Sunday, February 15, 2004

Now Playing #27

	Game: Final Fantasy VI Song: The Decisive Battle Length: 1:54 Size: 25.0 KB If you can remember, the very first midi I used on here was also from FFVI, and this is the first time I've had two midis from the same game. I've been listening to this song more often lately, however, so I thought I'd put it up even if I had already used one from FFVI. Anyway, The Decisive Battle is the boss theme from FFVI, which is probably my favorite boss theme in the series. FFIV's boss theme comes close, but this one has been growing on me. FFVI really had a lot of awesome battle themes; I can't think of a single one that isn't really good.

Comments (1) | Permalink

Crystal Caravaning

	Alright, I played FF Crystal Chronicles with my friend like we planned, and so far it's a lot of fun with even just two people. We got through the first year of caravaning, meaning that we played through three dungeon areas, so I think I was able to get a decent first impression of the game. Okay, so first off, I'll go through the process of starting a new game: After you choose whether to play single player or multiplayer, it shows an opening cutscene and then you're given the chance to name your hometown. The default name is Tipa, and after you choose that, you get to choose which slot you want to create your character in. There are eight slots per save game, so you can have up to eight different characters on the same game at once. Now, once you pick a slot, the control switches each person's GBA screen and they get to choose their race, their hair/body style (there are four different styles for each gender of each race), their family's trade, and finally their name. After creating characters we see their families saying goodbye and a little cutscene showing the caravan (ie a wagon and some characters) leaving the town. At this point you're switched to the overworld map. Now, the overworld is basically just a path leading to different areas of the world. There are no random encounters, though you will occasionally meet other characters. Traveling is accomplished simply by choosing which direction to go when you come to forks in the road. Now, onto the interesting parts; the dungeons and battle system. The first thing I want to say about this is that teamwork is critical in this game. If you don't work together, you will not survive, simple as that. One player has to carry the Crystal Chalice while the others follow, so you also have to stick together as a group. Because what the Chalice does is form a protective sphere around you, which the miasma (poisonous fog) can't get through. But the moment you step out of the circle, which is denoted by a colored line, you start loosing life rather rapidly. Now, about the battle system itself, you should know that FFCC is an action RPG that uses realtime combat if you've heard about the game before. In other words, you run around and actually whack enemies with your weapon while they're also attacking you instead of just choosing options from a menu. The magic is also realtime, and you have to charge spells up before you can cast them, meaning that you have to hold the button in until a cursor appears on the ground and then you can move the cursor to where you want to cast the spell, at which point you let up the button. One the other hand, you don't have MP in the game, and you can use any Magicite orbs that you find as many times as you want. About Magicite orbs, you may recognize the name from FFVI, but the way that they work isn't at all the same. Besides the way that you use the magic, as explained above, you don't get to keep Magicite after you beat a level. This means that every time you enter a dungeon you have to collect and equip the new Magicite that you find. Also, as you'd expect, different types of Magicite lets you cast different types of spells. The Magicite that we found were Fire, Ice, Thunder, Cure, Clear, and Life. From these basic spells you can mix and combine them to make more powerful spells by having people cast one or more spells in the same place at the same time. An example would be combining two different elementals that I listed, Fire, Ice, and Thunder, to make a Gravity spell. This is a really fun and unique magic system, and the combining of spells really ties into the cooperative nature of the game. From what I played (three dungeons), FFCC has lived up to everything I expected from it. The use of connectivity between GCN and GBA is definitely the best yet; you have to be in pretty much constant communication with the other players to trade information from the different types of radar made available to the players on the GBA, combine spells at the right time, request healing, all sorts of things. I can't wait till me and my friend can get together again to play more.

Comments (2) | Permalink

Thursday, February 12, 2004

The Dilemma

	Okay, so I call my friend up today to see if he's gotten Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles yet. He says he hasn't gotten a chance to pick it up yet, though he has it reserved. Since we're going to be getting together on Friday to play it, he asks if he could just give me the reserve ticket and the money for it at church and then I could pick it up afterwards since he's going to be busy until Friday. I agree, and things go as planned, but now I'm faced with a dilemma, as said in the title of the post. Basically, I have FFCC sitting on my shelf not five feet away, but I can't decide whether or not to play it before we get together on Friday. My friend said he didn't mind if I did, and I really want to try it out, but I also want to start fresh at the same time as him on Friday. I think it'd be more fun if neither of us know what's coming at all, having to figure everything out as we go...but I also really want to play right now. It's hard to decide, and I don't think I've ever been is this sort of situation before--and what a decision to have to make, heh. More in the way of game happenings, I'll be going out to pick up Metroid: Zero Mission tomorrow. Maybe I'll be able to distract myself with that if I can just resist playing FFCC tonight. So tempting...

Comments (4) | Permalink

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Banner Showcase

	I made a new Zelda: Four Swords banner last night because I was bored and I felt like making another one with all four Links, since the background on the first one isn't all that great. This time I also used different pictures of them than on the first banner, and it's turned out to be my favorite of all the Four Swords banners I've done. I even like it enough to be using it on OtakuBoards and making a post about it here, heh. Check it out down below.

Comments (2) | Permalink

Sunday, February 8, 2004

Project Majora: 50% Complete

	I played Majora's Mask some more just now. I didn't do a whole lot, but I'm planning on playing more later tonight. Right now, though, I figure I'm about half way done with the game. I've beaten half the dungeons, gotten half the masks, half the hearts...so yeah, 50% done. I just got the Hookshot, meaning the whole game is now open to me (yes, even Ikana Canyon--I know a trick, heh). I figure I'll catch up on all the sidequest stuff I've been putting off until now before I head into Great Bay Temple, though I think I'll actually leave the Ikana Graveyard/Canyon stuff until after I beat the Great Bay Temple. It'll provide a nice break in between it and Stone Tower Temple. In other gaming news, I got a Genesis emulator and a ROM of Zero Wing yesterday, which I beat today. Somehow, seeing the opening movie in the game itself made it funnier, heh. It's actually pretty easy for a space shooter, though it was also made easier by quicksaving. And the ending was really screwed up... (Also, no, I don't feel guilty about using an emulator to play it. I'm pretty sure the company that made Zero Wing went out of business long ago).

Comments (0) | Permalink

Now Playing #26: Zero Wing - Opening

	Yes, all your base are belong to us, and you have no chance to survive make your time. From most of the people I've talked to, they recognize the "all your base" quote, but not what game it's actually from. So, if you're one of them, now you know; it's from an old arcade game called Zero Wing that was ported to the Sega Genesis. The opening movie which features the horribly translated dialogue is only in the Genesis version, however, and I decided to have the music from that opening movie as this week's midi. I'll post up the full opening text, too. New midi next Sunday, blah blah blah, this is getting old... IN A.D. 2101 WAR WAS BEGINNING. CAPTAIN: WHAT HAPPEN ? MECHANIC: SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB. OPERATOR: WE GET SIGNAL. CAPTAIN: WHAT ! OPERATOR: MAIN SCREEN TURN ON. CAPTAIN: IT'S YOU !! CATS: HOW ARE YOU GENTLEMEN !! CATS: ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US. CATS: YOU ARE ON THE WAY TO DESTRUCTION. CAPTAIN: WHAT YOU SAY !! CATS: YOU HAVE NO CHANCE TO SURVIVE MAKE YOUR TIME. CATS: HA HA HA HA . . . . OPERATOR: CAPTAIN !! CAPTAIN: TAKE OFF EVERY 'ZIG'!! CAPTAIN: YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DOING. CAPTAIN: MOVE 'ZIG'. CAPTAIN: FOR GREAT JUSTICE.

Comments (0) | Permalink

Friday, February 6, 2004

Tomorrow, Soon to be Today

	Don't be fooled by the date up above this post; for me, it's actually still February 5. Though, like the title says, it'll soon be tomorrow since it's 11:40 PM. Though once it becomes tomorrow, it'll be today, not tomorrow... Whatever. Anyway, I have to get up at 8:00 AM tomorrow...ugh. Most weekdays I only have to get up at 10:00 AM, which isn't too bad, but I really don't like getting up earlier than that. I'm only a morning person if I haven't slept the previous night and I've had at least two mugs of coffee, heh. Now, there most likely will be coffee in the morning, and I think I'm going to finally get around to washing my big, insulated stainless steel travel mug tonight so that I can take a good amount of it with me, but still...8:00 AM...blegh. The first test in my algebra class is also tomorrow. Seeing as this is the first test, and therefor has the easiest types of problems on it, combined with the fact that I worked through the entire study sheet of 50 problems without making more than a couple mistakes, I think it's going to be fairly easy. Whee for math skills. On the subject of the Zelda: Collector's Edition disc, I've started playing through Zelda: Majora's Mask on it. So far I've beaten Woodfall Temple and now I'm going around doing other stuff before I head into Snowhead Temple. There are a couple things that I've noticed about the Collector's Edition port, though, besides the little sound irregularities. The first thing is slowdown; it seems to happen all the time in areas with lots of enemies or other characters, especially Clock Town. It doesn't slow down a whole lot, but enough to be noticeable, and it was getting annoying until I got the Bunny Hood and was running twice as fast. I have to think it's an issue with the porting of the game, though, because I really doubt the GCN would have any trouble keeping up with an N64 game. Perhaps something to do with the N64 version requiring the Expansion Pak, but I would've thought they'd take the time to fix anything like that for the Collector's Edition disc. The second thing I was actually expecting, since it's the same on the Ocarina of Time/OOT Master Quest disc. That is, when in the first person view for looking around or aiming the bow or something like that, the control is extremely jerky. I'm not sure if it's just from the GCN control stick being more sensitive or an issue with the porting of the games, but it sure screws up my aiming with the bow a lot. It took me about five or six tries to get a perfect at the Swamp Shooting Gallery in Majora's Mask, when it would've only take me one or two tries if I'd been playing the N64 version. This has annoyed me ever since playing through OOT Master Quest, since the Fairy/Hero's Bow has always been my favorite weapon in OOT and MM, and I'm quite good at aiming manually. (Shooting Guays and Keese from a long ways off used to be a lot of fun, but it's now a pain in the GCN ports). Majora's Mask is still a lot of fun on the Collector's Edition disc, despite the slight annoyances, however. I think I'm also starting to appreciate the game more, now that I'm playing through it again; I don't think it'll remain as my second-to-least favorite Zelda game after I beat it again. The time limit still annoys me, but not as much as before (though maybe that's just because I already know what to do and so I never run out of time), and there are some parts that I'd forgotten about which I found to be really well done. Like the scene with Link and Tatl right after you beat Odolwa--I could imagine perfectly what Link must have been thinking, heh. The characters really do have more personality in MM than they do in OOT, and now looking at The Wind Waker, the changes from OOT to MM to TWW have really become more apparent. I'm liking the direction that Eiji Aonuma is taking the series, and I can't wait for the sequal to TWW to be released.

Comments (2) | Permalink

Monday, February 2, 2004

10/10: My Goal is Complete

	Booyah! I just beat Zelda II: The Adventure of Link on the Collector's Edition disc, and that means I've beaten all ten Zelda games released for Nintendo consoles. Finally, the little voice in the back of my head that kept reminding me that I still needed to beat Zelda II is silent... *listens to the A Link to the Past ending theme* Such calm...such peace...I saved Hyrule. ^_^ Now, to my comments on the Great Palace, the end bosses, and the ending! Some are good, some are bad, and there's one thing I found to be highly amusing. First off, the Great Palace: This was, by far, the hardest part of the game even though I had all three stats at level 8 and my life and magic meters at 8 bars each--in other words, I was as powerful as you can get in that game. Even just getting to the Great Palace is hard, and I lost a few lives on the path. (Curse those flying eye things combined with lava pits!) One thing that halted the flow of expletives directed at the Great Palace's difficulty, however, was the fact that if you get Game Over it restarts you at the entrance to the palace instead of all the way back in the Northern Palace where Princess Zelda is. Surpisingly, I actually made it to the Thunderbird on my second attempt at the palace. However, I didn't last long. If the Great Palace is the hardest dungeon in the game, then the Thunderbird is the hardest fight in the game. I can't even imagine doing it without your levels and life/magic meters maxed out, as I just barely scraped by with about one and a half boxes left on my life meter. I think it took about ten lives to finally beat it, too. Well, when I finally did beat the Thunderbird, I knew I still had to defeat Link's Shadow...and I was thinking, "There's no way I'll be able to beat it. I'm on my last life, my life bar is almost empty, and I only have enough magic to use the Shield Spell. I just hope that when I get Game Over, the Thunderbird won't come back." Well, it turns out I did manage to beat Link's Shadow, though only barely. I think I only had a tiny sliver of life left when it died. Now, I have to say, for being the end end boss, Link's Shadow is incredibly easy to beat. All you have to do is crouch in a corner of the room and constantly swing your sword. Once I started doing that I only got hit once. It just keeps running into your sword over and over until it dies... It was pitiful, lol. Though I do have to admit, if you tried going toe-to-toe with it, it would be incredibly hard. It's just as fast as you are, and it just goes all out with its attacks. About the ending...this is where that highly amusing bit comes from. After Link uses all three Triforce pieces to wake Zelda from her magic-induced sleep, the curtains on the ceiling start to descend until they're covering the top halves of Link and Zelda's bodies. Then it pauses, and you see Zelda lean over towards Link like she's giving him a kiss, and then the curtain continues to drop. This actually made me laugh out loud--here I was, thinking the only time Zelda actually kisses Link is at the end of a linked Oracle of Ages/Seasons game, heh. Oh yeah, and I ended up getting Game Over 25 times over the course of the game. I still stand by my belief that half of the damage I took in that game was completely unavoidable. I don't think I've ever seen another adventure game with so many cheap hits. So, I bet you're wondering what I'm going to do now that I've finally beaten every Zelda game, like I set out to do years ago. Well, I'm not going to Disneyland... I'm going to play the other two Zelda games on the Collector's Edition disc! Whee, I'm obsessed!

Comments (3) | Permalink

Sunday, February 1, 2004

You Been...Thunderstruck!

	Bwahahaha! The Thunder Spell is mine! All those enemies in Zelda II that've been pissing me off so much are going to be meeting with ELECTRIC DEATH!!!!! *goes Black Mage on their asses* It's too bad I can only use Thunder twice, though...if I start with full magic. And there's no hope of ever being able to use it three times in a row, either, because my magic stat and magic meter are both maxed out... But hey, it's still electric death to everything on the screen. And that is some sweet, sweet revenge for the 20 times I've gotten Game Over so far. (I swear, half of the times I get hit, it's totally unavoidable. That's the reason why the enemies piss me off so much). Anyway, I just beat Three-Eye Rock Palace, which would be level 6 if the dungeons in Zelda II had numbers; that means only the Great Palace remains. From glancing at a map in the scanned Zelda II player's guide I have, the Great Palace looks like it's going to be a total pain. How can I tell this just from a glance? Well, it looked about two or three times bigger than all the previous palaces--that's how. Not to mention there are two bosses at the end that you have to fight back-to-back. I imagine it's going to take me a number of tries to just find my way through to said bosses, and another few tries to be able to beat both of them. Considering how hard blue Iron Knuckles are, I'm kind of dreading the fight with Link's Shadow (aka Dark Link).

Comments (1) | Permalink

Now Playing #25: 3 Doors Down - Kryptonite

	I originally heard this song in a Gundam Wing anime music video that my brother has in his collection. Like a couple others, I later found myself running the video in the background just so I could listen to the song, until I finally got around to downloading an mp3 of the song. I think the best part of this song is the rhythm. I do also find the overall tune and lyrics to be decent, though. You know, I think I'm finally running out of different ways to say "There'll be a new midi next Sunday." Kryptonite I took a walk around the world to ease my troubled mind I left my body laying somewhere in the sands of time I watch the world float to the dark side of the moon I feel there's nothing I can do, yeah I watched the world float to the dark side of the moon After all I knew it had to be something to do with you I really don't mind what happens now and then As long as you'll be my friend at the end If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman? If I'm alive and well, will you be there holding my hand? I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might, Kryptonite You call me strong, you call me weak, but still your secrets I will keep You took for granted all the times I never let you down You stumbled in and bumped your head, if not for me then you'd be dead I picked you up and put you back on solid ground If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman? If I'm alive and well, will you be there holding my hand? I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might, Kryptonite If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman? If I'm alive and well, will you be there holding my hand? I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might, Kryptonite If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman? If I'm alive and well, will you be there holding my hand? I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might, Kryptonite

Comments (1) | Permalink