zircon

I did it! Carried myself out of Bronze. Now a proud member of Silver V. Wish me luck.

Hi all! We've just launched our July Raffle & Giveaway where you can win any THREE Impact Soundworks libraries of your choice, or even a Google Nexus 7 tablet! For every 100 entrants we will be giving away another set of libraries, so your chances are about the same regardless of the # of entrants *** ENTER the GIVEAWAY *** You can enter the raffle at the page above and increase your chances of winning by doing any of the following: * Liking us on Facebook * Subscribing to our newsletter * Following us on Twitter (@isoundworks) * Tweeting about the giveaway * Sharing with a friend Enjoy, and good luck!

In this case maybe "Bonus" was not the right word to use, originally I think I had wanted it to just be "Disc 5" and not say "Bonus" at all. Those tracks are every bit as amazing as those on the first 4 discs. We just didn't really have room for all that music on the first 4 and in most cases we felt it was weird to have two arrangements of the same theme in close proximity (with a few exceptions, like Chocobo, Blackjack, and the opera.) So why did we have duplicates? There were some cases where an artist had claimed a track and backed out, so we would fill their spot with another ReMixer. Then, the original artist came through after all, leaving us with multiple takes to pick from. A number of the ReMixes are also from the contests (with LOTS of takes on the same themes), as has been noted. In short... Don't skip disc 5! The music is absolutely as good as the first 4 discs! We just separated it for space + flow reasons!

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1hkxo1/we_are_overclocked_remix_creating_free_game/ Redditors, come and ask us anything!

Mini-Me: Thanks for your thoughtful critique of the album, I'm glad you took the time to listen and write. It deserves an equally thoughtful answer, so here we go. We thought very hard for *months* about how we wanted to approach this album. Many ideas were considered and we weighed the value of each carefully. Ultimately, the concept we came up with was this: arrange the entire soundtrack sticking closely to the mood and feel of each original track, at the same time respecting the diversity of musical styles in each source and representing them with equal diversity. We felt this was the best possible way to pay tribute to Uematsu's work while simultaneously creating works with their own value as standalone pieces, as opposed to just arrangements. While music is certainly subjective and one can't argue about taste, I think it is indisputable that the original Final Fantasy VI soundtrack *was* incredibly diverse. You had techno (the chocobo theme), ragtime (Spinach Rag), funky blues (Johnny C. Bad), dramatic orchestral (Terra), rock/metal (battle theme), epic baroque prog rock (Dancing Mad), atmospheric jazz (Mines of Narshe), industrial (Devil's Lab)... etc. The cohesiveness of the original soundtrack came not from the musical styles of each track, which were VERY different, but the compositional sensibilities of Mr. Uematsu and the production style used. I believe that if he were to arrange the soundtrack himself, he would likely use as diverse an array of instruments as we did, not being restricted to the miniscule sample memory (and timbral palette) of an SNES cart. One way in which the album is cohesive is the unifying musical direction from McVaffe and myself. We didn't just ask people to make remixes; we suggested ReMixers for individual sources, we evaluated works in progress and offered suggestions, we turned down pieces that didn't fit, I personally provided mixing or mastering for dozens of tracks, we connected ReMixers and performers together to get live instrumentation and great collaborations, etc. Having folks like XPRTNovice, Laura, and Jeff Ball on multiple tracks definitely ties things together. I think compared to even the very respectable library of ReMixes on OCR, the bar for quality here is absolutely insane and (I believe) the best of any album we've ever done. Final Fantasy VI is not a soundtrack that lends itself to the kind of approach taken by some of the projects you mentioned. For example, Chrono Trigger's soundtrack is shorter, and Chrono Symphonic is VERY short indeed (relative to B&R!) Also, and this is with all due respect to the musicians who were working with lower-quality samples and no budget at the time, the orchestral renditions were lacking somewhat in realism and they don't hold up so well. I believe tracks like "Terra's Resolve" and "Prologue" on the other hand are absolutely stunning and reflect what modern tools, amazing orchestrators, and an actual budget with live musicians can do. Furthermore, would you really WANT to hear Final Fantasy VI in a single style? I can't imagine enjoying 50-60+ tracks in a single style like orchestral, or urban (like Blood on the Asphalt). It would not do justice to the original pieces. A style that works well for Spinach Rag simply will not work well for the Battle theme. Instrumentation for Terra will very likely translate poorly for Gogo, which have totally different moods and styles. It would be tiring to listen to and far less diverse than the original soundtrack. To use Random Encounter as another example, that's a great album but it is also *short*. I really don't think 70 tracks of FF6 rock and metal would have been appropriate or as interesting as what we did. I don't agree that any style would have belonged on this project and indeed, much direction went in to making sure the styles used were appropriate. For example, to me, "Smoke and Clouds" instantly summons nostalgia for my time spent playing the game as a kid, and does a great job of capturing the adventurous, drifting life of Locke, but also his melancholic and even tragic past. We auditioned multiple takes on Locke's theme and we felt this particular one was ideal. We went through this sort of process for a number of other tracks as well. When you say this isn't fully conceptualized and not 'definitive', let me ask you this; if we were to have made an album of all metal, all orchestral, or all jazz remixes, how could that have been the 'definitive' take on Final Fantasy VI (if anything could be called that?) I know I must sound like a broken record, but thinking about how diverse the original soundtrack is, could we really say that doing every track (or large chunks of tracks) in a very limited and restricting style is 'definitive'? I don't disagree with you that this approach makes sense for SOME soundtracks - particularly shorter ones, or those with a fairly homogenuous style to begin with - but of all games, FFVI least deserves that sort of treatment for a full album project. (That being said, I'd be all for a <20 track project in a specific style!) I really believe that Balance & Ruin DOES set a new standard for all remix albums to come. I believe there isn't a single weak track. Everything is an easy YES on OCR if not direct-post quality, with many of the tracks on an extremely high level of production polish and arrangement creativity. Like I mentioned earlier, we also have the widest array of live instruments here than on anything we've done previously, and a spectacular variety of collaborations the likes of which simply haven't been seen or attempted. There simply isn't a thing I would do differently and I'm sure McVaffe would agree.

Haha yes, it is a reference to two things: "A Fistful of Dollars" (score by Ennio Morricone, a huge inspiration for this track), and the intro text when you meet Shadow, which says he would slit his mama's throat for a nickel. Hence, a fistful of nickels...

Dancing Mad was not a track dropped for time reasons, even though it was one of the last ~10 or so completed. I chose the style I did (classic progressive rock) because I feel that other artists have remixed Dancing Mad to perfection in a more straightforward epic style with metal & orchestral elements. For example, the Black Mages' version, Prince of Darkness' 'Prancing Dad', and virt's original take on it, to name a few. I saw little sense in repeating the excellent work those artists have done, and instead chose to look at Uematsu's own inspirations; namely, bands like Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes, Genesis, etc. Here are a few examples that inspired me. These may have been among the very same songs that influenced Uematsu himself when writing the original track. Just listen to parts of Tarkus and you'll hear what I mean! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TACC1z7hcA Regarding a change in tone, or the lack of 'malice', I think that may simply be the way we chose to cut down on the repetition + length of the original. Rather than sticking very closely to the long, dirge-like, baroque-inspired sections with heavy church organ and long solos, I sought to condense things into a shorter piece that had a higher average energy level. Again, other artists have done the full 12+ minute version very well and while I could have gone for that approach, I just don't think it would have been adding anything new or musically interesting to the world of game remixes. I worked hard to create an interpretation of the original that switched up the rhythms, harmonies, and melodies in a way that I believe Mr. Uematsu would respect, given the type of source material that heavily influenced this arrangement; not to mention the cameos of "I Like to Live in America" and "Fanfare for the Common Man", two staples of ELP It appeals to the prog rock aspect of the original track over the heavily baroque and slower portions, and though I knew from the start that some people would miss those sections, I would definitely do it again the same way if given the chance. Either way, I appreciate you listening to this piece and the rest of the album!

Someone had signed up to do it, but ultimately did not finish their claim. However, between the two opera renditions including the Aria, we felt Celes was sufficiently covered. Many people (myself & Jill included) remix by memory and not necessarily comparing directly to the source... this often lends a greater measure of interpretation compared with directly copying the source note for note. In this case, I suppose it was just an arbitrary choice since both ways sound good in the key / tonality. virt arranged "The Impresario", played keys & guitar and did all other non-drum parts, but he was not the singer. That's Tommy Pedrini, along with a couple backup vocalists.

Thanks so much everyone. This was really a joy to create and obviously all the performers deserve huge props for realizing my arrangement and making it go even further beyond what I had in mind. Also, anyone catch a certain movie score reference at 2:28..?

I agree on both counts - (a) Inner Universe is amazing, and ( I think there was some serious Yoko Kanno influence in Locke. It's one of my absolute favorites from the project. Jeff & Laura absolutely nailed it Thanks for listening!

Preview it: Download it: http://ff6.ocremix.org Torrent: http://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/Final_Fantasy_VI_-_Balance_and_Ruin.torrent One of my fondest memories as a kid was going to the video store on weekends to rent (yes, rent!) an SNES with one game. The very first time I went, my mom picked out Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. Being only about 9 at the time, it was just the right thing to get me into RPGs and the Final Fantasy series. I soon discovered Final Fantasy III, and after taking it home once, I was hooked. It might be hard for anyone to imagine in this modern age of gaming, but each time I rented it I would often have to start from scratch, since people would overwrite my save on the cartridge. But I didn't mind. The game was so captivating that playing the first few hours over and over was worth it. Listening to the original soundtrack and this remix album calls up those nostalgic feelings once more. I've wanted to direct this album since before I even started the 2007 Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream project, but it was not until 2011 that the decision was made to finally do it. We had talked about an FF6 remix project among site staff for some time, and we all agreed that given how legendary the game and soundtrack are, it had to be done right. When I heard that McVaffe was also interested in such an endeavor, I knew it was time to make it happen. Mike was truly one of my biggest inspirations as an aspiring musician and remixer - I remember listening to his huge catalog of arranged and original music and being awed by his technique and range of styles. When we started talking about the album project, it was clear we were on the same page musically, and thus Balance and Ruin was born! The sheer level of musicianship on this project is something I never expected when we first started out. Of course, we had personally invited many talented arrangers at the outset, opening it up to the greater community via two remix contests. But the sum of the project goes far beyond that. Maybe it was the success of the Kickstarter that motivated people, the collaboration which we constantly encouraged between artists, our shared love for the game and original soundtrack, or some combination of these things. Whatever the cause, every single artist gave their absolute best for Balance and Ruin - with the calibre of musicians involved, both established and newcomers, that is saying quite a bit! It's been about ten years since I first joined the OverClocked ReMix community and began my career as a musician. It's where I developed my skills, built a fanbase, met many good friends, colleagues, and even my wife, Jillian. Co-directing this project has been a pleasure, but it's also my way of giving back to this community, and the greater community of game music fans as a whole. I'm very lucky to have had the opportunity to be involved, and to work with some of the most talented musicians I know to produce a project that I believe will set a new standard for video game music arrangements. - Andrew Aversa Coming upon the completion of this project is in many ways for me a surreal experience. A few years ago on a trip to DC, I took some time out from museum hopping and the typical obligatory sightseeing to finally meet up with Dave (djp) and his awesome wife. We played a few fighting games, we all went out to a nice dinner, and as the night ended Dave mentioned “Hey, what do you think about a FF6 project with yourself and Andy (zircon)?” I hadn't been much into game music - or the OverClocked community itself - around that time, but if there was any game I could lend an ear to for a musical project it would be Final Fantasy VI. It's safe to say that FF6 is still widely considered one of the greatest RPGs - and games - of all time. Of course, it feels somewhat quaint and "retro" now, but playing it back when it came out in 1994 was almost a holy experience. The graphics were rich and colorful. The characters were deep and had detailed histories and interwoven storylines. But arguably the most memorable part of the game has always been its gorgeous, sprawling soundtrack. It was the first game soundtrack CD I had purchased at that point, and to this day it remains my favorite soundtrack of all time. And while I already had an interest and appreciation for game music back then, it wasn't till I listened to the music in FF6 that I really started to recognize the unmistakable character of the medium and the genius of this composer specifically - who was somehow able to squeeze these little miracles out of the Super Nintendo hardware. It was this soundtrack that inspired me to actively listen to many other game soundtracks at the time, and ultimately begin cover them, remix them, and eventually create compositions of my own. Suffice it to say, Final Fantasy VI and its music had a huge impact on me back then. So despite knowing that this was going to be a gargantuan project which would likely have a million people working on it and take 15 years or so to complete, There's no collection that I would've been happier working on. Having been part of the OverClocked community since its humble, orange/yellow beginnings, this project was very personal to me in so many ways. In addition to having a deep connection to nearly every note of the source material, the roster of contributing artists was staggering. It included several folks like myself, who have been around and watching the community grow since the late '90's. As well, it included some phenomenally talented younger artists whose talent-to-age ratio is downright scary. And as the drafts and songs started to slowly trickle in over the months, Andy and I would bounce ideas and comments back and forth and it was abundantly clear even early on - this project was going to be something very, very special. So at the end of this journey I'm certainly feeling a bit of relief, but moreover I feel incredibly grateful. Grateful to be included in this amazing compilation, grateful for all the absolutely kickass music that these artists have worked so hard to put together, and that in the process we were all able to help out the site somehow. It was incredible to have been involved with a project featuring music which has been such a huge inspiration to me personally throughout the years. In all, the whole process has been quite the journey, and luckily I've had amazing, uber-talented friends along for the ride. - Mike Vafeas

OC ReMix Releases FREE Kickstarted Final Fantasy VI Album! July 1, 2013 Contact: press@ocremix.org FAIRFAX, VA... OverClocked ReMix today released its 40th arrangement album, Balance and Ruin, after a highly-successful Kickstarter campaign to fund studio time and a physical release. The 5-CD album features 74 all-new arrangements (six hours of music) from 74 artists, covering virtually every composition from Nobuo Uematsu's original soundtrack to the SNES classic Final Fantasy VI. Directed by Andrew "zircon" Aversa and Michael "McVaffe" Vafeas, Balance and Ruin is available for free download at http://ff6.ocremix.org. In October 2012, the album raised over $150,000 through more than 2,500 backers on crowdfunding website Kickstarter.com to fund a premium 5-disc physical release, live musicians, three additional physical album reprints, and full royalty payments to Square Enix, developer and publisher of the amazing Final Fantasy series. The album features an all-star roster of arrangers, performers, and lyricists, including: Will Roget, II (Star Wars: The Old Republic) Jake Kaufman (Double Dragon Neon, Contra 4, Shantae, Bloodrayne: Betrayal, Red Faction: Guerilla) Jeff Ball (Gears of War 3, Mass Effect 3, League of Legends, Infinity Blade II) Jillian Aversa (Halo CE: Anniversary, Soulcalibur V, God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Civilization IV & V) Chad Seiter (Star Trek, Fringe, Lost) (arrangement performed by the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra!!) Danny Baranowsky (Super Meat Boy, Canabalt, The Binding of Isaac) Steffan Andrews (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Voltron Force, FaceBreaker) Laura Intravia (Video Games Live) Andrew Aversa (Soulcalibur V, Monkey Island 2: SE, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix) A diverse array of live instruments are also featured throughout the album, from violin, cello, flute, mandolin, and recorder, all the way to a 120-piece live orchestra (the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Susie Benchasil Seiter). "Our goal with Balance and Ruin was to pay tribute to Mr. Uematsu's incredible work, a score that is often considered the greatest in the Final Fantasy canon," said director Andrew Aversa. "But thanks to the Kickstarter, we were truly able to raise the bar. The sheer scope of this project is bigger than anything we've done before, and I believe it will set a new standard for all fan arrangement projects to come." About OverClocked ReMix Founded in 1999, OverClocked ReMix is an organization dedicated to the appreciation and promotion of video game music as an art form. Its primary focus is ocremix.org, a website featuring thousands of free fan arrangements, information on game music and composers, resources for aspiring artists, and a thriving community of video game music fans. ### Preview it: Download it: http://ff6.ocremix.org Torrent: http://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/Final_Fantasy_VI_-_Balance_and_Ruin.torrent Comments/Reviews: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=44287

Play with us! What's your name?

Well, I'll point out that cashing in stock options is not the same thing as a salary. If Tim cashes in his options, that doesn't come from Pandora's revenue nor does it affect their bottom line.

WOW. I just won another 4v5. This time it was... Cait (me) Nidalee (AFK at level 5 after feeding 3 kills to enemy Draven) Aatrox Garen Teemo vs. Jax Nautilus Xerath Draven Thresh So my team fed kills immediately. Nidalee died 3 times and AFKed. Teemo mid died 3 times. At one point he was 0-5. Top was getting ganked hard. Jungle Aatrox had no good ganks at all and was WAY behind in jungle after messing up his lane. We had towers down early of course. Everyone thought we would lose and kept calling GG. They were already throwing blame around. But just like the other game, I told everyone we were going to win and that Draven was my bitch. Even though I had no early kills I was getting good farm and contributed to defending our inner towers. Before long I had an IE and with that I started getting kills. As the game went on, despite being outnumbered, I carried so hard (300+ CS, totally maxed build, 14+ kills) that we obliterated them in every teamfight. I also had tons of ridiculously good plays and kills with my ult. Yet another perfect example how you can turn around any game. I was even thinking to myself that this was a sure loss considering how much we fed Draven and Xerath, but we played so fiercely (namely me, cough) that we simply dumped all over them.

I think Udyr is still pretty strong overall. With the new Defense tree he gets another 15% CC and he is very disruptive. The issue is just that newer junglers are too good. Vi and Zac are ridiculously strong and have insane leaps/jumps and can cause similar levels of disruption. Zac in particular is insane with initiation from fog of war. I think if you have someone else on your team with a leap or gap-closer, he does pretty well. For example if you have Xin, Malphite, Lee Sin, or Shen, they can initiate and he can just run in and ruin everyone's day.

I saw this link posted in another thread... http://www.ascap.com/playback/2013/06/action/pandora-buys-fm-radio-station-in-a-bid-to-undercut-songwriters.aspx It has certainly become a hot topic lately. A lot of musicians I know are against this, but I think the kind of news and opinions we are getting are perhaps not telling the whole story. I wanted to share my thoughts here. Plays vs. Spins - Fair comparison? Pandora plays and traditional radio spins are an apples to oranges comparison. When a song is played on Pandora, one person hears it - or perhaps a few others who happen to be in the room. When a traditional radio station plays a song, anywhere from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of people hear it. ASCAP itself discriminates based on audience size in all sorts of royalty calculations, so it seems fairly hypocritical to suddenly dismiss that factor when discussing Pandora. Just for comparison, let's take KIIS FM which reaches about 4 million people per week. For the sake of discussion let's say they play about 8 songs per hour on average, which I think is conservative. Over 1000 songs per week, heard by 4 million people per week... that's a lot of listener hours. But despite tens of millions of listener hours per week, they pay royalties on only the ~1344 songs they play. Conversely, if 4 million people hear a song on Pandora, Pandora pays royalties 4 million times. Revenue != Profit Pandora is generating a lot of revenue. That doesn't mean they are making massive profits. They've been losing money quite consistently, actually, the majority of which is going to us artists. This is money that we would not have otherwise been making. If Pandora was spending most of their money on executive bonuses or fancy office buildings then sure, that would be an outrage. But that isn't the case. Songwriters aren't the only ones being paid The ASCAP article only talks about songwriters - which to be fair makes sense, given what ASCAP is. But the majority of bands and artists out there are ultimately writing AND performing their own material. If you consider the entirety of artists and bands, it's quite reasonable to say that the majority of them own their rights as well. This means they will all be getting money via SoundExchange as well, and that payment is quite a bit higher. Instead of 8 cents per 1000 plays, the rate is more like $1.10 per 1000 plays (.11 cents per play). http://theunderstatement.com/post/53867665082/pandora-pays-far-more-than-16-dollars Here we have a comparison to Terrestrial radio paying $1522 for about 1m plays, and Sirius XM paying $181, while Pandora is in total paying $1370. Pandora plays are very valuable We all know the tired line from directors, producers (etc) offering only "promotion" in exchange for work. And it's easy to be cynical when people bring up the promotional value of Pandora. But I want to share my own experience here. As most of you know I release solo albums in a fairly niche genre. I don't have a label, distributor, or promoter, no fancy deals, I'm not on any blogs, no traditional radio, no magazine reviews, no live performances, and so on. In other words, there isn't a lot happening for me in terms of music promotion. And yet despite this... my music SALES are higher than ever. Remember, I'm not doing ANY other promotion. The cause of those sales is, quite simply, people discovering me on Pandora. Many people have emailed me to say they found me on Pandora, got hooked, and bought all my albums. A great many more probably did the same thing but didn't go out of their way to email me about it. The reason why Pandora is valuable for promotion is because (a) it is EXTREMELY targeted - if someone is hearing your song, it is very likely because your music is directly suited to their tastes, ( they provide bio + album information while the song is playing, so people can easily read more about you w/o browsing away, © it offers direct links to buy the music while you're listening. Traditional radio does none of these things. Lobbying = bad? I see people giving Pandora a lot of flak for lobbying the government and asking people to write their senators / congresspeople. All I'll say about this is that Pandora literally has no way of altering their music expense other than appealing to the government. Their rate is not set by the free market, but by the government. Whether or not you think the government SHOULD have a hand in setting market rates for goods/services, the objective fact is that Pandora simply cannot change that in any way other than lobbying... The future of Pandora / royalty rate reduction? That brings me to the final point... what about this 'pay cut' being proposed? Well, to me, it's a simple choice. If the pay cut would mean Pandora can stay in business, I'm for it. If they can survive without it and thrive, then I'm against it. Nobody WANTS to earn less royalties. But I recognize that the value of each Pandora play goes beyond my songwriter + performer royalties and translates into real, quantifiable sales + fans, which go far beyond the numbers I see on my ASCAP/SoundExchange statements. In other words, if Pandora would go out of business w/o the reduction, I lose 100% of the royalties, 100% of fan referrals and 100% of extra iTunes / Amazon sales. If they have to do a reduction, I might get 20% royalties, but I'm still getting full income from the other two streams. What are your thoughts?

I've finally finished the game after taking it nice and slow (I prefer to do that as opposed to rushing through something). I have some spoiler-related thoughts below but first, my overall opinion: Ni No Kuni is a brilliant game. It's without a doubt the best JRPG I've played in many years, and on par with the hallowed pantheon of SNES/PS1 classics like Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Trigger. I've already talked about how much I love the music and graphics, but one thing I haven't mentioned is the rich world-building and memorability of all the different locations. In NNK, nearly every town or dungeon you visit is unique and memorable. You won't forget the sprawling, cat-based hamlet of Ding Dong Dell, the summer village of Castaway Cove, the stunning final dungeon, and certainly not the Fairyground on Teeheeti. This kind of worldbuilding is something I think many, if not MOST other RPGs (Western or Japanese) sorely lack. This is where the collaboration with Studio Ghibli was readily apparent. So many fantasy and medieval worlds rely on the tired Dwarf / Elf / Goblin (etc) tropes; it's a welcome change to have totally new races and creatures like the fairies and Tomte. The sidequest system also helps flesh out the world further - meeting a chef in Al Mamoon and helping him with his tikka mahala, solving Horace's riddles, following a doe-eyed couple as they try to open a store, interacting with the forest dwellers, and so forth. Even though the errands were often simple, it's the dialog and design that again helps breathe life into the game's world. The combat is exciting and dynamic. For the majority of areas and encounters in the game (unless you're really grinding and min-maxing your familiars), you need to plan your combat strategy. Simply using regular attacks and nothing else is typically not too effective, and you have to use a wider array of tools at your disposal based on what you're fighting. This is especially true for the boss battles, which I thought were very challenging throughout the game. I'm not an RPG novice by any means but I got my share of game overs during some of the particularly difficult encounters. We've talked already about how the AI is on the stupid side, rarely doing what you want it to do, but I don't think this detracts from the experience much, if at all. If you could totally control every action of your allies, the game would probably be too easy. As it is now, the challenge level is just right. Plus, even some of the most highly-regarded JRPGs of yesteryear had gaping balance problems and broken tactics. To some extent, that's part of the fun Though I started Ni No Kuni with Japanese voices (I'm glad they included that option), I switched to English about 10 hours in and never looked back. So many Japanese games have major problems with English voice acting, but I think this game did a remarkable job. Sure, there are some cheesy lines and a few pacing issues (probably due to audio implementation), but overall, the character voices are memorable and full of personality. Again, who can forget the Cowlipha or Drippy, for example? Though not all the lines were perfect, I really respect that they put the effort in to making the English voices actually bearable. In terms of the overall gameplay - which includes not only combat, but also exploring the world, going through dungeons, questing, and so forth - I really only have a couple of complaints. One is that I felt the 'take/give heart' quests were too easy. The game really holds your hand for these; it would have been nice to leave more of this to the player's problem-solving ability instead. Similarly, I thought the game could have done much more with dungeon puzzle-solving. There was a bit of this early on (e.g. the Temple of Trials) but it significantly tapered off later. Is this a necessity for a JRPG? No, but given the library of spells they introduced, I thought it was a missed opportunity for stimulating gameplay. On a side note, Horace's quest line had some excellent riddles, particularly toward the end! Another criticism which I'm sure relates to the game's budget and original size constraints is the lack of animated cutscenes later in the game. The first half has such gorgeous animated sequences throughout; I would have really liked to see more of them later. I'm a huge Studio Ghibli fan and so each one was a real treat. However, again, I can understand how these were probably a major resource challenge, and their absence is not a big deal at all. Spoilers begin here - highlight below! I loved the story of this game. It's heartwarming and has enough twists and turns to keep you guessing, even though the overall arc is a fairly familiar one (save the world from bad guys!) For example, while we might have suspected Shadar was Oliver's soul mate, I did not expect that Alicia was actually Oliver's mother, who had been traveling between the two worlds. I thought if nothing else, Oliver might save Alicia, even though his mother would still be gone - that was a surprise. Likewise, learning that Cassiopeia had essentially dreamed up much of what we saw around her was a neat twist. Speaking of, the backstory of both Shadar and the White Witch were pretty tragic. Cassiopeia's story - killing everyone in the world, or at least one continent - was shockingly dark, even if they didn't 'show anything'. You have to feel for a character who has been in isolation for hundreds if not thousands of years after such a terrible event. The redemption of Shadar was also very interesting and Ghibli-esque. Browsing some other forums, I saw that some people felt the game post-Shadar felt tacked on and unnecessary, detracting from the experience. I don't think that's the case. While they certainly COULD have ended the game at Shadar (provided they tweaked some of the earlier events), I definitely appreciated that additional story arc. The mystery, interacting with the adorable Pea, learning about Cassiopeia's tragic mistake, uniting the world... all of that was great. My only problem with the plot structure is that after such a dramatic climax (defeating the Zodiarchs), there was not enough payoff afterward, compared to the post-Shadar celebrations. I would have loved to see a solid 15-20 minutes of story - seeing where everyone ended up. What did Swaine end up doing? How is Hamelin recovering? Is Esther a famous musician now? Where's Drippy? We can of course use our imaginations, but I would have loved to see more. This is really the only significant complaint I have. However, I can almost entirely forgive it on the merits of the GORGEOUS end credits music. In summary: Ni No Kuni now ranks among my favorite games ever. It conjures feelings of nostalgia, wonder, and joy that I haven't felt for RPGs since I was in middle school. Though it isn't perfect, what is?

It seems like for any junglers or bruisers you really need 21 into defense for the survivability and extra tenacity. Is that accurate?

Thank you everyone! And Happy Birthday to my bros Anorax and BlackPanther. Been a great, chill day so far... * Slept in until 11:30, cuddled with Jill + cats * Awesome pancakes courtesy of Jill * Got some work done on some sample libraries (fun work) * Three games of League of Legends, all wins including one epic win * Lunch and HGTV * 2 hours of intense badminton * Cake cake cake * More to come?!

Haha, if you are THAT built and you really need the extra stats (which I did), selling boots for Zephyr is the way to go. Compared to Zerker greaves you only lose about 20 ms total - not very significant - but you gain tenacity, 30% extra attack speed, 25 AD, and 10% CDR. IMO a very good trade for 20 ms.

Oh man, best birthday ever. I've played 3 games today as Cait, all of which were wins. The third game was maybe the best game I've ever played. The teams were... Cait (me), Lee Sin (jungle), Kayle (top), Syndra (mid), Alistar (supp) vs. Quinn (ADC), Yi (mid), Rammus (jungle), Poppy (top) and Leona (supp) Within the first 10 minutes, Rammus had gotten about 5 successful ganks in, while our Lee had none. Top and mid both died early and bot was tied at best. Then, around 12 minutes in, Syndra went AFK for the rest of the game. We quickly got a few towers pushed down and were ganked brutally even more. Our Kayle raged hard. Rather than give up, I ignored Kayle and assured the team we could still win. A slick play at bot and suddenly I get a triple kill. We put up some stalwart D, despite various people getting ganked / caught out of position multiple times, and despite losing another couple towers. Something incredible begins to happen - I have only one death, but I keep getting kills. My farm goes over 200, then 300, then nearly 400. After 30 minutes or so, I'm nearly maxed out (IE, LW, Shiv, BotrK). My positioning is perfect every teamfight and I wear down even their extremely tanky Rammus and Leona in seconds. By 45 minutes, I'm totally maxed with a Zephyr + GA on top of that other stuff, plus all potions. Every time they try to push with 5, we smash them to pieces and get more of their towers, or objectives. At best, they get our midlane, but we get theirs too. Finally, they go in for one last push and get torn apart - all but Quinn (who was, at one point, 11-1) die, we waltz down mid lane, facetank their Nexus turrets and win. Of course, not before Syndra reconnects literally 15 seconds before victory. My final items: Infinity Edge Blade of the Ruined King Statikk Shiv Last Whisper Zephyr Guardian Angel My final score: 18/2/7 in 47 minutes, with 394cs, 21.8k gold, and 7 turrets destroyed. I just can't get over the fact that we won this. It was literally a perfect setup for defeat - rager teammate, AFK within 10 mins, lots of early deaths and enemy ganks, early towers down, etc. But it was as perfect example of how playing REALLY well, ignoring ragers, staying positive, and being a leader can turn any game around, even one as (seemingly) lopsided as this one.

Also remember 'leagues' mean nothing. You have a hidden MMR that is exactly like the old Elo system. That's what is actually used. It is possible to stay in Bronze V (by dodging your promotion series) and eventually raise your MMR to the point where you are matched against Platinum players - people have done this and it is concrete proof that the League system has no impact on who you get matched against.

Heh, for whatever reason my jungle winrate is like 15%... it always SEEMS like I'm doing really well with ganks and farm but we just end up losing. I dunno. ADC I'm pretty strong, usually around 60% winrate.. of course I don't get that role all the time! The most frustrating thing is getting your team to not give up so easily. I actually had a team where I was drastically ahead on CS + kills in bot lane, but we lost our first teamfight (like 24 minutes in) and my team surrendered. Like.. wtf? We hadn't even lost a single tower.

Bronze I, I started in Bronze II. I'm working very hard to get into silver. I feel like I do play at a much higher level than I am currently ranked but the level of statistical 'noise' makes individual skill less meaningful in bronze. I main ADC and when anyone else on my team insists on ADC, 100% of the time they perform worse than I do (on average)... so it's just a matter of playing enough games where I get to play my best role