It's been a loooong while since my last post, sorry about that, life gets in the way sometimes. Anyway, I figured Chrono Cross would be a great subject for me to write about. As always, spoilers and this is more of a ramble than a review or anything. Just random thoughts, meh, it's what I do!
Chrono Cross had the unenviable task of following Chrono Trigger. One of history's most beloved games, there's no way a sequel could please everybody. Now, Radical Dreamers, a text game exclusive to Japan was the first sequel to Chrono Trigger. Masato Kato wasn't satisfied with Radical Dreamers and began work on Chrono Cross, a true and proper sequel to Trigger.
There are a couple of valid complaints about Chrono Cross, it's plot is very convoluted and there are too many recruitable characters. Again, valid points. However, Cross managed to do something that pissed off a vocal minority, but ultimately made the game that much better for me. It showed a grim outcome for the majority of the Trigger roster. Crono and Marle are implied to be dead, Lucca was murdered, Robo essentially gets deleted, Frog and Ayla obviously die of old age at best, and it's insinuated that Magus could somehow be a magician named Guile, looking for something.
I'm not going to even try to explain all of Cross' story in a paragraph, it's freaking insane. Barest of essential knowledge, a young boy died, his screams were somehow heard across the time and space by Schala, Magus's sister, who is fused with Lavos (long story), a series of events happen that cause Serge (the main character) to split the timeline in two, one where he lives, one where he dies. This causes a lot of headaches, so let's keep it simple and just say that the game is about restoring everything back to a singular timeline. I'm sure I make the story sound bad, it's not, it's just complex. This is not a game you play once and understand it completely. It's worth the multiple play throughs.
The gameplay is great, the stamina system for combat works wonderfully, the element allocation system is fun, weapon and item forging is nifty. The level up system is great, you get a star for every boss you defeat, making grinding a thing of the past (thank any and all deities you may or may not believe in), the gameplay is just plain great. The sound effects are awesome and the music is flawless. Once again, Yasunori Mitsuda. Your argument is invalid and not accepted, good day.
In the end, this game doesn't deserve what little hate it gets. In fact, if you are one of those people that hate this game, shame on you! Bad gamer! Bad! The game sold very well, was reviewed exceptionally well and is likely never getting a follow up. That used to upset me (as recently as earlier this year), but now, I'm happy that Trigger and Cross aren't likely to get a sequel. I know that these games will stand the test of time, and will likely not be tarnished by inferior remakes and lesser sequels. Heck, even Radical Dreamers is a ton of fun to experience. Trigger, Dreamers and Cross, the perfect little trilogy. May it never be tarnished.
9000 evil cat men out 9000.
Monday, September 19, 2016
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
It's finally time for me to review/ramble about Batman v Superman. I'm pretty late on this, but it takes me a while, sometimes months to see new movies. I'm going to be talking about SPOILERS so, click away if you don't want to see any.
This movie is an interesting creation, it fulfills a lot of comic book fan's wishes, finally, we see Batman fight Superman! I'm not one of those fans. I like Batman, I like Superman, but I have never once had the desire to see them fight. I'm just weird I guess. The plot is... simple and yet convoluted, it's an odd beast. I never felt lost within the film's story while watching, but I also felt like the film was psychotic. It's a rare feat when I watch a two and a half hour movie and say to myself "This movie needed to be longer.". A lot of things happen in a short period of time, and having some more time to develop things would have helped. Then again, cutting some stuff out could have helped too. I think the biggest problem is the subtitle: Dawn of Justice. By that, I mean the Justice League set-up and yes, even Wonder Woman, were not necessary and only served to bloat a movie that was already freaking huge.
On the topic of Wonder Woman, very few people I have interacted with thought she was awful, and most thought she was amazing. I admit, I'm not too familiar with Wonder Woman, but I found her to be very "meh". She wasn't bad, but I think amazing is FAR too strong a word for Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman. I think a lot of people were like "Oh my God! It's a female! And she is fighting!". I think Gal did well enough, and maybe when she has more than five minutes of screen time, she will be an engaging and great Wonder Woman, but that time isn't now.
Ben Affleck as Batman was good. It's the cool thing to do nowadays to say "I always thought Affleck would be great.", but when he was cast, I told anybody that would listen "Affleck will be great.". I was mostly right, he was a good Batman/Bruce Wayne. Not my favorite, but he was definitely a good fit. I know a lot of people think Henry Cavill is a boring Superman, but I like Cavill as Superman and I like him a bit better as Clark Kent. I think the issues fans have with him is more of how he is written and directed, not how he acts the part. Amy Adams does an above average job as Lois Lane, Laurence Fishburne gets a little more personality in this film, he's good enough. Now, for the part that will likely irritate others, I really liked Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luther. Yes, he is much different from the typical Lex we are given, yes he is crazy and yes, he's better for it. From Gene Hackman to John Shea to Kevin Spacey, they were great, but it was fun to see a different take on Lex.
I have mixed feelings about the ending. There is a fight with Batman and Superman, where Superman declares he doesn't want to fight, but good old Batman isn't interested in things like talking and listening. So they fight. Batman is going for the kill and Lois stops him, Batman has a "Hey, our moms have they same name, cool, let's be friends." moment. Anyway, skipping ahead a little, this leads to a fight between Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman against Doomsday. Doomsday is a combination of General Zod's body and Lex Luthor's blood. The fight is... destructive. Things get torn apart pretty bad. Superman impales Doomsday with a kryptonite Spear that Batman was so nice to have brought, and Doomsday impales Superman with a bony protrusion on his arm. Superman is dead. The mixed feelings aren't because Superman died, it's because it's kind of not necessary. Between Man of Steel and BvS, it doesn't feel earned. It's okay and adds a somber touch, but it ultimately just didn't need to happen. At least Warner Bros. got it out of their system, they've been trying to kill Superman since the '90s.
I get that a lot of people love dark and gritty stuff, it's got it's place, but Superman needs a little different setting. Now, granted, he is sharing the screen with Batman, so this needs to be dark and gritty so his fans don't cry foul, but Superman is getting screwed up. There are a LOT of people that are under the impression that Superman is boring and not relevant, and that's a shame because if they could look past their desire for everything to be dark and abysmal, they'd see that Superman is more relevant than ever. If you think he isn't interesting, then you don't get the character. He's not an alien god that just flies around without emotion, he's just a guy from Kansas trying to do the right thing. Like us, he wants to make the world a better place, but instead of hiding behind embarrassing online hashtags and being a cyber bully, he takes action. He is a figure of hope, and that pisses some people off. "How dare you hope! Everything is dark and meaningless, hope is for suckers!" scream the depressed hipster gods of apathy. Hope, is what gives us the strength to live each day. Hope, is all we have sometimes, and it's enough. He is so much more than what we see on film, and it's a shame that most people don't get to see the real Superman.
Final Score: 16 dead Jimmy Olsens out of 24.
This movie is an interesting creation, it fulfills a lot of comic book fan's wishes, finally, we see Batman fight Superman! I'm not one of those fans. I like Batman, I like Superman, but I have never once had the desire to see them fight. I'm just weird I guess. The plot is... simple and yet convoluted, it's an odd beast. I never felt lost within the film's story while watching, but I also felt like the film was psychotic. It's a rare feat when I watch a two and a half hour movie and say to myself "This movie needed to be longer.". A lot of things happen in a short period of time, and having some more time to develop things would have helped. Then again, cutting some stuff out could have helped too. I think the biggest problem is the subtitle: Dawn of Justice. By that, I mean the Justice League set-up and yes, even Wonder Woman, were not necessary and only served to bloat a movie that was already freaking huge.
On the topic of Wonder Woman, very few people I have interacted with thought she was awful, and most thought she was amazing. I admit, I'm not too familiar with Wonder Woman, but I found her to be very "meh". She wasn't bad, but I think amazing is FAR too strong a word for Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman. I think a lot of people were like "Oh my God! It's a female! And she is fighting!". I think Gal did well enough, and maybe when she has more than five minutes of screen time, she will be an engaging and great Wonder Woman, but that time isn't now.
Ben Affleck as Batman was good. It's the cool thing to do nowadays to say "I always thought Affleck would be great.", but when he was cast, I told anybody that would listen "Affleck will be great.". I was mostly right, he was a good Batman/Bruce Wayne. Not my favorite, but he was definitely a good fit. I know a lot of people think Henry Cavill is a boring Superman, but I like Cavill as Superman and I like him a bit better as Clark Kent. I think the issues fans have with him is more of how he is written and directed, not how he acts the part. Amy Adams does an above average job as Lois Lane, Laurence Fishburne gets a little more personality in this film, he's good enough. Now, for the part that will likely irritate others, I really liked Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luther. Yes, he is much different from the typical Lex we are given, yes he is crazy and yes, he's better for it. From Gene Hackman to John Shea to Kevin Spacey, they were great, but it was fun to see a different take on Lex.
I have mixed feelings about the ending. There is a fight with Batman and Superman, where Superman declares he doesn't want to fight, but good old Batman isn't interested in things like talking and listening. So they fight. Batman is going for the kill and Lois stops him, Batman has a "Hey, our moms have they same name, cool, let's be friends." moment. Anyway, skipping ahead a little, this leads to a fight between Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman against Doomsday. Doomsday is a combination of General Zod's body and Lex Luthor's blood. The fight is... destructive. Things get torn apart pretty bad. Superman impales Doomsday with a kryptonite Spear that Batman was so nice to have brought, and Doomsday impales Superman with a bony protrusion on his arm. Superman is dead. The mixed feelings aren't because Superman died, it's because it's kind of not necessary. Between Man of Steel and BvS, it doesn't feel earned. It's okay and adds a somber touch, but it ultimately just didn't need to happen. At least Warner Bros. got it out of their system, they've been trying to kill Superman since the '90s.
I get that a lot of people love dark and gritty stuff, it's got it's place, but Superman needs a little different setting. Now, granted, he is sharing the screen with Batman, so this needs to be dark and gritty so his fans don't cry foul, but Superman is getting screwed up. There are a LOT of people that are under the impression that Superman is boring and not relevant, and that's a shame because if they could look past their desire for everything to be dark and abysmal, they'd see that Superman is more relevant than ever. If you think he isn't interesting, then you don't get the character. He's not an alien god that just flies around without emotion, he's just a guy from Kansas trying to do the right thing. Like us, he wants to make the world a better place, but instead of hiding behind embarrassing online hashtags and being a cyber bully, he takes action. He is a figure of hope, and that pisses some people off. "How dare you hope! Everything is dark and meaningless, hope is for suckers!" scream the depressed hipster gods of apathy. Hope, is what gives us the strength to live each day. Hope, is all we have sometimes, and it's enough. He is so much more than what we see on film, and it's a shame that most people don't get to see the real Superman.
Final Score: 16 dead Jimmy Olsens out of 24.
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
In 1998, I got a Nintendo 64 for my birthday. My parents got me the system, but after I opened it, they took me to a local store to pick out a game. I picked a baseball game, not even sure which one at this point. It was fun enough. I played a few other games in the coming months, but the one I REALLY wanted to play came out that November: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Now, this may seem like sacrilege, but I liked The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, but I did not love it. As years have gone by, I've grown to love it, but I didn't at the time. Ocarina of Time seemed so, well, epic. I had to play it.
When the game was released, the city I lived in was being hit by a blizzard. Being the very smart thirteen year old I was, I decided I was going to walk a few miles to the local video store without A) checking to make sure the store was open, or B) making sure they even had the game and C) letting anybody know I was going out! So after the coldest, windiest and snowiest walk of my life at the time, I found myself at the video store. Thank God they were open AND they had Ocarina of Time. I rented that game and hurried home, that blizzard was really starting to get bad.
When I got home, nobody had even noticed I had left. When I told my mom what I did she wasn't exactly happy, but didn't punish me. My punishment was that I got really sick and had to stay home from school for the rest of the week. Oh darn, I had to stay in bed and play Zelda all day. The game was amazing, one of the best experiences I've ever had with a game. I continued to rent that same copy for about a month, my stepdad finally said "Let's just buy the damn thing, it will be cheaper than renting it over and over!".
Not since Chrono Trigger had a game captured my imagination so completely, this was one of a few games that I felt totally transported to another world when playing. I've played most of the Zelda games released since Ocarina of Time, and there are some really great ones (A Link Between Worlds was awesome) and even though I've liked some, not really gotten into a few more and really liked others, there just hasn't been an "Ocarina of Time" experience for me since. I'm sure there's some nostalgia, and the very few detractors the game has are loud (and wrong), but the game is simply a masterpiece.
I hold out hope that the upcoming and yet to be named "Zelda Wii U" will be that "Ocarina" type experience. In fact, I hope it's so good that I don't refer to the experience as "Ocarina" like, and it gets it's own level of awesome. Later today I've got The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD coming in the mail and that got me thinking about where the Zelda craze truly started for me. I hope you enjoyed my rambling.
Score: 36 Eponas out of 36.
When the game was released, the city I lived in was being hit by a blizzard. Being the very smart thirteen year old I was, I decided I was going to walk a few miles to the local video store without A) checking to make sure the store was open, or B) making sure they even had the game and C) letting anybody know I was going out! So after the coldest, windiest and snowiest walk of my life at the time, I found myself at the video store. Thank God they were open AND they had Ocarina of Time. I rented that game and hurried home, that blizzard was really starting to get bad.
When I got home, nobody had even noticed I had left. When I told my mom what I did she wasn't exactly happy, but didn't punish me. My punishment was that I got really sick and had to stay home from school for the rest of the week. Oh darn, I had to stay in bed and play Zelda all day. The game was amazing, one of the best experiences I've ever had with a game. I continued to rent that same copy for about a month, my stepdad finally said "Let's just buy the damn thing, it will be cheaper than renting it over and over!".
Not since Chrono Trigger had a game captured my imagination so completely, this was one of a few games that I felt totally transported to another world when playing. I've played most of the Zelda games released since Ocarina of Time, and there are some really great ones (A Link Between Worlds was awesome) and even though I've liked some, not really gotten into a few more and really liked others, there just hasn't been an "Ocarina of Time" experience for me since. I'm sure there's some nostalgia, and the very few detractors the game has are loud (and wrong), but the game is simply a masterpiece.
I hold out hope that the upcoming and yet to be named "Zelda Wii U" will be that "Ocarina" type experience. In fact, I hope it's so good that I don't refer to the experience as "Ocarina" like, and it gets it's own level of awesome. Later today I've got The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD coming in the mail and that got me thinking about where the Zelda craze truly started for me. I hope you enjoyed my rambling.
Score: 36 Eponas out of 36.
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Mortal Kombat XL
I want to talk about Mortal Kombat XL, just kind of some random thoughts and impressions. I've been playing MKX since it's release last April, and it's a really good game, but I've had issues with it since day one. Online was awful in the beginning, it got kinda better, and I must admit that I haven't been online since it was improved most recently, frankly, it's too late for me to care about it. Speaking of online, I hate that certain character skins are unlocked online. No other way, just online. Screw that, well there goes a few skins for me, what about the players that don't have an internet connection? Just screw them, NetherRealm Studios?
Anyway, let's talk about MKXL, the "complete" version of the game. So sixty U.S. dollars gets you the original MKX content, the first Kombat Pack (playable characters Jason, Predator, Tanya and Tremor), the second Kombat Pack (playable characters Leatherface, Alien, Triborg and Bo' Rai Cho), The Pit arena and all the skin packs that were previously released. Sort of. Well you're screwed if you want Gold Scorpion, but hey, that's for the Kollector's Edition of the game, so fair point on excluding that. Also, you have to buy Blue Steel Sub-Zero and Krimson Ermac separately. Why are the mobile skins not included? It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't blatantly show Injustice Scorpion, a mobile unlock, in the damn announce trailer while advertising you get all of the skins. I have the mobile app, I've unlocked all the skins, but that's some shady business.
You still need to unlock everything. I guess that's fair, but the previous installment's (Mortal Kombat on PS3 and Xbox 360) Komplete Edition had everything unlocked from the beginning, so why change that? Then again, the "Komplete" Edition of that game isn't complete seeing as how the PlayStation Vita got exclusive skins. Let's talk about the characters from Kombat Pack 2. Bo' Rai Cho, great choice, Triborg, trying to please all of the cyber-ninja fans with one character, okay I guess, Alien, goes with Predator, why not? Leatherface. Who in the hell asked for Leatherface? Forget for a moment that most of the fans wanted another Mortal Kombat character (Fujin or Li Mei...), Leatherface doesn't even go well with Jason, the other Horror Icon in the game. I get that they didn't want to re-use Freddy from the previous game, but what was wrong with Michael Myers from Halloween or Ash from Evil Dead? Leatherface. I'm very open with the roster choices for an MK game, and I get why guest characters are a thing, but nobody wanted Leatherface. Except maybe Ed Boon.
Anyway, the game plays well, looks decent, sounds great, and everything else I've mentioned before, and will likely mention again in a proper review. I know A LOT of people find this to be the best Mortal Kombat game to date. Sorry, I'm not one of them. Don't get me wrong, I really like the game, but it's not my favorite, nor do I consider it the best. Gameplay is a HUGE part of what determines the best in the series, but so does story (yes, story in MK is VERY important, to me at least) and impact, MKX or XL, is not the top in all three categories, or even two out of three. A case can be made for it having the best gameplay, it's story is good, but not great, it's impact is not at the top of the MK list. It didn't start it all like MK1, it didn't improve dramatically like MK2, and it didn't save the franchise from certain death like MK Deadly Alliance or MK (2011).
Is it worth sixty dollars? I guess so, if you are a big MK fan, but if not then I'd probably hold out until it's cheaper considering you still have to buy a couple of skins if you want them all.
Final score: three and a half Zombie Liu Kangs out of five.
Anyway, let's talk about MKXL, the "complete" version of the game. So sixty U.S. dollars gets you the original MKX content, the first Kombat Pack (playable characters Jason, Predator, Tanya and Tremor), the second Kombat Pack (playable characters Leatherface, Alien, Triborg and Bo' Rai Cho), The Pit arena and all the skin packs that were previously released. Sort of. Well you're screwed if you want Gold Scorpion, but hey, that's for the Kollector's Edition of the game, so fair point on excluding that. Also, you have to buy Blue Steel Sub-Zero and Krimson Ermac separately. Why are the mobile skins not included? It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't blatantly show Injustice Scorpion, a mobile unlock, in the damn announce trailer while advertising you get all of the skins. I have the mobile app, I've unlocked all the skins, but that's some shady business.
You still need to unlock everything. I guess that's fair, but the previous installment's (Mortal Kombat on PS3 and Xbox 360) Komplete Edition had everything unlocked from the beginning, so why change that? Then again, the "Komplete" Edition of that game isn't complete seeing as how the PlayStation Vita got exclusive skins. Let's talk about the characters from Kombat Pack 2. Bo' Rai Cho, great choice, Triborg, trying to please all of the cyber-ninja fans with one character, okay I guess, Alien, goes with Predator, why not? Leatherface. Who in the hell asked for Leatherface? Forget for a moment that most of the fans wanted another Mortal Kombat character (Fujin or Li Mei...), Leatherface doesn't even go well with Jason, the other Horror Icon in the game. I get that they didn't want to re-use Freddy from the previous game, but what was wrong with Michael Myers from Halloween or Ash from Evil Dead? Leatherface. I'm very open with the roster choices for an MK game, and I get why guest characters are a thing, but nobody wanted Leatherface. Except maybe Ed Boon.
Anyway, the game plays well, looks decent, sounds great, and everything else I've mentioned before, and will likely mention again in a proper review. I know A LOT of people find this to be the best Mortal Kombat game to date. Sorry, I'm not one of them. Don't get me wrong, I really like the game, but it's not my favorite, nor do I consider it the best. Gameplay is a HUGE part of what determines the best in the series, but so does story (yes, story in MK is VERY important, to me at least) and impact, MKX or XL, is not the top in all three categories, or even two out of three. A case can be made for it having the best gameplay, it's story is good, but not great, it's impact is not at the top of the MK list. It didn't start it all like MK1, it didn't improve dramatically like MK2, and it didn't save the franchise from certain death like MK Deadly Alliance or MK (2011).
Is it worth sixty dollars? I guess so, if you are a big MK fan, but if not then I'd probably hold out until it's cheaper considering you still have to buy a couple of skins if you want them all.
Final score: three and a half Zombie Liu Kangs out of five.
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
My friend, Todd.
This was originally posted a few of years ago, but in combination with the anniversary coming up and the fact my old blog kind of doesn't exist anymore, here is a "retro" post about my buddy, Todd.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
My friend, Todd.
Every year around this time, I start to feel helpless, sad and downright depressed. On the 25th of this month, it will be six years ago that one of my best friends died. I've been fortunate enough to meet some great people in my short life, many of them I have known for years. Todd (my buddy), was truly special. To this day, he remains the greatest person I've ever met. I only knew him for two years, but six years after his death, I still miss him as much as I did the day he died. To me, that speaks volumes about him.
I've progressed in life since his passing. I got married... bought a house... and moved on... but not really. Since the day he passed, I've never been the same... but I suppose that is to be expected to some extent. I lost a lot of weight, I gained a ton of weight, made some great new friends, lost contact with those friends, gained new meaning in my life only to lose it all and take several steps backward in life. I've battled with plenty of mental health issues since then... and let me tell you, it's been the toughest thing I've ever faced and tried to deal with.
I've hurt my friends and I've hurt myself over the last six years. To be honest, it all stems from that day that feels like it was so, so long ago and yet, also seems like it was yesterday. You see, the night before he died, he asked if I wanted to hangout. Keep in mind we work at the same place, and I have to open the next day. So, I told him that I didn't want to do anything because I had to open. I told him to take it easy and that I'd see him tomorrow. Well... I never saw him again.
The next day I opened the store and went about business as usual. I called him part of the way through my shift... for what? I don't recall, but he didn't answer. I thought nothing of it, he was probably sleeping in late, that was normal for him. Once it got a little past two in the afternoon, which was when he was supposed to come in to work, I was a little worried. Sure, he had been late before... but something wasn't quite right... I could just feel it. After several calls to his cellphone, which of course went unanswered, I panicked. I called his house, no answer. Finally, I called one of his closest friends... and his Mom answered. "Where's Todd?" I asked. She stammered for a moment, "Todd died." she said. I felt my heart sink, the world stopped and I was completely floored. Everything after that, kinda blurs together... a lot of crying, a lot of support from the friends in my life at that time and a lot of moping.
His wake and funeral came and went, his birthday (not even a month after his death) came and went... nothing seemed to matter. Over the next few months I put on a fake front that implied I was feeling better and getting things together and I managed to have some decent times during the first year he was gone. I met my future wife, moved into an apartment with her and had some good times with good friends. Long story short, my life fell apart because I was a mess and I've lost nearly all of those friends and really got into a funk with panic and anxiety. If it were not for my wife's patience, understanding and outright faith in me, I wouldn't be writing this today.
I have felt for so many years that it was my fault he died because I wasn't with him. If I had gone with him, he might not have died. The truth is, there was nothing I could have done, I had no way of knowing what would happen. I needed to accept this, and I finally feel I have... it wasn't my fault. There were things going on in his life that nobody (or at least not a lot of people) were aware of. There are things that I know, that nobody else knows and there were likely things other people knew that I didn't. He was a secretive little bastard. Todd had demons that he couldn't easily share, and clearly couldn't deal with... and it's really sad that bad things get ahold of good people and ruin them from the inside out. His end was unfortunate, premature and honestly totally avoidable. If you are reading this and you need help, please tell your family and friends, they will help you, if you let them.
I want to remember the Todd that was one of my best friends. I want to remember all the fun times we had in the short time we knew each other. Everywhere we went, somebody knew him, everybody loved him. He was just about the nicest guy you could ever meet and was always fun to be around.
I miss him dearly. I would like nothing more than to talk with him one more time, to properly say goodbye.
Monday, February 15, 2016
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger is the G.O.A.T. for me (Greatest Of All-Time). Well, it's actually the G.O.A.T. along with it's sequel, Chrono Cross. They are tied, I just can't pick one over the other. Prepare for some major gushing, this is kind of a review of the game and a retrospective of the game's impact on my life. Chrono Cross will get it's own post because there is just too much to say for one post. Away we go!
The year was 1995, I had just turned ten that summer, my friend is coming over for a sleepover and he has brought something with him: Chrono Trigger for the Super Nintendo (abbreviated as SNES from this point forward). I was initially kind of not interested to play it, The Legend of Zelda series was as close as I got to RPG and Adventure game fun back in those days, I was more a fan of Fighting games. The music got to me first, Yasunori Mitsuda is the best composer in video games, you're argument is invalid and not accepted, sorry. That guy could score me washing dishes and it would be epic and emotional!
I liked the fact that while it played like a traditional RPG, you could dodge the enemies on screen if you didn't want to fight them, none of this random encounter nonsense! The story and characters. That's why it's stayed my favorite since 1995. There are six playable characters, with one optional playable character, and they are all fleshed out and interesting. The story while using time travel as it's core device to tell said story, is never confusing, it never loses sight of the goal. The goal is defeat the big bad guy and save the world. Everything you do in the game, builds up to that. Congrats Chrono (actually thanks Masato Kato) for making time travel NOT a migraine.
I borrowed my friend's copy for like a month, needless to say he kind of wanted it back. Hey, I was happy to oblige, I'm no game stealer, I just think it's telling that I played it for like a month, I never borrowed anything as a kid. So I got my own copy of the game and played it so freaking much that it was clearly becoming something of an obsession. Hey, at least it was a good obsession, could of been hard drugs or killing people.
It took five long years to get a sequel, but like I said, we'll talk about the equally as beloved (for me anyway) Chrono Cross another time. Chrono Trigger had some very good effects on me, I became genuinely interested in history and how things worked all throughout the history of mankind. I became very interested in time travel, though I've never experienced time travel done as well as it was in Chrono Trigger.
There is a very genuine sadness when it come to this game. That sadness is that there will likely never be another game in the franchise. There was a sequel that was exclusive to Japan called Radical Dreamers, it was a text based game, and of course there was Chrono Cross for the original PlayStation, which received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and most fans and it sold very well. After many years, Chrono Trigger was ported to the Nintendo DS, with a new translation and added content. Again, great reviews and it sold well, but apparently not well enough. In 2009 Square Enix Senior Vice President Shinji Hashimoto said "If people want a sequel, they should buy more!"
Buy more? I've bought every incarnation of the series that was ever officially released, and so have many many others. The Chrono series has made Square Enix a ton of money, is it too much to ask for a freaking sequel? Apparently it is too much.
Let's not end on a sour note. There may be little to no chance of a sequel, but Chrono Trigger and it's proper sequel, Chrono Cross live on! Through fan fiction, fan games, and even fan sites, heck I'd even consider www.chronocompendium.com to be THE Chrono website to go to if you want to explore this franchise in glorious detail. Chrono Cross is available on the original PlayStation and as a digital download for PlayStation 3. Chrono Trigger is available on just about every Sony or Nintendo device available, SNES, PlayStation (as part of the Final Fantasy Chronicles collection), PlayStation 3 (as a digital download), Wii Virtual Console, Nintendo DS, Android and iPhone, iPad and I'm sure I'm forgetting a device or two.
So if you haven't experienced this game, I feel legitimately bad for you. As with anything, it's not guaranteed to be a hit with everyone, but it's as close to video game perfection as it gets.
Final Score: 100 out of 100 talking frogs with swords.
The year was 1995, I had just turned ten that summer, my friend is coming over for a sleepover and he has brought something with him: Chrono Trigger for the Super Nintendo (abbreviated as SNES from this point forward). I was initially kind of not interested to play it, The Legend of Zelda series was as close as I got to RPG and Adventure game fun back in those days, I was more a fan of Fighting games. The music got to me first, Yasunori Mitsuda is the best composer in video games, you're argument is invalid and not accepted, sorry. That guy could score me washing dishes and it would be epic and emotional!
I liked the fact that while it played like a traditional RPG, you could dodge the enemies on screen if you didn't want to fight them, none of this random encounter nonsense! The story and characters. That's why it's stayed my favorite since 1995. There are six playable characters, with one optional playable character, and they are all fleshed out and interesting. The story while using time travel as it's core device to tell said story, is never confusing, it never loses sight of the goal. The goal is defeat the big bad guy and save the world. Everything you do in the game, builds up to that. Congrats Chrono (actually thanks Masato Kato) for making time travel NOT a migraine.
I borrowed my friend's copy for like a month, needless to say he kind of wanted it back. Hey, I was happy to oblige, I'm no game stealer, I just think it's telling that I played it for like a month, I never borrowed anything as a kid. So I got my own copy of the game and played it so freaking much that it was clearly becoming something of an obsession. Hey, at least it was a good obsession, could of been hard drugs or killing people.
It took five long years to get a sequel, but like I said, we'll talk about the equally as beloved (for me anyway) Chrono Cross another time. Chrono Trigger had some very good effects on me, I became genuinely interested in history and how things worked all throughout the history of mankind. I became very interested in time travel, though I've never experienced time travel done as well as it was in Chrono Trigger.
There is a very genuine sadness when it come to this game. That sadness is that there will likely never be another game in the franchise. There was a sequel that was exclusive to Japan called Radical Dreamers, it was a text based game, and of course there was Chrono Cross for the original PlayStation, which received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and most fans and it sold very well. After many years, Chrono Trigger was ported to the Nintendo DS, with a new translation and added content. Again, great reviews and it sold well, but apparently not well enough. In 2009 Square Enix Senior Vice President Shinji Hashimoto said "If people want a sequel, they should buy more!"
Buy more? I've bought every incarnation of the series that was ever officially released, and so have many many others. The Chrono series has made Square Enix a ton of money, is it too much to ask for a freaking sequel? Apparently it is too much.
Let's not end on a sour note. There may be little to no chance of a sequel, but Chrono Trigger and it's proper sequel, Chrono Cross live on! Through fan fiction, fan games, and even fan sites, heck I'd even consider www.chronocompendium.com to be THE Chrono website to go to if you want to explore this franchise in glorious detail. Chrono Cross is available on the original PlayStation and as a digital download for PlayStation 3. Chrono Trigger is available on just about every Sony or Nintendo device available, SNES, PlayStation (as part of the Final Fantasy Chronicles collection), PlayStation 3 (as a digital download), Wii Virtual Console, Nintendo DS, Android and iPhone, iPad and I'm sure I'm forgetting a device or two.
So if you haven't experienced this game, I feel legitimately bad for you. As with anything, it's not guaranteed to be a hit with everyone, but it's as close to video game perfection as it gets.
Final Score: 100 out of 100 talking frogs with swords.
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Fable III
Spoilers, obviously.
Fable III is an interesting game. Just looking at the fan reaction when the game came out in 2010, I believe, (Yeah, I don't really fact check much, have fun correcting me) was quite... well, interesting. The game was rated very well among a lot of video games websites, but got mixed reactions from fans. Some loved it, some felt like it was "meh" and others hated it. I guess I can kind of see it from the more negative perspective, but I really liked Fable III. Like a lot.
One of the biggest gripes I hear is "the game was too easy!", that's fair, but I like easier games (especially when it comes to adventure games and RPGs) so the difficulty didn't really bother me much. I also heard plenty of folks saying it was too easy to have a "good" alignment, and that there weren't enough "evil" choices in the game. I don't know, I found it pretty darn easy to be evil. In retrospect, I guess I really don't get the negative perspective. Anyway on to more Fable stuff.
So the whole point of Fable III is to start a revolution and save your kingdom from the coming darkness/apocalypse stuff. Your brother, King Logan makes you choose some people to be executed, because he's just a jerk like that, and your mentor, Sir Walter and butler, Jasper lead you on a journey to take down your bro, the king. So long story short, you recruit the help of various towns and villages by making promises to their leaders/respected citizens and eventually you overthrow your bro and claim the Kingdom for yourself, but not before a brief encounter with "the darkness" that promises it's going to come back in exactly one year (?) and destroy your world.
At this point, you get to the best part of the game in my opinion, making decisions where you can keep your promises to those you made promises to, or you can break the promise and be a butt. Anyway, you make your choices, you face the darkness, which turns out to be Walter and that's that. The story is decent, no more, no less.
The gameplay is very simple, as it should be. Nobody wants to go to school for many years to get a degree in how to play the game you've just bought. the x button is melee attack, the y button is ranged attack and the b button is magic attack. Simple. No complaints, moving on.
Graphics are up for debate (well, everything is up for debate) Some were/are upset the game doesn't look more realistic, but I like the fantasy cartoony-ish look to the characters. Though they can sometimes make the most bizarre faces. The sound is spot on, great music, the sound effects never seem off putting. Overall, good job. The game isn't very long, it's not like Elder Scrolls or Final Fantasy where you start playing the game when you're 14 and you finish the game when you're 38. 15-25 hours, depending on how much you like to meander. Personally, I find that preferable to games that require hundreds of hours, which is funny because I've put in hundreds of hours into each of the original three Fable games.
Wrapping up, Fable III has great humor, a great fantasy look, simple gameplay, a decent story, reasonable complete time and great music and sound effects. Why were fans so mixed on this when it came out? I'm not sure. I guess it just wasn't what some people wanted, can't please everyone.
Final Score: 4 chickens out of 5.
Fable III is an interesting game. Just looking at the fan reaction when the game came out in 2010, I believe, (Yeah, I don't really fact check much, have fun correcting me) was quite... well, interesting. The game was rated very well among a lot of video games websites, but got mixed reactions from fans. Some loved it, some felt like it was "meh" and others hated it. I guess I can kind of see it from the more negative perspective, but I really liked Fable III. Like a lot.
One of the biggest gripes I hear is "the game was too easy!", that's fair, but I like easier games (especially when it comes to adventure games and RPGs) so the difficulty didn't really bother me much. I also heard plenty of folks saying it was too easy to have a "good" alignment, and that there weren't enough "evil" choices in the game. I don't know, I found it pretty darn easy to be evil. In retrospect, I guess I really don't get the negative perspective. Anyway on to more Fable stuff.
So the whole point of Fable III is to start a revolution and save your kingdom from the coming darkness/apocalypse stuff. Your brother, King Logan makes you choose some people to be executed, because he's just a jerk like that, and your mentor, Sir Walter and butler, Jasper lead you on a journey to take down your bro, the king. So long story short, you recruit the help of various towns and villages by making promises to their leaders/respected citizens and eventually you overthrow your bro and claim the Kingdom for yourself, but not before a brief encounter with "the darkness" that promises it's going to come back in exactly one year (?) and destroy your world.
At this point, you get to the best part of the game in my opinion, making decisions where you can keep your promises to those you made promises to, or you can break the promise and be a butt. Anyway, you make your choices, you face the darkness, which turns out to be Walter and that's that. The story is decent, no more, no less.
The gameplay is very simple, as it should be. Nobody wants to go to school for many years to get a degree in how to play the game you've just bought. the x button is melee attack, the y button is ranged attack and the b button is magic attack. Simple. No complaints, moving on.
Graphics are up for debate (well, everything is up for debate) Some were/are upset the game doesn't look more realistic, but I like the fantasy cartoony-ish look to the characters. Though they can sometimes make the most bizarre faces. The sound is spot on, great music, the sound effects never seem off putting. Overall, good job. The game isn't very long, it's not like Elder Scrolls or Final Fantasy where you start playing the game when you're 14 and you finish the game when you're 38. 15-25 hours, depending on how much you like to meander. Personally, I find that preferable to games that require hundreds of hours, which is funny because I've put in hundreds of hours into each of the original three Fable games.
Wrapping up, Fable III has great humor, a great fantasy look, simple gameplay, a decent story, reasonable complete time and great music and sound effects. Why were fans so mixed on this when it came out? I'm not sure. I guess it just wasn't what some people wanted, can't please everyone.
Final Score: 4 chickens out of 5.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Introduction to stuff.
Okay, this probably isn't the best way to start a blog, but I'm going to be honest with you: I have no idea what this is going to be about. Not just this post, but this blog as a whole. My name is Scott and this is where I ramble about stuff, hence the name "Scott's Stuff". I want to talk... er type about things that I enjoy. Comic books (mainly Spider-Man), video games, movies, just kind of whatever I'm currently messing around with. I'd love to say I have some kind of structure, or some kind of plan, but the truth is I just don't. Hopefully not all my posts will be this spacey, but I'm just kind of winging it tonight.
I'm interested in reading and reviewing a bunch of classic Spider-Man comics and I'd also like to review the main series of Mortal Kombat video games. There's a bunch of other things I want to do, but those kind of stick out right now. So pretty much don't expect to learn anything here, but hopefully you will have fun reading my thoughts on some cool classic things. I mean, I'm sure I'll talk about modern stuff too, but right now I'm really getting that retro feeling.
Cool, so next post will be... let's see... ah, I know! A review/rambling about Fable III. Definitely not one of the things I said I was wanting to talk about, also it's a bit weird starting with the third installment in a franchise, but hey I'm currently replaying it. So yeah. Fable III. Next post.
I'm interested in reading and reviewing a bunch of classic Spider-Man comics and I'd also like to review the main series of Mortal Kombat video games. There's a bunch of other things I want to do, but those kind of stick out right now. So pretty much don't expect to learn anything here, but hopefully you will have fun reading my thoughts on some cool classic things. I mean, I'm sure I'll talk about modern stuff too, but right now I'm really getting that retro feeling.
Cool, so next post will be... let's see... ah, I know! A review/rambling about Fable III. Definitely not one of the things I said I was wanting to talk about, also it's a bit weird starting with the third installment in a franchise, but hey I'm currently replaying it. So yeah. Fable III. Next post.
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