Malaki-LEGEND.sys

I can't imagine this is what it sounded like on the PC. Then again, I did have a pretty nice Sound Blaster card back then. That may have made my experience much better.

I just got employed today and now MOAR good news!

Warriors of Light was traditional FF style. I never got to play that much of it, but from what I understand it was essentially FFV job system meets FFIII turn-based with a bit more stylized FFIII DS visuals(if you can get anymore stylized). Also, just beat Kingdom Hearts 3DS earlier today and holy shit was that some amazing game. Now I'm on a Kingdom Hearts kick and very much looking forward to Kingdom Hearts 3.

Well apparently pedophilia is the new hotness. Don't get me wrong. Little kid characters are cute and adorable and etc., but when your 17 - 20 year olds look like 5 year olds and sound like 3 year olds... Well yeah, that's disturbing.

So damn good I marathoned it in one day. Never did that before. In fact, I'm willing to say that it was the last truly great anime I've seen in awhile. The anime adaption of Valkyria Chronicles pretty much killed my interest in anime, and I'm so far out of the loop now, I don't know what's out there that isn't moe and/or post Naruto/One Piece shounen junk. Last things I watched earlier this year was all of Hajime no Ippo, Spice and Wolf, Deadman Wonderland(got stupid), and Nodame Cantabile.

This(especially that last part ) is the long and short of it. It's essentially Final Fantasy: The Four Warriors of Light 2. If you were into that, then you're probably game for this one.

I've seen both of the released Rebuild of Evangelion movies, and I personally think they're excellent. They cleaned up and redid a lot, if not all of the art and animation, and it is BEAUTIFUL to watch. The action scenes really feel that much better. As Top Gun mentioned, by the second movie the plot has diverged substantially from the original series(they even added a new character into the mix). In my opinion it fixes a lot of the "whatthefuckness" of the original series/movies and makes much more sense, which makes it more interesting. Still waiting on that release info for the final two movies...

Square-Enix, y u no announce localization for Bravely Default!? Incidentally, Fire Emblem is getting its second round of DLC maps n' quests n' shiz pretty soon and Bravely Default already has announced costume(I think) DLC in the works. It makes me wonder what their plans are for this DLC once they release these games stateside. Personally I think as long as it's meaningful stuff(what I think they've been doing) and not just "xp booster packs", I'm pretty OK with it. I can't say that I know the rest of the Western gaming community will agree. Either way, dammit SE! Bring this game over!

Wanted to divide the post into 2 for less reading headaches. Following are game impressions! So I grabbed Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance over the course of the past month. Man is Theatrhythm some kind o' crack. I have to force the damn system shut or I won't stop playing. The premise of the game is simple enough, but it's so mind-numbing addictive. I'm pretty sure I already have more than 50k Rythmia as of this post. Haven't been able to grab the DLC just yet, but I'm sure it'll all ruin my free time. There are 3 major modes in the game: Series, Challenge, and Chaos Temple(where you complete randomized "dark notes") and three difficulty modes that are progressively unlocked in addition to museums where you can listen to music, look at collectible cards with cute artwork and character descriptions, as well as watch even movies. The game has a sort of "RPG-lite" aspect added to it with your party gaining levels, stats, and skills, as well as being able to use items to help you through the different types of musical stages of which there are three: Battle, Field, and Event stages. The better your performance, the higher the chance for better items and colored gems that unlock new characters. Naturally this means that the better your characters stats, the more chances you have of getting farther in dark note stages. There really isn't more to say about the game as it's pretty simple, but I can't get over it! If you're looking for a directed, meaningful experience, you need not apply, but if you love Rhythm games, but more importantly are a fanboy for FF music and the series in general, then this game is right up your alley. --------- I just grabbed Kingdom Hearts yesterday, so I can't give the best analysis yet, but I'm loving it from the 5 hours I've played so far. I think one of my favorite things thus far is that I'm ACTUALLY PLAYING the game as opposed to an overwrought tutorial like the first and second entries. I haven't played a KH game since 2, but this one was surprisingly easy to get into. It has an appendix to cover terminology and history in the game, and certain "flashback" cutscenes can be rewatched and skipped at your leisure. Well that's user-friendly! The game's combat is surprisingly deep, and while it isn't AMAZINGLY challenging on normal(it ain't no slouch, either), there are A LOT of attack options that make combat feel pretty satisfying to try and master. One of my favorite combos is using the Zero Gravity ability to put all enemies in my range in elevated stasis, then either use Thunder to AoE them all or Strike Raid to smack 'em with a keyblade toss. The way you learn abilities is through using the very Pokemon-like(and fun) "Dream Eater" system, where you'll have cute little critters that you can create and add to your party, then after acquiring enough AP, unlock abilities on a skill-tree that each one possesses somewhat like FFIX or FFXII's License Board. During battle, Sora and Riku have different ways that they can interact with said creatures by linking with them. Sora will have them activate certain attacks, while Riku will "fuse" with them for added combat effectiveness. The game has an interesting "drop" function that will automatically switch you between the two characters and their story arcs after the "drop gauge" has decreased during your playthrough with one of them. When this occurs, you can use drop points to give bonuses to various stats of the next character to give them an easier time of things. I personally think that this adds an interesting meta element to the game that works well with the narrative it's trying to tell, but I can see how it can get frustrating. Fortunately there are items called drop-me-nots that will add more time so this doesn't become an issue. If you're not a fan of Kingdom Hearts or at least the concept, then this game probably won't change your mind, and I feel that most of the review scores from negative to positive have been pretty fair, but if you love some Keyblades, Disney and SE cameos, then you'll probably feel good about it. All and all, I'm enjoying both games immensely. Happy gaming, all.

I don't understand why anyone would be losing their shit over late adopters paying $170 and getting to buy(that's right, spend more money) on the games that early adopters got free for being early adopters. Just like anything you buy, it's all about perceived value. The only way I can see you losing out on buying the 3DS for its original $250 over a year ago(by now you've probably made that money all back) is if you hardly touch the thing. Myself however? I'm always on the damn thing. I don't have a single retail game on this thing(I have about 10) that I haven't put at least 40 hours into. That's a good dollar per hour value right there, and I know I have at least 3(DOA, Mario Kart, and Kid Icarus) that have close to if not over 100 hours logged. Consider that compared to something like the movies where you'll be spending close to if not more than 10 bucks for at most 2 and a half hours. Not only that, early adopters got 20 free games that if you were to price at 4 bucks individually would be worth a total of 80 bucks, which is essentially what they lowered the system price by. I don't understand the bitching. There was a bit of a down period early in the system's life, but now is a damn great time to own a 3DS, regardless of when and for how much you got it.

My biggest concerns with the system have just been market-related honestly. I don't really have any problem with "weaker" hardware, I mean I love portable gaming in general and those aren't exactly powerhouses. I'm glad to see a big gun(SE) showing some support, and now that I'm stateside I can definitely see the appeal of OnLive, but I think with Sony's latest acquisition of Gaikai, it'd be interesting to see if Ouya could get sanctioned PlayStation library support. That alone would be huge to me.

We're in the same boat, man. Good luck and stay positive. But seriously though, nothing coming out? There's Fire Emblem, Paper Mario, NSMB2, Luigi's Mansion 2, Kingdom Hearts next week, Castlevania, and plenty of other stuffs. 3DS line-up is looking good.

If you're talking about the actual piano piece played around the 3rd act of the game, that was the pianist Stanislav Bunin playing. If you were talking about the rearrangement used during the final battle, then yeah, that was Sakuraba. Personally, I just can't really get into a lot of Sakuraba's work. For me it's really hit or miss with mostly misses, however I think that when he nails it, he really does. In my opinion his work on Infinite Undiscovery, Eternal Sonata, and Tales of Phantasia(to a lesser degree) were pretty awesome and really added a lot to the games, but his stuff in the Star Ocean and Tales series sound pretty derivative, samey, and droll to me for the most part. If I can remember any of the music for those games, it's simply because of mass exposure rather than interest in them. I think it was a good idea to pair him up with another composer a la Resonance of Fate(End of Eternity) with Kohei Tanaka, which was a bit of a stylistic clash, but I think it helped the over all feel and aesthetic of the game. Also much like Kid Icarus Uprising, when he worked with the "All-star composing team", which I think gave him more time to focus on just a few good pieces instead of being spread too thin.

But what niche does Ouya fill? At this point, there aren't that many people interested in gaming that don't already have a machine(or several) that can do what little the Ouya brings to the table that we know of thus far(which isn't that much). What do we know? The thing is based on Android, so anything you want to run on Windows that doesn't have an Android version or can't be emulated 1-to-1 on the system? you're screwed. The thing is being designed to have a tegra 3 and a gig of ram. Not terrible, but for the people looking for the best audio/visual experience, there are better solutions. Not as cheap obviously, but these people are more than likely willing to pay top dollar anyway. What launch titles do they have? They showed Minecraft in passing, but Mojang basically said the Android version of the game isn't even that amazing in the first place. I get that this is a cheap solution, but I just don't know for what. The gamers that want to game on their consoles want to play their Assassin's Creeds, their Call of Duties, Dead Spaces, etc., and they probably already have their console of choice. Chances are that they're already downloading stuff from Netflix or whereever they stream their content as well. The people that want to play strictly Android games? They're already playing said games on their Android phones or tablets. At best, I see this being used as an emulator box, which opens up another legal can of worms altogether. How are they going to curate their games on what is ostensibly a digital-only platform? How are they going to build momentum to get anyone that isn't an indie developer to get off Steam and grab one? What about quality and standardization of content? If everyone can get in there and hack/customize the hell out of it to run a game they're creating, how does everyone else keep up? Sounds like a driver downloading and system updating problem, and isn't that one of the things that drives people away from PC gaming in the first place?

I really just don't see the market for this, and I'm not sure it's making big publishers or manufacturers sweat. Sure, the thing has made a bunch of money in a relatively quick time frame, but look how many backers there are. As of this post, it still hasn't even broken 40,000 supporters. If I were working at a console manufacturer, the first thing I'd be thinking is "well, there go a few thousand idealists with a pipe dream." Where's the market research for this thing? How well are they expecting to do? I don't even know that they'll sell 100,000 units in less than 4 months. Several people here have mentioned who this system might be for, and while there's a bit of dissent, I agree that if you're trying to do the gaming that this thing is promoting, chances are you already have a PC and Steam, and if you want to game on a TV in a living room, you can probably set up an HTPC or build your system with small form factor in mind. I think most people who enjoy indie games have the means and the know how to come up with their own solutions to satisfying their tastes. How many people does that leave? Let's face it, gamers either involved in or that enjoy indie games certainly aren't the mainstream audience. I see this thing being very, very niche. This thing isn't really for me, but if it actually delivers on its promises, then it MIGHT shake up the industry, but that's a really big "if". I'm squarely on the skeptimistic side of this one.

Another recommendation. Yes, Tactics Ogre was made near the tail end of the 16-bit days. This is just a rearrangement for the PSP game. You could have this playing while the guests are filing into their seats and waiting for the ceremony to start. Incidentally, while it isn't either 8- or 16-bit, might sound amazing once everyone starts walking down the aisles as a sort of introductory piece.Damn, I'm giving away my own wedding here.

I can't even count the times I've heard this whole "Square was cool before they merged with Enix!" shtick. Why is this even a thing? The only thing I can think of is that there's less competition due to said merger(and thus less potential incentive for Square to rock the boat), but honestly even then it's apples to oranges; Enix's flagship series(Dragon Quest for the uninitiated) is(or at least was) nowhere near as huge outside of Japan as Final Fantasy. Enix also has a few decent RPGs under their belt, so I don't really see how anything was changed for better or worse. Not to say I don't oppose the idea were there actual evidence, but I just don't see it. Not directly related to you, but people like to whine and moan that "Final Fantasy ain't the same without Sakaguchi", but guess what? He made Spirits Within, and you all hated that shit. They axed him, and the three entries in the series following said axing(FFX - FFXII) were all both critical and commercial successes through and through, but more than that, they were completely devoid of any of his influence. If anything FFXIII's failures were directly related to the disjointed production cycle that it and most Japanese games in general have been subject to this generation. I haven't played the game recently so I can't give a good reading on whether or not you'd still enjoy it given the state of audia/visual fidelity and RPGs in general this gen. Just don't go in with crazy expectations and you'll probably be fine. The game wasn't a forward-thinking masterpiece. It just happened to be just what the genre needed at that specific time in gaming.

There was another thread on this where I recommended the Ending Theme and Staff Roll from The Legend of Zelda A Link To The Past. I still vehemently recommend them both. In fact, with the proper syncing, you could have the former played throughout the wedding's entirety, followed by the latter towards the end when everyone is heading for the reception.

I think this is a key. The issue as I see it is that game devs, or potentially just publishers and investors ARE trying to see game development as summer blockbusters that have enough widespread appeal that they'll recoup costs just like an Avengers or Dark Knight, but the reality is that games still are nowhere near that level. Devs and publishers really need to start cutting down costs realistically and stop making out gaming to be something it isn't. Yeah we can say that more and more people are playing games than ever before, but that could be due to a wide variety of factors such as the rise of cheap or free mobile games, parents being more permissive, the Wii casuals fad, etc. Growth in gaming popularity might have next to nothing to do with quality or prevalence of $60 games and whatnot if we get a good look at the stats and trends.

With dev costs going crazy as it is in this generation with no slowing down, I can't imagine next-gen faring that much better. In fact after watching the tech demos for stuff like Luminous Engine or Unreal 4, the first thing on my mind wasn't "holy crap this is amazing!" It was "my god, this is going to cost a fortune and potentially kill some dev studios." This is going to be a very interesting generation in gaming. The Wii U is essentially just a slight upgrade over current HD consoles from what I'm understanding which would probably be palpable for devs trying to avoid said costs, but who can say the install base will ever be there? Sony and MS are probably close to officially announcing their next-gen solutions, and mobile and handheld gaming are both making greater tech strides, but as amazing a piece of hardware the Vita is, it isn't selling at all, and yet the 3DS and software is selling like hotcakes, and MS is positioning themselves with their new Surface to make a big splash in that space with Windows 8. It's a serious wild card scenario IMO

NECRO BUMP So Final Fantasy XIV 2.0 finally reared it's head again My body is ready.

I'm actually pretty enthused by their design philosophies that they've used since the Wii in removing the psychological barrier to entry that is the standard gamepad and such. My mother for example can't for the life of her use anything more complicated than a NES controller, but man will this woman cream you at Wii Bowling. Hell, I'm just glad they actually have design philosophies at all as opposed to Sony and Microsoft's "let's dominate the living room with services and ads and copy whatever Nintendo does". As far as I'm concerned, Nintendo has earned the right to copy someone else's shtick with the new pro controller. Over the past year since I grabbed my 3DS, I've realized that I'm just not a huge fan of traditional "take over the TV, power up system, insert disc, etc." of console gaming anymore, and I feel like the Wii U really grabbed me with the ability to play pretty much anything on the tablet without having to commit to the TV. Gonna be great when having family over. Naturally though, it's all about the games. I know it's probably a fruitless thought, but if Nintendo manages to land the third parties, and just unload a plethora of stuff on their Virtual console, I might seriously consider the Wii U. Really hate having to have more than one console around the house taking up space.

E3 hype train!!!

This news greatly excites me! Is there an ETA yet?

So after giving the demo a fair shot and after reading through a few reviews and impressions of other versions, the game has started to grow on me. I still think the floaty controls are causing a lot of pointless deaths on the bloody first level of the demo no less. There's also a lot of things you can do with Rayman that aren't particularly explained well, but I'll just chalk that one up to the whole "it's a demo" thing. I guess what really keeps making me come back to it are the visuals and the music. Hot damn is this game pretty to look at, even on the 3DS screen(and I hope the visuals look better on retail release)! The audio is this weird mix of styles including ambient nature tones, creole bayou music, and I love that it changes dynamically depending on the situation in the current level. One thing that annoys me though is that the audio quality itself is pretty terrible, and is blown out. I'm hoping that this is just another "it's a demo" thing as well, as I think the OST is a treat after listening to it on teh youtubes. Given that the 3DS version is going to release at $30, I might take the plunge if the reviews for it are favorable(IE. fix the aforementioned problems). If not, I'll grab the PC version most definitely. Game's so damned pretty... Edit - So I downloaded and played through the PC demo of the game, and man do I feel like a horse's ass for ever saying the game was crap. The platforming is WAY better, and if the 3DS version had me going nuts over how pretty it was, the PC version has caused me to misplace my jaw somewhere in my room. I'm just gonna grab that version over Steam. Seriously, this game can't be missed, and it's a bloody travesty that it hasn't broken at least 500k in sales. Shit, maybe I should buy both versions just because of that.