Well, my foray into JRPGs continues, with my completion of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII yesterday. I logged about 15-17 hours in the game, by my own estimation, and I'm glad that the game was not any longer than it was.

In my last blog, commenter Icemael said about Crisis Core:

"I loved Crisis Core at first, but after 20 hours I realized that all I had been doing was press X and stopped playing. Seriously, the only gameplay element in Crisis Core is battling, and the battles consist of pressing X until all enemies are dead. Sure, there's magic and crap, but why would I bother to use that when it's completely unnecessary?"

While Icemael does simplify the combat a bit too much, but the basic tenets of what he's saying ring true by game's end. By then, Crisis Core runs out of new interesting monsters or gameplay elements and the combat slows to a complete monotonous grind. You'll run into the same enemies ad nauseum and use the same strategies over and over again. Because of this, I really wanted the game to end by this time--and it did--to the game's credit.

Because of the constant stream of combat that plagues the last chapter of the game, (partially my fault for getting lost and doing about an hour's worth of additional side content that did not need to be completed) Crisis Core made me miss the ability to pick and choose whether or not to enter into a combat situation. Instead, it seemed like every couple of seconds I would be drawn into another battle that I really, really did not want to fight.

Despite all my apparent bitching, I definitely did enjoy the totality of my time with Crisis Core. The ending was poignant, even for someone that has not touched Final Fantasy VII, and the remarkable growth of Zack Fair's character was an experience in and of itself. If you haven't played Crisis Core and have a PSP, definitely look into picking up a copy--should be a cheap $19.99 new.

The next game that I'll be playing for my foray into RPGs is The World Ends With You. Expect a blog detailing my experience with that game upon completion.

Off-Topic Randomness:

Another college semester has ended--my 2nd to last semester as an undergraduate--and I got all my grades back. Pretty pleased--a 3.94 GPA. Got an A- in my Journalism Reporting class, due to my apparent inability to correct Associated Press Style issues. It's tricky as hell, and I figured it would blow my chance to get a 4.0. (Something I've never done and would have liked to do.)

But, hey, the class I got an A- from I probably learnt the most from, so that's all that matters, right?

I've also started to go on a diet and have been for the past month or so, with decent results so far. I've lost about 8 pounds since starting. (183 to 175). Between weight training, bike riding and eating right, I should get down to my 160-165 goal range within two months or less, so I'm pretty pumped about that.