Enslaved

Here is the part where I would have talked about Enslaved. Heck, I may have even completed it by now. One slight problem occurred, though...

...my 360 is no more. It has ceased to be. Kicked the bucket. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. It is an Ex-Xbox.

This is the third 360 that has failed on me since I bought my first one in 2006. Despite it being my primary console by some margin, I haven't had a great deal of luck with them. First one RROD'd, second one had hanging problems and the one that's just gone now has a one red light problem that requires repairs (E73; something to do with Ethernet chip, apparently). Any repairs/replacement will have to wait for now. A bit of a bummer, as most the games I own and haven't played/completed are for the 360. On the plus side, I have plenty to fall back on.

On the subject of Enslaved, I will get back to it as soon as I have a working 360 and I've got nothing else going on. It's a case of 'when', not 'if'.

Final Fantasy V

After the incident, I decided to move onto a random FF game. I love the FF series, but there's just one thing...I've never actually completed one. I've came very close with FFVII. I also got pretty far with FFVI. In fact, the only JPRG I've completed to-date is Chrono Cross. Considering how much I enjoy JRPGs, it's a little odd that I haven't completed most of them. I decided it was time to try and set that right.

Anyway, using the Backloggery's 'fortune cookie' feature, I decided to play the first FF game that appeared. It turned out to be Final Fantasy V. It's a game I played briefly when I bought it, but I never really got that far. The version I'm playing is from the European version of Final Fantasy Anthology that came out for the Playstation (the other game in the case is IV, not VI like the North American version. That was released seperately in Europe). No changes were made to the SNES version, as far as I know (apart from some FMV).

From what I've played so far, it looks like I'll be able to see it off until the end. There was a 'Captain Planet' moment at the end of the first dungeon which made me laugh, but the story has gone in an interesting direction since then. As for the gameplay, I'm really digging the Job system. After levelling up with a specific job, characters learn abilities that can even be used with other jobs. For example, I have a Monk who can cast time magic and a Ninja who can cast white magic. I can see it allowing for some interesting combinations. I've had a pretty easy time with the bosses so far (pretty sure I'm a bit overlevelled), but the last two battles were close. I'm expecting some stiff opposition soon...

I might post some story details next week. Despite the age of the game, I will still hide any spoilery stuff.

...and if my PS3 blows up...god knows what I'll do next week...