WARNING: If you don't like anime-styled characters, then you won't like this blog, so I'm just letting you anime-haters know this before you get mad at me for forcing you to read my blog about teh animes.

So around two months ago, before the season where all the publishers decide to release their games in a small and cramped 3 month window instead of spreading out their releases, I played a game well-known to the visual novel community but mostly unknown to the gamer community called Ever17: The Out of Infinity. (Yeah, I know, it suffers from Square Enix naming syndrome)

To give this game a little bit of back story it, as you might have guessed, is a visual novel (pretty much an adventure game) for the PC. However, this game is a rarity because it actually received a US localization by a now defunct company called Hirameki International. Despite the localization you probably won't be able to find this game anywhere. This game is not only rare, but a USED copy goes for about $200 USD. So you're better off downloading a copy. (The developer and publisher are already defunct anyway.) You won't regret playing this game though because it is one of the best stories I've ever experienced in a game.

Just to give you a fair heads-up, in order to "beat" the game, it requires multiple playthroughs before you can go for the "true" ending. So if you don't have a lot of time or patience, this may not be for you. I would even suggest a walkthrough, if you don't want to spend too much time guessing in the dark. Thankfully, the game has a fast-forward feature for the parts that you have already seen, so no worries about reading the same thing over and over again.

The basic summary of the plot, without spoiling anything, is that you're a tourist on the artificial theme park island called "LeMU". Things go wrong though, when you and five other people are trapped in the lower floors of LeMU (the floors are underwater), and you have only one week to escape before the walls collapse, drowning everyone that is trapped. There are two character paths that you can take, one as a young man called Takeshi Kuranari, and as a teenager with amnesia simply called "The Kid".

The plot is so much more than what I listed above, but it would be spoiler territory to mention it. I will say that the twists are incredible and mind-blowing, especially in the "true" ending. The exposition in the beginning of each playthrough can be a bit much, though. I found myself struggling to read after an hour into the game, but it isn't on the Final Fantasy XIII level of horrid beginnings, just a slow start for an hour or two.

The characters may seem like your typical archetypes in the beginning as well. To give a few examples, Tsugumi, the one with the black attire, seems like the classic tsundere type. Takeshi seems like your bumbling shounen protagonist with a bit of a perverted mind. And Sora seems like the motherly figure who watches out for everyone and makes sure they're all safe.

I say 'seem' because as the game goes on, each of these characters develop into so much more, and at the end you can't help but root for them, or at least find them likable. Tsugumi, in the beginning, comes off as a complete bitch in the first few hours of each playthrough, but later events and more exposition provides context as to why she is the way she is. As a result, I found her to be a lot more likable and understood her. After a few heartbreaking scenes involving her, she became my favorite character in the whole game. On the flip side, the only character I didn't really find all that engaging was Coco Yagami, who just stays the same as she was when the game started. I didn't hate her, just felt kinda 'meh' towards her character. (Also, the game says she's 13, but she acts a lot like an 7 year old. -_-)

The art style definitely shows it's age, but it isn't necessarily bad thing. Especially now with moeblobs running the anime scene, it's a little refreshing to see a "simple" anime art style. The backgrounds are also nicely drawn. Once again, going for simple art style and not trying to be too fancy. Certainly more colorful than many modern games, but not sickeningly so like many modern anime. (Okay, I'll stop hating on modern anime.)

The music in this game is really well-done with solid tracks all-around and a few heavy-hitters greatly enhancing a lot of the emotional scenes. Other than the heavy hitters, there really isn't anything that would make you want to listen to it on repeat since some of it just sounds like elevator music BUT it's some damn fine elevator music. Here's one of the best tracks that I'm talking about:

It may not elicit much emotion from you at the moment, but when you combine it with one of the tear-jerking scenes it really makes you want to just BAWWW all over the floor. It's just that damn powerful.

The "true" ending is the main reason why you should play through the game so many times. Although, the 'good' endings and heck even the 'bad' ones are really good, the "true" ending ties up so many loose ends and provides the proper closure to so many arcs that it is not only a wholly satisfying experience, but you just feel like you played through a true emotional roller coaster.

I honestly can't think of any criticisms except for one. The localization effort is hit and miss. It's understandable since the localization company didn't seem to have big bucks flowing around to do a much better job (I assume), but it still does hamper the experience a small bit. The numerous grammar and spelling errors can be annoying, with examples such as: "Naturally, I knows the hacker" is a famous error in the translation. And there are a few things outright mistranslated. However, when the translation team does get things right, it is done really well. There are some lines during the emotional scenes that are very descriptive and really immerses you in the world. This is one of the best adventure games I've ever played, and I really do recommend to anyone who doesn't hate anime art styles or doesn't hate good stories.

The game doesn't take a powerful PC to run (shocker!) since it is a game originally released in 2002. However, if you're willing to wait and if you have a lot of hope, there is currently a remake about to release for the Xbox 360, but it is only for Japan. Good news is, you can urge niche game publishers like Aksys Games or Atlus to localize the game for American shores so that more people can experience the awesomeness that is Ever 17.

Holy crap! I’m writing in my blog again after two days! This calls for a celebration. Seriously, I write a blog then disappear for months before writing again. Anyway, today I’ll be writing about my experiences with the PS3 and Uncharted 2. Both of which I recently bought about a month and a half ago. Aren’t you excited!?

 
I began playing Final Fantasy XIII for the first time yesterday after giving up on Lost Odyssey’s difficult, optional boss battles (I needed to level up). After playing it for a few hours though, I must say that I came away pleased, despite the shitstorm of negativity it received from practically half the World Wide Web. My guard is still up against any future disappointment, but I feel safe in saying that I’m cautiously optimistic. So here are my first impressions of the latest story-based installment of the mega franchise, Final Fantasy XIII.

Final Fantasy XIII is one of the prettiest games I’ve ever seen since Eternal Sonata. That just had to be said right from the get go. Even on the “inferior” Xbox 360 port the game still looks lovely. The characters animations are straight out of a CG movie, even though there are CG movies in the game! The lighting effects are great, especially in the crystallized waves level. The backgrounds do look noticeably blurry, probably due to the whole 360 port thing, but you hardly notice it with all the action going on so it’s just a very minor gripe. This is a game that was made to look like a CG movie, even though there are CG cutscenes everywhere, the difference between the cutscenes aren’t as big as Final Fantasy X. So, graphically, Square has made a huge step in the right direction making this look like a movie, than a game.

The gameplay in Final Fantasy XIII is what XII should have been. While I didn’t hate the gameplay in XII, the grinding aspect turned me off the game so much along with it’s overly complicated plot, and boring main characters (Balthier and Ashe should’ve been hero and heroine). Anyway, I’m glad they did away with the MMORPG feel of XII, and replaced it with the traditional “flash of light into a battle arena”. It feels much more fast-faced and flashy which is something Square has going for them in this game.

The command list is also interesting with the presence of ATB bars. With the ATB bars I can perform multiple attacks as long as they fit in the whole turn of ATB bars. I can attack an enemy twice, or attack them and then shock them with Thunder. It’s a departure from the one command per turn from previous Final Fantasy games, and I welcome it with open arms. Battles feel much more fluid, and realistic than the old-school “stand in one spot until it’s your turn” though I don’t mind that too much. The absence of levels do puzzle me, as I wonder how I can gauge who is very strong in my party, and who is too weak to participate in the battles of the current level. I’ll have to wait and see. The Crystarium system is probably the key to this. I do like this modified Grid Sphere. It’s easy to understand, and a very good stat building mechanic. (I love the Grid Sphere). The Paradigm Shift is a much better Gambit system. I hated having to buy Gambits in order to get my character to do certain things. This system already has characters do what you want without the hassle of buying useless “80>HP Enemy” bullcrap. Plus you can change formations during battle which has put me in love with this battle system. The only thing that can ruin the gameplay for me is unnecessary grindfests. It wouldn’t totally ruin the game for me, but I would have trouble picking it up again. I’ve had enough grinding in RPGs years ago.

Some critics are right when they say FFXIII is littered with hallways, but I wouldn’t say that’s entirely true. After reaching the Pulse fal’cie lair, the environments did open up a bit to something akin to the FFXII dungeons. I did like the level design of XII so I hope XIII continues with that instead of the aforementioned hallways.

On to the story! I do understand mostly everything that is going on at the moment I’m at in the story, but that’s no thanks to the actual cutscenes. Instead, I had to learn the backstory through the game’s encyclopedia. I am not too bothered by this, but I’m wondering if it was so hard for them to write all that in the game’s prologue a la’ Final Fantasy VI. At least VII explained what the terms “lifestream” and “mako reactors” were. I had no idea what the hell Pulse and L’Cie were until I read it in the encyclopedia. Hell if it weren’t for the back cover telling me I was fighting in Cocoon, I would have thought Cocoon was the final boss or something. So yeah, the vagueness of the story annoyed me greatly. I’m still wondering about the characters. Lightning seems okay though she’s still one-dimensional at the moment. Losing her temper at the drop of the hat, but I won’t blame her for it. Her sister was in danger, though she could be more cooperative with Sazh. Speaking of Sazh, he looks like the most levelheaded person in the group. Hope is annoyingly wimpy, while Vanille is a weirdo, and it doesn’t help that she changes accents every 15 seconds. Snow also seems levelheaded, but his cheesiness makes me cringe a bit. It’ll probably grow on me. I don’t have a high opinion of the characters, but it’s too early to tell at this stage.

So that’s all for my impressions on Final Fantasy XIII, which has been enjoyable so far. I’m not too confident that it will get better as the game goes on, but the battle system is something I am greatly looking forward to.

Oh yeah, the music is alright, but I miss Uematsu.

This is weird. Why would they make another blog quest?

The past few months there has been a lot of harsh criticism and/or bashing of the Giant Bomb community. I was one of these critics. However, I didn't realize until now how good we have it. Sure we have our low points like the numerous "girl topics" that end in spectacular failure, the "quest spam" that has put many regular users off, or the usual political or religious topics that turn into flame wars 2 pages in. We have many more highs points though, like that Starcraft thread where the guy's armor looks like a cat, the help that fellow user Aurahack received from everyone, anything BiffMcBlumpkin posts, this thing, and the awesome race nights for Forza 3.
 
What am I trying to get at? Well, I was completely and utterly wrong for thinking the Giant Bomb community was crappy because I forgot all about...
This.
 
Yes, another run-of-the-mill fanboy bait article written by your friendly neighborhood IGN. All they are doing is just stating the obvious shit about the two consoles that anybody with reading comprehension skills can figure out on their own. This article exists for the sole purpose of creating another flamewar between the cults of the PS3 and Xbox 360. 
The comments section is rife with witty banter such as... 
"the ps3 has more aaa games"
 
"i know what ign now stands for
ign= international gay fags.
lol F-U IGN" 

"YEA GAYBOX LOOSE"
 
And my personal favorite
"loners buy ps3s and people with friends buy xbox 360s" 

Welcome to what is hopefully a weekly blog about my gaming habits and what I’m thinking. It will most likely be crap but w/e. '>_>

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

Aksys Games recently announced a new game for the DS. It is titled “Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors” which sounds like a title of a B-movie. It’s a thriller adventure game developed by Chunsoft. My first impressions are that this could be a sleeper hit for adventure games on the DS. After playing through all 3 Phoenix Wright games, Jake Hunter, Time Hollow, and Apollo Justice this looks to bolster the already spectacular line up of adventure games on the DS.

You control a college student named Junpei who wakes up on a cruise liner in a dangerous conspiracy. He and 8 other people must work together before they drown. You have to solve various puzzles and make the correct decisions in situations if you want yourself and others to survive. There are also 6 different endings which make this a tad more playable than other adventure games.

I am looking forward to this release being a big fan of adventure games ever since the first Phoenix Wright came out, and I hope the localization is top-notch along with some rather interesting characters and a compelling story to boot.

Dragon Quest IX

Super Street Fighter IV

Lastly, after over 2 months of banging my head against the wall and ragequitting every 4 matches, I am beginning to feel myself improve significantly at Super Street Fighter IV. I now have three reliable combos as my main Sakura. One of them is “j.HP, c.HP, EX tatsu, Ultra 2”. It’s nothing much to a longtime veteran, but I feel incredibly overjoyed whenever I pull this off. All that hard work is paying off.

I still suck at actually winning games, but I’m at least giving my friends a run for their money. I still need to practice my techs and FADC, but that’s what another 3 months of training will fix up. =P I have many weaknesses, but my main problem seems to be Zangief and Chun-Li. Zangief just continues to grab me and take off huge chunks of my health, while Chun-Li seems to have an impenetrable defense. Oh and Ibuki...I just hate her. 
 
I still haven't touched much the ranked match mode yet simply because the little bit I have played I've had my ass handed to me by mostly everyone. Even flowchart Kens. T_T
 
If there are any Sakura players out there, tips would be appreciated. =)

However, seeing the EVO tournament this past weekend awakened a more competitive version of myself. Especially after seeing top player Justin Wong lose to a newcomer with a low tier character. This makes me dream that someday I can win with Sakura as my main, surprising the whole audience. Although Daigo predictably won (I ended up not seeing him win because of the shitty stream), that was an overall fun tournament to watch and I'm looking forward to dive a little further into the fighting game community.

Still on the subject of Street Fighter, I came across this sweet deal that I must take advantage of. I could always just give my brother Vanilla SFIV so it’s not a shabby deal at all.

So that’s pretty much all I have on my mind. Hope I didn’t bore you all or anything.

Of all the current-gen consoles, I only own an Xbox 360 and a Wii. This is due to the fact that it started out at an absurd high price point ($599 USD), the games library were lackluster for the first two years, the screenshot comparisons were usually in the 360’s favor early on, I was content with my Xbox 360 to consider getting a PS3, and that Sony were absolute fucktards during those first two years of the PS3 lifespan.

However, the PS3 has hit its stride as of late. They have some critically acclaimed exclusives like Uncharted 2, Demon’s Souls, LittleBigPlanet, and Metal Gear Solid 4 out right now. They have more great looking exclusives coming out like Final Fantasy XIV, Trinity Universe, and LittleBigPlanet 2. It’s at a reasonable price point for $300. And finally, I can complete my trifecta of video game consoles this generation. (Okay that’s not a big deal XD)

These are the 2 games that interest me the most and hopefully may interest you as well:

                                                                                                                            LittleBigPlanet 2

I played the first LBP a bit over at a cousin’s house and I liked what it had to offer. The concept of customizing your own character (sackboy) appealed to my creative side, and was helped by the fact that you could make him/her into absolutely anything. I remember being able to play as Kratos, and it was quite neat that you could do that. The stage customization was huge for me because I have a hard-on for well designed platforming games. My biggest gripe was the way the sackboy was controlled. The jumping was too sluggish and I had to retry a level multiple times because of how shitty the sackboy controlled. Maybe it was because I sucked but I digress.

Fortunately, LittleBigPlanet 2 seems to fix that problem and a whole lot more. What has me most excited is the fact that the developers added multiple GENRES into the game. You can’t even call it a platformer anymore. It might as well be its own console itself! The fact that you can play RPGs on this makes it already a purchase for me. The 3D space shooter looked like Star Fox, which is not a bad thing. While I don’t know much about the sharing features of the LittleBigPlanet games, I can see myself spending hours making stuff just like I do on Halo 3 and sharing it. Overall, LittleBigPlanet 2 is the game I’m most hyped for. It might be the biggest game of this generation. If there is a PS3 + LBP2 bundle (which Sony would be stupid not to consider), then I’m snatching that shit up!
 

                                                                                                                            Valkyria Chronicles

The current-gen consoles haven’t been nice to the JRPG genre. There really hasn’t been a hit JRPG out there like a Xenogears or Persona 4 that receives little to no criticism and is proclaimed a masterpiece. Final Fantasy XIII has been hit with the most criticism I’ve ever seen in a Final Fantasy game. Lost Odyssey was decent but not “great” in the eyes of many, and it did feature some old game mechanics. However, there is one game that, from what I saw, gave people what they wanted in a superb JRPG.

That game is Valkyria Chronicles. In the reviews I’ve read, the story is unmatched compared to others in the genre. The gameplay is just complex yet rewarding. And the graphics had a nice painting feel to it. It’s also a JRPG that models after WWII! How crazy is that!? You would think that only FPS and RTS games would do that! Anyway, I’m in dire need of a “great” JPRG and this looks like the perfect game for me.

So I pretty much love RPGs and am hoping LBP2 is bundled with the PS3 Slim. I am also interested in Final Fantasy XIV, but I know next to nothing about it other than that it’s an MMO and that it has trailers that make no sense. If there is anyone out there who has played Final Fantasy XI, what should I expect out of Final Fantasy XIV?

I'm thinking of buying a PS3 by the end of the year now that it has a few games that interest me greatly. I am already sold on LittleBigPlanet 2, and I'm hoping Sony can release a PS3 bundle with that game. It just makes perfect sense. I'm not interested in the Move at all. Mostly because I already have a Wii, and I'm content with that. Valkryia Chronicles is another game that I hear great things about, and I need a fantastic JRPG so that fits the bill. However, I don't know much about the PS3's library other than their exclusive shooters (KZ3, R2, MAG etc), and I am burnt out on shooters. (I'm content with Bad Company 2). 
 
I am interested in Final Fantasy XIV, but I don't think Square Enix will release two Final Fantasies in the same year, getting that by the holidays may be out of the question. 
 
I heard of Trinity Universe, but I'm not too sure about it just yet. It could be good, but the fact that it's a crossover RPG with obscure characters mean that I probably won't enjoy it as much as I should.
 
Disgaea 3 sounds very addicting and I will buy it if I can find it. I think they're plentiful...right?
 
I've never played a Metal Gear Solid game before, and I don't want to play 4 without playing the first 3. I'm hate jumping into a sequel of a story driven franchise if it means I'll be lost in the plot. (I probably could have enjoyed Half-Life 2 more if I had played the first one)
 
If any PS3 fans can point me to some awesome exclusives that would interest me, please do so. I'm open to anything as long as it's good and not a shooter.