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sephfire

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Posts posted by sephfire

    The Spoony Experiment

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I've been following him since I found his FF8 reviews. Now that the series is over, I've drifted over to That Guy With the Glasses more. Between his Nostalgia Critic, Bum Reviews, Ask That Guy and Video Game Confessions series, there's a lot to enjoy.

    Epic Mickey

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Essentially, it will in some respects follow "Okami" in regards to Mickey (& Co?) restoring Disney Land to its former glory after these forgotten/less-known characters Bel-Aired it to oblivion and beyond; Much like how Amaterasu had to restore the former beauty of Japan along with clearing out the demons in "Okami"..?.

    They could also have a lot of fun using this considering the hand-drawn nature of Disney classic animation. This could be amazing. It could also explain Wii-exclusivity (if that is, in fact, true).

    Epic Mickey

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Take all of this with a huge grain of salt, but it's the most information about this thing I've been able to find in one place. Rumors are about all we've got at this point.

    When it was announced that Warren Spector, the creator of beloved cyberpunk shooter Deus Ex and one of the main talents at Ion Storm, had started working at Disney-owned Junction Point studio after Ion Storm broke apart there was lots of skepticism. In the past few days rumors and leaked concept art of his new project, going by the code name "Epic Mickey" has surfaced, and it's awesome.

    So far there's little more than rumors about the actual nature of the game. So far the rumors say that the game is about lesser-known and forgotten Disney characters trying to get their revenge of Mickey Mouse, and that it will be a Wii-exclusive platformer that uses an Okami-like drawing mechanic.

    Even without much information on the game the concept and the general look they're establishing has me excited as hell. Using iconic childhood imagery to cobble together surreal, nightmarish contraptions (like the harvester subs having the faces of the 7 Dwarves on front and the teacups from the Alice in Wonderland ride on their backs, as well as the omnipresent four-fingered white gloves Mickey Mouse wears being on everything) not only looks amazing but shows a surprising amount of inventiveness from Disney, considering how protective they've always been of their characters.

    So far all I've managed to find is a few blog posts on the subject, sadly. Joystiq seems to have the most concept art but gathering it is an ongoing effort; everything that's been found has been scoured from resumes and portfolios of concept artists, and more seems to be popping up everyday. So I guess until more concrete information comes out this can be a thread to collect information as it appears.

    Fat Princess!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    fatprincess.jpg

    Fat Princess is finally out on PSN. And it is bloody fun.

    Gameplay

    Fat Princess puts the player on a team consisting of up to 32 male and female cartoon characters, with the main goal in the game to rescue their team's princess held captive by an opposing team, although team-deathmatch and other online modes are also available. The player can choose from ten dessert-themed levels such as Coco Cliffs and Black Forest.

    At the beginning of the game, each of the teams will already have their opponent's princess held captive. In order to make their opponent's task in rescuing her more difficult, the player can give more and more food to the princess they have captured, so that she will become fatter and heavier, and the opponent's team will need larger number of players to carry her.

    The game's mechanics have the player control a standard 3D, cel-shaded, character at the fort, castle, or stronghold. There are five machines at the player's fort, each producing hats. Depending on which hat gets picked up and put on, the player gets different abilities. The game consists of five classes: the mage, priest, warrior, worker and ranger. Each has its own set of unique weapons and play style. Every class has two weapons or abilities available. The warrior can use a stronger blade, or a sword and shield. The worker is able to use his axe to gather resources, or his bombs if he wants to deal more damage to enemy player. The mage is able to transform himself into either Fire or Ice wizard, while the Priest can become a Dark Priest, blocking his healing powers, but allowing him to deal damage to opponent players. The ranger is able to use either gunpowder rifle, or a bow and an arrow. Each attack or ability can be made more powerful by holding the square button. Holding the square button, for example, allows the mage to make an area of effect attack, which deals damage to all enemy players in his proximity.

    The players are able to upgrade their hat producing machines to enhance the strength and abilities of each individual classes. In order to upgrade a certain machines, players must use resources, gathered by workers. The resources are wood and stone, which are gathered outside of castle walls.

    Classes

    There are five classes total, excluding the Peasant. Each class has two tiers (T1 and T2) of abilities. You start with T1 abilities, and the Worker can upgrade you to T2 by farming resources and upgrading the respective hat generator for the class. You can then switch between T1 and T2 on the fly by the push of a button. Each class also has varying abilities, depending on if you charge your attack or not, and if you currently have a target or not. Also, some classes have differing health values, represented by little hearts.

    Peasant

    This is your starting class, armed with only 2 hearts and your fists. Not very effective for anything other than running cake to the princess, as this is the fastest class in the game. There is no T2 peasant.

    Warrior

    The Warrior starts with a simple sword and a shield, with a standard sword swipe attack. His charge attack makes him do a spin with his sword (think Link's UP-B in SSB), and he can block incoming projectiles by holding up his shield and facing them. His T2 upgrade gives him a Halberd, which does more damage than the sword, has longer range, and has a charge attack that literally charges you at the enemy target very quickly, doing substantial damage. This class has the most HP of any of the classes with 6 hearts

    Ranger

    This guy is your typical archer class, and he starts with a simple bow and arrow. The arrows can be temporarily lit on fire to do extra damage by either having a Mage light them up for you, or by lighting them yourself at a torch. His bow has extremely long range, and can even manage to kill people that are off-screen if you're good. His T2 upgrade gives him a shotgun which has an extremely slow reload and short range; however, a fully charged shotgun blast to the face is very deadly. The Ranger has 5 hearts.

    Mage

    The caster archetype, the Mage, is the AOE damage king. He starts with fire magic, which can either shoot a fireball if you have a target, or blasts an AOE fire wave around the Mage if he does not. In itself, a fully charged AOE blast does not do very much damage, but get a few Mages together casting at the same time, fully charged, and you're looking at some serious hurt. The T2 upgrade for the Mage gives him access to ice magic, which also has single target and AOE variations. The single target attack does minor damage and slightly slows the enemy temporarily, and the AOE one freezes all nearby enemies in place for a few seconds - extremely useful for helping get enemies off a Princess that your team is trying to grab.

    Also, upgrading the Mage to T2 creates a potion spawn in your base that anyone can come and pick up. You can't perform any actions (other than movement) while carrying a potion, and they act as mini-bombs that explode a few seconds after being thrown. Upon exploding, anyone nearby (including allies) is temporarily turned into a chicken, which is extremely fast but only has 1 heart. The Mage has 4 hearts.

    Worker

    Probably the most important class on the team, the Worker gathers resources, upgrades other classes, upgrades your base, and builds objects (ladders, springs, catapults, etc) that aid in invading the enemy's base. You start with just a small axe that does very little damage to enemies, but is required to gather resources. You can swing at a tree/ore node a few times to have a log/ore fall out, which you can return to your base to have it placed in your team funds (everyone on your team shares the same funds). You can then use these resources to upgrade various parts of your base, including the class hat generators. The T2 Worker has a small bomb that he can throw at enemies to do damage.

    Also, like the Mage, upgrading the Worker to T2 creates a spawn in your base that generates very large bombs that explode roughly 10 seconds after you pick them up. They do devastating damage, and are very good for defense. Another use for them is you can have several people pick up a bomb, jump into the catapult, and launch into the enemy base. By the time you land, you should have a few seconds left before your bomb goes off, and you can do a lot of damage to the enemy team from right inside their own base. The Worker has 4 hearts.

    Priest

    The Priest is like the Mage in that his abilities differ depending on whether or not he has a target. His default ability is a single target heal, which slowly regenerates a target over time. He can also charge up for a massive AOE heal if he does not have a target. Upgrading the Priest to T2 gives him access to dark magic. The single target dark magic spell drains life from an enemy and returns it to the Priest, down to 1 hp (it won't kill off the target). The Priest can also wack anyone with his staff at any time, which doesn't do very much damage, but is good for finishing someone off that you've been draining. The AOE dark spell is a mass disorient, and makes it difficult for anyone around the priest to control their characters temporarily. The Priest has 4 hearts.

    This game is the best fifteen dollars I've ever spent on PSN. There have been some "day one" connectivity issues when trying to play online, but that will smooth out over time.

    My PSN name is "sephfire". Looking forward to seeing you chaps out there.

    What genre of music is Final Fantasy VIII's "Eyes on Me"?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I don't completely hate these songs. Like I said, the melodies are great and are used to great effect throughout each game. The melodies from Suteki da ne and Melody of Life in particular are among my favorites from each game. But that cheesy style just grates on me.

    "Pop ballad," you say? Would Utada Hikaru's Kingdom Hearts tracks fit into this same category, do you think? I love the way those turned out, but perhaps they're more "pop", less "ballad". It's something about the slightly retro vibe Eyes on Me and those other have that irritates me so much, I guess.

    Now that you mention it, it does sound similar to some of Celine Dion's stuff. Perhaps that's why it feels sort of familiar.

    What genre of music is Final Fantasy VIII's "Eyes on Me"?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I'm trying to find a name for my hatred.

    Starting with FFVIII, Square had a habit of including some sort of ballad in their games. In Final Fantasy VIII, we had

    . Then in Final Fantasy IX's end credits, we heard a cheesy rendition of
    . Final Fantasy X's
    actually wasn't bad, but still fit into the same style and genre. The absolute worst example I've heard so far is the ballad for Lost Odyssey:
    .

    Don't get me wrong: the melodies in most of these songs are beautiful. The same melodies were used many times in each game in various tracks and they really added a lot to the game. And the lyrics in these ballad versions aren't terrible either. And I have absolutely no problem with lyrical songs being used in these games. Kingdom Hearts has had some great Utada Hikaru tracks. The Disgaea games are flooded with lyrical tracks, and they're fantastic.

    But that style ... the cheesy, smarmy sound of these songs. I must know what the specific genre and/or origin of that sound is. Where did it come from? It sounds so classic and familiar, yet I can't think of any other place I've heard that style of song outside of Japanese video games. I must know my enemy. :-x

    What to Buy: PS3 or Wii?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I think my level of satisfaction with each of these consoles has also been affected by how often they sit collecting dust. I get a similar amount of gaming time out of each console. But in the gap between great PS3 games being released, my PS3 is still constantly in use as a movie player (which it's great for). Between great Wii games, the Wii sits and does nothing.

    Rock Band Network **Musicians! LOOK AT THIS**

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Just heard about this.Def gonna be taking advantage of it :D

    Nobody said the music had to be "rock" or have guitars in it :P

    UNTZ UNTZ COMING TO ROCKBAND!!

    Yeah, I wonder how they'll handle that. There's bound to be a lot of submissions of tracks that aren't even close to rock. Guess we'll see.

    Also, I wonder how strict they'll be on the issue of remixes? Odds are, they probably won't allow them for legal reasons. But can you imagine playing the entirety Metroid Metal in Rock Band?

    My hearts skipped a beat typing that.

    Rock Band Network **Musicians! LOOK AT THIS**

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Harmonix just announced something huge: the Rock Band Network.

    Set to appear on the 360 this year and the other platforms sometime after, the RBN will allow anyone to chart and submit their music to Rock Band. So long as the music is yours (or you have the artist's permission), you can use the official Harmonix tools to prepare your song for Rock Band, create a note chart, and submit it to a team of Harmonix-associated devs for approval. You'll even get a percentage of the profits.

    More details, as well as a video describing the process HERE.

    This could be something amazing. We could be playing songs by OCR artists in Rock Band before the year is over. Spread the word to any bands you know!

    What to Buy: PS3 or Wii?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    In the end, I recommend getting both. I would choose an Xbox 360 over either of them, but I think they're all worth owning. So whichever one you buy first, I recommend picking the other up down the line, especially once all of these upcoming exclusives have been released.

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