Regarding plans for Sonic Fan-girl Chronicles, + My Love for Video Games

It is just as I feared.  I have become ambitious in trying to finish My Sonic Fan-girl Chronicles and just didn’t get back to putting up new chapters for quite some time.


As I may have said before, pursuing this My Sonic Fan-girl Chronicles project was a way for me to heal after I watched that video about the Sonic.exe computer game.  I wanted to rebuild my appreciation of Sonic—not that I didn’t have it already but, just to strengthen it I guess.  I had chapters of different points in my life where I first played a new Sonic game, and I looked forward to updating Cyborg Haven with these posts.  But lately this project didn’t seem so important to me.  I hate to say that.  And what’s worse:

I haven’t played a console Sonic game in months. Not even Sonic Rivals 2 on the PSP.

This year, new priorities came up that are related to my new career, and for that my Sonic writing project suffered. I still want to continue writing it.  I really want to write about how I got interested in Shadow the Hedgehog and what I thought was so cool about him back then, in 2001.  Shadow still deserves a special post about him from me because though I love all three hedgehogs to pieces—Sonic, Shadow and Silver—Shadow is ultimately my favorite.  I at least want to do that before I stop writing more chapters.

Maybe it won’t necessarily be part of the project, but since I haven’t been playing any other video games lately, then from time to time I would be writing mostly about my memories playing Sonic games.   I still have games like Prince of Persia (2008) and Devil May Cry 4 that I can return to playing and write about when I do.  And I can’t forget NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, because  I love NiGHTS as well and still vow to someday get the NiGHTS into Dreams HD on Steam (I don’t have a Steam account; I plan to get one after being a little more financially established).

Perhaps along the way I can also share links to YouTube videos that contain content from video games I’ve enjoyed, or soundtrack songs from games I appreciate the music from.  Sonic Unleashed has plenty of that. I love the soundtrack to Sonic Adventure 2 as well, especially Shadow’s stages, Knuckles’ stages, and even the music for Rouge’s stages too.  OMG, I can’t forget Final Fantasy VII too!!  Maybe also I might share links to music tracks from video games I haven’t played but have heard some of the music and appreciate the musical score, like from Journey or Assassin’s Creed.  And of course, if there is news about any new video games coming up such as Final Fantasy XV, Kingdom Hearts 3, or a new Sonic game (or even the Sonic Boom cartoon, y'all!), I'll write my thoughts on those too.

No question I still appreciate video games. Even though I am not playing them as much as I used to before I changed my career, I want to share the joy video games give me with their gameplay, their stories, their music and their characters.

SONIC’S 23rd ON THE 23rd OF JUNE!!!!

Wow, so it’s Sonic’s 23^rd on the 23^rd of June!  How does that happen?!  It’s happening.  As I’m writing this I am listening to Sonic Radio on iTunes.  As long as I am home on the 23^rd of June, each time I will celebrate part of the day by listening to Sonic Radio on iTunes to some favorite remixes, favorite OST tracks, and new ones I’ve never heard before that make the experience such a treat.  I get so many smiles from this pastime.

I did this last year too.  Last year it was an event called Project 24, where several SEGA online radio stations were scheduled to host a radio show each hour playing specifically remixes of music from Sonic video games.  I was able to listen to a lot of Sonic music remixes that I’ve never heard before.  It was an amazing experience, so amazing that I tried to find some Sonic-related podcasts that contained a lot of those remixes.  I was on a crazy search for really cool Sonic remixes.

I am still collecting remixes. Mostly from iTunes podcasts, OC Remix and the Sonic Stadium Music Depository of remix albums.

Lately I’ve been distracted with another fandom: Transformers.  I have been neglecting my Sonic games for the last few months.  But seeing as it is Sonic’s 23^rd, I am brought back to appreciating my favorite childhood video game character again.  Sonic the Hedgehog has been a big part of my childhood and I don’t want him to stop being a part of my life.

Last year I was playing Sonic Rivals 2 at least two times a week.  I always played as either the three hedgehogs Sonic, Shadow and Silver, or Espio the Chameleon.  It is a nice escape.  But I haven’t touched my PSP for quite a few months now.

Ah…!   Gamma E102's theme song is playing now!!! Yay!!!

Sorry, I had to say that.  I love that robot.

I’ve tried to get back to Sonic Unleashed.  I didn’t earn any new medals for daytime or nighttime.  I played “Dragon Road—Day” a few times and had fun, but didn’t improve score by too much.  The music track for this Day Stage always makes me smile through my fails.  Hah hah. 

I’m listening to Sonic Radio now, and then I’ve got other things to do, then later in the day I’ll log in and listen to it again.  And I may visit some of the Sonic websites to see what other people say about Sonic’s 23^rd.

Oh, "Symphonic Ruin" is playing now!!  This is the remix that made me want to collect more Sonic remixes!! (see post here to read more...)

Well Sonic, it’s your 23^rd birthday/anniversary today, so Happy Birthday, I love you, and keep on runnin’!

After thought: a link to the post about my first true encounter with the Sonic the Hedgehog video game.

1991—Sonic the Hedgehog
http://cyborghaven.blogspot.com/2013/09/my-sonic-fan-girl-chronicles-chapter-1.html

My Anniversary of Beating the Game: Sonic Adventure 2

I meant to post this on March 22, but life got in the way.  So here it is,...the beginning of a thorough reminisce of my favorite Sonic game of all time, Sonic Adventure 2.

May 22, 2002.  So this was…12 years ago!  Man, I feel so old.  I was in 11^th grade.  It was on a Friday night, and for dinner I had buffalo chicken wings and the “Mr. X” episode of The Simpsons was on.  What time did I start?  My spring break was starting the next Monday and I was looking forward to basking in the joy that is beating the game, but I ended up being depressed not only because I beat this game.  I was depressed because Shadow’s story ended in Sonic Adventure 2.

Or so we thought!


I still think about it every once in a while.  It was probably one of the most triumphant—and bittersweet—finishing of a Sonic game I’ve ever experienced. 


The reason why I am posting this little bit of my memory about the night I finished the game, is because I am going to refer to my diary and document my writings about what I thought or liked about Sonic Adventure 2.  Of course, Shadow the Hedgehog is the #1 reason why I needed the SEGA Dreamcast in the first place—the reason why we got one at all, thanks to Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog #98..  When the TV ad for SA2 aired, we didn’t have a Dreamcast.  It was then we realized we needed to upgrade from SEGA Genesis.
 
“Throw It All Away” is still my favorite theme song for Shadow.  It was different from the usual rock music that would be associated with Sonic. The first part is not sung, it is said, and it made me nervous…but like a good nervous?  I don’t know what to call the genre/style of Shadow’s theme here… a cross between electronic and eclectic?  Techno mix?  I dunno.  But it certainly was a different mood you don’t get with theme songs of other characters. 


I am also watching the cut-scenes again from the game to have a direct refresh of memory, since I haven’t touched this game for um…about 10 years. I can watch them knowing now that Shadow is okay (at least maybe 75% of Sonic fans think so) but I will also be reminded of how shocked or surprised I was when I witnessed what was in my opinion the biggest moment for me in SA2: Sonic and Shadow joining forces and turning Super together!

[Sigh]…so the last two weeks of March always feel different because Sonic Adventure 2 was the video game that changed me the most as a Sonic fan-girl.  It is significant to me in the fact that this was around the time I finished the game.  And I don't think I shared a lot of my feelings or experience about this game because I wasn't presently playing it.  Plus there were other games I was playing.   But I have to share them soon, because SA2 is an important part of my gaming history, my gaming experience.


Should I make this part of the Sonic Fan-Girl Chronicles?  I probably can.  I meant to do it as part of the series anyway, but it's just been delayed for a long while.  It's finally coming.  Too bad I couldn't post it toward the end of March.   It will have to be in April, then.  I have to still document and collect some more memories/journal entries about my time playing Sonic Adventure 2.


Come back again soon!  I'll have some treats to share.  ^__^

My Sonic Fan-Girl Chronicles, Chapter 7: 1997—Sonic 3D Blast, for good grades, straight A’s in fact

The first time I knew about Sonic 3D Blast (or anything of it) was when Dad rented the game from Blockbuster Video.   It was on a school day, and like I said in an earlier post, we didn’t want to associate Sonic with anything school-related—even a school day.  I guess Dad thought it was a nice surprise for us, but we were too “shy” to even try it.  So while we were doing homework at the dinner table, Dad tried out the game himself.  I heard the music of what I found out later was Sonic using an Invincibility item.  Eventually Dad called us in to listen to something that was on the Sound Test, which turned out to be the music from Volcano Valley Act 2.  I thought it sounded nice.  But in the back of my mind I knew I still had some more homework to do, so I got out the den, pulling myself away from the world of Sonic once again.

I forgot what the exact date was (probably not important), but I know it was after I finished sixth grade that our report cards showed we had straight As.  It may have been the only time we got all “A”s on our report card, but it was a memorable one too.   Of course our parent saw the report cards.  A few days after the last day of school for the school year, our parents gave us a gift we were to share.  We were confused because it was some few weeks after we turned 12 years old.  What kind of present was this going to be?

I think it was at night, too.  We tore the wrapping paper together and saw that it was a Sonic game—Sonic 3D Blast.  We were so excited to have a fourth Sonic game for our SEGA Genesis.  It meant new Sonic music to look forward to, another instruction manual to read (I still enjoy reading instruction manuals for video games), basically more Sonic games to choose from when we want to play a video game (I think by then we just about stopped using the Nintendo).

What are my favorite tracks from Sonic 3D Blast?  The Sound Test/soundtrack is one of the best in the Sonic SEGA Genesis era, next to Sonic 3.   There was more variety instruments used in the music.  I love the music for Rusty Ruin Act 1, Volcano Valley Act 2, both Acts of Gene Gadget, and both Acts of the last stage (Panic Puppet?), and Dr. Robotnik Boss #2.    Oh oh oh!  And the song for Final Fight!  Its rhythm was so different than those used in other boss battles.  It was quite hard to fight Robotnik in the Final Fight the way Sonic has to move in Sonic 3D Blast, but once I memorized the patterns, it was almost a piece of cake.

Sonic 3D Blast was a blast—except—NO SUPER SONIC!!  Where the $@&%!  was Super Sonic in this game?!  I got all the Chaos Emeralds.  All seven of them!  I reached the Final Fight stage.  So where was Super Sonic?!  You’d think after Sonic 2 and 3 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles we’d get a Super Sonic  >:(

And the next disappointment:  the end credits music.  No medley?  No upbeat song that makes me wanna shake my buns?  What is this?  Well, that was anti-climactic.  For me it meant that there was not much of a reason to finish the game anymore.  I was so used to having a Super Sonic since Sonic 2 and Sonic 3. But—and I think it makes sense—it may have been difficult to incorporate Super Sonic in a video game that allowed Sonic to run in any direction?  Is that it?  U_U  Hmm…  Otherwise the thing that motivated me the most was hearing the music.  And the 3-D-ness of it all, I guess.

My Sonic Fan-Girl Chronicles: Chapter 2

1992—Sonic the Hedgehog the handheld game

Hanukkah holiday, November 1992.  My sister and I were in second grade.  It was one of the two years that we got presents on Hanukkah as well as Christmas.  It was only one gift, I think.  But it was a really cool gift.  Both my sister and I each got our own Sonic the Hedgehog handheld video game.  The screen was LCD, which I, as a seven-year old, thought it meant “liquid video game.”  XD

At this point, I’ve never played a Sonic the Hedgehog video game—not Sonic the Hedgehog, not Sonic the Hedgehog 2 since I believe it had yet to be released.

Needless to say, we were very pleased to have any kind of Sonic game, not to mention our very own (I guess if we wanted to play it at the same time, it was possible.)  Of course the game was in black and white: the background was a pre-painted color of a sort but the moving characters (Sonic, the badniks, Dr. Robotnik) were all in black digital form with pre-planned moves. I forgot how often I played it, but I’m sure I was entertained, as long as I got past at least the first level.  Did I even finish the game?  I believe I beat it once, but never again.  And oh—the music is the same for all…six…levels.

Something bizarre happened with both of our handheld devices.  After bedtime, we heard noise coming from the bookshelf.  It was one of our handheld Sonic games.  The music from the game was playing on its own.  It played the stage music and then a “tic” sound, then the game-over music.  As if…it was haunted!  Was a ghost playing it?  I was still in my afraid-of-the-dark age so it was scaring me that the handheld game would do that.

I think both of our handheld Sonic games went through the same thing the same week.

It turned out that the battery power was low, and so the game looping the stage music and the game-over music was just a sign that the battery needed to be replaced.  Okay, so that was all it was.  I forgot how long ago we started playing and when the freaky “automatic music” thing happened.

My Sonic Fan-Girl Chronicles: Chapter 1

1991—Sonic the Hedgehog

As fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, my sister and I temporarily subscribed (our parents did, anyway) to a magazine that was dedicated to those famous four turtle brothers in a half-shell.  :D  It had to be, I dunno, maybe winter or spring of 1991, that in this magazine there was a page or two about video games coming up, and one of them was the very first Sonic the Hedgehog.   There was at least one little screenshot of the video game.  It was a tiny picture, one that my six-and-a-half year old eyes could see very well, and I saw a blue character with red shoes trying to keep balance on the edge of the cliff and trying not to fall off.  I don’t know what came over me; I could not stop staring at the picture.  Who is this little thing?  I forgot if I saw the title of the game, but even if I did, I never knew what a hedgehog was.  It was the first time I ever came across that word, and little did I know that we were about to have our young gaming lives changed forever…

Our parents had a friend who hosted a pool party summer that same year.   We went along with them because other kids would be there too.  We of course ate first, and then a little while later we were in our swimsuits in the swimming pool. It wasn’t the first time we were in a swimming pool; we had relatives in Canada we visited two years ago who had a pool too.  So we had a lot of fun in the swimming pool, needless to say.  But I gotta say, too…I think after we got out of the pool, we never went back in.  Because after we got out and wrapped ourselves in towels, we stepped into the house and spotted some kids crowded around a TV set.  One of them was playing Sonic the Hedgehog.

All we could do was just stand there, in our swimsuits and towels, and watch the game—watch the blue hedgehog run across the screen and jump and attack the robots with animals in them, and run and run some more, running in loop-de-loops and helixes and grassy moving platforms.   If there is one phrase I can use to describe this experience, it was “love at first sight.”

So this blue thing’s name is Sonic and he’s a hedgehog, huh?  That was neat!  It was—it was better than Super Mario Brothers—and just the previous year we got the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Mario Brothers for our sixth birthday!  Yeah okay, Mario and Luigi run from left to right too, but…Sonic did the same thing and was freakin’ ten times faster!  And the colors were so vivid and the graphics so rich.   The video game music sounded way better to us than the 8-bit music for Nintento.

Our dad was talking to one of the other adults.  I went to them and, with a feeling of guilt (I felt like I was asking the world, though I know Dad didn’t think I was), I asked them, “Can, can I play, the Sunik the Hetchog game?”  The other man repeated “’Sonic Hedgehog?’”  And then I guess from what I remember, Dad explained what it was.  He may have seen that my sister and I were watching.  Maybe that’s how they knew we liked this amazing thing.

I think later after that was when my sister got a chance to play soon after.  One kid soon said, “Watch out.  There’s a bad guy at the end.”   That kid was referring to the main villain Dr. Robotnik, and back then we didn’t know the name of the villain.  I didn’t get a chance to play the game back then, but still, the fact that we were watching or somehow experiencing Sonic the Hedgehog being played live was astonishing.  It was that blue guy in the TMNT magazine that I stared at for some minutes before moving on in the magazine.

So that’s where my history of being a Sonic fan-girl began, and it gets better…

On a Mission to Find Remixes from Sonic the Hedgehog games

It started on June 6^th this year.  One late night I was listening to one of the podcasts—the Sonic Jukebox from the SEGA Jukebox, episode 8—and I heard this really neat track called “Symphonic Ruin,” which was a remake of the music from Sonic 3D (SEGA Saturn) “Rusty Ruin Act 1”  and I fell in love with it immediately.  The artist goes by the name Jivemaster.  I was entranced by how it began with the sound of a thunderstorm and rain.  I rewound the podcast to listen to it again (because I was using my 4^th Generation iPod).

I love the beat, the bass, the melody, just the very sound of it.  It took me to another world.  I could hear it like it was playing on 94.7 the Wave.  I was like, there was a Sonic 3D?   Is that different from Sonic 3D Blast?  The music is different from the SEGA Genesis version and the SEGA Saturn version, I realized.  Man, what a treat it was for my ears to hear this remix.

So I was especially excited when I learned I can listen to a radio station devoted to just music from the Sonic the Hedgehog video games.   Sonic Radio is the one I use the most now; I tried RadioSEGA too (which I got just in time for the Sonic Fan Music Festival on June 23^rd ), but I’ve never played Shenmue or Panzer Dragoon Orta.  There was something from the Legend of Mana that was nice, though.  Eventually I heard the original version of the Sonic 3D track of Rusty Ruin Act 1 (I think the artist was Richard Jacques) and I overjoyed.  Where can I find that, where can I find that?  I found it in another Sonic-music-themed podcast.  Joyyyy!

I tried to find some more podcasts on iTunes that had Sonic remixes so I won’t have to rely on the live radio any time I felt like listening to Sonic music while not on the Internet. 

So I went to the website OverClocked Remix, http://ocremix.org/.  There are remixes of video games that can be downloaded for free.   Here are several of my favorite Sonic music remix tracks:

“Symphonic Ruin”…………………Jivemaster

“Sonicquarium” ……………………..The Cynic Project

“Icecapped”……………………….McVaffe

“Hogtied”……………………………..Brandon Strader, Rexy

“Absolution Comes in Dreams” ……………………… Cyril the Wolf, M-One

“Sonik Eletronik”………………… PrototypeRaptor

“Chemixtrixx” …………………..…PrototypeRaptor

“This World of Absolution”………….………….TrickyWolfy (track found at www.newgrounds.com. She also has a YouTube channel!)

“Walk on Water”……………………..housethegrate

“Blissful Eruption”…………….………LeeBro  (aka Lee Brotherton aka Bentley Jones!!) :3     

 

I realize that not all of the music that I hear in Sonic Radio is either in an OST in iTunes or even in OverClocked Remix.  I was disappointed, but I understand that the artists are all over the place on the Internet.  There are other websites where video game music aficionados share their arrangements and remixes of many video games. I shall find some more.  www.newgrounds.com is one possibility; it is where I found TrickyWolfy’s “Hedgehog’s Lullaby” and “This World of Absolution.” What I really also wanted to do was go to The Sonic Stadium and find some more music from my favorite remix artists.   Unfortunately I can’t listen to them on the TSS Music Album website and I will have to download the whole album (if I can)  and I’m not sure I want to do that.   I am having a hard time trying to find the artist Gario.  I haven’t been disappointed with anything I heard from him so far.  But I don’t know where his remixes can be found.

Am I Playing Sonic Generations Too Much?

Sigh.  I haven’t touched Dissidia Duodecim: Final Fantasy for maybe a month and a half.  The video games I am playing currently (returning to the most) are Sonic Generations and Sonic Rivals 2.  I should have finished Sonic Generations last year but other things got in the way (my cat’s surgery was a big part of it, but I was also doing some volunteering for work experience).    I lost interest in playing video games for several months.  I actually, lost interest in a log of other things at that time.  Now that life is looking up, some of that “life” in my interests has returned.

When in late March I visited one of my favorite websites, the fan-art galore that is DeviantArt, I came across some interesting Sonic the Hedgehog fan-art, along with fan-art of my other two favorite hedgehogs Shadow and Silver.  Some of the fan-art sparked story ideas in my head that I wanted to write as fan-fiction.  But then soon, I thought, Well I haven’t played Sonic Rivals 2 for a while, and Sonic Rivals 2 is the only Sonic game I have where I could play as Silver. (I don’t have SONIC ’06 and I probably won’t get it or play it ever.  Sad, huh?).  I tried it again and I forgot how much fun it was; I liked the music (it’s not bad, not spectacular like in Sonic Generations), and it can get frustrating but then I laugh when I lose a race or battle.  It’s good light fun.  I can play it in my bedroom or in the living room because it’s on the PSP.  I really enjoy the Acts for the Haunted Mystic Zone, especially the music for Act 2, the battle against Shadow and Silver (that was the story I was playing when I first got to it).

For Sonic Generations, I didn’t touch it since March last year and then once more in November.  Now I’m trying to play it maybe twice a week, when I ‘m not training for my new job and the TV in the den is available.

AT this point I visited both Acts of all the Stages in the game and still need to finish many Challenge games for Act 1 and Act 2.  I defeated Metal Sonic, Shadow, and last week was Silver in their respective Rival Battles.  I beat Silver Rival Battle in Hard Mode on my first try, because by that time I went through so many trial-and-error runs with Normal Mode and got to know Silver’s attack pattern.  So many trial-and-error runs.  So many.

I still need the 3^rd Key to unlock the third Boss, but also in the meantime I will complete the other challenges in order to gain some new Skills for both Sonics.  I gotta say something: I love the music for Planet Wisp Act 2.  It’s been stuck in my head for the last several days.  Now Act 2 (and yes, Act 1 also) are very frustrating, but its music helps me to deal with it.  I also really like the song for Crisis City Act 2 from SONIC '06; I fell in love with that one almost a month ago.  I went to iTunes and had to get the original version from the SONIC ‘06 soundtrack.

How awesome would it be if Sonic could race against either Shadow or Silver in what would be the “Doppelganger” races?  Well, Shadow, yes…but Silver can fly, and that might be cheating :3 so maybe it wouldn’t make sense, but at least with Shadow it would be neat!  Oh well, I guess that is only possible in Sonic Rivals or Sonic Rivals 2.  At least on their feet, unlike in Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing/Transformed their they drive vehicles.  That is...what it is.

 

Below is a link to the YouTube video of the music track "Planet Wisp Act 1" from the original Sonic Colors.  I love the version in Sonic Gererations as well, but the guitar bass for this original version is boss.  (I tried to embed the video here but the HTML can't be accepted for some reason).

 

http://youtu.be/eODArFqHbf0     (Sonic Colors "Planet Wisp Act 1" Music)

It's been in constant repeat in my head for the past week!!  I whistle the melody on occasion.  O3O

 

Should I Return to Playing… Final Fantasy X?

Friday on February 15^th I finished playing the Story Mode for Tidus in Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy.  I enjoyed watching how even though Tidus hated his father Jecht, he also respected him and wanted to fight him when he wasn’t already beaten down by, uh, the Emperor of FFII.  It was then that I had this thought:

I should get back to playing Final Fantasy X.  Should I?

I haven’t played that video game since, well, since maybe 2009.  I need to check the memory card data to confirm that, LOL.  But I think the reason I haven’t played it so much the last uh, TEN YEARS, is that I…I dunno.  I still have the BradyGames Official Strategy Guide for FFX.  Ah, yes….I absolutely HATED the BlitzBall game going on in the middle of things.  Hey, I don’t play football, I don’t watch football, so why do I want to play Blitz ball which is kinda the same thing except underwater?!  It just really turned me off and I put the game away for some years.  There are so many stats and rules for the game it just didn’t make the actual video game fun.  I wanted to play more into the story, darnit!  Let me f#!%&^n’ go!

Oh, here’s another thing that made me lose my patience for the game:  the Sphere Grid.  Yuck, it is frustrating because I don’t get the necessary Ability Points and Grid Spheres fast enough to level up the characters.   EDIT:   It’s a little easier to work with now after getting back to it a couple of weeks ago.

Looking back though, at some point I did go through with the BlitzBall, as frustrating as it was, and I think I did defeat the boss Oblitzerator.   I also think I left off right before the party was going to go somewhere else.

I had to go to iTunes and find this battle BGM that I remembered but didn’t know the title to it.  I looked and it’s called “Enemy Attack.”  I always loved that music track from the game.  I preferred it from the other battle BGMs I’ve encountered so far into the game.  It would have been cool if Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy had this as an unlockable extra Battle BGM.  At least, that’s my opinion.

Note:  My favorite weapon Tidus uses is the blue longsword called Brotherhood.  I realize that now after seeing that Bartz uses this weapon when he mimics Tidus.

NiGHTS Journey of Dreams on Christmas Day

Welcome to the New Year of 2012, everyone!  ^__^

It was Christmas so I figured if I played NiGHTS Journey of Dreams on Christmas Day there would be something Christmas related in the game, like I found out for the original NiGHTS into Dreams.  I tried it and unfortunately there was no Christmas-garbed NiGHTS in the game at all.   I was a bit disappointed, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to enjoy the game.  I started playing with the Chase Mission stage in Aqua Garden, the very first Nightopia I visited when I first played this game in June 2008.  No Christmas-garbed NiGHTS there either.  I got a C rating in the stage, which was lower than the B I got as my best score.

So next I went to My Dream.  And the Christmas NiGHTS version of Jingle Bells, titled “Dream Bells,” was playing in the background.  It was snowing, SNOWING in My Dream, for the first time.   I squealed with delight because I had recently given myself a chance to listen to the soundtrack to Christmas NiGHTS, and I recognized the song and was overjoyed!!  All of my Nightopians were wearing red Christmas hats in the spirit of the holiday—all 34 of them.  And they were singing along with the Dream Bells song, but just the first three notes, though.  Man, I wish I got this all on tape but I didn’t.  My camcorder’s battery wasn’t fully charged, which must be why I didn’t think about doing that.   A bunch of them were singing loudly and it almost drove me nuts!  Every once in a while I had Helen run to a quiet area with another Nightopian to get away from all that noise.  Cute, but annoying.  Some of them rode on sleighs, or played soccer, but most of them were close to musical boxes and singing, singing, and singing.

Next I played an Octopaw stage in the same Nightopia, Aqua Garden.  I was out of practice so I did terrible, got discouraged and stopped that.  So then I went to Helen's Sketchbook, and I love the version of "Dreams Dreams" that plays as I look at the concept art and sketches.  I stayed in Helen's Sketchbook for twenty minutes or more just to listen to the music.  So nice.

A New Favorite FF song, thanks to Dissidia Duodecim-- Not Alone

I was playing Dissidia Duodecim FF the other day and out of curiosity for more FF IX music, I used some of the PP earned in the game so far to unlock the battle music BGM track, “Not Alone.”

I really like it. It’s been stuck in my head for the past few days. I even went to iTunes to listen to the sample of it (without hearing all the sound FX during the battles). I found out there is an option in the Options Menu, where one can turn off the SFX so that you can hear the music without having the SFX obstructing the nice background music. I just might do that for a few battles and see for myself how that is.

Man I love this song now.  I've never played this game but DDFF introduced me to a few really good music tracks from FF IX.  As for the music track “Darkness of Eternity,” I unlocked that immediately when I realized I could unlock the new BGM music with PP. I already knew what that sounded like (I bought it on iTunes), and it is cool to have it as battle music when fighting as Kuja. Or Zidane versus Kuja.

Here is a link to a video that features "Not Alone" (or "You're Not Alone") along with some footage from the original video game: http://youtu.be/Sx_Qqzs4cfk

Mega Man X8 Music!!!!

I love this song.  It makes me think of Axl cuz I had him ride the ride armor first in MMX 8.  Axl my booo!

The music is from MMX 8.

LITERAL Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Trailer

Sorry I've been a bit behind...or lazy...with writing about my gaming.  I played Phantasy Star IV on the PSP's SEGA Genesis Collection and I also played Sonic Rivals 2 just Wednesday afternoon.  In the meanwhile, here is another one of my favorite LITERALs from YouTube's Toby Turner.  You can visit his YT channel at http://www.youtube.com/tobuscus .

In a Final Fantasy VII Mood ^8^

As I’ve said, I am in a Final Fantasy VII craze phase. I found my copy of the FFVII OST and imported my favorite tunes from the game into my iTunes library. My number one tracks are “Holding My Thoughts in my Heart,” “Anxious Heart,” “Life Stream,” “Tifa’s Theme,” “Highwind Takes to the Skies,” among others. I like “Aeris’ Theme” too; I just avoid it most of the time. “Cait Sith’s Theme” always makes me smile and snap my fingers! “Sandy Badlands” has been stuck in my head multiple times last year.

Aside from listening to music from the original Final Fantasy VII, I am thinking about buying the OST for Crisis Core: FFVII, maybe within the next couple of months. I have some new iTunes credit, so I won’t feel guilty buying it. I’ll see.

Now the more interesting part: I have been watching funny videos/dubs of either game on YouTube. The guys at The Lifestream.net are doing a play through of the original game while providing commentary at the same time. It’s interesting listening to what they have to say about the story and characters. But what I really enjoyed though is the hilarious videos on YouTube coming from a group of young comedians SonsofSatire.  I noticed that they have a parody dub of Crisis Core. I watched up to Chapter 12 of that series, called Crisis Core Dub Parody. Then I found out that SonsofSatire also are working on a parody dub of Final Fantasy VII, called Final Fantasy VII: The Abridged Series. I’m like Hell yeah I wanna check that out! And I’m glad I did. I LOVED episode one. Every intro is slightly different (Kyol who voices Cloud sings different lyrics for the beginning song each episode).

I found out SonsofSatire also did a parody dub of Last Order: FFVII, but I think I should stay away from that until I’ve seen it one more time. I’ve seen it twice already, but that was maybe over a year and a half ago.

Also I am curious about the CloudxZack doujinshi scans on YouTube. ‘Nuff said about that.

Noseless Cloud is getting more attention from me. I always keep him on my bed, but for two nights so far, I found myself holding his plush hand for comfort. I give him more squeeshy hugs.

Here is the first episode of both the Crisis Core Dub Parody and Final Fantasy VII The Abridged Series.

 
 

 
I almost died laughing after this one XD!!!

Chaos Legion Music

Chaos Legion , Capcom

I started putting some of my favorite tracks from the Chaos Legion OST in my purple iPod Nano, and it occurred to me, I had to write about one major thing about this video game that made me love playing it: the music.

I first rented the game in the spring of 2004. It was from a Hollywood Video (when it wasn’t out of business). When I had to rent Chaos Legion and stopped playing it the day I had to return the copy, the music on the title screen was so beautiful that I did NOT want to turn off the PS2. I let it play twice or three times the whole way through before I reset the PS2 and opened the disc tray.

I loved the music, the game play, and I liked Sieg’s red hair and wanted to know what happened between him and Victor Delacroix (how they became enemies). I decided I liked the game enough that I wanted to buy it. It was hard to find at my usual video game shopping stores, so ultimately I bought a new copy at a Game Stop. Here’s my conversation:

“Um, excuse me; do you have the video game Chaos Legion?

“Let’ me check… [checks on the computer system]…Yes, we do.”

“You have it?! Oh, thank you, thank you so much!!”

“o.0  What, you want it?"

I could tell from the title screen music that maybe the story is a sad one, or bittersweet, but the song was so beautiful. This was before I knew there was an official OST released, so the only time I heard music from this game was whenever I played it. I especially loooove the song from Stage 6; that’s the one with the red moon in the background. The bass and the strings rock! Then there’s Stage 7 Misty Ravine, which is a nice change from fast-paced music to a slow, mysterious atmosphere, even more emotional. But really the whole soundtrack is amazing, in my opinion. There are bells, choir singing, strings, rock percussions, and there’s even singing in Stage 8, although I can’t tell exactly what language it is in. There’s a bonus for true Chaos Legion fans who appreciate the music for the game: the music for the released legion is played for about the last thirty seconds of the Stage track. The composer for the game is named Hideyuki Fukasawa.

Unfortunately, and to my disappointment somewhat, the OST does not include music that comes in during the cinematic scenes. If I want to hear those again, I have to play the game again. I would watch the scenes from the movie player screen—if only I didn’t lose the data to my corrupted memory card.

There has to be a video of some Chaos Legion game play somewhere on You Tube (cuz I dunno where else to look). This is surely not the best video game ever, considering the repetitive hack n slash game play along with the fragmented storyline and unclear time period/setting (somewhere in Europe). However, it is the very first Capcom video game I ever played, personally, so it has that special place in my gamer girl heart.

The first time I heard Lee Brotherton...

I've never played Sonic the Hedgehog for PS3.  I probably won't, in the future unfortunately.

     But last summer I heard a song that came from this game.  The song was used in a tribute to NiGHTS on YouTube.  The song is "Dreams of an Absolution" sung by Lee Brotherton (aka Bentley Jones).

     This was before I knew there was a NiGHTSintoDreams.com, with a community of NiGHTS fans participating in the site's forums.  So when I watched this NiGHTS tribute, I fell in love with the song, even though it was the theme song for Silver the Hedgehog :3

     I found some more of his songs on iTunes.  Now I have three versions of Bentley Jones' song "So Much More" in my purple iPod Nano, and another song, "Alpha Dog," which I am absolutely crazy about.  If it wasn't for this NiGHTS tribute video, I would have missed out on such a cool bunch of songs. 

      I dunno when I'll be able to get "Dreams of an Absolution," but I dream of that day...

Here's also a link to the YouTube channel of the person who put this video together: http://www.youtube.com/user/StarChaserGal#p/u