Sunday, March 28, 2004

ZLTP - Six Times and Counting...

	I just beat The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past yet again. I did the Light World dungeons on Saturday, and then the Dark World dungeons today. Yes, all eight of them, all in one sitting, heh. But that in itself isn't really news, since I beat ZLTP often enough. However, this makes six times that I've played through the GBA version, and I was thinking: I've had the game for about 14 months now, so that means, on average, I've played through the game almost once every two months since I bought it. And now I'm wondering if this trend will continue into the rest of 2004. Oh, and I really gave Ganon a spanking this time. Not only did I never have to use any potions or fairies, but I only lost half my life (10 hearts) from the fight. That was the quickest I'd ever taken him down; seems like every time I play through the game, I get a little better. I even got a double shot in with the Silver Arrows, hitting him with two arrows from only stunning him once, which I'd never been able to do before. And when it only takes four Silver Arrows total to beat him, that really helps.

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Now Playing #33

	Game: Super Smash Bros. Track: Saffron City Time: 1:41 Size: 19.3 KB Saffron City was and is my favorite stage out of the ones in both the original Super Smash Bros. and SSBM . . . and I think it was stupid that it wasn't one of the three classic stages that appeared in SSBM. I would spend hours playing on just that one level, match after match, cycling through every character over and over again, and occasionally even doing some 99 life stock matches on it. Saffron City had everything: level ground, sloped ground, small platforms, large platforms, floating platforms, a few walls to to bounce combos off of, and a good stage hazard. (Gotta love when someone first plays, sees Electrode roll out of the box, says "What's that?" and walks up to it, and then gets blown off the stage). Not even the awesomeness that was Hyrule Castle (my second favorite level) could stand up to the genius that was the Saffron City level. So, now that you know about my love of that level, you may have an idea as to why I choose its music for the next Now Playing midi. Yeah, that's right, it's another one of those songs that got grilled into my head from hours upon hours of hearing it played over and over. And not just from playing SSB, either -- every time I started up Pokémon Yellow, I'd hear this tune, since it's the main Pokémon theme, used as the opening music in Red, Blue, and Yellow. The Pokémon games actually had some pretty good music for being on the Game Boy, and I'm glad they chose the opening theme for the Saffron City level's music in SSB.

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Saturday, March 27, 2004

Friday Night/Saturday Morning

	Technically, it's Saturday, but it's only about 12:50 AM, so it still feels like it's Friday. Isn't that a weird feeling, almost like you're in between days? . . . Yeah whatever. . . . Anyway, it's been too long since I made a real post -- in fact, the only other posts on the main page are Now Playing and Midi Archive posts -- so here goes. The reason for the lack of substantial posts is, well, actually more than one reason. First, as I said earlier, my PC's power supply died and I was without the use of my computer for a week, and then after that I was busy catching up with stuff on OB. Then I was busy fixing up the Midi Archive with the javascript stuff (see the post before this), so that took up time that I would've otherwise used to write a post, and then I got distracted with new info about The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures. Then I was busy searching out and downloading as much official art from the game as I could find, along with screen shots, with which I made a banner. And while on my search I found a site that had a lot of good official art from other Zelda games also, so I just had to download a bunch, and I'll still be going back for more some time later. And then, this evening (yesterday evening?), I was at the Friday night Bible study that my youth group has every week, which went an extra two and a half hours this time, ending at midnight. So that's what I've been doing all this time. In my gaming life, I should mention that I'm up to 182 hours of play time on Final Fantasy Tactics Advance; during that computer-less week I ended up playing the game for 20 hours. That means I've played FFTA for more than a week's time (168 hours). Most of you probably think that's pathetic, but I see it as an achievement since that's the longest I've ever played any one game. (Besides maybe Final Fantasy VII. On my first game the timer stopped at 99:99:59, so I can't tell exactly how much time I spent on it, and my second game was also a good length). Oh, and I guess my friend's sister bought Pokémon Colosseum, so it looks like I'll end up getting to play it. . . . If she ever lets me borrow it, that is. It could be a while before she's done with the game. Though my friend did say that he's been playing the RPG mode and he told me that it's really short. Apparently his sister only got it a day or two ago and he's already about half way through or so. Kind of disappointing, but I wasn't really expecting the RPG mode to be as long as the Game Boy games, so whatever. So there's a little update of things, before I go to bed (1:22 AM now). Got to get up tomorrow since I have things to do and places to go. . . . Wow, it's not often I can actually say that, heh. But I do indeed have things to do, so I want to make sure and get a decent amount of sleep tonight (this morning?).

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Thursday, March 25, 2004

Midi Archive Upgrade 2

	Yes, another upgrade to the Midi Archive section up above. With the help of my brother (who goes by the online screen name Jester), who did most of the Javascript coding for it, I've now got it so that when you select a midi and click "Play," it will load that midi in the Now Playing section, where you can play it in the QuickTime/Media Player toolbar. And cooler still, the text below the player will even change to show the game/track name currently playing. All this makes it so that loading a new page for a midi and then having to hit back to choose another one is unnecessary, which makes it easier to browse pages while listening to various different midis. Now you can change midis with only a few clicks of the mouse and without ever having to load a new web page. Currently there are 32 different midis available for play in the Midi Archive, with new ones added weekly on Sundays. Have fun listening, and don't forget to check back for new ones.

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Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Now Playing #32

	Game: F-Zero X Track: Big Blue Time: 2:14 Size: 71.5 KB Yeah, sorry the midi is a couple days late, but my computer's power supply died on the 14th, so I haven't been able to use my computer for over a week. Just be glad I got the last midi up on time before it died. Anyway. . . . The Big Blue theme has always been my favorite song throughout the F-Zero series, though sadly it wasn't in F-Zero: Maximum Velocity. The F-Zero GX version of it (the original Big Blue theme that you buy in the shop) is my favorite, and I wanted to get a midi version of that, but I couldn't find it. So, I had to settle for the F-Zero X version, which is still pretty good. The Super Smash Bros. Melee version is also really good, and the orchestral version of that is even better, but I still think I like the F-Zero GX version the most.

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Sunday, March 14, 2004

Midi Archive Upgrade

	If you looked closely when you came to this page, you probably noticed something different about my introduction. That is, I've got a spiffy new drop-down menu for the Midi Archive with a list of every midi I've featured in the Now Playing section just to the left. With this list, all you have to do is select the a midi from the list and then click the Play button just above the menu, and you'll be linked directly to that midi file. So now you can list to any of the past midis featured in Now Playing instead of only the last four. Enjoy. ^_^

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Now Playing #31

	Game: Final Fantasy VIII Track: Eyes On Me Time: 5:46 Size: 48.0 KB Lyrics: Whenever sang my songs On the stage, on my own Whenever said my words Wishing they would be heard I saw you smiling at me Was it real or just my fantasy? You'd always be there in the corner Of this tiny little bar My last night here for you Same old songs, just once more My last night here with you? Maybe yes, maybe no I kind of liked it your way How you shyly placed your eyes on me Did you ever know That I had mine on you? Darling, so there you are With that look on your face As if you're never hurt As if you're never down Shall I be the one for you Who pinches you softly but sure If frown is shown then I will know that you are no dreamer So let me come to you Close as I want to be Close enough for me To feel your heart beating fast And stay there as I whisper How I love your peaceful eyes on me Did you ever know That I had mine on you? Darling, so share with me Your love if you have enough Your tears if you're holding back Or pain if that's what it is How can I let you know I'm more than the dress and the voice Just reach me out then You will know that you are not dreaming Darling, so there you are With that look on your face As if you're never hurt As if you're never down Shall I be the one for you Who pinches you softly but sure If frown is shown then I will know that you are no dreamer I've shyly placed my eyes on someone...

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Friday, March 12, 2004

Final Fantasy IX

	Another long put aside game has been completed; that's right, I finally picked up Final Fantasy IX again and beat the game just now. I was saved at the last save point in Pandemonium, so I was just before the start of the fourth disc. And from there, you basically just fight a few bosses, switch to disc 4, and then you can go to the end dungeon. Speaking of which, Memoria took a long time to get through simply because of the sheer length of the battles. The normal enemies, though they only came one at a time, took a couple minutes each to bring down, and the minibosses took a good while also. Fortunately there was a fair number of save points, however, so I was able to keep myself going through the use of several Tents to restore MP spent on healing. (I was having to cast Curaga with Garnet at least once per fight it seemed like). As for the end boss...it was really funky. I was expecting this big showdown with Kuja as the end battle, but no, he goes down fairly easily and then this Necron thing shows up. Now, is it just me, or did Necron look kind of similar to Safer Sephiroth from FFVII? Which, in turn, looks a lot like the last form of Kefka from FFVI. Seems like Square has this weird obsession with strangely angelic looking end bosses. Now I'm kind of wondering what the end boss of FFX looks like. But anyway, Necron just sort of showing up after Kuja's defeat was odd, since there was absolutely no mention of it anywhere else in the game, so far as I remember. As for the fight itself, Necron actually provided a good challenge, unlike pretty much every other boss in the game. FFIX wasn't exactly a hard game for me -- it was quite easy for all but a couple fights. Of course, one of the main reasons it was so hard was that the the fight started off very, very badly. My party consisted of Zidane, Freya, Vivi, and Garnet. ... And guess what? Necron takes out Garnet, my healer, before I can get an attack off. And then it proceeded to completely trash the rest of my party because I had no healing spells. About the first ten minutes of the fight, it seemed like, were spent just trying to survive and get all four of my party members alive and without status effects. I absolutely loathe that attack of its that brings a character down to 1 HP because, of course, it then likes to use an attack immediately after that hits the whole party, instantly killing the character with 1 HP. That's what it did to Garnet straight off. But I survived, and out of the fight came the longest Trance ever; Vivi went into Trance near the start of the fight and never came out of it until the fight was over. How? Because, for most of that time, he was either dead, stopped, or petrified, yet his Trance remained through it all. The one Focus move that I got off even stayed in effect through it all -- that's what I call good concentration, heh. The main turning point of the battle, though, was when Zidane went into Trance. After that, it was all downhill. Grand Lethal doing 9999 damage per hit, plus Freya using Jump, plus Vivi doing two Flare spells per turn (still in Trance using Double Black), added up to a lot of damage very quick. And I had finally managed to get Garnet up and at full health, so she was casting Curaga every turn to keep everyone alive. I still had two more Trance attacks left with Zidane when Necron went down. As for the ending -- don't worry, I won't spoil anything -- I thought it was neat how they mixed the CG backgrounds with the real time graphics for Zidane. I would've prefered it to all be CG, but I really hardly even noticed with all the action going on. It was done pretty well I think. And when it paused, the view circling around to show Zidane's look of "oh crap," and then the "thumph" sound as he hit...that was hilarious. The rest of the ending was also pretty good, though I kind of saw the "surprise" coming. Overall, I enjoyed it, and I think it ended the game very well.

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Tuesday, March 9, 2004

Final Fantasy OSTs

	Recently I found a site with the Final Fantasy VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2, and XI OSTs (original soundtracks) for download in mp3 format, and so, needless to stay, I yoinked them all. (I love broadband). I've been enjoying them immensely -- it's great to be able to listen to any of the music from those games any time I want. Right now I'm almost done listening to the FFX-2 OST, which is the only one I have yet to listen to completely, and I've only got three more tracks left. Also, listening to the music of FFIX really made me want to play the game again, since it's been so long since I played through it. And even then, I never did go all the way to the end. I also got the Chrono Cross OST elsewhere, which I've been looking for ever since I played through the game. CC has some of the best music I've ever heard in a video game, and I constantly find myself humming tunes from it and Chrono Trigger. A truly amazing game in just about every category, but especially when it comes to its music. So, Des is happy and won't be wanting for good music to listen to for a good while. ^_^

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Sunday, March 7, 2004

Now Playing #30

	Game/Artist: Final Fantasy IX Track: Vamo' alla Flamenco Time: 3:02 Size: 37.9 KB You may not recognize the name unless you have the Final Fantasy IX OST, but Vamo' alla Flamenco is the song that plays during the sword fight between Zidane and...Blanc, I think it is, in the play right at the start of the game. No doubt you had this music burned into your brain if you did that fight over and over again trying to get a perfect run without any missed button presses -- and now you get to listen to it some more! But even after having to listen to it so many times while I tried to do get it perfect, I still like the song, and I think it goes well as this week's midi.

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