to), but it’s definitely there. I have the specific form of OCD called ICD: Impulse Control Disorder. More specifically, I have trichotillomania. In the same way that gamblers can’t stop gambling and pyromaniacs can’t stop setting things on fire, I can’t stop pulling my hair out. Fortunately, I’ve never pulled the hair out of my head, and I’ve been able to “ween” myself off of my eyebrows (which are fully grown in, now, and have been for a few years), but my anxiety still ravages my eyelashes. Luckily, unlike head or eyebrow hair, a lack of eyelashes is easy to cover up with a little eyeliner, so hardly anybody ever notices this fact unless I point it out to them. It’s a pretty 1:1 equation; I get anxious, I pull my eyelashes out.

Other than that, my anxiety usually manifests in the way that everyone else’s does: headaches, stomachaches, and shoulder tension. I have experienced a few anxiety/panic attacks, but they’re always triggered by something (usually, something medical or talking about something medical). But I’ve found an interesting solution to both my hair-pulling and my occasional attacks: video games.

Whether I’m pulling them or not, I’m usually touching my eyelashes a good chunk of the time I’m awake, whether I’m browsing the internet or doing my homework. A pattern I’ve discovered though, is that I never touch them when I’m playing games. Not ever. Not even if the game is frustrating me beyond belief.  It could be argued that games are distracting me, giving me something else to do with my hands, but whether I’m actively playing or I’ve put the controller down to watch a cutscene, my hands never travel up to my eyes like they usually do if I’m watching TV or a movie. It doesn’t even matter if I’m the one playing. I could be watching a friend play a game, and I very rarely ever find myself touching my eyes. Just focusing on a game playing out on a screen takes my mind away from my need to pull out my hair.

But maybe they’re just distracting me? It’s not as if the hair pulling is a problem that’s actively aggravating me or causing me pain. But, during the summer I came down with a bout of the famous swine flu, which lead to my development of bronchitis. One morning, I woke up and quite literally couldn’t breathe. It took a hell of a lot of holding my arms above my head and trying to flex my throat in different ways to move around the blockage my illness was causing just to open up a little airway. I ran downstairs and got my mom to bring me to the ER. On the way there, my airway started to become obstructed again. I could still breathe, but the fact that it was getting worse caused me to panic–probably the worst possible thing I could’ve done in the situation, but I couldn’t help it. I started attempting to breathe faster than the air could get through my air-tube and I started to get light-headed and dizzy. I quickly grabbed my DS to try and put my mind onto something that wasn’t my breathing. Upon booting it up, I could feel my panic start to subside, and it became easier to breathe. I was able to make it to the ER without incident.

My most recent experience was a few nights ago, when I was hospitalized for a fever, dizziness, and a lot of pain. I have a massive, MASSIVE phobia of needles. So of course, when they told me they were going to insert an IV, take blood, and perform a spinal tap, I just about damn near tore the room apart. I begged them to do something to relax me before they tried to get a needle in me, but the only way they could was through an IV. They let me open my DS in my left hand and play it one-handedly while they put the IV in my right, enabling them to push the relaxant into my system. When they came to take blood, the relaxant was still in the process of working, so I started pitching a fit about having more needles pushed in me. They needed to take blood from my left arm, and my right was hooked up to an IV, so I couldn’t prop open anything to play to distract myself. Instead, the man asked what I liked, and I told him that I played a lot of games. He had me close my eyes and just babble random information at him while he responded with whatever he knew.

“So what type of games do you like?”
“R-RPG, FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER, THIRD-PERSON SHOOTER!”
“Dunno what those are, what are they like?”
“THERE ARE A LOT OF DIFFERENT TYPES! SHOOTERS YOU TEND TO… WELL, SHOOT PEOPLE!”
“I see. We own a Wii. My son likes playing that sports game…”
“WII SPORTS, OR WII SPORTS RESORT!?”
“Whichever one has the basketball.”
“RESORT, I THINK!!”
“Yeah, that one. The kid cheats, I swear! Okay, we’re done.”

That’s the first time in the last 5 years I’ve ever gotten through someone taking my blood without either passing out or throwing up directly after.

For the spinal tap I was pretty heavily under the effects of the relaxant, but they were starting to realize how they could get me through the tests without incident; they just had me do the same thing–babble whatever I could about games while they performed the procedure. While it was still scary as hell, and even more painful, I was able to get through it without attempting to get away from them and their needles–a huge step for me.

So while it seems kind of silly or stupid or what have you, I guess the best medicine for my fears and anxiety is games. Whether it’s controlling my ICD, helping to slow my breathing, or just relaxing me enough to allow doctors to actually administer treatment, games are responsible for helping me through all of the most panicked parts of my life.

I don’t know whether they’re just distracting me or actually helping soothe the anxiety itself, but either way, they’ve earned my gratitude for holding my hand in a different kind of way.

One of the things I have an overabundance of happens to be unfinished games. They kinda just pile up over the years and for the most part I didn’t really care whether I’d gotten around to beating them or not. The advent of The Backloggery has changed that somewhat. I’m still kinda lazy about it, but I at least try to get some knocked down. And one of the many games I have yet to trash thoroughly happens to be Super Mario 64. Seeing as how said game is what really sold the Nintendo 64 for me (well, at least before The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time came out anyway), I figured it was about time I got around to changing its status. And then I decided that I should write a blog post about it once I’d managed to complete the game since I haven’t talked about anything in the past month or so. Such a naive assumption… I started up a new game of Super Mario 64 on the 15th of September. I have yet to finish it. It may take another month, it may even take longer than that. I was doing so well too, chugging right along, and then I ran straight into the roadblock known as Rainbow Ride. Actually, no, let me call it by its real name: Rainbow Hell. This is probably the level that made most players want to break their cartridges in half and forget that this game ever existed. But asides from that particular aspect, it’s still a good game in its own right, so I might as well write a post up about it anyway.

Let’s start with the basics. Super Mario 64 is a nifty 3D platformer that came out in 1996. It had been out for awhile before I chanced upon it at the local Blockbuster. Back then the store had both a Nintendo 64 and a Sega Saturn out on the floor for people to preview a game from each system on. Of course, both systems were locked down and in plain view of the checkout desk, so they weren’t taking too big of a chance there. For several months the choice to play was either NiGHTS Into Dreams or Super Mario 64. Both were eyecatching games, but Mario had a bit more luck with me since I was already familiar with the franchise thanks to the NES and SNES. I loved it. The objectives were there, but how you achieved them was up to you. I’d never been a very big fan of the original Mario setup. The linear and timed levels just weren’t very appealing to me. With Super Mario 64 I could go where ever I wanted to and do the vast majority of the game’s goals in any order I wished to. Sure, there were a few limitations (some doors needed a set number of stars before they’d open, some doors needed keys that you’d have to fight Bowser for, etc.), but overall I could do whatever I wanted to. I was sold. And then I never got around to beating it. Why? Well, let’s just say I am easily distracted when a game is annoying the hell out of me. It was 1996, Chrono Trigger had come out just the year before. I played through that game at least twice a year for the remainder of the 90s. Final Fantasy VII came out a year later in ‘97 and was an enormous time sink, if I do say so myself. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night trotted out a month after that, and then The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time finally graced us with its presence. I can easily say that the only time that cartridge was removed from my N64 was when Majora’s Mask came out, and then was promptly put back in a month or so later. So yeah, it’s easy to see why I lost interest in Mario 64. That’s not to say it isn’t a great game (it is), it’s just not the type of game I’m a big fan of.

But enough of that, let’s talk about the actual game now. While I highly doubt Super Mario 64 was the first of its kind (at the very least, PC gaming tended to be ahead of the pack back then, so to speak), but what it did it did well. Mostly. It was colorful and for a 3D game it wasn’t all that blocky. The controls were easy to figure out, dare I say intuitive, and frankly it was just damn fun to play. The music, while not incredibly memorable for me, didn’t make me want to rip the television’s speakers out either. Overall, it was just a great game, or at least you’d think so. Unfortunately, there were a few detraction, and since I said I’d rant about it to a few of you, let’s just go ahead and get it over with.

The camera. Super Mario 64 is a 3D platformer. At the very least, it required a movable camera. And yes, they did put one in. However, it’s a very, very, very good thing that they’ve improved upon it since then. I’m not going to compare it to games that came out afterward, but the bottom line is that a lot of the difficulty in Super Mario 64 came from that damn camera. Artificial difficulty, if you will. It would move around in a 360 degree angle like you’d expect for this kind of game, but then it would stop and you’d have to go back around. Or there would be something in the way and you couldn’t get past the obstacle. Or you were in an enclosed place and it wouldn’t even rotate 90 degrees. And even when you could get the full rotation, you could never get it in the particular angle you’d need it to be in. I can’t tell you how many missed jumps I’ve had thanks to that limitation. In fact, I don’t even want to think about it, lest I start raging and don’t stop. Suffice it to say, it sucked. It still sucks. And will always suck. A great deal of the difficulty in the game can be accredited to that damn camera. Is it the worst thing ever? No, but it sure isn’t good. Nor very helpful either. And that’s all we’ll say on the subject.

I’m not entirely sure, but I think Super Mario 64 was the first in the series to feature a central hub (the castle) from which you could reach all the other levels and courses in the game. I’ve heard a bit of complaining that the series has gotten into a bit of a rut thanks to that, but it’s not a bad setup and at the time it was quite refreshing. It’s always nice to have choices and Mario 64’s castle loved giving them to you. How ’bout we start out with some grass, simple plateaus and stuff that will blow you up. Bob-omb Battlefield is the perfect place for that sort of picnic. How ’bout some swimming, pirate ships and giant eels that want to eat you? Jolly Roger Bay is waiting for you. Prefer the cold? Cool, Cool Mountain and Snowman’s Land are right up your alley. Want to do some lava diving? Lethal Lava Land is right beneath your feet. Like the desert and pyramids? Head on over to Shifting Sand Land and watch your step, quicksand is a killer. Like messing with Boos? They’re in the back. Mountains, weirdly sized islands and odd water draining puzzles? Keep going up. The clock? It’s near the top. Want to discover the truly sinister side of rainbows? No worries, Rainbow Hell is waiting for you.

Mario is still mostly the same: a short little guy sporting a mustache and dressed in overalls who like to jump on stuff. Jumping is the bread and butter of getting around in the game and hopefully not dying. In addition to that, Mario can now punch stuff, kick it and butt-stomp it if necessary. but that’s not all! Yes, he still gets power ups. This time around they are in the form of new hats that confer different abilities. The Wing Cap lets him fly like he’s dead drunk for a short amount of time, the Metal Cap allows him to sink like a stone in water, and the Vanish cap allows him to turn immaterial and thus walk through wire walls. Not exactly the best power ups ever, but they get the job done. Unless it’s the Wing Cap and then maybe you’ll get the job done after multiple attempts. Why yes, Super Mario 64 continued the tradition of incredibly stupid attempts at flying in the series. It could have been worse, I’m sure, but that’s not saying much.

The usual enemies made the transition to 3D rather well. The Goombas were nice and squishable, the very few Koopa Troopers are nice enough to hand over their shells for surfing on after a small amount of harassment, the Bob-ombs like blowing you up, the Lakitu in Rainbow Hell likes throwing spikeys at you (and that’s as much as I will discuss details of THAT course), the Boos are still cowards and will only chase you when your back is turned, the Chain Chomp is freaking huge, the Pirana Plants still want to snack on you, and there’s even a Bullet Bill. Bowser, of course, returns and is pretty much as lame as he usually is. He is a bit more frustrating in his 64 incarnation though. It’s not that he’s hard, you just run around to his back, grab his tail, swing him around and then throw him into a bomb at the edge of his platform. Of course, hitting one of the bombs is the trick as aiming can be something of a pain in the ass. Not exactly hard, just tedious. He also like spitting fireballs at you, teleporting a short distance, and stomping the ground to create shockwaves. But despite all that, aiming for the damn bombs is really the hardest part. Then again, has Bowser ever been hard?

Is Super Mario 64 a good game? Yes. Is it an annoying game? Oh hell yes, but it’s still worth playing and still fun for the most part. Completing it is going to be a severe pain in the ass, but I’ll manage it. Eventually. And it’s nice to go back and see what all they’ve improved upon since then (like the camera!). I’d definitely say it’s deserving of most of the praise it gets… and probably most of the complaints (why yes, the camera again). I think it was an excellent evolution for the series, and certainly a good milestone for gaming in the 90s.

Earlier this month marked Final Fantasy VIII’s tenth anniversary on 9/9/09. Who’d have thought that we were already at the ten year mark for the eighth game in the series? Especially considering that Final Fantasy XIII has yet to be even be released! So I figured I’d take this opportunity to look back on one of the arguably less-loved entries in the series. Personally I’m quite find of FFVIII, but I’m quite aware of the game’s many flaws. Still, it’s a game that I’ve found to be hard to forget, even after ten years. And a quick warning before I continue: Spoilers Ahead

The date was Thursday, September 9th 1999. Final Fantasy VII had come out just two years before, changing the way gamers outside of Japan viewed RPGs from the East. On the tails of FFVII had come a slew of JRPGs that most likely never would have been localized otherwise: Tales of Destiny, Grandia, Breath of Fire 3, Xenogears, SaGa Frontier, and many other niche JRPGs. The media had touted Final Fantasy VII as the game that sold the Playstation. The game itself had pushed Final Fantasy to the top of many American gamers’ minds. Naturally, Final Fantasy VIII had a tough act to follow.

The demo didn’t really help, either. If anything, it probably set a lot of peoples’ expectations too high. FFVIII’s demo featured the Dollet mission from the first two hours of the game’s story. In this mission you control Squall, the taciturn and partially amnesiac protagonist, as he goes on a mission to a distant country as part of his school’s SeeD exam (not that you know what all this means at this point). The demo ends with Squall barely escaping from a giant robotic spider, which eventually gets gunned down by some anonymous person (who’s later replaced with Quistis in the main game) in a spectacular show of the PS1’s ability to show off pre-rendered cutscenes. Exciting, right? I know it got me excited. The game seemed like it would contain even more crazy, action-filled parts than its predecessor.

…And then the actual game came out. Final Fantasy VIII had a much different tone than the rest of the series, which sounds redundant after Final Fantasy VII had already done just that. The whole medieval setup had already been thrown out the window in the two games before in exchange for darker, more modern settings. FFVIII on the other hand featured a world just like our own. There were computers (the kind you’d expect in the late 90’s, anyway) and cars and people wore fancy leather jackets with fur collars. You know. Just like our world. And then they tossed in some crazier stuff like guardian forces and sorceresses and Time Compression (more on that later). The game itself starts at a school, the type of environment you hardly ever saw in other games in the series. You’re not on a mission (yet), you’re not traveling around the world with your chocobo buddy, you aren’t searching for some crystal. You’re… in school.

Final Fantasy VIII also started a trend in the series of focusing on the theme of love. The opening cinema practically beats you on the head with the idea that yes, this game is a love story. Look, the main character and the love interest! Hugging! How romantic… Right. So you know right from the beginning that somewhere in the story that’s going to come up. More on that later as well.

The game did have its share of action-packed segments similar to that featured in the demo, of course. The first two discs were full of them: the assault against the Galbadian President’s train outside of Timber, the assassination attempt on the Sorceress Edea at the end of disc 1, the escape from the D-District prison and subsequent assault on the Galbadian missile base, the mission to reclaim Balamb Garden, and lastly the battle between Balamb and Galbadia Gardens. All of these parts served to move the game’s story along in a fun, yet somewhat chaotic manner. I personally started to wonder where the game was going, especially with that really confusing reveal in disc 2. That part of the story is one of the game’s weakest links in terms of storytelling. But the story managed to chug along interestingly even after that and I forgave it.

…And then disc 3 began. Remember that whole thing about the game being a love story? Congratulations, you’ve just hit it! Like a brick wall. Or so it may have seemed to some people who reached that point. The game actually provides some decent development between Squall and the main heroine Rinoa beforehand. All the player had to do was pay attention to the dialogue and… choose all the right choices in certain scenes. Unfortunately, Squaresoft dropped the ball somewhat here. I fondly recall finishing the second disc after all of the excitement from the epic battle between the Balamb and Galbadia Gardens only to find myself bewildered at Squall’s sudden change of heart at the beginning of disc 3. In retrospect (and two playthroughs later), his change in attitude isn’t all that surprising. You know what they say, you never realize how important something (or someone) is to you until you lose them. And so Squall finally loses his cool and distant demeanor when Rinoa falls under a mysterious coma. What a way to kick off a love story.

The story only gets stranger throughout disc 3, culminating in the clumsy introduction of the real villain towards the end of the disc. Even after the whole love story thing gets resolved and the main character finally sorts out his feelings (for the most part), that’s not the end! Oh no, there’s more! Now you have to go to the future (or something) to fight some evil sorceress! From the future! How do you get there, you ask? Why, through Time KCompression! Perfectly logical given everything you’ve done in the last three discs, right? RIGHT? And it gets even better than that. There’s crazy time loops and paradoxes involved to make things even more epic…ly confusing.

In retrospect, Final Fantasy VIII was a game that I always enjoyed intensely at the beginning, but disliked at the end. Most games that I’ve played that seek to tell stories start off rather slow, gradually build up speed through various plot developments, and end excitingly. Final Fantasy VIII, on the other hand, is a game that begins on a rather high note, stays interesting through most of the first two discs, and promptly drops off towards the end of the third disc. By the time I’ve gotten to the fourth disc, I find myself desiring nothing more than to just get the game over with. Whereas many other Final Fantasy games have me excited to take onthe last boss and wrap up the story… Final Fantasy VIII has me being fed up and tired as I fondly reminisce about the earlier parts of the game. As much as I love Final Fantasy VIII, I cannot deny that the game’s story falls apart towards the end.

So how does Final Fantasy VIII hold up against the rest of the series? It’s hard to say, really. Everyone has their favorite Final Fantasy. I will say that FFVIII serves as one of the more memorable entries in the series, though. Whether you loved the story or hated it, it’s the kind of story that I found stuck in my mind rather easily. It was also the first Final Fantasy game to make a love story such a central part of the plot, which carried on somewhat in the two games after it. The Junction system, while cumbersome to many, was a huge departure from the rest of the series and sets FFVIII apart on its own. Final Fantasy VIII was also the first game in the series to feature an easily accessible mini-game, which would also be continued in the two games after it. Yet another important contribution was the change in the battle menu design that had been present since Final Fantasy II. Instead of a static menu constantly occupying the bottom of the screen, FFVIII featured smaller menus that appeared as each characters’ turn came up with a smaller menu displaying hit point totals.

Perhaps the middle game in each generation is just doomed to be the less-loved oddball? I mean, look at Final Fantasies II, V, and XI. Whether you loved it or hated it, though, Final Fantasy VIII was yet another important entry in the series that served to advance the series and make it what it is today. As for what the Final Fantasy series is today… that’s a whole other rant.

For many gamers a great horror has struck. That is right, the brain-sucking grind of school has reared its ugly head. Don’t get me wrong, I know school is important but does take a lot of time which is taken out of any time we would usually spend gaming. So how does one get their gaming fix and juggle school at the same time?

The beautiful creation of handhelds. Handhelds are wonderful because the can be ported almost anywhere and give you the ability to keep up with your games and still get stuff done. For example, I get to 30 minute breaks on class days. I spend that time with a sandwich in one hand and my DS or PSP in the other. The time may seem short but it adds up in the long run. Not too mention is helps you wind down and not be overwhelmed by school.

Recently some very nice games have come out for both the PSP and the NDS. The big one for the PSP seems to be Dissidia: Final Fantasy. However, I won’t go into that because it has already been brought up by a few of the other wonderful ladies here. Instead I want to bring your attention to a NDS called Scribblenauts.
Now this game got some of the best reviews during E3. People found it cute, fun, innovating and were just all around impressed by everything the game offered. With such a good reviews I couldn’t help but want to pick up a copy myself.

In the game you control Maxwell; a character wearing a chicken hat and headphones, as your try to complete each level and get the Starite. Now Scribblenauts’ whole concept is “Write Anything, Solve Everything”. You are given a notepad in which you write ways to help you reach your goal. You can make Maxwell do things or even summon other characters to help. The possibilities are almost endless.

The game has 10 worlds you can play through, each getting harder as you progress. In order to unlock more worlds though you need to earn enough in game money called “Ollars”. Earning ollars is quite easy, you simply need complete a level and you win ollars. You get more ollars if you completed the level within the givin’ par. You can also win awards called merits if you meet certain requirements while playing.

Also, each world comes with 2 modes: Puzzle mode and Action mode. Puzzle mode is true to its name in that it gives you a situation and you must figure out how to solve it to unlock the Starite. Action mode on the other hand has the Starite already in play and you must find a way to get to it. The game also comes with a Level Editor to build your own levels and a Ollars store to buy avatars and songs.

Now while I did have an amazing time playing this game and found it well worth the buy there are a few things I’d like to touch on. One important thing being the controls. Almost everything is touch screen controled minus the camera which you use the control pad to move. This being said it is easy to go and try to move a summoned object and instead have Maxwell run into danger or a just a wall. You had to be very careful or one mistake could send you to have to start all over. Most the time it wasn’t too bad but it still happened enough to get on my nerves.

There is also so small issues with the camera. After about 5 seconds or so the camera will automatically go back to focusing on Maxwell. If your in the middle of trying to set things up this can prove to be quite bothersome. It would have been better to have a free roaming camera that would just stay where you left it. Along with this comes the overall level difficulty. I found Puzzle mode to be a breeze at every world yet Action mode tended to be much more difficult. I don’t feel like the spread the difficulty right and just made it sparactic. This made it easy to abuse some of the same methods over and over in order to reach my objective because it was less hassle.

These flaws maybe small but they can build on nerves so if you find yourself getting frustrated it is best to take a break. It worked wonders for me and let me come back and still enjoy the game. Even with its small mishaps and odd difficulty levels everything else in the game makes it well worth your while and a very fun play. It is great on the go game and with the ability to redo levels you can always test out many solutions. I throughly enjoyed Scribblenauts and recommend picking it up if you own a DS or are thinking about buying one in the near future.

For those of you familiar with the Backloggery, you might know that there is a massive Final Fantasy marathon going on right now. Basically, one of the members of the Backloggery decided that, since Final Fantasy XIII was soon to come out (this was back in May) it would be a fun idea to play through all of the Final Fantasy games in preparation for the release of FFXIII.

Well, considering how many Final Fantasy games I own (and hadn’t beaten), and the fact that I’m a veritable encyclopedia of knowledge about the series, I decided to participate officially in that marathon (as a matter of fact, I’m first on the list that the member in question has in his page note). Sure, I’m probably not going to be able to play FFXIII when it comes out (not owning a PS3 or a 360), but it’s still a way to slay Bak’laag. That, and you never know — I might get the game anyways even though I can’t play it, like I did with No More Heroes for the Wii and possibly for Valkyria Chronicles for PS3.

The sad part about me participating in the marathon, though, is how much of a FF nut I am. That means I burn through the games like acid on steel. … bad analogy, but you get the picture.

At the time of writing this post, I’ve beaten nine of the Final Fantasy games that I set out to beat and/or complete back in May. I’ve taken two of the games off the list just because they’re such terrible versions, and I had it listed as “[or]” in the list, those being the PS1 renditions of Final Fantasy V and VI. More than likely, though, I’m going to beat them anyways, just because. I’m tempted to give them away, but with most games like that I, I wanna beat them first (here’s looking at you Tales of Legendia). I’m also almost tempted to remove the two Crystal Chronicles games I have, since I don’t have my GameCube here (therefore I’d have to play it over the winter holidays) and Echoes of Time is absolutely terrible when you’re not playing with friends. There’s also the small fact that I’ve beaten everything around it in my list as well (except for FFVI and Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, but I’ve been working on that).

Even still, from my knowledge, I’ve beaten the most games out of anyone in the marathon, including the marathon creator himself. This includes:

• Final Fantasy (NES)
• Final Fantasy I&II: Dawn of Souls (GBA — completed FFI)
• Final Fantasy Origins (PS1 — beat FFII)
• Final Fantasy II Anniversary Edition (PSP)
• Final Fantasy Chronicles (PS1 — beat FFIV)
• Final Fantasy IV (NDS)
• Final Fantasy V Advance (GBA)
• Final Fantasy VII (PSN — completed)
• Final Fantasy VIII (PS1)

I’m currently working on Final Fantasy VI Advance and a completion attempt of Final Fantasy IX, which is actually going decently well. I just have to remember where the coffees are. And if all else fails, then I just have to remember to make a save file for BEFORE you leave for the Shimmering Isle on Disc 3 (because after that, you’re stuck going to Disc 4).

Dissidia has been eating up my PSP time, so Crisis Core has been getting neglected in that field. Though, from what I know, I’m closer to beating Crisis Core than I am Dissidia — Dissidia requires the rest of Shade Impulse and I’ve only finished one chapter of that; Crisis Core has 10 more bosses, though I’m not sure how easy they’ll be since I’m only L35 (even though levels don’t matter — materia and dodging does).

After that, all I have is FFX, X-2, XII, and Revenant Wings. And people say it would take ten years to finish all of them. If you’ve been keeping up, with this marathon, I’ll have played every single rendition of the numbered entries in the series except for Final Fantasy III and the SNES versions of FFIV and FFVI. I was actually thinking of also playing the Famicon versions of FFII and FFIII just for kicks. And in that way, I can also play the SNES versions of IV, V, and VI, though those would all be emulated on my computer, and so don’t really count towards the marathon. It’d probably only take me a month constantly playing to get through all of them — maybe a month and a half. VI would take longer, since it’s the one I’m least familiar with, but playing VI Advance is kinda helping with that. Add onto that the extra glitches that are in the SNES version that were fixed in the GBA version and the game should probably take even less than the Advance version (though I haven’t been playing the GBA version as constantly as I should).

School has kind of put a damper on my speed of playing, but rest assured, this is one girl who will finish all of them. And when I say all of them, I mean all of them.

I loved Tales of Vesperia on the 360, so when I heard it was being ported to the PS3 with loads of extra content of course I had to check it out. The Japanese fanbase was understandably enraged when they heard about the new game (since many of them had bought the console solely for the game), but I didn’t share their animosity. I figure, the PS3 version got it over a year after the 360 version, new content is kind of expected. While some of the codes and hints found in the 360 version point towards the content being planned even before the 360 release, I just can’t bring myself to feel the rage that a lot of other fans do. Well, that, and I didn’t buy a 360 just to play the game.

I went ahead and pre-ordered the Japanese version of Tales of Vesperia, because chances of the game getting an NA release were dubious (though since then, rumors of the voice actors being called back coupled with Vesperia PS3’s staggering sales numbers in Japan have given us hope). While I’m only a measly 200-level student in Japanese, I can read enough to be able to play the game without struggle and know the story well enough to not be bothered by my lack of fluency. I was hoping that the fun of the original coupled with the new content would be compelling enough for me to give it another run-through. So how does the PS3 version stack up against the original?

First of all, I’m playing on two utterly different set ups for the 360 and PS3 versions. My 360 Vesperia was played on a 50″ HDTV, whereas my PS3 version is being played on a 22″ WLED HDMI-compatible monitor with terrible sound quality. Due to this drastic change, I’m not willing to even touch on any graphical or audio quality differences that may or may not exist, since I honestly wouldn’t be able to tell either way. That said, even on my monitor the PS3 version looks absolutely gorgeous. Sharp and vibrant, he graphics are as crisp as ever.

One of the most advertised parts of Tales of Vesperia for the PS3 was the promise of “fully-voiced scenes”. Many in-game scenes in the 360 version weren’t voiced (even, surprisingly, some incredibly relevant to the story). So far, I’ve already run across quite a few scenes that are voiced that I distinctly remember were silent in the other game. Even obscure side-quest scenes (such as the Wonder Reporter) are voiced, though they inexplicably decided to leave the “King of Adventure” scenes out of this selection. If you were going to decide between the Wonder Reporter (roughly 4 fairly insignificant cutscenes with no real reward) versus the King of Adventure (quite a few cutscenes, a long sidequest, results in a lot of important rewards and an eventual costume title), I would think the choice would be obvious. Leaving some relevant cutscenes unvoiced makes the “fully-voiced” claim sound like false advertising, but I guess you can’t cover every single scene in the game. Even still, you should at least hit the important ones. If the Kowz sidequest is left unvoiced, I’m going to be baffled.

Controls-wise, the game is left completely intact. I was actually pretty curious to see how they’d handle it, since the 360 version was a departure from the PS2 tales in that it flipped the Attack and Arte buttons. Migrating back to a Dualshock-style controller, I was expecting them to maybe return to their original button layout, but they kept the buttons as they appeared in the 360 version. You’ll have to flip them manually if they aren’t comfortable for you.

There have been a few altered cutscenes strewn throughout the game, too. Minor details, really, but they’re things I didn’t remember seeing the first time before (even just different camera cuts). They make the game feel a little more cinematic, but they’re so minute most people probably won’t notice the difference.

Speaking of cutscenes, the PS3 has an amazing new option: the “Event Skip”. This allows you to skip over cutscenes, both animated and in-game. This means if you lose to a boss, you no longer have to break your thumb mashing through dialogue or wait for a long, drawn out animated sequence to finish. You just press start and triangle and you’re right back to the fight. It’s a wonderful addition, especially for those of us who plan to replay the game multiple times to collect the trophies. In that vein, it makes speed runs easier, which makes me wonder if they decreased the speed-run target time for the trophy. If not, the PS3ers have this much easier.

There are additional trophies from the original, meaning that there’s even more stuff you have to accomplish outside of the new content. From the limited amount I was able to translate, there appears to be trophies tied to mini-games (one ominously said “snowboarding”… what) and more distance-related accomplishments. I’m waiting for a fully-translated list to pop up somewhere so I can know what I’m actually expected to do for them.

Only 3 hours into the game, I’m already seeing the minor tweaks that it’s receiving from its predecesor, and I’m loving them. As far as first-impressions go, the game definitely isn’t suffering from the journey to the new console. With rumors of localization abound and the excellent sales numbers the game is enjoying in Japan, I’d recommend PS3 RPG lovers to be on the look-out for this one should it ever cross the ocean. I’ll write more when I hit the new content (like the pirate, who I’m still not convinced about), but for now, the game is wowing me all over again.

So… basically, I had to sign up for an English class for college last year. I went into the class expecting to have boring topics shoveled down my throat, and wound up getting absolute freedom to write whatever I wanted, with some minor guidelines. Among rants about ignorant game violence bashing and monologues from the point of view of Yoshi, I chose my final project in the class to be about Bioshock. A couple of people expressed interest in some of my projects, so I’ll be posting them here under the category that pretty well expresses my intent for the entire class: “English Class Trolling”. Whenever I post one of my papers, I’ll give the outlines for the project.

The outlines for my final projects were as follows:

• Write a poem in the style of James Wright.
• Poem must be about a crime.
• First part must contain an introduction, where you were born, and a description of your location in relation to the crime.
• Second part must contain a confession and an expression of disgust.
• Third part must begin with the word “Idiot”.
• Fourth part must begin with an expression of pity.
• Fifth part must contain references to a king, a kingdom, and a prince.
• Sixth part must contain a quote and be no longer than 3 lines.
• Seventh part must contain a declaration in parenthesis.

Other than that, we had total freedom for our topics and our analysis of the topic. So I give you, “The Failed Utopia”! For the record… my English teacher had no idea what the hell was going on.

The Failed Utopia

“I rejected those answers. Instead I chose something different.I chose the impossible. I chose… Rapture.
A city where the artists would not be censored,
where the scientists would not be bound by petty morality,
where the great would not be constrained by the small.
And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well.”

- Andrew Ryan

My name is Jack, and I was born
Not where I was raised, not where I grew,
So far removed from
Under the stormy surface of the Atlantic Ocean, where the unregulated
Use of unethical genetic melding
Created me, an abomination of the human species but
Just right for what my creator desired.
Maturing four, no, ten times as fast as
God intended,
I was the most perfect,
The most hidden weapon,
Lingering for two years above the water as I quietly waited
For the heralding of my return
To the underwater war.
Led by two men who were not the leaders of countries, but leaders of industry
An intense battle of morals and ideals
Dragged an entire society into its
Unwieldy and unforgiving grasp.
Andrew Ryan,
You built this fortress from good intentions for a better world,
But look at what you’ve done to it
And the people who believed in you.

I confess that in my time here
I have committed atrocities myself
But none that have topped your
Impressive list.
I’ve electrocuted, shot, beaten, and even
Burned them to death,
The blind slaves to your underhanded control.
Through pheromones you seize even their most
Basic instincts and use them to your benefit.
Sending them against me,
Your worst nightmare,
The object of all of your fears personified.
Ryan, you disgust me.
Are people no more than puppets,
Marionettes you orchestrate?
First to build your great city,
Then to wage economic and moral war,
Are these people simply dancing on the strings
So precariously attached to your fingers that move
Like spiders as you direct them this way and that
In an attempt to stop me?
Puppets can’t stop me,
And neither can you.

Idiot, you created this place to flee from the talons of
Capitalism, socialism, communism,
But in your retreat you fell into the pit of
Something far worse,
Far more poisonous.
Your society was never perfect,
It never could have been,
For in the pursuit of perfection, only the opposite
Can ever be obtained.
You said that you rejected those ideas,
But in doing so, did you accept ideas
That threatened and changed
What us humans truly are.
ADAM, is that what they called it?
Your people-turned-monsters
Of this undersea prison.
So very ironic, its complementary element EVE,
For this place is no Eden.

I pity these people,
They came to your city seeking a utopia,
And for a while they could taste that sweet fruit,
Succulent on their lips. Even you looked at them
With the gentle love of a father.
You thought them the pinnacle of humanity,
Did they deserve to become caught in the
Ruthless crossfire of a biological arms-race?
Did they deserve to become dependent on the stuff?
Their human features horribly marred,
Their once beautiful faces disfigured,
Even their psyches twisted into unrecognizable
Psychopaths.
You can blame Fontaine all you want,
But it takes two to start a war.

If you are the king of this crumbling kingdom,
Then I am its prince,
Your illegitimate child,
Come back to strike your Achilles’ heel.
The unholy union of you and my mother,
An exotic dancer of no worth to you and your
Utopia, she sold me in the most
Primitive of stages out of pure necessity.
The buyer was your adversary,
Who was quick to change me, engineer me
Into what it was that he most needed:
A soldier to succumb to his will.
When you learned of her treachery
You slaughtered her like a common farm animal,
Her body sharing the same broken grave
As so many others.
But the dead, too, can share their stories
Through writings, scribbling
Even in their own blood.
And in my ears, their tales scream loudly.

But I will continue my plunge through this wreckage to you,
Compelled simply by three powerful words,
“Would you kindly?”

Andrew Ryan, the entrepreneur,
My father,
Mass murderer.
It is by my electrically charged hand
That you will meet your end,
But knowing you,
You will still die on your own terms.
But Rapture, I beg of you,
(Hold tight! Hold tight against the ocean,
Exerting unbelievable pressure on this
Poor, fragile world apart),
Keep this man and his spirit
Locked tight within you.
Hold him fast, don’t allow this
Tragedy to recur.
Even after I have taken his golf club,
The one he prized so much,
Grinning at it in his hand as he
Played that stupid game in his office
As his society crumbled around him,
And driven it deep into his skull.
Keep his foolish ambition, his defiance,
And his initiative locked in this watery casket.
May you spare the world from another Andrew Ryan,
From another Rapture,
From another me.
I have ended it here,
But was it by the necessity of my morals,
Or by the invisible hand that tweaks at strings
Equally as attached to me as the rest of your victims?
This, I still cannot comprehend.
The only thing that I can be sure of,
In my short two years alive is that
A man chooses, a slave obeys.

For those not in the know, I’m a total Pokemon fangirl. I’ve played since they first came out with the series way back when and I’ve gotten all the (main) games ever since then. But one particular game in the series had a special place in my heart — that game being Pokemon Crystal. So, myself, along with a countless number of those Pokefans, have been hoping ever since the remakes of the first generation games (those remakes being FireRed and LeafGreen) that Nintendo would heed our pleas for a remake to the second generation, of which Crystal is a part. Then came the fourth generation, and our hopes were renewed that maybe Nintendo would make a repeat performance with their remakes.

Earlier this year our prayers were answered.

Nintendo announced the next two games in the Pokemon series: HeartGold and SoulSilver. These games would be remakes of the second generation games, Gold and Silver with added content and some changed things, the most drastic of which being the inclusion of a girl character — not Kris, who was the first girl character of the series (in Crystal), but Kotone, a character who people have likened to looking like Mario. And these two games released nigh two days ago in Japan. And every Pokefan squee’d with such delight. … or at least I did.

A couple of days before, the game got leaked. We here at Press X to Win do not advocate piracy in any way, but I’m such a Pokefreak that I HAD to play it now rather than waiting till Spring 2010 when the games are slated to be released in the States. And sadly, I currently don’t have the money to actually import it — if you would like to play the games, I highly suggest that you try and import, since the DS Phat and DS Lite are both region-free (though I’ve heard that the DSi is not). At first, things were a little difficult because the rom image itself seems to like freezing when it’s not on its original SD card. However, a few patches have been created to keep this from occurring — sadly, the game still does not work on no$gba, but there are some DS emulators that will work with the game. The intro is only a small taste of the awesomesauce to come in the game. I put in my name (in Japanese of course ^^;) and started on my adventure into the world of Pokemon.

Those of you who are familiar with the layout of the fourth generation will notice some differences in the way things look in HG/SS. For one thing, the touch screen is MUCH more prominent.

The touch screen allows you to quickly access various functions.

You can still use the same commands as before to access different things — the X button still allows you to access the menu items, though your selection will be on the bottom screen, rather than the menu showing up on the top screen. You might also notice the shoe icon right above the A button indicator (which changes its text depending on the situation: Speak, Examine, etc). This is a handy feature that allows you to auto-run instead of having to hold down the B button all the time to use the Running Shoes. I found this very handy, as it saves my thumb some stress. Though, I did find myself holding down the B button anyways out of habit.

Many of the menu options have had their looks changed to accomodate better the extra use of the touch screen. This is most apparent in places like the Trainer Card (where the badges are shown on the top screen — no more cleaning and playing songs!), the Save option, and in particular the Pokedex, which is much easier to navigate, though deviates quite a bit from how it has looked for the past 14 games.

No more scrolling -- just drag and pick!

The bag has been changed drastically from its fourth generation counterpart. Instead of having a list like the first three games, you now have a screen similar to the battle system. Your character also appears as a 3D model on the top screen, rotating to show the different locations of where the items are in the bag.

The bag looks very different this time around.

The battle system remains mostly unchanged from the rest of the fourth generation. The Physcial/Special split is still in place and the system itself functions just as it has for the entire series. The bottom screen’s menu is much cleaner, however, and seems to respond a little better than the first three games.

The remixed battle music is a very nice plus!

All-in-all, I believe these remakes do the original games complete and total justice, and could probably be considered one of the best Pokemon games of the series — if only because it takes the greatest games of the series and makes them better. I’m anxiously awaiting the full English version in the Spring — in fact, it’s the only other game I’m getting other than Dissidia in the coming year. Expect to see a full review of SoulSilver when I get it in the spring!

Yeah, yeah, I know. With the current escapades of Team Fortress 2, I’m sure this is probably a pretty tired subject right now… but I’d like to give my two cents anyway on the subject of MMO bannings.

For those who haven’t heard the news, this is basically the scoop: Team Fortress 2’s random “hat drop” system (which I’m not entirely familiar with, only briefly playing the game months ago) has recently been at the center of a lot of controversy surrounding measures taken by Valve against the use of a third-party program that gave users the advantage over legitimate players. Basically, anyone using the program (which aided them in idling to obtain more hats than those that actually played the game instead of leaving it on while they did other things, like sleep) lost all of their hats, while players who did not partake in the exploit were given a bonus hat. Since this is online gaming and therefore SERIOUS BUSINESS, outrage in both directions was sure to rear its ugly head in no time. Players who wer punished for using the exploiting software are crying out against Valve, citing that they only did it because of weaknesses in the system, because there was no explicit rule against it, etc. etc. The list goes on and on. Either way, there’s a lot of general unhappiness and hostility against the players who DIDN’T cheat, who are now experiencing hardship in game for their honesty.

As a long-time player oFinal Fantasy XI (five years, actually), I’ve seen things like this happen more times than I can count. In this TF2 example, my opinion is pretty clear cut: You cheated. You used third-party tools that probably went against the TOS. It should have been common sense that you there was always the possibility of punishment, and you should’ve been ready to accept it. Honestly, Valve is being pretty lenient in not just outright throwing bans left and right like other companies may have. But it’s always not so easy, and sometimes the innocent become casualties in mass-reprimanding movements of the online community. Is it always right, or can it turn into a witch hunt? And why is the community always so angry?

One particular incident in Final Fantasy XI was the symbolic turn of power on almost every server in the entire game. An exploit involving Salvage, an rare gear farming instance, was discovered by Square Enix… who promptly dropped a bomb straight into the endgame. Some of the highest level, most accomplished players on every server were instantly perma-banned, resulting in a huge outcry from them and their linkshells. But they exploited the game; they broke the rules. It may not have said in the TOS, “Do not do this particular exploit in Salvage”, but is the community so dense that they wouldn’t be able to see something like this coming? In my opinion, this particular instance of mass-bannings didn’t take many innocent lives with it. It took those who decided to partake in the cheat (even missing some members of the guilty parties) and left little collateral damage. At first there were cries of “But we didn’t know it was against the TOS!” This was quickly debunked when proof surfaced that the guilty parties on each server had been specifically asking their clients–who were paying them in-game currency to assist in the cheat–to log out, erasing evidence from third-parties of the exploit taking place. Why hide it if it’s totally legit? Don’t be pissed at the company–you made your bed, time for your character to sleep in it. FOREVER.

A huge turn in the tides hit as some of the most powerful endgame linkshells crumbled without their leadership. Some of the more moderate and casual shells were suddenly the most powerful groups on the server, and new shells were formed to rise in the place of the missing powerhouses. It was some kind of crazy online revolution, and when the dust settled the endgame was full of new faces ready to do things they’d been blocked from before by the more hardcore groups.

But then Square started witchhunting. In their attempts to squash Real Money Trading activities, legitimate players started being knocked out left and right without much reason. Do you like to fish a lot? So do RMT; banned. Do you craft a lot and fill up the auction house with your goods? Trying to amass a lot of gil, very suspicious. Banned. Do you like to garden in your house? Banned. Legitimate players were left empty and confused when the characters they’d spent years building up were suddenly gone… for doing the completely legal activities they’d been doing for all of those years. Cries of rage inevitably started, and Square Enix (being the shining pinnacle of customer service that they are) largely ignored them. The best way to lose your loyal, paying customers is to slap them in the face, and when they look at you with shock and confusion, spit in it.

I think the newest fad is to ban characters who’s players switch which credit card is being billed. I’m serious.

I think that mass-bannings are all well and good, as long as you’re taking out the actual cheaters and not the confused and innocent bystanders who happen to be standing in the same area as them. The Team Fortress 2 punishments seem legitimate to me. You cheated. You broke the rules, and whether you want to keep arguing about whether you did or not doesn’t matter. You don’t own the game, you don’t run the servers. The company does, and they’ll decide what breaks their TOS and what doesn’t. You should be celebrating the fact that you still have your accounts. So far, Valve is in the right in my opinion. As long as they don’t take a page from Square Enix’s book and destroy half of their player base, everyone should chill the hell out and just start their hat collecting over–legitimately, this time.