Level Up! Seize the Experience!

On Thursday, I swore I would get this game finished by Sunday and dammit, I actually kept my word this time.

I attempted to complete all of the sidequests, I really did. However, I couldn’t bring myself to finish the last one, the Temple of Enlightenment. After three regular enemy fights in a row where I battled nine enemies with HP levels between 7200 and 22000 and barely survived each one, I turned to my husband and said that was it. The area was not any fun, this type of fighting isn’t any fun, and I don’t see the point in playing otherwise. Getting out of the Temple was just as hard, but I’m so very glad that I at least attempted it. All of my immortals learned so many skills and we leveled up so incredibly much. It made the final bosses a complete breeze. I can’t imagine how much easier it would have been if I had actually completed the Temple of Englightenment. I probably could have just sneezed on the final boss and won.

Which is kind of how I felt when I defeated the final boss in Crisis Core, and I only completed 60% of the missions. If I had finished all of them, could I have just blown the final boss a kiss?

But I digress.

So what’s next for me? Well for starters, you won’t hear anything else about this game from me. Next on my list to play is Tales of Symphonia for the Wii. I’m very interested in seeing how a RPG plays on the Wii.

So until then huzzah and good night!

After penciling in my goal to finish this game now TWICE, getting sick, going on a mini-vacation, and my husband going out of town more often than planned, it looks like I may actually finish this game by the end of the month. According to the guide, I only have three more sidequests (not counting the Backyard, which I am foregoing at this time). Surely I can complete those this week and take on the final battle this weekend. If I get all of my writing assignments done before the kiddo’s bedtime, I should be able to pull this off.

At least, I’m praying I don’t postpone this goal to a later date. I’d like to start playing a new game as of May 1st and at least talk about something new. Not to mention, get new music in my head.

I played Phantom Hourglass while on the plane back from Seattle, and well, I haven’t really put it down. I thought I was nearly done when I found the Ghost Ship last night, silly me. In true Zelda fashion, that is really only the START of my journey. I should have known I couldn’t finish a Zelda game with the original sword. Also there is that whole thing about freeing the Ocean King. I hadn’t done that either, so I should have realized that saving Tetra wasn’t ever really my goal.

So my conundrum is this. I’m almost done with Lost Odyssey. In all honesty, I could finish it tonight. I know where the final boss is and I have the equipment to face him. I just have a few more areas to explore, which I’m sure have sidequests. My most recent goal with Lost Odyssey is to finish it by the end of April, and I don’t have much of April left.

But, but, but…

I’m having so much fun with Phantom Hourglass that I don’t want to put it aside for Lost Odyssey. Damn that Link with his cel-shaded goodness, puzzles, and addictive mini-games. Curse you forever!

Or maybe just after I finish Phantom Hourglass…

I’m starting down that road I always go down and never recover from. I’m thinking of stopping one game so I can play another. I fully intend to finish that first game someday, but right now I’m feeling the need to play something else.

I do this all the time. And the sad thing is, I rarely go back and finish the first game. I always mean to. But I keep putting it off for other games. And then it gets to the point when I know I’ll have to start over just so I can remember how to play. That’s when all motivation to finish it shoots out the window.

So what am I thinking about pausing for another adventure? Final Fantasy VII. I can’t seem to find the motivation to play it. I think that will change when I finish Lost Odyssey — which please God please happen in the next twenty hours — but lately I’ve been thinking about picking up Final Fantasy X. I don’t know if it’s the allure of the better graphics, different turn-based system, or the fact that seeing Tidus in Dissidia has made me long for the annoying blonde emo. (I guess that means I’ll be trading out one spikey haired blonde emo for another?)

I’m trying to resist. I’m at least postponing the decision until I see the end credits roll in Lost Odyssey.

I must be strong. I must be strong. I must finish what I start. I must finish what I start.

I had planned to have the game finished by the end of March, but at the rate I’m going, I won’t have it done by April. I’m flying through Lost Odyssey, but FFVII is dragging along. As much as I love the story, love learning little nuances about the characters and the like, the gameplay makes me dread playing it at time.

I don’t mean the turn-based play. If that was true, I’d hate Lost Odyssey just as much.

It’s how archaic the game is. I’m having so much difficulty in manipulating Cloud without the analog stick. I hate having to press the X button to make him move faster than a snail. I get him stuck sometimes, because the graphics are so pixelated I can’t perceive textures or the depth of objects. And when I get him stuck, I’ll get attacked. Repeatedly. If I step back to try to take in my surroundings, I’ll get attacked at the first step Cloud makes. I find myself holding my breath to see if I can even walk across the hallway without stepping into a battle.

My experience last night frustrated me so much that I was cussing out Cloud and I wanted to chuck my controller into the TV for the first time since Super Mario Bros. 3. I’m at Shinra Manor, and I want to get the basement key to unlock Vincent. But I have to find all of the codes. That takes me about an hour thanks to Cloud not being able to walk down a hallway and running into several fights and I have to count paces after finding a creaky floorboard to find the third combination number. If I got attacked while counting paces, I had to start over. I have the code, but I feel like I should go save. Where’s a save point? Oh, there isn’t one. I have to leave the town to save in the open world. I leave, save, head back, and start the funhouse of battles again. Oh and opening the safe is a not-fun mini-game. I lost count of how many times I tried to open the safe. When I finally did it, a lovely boss pops out of the safe. Oh goody.

I thought I was doing well, but then he killed Aerith. Tifa followed close after. I couldn’t even flip through my inventory fast enough to find a Phoenix Down before Cloud was capped in one swing. I thought about trying again, but then I remember where I saved, so I’d have to run through the Manor again, get Cloud stuck on something again, and flip through that safe combination mini-game again. I didn’t have the energy. Game was turned off and herbal tea was brewed.

I really think that if I had played this game back when it came out, I would feel differently. The d-pad wouldn’t bother me, because that’s all we had back then. I would have thought the graphics were ahead of their time. The textures and pixelation wouldn’t make manipulation that tricky for me. I knew going into this game that it was archaic and I might have difficulty with it, but I didn’t count on the level of frustration.

I’m not going to quit, but I need to obtain a fresh new level of patience and understanding that this game will take me longer to complete than possibly any other game I’ve played.

I may burn a figure of Cloud in effigy when I’m finished, though.

For an overly serious RPG protagonist with emo tendencies, Cloud can be talked into doing crazy things. I personally love it. I was afraid that this game would be incredibly serious compared to Crisis Core, since it’s about Cloud’s revenge, AVALANCHE’s agenda, and Sephiroth’s insanity (I liked him so much more when he wasn’t a nutjob). Advent Children compounded my fears. I’ve never seen the CGI movie, but every screenshot I’ve seen of Cloud is so darn serious and sad. I was sure FF7 would be serious, depressing, and all-around downer. (Yes, I know Aerith dies, but that doesn’t mean the game has to be a downer.)

But the developers came through just for me and forced Cloud to do some zany things. The cross-dressing was a nice start, but I liked the Shinra parade at Junon Harbor better. When Cloud taught the infantrymen how to twirl the rifle behind their backs — to the tune of Victory Fanfare, no less — and the soldiers clapped and squealed, “Oooooh,” I was beside myself in laughter.  Seeing Red XIII in human garb, dancing on the upper boat deck was pretty hilarious too.

So what else can we make Cloud do? I can’t wait!

I’m learning why it’s called “Lost Odyssey,” other than the fact it’s about Kaim recovering a thousand years of memories. The story is about as long as The Odyssey, and it has the cut-scenes to prove it.

I played Lost Odyssey for a few hours last night although it was more like I watched Lost Odyssey for a few hours last night. I think I found four memories, which took about forty-five minutes to watch, and then there was a funeral cut-scene that lasted an hour. I know it lasted an hour because I saved before I started the scene and I saved immediately afterwards and the game clock is right there. The rest of the time I was running around the city, solving little sidequests, upgrading weapons, and I had one boss fight. No, wait, two. I forgot that there was a “meanwhile, in Uhra” cut where I had to play as the very shiny prince and he had to fight mud golems with his very shiny sword. (The costuming gives me much joy and mockery, especially Kaim’s midriff armor. He looks good in it, but it’s still a point of hilarity.)

Thankfully, I absolutely love the story and I’m a fan of cut-scenes. Although, at times, particularly when I find a cluster of Kaim’s memories, I feel like this game would be a better book than a game. Although, I would be robbed from the gorgeous graphics and the ability to mock the outfits. Reading about someone’s dress isn’t nearly the same as actively seeing it.

To give you an idea how many cut-scenes there are, I’ve played the game for over 11 hours, and the guide says I’m almost done with the first disc. (I’m going to write about the guide, so don’t mock me too harshly.)  I thought that Kingdom Hearts 2 had the most cut-scenes of any game I’ve played, but Lost Odyssey has kicked it to the back seat.

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.

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.

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?