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fantasy_reader
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Name: Victoria
Gender: Female
Interests: Music, video games, the Olympics (summer and winter), the English language...I'm not really the outdoorsy type.
Expertise: Avoiding the outdoors and RPG gaming.
Occupation: Student
Industry: Art
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
11/5/2003
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| Started and completed one storyline in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. The game has three main characters (Terra, Ventus [though KH fans will recognize him as Roxas from KHII], and Aqua), and the game is accordingly split among 3 different storylines following those characters. Each story is also relatively short, as a result...and once you do all 3 with 100% completion (I think), you can unlock the final storyline that brings it all together and officially ends the game.
I started with Aqua's storyline. I think she was technically the last one in the list when you choose in the beginning, so probably I was supposed to play her last, but her fighting style appealed to me. There's a scene in the beginning of the game (before everyone gets split up) where you get to test out each character's fighting styles/abilities. Ventus is my kind of guy because he's very speedy, but Aqua was also pretty quick...plus she has this great Cartwheel move right from the start that I found very helpful. It's like Dash, basically...Terra has like Quick Dart or something to get him from one place to another, but once he starts it, you can't really control where he goes (just in a straight line). With Aqua's Cartwheel, however, her dash turns into...well, a cartwheel at the end that actually gives you the ability to maneuver her as she flips around.
I basically like Aqua as a character in general, because she's definitely not a girly-girl type. Fighter chick all the way! I mean, her personality isn't like scary hardcore or anything...she obviously cares for her two friends and wants to look out for them (this is a KH game, after all). But she never seems overly sentimental about it. Oh! And they didn't give her a stupid, high, breathy voice! So that's always a plus. Her voice is sort of FFX Lulu-ish, you could say.
Just as a general comment on the game...I always forget just how cheesy KH games can get. And then I play another of them. And it's really almost painful. I dunno, I think I've gotten very attached to Crisis Core in terms of its character development/portrayals. Things sometimes got pretty sentimental, and of course the ending is SO SAD, but mostly everything and everyone felt genuine. In KH games, the overt theme of the power of friendship is just...well, it's TOO overt! Ugh.
The battle system is always fun, though. I will definitely give it that.
FINAL STATS - AQUA
79% Report Completion
3759 Enemies Defeated
Completion Time: 30 hrs, 23 mins
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| I didn't mention this before because I'm a super slack blogger (exactly 5 months since my last entry!), but I started a second playthrough of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. I think I started it near the beginning of December, but I'm not completely sure...I know it wasn't as far back as summer, so it must have been in December, when I knew the semester would be wrapping up soon and winter break would give me time to devote myself to gaming again.
And now, I've just completed that second playthrough. Waah, could Square-Enix possibly conceive of a sadder ending for a game?! I know I said this in my first review of Crisis Core (which I recall being quite extensive), but it really was quite cruel for Square-Enix to get us attached to a character that everybody knows dies in the end.
And I always get pissed when *spoiler alert* Zack is about to die at the end -- you know, when he's fighting those hordes of Shinra infantrymen -- and the game just kind of cuts off the battle after a while. Obviously the end of it is inevitable, given that the whole point of the game's end is to show how Zack dies and passes off his legacy to the mako-addled Cloud, but I totally could've won against that Shinra horde! I've done it before: one of the missions pits you against literally 1000 infantrymen, albeit in waves, and I beasted that. So in that pseudo-battle at the end, I was like, Psssh, bring it! I've got HP over 20,000, auto Wall (Barrier + MBarrier), auto-Regen, a phoenix down equipped, a veritable endless supply of healing items (including more phoenix downs), break 9999 damage limit, and pretty good dodging skills to avoid those missiles you keep firing at me. I got this! But nooooo, even if you're doing well, the game is like "Sorry, time's up." Sigh.
I tried harder to complete more missions before ending the game, this time around. It was easier given that I started a new game + and ended up at level 72, so based on pure stats and experience, I was able to complete more missions. You can get some friggin awesome stuff from those upper-level missions...worth it. I know there's sort of a sidequest within the missions where you can fight Minerva, who's like the goddess of the earth or something, but I didn't invest much effort into that. Mostly I just did the missions that I thought myself capable of completing...so I tended to avoid them once they got "Very Hard" labels, haha.
Just as a note, the completion time I list below is actually the time of my first game added to the time of my second game. When you start a new game +, it keeps all your same stats, items, etc. and just plunks you back at the beginning of the plot, so the timer doesn't restart. Since my first game's completion time was about 38 hrs, I spent close to the same time on this second playthrough.
FINAL STATS:
New Game +
Level 72
+ 380% HP (+ Break HP Limit)
77% Missions Completion
Completion Time: 74 hrs, 50 min
Oh, and I haven't beaten the final boss in FFIV yet. I know, I know...so slack. Basically I got to him at the end and then struggled to find a way to defeat him (there's some weird trick to him that I've now forgotten, but oh well...plus I'm pretty sure he was just way stronger of a boss than I was prepared to handle). So I'm in the final dungeon, but I've just been wandering around and trying to train some more in order to beat the final boss. To be honest, though, I haven't picked up FFIV in a while...I really ought to get back to that. I tend to have a bad habit of starting new games before I finish the one I've been playing, so then sometimes I never finish them at all. A similar thing happened with Chrono Trigger...got to Lavos, couldn't defeat him initially, started some other game, then just never got back to it. Oops.
Also, I got Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep for Christmas, so that'll be the next game I start...whenever I have the time, anyway.
LATER
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| I'm only about 26 hours into Final Fantasy IV, but I'm already in the final dungeon/area (Lunar Subterrane). I was a little surprised at first to notice how low my time is so far -- I tend to spend upwards of 100 hours on the RPGs I play -- but it's actually not too surprising considering when the game was made. I think it was originally released in 1991, and RPGs weren't nearly as complex or lengthy back then as they are now. I specifically remember when I played FF(1) and how I was so surprised by how simplistic and quick it was. As a matter of fact, I think I remember reading somewhere that FFIV has been at least partially credited with introducing complex plotlines and character development/twists into the genre...so since then, RPGs have been increasingly packed with sidequests, twists and turns, etc. The genre has a come a ways, huh?
I've really enjoyed the game so far, I must say. It does have some peculiar moments for me, and I feel like there's just too much drama with the way characters come and go throughout the game (for God's sake, almost everyone "dies" at least once...), but it's still been a great deal of fun. And even though the character development and background in this game isn't super developed compared to later Final Fantasies, I still feel a strong affinity for most of the characters. They really pop as individuals, despite the fact that the characters often seem to take a backseat to the plot.
Anyway, I suppose I'll do a bit of a review once I actually finish up the game. Well, final thoughts, anyway. It feels like FFIV has kind of passed by in a blur for me, though, so I'm not sure how well preserved my impressions are anymore. Only 26 hours, and I'm almost done...yeah, that's a bit of a blur for me.
LATER
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| Well, looks like I just finished my third (?) playthrough of Final Fantasy IX! I truly love this game...like, it's kind of ridiculous.
FINAL STATS:
Zidane - Level 73
Dagger/Garnet - Level 69
Amarant - Level 69
Freya - Level 68
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Vivi - Level 69
Steiner - Level 69
Eiko - Level 69
Quina - Level 68
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Ozma Defeated
Card Collector Level: "Commander," 1256 p
87 card types collected
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Completion Time: approx. 74 hours
I've been thinking about the games I've played in the past, and it occurred to me that there are very few games I've played that I actually love and would play ad infinitum, if I had the time. Usually I give things a "meh" or "yeah, it was pretty good!" review, not an "OMG IT WAS AWESOME" review. But Final Fantasy IX falls under that very small category of games that I truly cherish, in which I find very few faults. (Tales of the Abyss is the other one.) I've mentioned before that this may be due to the fact that FFIX was my "gateway game" and thus has nostalgic value, but whatever. I think it would stand up even to an objective evaluation.
That said, you're not gonna get a useful review out of me for this one. I love the characters, love the plot (despite random boss at the very end), love the battle system, love love the ending (though I still haven't figured out who's narrating it), love the CG...so, in summary: I love it! Even after 10+ years!
This is definitely my most complete playthrough, meaning I fulfilled most of the sidequests, got most people's ultimate weapons, beat Ozma, etc. etc. I didn't do absolutely everything (didn't get all the cards, said "eff that" for Steiner's Excalibur II, didn't complete Ragtime Mouse True & False), but I'm pretty satisfied. I did all that I wanted to do.
As a side note, I find it odd how much Amarant is publicized on the case for FFIX. The choice of characters who show up on the front seems logical, since they're all in the game from the very beginning (Dagger, Steiner, Vivi, Zidane)...except Amarant. You don't even get this guy until Disc 3 or something! What's he doing there? Plus he doesn't even play that big of a role within the actual game...I like him a lot as a fighter, but he doesn't have much individual storyline other than he learns from Zidane what it means to work within a team. He has a bit of a character arc, yeah, but he also has decidedly little backstory -- especially in comparison to the other characters on the front. So why is he there?
Plus, on the back of the case, there's Amarant again! Twice! He takes up most of the back with an explosion scene, which he's dramatically running away from. And there's a smaller scene that shows how the battle lineup looks: it's a party of Amarant, Dagger, Vivi, and Zidane facing off against 3 Vepals. I don't get it...why not feature Freya or something, whom you get much earlier? It seems a bit misleading to suggest you're going to see Amarant early on in the game.
I'm gonna go even more old-school and play either FFIV or FFVI next. I have several of the older games lying around and have just never gotten around to them, so I think it's time to finally get one of those done. I'm leaning toward IV, actually...I hear it's one of the best. (Actually, people say that about a lot of the FF games.) Plus I hated Terra so much in Dissidia that I'm not feeling VI at the moment. Hooray for bias!
LATER
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| Just a quick update...I just finished taking on Ozma in FFIX. He's a secret boss you can find in Chocobo's Air Garden, and the hardest boss in the game. I never fought Ozma in my previous FFIX game (games? I can never remember if I've actually played FFIX twice before or just feel like I did because I watched my brother play so many times), so I wanted to make sure I actually defeated him in this playthrough.
It took me several tries, I'll tell you. I had to perfect what team I used and what each of them had to do. Also, I had to change my mental approach to the battle. The first few times, I placed priority on stealing Ozma's items and then killing him, but I always ended up too focused on just having Zidane steal. It always ended up more of a fight to stay alive than anything else...Ozma doesn't really wait around for you to do what you want. He actually doesn't wait at all (incredibly short wait time). The final try, I was like "Eff that" and placed priority simply on killing him. If I happened to get all his items in the process, then hey, that's awesome. And I did! So it all worked out. =)
I used Zidane (Steal / Attack), Eiko (Phoenix / Holy), Amarant (Aura / No Mercy), and Quina (Auto-Life / Frog Drop). Quina's Frog Drop did upwards of 7,000 damage for me since I've caught more than 100 frogs. I didn't really have to use Eiko for regular healing all that much since I had Auto-Haste and Auto-Regen on all my characters and they would quickly heal themselves anyway, so Eiko kinda just stood around waiting for multiple people to die and then revive them with Phoenix...but she didn't even have to do that so often because I made sure to keep Aura / Auto-Life on everybody.
Well anyway, I'm pretty close to the end of the game now. I just have to wrap up Memoria and move on to the Crystal World and kick Kuja's butt. I hope to finish it tomorrow, but if not, I'll either do it late on a weekday or wait until the weekend to devote plenty of time to it. I want to soak it in!
LATER
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