Dissidia on Jan. 19

During the five-day rainy thunderstorms happening in Southern California, I wasn't able to get online the entire time.  Now that the storms are overwith, or nearly so, I can catch up on Cyborg Haven.

Cloud, Squall, and the tailed Zidane

First off, I returned to Dissidia Final Fantasy in the Destiny Odyssey I-3 this past Tuesday close to 8pm.  I also wanted to at least start Destiny Odyssey IX and give myself a break with an easier difficulty level of three stars (instead of five stars like Warrior of Light). I got Mognet Mail too :)   Unfortunately I had to start from the beginning of I-3, but that's okay.  I did better on the battles after having gone through them the first time.  Ultimecia is a b****.  "She's such an a**" I said after losing some battles against her.  Cloud of Darkness is worse in Destiny Odyssey I-4.  At least 60+ times I retried, and I wasted time, around an hour doing this.  I mean, it was my Bonus Day!  I could have kept all those EXP and leveled up, but no, Cloud of Darkness (the fake one) had to be a b**** too!   So I charge the PSP battery while I had dinner and rested my thumbs.

11:15pm I started Destiny Odyssey IX to take a break.  So lotsa Zidane!!  I got stuck on IX-2 because Zidane was level 7 and the battle piece was level 15, and that's not fair.  I was wondering why Zidane kept saying things like "Maybe this isn't a good idea?"  Because his level wasn't high enough to last that battle.  Who was it again?  So I'm basically stuck in IX-2.  Then I decided well, the best thing to do in a situation like this is to play some Quick Battles and level up my favorite characters that way.  I won't have to worry about losing Destiny Points or whatever, missing  DP chances.  I'm glad I get PP no matter what; that was how I was able to get from 2400 PP to 3100 PP so quickly, cuz I kept losing to the wrong opponents.
Zidane is so fun to play because he's fast. : D
I had Zidane fight against Tidus, then Cecil, and then I battled as Cloud versus Squall a few times.
Jeez, Zidane is called so many  simian names: Monkey, Chimp (chimps don't have tails, they're APES), Baboon, Monkey again.  Poor Zidane.

Crisis Core level up session, Jan. 15

On Friday 6:30pm I played a level-up session for Zack in Crisis Core: FFVII.  I played for roughly an hour and ten minutes.  Zack is level 40 now, with Cloud's help from the DMW ^.^. I did a Materia Fusion with the Thundara and Poison materia and created the Dark Thundara + 20% MP.  I equipped it already.  The Thundaga is very powerful now, but I wanted to use status ailments on my enemies so Dark Thundara will be very helpful with that, plus Zack can use more MP.  I also equipped Zack with Osmose materia so he can steal MP from enemies and use his most powerful magic attacks on those sonsabitches if need be.  I have plenty of Poison and Thunder materia ready for any Materia Fusions coming up soon.

     Forgive me for only spending time with Crisis Core and Dissidia lately.  These games (full of Square-Enix goodness, mind you) have been dominating my gaming time, probably because of the convinience of the PSP and being able to play it in any room rather than only in the den.  The next time I get to Crisis Core, I need to move on, because the game has been out now and I want to be able to talk about the events in the game with my friends without getting myself spoiled.  I mean, I know how the game is going to turn out (also what happens to Zack) but I want to see the events for myself.  I am considering joining the forums in The Lifestream.net because I want to talk about Final Fantasy VII-related stuff with other fans who are so crazy about it like me...o.0.  Uh...yeah.

I Saw AVATAR!!

On Thursday with my parents and my sister, I saw the Avatar movie at the Winnetka Stadium 21.  Pacific Theaters is the best, in my opinion.  Loved the movie, loved it, loved it, loooooooved it!!  Go see it!  In 3-D, if possible!  It blew me away.
     I dunno if I am going to play Avatar: The Game.  I might rent it, for the Wii.  Playstation the Official Magazine and Nindento Power both didn't like it too much.  I believe it's worth a try, but I'm buried under Square-Enix goodness for now, so it will have to wait.  I'd root for the Na'vi, personally.

Dissidia FF on Jan. 12: Destiny Odyssey I

I wanted to play Dissidia Final Fantasy on Tuesday because Tuesday is my "Bonus Day."  I thought I'd try Destiny Odyssey I (and play as the Warrior of Light from FFI) and then a few Quick Battles afterwards.  But it turned out I only had time for half of the Warrior of Light's part of the story mode.

     I didn't expect myself to play through these levels perfectly the first time around.  Even with the strategy guide near me, the battles were still difficult.  What made it harder was that I kept forgetting to customize the Warrior of Light whenever I go to an opponent that has higher difficulty.  I especially had a hard time in Destiny Odyssey I-3, where the first two battles I had to retry around 20 times, thus subtracting 10 story points each retry.  That sucks.  And I'm mad at Sepiroth because I never win the first time.  He fights fierce.  He's not nice to Warrior of Light. >:(

     I left off after the battle with Ultimecia in DO I-3.  I currently have 3 Destiny Points left.  I don't think I gained another DP from the other battle I had to retry 20 times.  Which was it?  I think it was against Cecil's brother.  How many villains look like Garland?  Jeez.  Anyway, the next time I get to this game, I am going to do the quick battles, because I need to practice fighting more, still.  Maybe with the Warrior of Light; last time it was mostly adorable Zidane.

     I want Kuja to be the first villain I unlock after finishing DO I.  I wouldn't know how his voice sounds, so I am curious about it.  He's a difficult opponent as well.  He went "Trance" on Warrior of Light and kicked his ass.  Nekkid furry Kuja o__0;; .  Which reminds me, there is also nekkid furry Zidane too o__O;; when he is in his EX Mode.  Like I said, partial nudity (?).

     Next I'll play some Quick Battles and an Arcade Mode game to get some EXP and PP.   But I also need to move on in Crisis Core very soon.

Crisis Core on Jan 5th

So I played Crisis Core on Tuesday night and I played deeper into the story.  I knew it... I reached the part when Sephiroth goes mad and reads about the Jenova Projects and burns down Nibelheim.  So not too much new happened because I saw this in Cloud's Past and another part in FFVII.
     I played only for an hour because the green light was flashing on my PSP, which meant the next time I saved I'd have to stop playing.  It took me a half hour or more to find a save point, so I was getting scared and yelling at Zack to run run run!!  I even escaped a couple of battles in the Mt. Nibel Trail.  Luckily there was a save point at the end of the trail.  Then I saved and quit the game.  I have to recharge the battery -_- .

Cyborg Haven Update Jan 7th: Older Games

Tuesday afternoon I was watching videos on YouTube with my sister.  Earlier that day we were reminiscing about the NES games and the SEGA Genesis games we used to rent way back when we were eight years old.   We decided to watch some playthrough videos of some of these games. They refreshed my memory of the titles of these games.  Hence, this Cyborg Haven Update #8.
The following items are added to the list of Video Games I've Played...(not necessarily finished):

• The Simpsons: Bart vs. the World (NES)
• The Simpsons: Bartman Meets Radioactive Man (NES)
• Krusty's Fun House (NES)   sucked a**
• Zoop (SEGA Genesis)  I used to own this one
• Star Trek TNG: Echoes of the Past (SEGA Genesis)

A few sample links to these videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBJQYme9ztI   Bart vs. The World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pur4x2L98g&feature=related  Bart Meets Radioactive Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGnie-hwnGE&feature=related  Bart's Nightmare

The YouTube videos helped me remember what the title of these games were.  I would have put them in the list if I already knew.  Krusty's Fun House, well, I am almost embarrassed to put this on the list because that game was a waste of my time.  I only rented it once and didn't care for it much after that.
     There is already two other The Simpsons games on the list: Bart's Nightmare and Virtual Bart.  Between both of these games, I really enjoyed Bart's Nightmare becasue I liked the BG music that plays when Bart is walking in the neighborhood trying to find his homework.  I think I rented that game four times.
     As for the Star Trek game, I watched my dad play it and he beat it twice.  I attempted to play it to the end too, but I don't think I made it even halfway through the game.  Oh well ^.^;;
     I should do a Reminisce post on Galaxy Force II.  It's my favorite "non-Sonic" SEGA Genesis video game.  I love its background music.

Dissidia Final Fantasy, Jan. 3rd

On Sunday night January 3rd I played Dissidia Final Fantasy only for a little while.  As I said last time I wanted to play Quick Battles as Zidane after I returned to Crisis Core, but the Tonnberry mission took so long that I decided I played enough.
     I played plenty of Quick Battles and leveled up the characters.  I am getting a little better at activating the characters' EX Modes.  I have to keep gathering all those little white dots and the bells with the wings; that is what the EX Force and EX Cores are.   I learned that whenever the screen says "EX Core in play"  I try to get to it.  Unfortunately this made me hate Squall (in other words get mad at him) because before I could reach the EX Core, he often got it before me and I shout "No, you motherf*****!"  And an occasional "Godd****t!" here and there.  Really, Squall is not a bad guy, he's just fast.
     Zidane's EX Mode form is...um...interesting.  How Square Enix gets away with it is beyond me.  Terra's Esper form too.  I thought the rating on the back of the box said "Partial Nudity"???
     I played an Arcade Mode game as Zidane and got 300PP in the Arcade Mode.  Sephiroth was the my fourth opponent, and he is soooo hard to fight.  In fact I had to rematch because he wouldn't give Zidane a break!  EX Death was my fifth opponent and he was really difficult too, but Zidane didn't lose to him.  Hah, it's easy now, but it's gonna get more difficult the more I play this game and the more I play through the story.  It's too bad I can't level up characters in Arcade Mode.  But I had a lot of fun.  Next time I get to the game I will move on in the story mode.
      I also played as Cloud several times in the Quick Battles...the Onion Knight in one, and Firion in another (I won and his cape was flowing in the breeze during the victory pose).  Firion is angry, he needs victories to make him smile ^_^

Starting DISSIDIA FF Dec. 30

On Wednesday night (December 30th) I wanted to start playing Dissidia Final Fantasy, but there were a few things I had to do on my PSP before even playing.  It was around 8:30pm and I put the UMD in, and the unit indicated that there was a version 5.50 update for the PSP in the game.  I figured I should probably take care of that first before playing, so I chose to update since my PSP's software was version 4.21.  I read the liscensing info and all that and agreed to the terms and all that.  Then I started the update, which took about five minutes.  Okay, good...and then my PSP restarted automatically.  The purple background on the screen changed into a nice vivid purple with a pinkish-lavander color on the bottom half of the screen, and I was surprised and pleased about this improvement.  I liked the way the purple color was before, but I really like this new one.  I wonder how other gamers reacted when they updated their own units.  I'd rather use the update on the UMD becasue my PSP doesn't have internet access  yet, so this is actually my only option whenever I have to update the software.
    So then, okay, now I can start playing.  But I remembered that I wanted to do the Data Install before I started a new game.  So I chose that option, and then it gave me a choice of how much megabytes I wanted to install in my Memory Stick Pro Duo.  I chose the middle number, and then it said that the process might take up to an hour.  "Using an AC adaptor is strongly recommended."  Well I thought to myself I just fully charged my unit, so there shouldn't be any problem with the battery running out.  It took me five minutes to decide, and then I went ahead and started the Data Install withoug using the ac adaptor, and it turned out fine.  It took roughly 30 minutes and 15% of the battery power, but then by 9:50pm I was ready to start a new game...
     I wanted my nickname to be "Cloud'sChocobo" but there wasn't enough room for that many letters in the name.  So I went with "VioletMage01," because I like purple and if I had to be a Final Fantasy character I'd be a mage.  Bonus Day...Tuesday?  I dunno.  Casual or Average gamer?  [Sigh...] Casual for now.  I would choose Average but how do I know how often I'll play this game when I've got other games I juggle with?
     This post is getting too long already, so I'll finish it by saying I finished the Prologue and then played several Quick Battles as Zidane and then Cloud.  I lost a lot of battles because my fingers were tired and I got sloppy.  Plus Squall is mean =P.

@,@

Crisis Core on Jan. 1 (and into the next day)

Last NiGHTS (I mean, last night ^.^;;), I wanted to play a level-up session on Crisis Core and then play a few Quick Battles as Zidane in Dissidia Final Fantasy for a half hour afterwards.  I did bring Zack up to Level 39 and got more gil and items, which I am happy about, and new Thundara and Osmose materia.  Within this session I decided to play one more mission, the Master Tonnberry mission, and it took almost another half hour to finish!  Those Tonnberries are tough little guys (are they turtle fish, or what?  They're turtles with fish tails...I almost think twice about killing them because they are cute, but they can kick Zack's butt very quickly and they are mean, so I'm like, Why not?  Slice they a$$es!!)  Zack gets a lot of gil for each one he gets.  I made sure I explored the cave thoroughly because there are other treats to look for, like materia or an X-Potion.  I think I found a Phoenix Down too.  I have very few of those.
    I ended up not playing Dissidia with Zidane =(  because it was 12:30am and I already played CC:FFVII for 30 minutes more than I wanted to (so total: an hour and fourty minutes or so.  It was that darn Tonnberry mission!!  ARGH...).  I try to limit the amount of time I spend on the PSP so the battery power doesn't run out so fast.  I even had to skip some of the small little scenes during the DMW because those take battery power too.  I watched a few of them that I didn't see before to the end.  [Sigh]...

DISSIDIA Crazyness!!!!!! 8O

I've been Dissidia crazy since X-mas.  It started when my sister game me Dissidia Final Fantasy, and then its Strategy Guide.  But it didn't stop there!  On Saturday I decided to buy the full original soundtrack on iTunes.  I couldn't wait; I love Square-Enix music and this OST was $15.99 in iTunes compared to its suggested retail price of $23.99 in physical form.  I already fell in love with the track "Over the hill" from FFIX.  Little by little I'll listen to the others.
     I have the PSP game, the strategy guide, and the music.  In a matter of days I got all I need of Dissidia goodness at this point.  Now I just need to unlock the characters...
     I know there is a Dissida Final Fantasy Trading Arts Vol. 1 with Squall, Tidus, Zidane and my favorite Cloud, but I don't need those.  It's nice to know that there are still Trading Arts action figures of some of the Final Fantasy characters I recognize.  That reminds me, I do have a list of some characters that I'd like to play in this game:  Warrior of Light, Firion, Cloud, Zidane, Kuja, Bartz.  Zidane has a tail, so yay for adorable Zidane!  And Kuja, is it pronounced KUU-yah or KUU-jah?  I've always pronounced his, her, his name as KUU-jah for some time (I didn't know about Kuja until previews for DFF) but lately it just feels right for me to say KUU-yah.
     Maybe sometime when I won't feel so guilty about buying another game I might get Final Fantasy II for the PSP.  I've been growing attached to Firion as well, probably because he looks like the angriest hero of Cosmos.  Well, Cloud is sad.  A lot of the ten heroes are frowning, except for monkey-tailed Zidane and also Tidus.  [sigh] Will I ever return to playing Final Fantasy X????  I hate hiring Bliztball players cuz I don't have enough gil to feel comfortable hiring any.  Besides, I need potions and stuff.
     So my definite favorites for DFF already are Cloud, Zidane, Kuja and Firion.  Wait, Kuja is one of the ten villains, right?  Hmm...nyaawww, poor Kuja.
     I haven't played any Final Fantasy games other than VII, X and XII at this point, so it would be fun to learn about the other Final Fantasy heroes (and villains too).