Results tagged “Final Fantasy”

"Agito" Into the Future

By Geoffrey Barnes on July 1, 2010 10:12 PM

The 3rd Birthday is going to melt half of your face off in sheer awesomeness when it releases, according to Square Enix's Motomu Toriyama, so to speak. Why only half? That's because Final Fantasy Agito XIII is going to melt the other half.

It may not live up to the nigh-unrealistic expectations he's giving it, but it admittedly has potential. The game itself has a very Crisis Core-esque look to it, which should be expected given it has some of the same core team and the same director: Hajime Tabata, who's also directing The 3rd Birthday. It will presumably hit shelves sooner than its belated older brother, Final Fantasy Versus XIII since gameplay footage of this actually exists.

It was originally going to be an MMO-like game back when, like The 3rd Birthday, it was originally intended for cell phones. Again, Square Enix found some sense and realized they wanted more than the inhabitants of Japan - or people with Japanese cell phones - to play this game, and moved it to PSP. In that move, it abandoned most of the aforementioned MMO-like system for one that's similar to a lot of RPGs. Its battle system will be similar to Crisis Core's, which itself was an evolution of the one found in Final Fantasy X-2, and will accommodate both single-player and multiplayer gameplay. Summons will also be fully controllable a la Final Fantasy X.

Plenty of gamers thought this would be Square Enix's answer to Monster Hunter and Phantasy Star Online, but that's not quite what this is. It's an RPG first, and at this time, we now know what their answer to those games is. More on that tomorrow.

The story has a political background this time around. Your playable characters will involve some of the top students at Peristerium School of Magic, located an island separate from the rest of the continent in the world of Orience. There are four countries that signed a peace treaty that stated no other country was to invade the other. But it's broken when Commander Cid of begins his invasion of other nations with his army of l'Cie soldiers. The school setting might invoke memories of Final Fantasy VIII, but the beginning of the conflict is pretty different. Upon seeing the invasion, a bunch of students form an alliance to stop Cid.

The word "Agito" means "to put in motion" in Latin, and it also happens to be the highest rank all the students aspire to make it to. Yeah, there's definitely a SeeD-esque vibe here. Given the plot details we have already, its Latin interpretation has a lot to do with the game too.

There have been twelve characters revealed so far, all of which are school students that wield a variety of weapons. It shouldn't be a surprise to see characters that wield swords or guns, but there's also one that uses cards. Wonder how he uses them. The last time we had a Final Fantasy title that was heavily political, we got Final Fantasy Tactics. I'm not gonna go all Toriyama-style here and hype this to heaven, but it at least sounds promising.

If you're wondering about the release date, you'll just have to keep doing just that, because Square Enix refuses to disclose a release date. It's likely going to make it out sometime next year if everything goes according to plan. And there should be a nice re-reveal at this year's Tokyo Game Show, granted it's not moronically shown behind closed doors again. But I don't think that will happen.

Treasure Hunter: The Real March Madness

By Angela Moseley on March 1, 2010 2:10 PM

March is already upon us and for fans that only means one thing-- March Madness. And no, I'm not talking about sports fans or college basketball. The real March madness lies in the sheer number of high profile video game releases coming out this month. From Final Fantasy XIII on the PS3 and 360 down to Pokémon HeartGold on the DS and everything in between, March promises to be an insanely awesome month. Included with so many awesome games is a fair amount of bonus items or swag, ripe for collecting. If you're interested in keeping track of all of the games coming out this month a complete listing can be found at VGRleases.

First up is the highly anticipated Final Fantasy XIII release. As Joseph mentioned in a news roundup Microsoft is releasing a special FFXIII 360 Elite Bundle which includes the new 250GB model and two wireless controllers (ironic for a single-player game). All and all, the bundle is pretty lackluster until you toss in the free bonus faceplate featuring Lighting. If you're a fan of Final Fantasy and you haven't already bought a PS3 for the game and you currently don't own a 360 (or you want one with more hard drive space) this bundle could be for you.

If you already own a 360 and you're interested in the FFXIII branded faceplate Microsoft is releasing a standalone faceplate for a whopping $49.99. I chalk the price up to Microsoft being well, Microsoft! Personally, I think Lighting would look good on my black Xbox but not for $50. Sure the price isn't unheard of just look at the MadCatz Gears of War special edition faceplate, but the average price of $19.95 is a tad more reasonable. Hopefully these FFXIII special edition faceplates will eventually make their way out to Amazon's Marketplace and eBay for sane prices. Until then, if you pre-ordered your game with GameStop there's always the free 32-page mini strategy guide. The guide is included with both versions of the game.

Normally a new numbered Final Fantasy game is more than enough to steal the gaming spotlight for the month but FFXIII also has to share with another highly anticipated Triple A title, God of War III. Unlike the RPG, this action game sports an impressive collector's edition. The God of War III Ultimate Edition ships with a sculpted replica of Pandora's Box, a collector's edition art book with interviews, and downloadable items. Downloadable swag includes the game trilogy soundtrack, a documentary of the God of War franchise, a combat arena, a Dominus skin, and "God of War: Blood and Metal EP," an MP3 song of a heavy metal tribute to the series. The GoW III Ultimate Edition retails for $99.99, but is sold out or unavailable at many retailers. To put it simply, if you waited until now to reserve a copy of the Ultimate Edition you may be out of luck, unless you're willing to pay up to $300 on Amazon or you're willing to try your luck on eBay.

If you're a fan of Pokemon and portable RPGs no doubt you already have your eyes on the upcoming Pokémon HeartGold and Pokémon SoulSilver games. A pokéwalker, or pedometer is already included with every new copy of the games and is no doubt a must have. The ability to transfer pokémon to the pokéwalker and then level them up is a bonus in a game that requires lots of grinding. In addition to leveling up monsters the Pokéwalker can be used to find special items and pokémon and to receive gifts from other players also using the pedometer. The pedometer alone is reason enough to buy the game new. However, every GameStop pre-order of HeartGold comes with a special Ho Oh figure. While figure isn't a deal maker or breaker it is nice to have one. Unfortunately there no longer appears to be a special Lugia figure included with SoulSilver, so the best a collector can do is hope that their local GameStop employees will include a Ho Oh figure with their pre-order of SoulSilver.

According to the early reviews Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is an awesome DS game. If you enjoyed Nocturne on the PS2 you should feel right at home with this title. Even if you're unfamiliar with the SMT games but you love RPGs Strange Journey should still be an enjoyable experience. As with Persona on the PSP Atlus is releasing the soundtrack together with every new copy of the game. If you pre-order the game at GameStop you'll also receive a mini-poster (pictured above). The gorgeous sci-fi themed artwork alone is enough to make the trek down to a local GameStop to pre-order. If GameStop isn't your thing this poster will undoubtedly make its way to eBay and Amazon's Marketplace.

The GameStop exclusives for March continue with the exclusive soundtrack to Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon. Unfortunately with a release date of March 16th Fragile Dreams is already on shaky ground with God of War III, Dragon Age Origins: Awaking, and Resonance of Fate all releasing on the same day. Fragile Dreams promises to be a dark RPG that is character and plot driven. Exploration and emotion provide a break from the average combat driven RPG titles. Fragile Dreams could be worth looking into for RPG fans who are not interested in the big RPG title of the month or who simply want to support XSEED. If I wasn't already tapped out on games this month I'd certainly try this title on the Wii.

And if you're looking for Lunar: Silver Star Harmony which releases tomorrow Geoff already wrote about it here.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy -- Wherein Light and Darkness Get Physical

By Geoffrey Barnes on October 2, 2009 2:21 PM

When you look at the concept of Dissidia: Final Fantasy at a glance, you know it's a game bound to receive some early criticism solely for what it represents. The game itself is borne of the fanboy wars that take place across the internet, and Square Enix realized that, hey, they could literally cash in on it with a game of their own. Upon its unveiling, comparisons to Ehrgeiz and word of Square Enix's less-than-stellar track record with genres not within the RPG genre arose, with the game itself looking like a fighting game. Square Enix referring to it as a "Dynamic Action Game" didn't help matters, which made them seem pompous about its inevitable potential for greatness.

But they weren't, really. Upon seeing and playing the game, there really isn't any better way to precisely describe what it does succinctly. Dissidia is actually a strange-though-logical amalgam of an action game, an RPG, and a fighting game. Classifying it as all three in its description would be ridiculous, but it would help in preparing a player for what they should expect. What seemed like a bunch of genres thrown together haphazardly actually turned out to be a quality and addictive product, with enough fanservice to appeal to people who will eat anything tangentially related to the franchise up, but also with enough substance to appeal to gamers who care about the underlying product.

Dissidia assembles the most recognizable heroes and villains from the Final Fantasy universe, from The Warrior of Light to Tidus on the heroic side, and from Garland to Jecht on the malignant side, numerically. The story has the heroes fighting to help Cosmos and the world she exists in from being taken over by the main villain, Chaos (also the final boss of Final Fantasy I). It seems like it has the grounds for an, at least, entertaining story, but it's actually one of the most insipid thing ever conceived; there is some of the worst dialogue in any medium ever. Really. Fanfiction writers could've done better.

But it's not all bad. The story mode itself has you playing each of the heroes and going through fighting both clones of all characters and the villains. It's here where Dissidia reveals its most appealing and addictive qualities. Not only do characters have HP, but BP as well, which stands for Bravery Points. When BP attacks land, a character's Bravery will decrease as yours increases. The higher a character's bravery, the more HP damage that character's next HP attack will do. Each character has HP and BP attacks mapped to the square and attack buttons, respectively, which change depending on whether you have the analog nub pointed forward or backward. Complicated? Absolutely.

But after fighting through a few of the character's story modes, or fooling around with the Arcade Mode, it begins to become second nature. You really don't need to study each character's attack methods to counter efficiently, as the game is pretty good at easing you into its rhythm. You do want to do that as you venture into the higher difficulties, though, so with a game like this it's best to pick one character and stick with them to level them up and gain EXP and AP. As you level up, you obtain new techniques, and you'll be able to assign which BP and HP attacks you think are best for that particular character. It's micromanagement that encompasses all of the above that makes Dissidia feel so addictive and easy to lose yourself in for hours at a time. And above all, it's fun.

There's also PP to acquire as well, which are "Player Points" that you can acquire through multiple ways. PP can be spent in the PP Catalog, which you'll use to unlock new modes, characters, items, alternate outfits, and features. If you're fastidious enough to acquire everything, well, it's going to take you a while with all of the grinding you'll have to do.

As you'd expect from a Square Enix game on PSP, it's a sight to behold graphically. The character models and environments are just as good as, if not better than, Crisis Core, and many of them rival the company's PS2 titles. But with a top notch presentation comes some bothersome loading times...though that depends on how much space you have on your memory stick. The UMD version game comes with an option to install a portion of it to your memory stick, but it unfortunately doesn't completely eliminate any loading times. Fortunately, they're only before and after the matches, so nothing will break the tempo of an actual match.

Though the game itself is loaded for fanservice, all of it isn't aimed at the fans you'd expect. The characters themselves will constantly reference the stories of their respective games, though there are plenty of times where you won't get everything unless you've played through them in their entirety. Of course some of them are completely silly, but they're entertaining for nostalgia's sake. The best moments, however, are the subtle references to the older games, and how the newer designs from Tetsuya Nomura are faithful to Yoshitaka Amano's originals.

Like that, that's just fantastic. There are plenty of other nods that are worth looking out for too.

Dissidia also has some fantastic music, the majority of which are remixes of specific themes from previous Final Fantasy soundtracks. The original tracks are done by the venerable Nobuo Uematsu, but the best remixes are done by Takeharu Ishimoto of Crisis Core and The World Ends With You. He did a great job keeping the tracks familiar while giving them a different feel. The voice acting is also great, with mostly various actors and actresses returning to provide voices for their characters. Veronica Taylor provides an excellent voice for Cosmos, while the always-excellent Keith David provides a fittingly menacing voice for Chaos.

If you've been a fan of the Final Fantasy franchise for a good deal of time, you're bound to derive some form of enjoyment from Dissidia. Beneath the thick layer of fanservice resides a game whose multitude of features are bound to keep you bush for hours and days on end. It's the kind of game that reels you back in when you think you're finished with it, and before you know it, the timer will reveal the many hours you've been playing it.

Cover Art Chronicles: Final Fantasy, Part VI

By Geoffrey Barnes on September 26, 2009 11:26 PM

Totally forgot to do this one last week. Whoops! And it's the last one, too.

The PSP has received quite a few Final Fantasy releases in its time, but it's predictably lagging behind the DS in its offerings. Still, you know the system is something special when it receives two original Final Fantasy games. That's out of five, sure, but those two games are games that fans undoubtedly wanted, as their sales and popularity prove.

Ah, but you're not here for that, you're here to see some nice covers, right?

I think it's best to start out with the games that weren't original, this one being Final Fantasy I: Anniversary Edition. For the 20th Anniversary of the Final Fantasy franchise, Square Enix thought it best to rerelease the first two games in the franchise separately for $30 each, despite previously releasing them together twice. Rip-off? Why yes, especially when they both inherited the stupidly easy difficulty of the GBA versions. But hey, the covers are nice, and FFI: AE has a different cover for each territory. I like the American one the best, personally, and I think Japan loses this one. Notice that the European cover adheres to the "simple" tradition that the console iterations usually have.

So thankfully Japan wised up for the second cover, basically having the same as the European cover style. I hear this version of Final Fantasy II is better than the others, which would make this the third attempt at rebalancing this game. In the words of Roy Neary: "This means something."

Final Fantasy Tactics would also receive a PSP port in-fitting with the times in The War of the Lions, as part of the Ivalice Alliance along with Final Fantasy Tactics A2 and Final Fantasy XII. It was a chance for America to experience the game with a translation that was actually coherent, and it was Europe's chance to experience the game period. Oh, and the covers are nice too. Japan and America's covers are pretty similar to each other, except that America's shows more characters. Meanwhile, Europe has the cover I would expect Japan to have. Again, I think Japan loses out here, but they're all pretty good.

Now we get to the games designed from the ground up for PSP. I was actually pretty surprised with Crisis Core's quality last year, a game I expected would be a soulless run-of-the-mill half-hearted action game. That's not an illogical expectation either, given the dubious quality of all the other products in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. But it actually turned out pretty good! The American/European cover is pretty nice, but I'm not a big fan of the Japanese one. The former has more of a hint of mystery about it, while the latter looks like something someone did in Photoshop in a half-hour.

Last, we have the latest release: Dissidia: Final Fantasy, which is also surprisingly good! I assume a review will be going up soon, but why not satisfy yourself with the cover for now? Japan's adheres to the console tradition, while the American/European cover has all of the heroes lined up in a way similar to FFT's cover above. The neatest aspect of it is that it has the villains of each respective Final Fantasy game on the inside cover, which is very clever.

It's nice to see that Square Enix gave the PSP some respect, especially when so many other companies neglected it so much. Until now, that is, where developers, mainly in Japan, are finally starting to see the potential the system has. And it only took, what, four years? Fantastic. Anyway, this wraps up the Final Fantasy cover series for now, but there will undoubtedly be more games in the franchise; like the three coming out in Japan this fall.

Final Fantasy V -- It's Just My Job, Five Days A Week

By Joseph Daniels on September 11, 2009 11:37 PM

Why is it that the most difficult games in the Final Fantasy series never seemed to make it out of Japan? Did they think we couldn't handle them? I mean, III was skipped over entirely because the NES became obsolete, so at least they had a little bit of an excuse. But IV was toned down in difficulty and V was purposely skipped over in favour of VI. Honestly, what were they thinking?

Just look at what happened with the Dragon Quest series. We never got Dragon Quest VI and had to wait until earlier this year to get Dragon Quest V. And how about the Mother series? Out of three games, we only got one. Fire Emblem? We only started getting them when the seventh game came out. They're starting to wake up over there and send more games over the Pacific, but for a while there it seemed like getting good, difficult RPGs was like pulling teeth.

"Hey, who farted?"

"Yeah? Well, when something smells, it's usually the Butz!"
Oh, how I wish I hadn't renamed the character. This joke just doesn't work now.

The trend in the Final Fantasy series is that if the game features the job system, it's going to be a difficult game. III was difficult, Tactics (which came out after V) was also pretty difficult and challenging at times (unless you knew what you were doing and could exploit the system). X-2 is a more recent release and is possibly the only exception to this rule, and yet there is still a degree of difficulty to it. You'll die a horrible death if you're not careful.

V is no exception. It's, in my opinion, the most difficult of the Final Fantasies to appear on the SNES. If you have a lot of difficulty with IV and VI, they can be overcome with lots of leveling, but in those games, characters are rigid in their roles, unchanging. You can't stop them from being what they are. In V, characters can be anything, and their stats reflect this. Whereas in III, you kept all the HP you gained so far when you switched jobs, the developers of V chose to go a different route and make all the different jobs affect even the HP of your character, so you can't even stockpile it to protect you while you're a mage.

That means... you're the king!

This time around, jobs were better defined, so it didn't feel like the only thing each job had going for it was a different set of equipment. You could level up a job and gain special skills which you could then add to your character whenever they wanted to change a job, but still do what they'd been doing before. For instance, once they've learned the ability to cast up to level 3 white mage spells, they could equip that in their spare skill slot, change jobs, and become a Dragoon that can cast white magic. Certain jobs let you learn how to equip certain pieces of equipment no matter which job you are, so that you could equip axes and shields when you're a Black Mage, or you could equip spears as a spoony Bard.

The last time Square used the job system, the party required a wagon full of equipment, which had to be carried around, somehow, in your pockets. This is once again the case, yet with skills such as the aforementioned Equip Spears, you don't have to carry around a separate set of equipment if you don't want to. Also, inventory space has been expanded enough that you probably won't run out of space for your stuff. As such, the chubby chocobo does not make an appearance this time around (and won't until the 7th game, as a random variation on the Chocobo summon). Having to carry around a large inventory is no longer a problem as long as you have space in your deep pockets (which are obviously bigger on the inside than they appear on the outside).

Just like before, spells are bought in shops, but they won't set you back too much, of course. However, money seems to be harder to acquire in this game, as are experience points. I wasn't kidding when I said this was a difficult game.

Been spending so much time underground
I guess my eyes adjusted
To the lack of light

Some things change, yet some things stay the same. For instance, the Active Time Battle system is back and doesn't go through any significant changes. The only real difference is that this time around an ATB meter is present, to show you when your turn has come up. The enemy's bar is kept hidden, which is probably for the best, since two sets of ATB bars on the screen might be a little confusing for some players.

What struck me in the opening was that it was as close to a movie-style opening as I'd seen in a video game created up to that point. Granted, pretty much every Final Fantasy to come after it would blow it out of the water (quite literally, with Final Fantasy X), but the combination of music and graphics in the beginning of V was amazing enough for me to consider it one of the best openings out of any game on the SNES. Not only that, but the graphics in the game would continue to impress me, despite being not too much of an upgrade over IV's graphics. As for music, I loved some of the songs much better than the songs in IV, and some... not so much. But the opening song and Dear Friends are some of my favourite Final Fantasy songs of all time. Still, the music is a mixed bag.

I'm king of the worlds!
(Spoiler: this is not a typo.)

The story itself relies on the old trope of a sealed away evil that must be stopped for good this time, because the seals keeping him at bay are breaking and sealing him away probably won't work again this time. As such, each of four crystals have begun to shatter. Given that crystals have been present in the series from the very start, it's like the developers themselves wanted to be free of the crystals, so in this game, they shattered them completely in a kind of symbolic gesture. Anyway, the game follows sort of a linear story, but there are parts where you have to explore and find the next piece of story, kind of like in II and III. Myself, I prefer both linear stories and worlds to explore, so it doesn't matter which kind of game it is, but your own mileage may vary.

Unlike in IV, playable characters don't come and go as they please. In fact, there is only one roster change in the entire game, and it centers around a character sacrifice and death that easily outdoes Aeris's in VII. There has, in this series, only been one character who has managed to remain in battle after being reduced to 0 HP, and you meet them in this game.

I've probably played this the least out of all the games in the series, and this is a shame, for it is one of the better ones (however, I say that about most of them, save for II). I think I beat it only twice so far. But anyway, it was at this point that the developers began to show that they were willing to push the envelope and take their games in directions that had never been seen before.

(Oh, and as a side note: I can't think of a single princess that gets kidnapped in this game. I wonder if Butz would've been a bad enough dude to rescue her.)

"I don't know..."
"It sure is brown..."
"...and moist."
"Kinda solid, too."

Other releases:
PlayStation - Final Fantasy V, 1998; Final Fantasy Collection (with Final Fantasy IV & Final Fantasy VI), 1999; Final Fantasy Anthology (with Final Fantasy VI), 1999
Game Boy Advance - Final Fantasy V Advance, 2006

To be continued...
Note: screen shots are from a fan translated version of the SNES release

Final Fantasy IV -- Rough Sailing For The Red Wings

By Joseph Daniels on September 10, 2009 11:53 PM

North Americans were lucky. Back in the early 90's, after the debut of the SNES, and not long after the original Final Fantasy was finally brought over the Pacific, the official translation of Final Fantasy II was canceled, in favour of an official translation of Final Fantasy IV. The good news is, we dodged a pretty horrible bullet and got a decent game out of it, too. The bad news is, we ended up with a not-as-horrible bullet instead.

There's a Visine for that.

Final Fantasy IV, the version that was originally presented to North America, had its flaws. The version we got was stripped of much of its personality and was instead a bland and uninteresting experience. Not to say that it wasn't an improvement over the NES iterations, but that judgment can only really be said about the aesthetics.

For instance, the SNES could produce better sound than the NES, and so the aural quality of Nobuo Uematsu's tunes improved significantly. One of the downsides to the NES was that, when you went to a menu or selected something that made a noise, the sound effect would often interrupt one of the sound channels that was trying to play the music. It made for a weird listening experience. The SNES, just being the SNES, improved upon this muchly, and it made listening to games a much more pleasant experience. Nobuo's compositions didn't suddenly get better, but they were much more listenable.

A better colour palette was also present on the SNES, capable of showing more colours than the NES, and so the graphics in Final Fantasy IV looked a lot better just by being on the SNES. Final Fantasy III may have had an awesome-looking ending, but Final Fantasy IV had an awesome-looking everything. By today's standards, and even by Final Fantasy VI's standards, IV is on the less impressive side of the spectrum, but when it was released, it was one of the better looking games out there.

North Americans got to skip over two Final Fantasies, so for them, the jump from I to IV brought with it a significant jump in quality, and was their first exposure to a more linear narrative in an RPG. Whereas you could still explore around in Dragon Warrior IV and hunt down the story yourself, Final Fantasy IV chose to have your characters conform to a more rigid story, and often they would enter and leave your party quite suddenly and at seemingly random times, depending on the requirements of the plot and the number of characters still waiting in the wings. Unfortunately, justification for these departures seemed a little on the thin side, at least for the North American release. For the Japanese playing the original version (and North Americans playing later versions of the game), the story made more sense.

Hi, I'm a Mac

One example that caused me to initially hate the game was when the walls of Baron Castle were about to close in on the party and crush them. The twins, Porom and Palom quickly get into position to hold the walls back and turn themselves into stone statues. This serves to effectively stop the walls from moving any further. In the original North American translation, this is considered a permanent sacrifice. In other words, they're never coming back, they're dead, they've become solid stone forever. Except they did come back. Apparently it's only permanent until their mentor comes along and turns them back. By then, the wall trap was probably disarmed or something.

The rapid way that characters would depart from your party was a source of frustration for me. Hey look, it's a mage who has amnesia, and he's just cured it! Now he's an effective caster of spells for your party... except now he's dead. Okay. Hey look, it's a mage who can use both black and white spells, and who can also summon chocobos! Oh, wait, she just fell overboard, and I just lost another party member because he dove after her to try to save her, and a third is missing. At least my best friend is dependable in a pinch... and there he goes, betraying me and taking my white mage with him. No, wait, he's back. No, wait, he's betrayed me again. Hey, let's forgive him one more time, even though he's going to betray me again. Yep, he did it again.

So they all dropped their pants.

Game play in Final Fantasy IV was very different on the SNES than it was on the NES. In all three games on the NES, you had to buy all your spells. In IV, you learned spells and skills at certain levels. All of a sudden, leveling up was useful for more than just a gain in HP and MP and an extra random point in something else. As such, you could theoretically, if you were patient enough, obtain the most powerful spells early on in the game. It removed an element of strategy from the game, although the revolving door your party members kept on entering and exiting would cause you to develop strategies to compensate for who and what you do and don't have at any particular moment. It was like the simplified skill-learning system compensated for the unreliability of your party members.

As for the battle system, Square got a little creative and chose to add an action element to the turn-based battle system they liked using on the NES. IV was the debut of the Active Time Battle, where time flowed normally, and characters would be able to take commands at certain times determined by a hidden meter. Depending on the speed of the character, it would fill quickly for some and more slowly for others. Enemies also had their own meters, although some of them possessed meters that were so slow, you could wipe out entire groups of early-level monsters without taking a single point of damage from any of them. It was supposed to make battles feel a little more frantic and give the player a rush that straight turn-based battles couldn't. For the most part, it worked. Suddenly, that character who was just knocked down to 1 HP was more of a priority for healing...

The King is living large and stepping easy! He has a new big spring of confidence and a generous swelling of pride. And the one thing every man deserves: A little well-earned respect from the neighborhood.

One thing that IV introduced was the ability to save your game in special designated save spots in dungeons, a convenience that the first three games in the series didn't have. Although this served to make the game easier, it helped to improve the overall pace of the game. You were no longer frantically rushing back to town for more items because you were out of healing spells and potions, since you could simply use a tent about halfway through the dungeon and restore your HP and MP (and despite how horrible II was, the single MP stat that II tried out was brought back in IV, and was back for good, permanently replacing the multi-tiered magic system in I and III). Speaking of items, the Chubby Chocobo was back, although you didn't really need him as long as you sold off all the weapons you no longer needed. Most weapons were restricted in use, and could only be given to one or two characters, and when better equipment came along, you could simply sell off the older stuff. Inventory space was still limited, but there wasn't as much of an emphasis on carrying around many different sets of equipment as there was in III.

I don't know whether it was done on purpose or if it was just an error in programming, but you could buy more than 99 of any particular item, and any overflow would carry over to the next item slot. You could suddenly fill your inventory with thousands of Potions or Ethers if you needed to venture into a very hard dungeon at any time during the game. Of course, you could easily afford it by the end of the game.

In the end, it's a good thing that this game was ported to another system and retranslated, because a game like this deserves to be experienced in as close to its original form as possible. Originally, I may have hated it, but I'm glad I gave it another chance. If you've not played it yet, there are at least three different versions that should still be available for purchase, including a straight port with a better translation, a retooled port with an even better translation, and a complete remake with the best translation yet (although all three manage to keep the immortal line, "You spoony bard!"). Fortunately, the days of poor translations are long over.

Oh, wait...

Chocobo porn!

Also available on:

PlayStation - Final Fantasy IV, 1997; Final Fantasy Collection (with Final Fantasy V & Final Fantasy VI), 1999; Final Fantasy Chronicles (with Chrono Trigger), 2001

Lavos is Weak Against Girls With Glasses

There were only really three new features to this port. The first was that it came with a brand new translation that brought it closer to the Japanese version than the SNES translation was. It also restored the "hardtype" version rather than use an easier version developed for North Americans who seemed to be seen as being inferior to Japanese gamers, for some reason. The second was that it included some kind of basic-looking FMV, which looked about on par with the FMV used in Final Fantasy VII. The third is that the North American release came bundled with Chrono Trigger, which itself received a plethora of bonus features, all of which were overshadowed by its poorly executed port. Unfortunately, Chrono Trigger on the PlayStation suffered from a massive loading time issue that most of the other games didn't have, which rendered the game very frustrating to play. Final Fantasy IV's port fared better, but it's probably not worth buying if you just want to play the one game. You're better off buying the DS or GBA versions if you want to do that. As for Chrono Trigger, there's a better version out for the DS, too.

Game Boy Advance - Final Fantasy IV Advance, 2005

Hey, I Have An Idea! Let's Add A Dungeon To This Old Game and Release It As A Brand New Game!

When Final Fantasy IV came out again for the GBA in 2005, it was given its own separate release, without having Chrono Trigger tag along and drag it down. It could stand on its own again and shine, and... it didn't quite shine. The translation was even better than the one on the PS1, but it was the battle system where the GBA version dropped the ball. An ATB bar was added so you could see what was going on, which brought the game more in line with the sixth game in the series. This was, however, a bad thing, since it clearly showed the battle system's horrible glitch. Sometimes a character's turn would be skipped entirely, sometimes a character would be given up to three turns right after each other. It was an ATB system gone completely insane. Whether this was because the GBA couldn't handle a five character battle system, or whether this was because of bad programming, I do not know. All I know is, it was a detriment to an otherwise well executed port.

One added element to the GBA port was a series of bonus dungeons meant to allow the "second half" of your party to gain the weapons and armour they would've had if they were part of the original storyline's ending sequence. Due to the way the system was originally set up, only five of the characters in the game were supposed to be available to fight against the final boss, but in the GBA version, you could take any character who was still alive with you. Thus, those other characters were given their own dungeon and set of special final equipment. Also, another bonus dungeon was created for the game to give the veteran Final Fantasy player even more to enjoy. Otherwise, if you've played the game already, this version is only good if you don't already own a copy of the game on another system.

DS - Final Fantasy IV DS, 2007

Speak, Boy!

Have you ever wanted to hear the characters from Final Fantasy IV talk? Well, now you can! Final Fantasy IV on the DS, released just two years after the GBA version (honestly, did we need another version of the game so soon?) includes voice acting, among other things. In fact, the DS version acts like a full blown remake instead of just a straight port. This version deserves its own review, as the game was changed so much that it could count as an entirely new game, except for the story of course.

Everything was overhauled. The graphics, the sound, the battle system, everything. Even a character's experience table was messed around with. Nothing was sacred (except for the spoony bard line). Some things... came out a little embarrassing. The in-game sprites for Dark Knight Cecil and Dragoon Kain both look like gay ballet dancers in tights. It's no wonder they were best friends. And yet Kain still betrays Cecil in order to take Rosa for himself at one point in the game. Ouch. One can bet Cecil started a lot of Internet drama over that one...

Other releases:
Wonderswan Color - Final Fantasy IV, 2002
Wii Virtual Console - 2009

The adventure continues:
Japanese cell phones - Final Fantasy IV: The After, 2008
WiiWare - Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, 2009

To be continued...

Final Fantasy IX -- To The Nines!

By Joseph Daniels on September 9, 2009 11:57 PM

Today being 9-9-09, I feel it is only appropriate to review quite possibly the greatest Final Fantasy game to have been made, to date. Okay, I admit, your mileage may vary, especially with the Final Fantasy series, but I feel in my not so humble opinion that Final Fantasy IX is the best game in the series.

I find it odd that Final Fantasy VIII was the one released on "9-9-99", ten years ago today, but I guess IX wasn't ready yet. At any rate, on with the review!

The princess has been kidnapped by you! Is Steiner a bad enough dude to rescue the princess?

... No. No he's not.

Final Fantasy IX begins with, I swear, an hour long opening credits sequence, broken up by random game play meant to introduce you to the style of the game. Game play samples include story-related battles against a few weak enemies, which serve to demonstrate IX's battle system. The battle system has been simplified back to the way it was in the NES and SNES eras. Unlike in the previous Final Fantasy releases on the PlayStation, a character only has one set of skills they can use, and skills aren't mix-and-match between characters. Zidane, the thief, has thief-related skills, and thus can never cast fire or ice spells, no matter how much he might want to. Vivi is the spell caster, and thus can never swipe items from enemies, especially since no weapon exists in the game that can duplicate the effect. Garnet is strictly healing and support (until later in the game when she gets her summons and Holy spell, of course). These and more rigid character definitions are reminiscent of Final Fantasy IV's simple system where the developers distributed the standard character classes between the members of your party, yet it seems to be balanced a little better. (I still can't get over how weak a healer Cecil is in IV, especially since his dark powers were much better.)

Also introduced in IX is an exclamation mark within a bubble that appears above characters who are willing to talk to you. The same bubble symbol, when it appears elsewhere, usually indicates a hidden item that you can pick up. The system is well incorporated into the game, and I found no problems in its execution. Characters aren't right next to each other when you try to talk to them, which can get annoying in other games when you're trying to talk to one NPC and you end up talking with the other for a second time. And then a third... The bubble may have made finding items and money too easy, but in a game that seemed like it was made in an effort to be more accessible to modern fans who were spoiled on VII and VIII's ease of use (and even VI's ease of use, in a way), IX's bubble indicator was a perfect fit.

Each game has had their own system of learning or acquiring skills, and IX is no exception. Although the game has its roots set deep in the old school, the developers still managed to reinvent the wheel by coming up with a brand new system for the acquisition of skills. When a character equips a weapon or piece of armour, he or she is granted access to a skill or a spell or a special effect, and after gaining a certain amount of AP, they permanently learn it, and can equip a different piece of equipment. Certain skills are command skills (spells, etc.), and can be used right away, but other skills are for support only, and can be equipped if you have a high enough magic stone rating (for some reason, you gain them upon certain level ups). The system serves to add a little bit more strategy to planning your character, although most people will probably opt to only have a certain few skills equipped during the final dungeon, with no exceptions.

Vivi's first time: 3 billion guys were never more jealous than they were of him at that moment

Some equipment you need in order to add certain spells or skills to your character aren't sold in regular shops. Instead, if you go to a synthesis shop you can combine two already existing weapons into a brand new weapon, and suddenly have access to a skill you otherwise would not have. It then becomes a balancing act between whether you still need a certain piece of equipment, or whether you can get away with using it to help create a brand new piece you don't have yet. This synthesis system makes its debut in IX, although you could combine items into weapon upgrades in VIII.

In past games in the series, scenes featuring the main enemy would be shown, just to give you an idea of what he's up to, but for the most part, your party was the main focus of attention. In VIII, the developers chose to bounce the action between certain groups of people, but the main action always seemed to happen in one place at a time. IX introduces the Active Time Event system, where you can watch other events that unfold at exactly the same time as the events your main character experiences, even events that have nothing to do with the story itself, but help to add to the setting.

He only spent three minutes with Wii Fit before the taking of this screen shot

The world itself is vibrant and lush, exactly what the series needed after two (arguably two and a half) games with bleaker landscapes. VII's was alright, but the spectre of Shinra hung over everything, including the meadows and forests. Once you've been to Midgar, you never forget it. VIII's was alright as well, and certainly more clean in the Gardens than anywhere in Midgar, yet nature itself seemed to take a back seat to technology. And in VI, the second half of the game was so very bleak, after the disaster that shook the world... IX is a breath of fresh air the series needed, and demonstrated just how versatile the PlayStation's colour palette is. Nature took over, and it was glorious.

Colour isn't the only thing that Final Fantasy IX has going for it. The music from the game has stuck with me for years. I don't know whether it's because it was the kind of music I was into at the time I first played the game, or whether it's because it's Nobuo's best work ever, but I still listen to music from the game and smile at the fond memories the tunes bring up. Granted, they're fond memories of characters and events that never happened in real life, so it's not like I can't relive them again, but still. Even if you forget your first, you never forget your favourite.

It's time to assemble Steiner's troops! They consist of...

...a couple of guys in their underwear.

The story itself starts out small and slow, like most Final Fantasy games. Along the way, it attempts to take common video game cliches and turn them on their hea
ds. For instance, instead of saving the princess, your intention in the beginning is to kidnap her. But instead of kidnapping her, she runs off and begs you to kidnap her. (Yes, that's exactly what happens. Trust me, it works.) As the story unfolds, you meet a bunch of interesting characters, and with the possible exception of Amarant, each of them are vital to the story. (Okay, Quina's only there for the food.) It's like they figured they needed a ninja-style character, so they quickly designed Amarant and then didn't flesh out his background or role in the story. I think he was supposed to be an assassin out to kill Zidane, but they only really cross paths once, and then he is suddenly a part of your party. He's a character they probably could've removed without any detriment to the rest of the game.

I only have one gripe about the game, just one. Battles suck. Well, they don't suck, they are still the same battles as in previous games. It's just... limit breaks suck this time around, and so does the speed of battle. VIII's battle system was probably one of the fastest in the series, with attacks and spells activating pretty much almost right away, yet IX's system lags at times, and from the sounds of chugging within the PlayStation while it struggled to run the game, it seemed like Squaresoft had somehow pushed the console beyond its limits when designing the game, and this was most evident during battles. Three character battle systems worked well, but a four character system seemed to very nearly break the machine. If you selected "attack" all the time, the game was fine. But spells and attack skills that require too much animation seems to slow the machine down.

Limit breaks, this time around, automatically enable themselves after a character receives a certain amount of damage from enemies. Trance, as it's called, is a mode where the character becomes stronger, and they gain new attacks and abilities for a short period of time. But after a few turns, or when the battle ends, Trance mode expires and the character returns to normal. Unfortunately, given the way Trance is executed, it's next to impossible to save it for a boss fight, when you would really need it. The worst is when you kill the enemy and they counter before they die, then Trance activates because you were dealt enough damage to fill up your Trance Gauge. Then you don't get to use Trance because the battle's over. It's my least favourite execution of limit breaks in the entire series. It's not like you need it to beat the game, anyway.

At least there's a nifty set of minigames to distract me from the disastrous handling of the Trance system. My absolute favourite is Chocobo Hot & Cold. Remember when you were very young and your mother hid a gift or a surprise for you and you went to find it and you would be told you were "hot" when getting closer to it and "cold" when you weren't? Now picture the same, except you're riding a chocobo and you have a small time limit to try to find anything buried in the dirt. Oh yes, and your chocobo's beak can level up, which means you get at the deeper stuff, quicker, the higher a level beak he has. It's also possible to be so successful at the game that the moogle who runs it begs you to stop, but only if you're very good.

As fun as Chocobo Hot & Cold is, other minigames exist. Tetra Master is a card game like Triple Triad, except with a different card set, different board, and rules that no one is allowed to tell you about. It's like the first rule of Tetra Master is you don't talk about Tetra Master. And the second rule is the same as the first.

There's also Mognet, which makes its debut in this game. In IX, Mognet consists of a network of moogles trying to send letters to each other. Apparently, moogles had the monopoly on mail service, and when their service broke down, no one was able to communicate anymore, so it's up to you the player to deliver everyone's letters. Coincidentally, you just happen to be in the right places to deliver mail to the right moogles, as the story progresses.

Final Fantasy IX is more than just a sum of its parts, it is a celebration of what made classic Final Fantasy so wonderful. If Final Fantasy IV or V had been presented on the PlayStation in glorious 3-D, this is what they might've been like. IX might not be the best gave ever, but it is good enough that, even now that the PlayStation 2 is almost dead and the PlayStation 3 is reaching middle age, there have been very few games that I have loved as much as it.

I'm Iron Man.

To be continued...

Final Fantasy III -- The Princess Has Been Kidnapped By Her Own Wanderlust! Are You A Bad Enough Dude To Tell Her Not To Wander Off?

By Joseph Daniels on September 8, 2009 11:53 PM

It always takes a few tries to get the formula right. Sometimes, the formula just won't click, and so the best thing to do is just scrap it and start over again. Other times, it can be salvaged with a little tweaking.

The Final Fantasy formula, while it doesn't necessarily get scrapped with each game, still goes through significant changes between games. If you get someone to play the very first Final Fantasy, and then get them to play Final Fantasy XII (not counting all the side games and sequels, XII is the latest as of this writing), he'll swear he was playing two different games unrelated to each other.

Which brings us to Final Fantasy III. Many modern Final Fantasy elements were created for this, the third game in the series. The game also helped to determine which of the elements introduced in the second Final Fantasy would remain in the series.

The first thing you notice upon booting up the game is that it goes right into the story. Four youngsters from a city in the mountains go off on their own to investigate a cave that opened up, and they find monsters inside. They also find that they've been chosen to be the Warriors of Light, and must save the world. Naturally, most of the citizens of their hometown don't believe them, not even when they're able to kill the monsters that haunt a portion of their village (you have to question who decided to build a city in such a way that it can't repel monsters, since every other city in Final Fantasy, with few exceptions, can keep monsters at bay). So with the blessings of a grand total of two people, they embark on their quest to save the world. Along the way, they find out the true nature of their home continent, see the state of the world they live in (not to spoil it, but picture the movie where Kevin Costner peed into a cup), and discover how to put things right again.

Fun, eh? I think I like the sound of that...

The telling of a story was becoming more of a focus in the Final Fantasy series, and it would keep on growing in importance as the series continued, but greater storytelling is not the only improvement present in Final Fantasy III. The battles system has been greatly improved. The battle screen has been simplified, and battles have been sped up. Squaresoft finally figured out how to automatically allow a character to target a different monster if the original one died before his turn could be executed. In the first two games, a character would swing at the empty air rather than focus on a different enemy, but in this game, your allies are a bit smarter than that.

Once again, music can be good or it can be bad. It depends on the tunes and it depends on whether you're in the mood to listen to 8-bit music, or whether you want to put on your Savage Garden CDs instead. III's music was, however, an improvement over the music from the second Final Fantasy, including a much better overworld theme than the previous one.

Inventory management was also improved greatly. To combat the problem of running out of space in your inventory screen, the developers brought back the ability to stack items. Now, if you want 99 Potions, you can have 99 Potions. Also, the Chubby Chocobo was introduced, He was always hungry, and yet for some reason, he would be more than willing to store your items in his stomach, and he somehow kept from digesting your weapons and armour. For being hungry, he sure didn't like to use what he ate. All you had to do to find him was search for an area that practically reeked of chocobos, and he would be there. Somehow, I don't think that I would want to wear a piece of equipment that was inside a chocobo's digestive system, but that's just me.

The biggest thing that debuted in Final Fantasy III also had what I would consider the most impact on the series of anything that they introduced. Summoned monsters were first seen in this game, and were at first treated like just another series of spells. They cost more to cast, but they did more damage, and depending upon who cast them, they sometimes provided added effects in battle instead of damage. A couple different Summoner classes were created to utilize these new creatures, but that would later be simplified to just one class, and one spell effect per summon, usually the attack effect.

Oh, that would be the ipecac I snuck into your food.

The job system could be considered a debut as well, but it could also be considered a complete remake of an earlier system. Although it wouldn't be utilized as much as summons would in later games, the job system has left its mark on the series, and it was first refined in this game. But unlike its appearance in the original game, you could change jobs in Final Fantasy III. You weren't allowed to change jobs in the midst of battle, but you were allowed to change jobs outside of battle, as long as you had enough "capacity points" to do so.

The one downside to this system was that you had to have a plethora of weapons and armour at your disposal, since each job class had their own set of equipment. Some jobs shared equipment, but it seemed like the majority of them were created only to give the developers another excuse to create another set of equipment you had to carry around (or store in the Chubby Chocobo's stomach). The only difference between many of the jobs was the weapon used to kill, anyway, so it's like most of them were useless. Some of them had definite differences in ability, and some of them were more powerful than others (rendering earlier ones obsolete), but still, there were too many jobs, and not enough encouragement to use them. Especially since you had a stat specifically designed to keep you from switching your job too often. It's like they were encouraging experimentation, and yet discouraging it at the same time.

In the first Final Fantasy, a tiered magic system was used, where you were allowed to cast a certain number of Level 1 spells, a certain number of Level 2 spells, etc. In the second game, a single MP stat was used, which simplified magic greatly, but III brought back the tiered magic system. The developers seemed to recognize that the original game was stingy with its MP levels, so Final Fantasy III allowed more castings per level. However, dungeons were also made longer than in the first, so you still had to be frugal with your magic unless you knew what you were doing.

Damn, the forecast called for rain!

Some would consider this to be one of the toughest Final Fantasy releases ever made, even more so than the previous two games in the series, and much harder than most of the later games. The final act of the game was especially tough, as it consisted of a final dungeon full of many strong monsters and a few bosses, but did not feature a save spot, nor did it provide a way out. Once you passed the point of no return, you were trapped, and unless you could defeat the very tough final boss, you were screwed and had to start back where you came from, a few hours before. It was a far cry from modern Final Fantasies that let you save right before reaching the final boss, and was in many ways a true test of the old school gamer. It's too bad that this game didn't make it out of Japan until over a decade and a half had passed.

When talking about Final Fantasy games, people always call II the black sheep of the series. If II is the black sheep, III is probably the relative you don't see much of, but hear a lot about, and when he finally visits, he stays for a little while, entertains those who like to hear tales of the old days, and then leaves just as quickly. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, if you happen to be around at just the right time to hear him regale you of a tale about when he was a kid, and all consoles had were 8 bits...

Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent away from London during the war because of the air-raids.
...
Okay, I couldn't resist.

Also available on:

Nintendo DS - Final Fantasy III DS (2006)

Remakes Are Bad, Except When We Want Them

It doesn't seem right to give this version of the game only a few paragraphs tacked onto the end of a full review of the original, given that it's not just a straight port of the game, it's a complete remake. Everything was overhauled, and some things were changed just enough to make them new again. The DS remakes of III and IV definitely deserve their own review.

One of the biggest changes to III had to do with how the main characters were introduced. Instead of all four of them being from the same small village, each character hailed from a different place, and were given actual names and personalities. They all came into the story at different points as well. The story remained largely the same, but each character seemed to have their own part in it. Or at least, they did at the beginning. Unfortunately, once they all came together, they acted as one unit just like in the NES version. But at least the developers of the remake made an effort to make each character unique.

Another change surrounded the job system. Instead of capacity points like in the first version, this version instead gives you stat penalties when you switch classes, but they clear up after a few battles. Once again, it's like you're being penalized for wanting to experiment.

Graphics were upgraded to a simple 3-D that admittedly looks ugly when compared to a powerhouse console like the PlayStation 3 and the upcoming release of Final Fantasy XIII, but look beautiful when compared to other DS games. But comparing the DS to the PS3 is like comparing apples and anvils. Apples are satisfying for those who like apples, but anvils could easily crush them anyway. It's not a fair comparison.

The music was remixed and updated and generally improved. Just like in previous re-releases, the music is rendered listenable again. I swear, some people get so spoiled by modern music that it's difficult to go back to 8-bit bleeps, sweeps, and creeps.

One interesting side note was that this game was supposed to be ported to the Wonderswan Color, but ironically, while the game could fit onto an NES cartridge, it couldn't fit onto the Wonderswan cartridge. The port was never officially canceled, but it's a foregone conclusion that people who still own the system shouldn't hold their breath.

Other releases:
Wii Virtual Console - 2009

To be continued...

Note: screen shots are from a fan translated version of the NES release

Cover Art Chronicles: Final Fantasy, Part V

By Geoffrey Barnes on September 8, 2009 11:20 PM

Why, hello there! As (almost) promised, here's the fifth Final Fantasy cover art feature. This one will talk about the remaining DS covers, though I covered Final Fantasy III back in the first part (back when the feature didn't have a focus). (Oh wait, it still doesn't.) It wasn't until I began this particular part, though, that I realized how many Final Fantasy games there are on the DS within nearly five years -- with 4 Warriors of Light hitting Japan in late-October. There covers are all very interesting, which should make this one the antithesis of the intentionally shamelessly phoned in last part.

First are the covers to Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, which is another case where each region has a different cover. Opinions tend to vary around the internet as to whether the American or European cover is better, though most of them agree that the Japanese version is the clear winner. Personally, I like the US version better because of the chapel window effect, but this isn't about my opinion here.

Couldn't find a good quality Japanese cover, so here's the American cover.

Meanwhile, here's the cover to the second Crystal Chronicles game for DS, which also had a Wii port: Echoes of Time. There aren't as many different covers here, but there's something really unique about this set: The Japanese and American covers are the same, but the European one is different. Huh. I prefer the Japanese and American cover here because the nice logo is given more attention, but the European one isn't bad.

Same case as above, except it's Europe's for Japan's. An impending trend?

This one I'm kind of cheating with, since the Japanese version doesn't even have Final Fantasy in the name. But Square Enix's overseas companies realize that the Final Fantasy name sells (which is why I'm hoping that Saga 2 gets a better chance at a localization if they can sell it with that name). But Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales is definitely related to the franchise. Here, the US cover is different, and I think it's better than the cute-though-awkward Japanese and European version.

Next, we have another spin-off! Now I'm just noticing that the DS has a plethora of these. This one is an RTS sequel to Final Fantasy XII, this time given the subtitle Revenant Wings. It's also a game fans like to pretend doesn't exist because of its genre, and apparently it's a merely OK take on it. Anyway, notice how the American cover is similar to the PSX Final Fantasy games, the Japanese and European covers, of course, are similarly simpler. I'm not to big of a fan of the American cover, but the others are fine.

Yup, same case again with Europe's for Japan's. How curious!

This one is for a more standard Final Fantasy game, though some people also like to pretend the game doesn't exist: Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift. Again, the Japanese and European covers are the same, but the American cover is different. But the clear distinction is that the American cover is pretty good this time, and perhaps even better than the others. It also looks really good in person. However, they've both very nice.

Last is Final Fantasy IV for DS, which also has a different cover for each region. Though I liked Final Fantasy III's Amano-drawn cover, I'm not a big fan of this one. Something about it just looks pretty awkward. But I really like the American and European version. The former probably wins because of how shiny it looks in person, though it's possible the European cover has the same effect (which is kind of hard to tell in any picture; even in a photograph of the actual cover).

Thankfully this one was less mundane than the last comparison, but it'll probably be the last really interesting one. Sorry! Not to say any following this are going to be boring. However, I do intend to give this feature a bit of a rest for a little while, since I think it's getting a little excessive. Some features lend themselves towards numerous follow-ups well, but I don't believe this is one of them, mainly because of the depth of its content. Also, I have a few other things planned.

Final Fantasy II - The Wild Rose, Withered

By Joseph Daniels on September 7, 2009 11:58 PM

I'm beginning to see a pattern in each series of RPGs I play. In Dragon Quest, the first game was awesome, the second game kinda sucked. In Breath of Fire, the first game sucked, the second game sucked worse. In Xenosaga, episode I was good, episode II sucked. In Lufia... okay, so the suck didn't start until the third game, but there are exceptions to the rule.

Final Fantasy II is not one of them, unfortunately. And there are many reasons why.

Services, and a canoe in his pocket? He must be very happy to see us!

First of all, one thing that developers need to remember is that not all innovation is good. Or rather, it is good, but it is not always well executed. Final Fantasy II re-invented the battle system, and it sucked. First of all, your characters don't have experience levels anymore, which is hardly a good sign. Experience was thrown out in favour of a system where your characters have to lose HP to gain more, use MP to gain more, and cast spells a lot to make them more powerful. They have to dodge a lot to make shields more effective, and use their weapons a lot to gain proficiency with them. This system wouldn't be so bad, except that leveling everything is a grind. It takes many swings with your weapons to gain one level with them. Not only that, but it takes quite a few castings of magic in order to gain one level with your spells. In the meantime, you waste your MP and you'll end up spending lots of money on inns, early in the game (until you figure out a trick you can use to save money, but that may or may not have been a programming oversight). Plus, you have to let yourself be hit a lot in order to gain more HP (at times, it felt like the best way to go about gaining HP was to hit yourselves, since the game couldn't distinguish between self-inflicted wounds and enemy-inflicted wounds). And you might as well specialize in just one weapon, because by the time you finish the game, you won't even have maxed out the weapon type you started the game with.

The biggest downside to grinding your spells is that not all of them deal damage. A fair amount of them do nothing but inflict negative status on an enemy. It's a popular belief that status spells are useless in Final Fantasy, and they're right. They're especially useless in this game. If you want them to be at all useful, you'll have to level them quite a bit, which means that you'll want to waste a lot of MP and spend the night at the inn a lot. Fortunately, if you level your spells enough, status spells do begin to feel like they're doing something. However, by then, you'll have leveled your weapons enough that you can take out most enemies anyway, so status spells are still useless in the long run.

Another downside to grinding is that sometimes you're given a character to fill out your party and you grind with them in order to build them up to a point where they're not dying all the time. Then they die for real, and you wonder what the point is. Well, get used to it. That 4th slot in your party is a killer. You might as well just let them die and then continue on with just your three core party members.

How can you tell this was a fan translation I played? Here's a hint: lame, forced references to other games in the series. I wonder what this line should've been. Kinda makes me glad I bought the GBA version.

Most of the music became monotonous, as would be expected in a game where you had to grind battle skills a lot. With most of your time spent in battle, the temptation was to mute it entirely and play your own music. Probably the only exception was a tune called "Battle 2", which only played a handful of times, but was epic enough that it made me actually want to listen to it.

The story was actually pretty good, and is probably the closest the series has gotten to a straight swords and sorcery story, albeit with a supernatural twist at the end. You still have to explore to find the story, just like in the previous game, but there's more of a solid progression of events. Whereas in the first game, the story was made up of a lot of fetch quests, the second game introduced a little bit more of an overarching narrative. A system of keywords was also introduced, where you walk up to certain people, speak a keyword, and they'll say something in response, and will occasionally contribute to the story. It functioned well enough, but didn't make another appearance in the series. I suppose it was for the best; since everything else was a disaster, so when they started to make the third game, everything was scrapped, even the good bits. The only exceptions were the monsters introduced in the game, the magic spells that were introduced, and the need for both a larger inventory and a more structured story.

Speaking of the inventory screen, it was larger than in the first game, although items no longer stacked. It was, in some ways, an upgrade and a downgrade for Final Fantasy II, and served to demonstrate that such a feature was needed in later games. A small inventory screen added to the strategy necessary to get through the game, yet seemed to ultimately hinder the player. What items would you need to carry, how many weapons could you take with you, and how much space would you need to keep open when venturing into a new dungeon? It may have been a very limiting feature of the game, but the lack of space for more than a couple potions helped drive the need to spam healing spells during battle and level them up so that you wouldn't need to rely on weak potions to heal a character.

Also introduced in this game, which the series thankfully kept, were chocobos. The game also featured a very simplified chocobo theme, a tune which would later be remixed various different ways, including a waltz version, a harp version, and more than one electronica version. Chocobos were used to transport your character over land when you didn't want to run into monsters, and their function would remain mostly the same in later games. It was as if chocobos themselves were a natural monster repellent (probably because of how they smelled, as would be revealed in Final Fantasy III).

Holy level up, Batman!

When I played the game, I felt there was nothing wrong with the graphics, despite how simple they were. They were about on par with the first game in everything, including the battle screen, which was pretty much unchanged from the first game. Battles themselves were slow to control, which made grinding spells and weapon skills that much more boring. If possible, this is the kind of game best played while playing another game at the same time. Maybe Dragon Warrior II, if you're feeling masochistic.

In my review for Lunar: Dragon Song, I lamented that there were too many good ideas thrown into the game at the same time, and they clashed with one another. The same could be said about Final Fantasy II. The lack of an experience system made the leveling up of spells and weapon skills too much of a priority and detracted from the enjoyment of battle. The keyword system was a good idea, but may have been introduced in the wrong game, for it never came back. And while this game innovated magic with a single MP stat, it seemed almost lost forever when Final Fantasy III reintroduced a tiered magic system like the first game had.

In the end, Final Fantasy II was an experiment. It was mostly a failed experiment, but it was still successful enough that a third game was able to be made. If this was what they had come up with for the first Final Fantasy, then Squaresoft would definitely have gone bankrupt, and the video game world would've been very poor indeed.

Boris, did you ever think, maybe you're the reason the other geese fly south?

Also available on:

Game Boy Advance - Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls (with Final Fantasy I), 2004

Stop Hitting Yourself! Stop Hitting Yourself!

Final Fantasy II plays pretty much the same as it did in the original version, except now you gain HP randomly, every few battles. It makes strengthening your characters much easier, especially since it also seemed like you didn't have to battle as much in order to level up your spells and weapon skills. Battles themselves were sped up, and the music was remixed, so I didn't feel the need to put my own music on, like I did during long, boring stretches of the NES version. The graphics are also about as improved as you can get without completely redoing them, of course.

Gone is the programming oversight where you could gain HP by targeting yourself with your weapons. It was one of the best ways to gain HP in the original version, but with the automatic growth of HP in the GBA version, you don't really need to kick your own ass anymore.

It isn't until after you beat the game that you unlock Final Fantasy II's bonus feature: Soul of Rebirth, a completely new story set during the game, but starring the four characters who die during the course of your adventure. Before you groan from the pain of enduring such a leveling system again, the system's sped up in the bonus story, and the latter two characters are strong enough that they can compensate for the weaker two characters while they gain HP and MP. The final boss fight ties directly to the main game, and the scene at the end of the main game is given a deeper meaning because of the events of the new story. It's like the story had been waiting to be told for nearly twenty years, until someone decided to add it to the end of the GBA version. It almost makes playing through the game worth it. Almost.

Other releases:
Wonderswan Color - Final Fantasy II, 2001
PS1 - Final Fantasy Origins (with Final Fantasy I), 2002
Mobile phones - Final Fantasy Mobile (with Final Fantasy I), 2004
PSP - Final Fantasy II Anniversary Edition, 2007
Wii Virtual Console - 2009

To be continued...
Note: screen shots are from a fan translated version of the NES release

Final Fantasy - The Princess Has Been Kidnapped By Garland! Are You Bad Enough Dudes To Rescue The Princess?

By Joseph Daniels on September 6, 2009 10:57 PM

Blah blah blah, running out of money, one last game, suddenly successful, glut of sequels. I don't know why everyone who reviews the first game in this series (or in some cases, any game in this series) feels the need to deliver information that most of the target audience already knows. By now, it's all readily available on Wikipedia anyway, so go knock yourselves out. I'll busy myself with the important stuff.

As the title to this review suggests, the first thing you have to do is save the princess from the clutches of Garland. But unlike in the Mario series, the princess is in the first castle you approach, since the bridge is out and there's only one other place you can visit on the small island.

Is that a canoe in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

This game departed from tradition by letting you rescue the princess early, but it also seemed to make a small dig at Dragon Warrior by having the king get a bridge built to help you on your journey. I don't see the king of Alefgard giving you a bridge across the channel to the Dragonlord's castle. In fact, in Dragon Warrior, it required three relics to create a magical bridge to get to the Dragonlord's island. In Final Fantasy, all they required to make a bridge was some dedicated and skilled workers and wages paid out from the royal treasury. It is possible that the kingdom of Alefgard was very poor, either in money or in resources, but I think the king was just a bastard. After all, the first thing he did in the game was lock you in his throne room and threaten to keep you there until you agreed to help him.

The king in Final Fantasy was a lot more reasonable. But you'd think these kings would watch over their daughters better. At any rate, after rescuing the princess from the weakest boss ever (honestly, has anyone ever been knocked down by Garland?), the Light Warriors travel the world and in the process, meet an interesting cast of characters who help them in their quest to find the crystals and defeat the elemental fiends.

As it is an 8-bit game, the music had to be 8-bit as well. But in this first game, many of the tunes became instant classics, and have since received upgrades in the various ports and remakes Square created afterward. The graphics were also overhauled on more than one occasion, but in each case, still retained the same general look of the original game. The sprites remain the same size as they were in the first game, and not the larger size of, say, Final Fantasy VI. Why break what worked? After all, in the original game, things weren't hard to see, and weren't really very ugly. The graphics were darker than in Dragon Warrior, but Dragon Warrior chose to be a light-hearted epic, something which has persisted to this day, and Final Fantasy chose to go the darker epic route, something which they've deviated from a few times, but has generally been their intention.

But not to worry, because for most of you, this job could be done by a monkey with a bottle of Motrin. Speaking of which, if you're particularly annoying, you may see me reach for this: this is Vicodin. It's mine. You can't have any. And no, I do not have a pain management problem, I have a pain problem. But who knows? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm too stoned to tell. So, who wants me? And who would rather wait for one of the other two guys?

The story itself was alright, but in the original translation, things were a little harder to understand. Things have been explained better, both in remakes and on Wikipedia, but still, a gamer couldn't help but be confused by the way things were explained in the original game. Also, given this was an early NES RPG, most of the story had to do with exploration and discovery. Plot points stayed hidden until you came across them yourself.

The original version of Final Fantasy was pretty difficult, with limited casting of spells due to an MP system set up in a similar fashion to Dungeons and Dragons, where you could only have a certain amount of spell castings per level (ie, 8 times for level 1 spells, 7 for level 2, 5 for level 3, etc.). When the series moved to the SNES, the D&D style spell system was largely abandoned in favour of a single MP stat you could draw your magic from. Some remakes of this game also reflect such a change, and give you the single MP stat, thus simplifying the game immensely.

One thing I'm glad they changed in later games was the way the shops were set up. You were only allowed to buy one item at a time, so if you could afford to buy 99 healing potions, you would have to buy them, one at a time, until your inventory was full. Also, you were only allowed to carry a certain amount of equipment, so you had to make sure you had the strongest stuff equipped, and didn't have the luxury of carrying more than one piece of elementally-specific equipment, just in case you found yourself attacking a very different kind of monster that only responded to certain elements.

I'm the Doctor. Run for your life!

All in all, good and bad, Final Fantasy was a good first game in a series that has just gotten better with time. The first few games seemed to be competing with the Dragon Warrior series, but later games demonstrated that the series could stand well on its own and didn't require competition to drive its desire for innovation forward.

It's possible that if games like Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy had debuted five years earlier or five years later than they did, they wouldn't have been such runaway successes. But it's possible they still would've been just as successful. Really, there's no way to second guess history. It just seems that the RPG genre came along at just the right time, and changed gaming as we knew it, and we're all the better for it.

There's innuendo in here somewhere...

Also available on:
Game Boy Advance - Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls (with Final Fantasy II), 2004

Use Four White Mages, We Dare You

In Dawn of Souls, the game includes four bonus dungeons, a completely different MP stat more in line with the rest of the series, and a shallower experience ladder, all of which contribute to a far easier experience for gamers who are just cutting their teeth on their first Final Fantasy, or even their first RPG in general. Of course, if you insist on going through all four bonus dungeons and fighting the bosses at the end, you'll end up at a higher level than you need to be in order to defeat the final boss of the game, and he'll be rendered a complete joke. He would've been a complete joke anyway, but it should take you only fifteen hours to max out your characters' levels in this version, which means if you start at the beginning of the day, play non-stop while consuming snacks and ramen, you'll finish before you need to sleep and by the time you reach the final boss, it won't matter that you're exhausted. You could just attack the final boss with everything you got, not even worry about healing, and easily win, then once the end credits roll, collapse in bed and sleep.

Other releases:
MSX2 - Final Fantasy, 1989
Wonderswan Color - Final Fantasy, 2000
PS1 - Final Fantasy Origins (with Final Fantasy II), 2002
Mobile phones - Final Fantasy Mobile (with Final Fantasy II), 2004, 2006
PSP - Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition, 2007

To be continued...

Cover Art Chronicles: Final Fantasy, Part IV

By Geoffrey Barnes on September 4, 2009 11:31 PM

First off, I'll admit that this one is going to be a little boring. The last three Final Fantasy related features have contained a number of differing covers, all of which look quite nice (with "not nice" being on the, oh, Mega Man 1 US cover side). I kind of promised myself that I would do six features on Final Fantasy covers, this one being about the covers of Game Boy Advance games. The thing is, I never noticed that just about all of them have the same cover for every territory, the only difference being the style of box Japan used for their GBA titles (which were a little wider than America's and Europe's). That kind of unison is nice, but it makes comparisons a rather pointless affair.

Not to say that's bad. Having the same cover across every territory is something a lot of gamers have wished would happen for a while now. It's commonly believed that Japan usually gets the best covers for games that originate there, though that's admittedly not as true as it was not even ten years ago - not to say the occasional stinker doesn't manifest itself every now and then. I like to see companies play it safe when they think they can't do any better, but sometimes they can. Those are for later entries though, on with the comparisons. Well, non-comparisons, actually.

I decided to use the American covers for these, since pictures of the Japanese versions aren't in as good as the American versions in terms of quality. Also, for some strange reason, the European covers have much more clutter on them. All of those above covers have the same art across all regions they were distributed in. Do take note that Final Fantasy IV Advance's cover uses an art style that's somewhat similar to the cover for the Japanese release of FFIV for PSX. Also, Final Fantasy V Advance's cover art is zoomed in for the American and European versions, but it's nothing that makes much of a difference.

But here's where the differences come in. Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls' covers aren't too much different, but notice that the American (and European) versions have Amano art from their respective games to accompany their titles. I think that's a nice touch. Though I thought it was interesting to see that while the Warrior of Light is included as an illustration, Final Fantasy II's main character, Firion, is passed over for, I believe, the Emperor of Palamecia.

Also, Final Fantasy VI Advance's cover is different from the Japanese version's, though they both contain Terra. To be honest, I think the American/European version is a little better, though it's a close battle. The only reason is that I like her stance better, which you could either conclude as either a personal preference or blatant bias. It's probably the latter.

So yeah, I told you this one would be boring. But fear not! The next two, for both DS and PSP, will definitely be more interesting. I think I'm going to spread out these kinds of entries a bit more, so don't expect it tomorrow. Maybe Monday.

Cover Art Chronicles: Final Fantasy, Part II

By Geoffrey Barnes on August 28, 2009 11:45 PM

So I learned something earlier today. I'm usually a pretty big fan of learning about which older Japanese games have released in specific territories, since their worldwide releases were usually pretty schizophrenic. It wasn't until Michelle mentioned in the comments section of my last entry that Final Fantasy VII was the first game in the franchise to release in Europe. For anyone in America who complained that we were originally passed over for II, III, and V, someone always seems to have it worse then even we do. So, for this entry, I'd like to talk about more of the PSX releases.

Fortunately for Europe (and America, kind in a way), they were given the chance to experience the PSX versions of the Final Fantasy games rereleased for the consoles. That's every mainline Final Fantasy game excluding III, in case you didn't know. Interestingly enough, some of them were released differently, depending on the territory.

Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI were initially released in Japan separately, but later released in a package rudimentarily named Final Fantasy Collection. But both releases in America and Europe were different, because Square had enough sense to know they wouldn't sell at all if released separately. America received Final Fantasy Anthology, a package containing both FFV and VI along with a bonus music CD containing tracks from both games selected by fans online. FFIV was released as part of Final Fantasy Chronicles in America in 2001, which also included Chrono Trigger. Meanwhile, it was also released in Europe, aptly named Final Fantasy Anthology: European Edition, but contained FFIV & V instead. It also wasn't released until January 2002, well after the Japan and American versions in 1999. FF VI was released in Europe separately in March 2002.

A pity these aren't the definitive versions of the games. Final Fantasy IV had a new translation done (though it was a little bland), but also contained some unfortunate glitches at times. FFV was translated for the first time for PSX, though it was unfortunately shoddy. Also, both it and FFVI had some terrible loading times added to both games.

It wasn't too much later until Final Fantasy I and II saw releases on PSX. Unlike the last collection of games, these were remakes -- well OK, they're ports of the Wonderswan Color versions. That's good, since those games haven't aged well in the least. The would also later see releases in a collection in Japan as Final Fantasy I & II: Premium Package, and would both come to America and Europe in one collection as Final Fantasy Origins - which actually released in Europe (in March 2003) before America (in April 2003). They all had different covers.

Both of these covers pique some curiosity. The American cover features FFII's Firion as the centerpiece, with FFI's Warrior of Light in the background. The European cover, however, is nearly the exact opposite, with the princess from FFI included. It's tough to say which one is better. Europe almost wins solely because it showcases the game that's actually good, but it's nice that the American one finds a way to showcase both games in its artwork.

Lastly, there was also a little game called Final Fantasy Tactics released for PSX. Unfortunately, it didn't see a European release until the PSP version in October of 2007. Though that's probably a good thing given the "I got a good feeling!" translation America received. The covers are as different as you'd expect.

I like the Japanese cover due to an aforementioned preference for simplicity, but the American cover isn't bad either. It's definitely one of the better early Final Fantasy covers.

I have to admit that this entry turned out longer than I thought, because I sure didn't expect to put as much work into this! But it was all a learning experience, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it. There are still more Final Fantasy games to talk about, so there will be more to talk about tomorrow.

Cover Art Chronicles: Final Fantasy, Part I

By Geoffrey Barnes on August 27, 2009 11:11 PM

Whether they're good or bad, you can't deny that Final Fantasy games are at least interesting. There's something about them that even grabs the attention of even the less diligent (or obsessive, whichever) RPG fan. For that, you can thank its usually appealing world and characters, and what better way to showcase that than with the cover art. But what's actually the most interesting facet of information about Final Fantasy covers is how they've changed over the years. Initially, we were used to having very artistic covers in North America, but Japan usually had covers that were simpler and more subtle. Both of them, however, had their qualities.

The PSX era Final Fantasy covers (sans Tactics, of course). There's quite a difference between the two of them.

For anyone who says "jerk, you forgot the European versions," or something, they look so much like the Japanese versions that posting them would seem redundant. That doesn't go for all of the FF covers, but just the ones on display here.

They both look pretty great.

The interesting aspect of the DS games is that the usage of the styles of covers is reversed for different regions. The Japanese cover above is nicely illustrated, and pulls off a more stylish look than the US ones because of the use of hand-drawn art instead of CG portraits. The funnies thing is that, as first evinced by Final Fantasy III, the American one is the more subtle of the two in tone. The cover actually sports some nice Yoshitaka Amano art, a nice contrast to the game's actual art by Akihiko Yoshida. They both pull off their intent well, though your opinion will differ depending on your tastes, and how simple or busy you like your cover arts. I'm torn as to which of them looks better, but that doesn't matter. This is a case where there doesn't necessarily have to be a better one, and that in itself is worth acclimation.

To be honest, I like the simple covers a bit better, since usually I'm more of a fan of simplicity. But that's not the idea of a box cover, and it probably isn't the best way to approach it in America. Here, the casual observer needs a box that captures their attention from a fair distance, something that tells them almost precisely how the game is thematically with only a glance at the art on the cover. A fine idea in theory, but it tends to create results that are less than desirable, sometimes resulting in some hodgepodge that does more harm than good. Not that the latter point can be applied to the covers above, though I believe hand-drawn art is preferable.

As you'll notice, I didn't include all of the main Final Fantasy game covers here. Not because it's a lot of covers to, uh, cover - although that's part of it. But really, those have been covered in earnest all around the internet, and no one really needs to see another feature on them. I'm not done with Final Fantasy just yet, so I'll have more to talk about tomorrow. Well, unless I decide to get chronically lazy all of a sudden.

Dissidia gets demoed

By Geoffrey Barnes on July 24, 2009 11:04 PM

Almost anyone who is anticipating the release of Dissidia: Final Fantasy in the US received their first ability to test the game yesterday, as a demo hit Playstation Network yesterday. I'll admit that the game initially alerted the cynic in me. A ~~3D fighting game~~ "dramatic progressive action" game with all of the Final Fantasy heroes and villains? And character designs from Testuya Nomura. The ostensible origins of something horrifying, I think, given Square Enix's track record on games that aren't RPGs.

But I'd heard good things from importers who were reliable, and that made me anxious to actually play the game. Well, from what's presented here, it's quite superlative. Thankfully it contains a fighting system that's more -- but not entirely similar to -- Power Stone, and less Ehrgeiz. Dissidia has your favorite characters fighting within an action/RPG-live environ, realizing every fanboy fantasy conjured by the GameFAQs forums in stylish-yet-deep and satisfying action. This means that you don't have to feel guilty playing this game. That's good!

The demo gives access to more popular characters like the Onion Knight, Cecil, and Terra, while also giving players the chance to try out less popular ones like Cloud and Sephiroth. They all control great too. And while Cloud and Sephiroth will undoubtedly be the all-too-often go to characters ('cause they're, like, so cool), Onion Knight has a good amount of speed to stand a chance, while Terra is a very good long-distance fighter. I had the easiest time going through the demo as Sephiroth, which I'm not sure is a sign that I'm getting better at the game or that he's overpowered (it's probably the latter). As for Cecil, well he's definitely the most intriguing character presented in the demo. He almost has two different move sets, one for his light side and the other for his dark. He also transforms between them constantly like some super hero, which is pretty neat.

White Knight Powers of the Moon: ACTIVATE

Another surprise about this demo is how robust it is. Though you have five selectable characters at your disposal, you don't fight against any of them. You'll go up against Warrior of Light, Firion, Squall, Zidane, and Tidus from the light side, while fighting Garland, Cloud of Darkness, Golbez, Kefka, and Jecht from the dark side. All of the characters are featured with English voices, and they all sound good. I was also thrilled to realize that Johnny Yong Bosch is voicing Firion. Though I don't think anyone who sick of hearing him as a lead character is going to like that, including Angela.

If you don't like Johnny Yong Bosh, you can always beat Firion up. Now you have another reason to hate Final Fantasy II!

I was pretty surprised with how good games like The World Ends with You and Crisis Core turned out, and it looks like Square Enix has impressed me again. I doubt the final iteration will be a crushing let down compared to the demo, so this is definitely worth looking forward to. The game hits US retailers on August 25th (a month from tomorrow), and releases on September 4th in Europe. If you want to play the demo, you can either access it through Sony's new Media Go program. You can download it through your PSP, though the former option is much less hassle considering how sluggish the system's internet is. It's only 79MB, so it won't take up too much space on your memory stick.

Geek News Roundup for 04/19/09 - Holy crap, Final Fantasy is on a roll

By Angela Moseley on April 27, 2009 2:25 PM

Solid numbers for the Japanese release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete are in. On the first day of release various Blu-ray bundles sold roughly 100,000 copies. So far this newest Advent Children release has sold over 274,000 copies, in addition to pushing sales of PS3 systems upward. Apparently selling the Final Fantasy XIII demo and including a Blu-ray release of Advent Children is great for business. It'll be interesting to see how Advent Children Complete sells when it is released domestically on June 2nd. If that wasn't enough Final Fantasy proliferation news, then how about the fact that Final Fantasy games have sold around 85 million units overall? The number is probably unsurprising, given how many times Square Enix re-releases some of its Final Fantasy titles. Personally, I've lost track of how many ways it's now possible to play Final Fantasy. (Actually, I haven't but I doubt anyone reading this blog cares to be reminded.)

Unfortunately, Microsoft isn't having a great time of it in this economy. Sales of the Xbox 360 may be up 30 percent, but overall revenue is down 6 percent. It's been proven again and again no company or industry is really recession-proof. At the very least, if you still have the income to splurge every so often Microsoft's new 360 Elite Bundle looks to be a pretty good buy. I'm certainly welcoming the re-inclusion of game bundles with consoles, and Halo 3 and Fable II in the same box is a good deal. If you already own a 360, or the two aforementioned games, how about $10 dollar games at Best Buy? You can't go wrong with Soul Calibur IV, Infinite Undiscovery, and Devil May Cry 4 at those prices.

If you're a member of Atlus Faithful you've probably already recieved the notification that Atlus.com was hacked a few days ago. The site is now back online, but it's possible that vistors' machines may have been compromised by malware. We know the feeling, ouch.

Google is experimenting with news ways to search for images and news, while Portfolio.com predicts the end of the cell phone. Given how popular VoIP (Voice over IP) is becoming, we'll probably look back on this article and agree Douglas Wolk was on to something. Although it's doubtful cell phones will be going the way of the dinosaur any time soon.

Thirteen Strikes of Lightning

By Geoffrey Barnes on April 16, 2009 8:58 PM

So the Final Fantasy XIII demo that comes packaged with a bonus copy of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete on Blu-Ray is making its way to various people who pre-ordered it. You know, people who apparently have enough money to spend on a demo with an HD movie they probably already own -- and, if they want on Blu-Ray, could get much cheaper domestically. Upon looking at all of this, I'm not really shocked to see this happen. It's been a well known (and reliable) stigma that nerds have zero concept of how to actually spend and save money, but this is still pretty pathetic.

Oh sure, I'd absolutely love to be in a position where I could justify spending around $85 on a freaking demo. Money that could easily be put towards something more practical like, I don't know, a savings fund for the actual game perhaps. For these people who purchased it, I hope the demo is as orgasmic of an experience as they're making it out to be on various other blogs and message boards (mostly the latter) across the internet.

For people like me who think that money could be better spent, there are always the demonstrations of the game on places like Youtube, which is actually easy on the eyes thanks to its HD capabilities. The demo itself looks really smooth, and seeing the battle system resemble fusions of Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy X-2, and Final Fantasy XII warms my bitter and cynical heart. I'm actually anticipating it now! Even if it does look a bit too over the top at times.

What may be a sign of the times is the Japanese launch, which according to 1up is lower than everyone expected to see for something with the name Final Fantasy on it. You could take this two ways: it either really hammers home how global the recession actually is, or that this is Japanese fans' way of collectively telling Square Enix "even we're not that gullible."

Now, I'm not saying that I wouldn't like to have my chance to play it at all. But by not falling for Square Enix's little sheep bait, I feel that I'm not encouraging the company to continue the draconian practice of demos sold separately on a disc for an outrageous price.

Image courtesy of Gamespot.

Digital Fantasy

By Geoffrey Barnes on March 29, 2009 10:58 PM

There were those who thought they'd never see the day that the old Final Fantasy games would hit the Wii Virtual Console. And who can blame them? Square Enix is a company that revels in exploiting their franchises for all that their worth, and only the series they've given up on end up as cheap digital downloads -- this is where you shed a tear for the Mana and Ogre Battle franchises. But many of us were surprised when it was announced at Nintendo's conference Wednesday that Final Fantasy will make its appearance on the Virtual Console quite soon.

And by Final Fantasy, they mean the old games in their original incarnations. If you ever wanted your chance to play the original FFI, you'll get your chance without resorting to emulation or digging up your old NES. Sure, it definitely hasn't aged well at all, but playing you could play it solely for curiosity's sake, as well as attaining hands-on experience with the game that birthed a venerable franchise. You could find a worse way to spend $5.

The original FFI is similar to your average NES game these days, in that it feels incredibly dated and clunky by today's standards. You party members whiff attacks way too often, and the game's difficulty is incredibly unforgiving. The translation for it is merely acceptable, but at least it isn't insulting like another game in the series. Still, it's kind of a landmark to see Square Enix put the game up for a $5 download at all.

But it's a shame that, unless you're Japanese or have access to its VC, you won't be able to play all of them. The bad news here is that while Japan is getting FFI-V, America and Europe are only receiving I and IV. And given how VC games are typically the original versions of the games, I'm willing to bet that they're not going to retranslate FFIV for a mere $8 download. So buyers will be getting the grade school-translated Easy Type edition.

If there's a US version of Final Fantasy IV (or II; it's complicated) that should be experienced, this one most assuredly isn't it. It's probably only there purely for nostalgia's sake, or for people who want to experience first-hand how bad RPG translations were in the dark days. Ah, Square Enix. One step forward, and one step back.

FFIV image courtesy of Zany Video Game Quotes.

St. Patrick's Day the nerdy way

By Geoffrey Barnes on March 17, 2009 1:54 PM

So today is St. Patrick's Day, a day where those of Irish heritage usually celebrate the day by drinking themselves silly so they can stumble into work tomorrow in the midst of a hangover. But it's also a day celebrated by listening to Celtic music, which is music of Irish descent. There's a very large variety of this genre of music available, many of which you probably don't know about. Because I think there's no better way to celebrate this day than with...Xenogears?

Well, not Xenogears per se, but the remixed soundtrack released for the game called Xenogears Creid. Fans of the game most likely already have this gem in their possession, and for good reason; this release takes the already fantastic musical score of Xenogears and adds a unique touch to it. Composer Yasunori Mitsuda is known for adding a Celtic touch to many of his soundtracks (you know, if it fits), so this is right up his alley. One of the tracks, Two Wings, is right from Xenogears' soundtrack with Japanese lyrics in place of English, but it doesn't feel out of place. Given the semblance of Celtic flavor in the original soundtrack, Creid's existence feels logical, and it's perfectly enjoyable even if you've never played the game.

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy IV also had a Celtic soundtrack released around nearly two decades back, aptly titled Final Fantasy IV: Celtic Moon. The soundtrack's transition to Celtic isn't quite as seamless as Xenogears, given the non-existence of much Celtic music in the original soundtrack -- not that you would've expected that from a Super Nintendo game. But that doesn't stop it from being utterly fantastic. A majority of the best tracks from the FFIV soundtrack made it here in glorious form, and it actually sounds more Celtic than Creid as well.

Suikoden also had three Celtic soundtracks released over the last few years. All three of them - aptly known as Suikoden Celtic Collection I, II, and III - contain remixed tracks from the first three Suikoden games, all mixed into the three soundtracks (For instance, Celtic Collection I includes tracks from all three games, not just from the first game.) Of the remixes, Suikoden III actually benefits the most. The third game's music (composed by Michiru Yamane of the Castlevania franchise) wasn't as powerful as I and II's (composed by Miki Higashino), but the Celtic Collection proves that it wasn't in the composition that the soundtrack was lacking, but the instruments used for the in-game version. All of them are pretty fantastic to listen too, including vocal tracks in full English reminiscent of music performed by Celtic Woman.

So yeah, some video game music is very fitting for St. Patrick's Day, and what better excuse do you have than to drag out all of the Celtic music in your collection to blast at full volume all day? None, I say! If there are soundtracks above that you've never heard before, I highly recommend listening to those, even if you haven't played the games they're derived from.

The Number 4 in 2008 is What We Appreciate

By Angela Moseley on December 31, 2008 10:52 AM

This is usually the time of year where everyone writes about the best and worst of 2008. You know how it goes, the Best Games, the Worst Games, the Biggest Disappointments, the Biggest Surprises, and so on. There was something notable about 2008 releases and it took a mathematician who's also a gamer to notice it. No, not me, but Joseph and his many random observations. He pointed out one day to me that 2008 had a lot of releases with the number four in the title. I didn't think much of it until just recently, but when I searched, I found that he was indeed right. Not about the sheer number of titles which mark the forth entry in a franchise (there were far more twos and threes), but about the high profile of the games with four in the title. After reviewing a list I found eight well-known releases. Could it be a mathematical relationship or pure coincidence? I'll leave that up to you to decide in these last few hours of '08.

Devil May Cry 4 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Released in July, Devil May Cry 4 was notable because it took the Devil May Cry franchise to the new generation of consoles. The forth entry in this series also breaks from the PlayStation only mode by going multiplatform. Many complained that despite the move to the new generation, overall game play hadn't changed from previous titles. Additionally, the game has way too many cut scenes and FMVs that could rival Xenosaga in their frequency. At times, the game felt more like an interactive movie than, you know, an actual video game.

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (DS)
Released in September, Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen is a DS remake of the 1990 NES game. The game was originally released in the US in 1992 under the title Dragon Warrior IV, and marked the last time a Dragon Quest game would be seen in the States on a major console until Dragon Quest (Warrior) VII. The DS remake features 3D visuals based on the never released domestically PS1 remake of DQ IV. Although the release is notable, it never received the same attention as the latest Final Fantasy remake.

Final Fantasy IV (DS)
If you've been counting, then you'll realize that the number "4" is significant to this Final Fantasy release in many ways. It's probably extremely easy to lose count of how many times that FFIV has been released, but the number is exactly four. In 1991 Final Fantasy IV (renumbered "II" in the States) was released on the SNES, in 2001 it was released again on the PS1 with Chrono Trigger under the title Final Fantasy Chronicles, and in 2005 it was released yet again for the Game Boy Advance under the title, Final Fantasy IV Advance. This July we got an enhanced remake on the DS in full 3D, very much in the style of Final Fantasy III. The folks at Square Enix can be such spoony bards sometimes.

Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Released in late April, Grand Theft Auto IV roared onto the new generation consoles to much fanfare. In fact, it was one of the best selling games for much of the year, especially on the PS3. In this forth installment the series returns to Liberty City, and parodies much of online culture. What could be more fun than finding yourself addicted to TV and the internet within a video game? Oh yeah, wanton acts of crime--especially violent ones.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)
Chances are if you know who Hideo Kojima is then you've played, or you're dying to play Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Released worldwide in June, MGS4 is one of the few high profile PS3 exclusive games. The Metal Gear Solid series has appeared exclusively on PlayStation consoles since the inception of Metal Gear Solid. This latest installment of the stealth and warfare title didn't do much to better Sony's dead last place in the larger console wars.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (PS2)
In the glamour and glitz of the newer consoles it's easy to forget that the PS2 still has some life left in it. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 proved that not only can great games still be released on the PS2, but that story and game play still outclass spectacular graphics. Many critics hail Persona 4 as one of the best RPGs of 2008 and with a December release date, P4 may just keep that title. High school simulation and traditional turn-based combat never felt so right together.

Soul Calibur IV (PS3, Xbox 360)
Soul Calibur has been around for the better part of a decade (not counting Soul Edge), and has been released on a variety of consoles. So it came as a surprise to no one when Soul Calibur IV was released on multiple consoles in late July. What was surprising (or perhaps baffling) about the game was the inclusion of a number of Star Wars characters, notably Darth Vader and Yoda. Well, that and Ivy's scantly clad outfit.

Street Fighter IV (Arcade)
Let's be frank, the inclusion of Street Fighter IV is an outlier in this list of titles. With the exception of a release in Japanese arcades in July, this game isn't slated for a multiplatform release until 2009. Still, for quite a bit of cash an arcade version of the game can be imported from Japan. Like Devil May Cry 4, Grand Theft Auto IV, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Soul Calibur IV, Street Fighter IV makes the leap to the new generation. The game promises to combine stunning 3D graphics with a classic 2D fighting style; February 2009 can't come soon enough. In the meantime there's always Super Street Fighter II: Turbo HD Remix.

Images courtesy of GameSpot.

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