Zipp

What can I say? There's some great posts in here and some not-so-great posts. It's the way of the internet. If people keep going, I'll keep reading. If not, hey, I've no regrets!

I applaud you.

This one's gonna be reviewed as dialogue... <b>METAL GEAR SOLID 4: GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS</b> SUNNY: It is my life's dream to cook eggs. NAOMI: to cook eggs you must be careful not to let them burn. SUNNY: wow, your tits are huge.

Chrono Cross Together with Xenosaga, this is Square Enix's most convoluted plot line... which puts it high in the running for most convoluted plot of all time. Despite suspicions, I didn't actually like Chrono Cross. I have to admit to getting choked up quite often during it, but that was an effect of the beautiful music, not because anything interesting was actually happening on screen. 5/10

Starring Agent G and the word "fuck." lol Deus Ex Wearing a trench coat and sunglasses, you fight the confusing plot lines of the Illuminati. It's nice to play as a character who can fit a rocket launcher under that coat. Better yet, they explain WHY he can fit a rocket launcher under his coat. 8/10 Deus Ex Invisible War The reason this game got bad press: less trench coat. Less rocket launcher. Less explanation. 7/10 FFXII Programming at its best. If using C++ involved the slaying of monsters for exp and loot, then I'd probably be a programmer today. I certainly spent enough time at the game to build one myself. 9/10 God of War II There's, like, two locations in this entire game. Just goes to show that no matter how violent and cool your main character is, dungeon crawls are boring. Kratos' prize for traversing the dungeon is a huge fat woman. 6/10

That's exactly what happened.

Don't know if anyone here is living in Portland, OR, but if you do... my next movie is going to start filming soon. CASTING CALL Moon Tribe Studios presents another casting call for a short film shooting late February 19th – 28th, 2010 entitled, “Population 2,” a futuristic dark drama about loss and the inability to move on. Hired actors will receive credit and experience on a serious production set and on a film that is going to be making the festival rounds as well as seeing limited theatre release. Moontribe Studios is highly supportive of the independent film making scene in Portland and there is a large chance that more acting work may follow. Please read closely: WHERE: TBD (You will be contacted if chosen with the location) DATE/TIME: Monday November 9, 1pm to 6pm and Tuesday November 10th, 1pm to 5pm. The slots are at 15 minute intervals starting at the time mentioned. Email your prefered time slot when you apply. There will be CALLBACKS in January. CASTING: We are casting for two roles. Male and Female who look 25-35. Must be 18 or over. Actor must be able to commit to the entire week of production although the shooting may not require the entire week. These roles are very emotionally demanding however previous acting experience is not required. If you think you have the ability to pull off such a role, we encourage you to audition. ROLE 1 Name: Citizen 1 Gender: male OR female Character: A former disgruntled corporate employee of a manufacturer for survival housing, equipment and war material. Once married to Citizen 2. Now surviving alone in a post-apocalyptic environment. Citizen 1 struggles with obsessive compulsiveness and control issues. He/she is an emotional wreck but is good at hiding this fact from him/herself. ROLE 2 Name: Citizen 2 Gender: male OR female (opposite of ROLE 1) Character: Once married to Citizen 1. Also an employee of the corporation. Citizen 2 has dealt with Citizen 1’s issues to the point that they have taken on a somewhat abused persona. He/she is not used to asserting him/herself, though the circumstances will soon force a confrontation. THE STORY: When apocalypse looms, a couple is forced to examine their relationship. Should they continue to live on against the odds or should they go the way of humanity and fade into oblivion. What happens if they don’t agree on their course of action? The film is a dramatic study of both the preamble and the results of such a confrontation set against a Steam Punk background. THE PRODUCTION Moon Tribe Studios has been producing films since 2005, although the experience of the producers goes back as far as 20 years. With the success of our production “The Bobbsey Twins Go to Hell” in 2006, we’re planning a repeat performance with our new production, “Population 2”. For more information about Moon Tribe Studios and our other work, go to: www.moontribestudios.com www.youtube.com/user/moontribestudios HOW TO APPLY: Please send your headshot and resume to: moontribestudios@gmail.com Write “Pop2 Auditions” in the subject line. Don’t forget to include your 15 minute time slot.

Because two isn't challenging enough. Heavenly Sword I don't trust American Voice Acting, which is okay because Heavenly Sword lets you play it in French. It also features the best crowd scenes of any game. Shame it features some of the worst boss fights. 8/10 FF Dissidia The story plays like a collection of “what is this Final Fantasy character going to whine about?” For some of the characters this works fine, namely Tidus and Squall. Then you get to kill them. 9/10 The Darkness I really enjoyed watching To Kill a Mockingbird. Definitely one of the finest films to have ever been made. Then I remembered I had a terrible game to beat. 3/10 Uncharted 2 By far the best acting I've ever seen in a video game. The gunplay isn't quite as good as it could be. At times I think I would actually like the game better if it were just a movie with multi-player attached as a side option. 9/10 Uncharted 1 Not as good as Uncharted 2. In fact, the only reason I really want to go back and play it again is because I'm playing through Uncharted 2 and I miss Sully. Sully is awesome. 7/10 Persona 4 Persona games would be a hell of a lot better if they didn't force you to run through mindless dungeons power grinding. And the power grinding would be a lot better if it wasn't set to Japanese Pop. So you'd basically be left with a dating sim where you play as a creepy kid who has seizures. 7/10 Persona 3 A choose your own adventure where every choice leads to the same damn page. This format is combined with a dating sim where you are rewarded for wooing a girl with getting to see her room (and nothing else) and a big ol' dungeon that has 100 floors of exactly the same room over and over. It's no wonder it took me a year and a half to beat the thing. 6/10 Batman Arkham Asylum For being a game centered around some of the best villains to grace the pages of comic books, the boss fights sure do suck in Batman Arkham Asylum. Also, once you get the three-at-once batarangs, the game becomes completely unfair. Then again, it wouldn't feel like Batman if he wasn't invincible. 7/10 Crisis Core It's a game based around a character who gets mentioned twice in the entire course of FF7. A large part of the plot revolves around an advertisement for a play that you see out of the corner of your eye in one scene in FF7. The combat revolves around hitting the same button a thousand times and maybe leveling if you're lucky enough to win a lottery. 5/10 Fallout 3 One day people will realize how boring this game is. Fallout 3 is a lot like going to the same movie over and over again. It's not a very good movie, but it's got Liam Neeson in it. 6/10 If you've got your own to post, please share.

Ah yes... the classic "thread devolves into grammatical fixes" again.

A perfect summary, thank you neblix.

Ha ha, my first playthrough was the same way! I spent more time on FF7 than I did on FFXII! I think it had to do with the Gold Saucer. As for my review, I appreciate all feedback, really, even negative feedback. Especially negative feedback, as it helps me grow and adapt my writing. I'm enjoying everyone's comments. About the enduring thing, I don't REALLY think there is an ALL TIME enduring game... but it's a good way to start a journalistic piece. Gets people's attention. And sometimes, that's what you gotta do. In a 500 word piece, strong emotion is a plus. As for McVaffe, I was mostly just pointing out that he was the reason I first came to OCRemix nearly a decade ago. Saw him posting, it brought it to mind. If he, or anyone else, wants to talk about Half Life instead of FF7, that's fine. Half Life is an awesome game. One of the first games to truly qualify as an "experience" over just a game.

I don't think there really is a problem in the thread, yet. Actually, I've been really happy with some of the arguments against what I wrote. McVaffe posts! The very first OCRemix I ever downloaded was a McVaffe song, must've been... shit, like 8 years ago now... maybe longer... it was a Tetris remix.

How old am I? I'm 26, a graduate student in social science and education and what I find fascinating is the fact that this review, while short as hell and not well advertised, has received over 300 hits in 48 hours. That says something about FF7 and the society of the gaming world. SMB3 didn't recieve 100,000 downloads on the Wii and it's been out longer than FF7. Emo is a write off of other people's emotions, but basically it means overly emotional to such a degree that it becomes pointless. Considering all the sequels they've made? Yes. Yes he is. Have you ever gone into the Honeybee inn? It's a half truth, I'll admit, but it drives home the image that the character tries to portray of himself. Yeah, FF6 was pretty great. I like the idea of FF7 as a redemption story. Just another way of looking at it, I suppose, and a completely viable one. Actually, Tidus was the character who made me write that last statement the way I did, because I do think he is possibly the deepest FF character yet. However, he isn't abused quite as much as Cloud. Yes, he gets royally fucked throughout the piece, but I feel he holds it together better than Cloud does and his ending is a much clearer redemption, with the final scene involving him and his father. That scene actually still makes me cry, it was very beautifully done.

Right, and I said pretty much the exact same thing, which is why I was wondering if the review had been read. I couldn't tell if you were making your own point in response to this title's thread or if you were agreeing with what I'd said in the review.

What? You've never read a review for a game you've already played to see what someone else thought about it or to try and better your understanding of why you liked the game, therefore bettering your understanding of who you are and what your interests are? I didn't get paid to write that review. I did it because (a) the game has been rereleased and people want to know why it's seeing so much action 12 years after the fact and ( because I'm tired of people claiming that FF7 was a game filled with "emo" characters.

I feel that the endurance of the game is easily shown by the fact that, in the few months it has been available on the PSN, it has sold nearly as many copies as when it was first released. Did you actually read my review?

The spoilers were a tough one for me to decide on. Ultimately, though, I figured that the only two large spoilers are the failing to save Avalanche (which I'm vague about) and Aerith's death. But if you don't know about Aerith's death by now, then you don't have the internet anyway. The final spine crusher? Cloud doesn't even end up saving the world by beating Sephiroth. Meteor still arrives and Holy fails. Ultimately the planet has to take care of things, showing Cloud that no matter what happened, his actions were pointless. From a slightly happier stand point, it does seem to be the planet giving Cloud a little bit of a push, telling him that he has to live for living's sake and can't try to find meaning behind everything he does because ultimately, there is no meaning. It's a very existential message and one that Bugenhagen is the first to tentatively put into words when you meet him at Cosmo Valley. Bugenhagen's lack of concern about his own demise is also a good place to spot some of this existentialism.

I wrote this for a "short review" contest over at Honest Gamers. I bring it up here because it's an argument mainly against all those who have called FF7 emo. I'd be interested in knowing what others seriously think about this subject. It's something I'm interested in as someone who studies human culture, thought, and society as a profession. http://www.honestgamers.com/systems/content.php?review_id=8468&gametitle=Final+Fantasy+VII+%28PSN%29 The review is very short, but I think the point is made fairly clearly. Yes, every sequel to FF7 has been emo. But not the original.

Ha ha, alright. Fair enough.

A couple of notes here... Dhsu: nice on the maps. I knew where FF12 and Vagrant took place, and I knew FFTactics was somewhere off the map, but I never knew it was so close. I do know the creator of Ivalice has stated that he imagines FFTactics as taking place either long before or long after FFXII. I can't remember which he said, but they aren't in the same time period. I also know that FF Advance 1 is a dream world based on Ivalice, but that FF Advance 2 is actually taking place in Ivalice. I also forgot to mention that in the Lion Wars, Balthier appears. His appearance is also canonical as he explains his arrival through the use of some magical artefact. The other character, from Advance 2... Lem or something... he also explains his arrival. I don't know, I didn't play much of the advance games. I love Tactics, though. @ Seifer and Gilgamesh: If you go into the battle having already acquired Odin, then yes, this entire sequence of events does occur and Seifer gets "defeated" by Gilgamesh. @ Gilgamesh and the X-Zone: Since Final Fantasy has a long history (and JRPGs in general) of character dying but not actually dying, Gilgamesh' sacrifice in FFV really doesn't mean that he's dead at all. Anyway, his appearance in FF8 is obviously a direct tie-in to FFV, especially in the original Japanese. @ FFXIII: FFXIII is going to be an interesting one. Obviously the universes are connected, that's been said numerous times by the development team. The question is, is there going to be one long story that is only viewable by playing all the games? Or is it just going to be a thematic connection? I'm pumped for the games. @ Canon: Obviously you knew what I meant, though, so I must be an incredible writer. @ Culex: nobody really knows where Culex comes from. He's probably an interdimensional traveler who uses the power of the crystals to hop worlds. This would go a long way towards supporting the theory that there are multiple crystals and not just the same crystals repeated or broken into smaller pieces throughout each game. I imagine that after his embarrassing defeat at the hands of a Brooklyn plumber, Culex commits seppuku. @ Kingdom Hearts (cause I can sense it coming, but beware of spoilers!): Kingdom Hearts doesn't make any sense in terms of the FF worlds or characters. It's stated pretty explicity that the majority of the FF characters lived in Hallow Bastion before Ansem screwed things up and then Maleficent showed up and took it over. The game was designed like that Clamp series... what was it called? Tsubasa? Clover? I don't recall the name, but basically you just have the exact same characters who have lived an entirely different lives. Thus Yuffie is still spunky and ridiculous, but she isn't from Wutai. It's also how you get odd things like Yuna and Rikku and Paine showing up as pixies. Don't try to explain it. There are a couple things which make people feel like they should be able to explain it, though, and it keeps throwing everyone off. For one thing... Cloud. While it's stated pretty clearly that Aerith is from Hallow Bastion, Cloud's history is a little more shadowed. We can assume he comes from Hallow Bastion, but then what's the deal with Sephiroth. Sephiroth appears out of nowhere to terrorize Cloud and it seems pretty clear the two know each other. This isn't so much a problem in the first game, where they just fight, but in the second game Sephiroth is actually looking for Cloud and Tiffa is aware of some history between them. On the other hand, when Tiffa finally elaborates on their connection, it is mostly to say that Sephiroth is Cloud's darkness. This gives FF fans a lot to consider, for it means that Cloud is actually the final vestige of Sephiroth, that as long as Cloud survives with those Jenova cells in him, Sephiroth will also exist. Advent Children might end this connection, through the cleansing of the geostigma, but it's still an interesting point. It also makes Cloud and Sephiroth's dual appearance in KH not only sensical, it makes it necessary. Cloud, as a former puppet of Sephiroth, cannot go anywhere without the One Winged Angel shadowing him, even if his character is transposed into another life with an entirely different history. Auron is the other character that really throws things as HIS appearance in KH2 can actually fit quite nicely in with FFX's story. After all, Auron is dead in FFX. At the end of the game he finally lets himself be taken to the Otherworld. And who controls the Otherworld in KH? Why, Hades, of course. So Auron being drawn up out of the souls of the dead makes quite a lot of sense. Again, though, this really is just transposing the character. After all, Auron was a dead warrior in FFX, so making him a dead warrior in KH is just being consistent with his character, and not so much trying to tie the two worlds together. No, by far the biggest upset to the whole transposing theory is the Disney characters. While the FF characters are snuck in as cameos with no real connection to their own games, the Disney characters are definitely treated within the cannon of their own movies and series and what not. Not only is most of the game (especially the second game) based around the events that occur in the Disney films, many of the characters talk at length about their worlds being destroyed. For most of the characters, KH1 would take place after the Disney films (which is actually pretty awesome if you think about it... it means that we can assume, for instance, that after the Lion King, Simba's african jungle is completely gang-fucked by darkness and everyone is killed). KH2, on the other hand, takes place almost simultaneously with most of the films, as many of the destroyed worlds were restored in KH1. Chain of Memories is outside of the realm of time and reality and anything that happens there that is not connected to the original characters (Namine, Sora, Rikku, the Majestic Twel--- I mean, Organization 13) is not cannon. It's all a part of Namine's spell woven over Sora. The real twist in the works is gonna come with the PSP Kingdom Hearts that's coming out, as it will explain the entire origins of the series. There is a chance it might try to canonize the FF relations, but I doubt it.

For sure. I think it all comes back to that desire I mentioned at the start to just find the connections in things. It's like we're fulfilling our role on the planet, or something. I do enjoy the one canonical connection between FFX and FF7 and it is nice to play a few games set in the same world (it was really cool coming back to Ivalice in FFX12 and seeing some redesigns of the Tactics monsters and deities). It also makes Gilgamesh quite the interesting character, as we can trace a history for him at least between FF5 and FF8. Seeing him released from the X-zone in FF8 is less of an easter egg and more taking care of unfinished business. Gilgamesh was also indirectly responsible for many FF characterizations that would follow him. Having been the eternal sidekick and someone who ultimately switches sides, he most directly influenced Ultros in FF6 (a reoccuring yet inept villain who ultimately ends up turning tame).

For a long time now I've chronicled the connections between the various FF worlds, beyond the normal "Cid" "Chocobo" "Moogle" stuff. Why? I think it because the human mind thrives on connection. We live in a world where everything is inextricably but subtly connected and there is some joy for us that can only be achieved by discovering those connections and marking them. Thus, with a series which ostensibly has no connection between the games, what little information I can find to prove otherwise fascinates me. My main focus was on connecting settings. I started long ago by collecting all the FF maps I could get my hands on and running comparisons. This was really little more than a child's way of going about making the connection. After all, one of the earliest things we learn to rely on is our eyesight, and so it was only to be expected that in my search I would first turn to the visual plane. Of course, there's actually very little to be told from the maps, except for some striking similarities between some of the game's continental layouts and the fact that most of the games use very similar landmasses. Also, most of the games feature three major continents with two or three smaller continents and then a number of islands. Inevitably one of the continents is noticeably larger than the others and generally is the one on which the players start the game (see FF7, FF1, FF4, FF6, etc.) My next method, when I was a little older, was to check out all the in-game crossovers. There are a lot. Aside from the afore mentioned species and name similarities, there are plenty of re-used items and weapons, mini games, in-jokes (you spoony bard!) even humorous character references (like Zidane commenting on Cloud's sword in FF9 or there being a "Cloud's shop" in FF8 ) and character re-occurences (Biggs and Wedge). But there are also some very concrete and subtle references that seem to be showing a definite connection between all the games. How does one decide the difference between an easter egg and a cannonical tie-in? Mostly it's in terms of style and presentation. A single shop named after Cloud in FF8 does not prove that THAT Cloud is running the shop or that FF7's world eventually becomes FF8's world. For one thing, it's too brief a reference. For another, too many things don't make sense if it's taken as cannon. FF8's world is given a long and well documented history. If Cloud is still alive and running a shop in this world, it doesn't make sense with that history (he'd have to be at least 300 years old for this to work) and anyway at the end of FF7 it shows a pretty clear indication that the world looks pretty much the same 100 or 200 years after Meteor Fall (not mentioned in FF8 ). Now, one could speculate on all sorts of things, here. Maybe Cloud's abilities and exposure to Jenova cells kept him alive for long enough to exist in Squall's time. Maybe Meteor Fall IS referenced in FF8 as the Lunar Cry! OMG! Maybe the sorceror's power, only passed down through women, is actually JENOVA'S POWER! Yeah, see, fans could jump on this kind of stuff all day and while fun and satisfying to the aforementioned connection part of our brain, these speculations are just that... speculations. At the end of them we've left the original evidence so far behind that our new theory holds no water. And all sparked by a single line of text . These are not the kind of things I'm after. Therefore, I label these kind of things "Easter Eggs." I mean, christ... FF9 even references Resident Evil 2. And, on that note, Parasite Eve includes Chocobo's in the Museum and Gunblades in the second game. So, like I said... those SE guys love easter eggs. A now-famous scene in which a character named Shinra in FFX-2 discusses plans to utilize the planet's lifestream in creating a city worthy of his name... now that, on the other hand... now that I call evidence. Using such evidence (which I shall shortly lay out), I have deduced that only the following Final Fantasy worlds are connected: FF7, FFX (Also note that Ivalice is the only common setting that is specifically named as such for any FF games (specifically any game in the Tactics series and FFXII). It is the setting for Vagrant Story as well.) Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy X's connections have already been noted. The Shinra conversation, as well as an interview with the series director, confirmed that the worlds are meant to be one in the same. Final Fantasy 7 presumably takes place generations after FFX, as Shinra says the process would take that long to refine. This is certainly plausible. Final Fantasy 7's pre-history comes in three parts. The first is ancient history, which involves the Cetra's discovering the planet and cultivating it. 2000 years before the game, Jenova lands, ending this history. The next bit of history begins 30 years before the game and involves the finding of Jenova by Gast and Hojo, the birth of Aerith and most of the FF cast, the fall of Vincent, and the birth of Sephiroth. This period ends 5 years before the game, with the events of Crisis Core forming the final foundation for what happens in FF7. Now, FFX's history is a 1000 years long, so it could easily take place sometime after Jenova is defeated and before she is discovered by the elite and wealthy running the planet under the guise of the Shinra electrical company. Despite those being the only two cannonical setting connections thus far, there are a couple characters that cannonically cross worlds. Cloud is the first. In FF7 he falls into the Lifestream and his soul and mind essentially leave his body, seperating from one another... this is the fate of all who fall into the lifestream or become oversaturated with mako energy in some other way. Since mako is essentially concentrated soul stuff, the person's soul becomes entrapped with it, while the mind, usually bound by the soul, is freed from its bounds and wanders. (This even happens to Sephiroth. He needs the Black Materia to give him enough power to reawaken his body. His mind is connected to Jenova which is connected to all the clones, so rather than losing his mind, Sephiroth is able to jump between the minds of Hojo's experimental soldiers, even being able to alter their genetic appearance to match his and then transmute their bodies cells into re-incarnations of Jenova, which the party fights.) Cloud's mind goes to Ivalice. This is documented in the events of FF Tactics, where the power of the Zodiac stones pulls his free conciousness to Ramza's time. Cloud mentions Sephiroth and having fallen into the lifestream as the last thing he remembers. It is assumed that when the Zodiac stones are destroyed at the end of the game, Cloud's mind is freed again. Either that or it is called back to his soul with Tifa's summon. Cloud's soul becomes stuck in the lifestream, until Tifa reconnects it with the mind by working through Cloud's past and thus freeing him from the lifestream. The other character who travels cannonically between games is Gilgamesh. At the end of FF5, Gilgamesh is trapped inside the X-zone, a zone that is breached at least three more times by other characters in FF history. First it is opened again by the Ra Devil in the not-very-well-known FFLOTC (legends of the crystal) anime OAV. It is also breached in FF6 by the spell banish, which opens up a gate to the x-zone (very recognizable) and takes creatures inside (it was a popular spell back in the day due to a glitch with the spell vanish, which makes ALL magic always work.... even on bosses... making X-zone an instant kill for nearly every boss in the game... Kefka not included). Most importantly, however, the rift is opened by Seifer in FF8, when he kills the Odin Summon. As he does so, Gilgamesh appears and claims Odin's sword. He is confused at first, going so far as to start to ask for Bartz in the Japanese version. He then promptly murders Seifer and becomes a summon for the rest of the game, coming in an out of the rift as he pleases. He retains this ability after the game, appearing in FF9 (with a changed appearance to disguise who he is), and in FFXII (as one of the coolest battles of the game, replete with his "battle on the bridge" music). In this respect, Gilgamesh has most likely gained the same sort of demi god powers as the summons and beings such as Chaos, in that he is able to consciously travel between worlds. There are also some connections I'd love to be able to make but can't while sticking to my strict requirements. The FF1-FF9 connection is pretty strong. It's got the crystals, it's got the fiends, and Garland makes an appearance in the game as a very important, though short lived, character. His history, which was never quite fully understood in FF1, is also finally fleshed out. We realize that he was more than a Knight who happened on power, but already a powerful mage-knight by the time of FF1 and comes from a different world, that of Terra. He arrives in FF1's world (simply called Gaia) and tries to destroy it to make way for the Terrans, but he is defeated by the light warriors (note: this is specifically referenced in FF9). Having failed to destroy the world himself, he plans to have the residents of Gaia do it for him... thus the events of FF9. Now, since Dissidia, I have heard this connection has been retconned out of existence, as Garland is given a full history relating to FF1 in that game. So it joins the list. Someone makes (http://www.rpgamer.com/editor/2005/q2/050205gm.html) a remarkably strong case for FF8 being connected to FF3 (a connection I had considered because of the Hyne reference) but as the entire theory originates from the single mention of a familiar name, I can't consider it cannon. FF8 will forever be the game fans try to place in the continuum. Another is FF2 and FF4, which was only created recently in the remakes of those games. FF4 for the DS adds an extensive amount of history to the characters, with an emphasis on Kain, Cecil, and Golbez. Kain's father's name is given in the game as Richard who was a character in the remade version of FF2, who gives his son's name as Kain. Both Kains have blond hair and remark that they will follow in their father's footsteps. Both are also adopted. It's obviously just some sort of elaborate easter egg as the geographies and character histories wouldn't work together, but it's the first time I've seen a dual-crossover in the series that was so blatant. Any game with the Crystals in it perks my interest, as they are such a strong theme and image, but not one used in all the games (therefore not to be discredited like Chocobos or Moogles or Behemoths). They usually play the same role and two games in particular, FF1 and FF3, beg to be connected by the Crystals, as FF3 even references warriors of light who free the Crystals. Still, FF3 has a history involving a floating island and a mage who summons the Cloud of Darkness while FF1 has a history involving Chaos and Garland's attempt to become him. Again, plenty here for fan theories, not enough for a true mark of cannon. I'd also love to connect FF7 with FF1, seeing as Dirge of Cerberus is directly connected to Chaos, but then that would be like connecting all the FF worlds because of Ifrit. Chaos is a godlike being, I have no doubt he can appear in many places throughout time if he wants to. For the longest time I also wanted to connect FF6 and FF4 for the "Ancient Castle" which bears much in common with Castle Baron... also the name "Baron Falls" though I believe this was a mis-translation from "Baren Falls." In any case, just a child's fancy to tie together his favourite two RPGs from his childhood. I'd also like to point out that Cecil is the only Final Fantasy character to actually have lines in another video game, having a scene devoted to him in Secret of Evermore. However, as Evermore is a dream world, we can assume he isn't actually there. In conclusion, I'll be buying Dissidia over Blazblu. (The best FF site out there for information on games released prior to 2009 is http://www.ffcompendium.com/h)

I should point out that I am not Jason. I am Jonathan Alisandyr, though I do write for Jason. However, if you email him at the address provided, I'm sure he'd be interested in taking all of you. To answer the main question that has been asked, yes we do console games as well (in fact, mostly we do console games). If you have some games you could review, please come join the team. When we get some more console games in, you'd be eligible for those as well, if you can show you are a consistent reviewer. http://www.honestgamers.com/index.php

Message from Jason Venter, owner of Honest Gamers, a site I've written at for over a year and have received many free games from: "Hey! We still have a bunch of downloadable games that we need reviewed. If you're interested, write back with your full name and the reason(s) that you're the perfect candidate. I'm including the available titles below (two that I've mentioned before and two that are new) with links to info on the HonestGamers site... Streets of Fury (Xbox Live) http://www.honestgamers.com/news.php?art....+Fury+%28XLI%29 Madballs in... Babo: Invasion (PC) http://www.honestgamers.com/news.php?art....ABO%3A+Invasion Fallen Earth (PC) - 30-day access code provided http://www.honestgamers.com/news.php?article_id=4935&gametitle=... Gemini Lost (PC) - one-time download http://www.honestgamers.com/news.php?article_id=4937&gametitle=... As we continue to expand and provide more PC coverage, I'll continue to need people to step up and review any titles on that platform that interest them. If you know a fantastic writer who likes covering PC games, perhaps he or she can help with coverage in the future. Don't be afraid to refer talented friends to the site. We're headed into the busy season now, so let's try to get these covered quickly and with the quality that HonestGamers readers expect and deserve. Let me know if you have any questions, and thanks for your ongoing efforts!" Writing reviews has improved my critical eye and my writing abilities very much in the last year or so. I highly recommend trying it out to anyone who is interested in any form of writing. A little bit of journalism can go a long way, especially when you have to cater to a continual audience. It's also a great portfolio piece and, hey, you get free games. To reply, please write here: jason ATT honestgamers DOT com

Part XVIII is up, after two months: EDIT: Hmm... looking back I see I neglected to update here for my last few parts. Well, er, they're up, too. Better start with this one, don't want to get massive spoilers: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5066583/15/Chrono_Break