Shit
Woohoo!
Went to the local Cheap-ass Book/DVD/CD/Game store and picked up some nice games yesterday. Shadow Hearts 2 for only 1980 Yen, including a short guidebook, and Shadow Hearts 3 for 2980 Yen which is also fairly cheap.
There has to be a reason why this post is titled 'shit', though, hasn't there?
Yes, and it is: My PS2 finally seems to have given the ghost.
After trying to watch several rented (ie. Severely Damaged) DVD's and messing up most of the movies my PS2 decided that it was getting too old for this, and now it won't read my games at all anymore either.
Yeah, that's great quality there, Sony.
Why are my fucking 14 year old SNES and GB still working, when my 6 year old PS2 isn't, and my PSX has been freezing up a lot as well lately (Before I left to Japan).
Dammit, I have a bloody NES that still works....uh....reasonably well.
At least it plays games.
So I guess I'm going to have to buy another one, cos wouldn't you know it, FFXII was JUST getting interesting (there's irony for ya) with me getting my first Summon and the story finally starting to go somewhere (after only 15 hours!) so I can't really wait until the PS3 hits stores, can I. No, I can't.
I'll try and pick one up cheap somewhere in the course of this week (I hope), or else I'll just steal one. There are these things that the Japanese just expect foreigners to do, don't ya know.
As a pastime though, I decided to fire up Paper Mario RPG yesterday, and it's great fun, as I had expected. It doesn't need 15 hours to become good, it's immediate fun from the beginning, UNLIKE SOME OTHER GAMES. Which shall remain nameless.
As a further Poke in the eye from God, the Silent Hill Movie has been released anywhere but here in Japan it seems, and it turns out to be real good actually (for the fans at least). Apparently the director has stayed VERY close to the games in terms of looks and sound, which is ALL I want from this movie anyway, so I know I'm going to love it already.
Which makes waiting until summer even harder, bunch of assholes.
Bah!
*Update since I wrote this, which was 2 days ago, but the bloody computer wouldn't update my blog*
Bought myself a new PS2, cos the other one was crap.
I am now the proud owner of one of those spiffy New Model PS2's, Satin Silver no less, and it actually plays my games, AND severely scratched and damaged rental DVD's without any trouble.
Damn my old Black Box which is, like, 15 TIMES BIGGER (you can use it to launch rockets) and yet doesn't do what it's supposed to.
Really, I had no idea the new Model was SO small and compact.
I put it on the old one, and it was a good thing the colors were different otherwise I might not have found it back anymore. Damn yo, is it ever seXAY!
SO, this means that the time has finally come to...
do away...with my old PS2. I'm not sure if I'm going to sell this new model once the PS3 hits stores, since it's so damn HOT, and I read the PS3's backwards compatibility might be a bit restricted, like the XBox 360, so I'll probably hold onto it, but my old one is DEFINITELY going to bite the dust, in several very violent ways.
I'm still pondering over what I'm going to do to it, but I'm seriously considering breaking my fist on it. And I'm fairly certain there will be crowbars involved somewhere....
OMGMMOFFRPG
You know what, I'm starting to like Final Fantasy XII less and less.
If you recall my post from some weeks ago I was not very hyped about it in the first place, but then I read a lot of positive reviews, and I was getting kinda anxious to buy it, and now that I own it, I'm slowly starting to shift back to where I was in the first place.
It's really too MMORPG-ish for my liking. Or at least, it's too much like FFXI for my liking. It seems all you're doing is walking across huge plains defeating endless enemies with a semi-active combat system, and occasionally you'll get a request to kill some monster that's WAY too powerful for you.
Dungeons and Open Areas offer NOTHING interesting whatsoever so far, just walking from point A to B, no puzzles, no gimmicks, NOTHING, just very pretty graphics.
Environments are HUGE, bigger than anything in the FF Universe so far, which makes it even more painful that there's nothing substantial to see or do.
Well, there's pretty graphics, but the design is so boring that it doesn't matter anyway.
Say what you want about Tetsuya Nomura, but at least he made stuff interesting.
And that's another thing, Final Fantasy has recently become famous for its abundant use of very pretty FMV, and this title definitely manages to top even the mighty FFX in terms of pretty FMV, but it just seems like they put in a lot of clips because they thought people expect it from FF nowadays.
FMV is extremely abundant once again, but more often than not, it's just people talking or walking around, which makes you wonder, why didn't they just do this in real-time?
Perhaps the reason is that the story is not exactly interesting or exciting in any way either. Like I said, if you like dark and serious stories a la FF Tactics or Vagrant Story, this'll be your cup of tea, but if, like me, you've grown to love the kind of New Age-y stories dealing with life and energy and stuff like that, and especially if you've grown fond of the series charming humor, this game is extremely disappointing.
In fact, they should've called this game Vagrant Story 2, because EVERYTHING points towards it. Same character design, Same composer (Hitoshi 'boring' Sakimoto), similar Battle System, samish story, only the latter two are even less interesting than in Vagrant Story.
There is no comic relief WHATSOEVER, no funny or likeable characters, just people being all moody and serious all the time. It used to be that at least the story would keep me going, but I'm not interested by this one at all.
In fact, I wouldn't even know what it's about, it's just some run-of-the-mill War Story of two huge feuding countries with some tiny-ass country stuck in the middle, lots of politics and backstabbery of course and non-stop yawning as far as I'm concerned.
I keep waiting desperately for this game to pick up and overwhelm me with its true greatness, but even after 11 hours or so, this still hasn't happened. I'm going to persist though, cos I'll be damned if I let an FF game get the best of me, but so far I don't feel like replaying it at all.
And that's another thing, I don't know about you, but when I play a really great game, I tend to want to start over again, before I've even finished it.
Along the way you're bound to find out lots of cool and new stuff, and you'll go "Hey, I shoulda known that from the beginning, then I could've done this or that", and sometimes I do. This, for me, is a sign of a great game, and I still have that feeling with good games, but FFXII so far has done nothing for me in that respect.
I'll keep you posted on any happenings, but so far, this is looking like one of the least interesting FF's since....well....ever.
Tell me why it is so goddamn expensive again?
New Investments
Update? What? Here?
HERE!?
YES! Finally, your prayers have been answered.
Or in other words, I finally got to spend some money yesterday, which had just been burning in my pockets, itching to be spent on GAMES and related articles.
Well, first of all, I was going to need a TV of course, which I have now, but immediately afterwards I went out to celebrate my new aqcuirement by buying even more stuff! Woohoo!
So, what did I get?:
- Rockman X8 Guide (500 Yen)
- Rockman EXE 5 Guide (550 Yen)
- Paper Mario RPG Story (I forget, it's become too complicated) 2 (3200 Yen)
- Final Fantasy *gasp* XII for 7200 *fucking* Yen.
GODDAMN FFXII is expensive. Holy Hell. And this one was cheaper because I got a used one from Book Off, the original price is, like, 8500 Yen or something. INSANE!
Of course FFXII is the only game I've spent time with so far, and it's a lot more enjoyable than I would've expected so far. It's really quite different from previous FF's though, which might not suite everyone's taste, but it might also serve to attract other people.
The promotional blurb for the game said something like "for those who think the last couple of FF games were so-so", which is a hell of a way to promote a game in such a long-running series.
But the fact is right there that this game is wildly different from other FF's, and that's definitely going to put some people off, but like I said before, Square is talented and experienced enough to make a great game out of it anyway, even if it doesn't feel like Final Fantasy.
It's really very much like playing an MMORPG, without the MMO part.
So.
Uh.
I guess it's like playing an RPG :S
But seriously, in terms of mechanics and gameplay it's very much like what you'd expect from an MMORPG, it's just not online, which means you only get to talk to Artificial Intelligence controlled characters who keep saying the same thing, which is actually considerably less annoying than Real Stupidity controlled humans.
The graphics look much better than pictures can show (which seems to be the case with every game nowadays. Maybe we just need better camera's) and the movies, as usual, are astounding. And plentiful.
By far the most enjoyable part, as with most FF games, is the ability system, this time presented in the shape of the License Board.
In the beginning of the game you only have a handful of licenses, but by defeating enemies you will gain License Points (LP), allowing you to open up more space on the board, which in turn grants access to new skills and new equipment.
Most skills and equipment have to be bought separately before you can use them though, so new abilities don't come easy.
So far though, levelling up and earning money seems to be easier than most reviews make it out to be. Enemies never drop money, but they will often drop items which can be sold for a decent price. Kill several enemies of the same kind, and you will form chains, and the higher the chain gets, the more likely an enemy is to drop something, and the more rare the item will be.
It's a good system, and since combat is easy and straightforward and most of all NOT RANDOM, I haven't experienced any trouble or irritation yet.
The only problem is that, like in MMORPG's, there will also be enemies walking around that are WAY out of your league, from the very start of the game, which is kinda stupid if you ask me.
As for the story, we're getting one of those stories where 56 different countries seem to be at war with each other and I'm sure there's going to be lots of back-stabbery and hard-to-remember names. There's a reason this world was based on the Final Fantasy Tactics series.
The story starts out great though, full of drama and action, and people are dropping like flies in the first hour or so, but then you get control of Vaan, the Hero, and the pace starts slowing down considerably, which I guess is good for a breather.
I've spent most of my time so far doing small quests. The game uses a Clan Quest system like found in, again, most MMORPG's, and it's very enjoyable.
I can definitely see this going somewhere, but I'm not expecting it to top Final Fantasy X, by a
long shot.
