Cecil and Boromir: The link between FF4 and LotR

Its pretty excusable for Final Fantasy 4's story to be a bit sparse on detail. The limited ability to even spell White Dragon better than Wtdrgn shows us all that. The one thing many people ask is how could Cecil have been a Dark Knight yet still able to become a paladin later.

For better explanation I say look to Lord of the Rings. Boromir is told by his father that to save his kingdom they must get and bring back the weapon of the enemy. One of the most evil powers in the world is to be gotten by Boromir and be used by him for good.

In FF4 we learn that Cecil's "adoptive" father was the King of Baron. Its widely known the King changed and became obsessed with getting crystals. It was during this time that Cecil became leader of the Red Wings as a Dark Knight.



I posit the assumption that what happened to Boromir happened to Cecil. With no real proof, I say the King told Cecil that to protect the kingdom he would have to use the powers of the enemy. He did it out of duty.



That is how you get a mopey dark knight that feels bad about killing. We get a dark knight that almost goes insane with releasing a bomb on a village. We get a Dark Knight that can turn into a Paladin with no relapses into his former ways. We also get Rosa talking about the kindness of Cecil in past tense.

Would Boromir have been as redeemed? Probably not, but then again putting on black armor isn't nearly as tough as carrying a ring with almost limitless power.

Now Playing: Final Fantasy 13, Metroid II

I'll get the Metroid stuff through first, as its rather short. I am very impressed with the Samus sprite for a Gameboy game. It moves pretty fluidly and actually has nice detail. My problem with the game is its much less linear and thought out I think compared to the first one. In the first one you were limited in exploration only by what abilities you found. In part 2 they have lava pools that do not disappear until you've done the objectives of that area. It is widely known that Metroid doesn't sell well in Japan, that's why they let non-nintendo companies make their Metroid games. I can only come to the conclusion was that the changes made were in an effort to appeal to Japanese gamers. The Japanese Gamer has never valued much freedom and non-linearity in a game. That is why the American RPG's never do too well over there. This is finally changing... but Metroid 2 is 20ish years old. Anyway. It makes it seem like a lot less daunting.

I am sure I will do many posts about Final Fantasy 13.

I am past my "Final Fantasy games should be like this" phase, I got past it around Final Fantasy 10. I never took FF12 as a part of the series so I never had hopes it would establish a new mark in the series. So 13 definitely feels like a continuation of the 8/10 mechanics, presentation and style. What surprised me though is how it actually does take a few things from 12. The fighting seems like a evolution of what 12 was, and the story has a lot of FF12's political stylings. Does it feel like a Final Fantasy? That depends on what you mean by Final Fantasy. If you want the most cutting edge, top of the line, full budgeted, amazing looking and amazing playing JRPG, then yes, Final Fantasy 13 is "Final Fantasy" in that regard. If you grew up on 7-10, then I'm sure you'll like it. If you're still dying for another 4, 6, or 9 then you will be disappointed. Otherwise, just come at it with an open mind, name it something else like "Fabula Nova Crystallus" and try and enjoy it for what it is. Its definitely not half assed, it feels like they went the extra mile on the menus and visuals.

My Favorite NES Games: Facebook posts expanded

Before you get all huffy and puffy about me not having a certain game or franchise on the list, remember a few things. These were my favorite games while I had the NES as my main gaming machine.

Number 5: Excite Bike and why no Ninja Gaiden

I loved Excite Bike. You could put the game in and be playing in seconds. You had to write down your best times because there was no real way to save your times, but I did not care really. Then, when no one was around to play with you, you could create your own track. Its like Little Big Planet before there was Little Big Planet. Great stuff.

Ninja Gaiden is not on here because of something we call "The 5 O'clock News". Once we all got home from school, we had only a little amount of time to play before the news came on. Just about enough time for us to get to the snow level or the mines level of Ninja Gaiden and then have to turn off the game. No save feature and no way to skip levels that we already mastered...

Number 4: Mike Tyson's Punch Out and "I thought you loved Metroid"

Punch Out was the game the teens and adults whipped out once the kids got their fill of Mario. In a circle they would play round after round, switching off the controller in between fights, and hollering out the ways to beat certain fighters as they went. It was good times. F' Mr. Dream. How come the white man is always trying to bring the black man down?

I do love Metroid. Metroid though was always intimidating for me as a kid. I only saw fragments of it while at people's houses, and it seemed that if Metroid was in the box, THEY were playing it... not me. I only got to play it at night... in the dark. Do you know how earie metroid music is and how lonely that game feels at night? Anyway, I only recently played through it the "old school" way. While its a favorite now... it wasn't back in the day.

Number 3: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 and Why is there no Castlevania?

The first ninja turtle game was absolute trash. I was just the correct age for the Ninja Turtle craze when it hit. I saw the movies, I had the figures, I watched the cartoons like they were oxygen. I had played the Arcade game at Walmart every time I went. When I found there was a Ninja Turtle game and rented it as one of the first games I ever rented, my mind did somersaults trying to justify what I was seeing. "Maybe when I go to a burning building it will change to the game I know" and such stupid things, but it was the only way I could keep my sanity at the disappointment that was Turtles 1. Turtles II fixed all of that once I had come to grips with Turtles 1 just being horrible. I played that game non-stop for years.

Castlevania is a favorite series of mine. I only ever had part one, and it was always part 2 that I wanted. I barrowed part 3 for a while from a friend, but still it was not part 2. I know now that part 2 wasn't particularly well liked, but it seemed like the best idea ever to me. Symphony of the Night was probably the closest thing to what I had in my head as a kid as to what Castlevania 2 would be. Anyways, I was never happy with part 1 because it only reminded me I did not have part 3. So no Castlevania in the top 5.

Number 2: Dragon Warrior and No Final Fantasy.

Dragon Warrior is like the Chicken and the Egg with me. There was an event that really truly did change my life. Before then I hardly read, I couldn't stand being at school, and I certainly didn't care about my schoolwork. That's when I found Dragon Warrior and King Arthur. King Arthur was in a set of encyclopedias and I liked it so much my teach came to my home and gave me my own King Arthur book(I still have it). Dragon Warrior was owned by a couple of people and I had played it a bit before(I thought Chain Mail was mail you could send to the princess from other towns). I got it from my friend Roger when he got it for free when he subscribed to Nintendo Power magazine. All the posters and maps, all the artwork inside the book, it was amazing. I needed all that stuff because the game looked horrible lol. My first RPG I ever beat, I loved that game.

My first Final Fantasy was Final Fantasy 2(4) for the SNES. We have this location in my town called "old walmart" where the Walmart used to be. One of the last thing I got from Old Walmart was Final Fantasy. For some reason they had a very large display of unopened boxes of old NES games. My sister Christy bought it for me, and by then I knew exactly what it was. The game rocks. I still have it in very good condition. But by then the SNES was out so its not on my list because the NES's time had passed by then.

Number 1 Mario 3 and Where the hell is Zelda

I played Mario 3 to death. I actually got 2 and 3 at the same time, and 2 hardly got played. I loaned it out to Eric, who promptly dropped it in the mud. 3, however, got babied. I swear there were a couple of years there where I played Mario 3 at least once a day. The controls are spot on, the graphics are top notch(Mario did a freakin' flip when he had a star), and its every bit as fun as it used to be.

Zelda is not on my list even though I played much of Zelda when I was younger. I feel like a poser if I claim I liked Zelda a ton when I was younger because EVERYONE that claims to be a geek today uses Zelda as their name drop. Which is totally fine, but I'm not going to lie, I was a Dragon Warrior fan. That was my Zelda, I always wished Zelda was more like Dragon Warrior. I'm just being honest. Now, next generation, Link to the Past. I could draw that world and every dungeon in my sleep. I could almost get a Link to the Past tattoo and not feel like a poser. I'd get one of the boy on the stump playing his flute stuck in dark world.

So, that's my 5 favorite NES games during the NES era. Most of the things I listed after my favorites would have been in a top 10 and certainly in a top 20. But I chose 5 because there are 5 days in a week and this was on Facebook first.

Post Mortem: Soul Nomad and the World Eaters

Soul Nomad appeared soon after I got around to playing Final Fantasy 12.

Final Fantasy 12 is sort of like a single player MMO. I put well over 100 hours on that game and when it was done, I was ready for a change of pace. I had purchased Phantom Brave a long time before and finally I decided I wanted to try it. It was the total opposite of FF12. Tactical combat. Cutesy characters. A story that did not take itself seriously. I put about 30 hours onto that game in well under a week. I loved every bit of it and would not have minded 30 more hours.

Anyways, I am not typically your cutesy game playing regular. I love hard politics, I love fatal drama, and I especially love mysterious badasses kicking seemingly impossible to kick ass.

I read about Soul Nomad and thought it sounded incredible. NIS somehow knew what I was thinking when I went looking for a new game. The soul of a evil God stuck inside me. The ability to destroy anything at any time... with the consequence of losing my own soul. That kind of stuff is right up my alley.

After beating the game, I have to say I enjoyed the game even more than Phantom Brave. I liked the story more, I liked the combat about 100 times more, and the characters were numerous and enjoyable as well. If pressed for negatives, I liked a bit more control on my character leveling in Phantom Brave. Also I think Phantom Brave had better music. Tenpei is quickly becoming my new favorite music maker though, if Phantom Brave was a 9 on the music front, then Soul Nomad was an 8.

The story definitely lived up to what I was expecting. I wasn't expecting Xenogears here, but what I got was a bit more in depth than Phantom Brave. It had all the charm with a bit less cute. The tale of Gods, demons, and mortals intertwined a glimpse at a time and ended up with a nice grand and satisfying tale.

The combat was fun and unique. It was a little bit of Ogre Battle(the squad based system) and La Pucelle. You moved your group on a grid, but when you fought it went to a sort of side scrolling combat field. Different combinations of classes and characters bring you different and powerful skills. Also, every class has a different attack style depending on where you arrange them in their squad. Put them up close they may slash with a sword, put them in the back and they may call down lightning. I just wish arranging rooms and upgrading characters was a bit more user controlled and fun.

The characters were great. There are several memorable characters in this game, including the scatter brained half cow half human co-star Danette. Also the southern sounding monk named Levin is my favorite "monk" type character since Sabin from Final Fantasy 6. Its the evil god Gig that steals the show for sure though. I have never heard so much profanity outside of Grand Theft Auto, but he's not just foul mouthed, he's funny.

The ending was pretty good and wrapped up things. I got the Danette ending for those that know what that means. Nippon Ichi endings are not going to win any awards, those are for Final Fantasy Endings. Even my most disliked Final Fantasy games had top rated endings. Nippon Ichi's endings are much like the stories told in their games. They are adequate and you don't feel cheated, in fact they tend to make sure nothing is left out in their endings. You're just not going to see a 30 minute CGI movie.

Would I play it again? The answer is yes. Once you beat it, you can play it again with a twist... you can embrace and become evil. That lends it some replay value and adds a few bonus fights with cameos from characters from other games made by them(mostly Disgaea, but Phantom Brave as well).

I'd give the game an 8.5 out of 10. Only losing points on the randomness of character advancement, the lack of challenge to 90% of the fights, and the useless room leveling mechanic.

I'll rate its story after I have time to think about where it fits on the list I think is most important for an RPG.

Episode 7 Season 1 Finale: Minecraft: The Bay

Ok. Today is the day.

If you remember from the first episode I saw the mountain and made a plan for the cave area. The gathering of wood was because I decided to NOT make it from stone. The exploration that nearly killed me was because I was scouting the housing location. The underground river area was refined so I could get to the back of the mountain easier. So here we go, lets define the area again:



So I realize now I never showed the raw cave really before. The cave was already in very good shape, there were a couple of holes, but I filled those in so I would not hurt my ankle walking through. On the left of the picture you can see the "back" area that I made in Episode 6 and how it connects.



First I decided to take advantage of the crater the exploding green monster made way back in episode 2. I decided to make an open area porch here. Well... the real reason is because monsters were able to get up in this area, I put a door here and constantly had skeletons shooting arrows at me, and I'm sure the green monsters could explode here and hurt my main home, so I sort of made a barrier by having an outside(repairable) porch here to block their way.



I next started hollowing out and filling in the back area here with wooden panels. In the interest in keeping the front more natural looking, I did not do the entire front area in wood panel. I went down to the front and thought about what I was going to do. Then I remembered the Grand Canyon, and their Sky Bridge thing they have there. So I did this:



I know that this looks crazy bad from the ground. Glass is not totally transparent in this game so it makes the front disturbing, but I don't mind it as much because in my mind it would look great in real life haha. Anyway, this is what it looks like down the steps:



The floor is made of glass, so from the safety of Fort Lookout, you can look all along the bay and watch the sun come up and observe all around. I love this room, it is very cool to stand in.



I finished my "home" and I am happy with how neat it is. It is in a great location where I do not have to worry about monsters. It has plenty of room to move around in so I am not bored at night. Its easily accessible to me, and it has kick ass views of the surrounding area. I hope you enjoyed reading my first Season, and I hope it was not too boring. Season 2 is already in the works, but it will be a while, so I will switch back to talking about other games for a while.



Season 2 coming soon: The River.

Episode 6 Minecraft: The Bay

Minecraft has lots of mining in it. I mine many times though you do not see it here really. All my torches, my refining of steel, and my cooking of ham requires coal in order for it all to work. To tell the truth I have not mined very far into the ground, and really the only amazing thing I've found under there is that underground river. So here are some pictures of my trip to the mine I call "The Gravel Pit". This is the mine that is past the waterfall bridge that has gotten me most of my coal. Its full of gravel everywhere. The last of the 3 pics in this one picture is some coal beside some iron ore.



As you can see in these pictures, I have a furnace. You can burn many things in the furnace. Wood of all types work, you can burn most anything made of wood. Coal is the best bang for your buck really, it burns much longer. If you put iron ore in the furnace with some coal, you get steel. With steel you can make a full suit of steel armor.



Ok, so now back to the bulding. The back of my mountain opens up to Cyclops mountain as you can see in the picture. Where the cave opens in the rear the land forms a nice little table. It is here that I start framing the floor. I have some decisions to make. The view, to tell you the truth, behind the mountain is not great. Its just a fragmented shell compared to the beautiful front facing the bay.



So I've decided to make a full wooden structure here. Wooden floors, wooden walls, and a wooden wrap around porch. The far end that you see with the flowers will stay sort of natural. There's a nice tree there with the flowers and I like the look out that side. In this next picture you can see the opening that leads to the bay, just a tiny bit there in the background.



While working on the porch, I slip and fall. I actually land in a hole that is hard to get out, when suddenly I hear a hiss. Yes, a hiss just like the one when I was on the mountain all those days ago. I turn around to see THIS



Some kind of cactus monster that hisses and runs like a mad man strait to me. It explodes and I barely make it out with my life. Another crater was made, and I was tossed several feet away from the explosion. I am told they call them "creepers". I think that's far too nice a name. I've killed zombies on fire, but these things could blow up my entire house... I'm scared of these guys.

This is the fruits of my labor, the back of what I'm unofficially calling Fort Lookout.

Episode 5 Minecraft: The Bay

Ok. So I like stone structures, they show strength. They last a long time. Its classic. Minecraft, however, has an abundance in stone. An abundance of ugly ass stone. If you want to show you got class, you use wood. Wood is harder to get, and the components cost lots of wood. So I have to go out and find me a forest. On the opposite side of the hollow mountains is this nice plain with trees. You can see how the river from the bay bends off into the distance.



At first I went about it a silly way. I cut down the smaller trees I could reach. When the leaves or wood got too high up, I built an earthen ramp to reach it. This took forever and dulled my tools. It took so long that I spent the night on top of a platform one night... it was not fun. So I knew there had to be a better way. While I sat there, I had a brainstorming session. Finally it hit me. At daylight I hopped down and over to my shelter to get things in order.



As I chop downward the ladder pieces fall with the wood and I get them back very easily. Walking around up in the trees is a bit dangerous though, I decide to bring a lunch next time so help me out with getting hurt from being careless and falling. I aim for the large, massive trees that grow near the mountains. The wood from one of these trees easily equals that of 4 or 5 regular trees. While doing this, I realize a way to clear the leaves after I get all the wood out.



Unfortunately a sheep wondered too close to a burning pile of leaves. I tried to get some water, but by the time I had gotten back, the sheep was ashes. I would not feel so bad if it didn't burn the wool off before it dies.



With the wood that I now had, I decide that I need an easy way to get from my shelter to my soon to be home. I remember that the underground river cave actually opens up at the top to near the upper cave. I mine some stone from the mine near my shelter, and I go about organizing the cave. I add steps and I close in holes so that monsters can no longer hide. A few torches and I'm good to go.



The river was wild and went nowhere really. It made alot of noise but that was about it. I dam the river upstream and carve out the pool below so that the water is calm. It is a good source of fresh water now, and with the steps and wood platforms I can travel fast to the front or back of the mountain.

I had some left over wood, and a new found knowledge of water manipulation. I run down the coast to the waterfall just beyond the bay, near the cave I found with the coal. I dam the waterfall and I dredge the bottom of the river so that the water flows easily and reaches the bay with little effort. Next I construct a bridge so that I can easily cross.



The Bay is taking shape and I am able to move around much better than before. I am ready to start constructing my home, fort, lookout tower, light house, or whatever you want to call it. The conclusion to season one is near. Next, the 2 part episode detailing my building.