Results tagged “wii”

This is precisely what Hironobu Sakaguchi is going to keep saying about The Last Story, Mistwalker's next RPG for Wii, despite the obvious implications that exist in the title. Feel free to insert Lost Odyssey into that comparison as well. But that's not going to stop us from making them! Though plenty of info was contained in various Famitsu issues throughout the last few months, very little of it was posted online aside from various developer diaries on the official website. Why? Because that's how Nintendo of Japan rolls. Is it silly? Absolutely; but they're not going to let that stop them.

The first trailer was posted on the official site yesterday, and it looks pretty great. Just about as great as it looked from the screen shots in Famitsu months ago. It's hard to believe this game is running on Wii; it's a sure sign that developers -- well, the developers that are still working on Wii games -- are starting to master the system's architecture.

But it also has some interesting gameplay decisions. A cover system? In an RPG? It looks like something right out of Gears of War, Uncharted, or, perhaps more aptly, Mass Effect 2. And it will also sport a real time combat system, making it look like a more tactical version of Final Fantasy XII. Ever since I played some of FFXII (and by that I mean the demo), and seeing as how Japanese RPG developers like to follow in the footsteps of the last Final Fantasy game, I was hoping some of them would have FFXII-inspired battle systems. This has not been the case.

The fact that this game has one is fitting. Lost Odyssey was said to be what Sakaguchi originally wanted Final Fantasy XI, so perhaps these are some ideas he wanted to go into FFXII. Or maybe it's what he wanted Final Fantasy XIII to be! Ah, speculation.

The art direction also helps make it look good. Kimihiko Fujisaka (of the Drakengard games) has a very pretty art style, and it's nice to see his designs transfer over into the game well. This game has one of the best-looking female main characters (whose name is Kanan, apparently) I've seen in a Japanese RPG in a long time. The music in the trailer and especially on the official website is also exquisite. Wish I knew who was composing it. The trailer says the game is due at the end of 2010, so we probably don't have long to wait. Nintendo of Japan has a habit of revealing and releasing their games in quick succession (sometimes too quick), it might release earlier than you think.

A localization of this game is probably more a question of "if" rather than "when" as far as Nintendo of America is concerned. You would think it would be a no-brainer, but we're talking about an outfit that passed on releasing games that were already in English. So you never know with this company. Hopefully this and Xenoblade (which also has a battle system inspired by FFXII) manage to get localized. Given how they've been pretty good lately, hopefully they keep on giving.

Images of courtesy of AndriaSang. If you're having trouble viewing the video, check it out on Youtube.

Now, we can officially switch gears and talk about the Wii titles that are contained within Nintendo's E3 2010 press packet. Looking at the list, it's...well, it's pretty brief. Not to say that Nintendo doesn't have plenty of titles coming out for Wii these days -- and that's pretty much all that's coming out for it now -- but most of them were featured prominently at Nintendo's press conference last week. So yeah, I don't have much of a post here. Sorry.

But wait! It appears the press packet does contain information about each game. Info that hasn't made its way to too many video game websites yet. There's also been some new info on some games since then. So this post does serve a purpose. Really.

Kirby's Epic Yarn was one of the most fantastic-looking games unveiled last week. It's literally the kind of game no one's ever seen before. There have been some complaints about how its gameplay style is rather un-Kirby-like, but neither was Canvas Curse for DS, and look at how that turned out. The question right now is: who's developing this game?

It's not an internally-developed Nintendo game, but one handled by Good-Feel, who previously handled Wario Land: Shake It! for Wii. Shake It! was apparently good, but felt a little too familiar to the older, portable Wario Land games. Epic Yarn, on the other hand, is something entirely new for the franchise, and it should be free of that problem. The game releases this fall.

Mario Sports Mix pits Mario and pals in a multitude of sports events: volleyball, basketball, ice hockey, and dodgeball. And all in one game. I don't think anyone is seriously surprised to see Mario starring in more games that aren't platformers at this point. But your question might be the same as above: who's developing this one? This one isn't an internally developed title either; it's coming from Square Enix.

Wait, Square Enix? But they make RPGs! That might be what some of you are saying (or not), but it's not too surprising. They also handled development for Mario Hoops 3-on-3, which hit DS back in 2006. And it just so happens that this game also includes basketball. 3-on-3 wasn't too bad as long as you didn't crack your touch screen by tapping it too hard. This game doesn't release until 2011, so you'll have to wait until you're ready to flick your Wii Remote so hard that you'll break your TV screen.

Wii Party may not release in America until this fall, but it hits Japan on July 8th. Nintendo of Japan announced on the game's Japanese website that it will come with a Wii Remote, similar to Wii Play. Assuming Nintendo of America will do the same for our release, and they likely will, look forward to this being at the top of the charts for a long time. And unlike Wii Play, this game actually looks fun to play.

Nintendo's doing a lot to make sure the fall lineup is covered in America, whether they're publishing games from their internal studios or other developers. It's a pretty telling sign about how unfortunate the third-party situation is, especially in Japan. Now, hopefully Nintendo can fill the RPG void in America seeing that Namco can't be bothered to localize Tales of Graces.  

Yeah, that was a little boring, but the last entry in this mini-series, the DS list, will be more interesting -- mainly because they're not getting coverage anywhere. I wouldn't be surprised to see that people think the DS's lineup this fall is weak, but it's actually not too bad. Until tomorrow, then.

You can check out a better look at these games on Nintendo's E3 website. While it's there.

Hope everyone had a happy Pi Day!

Pi Day brought yet another of March's big games to store shelves.  Just five days after Final Fantasy XIII landed in gamers' laps, Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver arrived for the Nintendo fanboys to go gaga over.  Speaking of Final Fantasy XIII, fanboy hate is still at record highs.  Also, there's the possibility, not only of a direct sequel to the first FFXIII game, but of more FFXIII games.  Finally, screen shots were shown of an early build of the game, when it was still in development for the PS2.

Details of Final Fantasy XIV have been released, and the game's beta is going to be open to fans who have purchased the PS3 version of FFXIII and registered it.  And gamers who don't own the PS3 or 360 but own the Wii aren't shut completely out of the Final Fantasy loop this week.  Final Fantasy IV, the original version, has been released for the Virtual Console under its original North American name, Final Fantasy II.

Just like Mehitabel, there's life in the old 360 yet.  In February, the Xbox 360 came out on top, although the PS3 and Wii were not far behind.  Indeed, February was a most balanced month for console sales.  Now if the fanboys were toujours gai, the Internet would be a far better place.  Fat chance of that, though.

The life of a three year old gamer came to an abrupt end when she mistook a real gun for a Wii accessory and shot herself with it.  The gun had been left unsecured on a table... and come to think of it, wasn't there a Gargoyles episode like this?  One that Toon Disney refuses to air, despite the fact that it teaches an important lesson about guns that this three year old could've used?  I had no idea that Toon Disney advocated gun use.

Harmonix is attempting to kill the music game genre once and for all by making a third Rock Band game.  But what has caught my eye is Civilization 5, and the changes made in the series formula.  The PlayStation Move has also been officially announced and demoed.  And all of this and more are being studied by the University of Washington.

Okay.  Some patents can take years to clear, right?  Well, according to the unimaginatively named Patent Compliance Group Inc., Activision has been falsely using the term "Patent pending" lately.  Also, apparently, some applications of their patents have been misleading.  The penalties for this kind of behaviour are small to start with, but given how many copies of the games in question Activision has sold, it could easily add up.  There are those who think that this kind of lawsuit is somewhat bogus, although certain points may hold merit.  In the end, this is the kind of story you won't hear about ever again, unless PCG actually wins.

Bringing games from one continent to another has always been a sketchy deal.  A company has to decide whether a game will actually sell or not.  Inexplicably, Mother 3 (and indeed, two thirds of the Mother series) doesn't seem to meet Nintendo's criteria.  Then, it has to take into account whether the content is appropriate for the audience or not.  Most dating sims and eroge like RapeLay and the Maple Colors series obviously won't make the cut (oddly enough, games with rather weird titles like Let's Meow Meow! did make the cut, see the screen shot above).  Some companies are even running into the problem where Australia is refusing to classify certain games, which makes selling them in that country illegal.  And now, Australia is looking to block people from even knowing about those games, but such a measure probably wouldn't work, according to Kotaku.  Myself, I don't think Australia needs to have the same reputation as China when it comes to Internet censorship.

The PlayStation Network experienced some problems just now, which were apparently isolated amongst pre-slim models of the PS3.  This, plus the constant bricking of pre-slim models by their new firmware versions, might point towards a larger problem Sony is having in keeping their pre-slim PS3 models working.  My inner conspiracy nut wonders if Sony is deliberately trying to get rid of all the pre-slim models, especially the backwards compatible ones, for some darker purpose.  Maybe they want to keep selling the PS2, or maybe they plan on introducing a new PS3 model with a different version of backwards compatibility inside.  Somehow it's easier to believe that the company is just bumbling their way through another year, having grown heads so big that they bob around like bobblehead dolls.

Apparently, the Wii can help stroke survivors recover faster.  With the discovery of so many good things that the Wii can do, it's a wonder anyone is still trying to bring down the gaming industry.  Good luck getting a Wii, though.  Christmas sales of the Wii has oscillated the console back into the territory of very limited supply and high demand.

And finally, the PlayStation 2 is currently outselling the PSP Go in Japan.  Yes, I said "2", not "3", although the 3 is outselling the PSP Go as well.  What a failure the PSP Go was.

A happy year of the Tiger to everyone!

Well, a happy year to everyone except those who were butthurt over the Google logo of a luger that was posted and then taken down again.  As much sympathy as I have over the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili (whose name is so hard to spell, I had to copy/paste it), there are people who would consider such a logo to be a tribute to his death.  Besides, the logos are done up in advance, and we can't blame Google for being insensitive.  Perhaps it is those who drink too much from the cauldron of Olympic cheer complain about such logos who are really the insensitive ones.  (Oh no, I very nearly said something negative about the Olympics!)

It looks like I wasn't the only one who decided I had better things to do than watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games.  Over in Port Alberni (which is close to my neck of the woods), a video gamer was logged into the Xbox Live network when he noticed someone on the network talking about a school shooting he was planning, saying that the headlines would be remembered forever.  The gamer called the police, who contacted Microsoft, and soon enough, the kid uttering the threats was tracked down to San Antonio and arrested.  What the kid probably should've been playing was a single player game.  Nothing spoils a killing spree like telling people you're going to go on a killing spree.

Here's a single player game for you: Adventures in Sex City.  According to the articles that have suddenly sprung up about it, the game must've just been released.  I can tell you right now that the game would be rated AO if the ESRB got their hands on it.  While I'm on the subject of endorsing stuff, there's a gaming centre in Arizona that's promoting friendly competitive play on the PS3 and Xbox 360 and providing a place for gamers to go to play.  If you happen to be in the vicinity of Tucson, give Arcade-in-a-Box a try.

Microsoft has been pulling out all the stops to steal Sony's Final Fantasy XIII thunder.  Not only does a special FF XIII edition 360 exist, but they've also been advertising the game heavily and not bothering to mention that the game is cross-platform, possibly hoping that gamers will be fooled into buying their system instead of a PS3.  A special edition 360 would be awesome to have; I've already made my decision on which system I'm going to buy for Final Fantasy XIII: it's a secret.

There are more colours available for the Wii remote: blue and pink!  Personally, I want a pink one.  It'll go well with the lilac PSP I don't have yet.  Hey, there's something Sony needs to do: release a completely pink PS3!  There's a Wii gamer down under who won't be able to afford such accessories for quite a long time: he currently owes one and a half million dollars for pirating New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Last but not least, the Church of England is still crying about violence in video games.

I hope those Chinese characters say what I want it to say.

So, the Olympic torch passed through Revelstoke recently, and there was a big celebration and everything.  To see where my priorities lay, click here to see what I was working on while the festivities were happening.

When I finally went to see what kind of trouble I could stir up, I didn't really have much time to do stuff.  Earlier in the day, I wanted to see what kind of mischief I could stir up by asking one of the random organizers what would happen if the torch were to accidentally be dropped in a puddle.  He was unsure if there were any contingency plans for such an event.  (Well, okay, first he said there was, but then he said "...I hope so.")

I noticed around lunchtime that Scratch had been moved, and asked what had happened.  I was told that Dale had been asked to move for the Olympics, so they could use the space (Dale confirmed this with me later in conversation).  Turned out that the space he usually occupied, which would've been a great spot to sell burgers and fries to a hungry crowd, was to be used to contain protesters, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

If not for the video game review, I think I probably could've gotten myself kicked out.  As it is, I lost a good opportunity to stir something up.  My favourite thing to do was to go around to random security workers, police officers, and Olympic organizers and ask where the various sections were.  I was most interested in finding the section for protesters.  A few of the workers pointed me to the right place, but others were unsure.  One of them even said that given that they were working for one of the sponsors, they're not allowed to even go near the protesters.

He also gave me the only instance of as close to a correct answer as I could get to a question I got from my friend Jennifer, who was having her own fun with the torch relay itself.  She'd ask her customers if it was the original flame (as in, from Greece).  They didn't know.  When I asked, I got mostly blank expressions, a few responses of "I don't know", and one person who actually said it was.  The person who supplied me with correct information mentioned that the modern relay had started with the Berlin games.  Of course, I was a little slow that night, or else I would've realized the implication of that statement.  The Berlin games were in the 1930s, when Adolph Hitler was in power in Germany, which would make the modern torch relay a Nazi tradition.  I bet if I had pointed that out to a few people, I might've at least gotten a stern warning from an official.

I think I suck at rousing rabble.  Other cities seem far more capable of it.  Various people in Kitimat raised some good points when the torch was passed through their city the day after one of their largest employers was shut down.  And protesters elsewhere managed to divert the torch a few times.  Here?  There wasn't a single protester in the designated protest area.

I'm far better at video games anyway.

(Oh no, I'm making fun of the games!  I bet it's too soon, isn't it?)

Video of the Week:

I bet you're looking for a funny or amazing commercial, considering what happened last Sunday, right?  Okay, here's my favourite commercial, so far this month:



Sorry, Super Bowl.  England trumped you something fierce this year.  Better luck next time.

Currently Playing: Shadow of Destiny (PSP)

A review of this game will be up very soon, but if you can't wait: this game seems to follow both the predestination paradox and the grandfather paradox, so if you don't mind it when the rules of time travel change depending on the situation, give this a go.  Actually, come to think of it, that's a pretty good quote.  I'll see if I can incorporate it into the review.

Looking Forward To: Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love (PS2)

Last year, I was fond of saying that the PS2 was still going strong, despite the fact that the industry seemed ready to throw the PS2 over a cliff and declare it dead.  Some distributors had even discontinued carrying the games, which made it hard for those games that were still coming out to reach customers.  Well, this year, Sakura Wars is the biggest PS2 game coming out, and it proves that even in 2010, the PS2 isn't completely gone.

Nintendo's Wii has an...interesting conundrum. In terms of its software lineup, the potential of it seemed good initially since smaller developers would have a venue to have with the rising cost of development Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 software would undoubtedly entail. The initial third-party lineup was admittedly bare compared to the HD consoles, which raised some concerns. Since then, it's fluctuated between both extremes, with the software situation never settling into one comfortable position. Especially in America.

But that's not to say Japan and Europe have been perfect. When the third-party lineup was still distressing, Nintendo has plenty of fantastic software to provide to fill in the gap. But when they felt third-party developers were stepping up their offerings, they let their offerings lapse, and the system's overall morale suffered for it. Nintendo has recently promised to fix the problem, but with third-party games seeing underwhelming sales on the system, many of them are starting to leave. It's pretty bad in Japan, where no third-party Wii titles have been announced for months.

Yesterday, however, we saw a new lineup from Nintendo that showed promise for their future output. They're indeed keeping their promise to provide some titles that will appease the core audience. So yeah, there will be some games to play later on this year. Maybe.

You're already familiar with Metroid: Other M, a new Metroid title to be borne of a collaboration between Tecmo's Team Ninja and Nintendo's Metroid staff; the latter of which includes Yoshio Sakamoto, co-creator of the franchise. Given how both sides are talented, it should be pretty good. It also looks much more story-oriented than the previous games. The official Japanese teaser webpage went up in Japan yesterday, confirming that the game will release in summer 2010. The site also has a beautiful piano theme.

It took a while for Monolith Soft's new Wii RPG to resurface again, and it has in the form of a teaser webpage on Nintendo of Japan's website. Formerly known as Monado: Beginning of the World -- buried within Nintendo of America's press packet from E3 last year -- Xenoblade is going to be the final name of their new RPG. Yeah, Xenoblade. And the project is helmed by Tetsuya Takahashi too. And it apparently has mechs! This seems reminiscent of something in particular.

And before you conclude that the name is Takahashi's desperate attempt at recapturing the spirit of the good ol' days when the "Xeno" name was one of prominence, the final name was actually Nintendo's idea. We should be seeing more soon, as the game releases in Japan in spring 2010. Hopefully it's come a ways since its last appearance. Make sure to take in the music on the website too, because it's lovely. I've listened to it about six times now. I'm still trying to figure out who composed it.

We've known that Mistwalker's Hironobu Sakaguchi (formerly of Squaresoft) has been up to something for a long time, given his intermittent blog updates on Mistwalker's website. And now we know, as a site appeared on Nintendo's website yesterday revealing The Last Story. Interesting name too, as it's a little reminiscent of another name. Something representing finality. Subtle.

Both Nintendo and Mistwalker are being sparse on the details, but Sakaguchi said the theme of it will be "the universal theme of human emotion." The site also has some beautiful music, possibly composed by Nobuo Uematsu. The game releases in Japan sometime this year.

This is a pretty nice batch of games, especially when you also consider some of the other games from Nintendo that will appeal to core gamers, like Zangeki no Reginleiv (which releases in Japan on February 11th), Super Mario Galaxy 2, and the new Zelda. And while I'd like to think that all of these games will release over here, who knows what will come over with company so schizophrenic with whatever they release outside of Japan like Nintendo of America. Hopefully, they've changed their minds, but the skepticism remains.

Good news, everyone! Nintendo of America finally decided that they felt the Classic Controller Pro should be available to non-importers. In a press release early (like, early) today, they announced that the controller would finally be available throughout America in April -- despite it being available in Japan and Europe since August and . It will come in both black and white, and will release for $19.99, the same price as the older iteration. The PR doesn't mention the original Classic Controller at all, so they definitely intend on retiring it. Given the favorable impressions of the new controller, they're doing consumers a favor.

But that's not all: That press release was sent from both Nintendo and Capcom, announcing that the controller would also be available in a special bundle with Monster Hunter 3: Tri, which also releases in April. The controller that will be packaged with the game will be black, just like the Japanese counterpart. The bundle will be $59.99, a mere $10 more than the standalone game. This should help the game's sales, since the Monster Hunter games have the unfortunate habit of only selling especially well in Japan. You could call this the Dragon Quest Syndrome.

So I think it would be a good idea to promote it using the ad that helped push it in Japan. I also think it would be good to market it with the product behind them. Of course, I'm talking about...no, not the HDTV. Or the guitar. I mean the black Wii, which has still yet to make an appearance in America. I think NoA likes to tick off their fanbase every now and then for the sake of it. (

Word among various third-party developers (some of which are being discussed here) distressed about underwhelming software sales is that the hardcore base has abandoned the platform for the supposedly greener pastures of the 360 and PS3. With something like a black Wii and Monster Hunter 3, they could stand a good chance at reigniting the core gamer fanbase. That, along with a marketing campaign, which I'm sure Capcom is doing anyway since they're even giving one to Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars (out tomorrow!). Time will tell if Nintendo is really serious about this.

Ever since its unveiling at E3 2009, gamers have been, well, ambivalent in their response to New Super Mario Bros. Wii. From its initial trailers and videos, it looks like an incredibly fun platformer that can be enjoyed by four people. On the other hand, it admittedly does look like it's only marginally enhanced over its DS prequel. But that's not what this post is about. This post is about its single player (which you could undoubtedly gauge from the tile), which has worried people for how well it could play when you don't have any people around to grab the controller. Most people frequently don't, so it's definitely a legitimate concern.

Many of us put our faith in Nintendo EAD and Shigeru Miyamoto, and believed that they would design their levels so meticulously that it would be playable in both. But could they? That sounds like an incredibly tough job to achieve, and it's not like Nintendo hasn't had any missteps. Well, earlier this week, we received video proof that Nintendo might have actually achieved that goal.

This trailer (also available on the Nintendo channel) shows what's possible by more dedicated players in the game, and a good portion of it shows how potentially enjoyable the single player can be. Also, I think this might be a sign of things to come; with a plethora of super plays being available on Youtube probably not too long after the game releases. It also reassures my sentiment that it looks better than the way-too-rudimentary DS game. Portions of the demo at VGXPO felt pretty tough in a few spots (though that was sometimes because of the chaos with your partners), which is more than I can say for too many of the levels in the last game. That warms my heart.

Not too long after that video was posted, Wired uploaded contents of a round table session journalists had with Miyamoto, where he discussed, in detail, the vision of the final game. It really seems as if the game is really designed for everyone in mind. In other words, it doesn't feature any haphazard game design that's the developer's of catering to a more casual audience, something that marred the experience of the aforementioned New Super Mario Bros., along with Metroid Prime 3 and (pretty severely) The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. It's nice that Nintendo is seeing where to bridge the divide.

So yes, New Super Mario Bros. Wii will easily hold you off until Super Mario Galaxy 2 releases sometime next year.

For those Wii users who are too lazy to get up off of the couch and walk over to their computers, Nintendo has just delivered some good news: the Internet Channel available through the Wii Shop Channel is now free.

As of September 1st, Wii owners who wish to surf the Internet on their televisions will now be able to do so at no cost to them.  Of course, those who already purchased the Internet Channel for 500 Wii Points are going to be compensated for their purchase as well: they will receive one NES game worth 500 Points, starting in late October.  Fortunately for those customers who might want to take advantage of this offer, most NES games available are worth 500 points, including, arguably, all of the good ones.

Of course, this begs the question: if you already have a computer, and other devices that connect to the Internet... why do you need to turn the Wii into an Internet machine, too?

Though its one-on-one competitive nature makes it a genre that differs from most, the fighting game genre is similar to many others on one main respect: it seems to have a lot of franchises that will often go under-the-radar of the more casual observer. These days that stigma seems to hang over the head of a lot of 2D games that still have just enough appeal like Blazblue: Calamity Trigger -- and I would've put King of Fighters XII into that category if SNK actually had everything together. But there were quite a few franchises that lived and whittled away rather quickly. I mention them now because some of them have actually come back into the public eye in some way.

Sony has customarily been uploading at least one PSOne Classics title since around May of this year; some of which have actually been pretty good! Their latest one was rather unexpected though: the original Bloody Roar. This game was a rather interesting case; it originally didn't garner much attention when it was released in arcades as Beastorizer (which makes it sound like some Transformers spin-off), but the console version generated at least a little interest. It wasn't the deepest fighting game around, far from it. But it handled well enough to be fun, and transforming between human and beast was something a lot of fighting games hadn't done before. As fun as the first game is, I wouldn't recommend it if the much better sequel makes its way onto the service.

Meanwhile, there have been more details on how Battle Arena Toshinden is being revived, despite being announced a good while back. The two people who were hoping Toshinden would come back in some form are now happy that the game's semi-respite has given it some improvements, like a new artist. The designs look similar to those found in the Mana Khemia titles from Gust (and published by NIS America here), which could help generate some interest.

But it won't if the final game looks like this. Often tradition is something good to adhere to, but if there's one thing Toshinden hasn't been known for, it's good gameplay. The thing is, screen shots like these won't do it any favors in terms of interest. Hopefully these are just some bad shots, but I'm not sure if it'll get any better if it's due for release in December. And it's not like its developer, Dream Factory, has a good reputation. Though they developed the superlative Tobal 2 (which Squaresoft passed on publishing outside of Japan back in the day), they've also made plenty of mediocre efforts like Ehrgeiz (which people feared Dissidia: Final Fantasy would end up like, since it was the last fighter to involve Square characters), The Bouncer, and Kakuto Chojin.

I don't think Bloody Roar appearing as a PSOne Classic is a signal that they want to revive the franchise, especially since Sony doesn't handle the franchise's publishing duties anymore -- the last game, Bloody Roar 4, was published by Konami, who owns its original publisher Hudson. It was developed by Eighting, who recently worked on all of the Bleach: Heat the Soul titles, Fate: Unlimited Codes, and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. But if there's a franchise that needed a revival, it sure wasn't Toshinden; and with the way it's looking right now, it looks like the developers didn't think so either.

Of all the games that they could've made a sequel to, Final Fantasy IV was one of the last games anyone would've thought of.  At the end of the original, the characters celebrate the end of all wars, especially the dwarves, who melt down all the tanks for the raw materials they contain.

I bet they feel silly now.

My Father's Name Is Cecil, And My Mother Is Rosa

The sequel picks up about 17 years after the original, and opens in exactly the same way: the Red Wings theme plays while we follow them in their flight...

...in fact, a lot of the game follows the same path the original took, as if they took the ROM of the original game and applied a hack.  Not only that, but there's only a handful of new characters, so far, including Theodore... oops, I mean "Ceodore", the son of Rosa and Cecil.  Okay, so "son of main character, who is just as awesome or even more awesome than main character" is such a fan fiction trope that I would probably classify this as a fan fiction romhack, if not for the fact that Square-Enix put it together, and that it's actually a port of a cell phone game.  I've not played enough of the game to decide whether the quality is that of a bad fan fiction or not, considering only a quarter of the game has been released so far, but what has been released follows the general fan fiction pattern: a new evil threatens the world, the elite group from the first game has been split up, and so far it looks like the brand new character is the only one who can save the day.  Yep, sounds like bad Gary Stu fan fiction to me.

There is only one new tune used so far, from what I can tell.  It's a mysterious piece, one that I wouldn't mind hearing a couple more times, just to see what I feel about it.  The rest of the music sounds pretty much the same as the music from the first game; when combined with the recycled visuals, it at first sounds like Square-Enix didn't put much effort into the game.

The battle system, though, shows that they at least made sure the game works, unlike most of the Final Fantasy IV releases.  The most notably buggy version was the one on the Game Boy Advance, while the one on the DS was pretty much clean.  The battle system in the sequel is as clean as the DS version, which is a good thing.  For a while, it looks like Square couldn't seem to get a five-character party to work right in a game.  But not only did they make it work, they added a couple special new features.  The first new feature is the moon phase system.  Basically, depending on what the moon's currently doing, certain battle commands and techniques will be strengthened, and others will be weakened.  The moon advances when you stay at an inn, pitch a tent, or play the game for a half an hour after your last rest stop.  What this means, of course, is that in the world of Final Fantasy IV, the moon's cycle lasts only four days.  Cecil and company will no doubt find it very strange that ours takes 28 days to make one full cycle.

The second new feature of the battle system is the ability to execute combo attacks.  Unlike games such as Chrono Trigger and Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled, you do not automatically get combo attacks at the end of a battle.  You have to discover them yourself.  It's not as hard as it looks, though.  You can just explore the battle system during random battles, and experiment with combinations.  It's a fun system to mess around with for a while, although the sheer number of random battles you encounter might make you forget the feature even exists, especially if it takes a couple hours to find another new character.

You shouldn't have a problem leveling up, though.  The level curve is shallow enough that you can level up to around level 15-20 quite easily in one go, then go on to the next dungeon and level to 25 in about ten, maybe fifteen more minutes.  The one problem might be healing.  Theodore Ceodore has stronger healing magic than his father in the early portion of the game, but it'll be interesting to see how that plays out in the later stages, especially since his father kinda sucked, magic-wise.  Still, being the son of two people with the Cure spell, you'd think he'd at least be able to use Curaga and Curaja.  Maybe he'll gain more magic if he's leveled up higher, but I'll wait until future parts are released to find out.  Also, Rydia lost her healing powers in the first game, and never recovered them.  Her chapter is therefore that little bit tougher.

As for the plot, the first quarter of the game raises a lot of questions.  Why did the second moon reappear?  Who is the mysterious girl?  What does she have to do with the sudden escalation in monster attacks?  And what happened to... okay, that's a spoiler.  Suffice to say, the first quarter will leave you wanting more.

To be continued, week of July 6th...

Art stolen from Wikipedia, which in turn borrowed from Square-Enix

So, this generation has been a real mixed bag as far as reliability is concerned. And it's a pretty worrying trend.

Now before you clench your fist in seething rage and think I'm going to run my mouth again about my dead 360, I'm not, so calm down. In fact, I think the post I made on it was awfully vain and came off as a desperate attempt for attention. At this point, you're considered an exceptional case if you've had a 360 that's lived a healthy life for at least two years. And it says something when the company that built the product has to extend the warranty for three years because of its high failure rate. It's nice that they have that, but I'm sure your average consumer would prefer reliability over having to shoot through hoops to exchange a dead console, especially if they have to do it multiple times.

Though the 360 is the main culprit, it seems the Wii and PS3 have their fair share of issues as well. Some pretty reliable reports around the internet would leave anyone who's seen them -- or worse, experienced them -- to believe that both consoles aren't as failure-proof as your random internet fanboy would have you believe.


People's stories with the Wii seem to vary, and wildly at that. While quite a few owners are still on their launch consoles, people who've had to have their system repaired seem to have it pretty bad. It seems that the GPU is the main culprit, along with a few other random problems like the system not reading discs -- which would have to do with the lens (and could, but not always, have to do with dust). That's kind of a bummer, because Nintendo is usually known for having some of the most sturdily built and reliable hardware in multiple console generations. Good thing their customer service is still top notch, and you might get them to repair it for no charge if you can.


And it looks like the PS3 has similar problems, though they appear to mainly affect owners of the 60 GB SKU, released back when Sony still cared about now-unimportant matters like backwards compatibility. Some PS3 owners are reporting that the system either has trouble reading discs due to a malfunctioning Blu-ray lens, and sometimes sounds like a jet engine in your living room (normal for 360 owners!). It also has a Yellow Light of Death that indicates that something is wrong, a term that was doubtlessly spawned from the Red Ring of Death (RROD). What a console generation!

Sure, it's pretty obvious that consoles with internal moving parts are going to suffer more problems than cartridge-based retro systems, but this just seems bit excessive for its own good. The 360 is without a doubt the biggest culprit, but I and others were hoping that the PS3 and Wii would fill in the gap between excess RRODs and E74s. And they will for the most part, but they're not as prone to failure as many of us wished they would be. Considering all of that is just a bummer, especially with Nintendo. Thankfully we have the DS and PSP, right?

Wii Error image courtesy of Kotaku.

Online downloads and digital delivery aren't passing fads, they're here to stay. Services are increasingly going the way of online distribution as companies follow new consumer consumption patterns, or they attempt to cut down on costs. As a prime example Amazon.com is now in the business of selling Xbox Live points, Gold member subscriptions and Arcade titles directly from its new Xbox Live store. Unlike GameStop, where points cards and Gold subscriptions can be bought online but must be shipped out, Amazon allows users to buy a download code to redeem via Xbox Live. Arcade games can be purchased in the same manner using real money instead of Microsoft Points. For gamers who already buy these products and services through Microsoft this news won't make much of a difference.

In other content delivery news, FUNimation has partnered up with Veoh Networks in order to distribute some of its content. The FUNimation Channel launched last week with over 200 hours of content. Despite this deal more savvy users will still note the abundance of fansubbed shows on Veoh. Otherwise, it's nice to see more official FUNimation content on the web given how slow FUNimation's website can be for video streaming.

Unfortunately not everyone is happy to see online content playing a greater role in everyday life. In fact, many broadband ISPs are looking for ways to limit the consumer and squeeze money from the said content providers. One such example is Time Warner and its metered internet subscriptions. In short, various plans will have caps on bandwidth usage, the lowest priced tiers will cost $15 per month and have a limit of 1GB per said month. The highest tiers or unlimited usage (what users currently have), will carry a price of $150 per month. Additional usage fees will start at $1 per gigabyte with a cap of $75. Suddenly Comcast's bandwidth cap of 250GBs per month looks great in comparison.

One way to cut down on usage would be to buy more physical media, just hope that your DVDs aren't part of the now delayed or cancelled anime releases in upcoming months. Another way would to watch out for virus and worm infested e-mail spam, which can quickly use up precious bandwidth. (Or you could just drop Time Warner if you're fortunate enough to have an alternative.)

Despite the Wii being the little console that could its sales are lagging in Japan. In fact, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata describes it as "in the most unhealthy condition since it hit the Japanese market." Perhaps doing something about the annoying lack of games for hardcore gamers would help drive sales.

 

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.