Video Games I Haven’t Played in a Long While That I Should Return To

The Mega Man X Collection has been taking up a lot of time that I'd otherwise spend on the other video games I play.  That's the problem with having several video games to beat; I spend time on one so much that the others are neglected.  So here is a list of the games of which I've been meaning to play also, if it weren't for that robo-duo Mega Man X and Zero:

• Sonic Unleashed (the latest Sonic game I have)

• Final Fantasy XII (I’m supposed to be in the Stilshrine of Miriam now…)

• Sonic Rivals 2 (Stupid elusive Chao…stupid Sonic…LET SHADOW WIN!!)

• NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (Why do I neglect NiGHTS so?)

• Devil May Cry 4 (Yeah…because I only played one session on it.)

• Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier (uh, yeah…this game too)

:P

Mega Man X4, a more successful playing session

What a relief, we thought we were going to be stuck in this game for a long month.

I let my sis play as Zero first for this session, since I knew I was very stuck as X.  Zero got the “Rakuhouha” after defeating Cyber Peacock.  A heh heh, let’s call this Rakuhouha the "peacock tail attack" once in a while.  In fact, it was just what Zero needed to defeat the Storm Owl in the Air Base stage.  The Rakuhouha was limited in its power and must be used carefully, but Sis/Zero tried it against the Storm Owl and it took him out within five or so hits!  After that battle, Zero got the “Tenkuuha”, which is a powered-up form of his Z-Saber.  Cool!

I decided to give the battle “X versus Colonel” another try, even if it wouldn't work out.  I failed the first few tries again.  Then I remembered that X had his hover ability with his leg armor, so what if he uses that to his advantage?  The attack that I hate the most from Colonel is the slash-n-dash-away move.  So right before Colonel does that (and I can sort of time when he might), I have X hover at the very edge of the screen.  I was more comfortable with X on the left side. X can hover for a full four seconds if he stays in place, so when X hovered as Colonel slashed, he was just out of reach.  This saved me a lot of trouble and kept X’s health gauge full longer.

After I tried this, I though, “Hey, maybe I’ll be able to win this after all, now that I know what to do.”   So I kept at it. X still got hurt from the beams that Colonel throws at him at least once every other time, but avoiding the slashes multiple times really gave X the advantage.  Colonel wasn’t going to do any other moves different from the ones I was used to.

The battle turned out to be not-so-difficult after all.   It’s just that since I had to have X keep firing full Charge Shots at Colonel, my thumb felt overused, and I didn’t play for even twenty minutes by then.

Mega Man X4 Woes

Godd----t I’m stuck. I returned to MMX 4 as X and all of a sudden, Double tells X that there is a message from the Colonel.  The Colonel wants to meet X.  And instead of choosing when to go there, X is immediately in this other stage. I guess this is the midpoint stage; after beating four bosses, this is what happens.  I don’t even think X is equipped enough to defeat Colonel just yet.  I kept losing over an over.  I’ve learned how to dodge his attacks, but he still hurts X enough to take away his lives.

I may have to start X’s side of MMX 4 from the very beginning.  I don’t have a sub tank for his health gauge.  None of the four weapons X has works against Colonel; only a full Charge Shot is the best weapon X has against him at this point.

As for my sister, she was able to have Zero defeat Walrus.  She used the sub-tank she found, but the ice spikes instantly killed Zero.  The next life, she was able to have Zero defeat Walrus without the need of the full sub-tank.  Zero got the Hyouretsuzan, but we’ll call it the Ice Attack, heh.

The Cyber Peacock stage was difficult for Zero, seeing as X was more successful in defeating that bird from a distance.  She also tried out the Bio-Lab stage, and it seemed to be a really difficult, obstacle-laden stage, but she managed to reach the boss, Split Mushroom, if not defeat him yet.

Crisis Core on August 19th

Yeah, I finally returned to Crisis Core, only to not finish the darn game. Yet.

It was a long while ago…June, was it…that I left off with Zack walking into Gongaga and meeting Cissnei there. They have a conversation about Zack’s folks, and then Cissnei gives Zack and Cloud time to run.

I didn’t explore too much around Gongaga since I left off there last time. This time I gave Zack a chance to run his butt around the town and get some goodies like, uh, I should have noted what they were, exactly. It was nice not needing to do any fighting for a short while. Then I took Zack to the end of the Gongaga hills and well, Genesis returns and there’s more plot. Genesis seems to have silvery white hair, and for a split second he might remind one of Dante from DMC fame.

Zack has to return to Cloud, so I had to have him retrace his steps back to where he left him. He had to face group after group of monsters along the way, though. When he reaches Cloud, he’s surrounded by the bad guys, and then another familiar character comes in. Gosh, why am I so afraid to tell the details of these events????  I don't like to be the jerk that spoils major plot items.

Zack is in Banora now, Genesis’ birthplace. I reached the underground area, and I was lucky to have a save point when I did. Wow, a damn lot happens before their last stand. I paused moving further along in the story of the game and just went ahead to level up Zack again, to see if I could.  I did: he is level 45 now, from 44. I am guessing Zack has to fight Genesis again, so maybe I ought to level him up a few more levels, no?

This is what a Noseless Cloud is...

The title of my channel AmethystAnne001 is called "Home of the Noseless Cloud."  So, this is what I mean by that:

I think most anime/video game character plushies are not given a nose,

adding to their adorableness.

I bought this Cloud Plushie at this Japanese pop store called Sugoi Life, and it's

within the Northridge Fashion Center area, just outside the movie theaters.  Once I saw this plushie

I had to pick it up and  hold it until I was ready to pay.  There were only two

of them there and I held on to the one with plastic wrapping that

didn't look so beat up.  I was going to get a Cloud Plushie at the

Anime Los Angeles Convention next year, but it might be sold out like last time. 

 I thought,"While I'm here, I better buy one now." 

So this is the Nose-less Cloud.

Because he doesn't have a nose.

My YouTube Channel Is Set Up!

Hey guys, my You Tube channel is ready.  I haven't uploaded videos yet; I have an idea what may be the first two of my own videos.  My Plush Cloud doesn't have a nose, and I plan to make fun of that.  I should also hope to upload videos as well, maybe a video reaction to a playing session of a video game.  I'll see.

Meanwhile, I have a few videos that I "favorited."  You can see what they are at this link.  I will also have my You Tube Channel available as a special link on the side bar of Cyborg Haven, under "My Other Personal Websites."  There will be many more favorites coming up.  I know I have a lot, I just didn't have a You Tube account earlier to show/list them.

Mega Man X4, with X and Zero!!! August 14th

I beat three bosses in this session as X!  Read more for the details.   :)

I realized, well, the Cyberspace stage IS a difficult stage, but suppose the boss is not so hard? Just because the stage is hard doesn’t mean that the boss is impossible at this point.  So I went in.  I didn’t realize that X had to have a Rank A to make it to the next area of the stage. I  kept getting a B rank at the end of the third area of the stage and I was getting bored with it.  What do I need to do to get an A rank!  Keep a high-filled health gauge, get through the area quickly, or what?

I struggled to keep X’s health high. There weren’t many Mavericks for X to shoot at to get any energy pills. Plus these yellow lemon-shaped things were going to suck X’s life energy out if he got near them.  Shooting at them doesn’t destroy them, but it moves them out of the way, at least.  Then there are these triangle things that attack X because they think he is a computer virus.

I finally got through that part of the stage by some miracle, then this next area was confusing; buttons switched the top and bottom of the stage. It seemed confusing at first, but then I memorized the ones I pushed, and got out of there in almost no time.  I was so glad that I reached the second area of the stage because if I lost all my lives, I only have to start from the beginning of area 2 of the Cyberspace stage, and the same goes for all the other stages, for that matter.  The boss of Cyberspace was Cyber Peacock.  He’s a difficult son of a b****, but as I got used to his moves, it wasn’t so hard.  He can be taken out good by X’s X-Buster.  The part I found annoying is when he sticks to one side and shoots peacock feather lasers at X, and the damn things follow him!  Charge shots work best against Cyber Peacock.  After several tries, I beat him and X got the Aiming Laser for his buster weapon.  I love the colors X changes to when he has this weapon equipped: lavender and sky blue.   :3 

Next I visited the Air Force Base to see if the laser attack would work on Storm Eagle…er, Storm Owl. Yeah, Storm Owl. It turned out the Aiming Laser did work against him well! Getting Storm Owl into the aiming cursor was tricky, but I got the hang of it (it depended on which way Owl was and the direction X faced). From Storm Owl X got the Double Cyclone. Hooray!

Then finally I tried one more stage before I handed over the controller to Sis: the Volcano stage, where Magma Dragoon was waiting for X. I love the music for this stage because it’s reminiscent of music for Sonic…for some reason, in my ears. I got though the stage quick because I reached the boss before but didn’t defeat him. So I tried Storm Owl’s Double Cyclone, and well well, it was Magma Dragoon’s weakness! I was on a roll here! And from Magma Dragoon, X got Rising Fire. So at the end of my session X has three Heart Tanks and four weapons.

I think the Rising Fire ability would be great against Web Spider, but I will have to try it out next time. After I defeated Dragoon, I let my sister play as Zero again. She tried the Jungle, Snow Base, Military Train, and the Marine Base stages but couldn’t defeat any of the bosses. Zero’s close attacks have a downside and bring Zero closer to getting hurt by the boss. I thought Walrus should be the first boss to defeat, but for Zero it seems difficult because of his up-close-only attacks for now.

However, Sis had a fun time playing in the Marine Base stage, the one where X or Zero get on a Land Chaser and ride it the entire stage. She said this stage was addictive. Like I said, it is short but fast-paced. As often as she lost lives, she tried that stage again and again. She got past the first area and reached Jet Stingray, but didn’t defeat him. However, I applaud her because she got the Energy Tank. She thinks she will need it to survive a boss battle as Zero, perhaps the fight with Walrus.

Mega Man X 4, with X and Zero!!! August 9th

This post is delayed by a few days, so apologies.

In this session, I played as X for the first half, and then I let my sister take over for the second half to play as Zero. She’s been waiting for that for months!

From Mega Man X4 and on, there are

no more Mega-Heads.  There are only

Mega-Helmets.

So okay, I started this session with a stage that X hasn’t been to yet: the Military Base, with Jet Stingray as the Maverick Boss. This stage is short but fast-paced. I was writing down a note when X was already on the Land Chaser from the very first moment. “AAAARGH! Wait wait wait wait, slow down!” I realized that the whole stage was going to be like this. In fact, it was part of the specific mission for this stage that X will be using the Land Chaser. I often didn’t jump in time and X crashed into walls and platforms, and fell into gaps. From that I learned that I can slow down (get back) or speed up (go forward) so he can know when it’s a good time to jump a gap or jump a raised wall.

There’s an Energy Tank in the Marine Base stage. I’ll worry about that after I’ve defeated Jet Stingray, which won’t be for a while.

After the Marine Base, I had X go to the Bio Lab, and then the Military Train stages. I couldn’t defeat either of the bosses—well, I didn’t reach the boss in the Bio Lab. The stage is actually difficult, not impossible. It will take several tries to get through the stage.

I got the Air Dash ability from the Dr. Light capsule in the Jungle! It also has hover ability, so X can hover for a maximum of 4 seconds. It’s so cute watching hover and then shoots once or twice from his X-Buster. So adorable. (That’s my feminine side talking.)

I was frustrated that I didn’t beat any bosses that session. I wanted to take a break, so I handed the controller to my sister so she can play as Zero. She was more than happy to do that! As she played the game as Zero, we learned that she would be playing Zero in place of X. The story is slightly different, because Zero meets the female Reploid Iris but X doesn’t. The Repliforce was suspected of being responsible for the falling of Sky Lagoon. X and Zero each both tell Colonel that the Repliforce (the Reploid military) will be seen as Mavericks if they don’t follow the hunters to the headquarters.

Of course, Zero has a different feel to his controls. Instead of shooting from his buster from a distance, Zero uses his Z-Saber to get close to his enemies and slice them. I guess Zero likes this way of fighting; rather than using his Z-Buster to blast at Mavericks, he gets up close. He has an interesting collection of vocalizations with his jumps and attacks, including a “Yeah!” when he wall-kicks. Is it an effort to make Zero sound “cool” or something?

"Yeah, this is fun!"

"Yeah, I rock!"

"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah......!"   O__O

So after this session was finished, Sis and I decided that we will each have a turn playing Mega Man X4 each session: I will play as X and she will play as Zero on a separate file.

Post for the next session coming really soon.  Like, very soon.

Devil May Cry 4: My first session, August 10th

Devil May Cry 4 is going to be my very first video game that has “Sexual Themes” in its content (which is one of the reasons why it’s rated “M” for mature). The only other rated M game I played myself was Devil May Cry 3.

I put the disc in the PS3 and expected that there would be a data install that would take about ten to fifteen minutes. It was neat; the song from the game’s soundtrack “Out of Darkness” played as the screen showed text and images of the Devil May Cry series. That’s nice. But that song played at least six times, so it was stuck in my head when I went to bed. Hah. Sounds like a Christmas song.

Anyway I had to sit closer to the TV than I am usually used to, since the cord for the PS3 controller is short. I could go for wireless, but we stuck with the controller that was provided, so it will have to do. Those things are $60 a pop, like the former “next-gen” video games on their release dates.

After the game data was installed, there was a trailer that showed before the title screen appeared. It’s a really cool trailer in my opinion, but I was afraid it was almost going to show the whole game before I can play it. I like the song that was playing in the background though; I am hoping I can find it in the game’s soundtrack in iTunes. Soon I chose New Game and had to choose between Human and Demon Hunter. As much as I probably would have enjoyed being in Demon Hunter mode since I am almost veteran at DMC gaming, I chose Human mode to make it easier on myself, and I use Automatic so that combos are easier to reach. Hey, I’ll try the harder stuff later when I’ve beaten the game once, but I at least want to get through it to see the story unfold.

There’s so much action in this game. It’s been pretty much all action. I enjoyed watching the fight between Nero and Dante in the beginning. I though it was interesting when they locked legs and shot at each other (is this where the “sexual themes” in the game come in???). It was like an acrobatic act with violence. I read the instruction manual for the game some time ago, so it was very helpful that there was a tutorial. I always enable the tutorial. It reminds me which moves Nero can do, and also which orbs are for what:

Red Orb: For buying items. I always like to break objects that look breakable because Dante or Nero (depending on if it’s DMC 3 or DMC 4) can always use as many red orbs as possible. Those benches in the church looked so nice—but I had to destroy them if I wanted a boost in red orbs. Ha.

Gold Orb: Revives Nero or Dante back to life at the spot where they died. I hardly use those. I want to use them only in an emergency. Otherwise I prefer to continue from the last checkpoint. I think I can collect more red orbs this way.

Blue Orb: Extends Nero’s life capacity. I guess Dante’s too. I have to find them in four fragments. Otherwise if I have Red Orbs to spare then I can get one that way. The special secret missions reward Nero with a Blue Orb fragment. I’ll try to find as many of those as possible, at least one in every mission. The secret missions are indicated by a piece of paper stabbed to a wall or pillar.

Green Orbs: Heals Nero or Dante. It’s my favorite type of orb, next to the Red Orbs. They are usually small, but there is also big ones every once in a while.

I also like the Mission Menu, where I can either go to the next mission or replay another mission to get more red orbs and a better score. Oh yeah, that’s right. The scores. I got as far as Atomic A, and it really helps to do a variety of attacks. I like how D is for Deadly, so that it makes me not feel so bad about getting a low killing score on those demon puppets. I’m getting the hang of Nero’s Devil Bringer. It’s also so cool to watch him fly when he uses the Devil Bringer on the Grim Grips. He goes like, Whoooosh!

I left off right before Mission 3. In the second half of Nero’s battle against Berial, I found out he can grab on to a horn (or something) and attack him from there. I almost thought, “Okay so he’s a fire beast, so I should get my ice weapon so he’ll…oh wait, that’s Mega Man X or something.  Or isn't it wind against fire?”

Which reminds me, the next time I get to a console game it will be Mega Man X4. I still have to post about my last session with that game…

My first playing session with Mega Man X4

I had so much fun! It feels good to be able to play a Mega Man X game again. What I definitely noticed was the difference in the graphics, the music, and the pause menu. Of course like I said last post, the graphics are 32-bit instead of 16-bit, and the colors are livelier. Mega Man X looks more 3-D, in fact. He also has vocalization when he jumps and gets hurt, and when I have him charge his X-Buster and fire, he says, “Take this!” When he gets low on life energy, he says, “Time to get serious!” And the interesting part of it? I can sort of believe it now when other people who’ve played this game had said he sounded like a girl. I am not bothered by it at all. I know he sounds different from the voice he has in Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X. But I am not offended by it at all. It actually makes him more adorable to sound like that.  :3  As you play the game, X’s life energy gauge is one green unit, not little yellow notches like from X1-3. When he’s a third low, it turns yellow, and less than a fifth, it turns red.

The music is GREAT! I love every track that is used in the game so far. I love the music from the Snow Base and Volcano stages, but all of the music in this game is a big step from the music that is from MMX 2, even MMX 3. Since this game was made for the PlayStaion, there was more room to work with bigger levels and music that makes a Mega Man fan want to go to the pause menu to listen to it for a while.

Okay, so this time unlike MMX 3, there is a specific mission for each of the eight stages. It is not the usual “get to the end of the stage and defeat the Maverick Boss” stage. But the game play is pretty straight forward, so that X won’t get lost. I took note of the names of the stages: Jungle, Cyber Space, Air Force, Volcano, Marine Base, Bio Lab, Military Train, and Snow Base.

The menu screen has a very different feel to it. No more of that green everywhere and the little X standing next to the Mega Head that represents extra lives. Now X’s picture is on the bottom left side, in anime style (It will be interesting to see Zero’s pic for the menu). The weapons are on top and the energy gauge is green, and on the bottom there are slots for other items that X needs to pick up. One of them is a Sub-Tank, and I guess the other ones are...I don't know what they are for yet.  They are empty slots that have the letter "E" on it, and I guess the E stands for Energy.  I don't have an instruction manual for this game (it didn't come with it, just the disc of the collection did).  I am sure the purpose will reveal itself when it is time...

I tried the Jungle stage first. What is new is that each stage is going to have two halves to it, two parts if you will. At the end of the first part is a door, and when you go through it, it takes you to the next part of the stage. The Jungle stage was not so complicated, so I was glad I started with that one. But the boss for that stage, the Spider, was very difficult. After another batch of extra lives, I had to move on to another stage, so I tried the Snow Base. I was blown away by the mysterious-sounding music for this area. Like in MMX 3, the icy level makes X slide and slip on the ground, so I had to be cautious and guide him carefully so he doesn’t fall into an endless pit or a spiky pit. I ended up defeating the Walrus Maverick , and X got his Frost Tower attack. This will come in handy when I go to the Volcano stage.

Next I tried the Air Force stage, and there’s a ride armor that shoots and has a hovering ability. I reached the boss on my second batch of lives, but Storm Owl is too difficult to beat without the correct weapon. The last stage I visited was Volcano, where the Frost Tower did prove to be useful for protecting X from the rolling fireballs. This happens in the second half of the stage. I didn’t reach Magma Dragoon yet. But hey, I got a Sub-Tank from the Snow Base and the Frost Tower from Walrus.

[Sigh] That’s a whole lot of Mega Man X stuff there. Since I am the one playing MMX 4, it may be easier for me to post about my individual sessions with the game, but if I need to, I can combine two or three sessions into one post if not much happen between the few sessions.

Yay for Mega Man X!!! Yay for Zero!!!  ^,^ 

Extra: I also tried out the unlocked game Mega Man: Battle and Chase, just to see how it was like. It’s pretty entertaining. I think it’s less frustrating than Sonic [racing]. I love the music for this game too. It is a nice reward for completing half of the Mega Man X Collection. To get used to the gameplay I played as the little Mega Man in a Time Attack race. It got frustrating because I was in a mountainous area. Well, I learned my lesson. I chose Bass and raced against Quickman in a track called the Sky Circuit Chase 1. I lost, and Bass was frowning. Nyawwww. Then I chose little Mega Man to race against Bass. I learned how to shoot from the race car to slow Base down. That really helped me out toward the end. There were five laps to race, and we were neck and neck. Near the end, Bass was ahead of Mega Man, but at the last few seconds, I slowed Bass down with the shooting ability, and made it in first place just in time. Yay for Mega Man!  ^w^ 

Mega Man X3 is finished; MMX 4 coming soon...

It took a grueling 20-22 hours (total, not all at once, mind you) spent on the battles against Sigma, but my sister finally got through it and finished Mega Man X3 last night.  She REALLY REALLY REALLY wants to watch the anime scenes in X4.  We know that the anime in this next game is from the 1990s, but it's still so cool, it's Mega Man X anime!!!

She couldn't wait and she started the game and played through the intro stage.  I was afraid she was going to hog this game from me too   0.o  .   But we are sharing the Mega Man X Collection, so it's fair that I let her play some of the game.  In a few days I'll be playing the game myself.  What's so cool is, you can play the game as either X or Zero!  I'll start with X because he's the main character.  I'll bet Sis wants to play as Zero, so maybe I'll let her do that.  I don't know if both characters have to be played to get to the final stages or not.  Some games are like that, such as the Hero Story and the Dark Story from Sonic Adventure 2  in order to get to the final chapter. 

I'm looking at Tuesday or Wednesday.  I'll write about the different feel Mega Man X4 has (it definitely has it.  The graphics are 32-bit instead of 16-bit, and X has newly-added vocalization).  So there will be new music, a new dialouge format, and the menu screen and one or two other new things.

And I know, I know, I still have to finish that darn Crisis Core.  I did say I was going to finish it by the end of July, didn't I.  Aw man.  I need to charge the battery of my PSP for that, though.  It might take one more session to finish it, or it might take two more.  Darn it, I don't wanna cry...