I-n-j-i-n

The de facto 'put in 360 and play it for 6 months' game probably. Though I'm having enough fun playing co-op in Xbox Live Arcade games.

That's good, because the old game was ugly even when it was first released.

This day sucks. People saying it out loud in the streets sucks. I seriously got a headache from this 'holiday' more than once. Today too.

I addressed both issues. It's called sarcasm. Read about it sometime. Yes, hur hurrrrr adjective, verb. Literally, figuratively, blah blah. What's there to point out when I argued both ways?

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat. TFC was the only reason to play a PC in the late 90's for me. Also the crazy, insane game tactics that only TFC can bring. Idon't think most FPS games aside from Unreal Tournament and Tribes could do that. Really, this is the only expansion pack I'm excited about. The new Half Life chapter itself should be a lot of fun as always.

But ALL RPGs have plotholes. Suikoden even has glaring ones and its fans (including me) are perfectly fine with it. FFT as great as it was, had plotholes the size of Jupiter. Also, the mystery and the stuff they left open left a lot to interpretation and I thought the fan reception and speculation was the best thing about FF7's fanbase aside from the asinine console/"which is the best FF" flamefests. I agree. I mean, popular titles are always two faced like that. They couldn't have gotten there without a lot of effort and good intentions to begin with. Nowadays it's all about Halo, Final Fantasy, Mario and all that with a crazy amount of hype but they always are followed by attempts to cash in on it. I personally love FF7 for what it is, and really, I'm more entertained by all the crazy hype surrounding it than anything. I can't blame anyone for being put off by it because that's what hype can do. Like when a few magazines started labeling FF7 as "BEST GAME. EVER.", that's just funny to me. Some people can take it seriously and that's fine too. And the entire mystique of the 'biggest development team in history of gaming' and 'biggest budget in any game. EVER' kind of thing is pretty funny in retrospect but it actually paid off. Like another crazy project in Kingdom Hearts and a few other insanely popular diversions for Square. It's like one big circus, love it or hate it.

Looking at the wi-fi Brawl screens, there's on-screen loading via lag... I know it'll still be awesome with sorta-kinda-decent online play, but I wouldn't hold my breath for Wii online games so far. But online fighting games were on and off with that aspect even with a few games for Xbox Live Arcade.

No. It does. She was inspired by the very creator of the game with that kind of a mindset and the entire game's plot was based fully around it. Also, the interesting thing about Aeris was not when she was alive, but when she passed on. She sort of lived vicariously in Cloud and was basically elevated to another level posthumously unlike many videogame characters who are more or less forgotten or don't have much impact on the story near the end the way Aeris did. You can harp on how she is 'not inspired, not inspired, not inspired', but that's pure subjectivity. Personally, she is one of the most interesting additions that created a lot of controversy in an RPG as never before really. I admit she is a love it or hate it character and that death is still controversial today. I for one love Sakaguchi for having the balls to do that. Also, I'm not sure she was perfect as it was that she was just incredibly meek even for an RPG character. In most RPGs, most characters at least put up an effort to live through things and not willfully sacrifice themselves. Even when they do, like Fire Bringer, the twins in FF4, Alys in Phantasy Star lore to Nei in Phantasy Star 2, they still went down fighting to the end. In a way, I think her passiveness and connection to the lifestream made her more of an avatar than a human character. As for addressing "WHY ARE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT THIS GAME NOW" posts, it was 10 year launch anniversary for North American release like a week ago. And that Crisis Core game for the PSP got really good reviews in Famitsu. AND the FF7 trailer/remake news never stops. Never.

Yeah, Eternal Sonata really has a sleepy feel to it. I'm probably aiming for a rental since there is Halo and Mass Effect and who knows how many 360/wii games are coming out soon.

Drama is a GOOD thing in RPGs, especially JRPGs where gameplay is really in the background. I don't agree that drama is a bad connotation for RPGs. I see it as imperative. I'll have to disagree then. She IS inspired for a FACT because Sakaguchi's mother died years prior to FF7's development and he has said in numerous interviews that the theme of FF7 was the heavy emphasis of motherly characters. Jenova, Aeris and Aeris's own mother were those figures. Not to forget other motherly figures such as the doting Tifa and Lucrecia, the biological mother of Sephiroth. Also, do we HAVE to compare characters and put them down to elevate the other? Other FF games had great characters too, but I don't see why you have to put down FF7's just to make a point. That is just disingenuous. I find that hard to swallow since FF games have put a lot more effort into the story more so than any singular franchise out there. I agree the premise is basic for the most part but there's character types for just about everyone. And it playing like a movie is basically its own point. If you want a true open ended epic, go play Ultima. Or maybe even Baldur's Gate. I don't see those putdowns as valid since millions still do care and even Square itself sees the potential to tap into the fanbase that is still very strong. I don't like making this distinction, but it is reminiscent of Evangelion for anime. Games typically come and go with the ages, but like Evangelion which inexplicably has an insane staying power and constant releases of the DVDs and spinoffs, FF7 is the same. Really, I think that all the drama they at least tried to inject into FF7 did strike a chord with a lot of mainstream gamers as well as some hardcore ones (like me). It's not to say that everyone must love it, but to say that 'oh, it's no big deal, who cares?' is not too valid. FF4 was basically the first game that tried to turn a FF game into a true epic I thought. Dragon Quest and other games before it just went the rote path. FF4 actually TRIED with the story. Likewise, I think FF6 and FF7 had the same kind of response since first time gamers or even veteran gamers took that kind of effort and ran with it. FF8, FF9 and FFX were great in their own right too, but a lot of the plot just felt a bit too experimental for their own good, even for FF standards. Such as Ultemecia, that weird-crystal-boss-thinggy and the strange summons religion in FFX, it all deviated a bit from the simple but elaborate concept in FF4, 6 and 7 IMO.

To think about it, other FF7 scenes were memorable too. Cid's flight, Red's father's death, Yuffie's mini-plot, Tifa's nostalgia, Zack's story, Aeris' mom. All of them were sad in their own. I think that's why the collective story was memorable. It had a lot of good drama. Not just one or two.

Memory cards selling consoles? ................................... Also, with really high budget RPGs nowadays, people in general seems to expect the highest graphical fidelity with such games since they aim for epicness. Not that such games can't be done on the Wii, but it wouldn't be hitting on all cylinders with last generation calibur graphics (though Xbox calibur is still really good even today I'd say).

Star Ocean 3? Sure it had a nice-ish ending but that was so over the top convoluted, I was more confused at how hard the writing fell off near the end than anything. Fate was good, then the rest.... video game nerd final boss.... Um. You're WRONG on that one. On almost all points. Fei was an emotional/moody kid for like 90% of the game, he barely had any goals and he was just being moody and running from place to place fighting enemies he sees in his dreams and flashbacks that have resurfaced in the present. In a way, he was similar to Cloud than being dissimilar. Cloud was far from being moody but more like his emotions were broken. And he had to fight to get his past back just the same. Cloud being whiny? Do people even remember these games anymore? And Cloud not showing emotions? But that was like the entire point of the entire story and his back story AND the connection to Jenova, etc etc yadda yadda. I don't want to bother elaborating the obvious. Also, I don't understand why people are seemingly so miffed at imperfect heroes. I'd rather have the main character be an actual CHARACTER than a caricature who really does nothing but be goody two shoes for the entirety of the game.

Teary eyed. The music was beautiful on top of the whole scene. At the time, I didn't expect it at all since I never used the internet back then.

I know it's subjective. I was merely going by the criteria of a track actually holding a tune and not being background noise, which was what most of FFXII's tracks were. Then again, FFT was a direct collaboration between Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata. Iwata still helped with FFXII, but apparently didn't do as much as he did with FFT.

Not really for JRPGs. JRPGs for 360 has consistently sold very well at least. And I don't need to mention western sales which is just gigantic in comparison. What does that have to do with anything? Nintendo reached out to Square to develop on the system again and MS pretty much has to pay some extra royalties to accomodate it. And I don't think the situation is desperate at all for 360. Actually it seems to be advantageous over the PS3 in every market not named "Japan". Also, there is really no such thing as "jumping ships" nowadays. It seems all the big companies are making games for everything. Even PC, which is pretty futile and stupid, but whatever.

IMO Sakimoto's worst work objectively speaking. It had like two or three truly memorable tracks at most. Compare that to about 30 of them for FFT.

The problem with the remakes is that they're mostly neutered or altered for the worse one way or the other. FF4 remake was mostly excellent though, including FF3 for the DS recently. But they haven't really remade them entirely. If they're going to remake FF7, they can't get away with just making another slap on port. I think the expectations for a FF7 sequel is very different from any other port. Even with Chrono Trigger, one of my favorite RPGs, I'd rather have it stay put with its charming 2D graphics and simplistic sprites. But FF7, I can see a huge graphical overhaul actually being more appropriate since FF7 broke new ground as a top of the line graphical adventure. Imagine if they remade Myst. They can't get away with a simplistic, ancient port rather than making it high def and with all the graphical tricks imaginable for it. Also, the final story arc could have been fleshed out a lot better. Imagine if they put in the Advent Children Jenova spawns into the story. They can even let you play Zack or something. There's a lot they can do that they already did for their spinoffs to a point. Which is ironic since I actually see the Popeye as endearing for some reason. I even am nostalgic for the extremely polygonal Jumping Flash game or the textures-that-makes-your-eyes-hurt aspect of Tomb Raider. Nothing can be quite as bad as the FFT/FF7 translations. It can only be good if they try to avoid those disasters of translation jobs. I'm not sure about voice overs though. Maybe for visual cutscenes it could work.

Anyone catch Tri-Ace and Square making TWO brand new RPGs for 360? Best news is that they are not sequels at all but totally new.

It's not like they're going to pull multi-controller versus modes if they're putting an online mode in there. Why do people compare them as if it's one way or the other? It's the same story with Virtua Fighter 5 for 360. There are still the normal versus modes...

Even if they're making it, we won't see it for a year or two just for the demo itself. So it's too early no matter how valid it is.

I didn't think 300 was emotional at all. Just that it created a great atmosphere really. It wasn't exactly a character study of anyone or thing. Because it focused on the Spartans as a whole. As for new releases, I only heard good things about Eastern Promises and the History of Violence was grossly overlooked. David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen are worth following now. They're both about to break it big with their movies, even if not with commercial success.

To think about it, I probably used Ice Climbers more than anyone else because of the chaos they can wreak if they're separated (ironic I know, since they're mostly better when together). But really, I wouldn't even blink if they decide to take out even my favorite characters for an entirely new cast. At least I hope they now plan on announcing only new characters.

I'm fine with those charas, but it still would be better with Lyn instead of making a huge ruckus over fucking statues.

The video can't come fast enough really. It's like waiting for a new video on E3 years past. Also, Call of Duty running at 60 frames per second is making my eyes hurt. It's almost too beautiful how well it runs.