The story of how I got into Kingdom Hearts and ultimately, Square Enix PART 1

It was the summer of 2002, in September. I had finished playing Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, and I was ready to buy a new PlayStation 2 game. I had no idea what I wanted. I thought about the game Sky Gunner, which was cute and a fly-shooter genre, but I knew there were other choices.

I remember a trailer for a video game that I watched from a demo DVD from the now defunct Official PlayStation Magazine. This was a trailer for Kingdom Hearts. The music was cinematic and there were Disney characters like Donald Duck and Goofy. It seemed that the main character was this spiky-haired boy with blue eyes. My first thoughts were “What? Who’d wanna play that game? A boy enters the world of Disney and meets Tarzan and Ariel and everyone else? What the f***? Tsh, who cares.”

Then on September 20 (and it was a Friday, I remember that detail) sitting in my keyboarding class in high school, I was looking forward to buying a new video game later that afternoon. It was a really good day, and knowing I’d buy a new game made it even better. Later that day at home, I was watching Pokémon (when I still watched it) and during a commercial break, a TV ad for Kingdom Hearts began. It started with a piano key note in “A” with the words SQUARE ENIX on the screen. Then as the visuals for the game were showing, the chorus for “Simple and Clean” played in the background. “Oh, I love that song. That sounds nice! What game is it for…Kingdom Hearts? Ya know, I just might buy that game!” And ultimately I did…because I liked the song.

I got the strategy guide for it too. It was the very first video game strategy guide that I bought (and there would be more to come).

Later, I’ll write about how my love for Kingdom Hearts led me to my love for Final Fantasy VII and generally Square Enix. I’ll give you guys a hint: it’s spelled C-L-O-U-D.   ^,^ 

Bartz in Dissidia Final Fantasy, September 18th

I started Bartz’s Destiny Odyssey in Dissidia Final Fantasy, and it was challenging but not too difficult, since Bartz was already at level 13. Bartz and Zidane are in the same little story together, so now that I know what Zidane went through, I can see what Bartz was doing in the meanwhile.

I noticed that the characters say a different encounter line or victory line when they win in a Quick Battle and when they win in a Destiny Odyssey battle.

One of Bartz's new encounter lines: “Don’t follow a path. Make your own.”

In Destiny Odyssey V-3, I had Bartz come across a very difficult piece, which was a fake Kuja. This Kuja was at level 16, and at the time, Bartz was at level 15. I earn a Destiny Point by just winning the battle. Uh oh, I wonder what that meant. Bartz had to be lucky and have a few successful EX Bursts to defeat the fake Kuja, but I would release the EX Mode too soon and so he couldn’t land a good HP attack on him. The fake Kuja kept kicking Bartz’ @$$.

I did not want to give up. I had to win fast, because the green light on my PSP was flashing, which meant that I had at least fifteen more minutes to do this, and then I better quit. The next two times were epic fails. And then on my 4th try, I was smarter and had Bartz release his EX Mode to counter-attack fake Kuja. I did the same thing a few more times in the same battle, so that time after time, Kuja’s HP was much lower than mine. Needless to say, I won that battle, and gained the Destiny Point.

Then I had to save, and then push the Home button to quit game play, so that I can safely take out the UMD and then turn off the PSP.  And charge the battery...

So Bartz is now level 17, from the level 13 I had him start with at the beginning of his DO.

Another NiGHTS related dream!!!!!!!!!!

Yay!!! NiGHTS! ^,^

I dreamed that I was in a video game/anime convention and I saw an art corner where there was a lot of NiGHTS fan art! The drawings looked really good, and there were a lot of adorable smiling NiGHTS.

One drawing showed NiGHTS protecting dreamer Elliot Edwards from an unseen Nightmaren.

Another one showed multiple NiGHTSs sitting in mid-air, or posing, and smiling on different parts of a huge tree in a My Dream-like environment.

Within the same dream, I had a new Sonic the Hedgehog comic book and inside the comic book was a page that had a subscription slip for the NiGHTS into Dreams comic book! The NiD comic book was back in production and I could order issues #1 to #3, #4 to #9, and subscribe to the upcoming issues!!

Oh man, if only that were true…

Dissidia Final Fantasy: Personal progress update

So  in Dissidia Final Fantasy I finally started playing as another character: Cecil Harvey from Final Fantasy IV.  Since he is voiced by Yuri Lowenthal, I can hear Naruto’s Sasuke whenever he talks, except with less angst.

I never liked playing against Cecil because it got annoying to me whenever he changed from his armored form to his white knightly form and shouted “Beneath the light…comes judgment!”  So…!  As I played as Cecil this time, I got to enjoy doing that attack whenever my opponent was unsuspecting.  Cecil is level 3 now, as a result of this new beginning.  The difficulty in his Destiny Odyssey is high, so I should level him up to at least 10 before playing through his storyline.

I also brought Kuja up to level 11.  He is just fifty points away from reaching level 12.  As for Zidane he is level 27 now. I had him fight against Jecht, and boy was Jecht brutal…..

“Come on, come on, come on, come on! One more!” (Twice in a row!)

At least in the Quick Battles, the characters I play still get to keep their experience points after losing the battle.  It’s just that the only other thing I earn is PP.

Devil May Cry 4, September 3—and I’m stuck

It was nice to return to a non-Mega Man X game for once. Devil May Cry 4 is a breath of fresh air.

Last time I left off at the end of Mission 2, so this time I started Mission 3. Which I never finished, unfortunately, because of the wide-spread puzzle in the Castle Fortuna. Read on for the details.

I learned that if Nero has a full health gauge, the green orbs add up as extra red orbs, and that’s so cool! I can always use some extra red orbs. And I also look for anything breakable that could give Nero even more red orbs. The chairs and the benches are always a must. Okay, they are furniture, but does anyone even care about that furniture after Dante caused havoc in Fortuna? So that’s why Nero is allowed to destroy things so that he can get more red orbs and maybe buy some more, uh, Green Stars.

I love the way that the camera moves as Nero is walking down the bridge to the Castle Fortuna and the angle used to be above him, and then it slowly gets behind him, as if it was a cinematic scene. Neat. And things got very interesting when this female assassin character showed up. That was unexpected. Is she supposed to be an adversary, or should she be a friend or ally of Nero? Her name is Gloria. She doesn’t look like a “Gloria” to me; she should’ve been given a name like Natasha.

I don’t think she wears underwear under that outfit O__O.

It was nice of Gloria to help Nero out there, and I hope I’ll be seeing more of her later in the game. This makes up for my not getting Bayonetta yet. It was either going to be Bayonetta or DMC 4, but I chose DMC 4 since I was more familiar with the franchise (plus it cost less than Bayonetta at the time). I seriously though Kyrie and Lady were the only females in the game, but then here comes Gloria and WOW! BAM! She kicks ass.

Anyway, Nero goes into the castle and there is a big coffin with glowing blue lights. Nero can’t investigate it yet. He doesn’t have the power to open it up. So there are many doors he goes through and these lead to long halls, where of course he has to fight more demon puppets. Then I come across this script on the wall telling Nero to find the Gyro Statues in order to open this big door.  Another hour passes and I go everywhere, only to not know what to do with Nero.  How the hell does he get this Anima Mercury whatever to destroy the statues?!!!( or am I confusing this with another puzzle?)

Errrrgh, stuck stuck stuck! I finished Devil May Cry 3 without the need of a strategy guide book, so if I am playing in Human Mode in DMC4, I intend to finish it without a guide book as well!   @,@ 

Another Mega Man X Drawing...

Here is a drawing I did of Mega Man X a couple of days ago.  I was getting sleepy and I didn't want to take a nap too close to bedtime, so I drew him to stay awake and busy.

I used a #2 pencil for drawing, some colored pencils, and a mechanical pencil to outline the drawing after I finished coloring it.  It was my first attempt at practicing the shading technique on a drawing I did (besides art class in middle school).  I drew the left hand, but the scanner didin't allow it to be very visible.  I don't like the way the left hand turned out anyway.  The right hand is in Buster mode.  I did the best I could as a free-hand picture.  I generally love the way the picture turned out.  ^_____^  

I still don't know if I want to join DeviantArt or not.

Drawing by Sara/Amethyst Anne.  Mega Man X belongs to CAPCOM.

Mega Man X4…making some more progress ^,^

In Mega Man X4, I had to let my sister take the controller as Zero again, because she was, as always, eager to play that dang Zero.

X is jealous.

She went to the Military Train stage to fill up Zero’s Sub-Tank. There are a lot of opportunities to get energy pills; from the bats carrying the bombs and the little Mets walking around. It took a bunch of lives and frustration, but Zero was able to beat Slash Beast and he learned the attack called “Shippuga.” It is an attack Zero can do during a dash.

Zero was also able to take on, and defeat, Web Spider. From him, Zero learned the attack called “Rajingeki.” This is good for distant enemies. I don’t think Sis used it yet. We are having trouble figuring out what buttons to push to make the new attacks. I thought maybe the directional buttons might have something to do with them. So she learned how to do the Shippuga, but it’s a bit confusing for the Rajingeki.

That’s interesting: Zero’s attacks are in Japanese, and then X’s attacks are in English here. Maybe since Zero’s attacks are with his Z-Saber (which is essentially a sword), his attacks have a Japanese style, so they are given Japanese names. X’s attacks have an element and a style.

As X I was able to move on as well. After some tries I finally got my very own Sub-Tank from the Military Train. Hur-ray!!! Now I might have a chance to survive at least one more other boss battle, yes? And survive, X did! I had X fight against Web Spider and from that, he got the attack Lightning Web. With this, X can reach harder -to -reach places. I knew exactly what to use this power on; there was a life-up item in the Snow Base stage that X was finally able to get because of this new attack/power. I didn’t know what the heck it did, though. Then after X lost all his lives to Slash Beast, then in the next batch of lives, X starts out with 4 extra lives (five, altogether) instead of two extra lives. Ooooohh, that’s what that big heart tank item was for. So it didn’t extend the height of the life energy gauge; but it gave X two more extra lives to start with on each batch of lives.

I almost didn’t make it, but I was able to defeat Slash Beast as well in the Military Train stage. X got the Twin Slasher. I didn’t try it yet because right after getting that attack, I saved my game and stopped playing. But I will try it next time I get to MMX 4. I have three bosses left; Jet Stingray, Split Mushroom, and, uh, yeah, actually, I only have two bosses to defeat now.

1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF CYBORG HAVEN!!!!!!

September 3rd, 2009

Wow, I can't believe it's been a year already! 

I want to take this opportunity to thank my readers for reading my blog so far.  I feel bad that I could not post videos of much of the playing that I've done. Most of this blog is written with words, but I try to add some visual aids when I can.  I want to be able to do more of that in the future.

I remember when I was just starting this blog.  The posts would be short, and then they got longer as I took notes or recorded my reactions to the video games I've played.  Since that first post, the blog grew so much, with the list increasing in length and the archives getting more content.  I was afraid that I would get tired of the blog and maintain it less frequently, but it hasn't happened.  I love to do them; playing video games and writing.  So why not combine my passion for both hobbies?

And since I am a huge NiGHTS fan, I have to include dreams that have to do with video games or video game characters, many of which in fact were about NiGHTS himself.  I think it adds a variety to the types of posts I write for Cyborg Haven.  If I play video games, I am bound to dream about extra adventures for the characters in those stories.

I love sharing my personal gaming experience with other bloggers and internet surfers.  I thought it was a nice idea to keep the background dark so that readers who are visiting the blog late at night don't have to squint from a bright computer screen.  I hope it is helping. 

I am more than happy to continue posting on Cyborg Haven for another full year!  ^____^

Dissidia Final Fantasy, August 29th

In Dissidia I focused on leveling up Kuja, since I wanted to get used to fighting as him. I haven’t used a lot of his attacks efficiently yet. It’s weird. But that night it was EXP day, which really helped out.

I had Kuja fight against Warrior of Light at first and then Sephiroth next, which sucked. And then I had Kuja fight against The Onion Knight. Hah hah, that was less frustrating. As a result, Kuja is level 7, from 4. One of his attacks resulted in gaining 5, 744 EXP.  I was like, "Wow!  Now that's a boost!"

I wanted to level up Bartz too, but I missed playing as Zidane, so I played Zidane against, uh…Sephiroth, oddly enough. Out of a few battles, I won only one, but at least Zidane is level 25 now, from 24.

Kuja—level 7

Zidane—level 25

Then I watched all the scenes from Cloud's Destiny Odyssey.  :3 

"I will aways be [around]...to pull your strings."--Sephiroth, Dissidia