Well, I’ve done it. I’ve opened the can of worms that is Final Fantasy.

I remember seeing the first preview for what ended up being Final Fantasy XV. The guy I was dating at the time showed me the very first trailer that came out, oh, was it two years ago? One year ago? I have no conception of time.

ANYWAY. 

As I was watching it, I was thinking to myself, wow this movie doesn’t really make any sense. Until BAM. The trailer delves into gameplay and I realize those aren’t real people.

Those . . . Those are video game characters. This is a video game.

I just HAD to get into this. I knew the Final Fantasy franchise always prided itself on its stellar graphics, offering crude-but-hey-they’re-there facial features in the Playstation-age of gaming while most games just had block-heads that coincidentally talked.

Harry, is that you?

So I decided to start with the arguably “best game” of the series, Final Fantasy VII. The graphics were a little hard to adjust to after playing nothing but Playstation 3 games for a while, but I could appreciate how good the graphics were for its time. What really captivates me is a good, solid storyline to keep me interested.

And, boy, did Final Fantasy VII deliver.

Unfortunately, I did get the whole plot twist at the end of disc two spoiled at some point. (Although, with a game that’s nearly 20 years old, is it really a spoiler? Eh.) I really appreciated the progression of the game. Sometimes, I feel that games have too many side quests that distract from the main storyline (Looking at you, Assassins Creed) but I felt this game had just enough extra side quests to keep me busy, but not enough to deter from the larger problem at hand – Sephiroth’s god-complex. (Although at some point, when I was trying to get the golden chocobo so I could have the legendary Knights of the Round materia, I thought to myself the end of the world is nigh, and here I am, raising giant chickens)

I loved the whole pre-Mewtwo complex of Sephiroth. I loved his agenda, and although (Spoilers?) he kind of killed of one of my favorite characters in the game, I couldn’t help but appreciate the depth of the character, his connections with Jenova and Cloud, him going mad trying to find his purpose. I love antagonists that are deeper than just evil, and while some of my friends argued that Sephiroth’s true mission gets buried in madness, I think that’s part of what drew me so much to the character.

We will ignore the fact that he wasn’t a particularly hard boss and I destroyed Safer Sephiroth in two hits, as horrible as I am at these things.

Another thing I really enjoyed about this game was the whole turn-based RPG aspect of it. I was always a fan of Pokemon, but usually tuckered out with the defeat of Lance (or whoever the final boss was) because after that, the game fell monotonous and Ash never caught them all, so why should I?

Anyway, I digress.

Next in my Final Fantasy adventure is Final Fantasy X, a game that I’ve really been wanting to get into because of my views as an atheist. Friends of mine have always squabbled over which game is better, and I’d love to be able to answer that question for myself.

As for the Pre-VII games? VI is definitely somewhere on my list, but I’ve heard the first five are extremely difficult, and in my opinion, if a game is too hard, it takes the fun out it. I play for storyline and enjoyment, not beating my controller against the wall and spending two weeks on one boss. Alas, that is another post for another time.

(And that is why I will probably never play  Dark Souls)

I will continue my Final Fantasy endeavors and post them regularly.

Also, could they have picked a more annoying voice actor for Tidus? Seriously, the voice acting in that game almost ruined it for me, but keeping in mind it was their first shot at voice acting, I try to let it slide.

Except some things can’t be forgiven, like whoever made this atrocity.

Wow remember when I made this thing for school and then never touched it again?

Blogging has always been in the back of my mind. “Yeah I SHOULD do that,” I’d tell myself as I started the fourth season of Bob’s Burgers in a row. But truth is, I didn’t really want to.

Until now.

Yes, I’ll be sticking with my “life as a gamer” focus, but I’ll probably delve into some more aspects of gaming. Or just whatever jumps into my little heart.

Oh, and can we appreciate the fact that I remembered my password for this on the first try? SCORE.

As I am closing out the final minutes of my night at my job as a NEWSPAPER REPORTER (Seriously, how cool is that?) I don’t really have anything . . . ready to post right now. I’ve got some ideas, but they will come in time.

Here’s to actually keeping up with and actually running my very own blog! yay!

Big Daddy, Big Daddy, Big Daddy!

With all the hype about Bioshock Infinite coming out (and my friends being completely obsessed with the Bioshock games), I decided to give Bioshock a shot. And I’m still giving it a shot, because it creeps me out and I can’t play for more than an hour at a time by myself.
And I don’t think I can reiterate enough how terrible I am at first-person shooters. Despite all of that, I’m actually really into this game.
Basically, you’re wandering around in this abandoned, underwater utopia that’s plagued by drug-addicted zombies, creepy, drug-dealing little girls and their giant, guardian machines that have drills for hands.

A Big Daddy and its Little Sister. Usually that drill goes right into my character’s face.

The thing is, you have to save the Little Sisters before you finish a level. But you have to defeat a Big Daddy to get to the Little Sister. And my already-pathetic aiming abilities decrease by about 40 percent when I see that giant robot with its drill hands running at me, so this game is taking some time.
I haven’t gotten very far into the first game, but I hope to finish it and expand more on the themes and story of the game. I don’t know much about the abandoned city of Rapture or its downfall, but I’m slowly obtaining more and more information on its history. So far I really like where this game is going.

It’s just a little creepy sometimes.

Out with the old . . . ?

I am probably the last person on Earth that should be complaining about this. But video games are just too easy nowadays.
I remember when I first played Assassin’s Creed II. There’s a scene where the main character is born, and the game tells you to push some buttons to move your baby-limbs and then IT GIVES YOU A TROPHY.
. . . for pushing some buttons and making the baby’s head move.
Now, let’s take a look at, say Zombies Ate My Neighbors. In a nutshell, you’re wandering around saving your neighbors and collecting supplies for future levels while battling a slew of different monsters that only get faster and harder to kill. That game is 48 levels of rage, anxiety and tears that you cannot save. So you die on level 47? Tough, back to level one with you. But you beat the game? You’d better put that on your freakin’ resume.
I guess my rant here is that today, beating a video game doesn’t mean as much as it used to. Nowadays I get a trophy for pushing square on command. But back in the days of the Super Nintendo, defeating the second castle in Super Mario World was something to cry tears of joy and call your friends about.
Nothing against new games, plenty of them are hard enough for me as it is. I guess I just kind of feel like the game feels sorry for me and just lets me win because it’s tired of putting up with my button-mashing incompetence. Kind of like when someone lets you win at something and you think you’re really good but then you go to play against someone else and you realize that they were just being nice to you and you actually suck. Old video games remind me that I’m actually terrible at video games while the new ones just give me a star sticker and boost my confidence.

Five minutes

This person beats Super Mario Bros. in 5 minutes, which astounds me because I never got past world 2.