Malaki-LEGEND.sys

I can't think of a single battle theme in the FFXIII series that hasn't been awesome. Fuck I can hardly think of a single track that wasn't awesome actually.

Probably just another case of "too many cooks in the kitchen". Levine has always seemed like a dude that always had a grand vision that he wanted to see through. Going small is probably the best thing he could do for what he wants. If any of you got through the end of Infinite, you'd probably agree that he's much MUCH better at telling stories interactively than making what unfortunately at this point is otherwise just another FPS. A fun FPS no doubt, but ultimately another FPS in a Pacific Ocean of 'em.

Well considering that this is supposedly a throwback to "classic" Final Fantasy that everyone loves so much, that also includes "classic" level grinding, If an RPG didn't include some form of level grinding and stat management, I don't really know that you could easily call it an RPG.

Well here are several different sources showing just how much Sony made thanks to the PS4 launch: http://venturebeat.com/2014/02/06/playstation-4-helps-sonys-game-division-record-a-65-increase-in-operating-revenue/ http://www.polygon.com/2014/2/6/5385210/sonys-revenue-booms-with-playstation-4-sales And here's another source about their former Vaio business: http://news.yahoo.com/sony-lowers-forecast-loss-trying-sell-vaio-074051017.html Honestly Derrit, no offense, but I personally expect people who start talking about company financials to be of the sorts that keep abreast with this type of "inside baseball". From the looks of you original post, it seems like you're playing the part of an indignant Nintendo fanboy with tunnel vision.

Because while Sony is losing money in general, their games division, specifically spearheaded by the PS4 launch, is making money hand over fist.

Final Fantasy XIII & XIII-2 were pretty great for a variety of reasons, from the combat system to the world design/graphics(graphics more so FFXIII) to the music. If the demo is anything to go by, Lightning Returns(dammit why not FFXIII-3) looks to be the legitimate best gameplay-wise. With Bravely Default, FFXIII-3, FFXIV 2.2, and FFX/X-2 Remaster, and several other things later this year, this is definitely the year of Square Enix/Final Fantasy.

People freaking register me as a friend so I can rebuild Norende already!!!

Given that Japan's population is getting older, it makes sense that "creating a platform that improves one's health" might be lucrative. Good on them for looking into other venues to expand/improve their business. It's just not something that as a person who enjoys games I'm particularly excited about unless that means they'll be making more quality software more often through said initiative.

There are a lot of people that want Nintendo to go third-party. Frankly, I don't really think going third-party will solve Nintendo's problems. Their problem ironically is that they aren't doing enough to innovate in the "gamer" space. Sure, the Wii did gangbusters with its motion controls, which brought in millions in sales, but where's the overlap of those millions with people with a vested interest in gaming as a hobby? And no, this forum and the comment sections on various news sites aren't indicative of the gaming audience as a whole. With the Wii, they said "well, we haven't latched on to the 'hardcore' as much, but fuck it! Our machines print money!" As a Nintendo fan, it's hard to watch other fans tossing out the Wii's insane numbers like some kind of knee-jerk defense against taunts from other gamers without understanding where those numbers came from. It wasn't from the hardcore. Let's face it, while Nintendo certainly is trying to bring the hardcore back(and admittedly they started in the later years of the Wii), they're in this position because they left the hardcore a long while ago to pursue their "Blue Ocean" strategy. Now you may be thinking "well you just said they 'failed' to innovate! Where's your argument for that poppycock?" Here it is. Yes, they've definitely done something with the Wii, but it wasn't an innovation that caught on with the gamer audience as a whole. Look at the Oculus Rift. Most people in the gamer space are raving about its functionality and what it can do for gaming experiences. Aside from obvious differences, the reason the "Rift" is looked on more favorably is because it caters to what gamers want. For whatever reason, gamers didn't want what Nintendo had in mind for motion controls. We can make plenty of generalizing statements as to why, but the fact of the matter is that it didn't catch on with the people that are out there buying games on a regular basis. Additionally, consoles come equipped with wider types of functionality, such as video services, but most importantly for games that have multi-player functionality, a reliable online service that is intuitive and easy to use with a variety of compelling online-enabled software. I have to split for now, but I'll compare Nintendo's current situation to pre-2.0 Final Fantasy XIV: The devs initially wanted to make something completely innovative and different to "compete" with the dozens of other games on the market while trying not to cannibalize their own sales of FFXI by being too similar. What ended up happening was that the game tanked and several people ended up falling on their swords because they didn't understand the idea that the market demands that there be a standard level of functionality that might possibly be shared among competitors and such, but it HAS to be there or else the user just won't get it. They rectified this and two years later they have a successful game that while still not appealing to everyone, is a far cry from their previous effort. The comparison is slightly flawed(and admittedly I just thought of it like 3 minutes ago), but I feel this is where Nintendo is at. Put even more simply, "you gotta learn the rules(i.e. meet the "standard" in this case), before you break 'em(i.e. innovate in your industry).

The real litmus test as to where the Wii U is headed will be Mario Kart 8, as if we look at numbers, outside of the flash in the pan Wii Sports system pack-in and the original Super Mario series(which did nothing to reinvigorate Wii U sales), Mario Kart is their next biggest heavy hitter. Smash Brothers is releasing WAY too late this year(and it seems like development is being rushed) to save the system if MK doesn't do some magic, and quite frankly, does not have nearly the same amount of players(60 million difference according to Wikipedia). They absolutely need to knock it WAY out of the park with Mario Kart 8 if they want to be able to maintain whatever course they've set for themselves

My immediate recommendations are: Fire Emblem Awakening Super Mario 3D Land Star Fox 64 3D The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D The Legend of Zelda A Link Between Worlds The Legend of Zelda Oracle of Ages & Seasons & Link's Awakening DX Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance Kid Icarus Uprising Mario Kart 7 Resident Evil Revelations Mighty Switch Force Mighty Switch Force 2 Ace Attorney Dual Destinies Rune Factory 4 Legend of The River King Super Mario Land 1, 2, Wario Land 1 - 3 I think I'm going to finish this list now. Y'all get the point...

So Bravely Second, the sequel to Bravely Default has Bravely been announced... Defaultly... Erm. I'm bad at this.

I just finished my first playthrough of A Link Between Worlds 10 minutes ago, and I felt that overall the game was a solid package, save for a few wonky plot elements like how there's literally no preamble about the Seven Sages being the people they are(unless I missed something), and the ending sequence didn't seem as endearing. I get that they were trying to preserve the spirit of A Link To The Past, so keeping the plot rather minimalist was probably best, but sometimes it just seemed a bit rote. I also did play through A Link To The Past at least once a year at one point, so I guess it was much easier for me to draw parallels between both games and get fatigued from that style of Zelda much easier though. That being said, it does play very well, and I did appreciate that I could pretty much tackle the game in any way I wanted, I just really wish they had diverged from the old from A Link To The Past and brought in either new stuff from other Zeldas(maybe Roc's Feather/Cape or underwater areas/swimming a la Oracle of Ages? ) or more all new ideas.

Final Fantasy games are really all over the place in terms of settings, gameplay mechanics, art styles, musical styles, etc. This is especially true of every entry post-X(and maybe post-VI or VII really). It really depends on what you want out of your games. If you're into relatively deep gameplay mechanics, you can't go wrong with Final Fantasy V or X-2. The latter is probably the best in terms of its job system and interesting combat systems, but I'd recommend V over it simply because X-2 is a direct sequel to X, and I really can't in good conscience recommend FFX to anyone(strange considering I love the FFXIII series). Outside of that, I would probably directly recommend either FFTactics, FFVI, FFVIII, or XII. Really though I don't think it's fair to say any one is objectively better than any other. They all play to different strengths and have different weaknesses. For that reason as well, don't judge a bad experience to be representative of the series as a whole. As I said before, the games are all over the place and each one has their fanbase.

Actually that's an excellent question, but specifically, why would you watch Evangelion 3.33 more than once? Terrible film.

Also I just posted this in the 3DS thread, but here's my new 3DS friend code for anyone that wants some good pokemon times. 0963 - 0382 - 2509

So after a few years, I had an Aqua Blue 3DS, traded up to an XL, got rid of that, then got a refurbed Midnight Purple 3DS(fav color), and as such I has a new friend code! Add me and I shall do the same for everyone! 0963 - 0382 - 2509 Right now I'm trying to rebuild my collection digitally, so I just have Pokemon Y right now, but let's have at it!

So I dunno, I kinda like the story progression a lot as a fun little kid story. Finally got through the 3rd gym and showed Korrina what's what. My team currently consists of Golett, Greninja, Meowstic, Venusaur, Croagunk, and Marowak, all in the lvl.33 - 40 range. I'm thinking I'll probably switch out my Venusaur for an electric type, maybe the Jolteon I just evolved, and my Marowak for my combustiken. I'm still figuring out how best to mix and max abilities. And is it just me, or did they get a little Kid Icarus: Uprising into my Super Training? I love it.

So after reading a bunch of what you guys have said about switching out teams, and after learning what Pokemon Amie and the Super Trainer are for, I've had a change of perspective. I pretty much absolutely love the game now. After a fresh restart, I'm 14 hours in, and it's pretty much because I've been obsessed with the aforementioned systems. I've also been shifting out my Pokemon a lot more since the XP Share DOES make it easier to try different ones at your leisure, and I'm finding all sorts of ability combos and such because of it. And the music, my god the music(OK I spoiled myself on youtube with that one). While I think in general I prefer the world of Unova, Kalos has grown on me, and I really appreciate the hard work they must have put in just animating every single 'mon in 3D, along with rebalancing the type matchups with the addition of fairy-types.

I think I'm about one restart away from calling it quits with X/Y and will hope that Z(or X2/Y2) are much more interesting to me. The towns just seem so uninspired(not to mention uneventful/unimportant), the music is much more miss than it is hit, and being able to score over 100 (uninteresting)Pokemon that can essentially level themselves before even hitting the second gym is more than a bit overwhelming to me. Plus, there really is no explanation or impetus conveyed through the game to use either Pokemon Amie or the Super Trainer. Hopefully I'll get over this hump, but for now, it just makes me want to go back to Black 2, terrible localization and all.

I just think there's something very off when I have close to 100 pokemon in my pokedex and I still haven't gotten my second badge. Also most of my team is already well past lvl.20. I think I may be doing something wrong. If there's one thing Kalos has taught me about France, it's that it's probably pretty boring...

So I can't be the only one that thinks the Kalos region is particularly bland... At least before the second gym. I really think Unova was more interesting and varied. Also better music, but I still have a ways to go.

What's that, Mirby? I can't hear you over all my hype over Kingdom Hearts III after Kingdom Hearts 3DS!

Actually, given the high level of sales of pretty much every Infinity Ward CoD game and Battlefield game since Bad Company(I think?), I would think that the folks at Infinity Ward and DICE have a good idea of what they're doing just as much as Aonuma. You might not approve, but that doesn't make it any less so. Are sales numbers an r = 1 to quality? Not necesarily, but good sales numbers DO ensure that studios keep afloat, especially in a time where dev costs are at a record high. As for actual difficulty in games, I have friends that can't even input a simple punch-punch-kick combo in Dead or Alive 4's training mode, as well as others that have trouble finding their way around doing things in certain MMOs for whatever reason. For whatever reason, plenty of people playing games are actually quite bad at them. Lorule and Princess HIlda are honestly pretty lazy naming schemes, though. They could have easily called Termina Lorule back when they were developing Majora's Mask, but they didn't. It's by no means a deal breaker, it just displays a lack of creativity in my mind. To be fair though, Light World vs. Dark World in A Link To The Past is just as lazy/stupid, but as far as I know, that wasn't actually something the devs came up with and more the result of players coming up with the names to differentiate between the two. Or it was in the player's guide, I forget.

There were several grating issues with Skyward Sword; probably too linear for most, treating the players like an idiot(rupees, bugs, Fi, etc.) to name a few, but I don't really feel that game had too much padding. I personally thought the game integrated the items into its design quite well, and aside from maybe the whip, I found myself using them all pretty regularly. I still think the game serves as an excellent demonstration to what really great 1-to-1 motion controls can do for a traditional game. And again I'll just reiterate that it's unfortunate that we got Twilight Princes instead of Skyward Sword(in its current form) when the Wii launched back in '06, because I really think that pairing SS with Wii Sports would make us all be thinking very differently about motion controls.