Monday, September 29, 2003

Completely ignore this post if you can..

Mood: Still tired. And full--earlier I felt like I was going to barf.
Music: None. Not in the mood.

I'm basically just posting crap that I wrote for newspaper since the floppy drive is busted; and thereby doing this, I can go into the room, go here to my site, and copy and paste all this stuff into their word documents, and thereby have them on the network of our newspaper in time so that I can have the final draft of my story published and my reviews in since the deadline for everything is today.

Yes. Enough ranting.

This is the as final as final can get version of my DDR story:

The arrows dance on their faces like half crosses of some geeky, digital religion. Their legs hustle and groove as the music beats out and the arrows pass. Some sweat bleeds out onto them, staining their clothes, tainting them with water that oozes onto their shirts and their bodies. This is the new revolution. The new high.

Some of them do it for the fun of it. Some of them do it for the competitive nature of it. Others still do it for too many reasons to name. But for all of them, it's become a premise from them to come back to over and over again, each time satisfied and thoroughly rectified in their love of the game.

Senior Mack Wilz's face seems to brighten up at the single mention of Dance Dance Revolution. Like it's some baby he's grown to nurture and care for. Like it's actually something he physically loves, mentally labors and challenges himself with. And it's not too hard to find that to be true in some fashions.

"It's just so fun," Wilz said. "Plus it's a great workout as well."

Getting a workout from a game, it sounds like something crazy; something that just doesn't add into video games. But here's Dance Dance Revolution, and it's a prime example that there's actually more to video games than no values at all.

The game isn't played with a controller like millions of others. Instead, it's played with a pad having four arrows in its square; two pointing up and down parallel to another, two pointing left and right also parallel to one another. In this grid is where you dance and groove to the music. This is where you pour your heart and soul.

On the screen next and close enough for comfort to the pad, arrows just like the ones seen on the pad fly by at varying speeds and combinations. Some point just left as the beat of the music keys their coming. Some point just right, some up, some down. Other times, links of arrows are mixed together in a mesh, causing you to have to coordinate yourself to hit varying strains of arrows at once. It ends up getting more trickier than it probably sounds.

It's also obsessive to some as well. Wilz, smiling, laughing, recalls that he once played the game so long that he came close to passing out.

"I played for about 4 or 5 hours," Wilz Said. "My legs just gave out on me, and I just couldn't play any longer."

4 or 5 hours may sound long, but to some that's the way games like these are. They suck you in, let you escape and just relax for a while.

Plus there's the group aspect to it. Hanging out with friends, having a good time. For many teens it's one of the higher points of their existence. And many will readily admit that down time is needed to relieve stress.

Junior Danae Backes also could be considered something of a DDR regular. She goes nearly every day and dances to the beats and jives of the game. She, unlike Wilz, doesn't own a home version of the game, which can be bought in various types for Playstation and Playstation 2 game consoles. Instead, she goes to the Raging Rivers Water Park, where inside they have a small arcade that in one cozy corner has a DDR machine.

"I usually go alone, I'm such a loser," Backes says, grinning "Sometimes at Raging Rivers there's other people there, and we hang out. Sometimes I even bring my friends."

Whatever the case, it's obvious to see that she too loves the game in one form or another. She likes the music from the game so much that she has CDs full of songs. Some is techno. Most of it is Japanese, since that is where the game originated.

With Raging Rivers the only spot to play the game in Bismarck Mandan other than if you own the game, it seems rather far to drive as far as to Mandan to play it. Yet Backes does it, as it's certain others do. Backes, during the summer, went to Washington with her friends. There she found different machines other than the only one we have here.

"When I went to Washington with some friends," Backes said, "I got to dance on 6 different machines. Each one had different songs and stuff. It was interesting."

She also thinks that more machines should be added here, in a more comfortable and close location. Perhaps at the Kirkwood mall, which, she mentions, used to have a machine, but no longer does. Yet she still loves the game enough to keep going daily.

Some even go as far as inventing the game even further, taking it one step further, pulling off wicked tricks and stunts as they pull of and bust their moves to the game all at once. It adds even a more competitive and beautiful edge to the game, like it's its own art. One that isn't going to be lost soon, it seems, as people further reinvent themselves playing it.

"I have improved extremely since I first began," says Wilz. "I used to have trouble on so many songs, but now I can do them. I even do tricks while I do it."

Wilz, who's been playing the game a year, says it's most important to keep up with the beat of the song than with the arrows, because that's what gives concentration and a basis and structure to the game. From there, he says, it grows. You get better and better at it, more addicted.

Senior Nathan Wrangler, on the other hand, says that keeping track with the arrows itself is more important than meshing with a song. Wrangler himself has only played the game for three months.

"Actually a friend of mine got me into it; Mack also was part of it. I wouldn't really say I'm a DDR freak, but it's easier than it looks," Wrangler said. "The main thing is don't quit right away. Just keep going for perfect combos."

Wrangler himself was first discouraged from the game when he saw everyone else easily passing the dances he had trouble doing. That's why he thinks that sticking with it is a main thing for a beginner to do.

The game is even so widely popular that there's even a sort of rip-off web game of it at the address of www.flashflashrevolution.com where you can play a keyboard-based game of it, using the arrow keys in the same fashion as the pad.

This is some crappily done reviews:

Chrono Trigger is a rather old game by most standards, yet it's a real gem. The game follows the story of a boy named Chrono. At the beginning of the game you are led to a fair, and there you meet your friend, [find name and put here, I can't remember it right now], who is an inventor. You find her using a new gadget she has created that teleports someone from one point of the machine to the other. But as Merle, another main character in the game, tries the machine, it is faltered due to the necklace that she is wearing, which opens a rift in time that sucks Merle in.

From there on, the game goes through its absolutely beautifully illustrated plot. It was originally released for the SNES, but can be found for the Playstation in the Final Fantasy compilation Final Fantasy Chronicles. Although the game has horrible load times in comparison with its cartridge inferior, it's still worth the price for this game. It's possibly one of the best Role Playing Games every created. It's very highly recommended.

Grade: A+.

Xenosaga comes off from Xenogears' arc. Xenogears was originally released, and is still only released, for the Playstation; it's a cultist favorite Role Playing Game.

Xenosaga itself is an interestingly cinematic blend of long, characterizing FMVs mixed in with mostly standard RPG play. This formula works well though, often keeping the player gripped to the game.

The game itself focuses on Zonars, beginning with a showing of an unearthing of one. From there you are introduced to characters upon a ship, and the plot goes onward. It's not that best RPG ever made, nor is it the worst. With a nice, professionally-told story, and 40+ hours of gameplay, it's worth the $30 price tag it now has. This being only the first in a line of three interlinked sagas of the game at large, it's a nice ride, and leaves you expecting even more from the next saga, which is going to be released soon this fall.

Grade: B.

Parasite Eve is a very captivating RPG-Adventure hybrid that mixes these two things well. Released by RPG Gods Square sometime around 1998, it's a surprisingly underrated masterpiece.

It follows the story of New York City cop Aya Brea as she goes to Carneige Hall with her date to attend an opera. There, budding actress Melissa Pearce, singing, brings the entire hall to flames instantly. An FMV, quite memorable to say the least, plays and shows this chaos in vivid ecstasy.

The RPG itself was named by Square to be a "cinematic RPG." It does not fail from this, however, but is much more than just that.

After actress Melissa Pearce brings the hall to flames, Aya is one of the only surviving, and approaches her. From then on your are introduced to the basic mechanics of the game as you battle her. In the game, you have "mitochondrial" powers. Mitochondria themselves are organelles in cells which supply the body with PTP, or energy. This, later, you find, is what caused the entire hall to burn to flames: the harnessing of the powers of mitochondria. These mitochondrial powers serve as magic from standard RPGs, and after being drained in battle, unlike Magic Points, they regenerate. As time goes on and you level Aya up, you get more and more abilities and a bigger gauge for this.

As for how the game is played during battle: you are allowed free moving around to a certain extent about the screen, and Aya uses guns to damage her enemies. The guns themselves also have more depth, allowing tweaking and the destruction of older, inferior guns to add their abilities onto newer ones. This system, as well as the PE powers, Vests (being the same drill as weapons), and the free-form gameplay all give this game a very wonderful, fresh, fleshy feel to it that just works so flawlessly. Not to also mention that the game's plot is just brilliant, and the FMVs themselves, even as outdated as they appear, are still quite eye-catching and interesting.

One of my favorite RPGs of all time. And I've played through it so many times...and it never gets old. Ever.

Grade: A+.


And that is all. Thank you for your time.
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