Level Up! Seize the Experience!

In the personal realm, this past week has been hell. My eight-month-old son has been extremely cranky. Nothing would make him happy. Not playing with his toys, not being held, not eating, and not napping. It was five days in a row of shrieking and crying, and of course during that time, my husband was working 12-14 hour days so I didn’t get a real break until the kiddo went down for the night. I was so exhausted by that point, I would crawl into bed around the same time. No Final Fantasy VII, and no Lost Odyssey. I didn’t even have the energy to crack open my DS to play a quick game of Ninjatown.

After a few days of no personal time and no gaming time, my patience was wearing down and I swear I had the shakes. I couldn’t even remember what Victory Fanfare sounded like anymore. It was getting ugly.

But yesterday, the source of my son’s discontent presented itself: his second tooth. Now that it had cut through, his mood had vastly improved. He went to bed at a decent hour, and I didn’t feel like crashing. I got to turn on my PS2 and hear its glorious sounds of booting up. I played Final Fantasy VII for a few hours, and went to bed. I had really weird dreams about the game, and the battle music has been stuck in my head all day. Oh and look, the shaking has stopped.

I think I will pull through.

Well I was at the grand unveiling at the Final Fantasy XIII game website this morning, and I watched the clock wind down to zero and then restart. After a brief moment of anger, the site cleared and a new trailer presented itself. The trailer is two and a half minutes of cut-scenes, views of gameplay, and some hints about the underlying story. The gameplay looks like it will be turn-based, like every other Final Fantasy game, and this is no real surprise. So far, the graphics look like Square Enix is proving that they still do dominate the CGI world. After their latest two releases, this is more than refreshing to see. I breathed a sigh of relief after I remembered to breathe after being so captivated by the beauty of the graphics and animation.

As for the story, it looks like another conflict either involving haves and have-nots or an anti-technology faction. You know, the usual. The game world is very reminiscent of the world from The Matrix, and whoa, these people are fighting against machines too. Although like the Final Fantasy games of the past, I’m sure this game is slightly deeper than just that. But I can only take what I can from a fast two and a half minutes.

What I have taken, though, has made me all the more excited about this latest installment in the series. I better get crackin’ at Final Fantasy VII!

Ever since the Wii, DS, and their line-up of games has hit the shelves, we’ve been hearing these gamer titles thrown around a lot. Some claim that there is a sharp difference between the two. Casual gamers are those who embraced Wii Tennis as the first video game they have ever played and Brain Age is the only game they have for their DS. Hard core gamers are into more complex games like first-person shooters. The other camp claims that there is no distinction between the two: gamers are gamers. The so-called hard core gamer may enjoy Wii Tennis just as much as the so-called casual gamer and play the game to death until they max out their stats. Does the fact that he embraces Wii Tennis as much as the casual gamer make him a casual gamer?

I personally see points on both sides.

So I wonder… is there a distinction for RPG games and gamers?

The first game that comes to mind as a casual RPG is Fable 2. The game controls are fairly simple, it doesn’t take all that long to complete, and the story isn’t that deep. However, I don’t know many “casual” gamers who have picked it up. The gamers I know who haved picked it up thoroughly enjoyed it, and many are playing it again to play as a different personality or get a different ending. That doesn’t sound very casual.

So what RPG could be considered hard core? Final Fantasy? I have to disagree because I know many gamers that got into games thanks to Final Fantasy. The intricate stories and somewhat easy to follow gameplay kept them going and helped them get familiar with the controls. As I’m playing Final Fantasy VII for the first time, I can definitely see how this game hooked so many gamers and non-gamers back in the late nineties. Kingdom Hearts? No, that was the game that got me into playing video games with the puzzles, Disney themes, and hack n’ slash action. Maybe Fallout 3? Okay, I may have one there. Maybe. But I know that some “casual” gamers have gotten into the idea of stuffing unaware people’s pants with grenades.

Well now I think I have confused myself, and answered my question at the same time.

Maybe.

When I first opened up the game case, four game discs popped out and gave me a heart attack. Just how long is this game? Anything over sixty hours coughlegendofzeldacough can get tedious and drop my interest. I contacted a friend who had completed the game to find out roughly how long it took her. She told me not to worry; it should take me as long as it takes to finish a Final Fantasy game.

It didn’t take me very long to figure out why the game needs four discs. The graphics are as enriching and as detailed as they are in the graphic above, no matter if it’s during battle, while walking around, or during cut-scenes. And speaking of cut-scenes, this game likes them. A lot. Most revolve around the protagonist, who is an immortal with amnesia. Every now and then, something will trigger a memory, and then the player must sit back and read a short story. My game clock is only a couple of hours, but I’m quite certain that only forty-five minutes of it was actual gameplay.

For now, I’m really liking the game for its incredible graphics, interactive turn-based play, and story telling. If the game carries this same momentum all the way through, it will rank as one of my favorite games.

Square Enix has posted a mystery countdown for Final Fantasy XIII on both their North America and Europe web sites, with no real clue what it is about other than a new vision will be revealed.  In order to find out what it is, you have to register for it and then the new vision will be announced to you on January 28th.

I’m trying to be optimistic about this new vision, but all I feel is “meh” and dread. I can’t get that excited about it, especially when I read on the Squenix blog that it’s “the first of many countdowns to come.” Countdowns for what, exactly? I know that we’re all chomping at the bit for the latest Final Fantasy installment, but are they thinking that random announcements about the new game will produce further froth at the mouth? Is this their way of trying to appease the masses since the game has been delayed?

I can’t speak for other fans, but personally, countdowns aside from the actual release of the game will do little other than annoy me. That said, it didn’t stop me from registering for the unveiling. I’m a sucker, I know.

Tune in on January 28th when I unveil the unveiling.

I’m plugging along with this one, slowly but surely. Last night I got to Cloud’s recollection of the events that transpired at Nibelheim with Sephiroth going nutjob over his past. Words cannot describe how surreal this was for me. Almost everything was verbatim from the Nibelheim chapter in Crisis Core, just with far older graphics and Cloud acted out Zack’s role. Everything Sephiroth said, down to his laughter about his father, everything Cloud said, everything Tifa said, the random photographer who wanted a picture of Sephiroth, Sephiroth staring out of the window of the Inn… completely deja vu. I have to give huge kudos to the game developers of Crisis Core for watching (and probably rewatching numerous times) this cut-scene to make sure they duplicated the Nibelheim story. I was overwhelmed while watching this flashback, remembering everything Zack went through there, and how everything collapsed for both Zack and Cloud in the end. It’s a mark of an incredible game to make anyone experience emotions, especially emotions over ANOTHER game.

Cloud didn’t recall his amazing battle with Sephiroth at this point, but I know he will later and I can’t wait to see it all over again, even if it is in archaic graphics. He will have a Zack flashback eventually, right?

Well, after I calmed down and took a few deep breaths, I began to see that maybe the delay in Final Fantasy XIII’s release isn’t totally a bad thing. I remembered all of the issues with Infinite Undiscovery and The Last Remnant. Both games felt like they were rushed to get on the shelves, and as a result, they had some technical glitches, an overall feeling of incompleteness, and received very poor reviews. Perhaps Square Enix will use this extra time from the delay to ensure that they deliver a quality product to the masses. Maybe this one won’t feel rushed (and dear God it shouldn’t; they’ve been talking about it since 2006), and it won’t be as sloppy as the others. No one will say that this game had potential if not for blank. Final Fantasy fans will be just as happy as they were the day they played Final Fantasy X, and Xbox owners will be thrilled to finally have a decent Square Enix RPG for their console.

Isn’t it pretty to think so?

I, along with many other RPG fans, can only hope it to be so. If this game has gameplay-ruining glitches after these delays, Square Enix will have no one to blame and zero excuses.

Well I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but I had hope. And then Square Enix dashed my hopes to the ground. Final Fantasy XIII will be released in Japan by the end of 2009. The rest of the world will have to wait until April 2010 or possibly later. I have a zillion questions for the RPG giant, but I’ll save my energy. There’s no point in even thinking of asking them.

So now I’m not sure what I’ll be doing with my PS3 after I finish Disgaea 3. I may really postpone finishing it, just so I can say yeah, I play my PS3 every now and then. Unless Sony announces more games than they have, my PS3 may remain virtually silent most of 2009. Like I said a couple of blog posts ago, I don’t have any games for the PS3 after I finish Disgaea 3, and there is nothing in their library that interests me other than what I already have on the Xbox.

Well, I suppose this is good news for the ever-growing stack of games I need to play. At least the Xbox, PS2, and Wii will get some love this year. The PS3 may just get dust.

It’s taken me a few hours, but I’ve gotten into Disgaea 3. It’s my first Disgaea game, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. It’s very different from any other RPG I’ve played; it really forces me to use the strategic side of my brain, the side that sucks at playing chess.

However, as much fun as I’m having playing it, I really can’t get over the graphics. They aren’t horrible, but they don’t belong on the PlayStation 3, a console made for high-definition output. This game doesn’t exactly need high-definition graphics; it’s not like it’s a huge adventure through a fantastical world of typical RPG proportions. You mostly hang out at the Academy, bribe class reps to allow your characters to join clubs, and do battle in paneled rooms. All of which further emphasizes my thought that this game belongs on the Nintendo DS or even the GBA. And honestly, with the way the battle system works, it would be SO much easier in the DS format.

I’m not sure why NIS chose the Sony for development, but maybe I’ll find the reasons as I log on some more hours. I really haven’t gotten that far, so there’s plenty of time for the game to change my mind.

There is no doubt that the soundtracks to video games have come a long way since the games for the original Nintendo Entertainment System, let alone the Atari 2600. Ten years ago, I probably would never have thought about even looking for a video game soundtrack. My first game soundtrack was Kingdom Hearts, and then I picked up the soundtrack to Katamari Damacy not long after. A couple of years ago, I added the second Kingdom Hearts and Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker soundtracks to my library. This week, the soundtrack to Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII showed up on my doorstep, and it’s definitely the best gaming soundtrack I have ever heard. More than that, it’s the best soundtrack I have ever owned.

For me, personally, it’s everything I could ever want in a mix CD. I’m a huge fan of both classical music and hard rock, and the tracks on this CD flip back and forth between the two genres. One minute, I’m head banging to a piece from one of Zack’s many combats, and then the next, I’m listening to a sweet violin and piano ballad. One of the best things about it for me is that it doesn’t sound like a video game soundtrack, with the exception of one or two pieces. When I listen to the Wind Waker soundtrack, there is no doubt it’s a video game soundtrack. The “YOU GOT THE ITEM!!” chimes don’t help, but you can pick any tune off of the CD and hear similar game-like tones. I could probably get away with never telling anyone the music they are hearing is a video game soundtrack, except for my friends who are Final Fantasy VII fans since a few of the tracks are ripped right out of the original game, but with an orchestral upgrade.

I’d recommend this CD to anyone who likes gaming soundtracks or to anyone who likes the same mixture of genres I do. I will be playing the hell out of this CD. I’m not sure it will ever leave my car CD player, unless I trade in my car.

For those wondering, it is an import so it is more expensive than most soundtracks. However, if you poke around some of the sellers on Amazon, most of them are selling the CD set for less than half of what Amazon.com asks for.