Should I Play Final Fantasy XIII? Also: Versus XIII Game Play

I recently found out from the Final Fantasy Union website that there is going to be a sequel to Final Fantasy XIII, and it’s apparently named for now Final Fantasy XIII-2.

I have a demo of FF XIII that comes with the Blu-Ray for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete. I’ve never tried the demo yet. But I want to, because I don’t want to at least miss out on that. I haven’t finished FF XII, but it is a very different story so I am not going to worry about that (I should still return to it though. I mean, I bought it, I have to finish it at some point :D ).

Now that I know that there is going to be a sequel to this latest FF, I am curious as to how it turned out in the end that made it seem like it should have a second part.

I also decided to check out another one of my favorite websites, http://www.ff-versusxiii.net/ and I found that there is some new game play footage released. This is the new trailer for Final Fantasy Versus XIII for 2011. To be honest, I am relieved that the subtitles for the dialogue are still in Japanese kanji; I don’t want the dialogue/plot stuff to be revealed right away anyway. I got a big kick out of the game play content that the trailer included. It looks so fun to play—probably because the workings for it are very similar to the game play action from the main Kingdom Hearts titles. There is some real-time stuff that happens during the game-play (like explosions) and Noctis reacts to them simultaneously. So cool!! This video game is THE REASON I wanted to have a Playstation 3.

Here is a direct link to where I found the 2011 trailer for FF Versus XIII:
http://www.ff-versusxiii.net/index.php?page=article&article=Final-Fantasy-Versus-XIII-HD-Trailer--643

New Year, New Habits

The New Year has started and I don’t think I even touched my PS2 or my PSP so far. Maybe I needed a break from gaming? I dunno. It is still one of my favorite pastimes. I guess after finishing Crisis Core near the end of last year, I feel like, “Gosh is there any other video game as good as this?”

I need to return to the list of games I started but haven’t finished yet. That should get me started. Of course, that will include Mega Man X: Command Mission and Mega Man X8.   I probably shouldn't buy any more new video games until I finish at least five of the ones I already have  :D !  And Dissidia: FF is going to keep me busy on the PSP for a long while.

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

• Sonic Unleashed (the latest Sonic Game I have)

• Final Fantasy XII (I’m supposed to be in the Stilshrine 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 just started it.)

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

Lately I've been having dreams that included Cloud Strife, even Zack Fair,  and/or Vincent Valentine.  The graphics were as good as FFVII: Advent Children Complete.  I feel like even though I've sort of already finished Dirge of Cerberus: FFVII, I should give the Extra Missions a try.  The extra missions in Crisis Core seem more appealing to me though (more than the ones in Dirge of Cerberus).  That could be because I am not that good at aiming Vincent's Cerberus at things.  I just make him shoot and hope that the target mark stays where it's supposed to so that he gets a hit.    I should just go for it and give Vincent's game a chance again.  That mysterious Vincent...I am all of a sudden interested in his mysteriousness again.

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!!!

My Reflections on Finishing Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

THERE ARE SPOILERS.  So if you haven't finished the game, skip reading this post.

So, it’s been eleven days since I finished this game. I had to give myself some distance from watching the ending since I was still a bit sensitive about it. Yes, I cried, I believe I said that already did I? I didn’t sob, but the tears kept coming during the ending scene and through the end credits.

I left off right before Zack was to enter the Portal called the Light of Doom. So I ended up going ahead and going to where Zack felt Genesis was. First there was a scene, and then the battle begins. Even if Zack has the Libra materia equipped, the number of Genesis’ HP doesn’t show. I just had to keep attacking and attacking. And not at Genesis directly: for this battle, his sword is the weakness. He doesn’t have it low enough for Zack to hit it all the time. And if that’s not enough, there are minions that try to slow down Zack’s progress of defeating Genesis. Sigh, this battle is going to go on forever, is it?!! I wouldn’t even know how finished I am since his HP won’t show. I kept using my Dark Firaga spell and Cissnei gave Zack the Lucky Stars ability multiple times. I used up my magic points quickly because Dark Firaga takes around 32 or so points at a time. Luckily I had plenty of Ether I gathered over time to help me out. I used an Elixir to save Zack’s life as well. Cloud was a good boy and helped out Zack as well, along with Angeal and, uh, Aeris.

Genesis actually helped out Zack in the DMW. How IRONIC is that for this battle?

After some time that I didn’t take into account, I finally won this fight against Genesis. But I only thought I was done; there was yet another fight Zack needed to win against Genesis. At least this time I can see his max HP: 99,999. WOW. The battle was speedy because I used Dark Firaga. I forgot if Graviga was effective or not. I would have to play the battle again and see. But the fight went very fast for me, too fast in fact.

I realized to my horror there were no more save points since the point right before the battles with Genesis. At this point I believe I’d finish the game that night. Looking back at it now, I see that it was not necessary to have any more save points. There would be no more game to play afterwards. It turned out I was right.

After another few scenes come up, and before I knew it, Zack was on the truck already. I said out loud, “Oh no, ohhh no, here it is.” All I could do was watch on. So I did.

Turns out, there is one more battle Zack still needs to do. And the developers (and Tetsuya Nomura, I have to guess) decided that he’d give players the experience of fighting Zack’s last battle, the one against the Shinra soldiers. This battle was very different though. As Zack fought, his DMW seemed to be malfunctioning. I thought that was really weird, but then I think it makes sense what the developers were trying to do making the DMW unavailable. I mean, it still appeared, but some characters were missing and there were no matches. Pretty much the only thing that the characters in the DMW did to help was Zack’s memory of them, saying to “hang on” and “don’t give up.” I believe it was Cloud who said “hang on,” but again I didn’t take notes.  :(  I think Zack was too distracted for the DMW to work properly, not to mention that he fought bunch after bunch after bunch of soldiers with no end in sight. I found a really good comment from someone on The Lifestream.net who explained the significance of the DMW’s malfunction. I responded to his comment, agreeing with him and thanking him (I put myself there as “Sara,” by the way).

LINK:  (This is the title of the post in which I responded to a comment in The Lifestream.net)

The Most Memorable Moments of the Compilation of FFVII - Part 2

I knew what was going to happen, but I wanted to have Zack fight as long as he can, because I wanted to fight as long as I can. I used my most powerful materia, slashed again and again, healed Zack again and again, and dodged attacks. I did everything in my power. There was just too many of those soldiers, and I felt as overwhelmed as Zack must have felt. I personally was fighting for Cloud, but as well as for him, Zack also fought for SOLDIER honor. It was just so touching to be involved in that part of the game, in this part of the story.

The last wave of soldiers was very difficult, with the DMW almost gone. I lasted as long as I did, and then it was the end of it. And then this rookie infantryman just had to walk up to Zack and look down at him, like “I’m going to fill you with more bullets,” and I was so angry. I saw it happen in the original game, but in full FMV from Zack’s point of view, it was so frustrating. There was nothing that could be done. Zack was trapped.

As for the finishing scene, well, I don’t have to tell you much about that at the moment. I always cry when best friends are separated by death, and that was the most painful example of it.   Maybe I’ll do an analysis of the ending scene of Crisis Core sometime in the future, after watching it again. There is so much to say about it and this post is long enough already :D Sigh.

Thus I am in a Final Fantasy VII craze phase.

@,@ 

Finished Crisis Core!!!!!!

A-WHUUH?  OH, THAT IS SOOOO

NOT FAIR, CLOUD!!!

Yes, I FINALLY finished Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII, six minutes into Christmas morning.  So that was 12:06am.  Gosh there's something wrong with me :P just kidding!

I will write my reflections on the game play towards the ending of the game in the next post for Crisis Core.  It was quite the experience, I gotta tell you.  This has been one of the best video games I've ever played.  And I finished this game before even finishing the original Final Fantasy VII.  I still have one more disc to go on that one!

Now I have to remove Crisis Core from the " Video Games I've Yet to Finish" List because I beat the game.  It's just that I still would like to play more of the side missions.  I only got through 39% of those.   This way I can still play as Zack ^,^.

So again, more on this later.  I want to write the reflections on this game carefully.

Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII on December 22

Yay, I returned to Crisis Core again, and I made some progress! The last time I got to the game it was November 19th. Before I began, I played through one side mission and was able to level Zack up to level 50.  I earned a Crystal Bracelet as a reward.

Then I ran around the maze of the Depths of Judgment fighting battle after battle with monsters. I had two more Goddess Materia to find, since I had only five of them.  I needed seven.  After getting lost and refreshing my memory as to where different areas of the cave were, I had Zack Butt go to the Lake of Oblivion.  He was there some time ago, and I remember finding one of the Goddess Materia.  Apparently I didn’t look hard enough, because after doing a thorough search, I found the last two Goddess Materia items: the Sabbath Materia and the Being Materia.  I felt so good about finding these two key items that I decided to fight one of those powerful monsters that appear where those mako fountains are.  I used Graviga like last time and the battle was speedy.

After that, I wanted to check that Zack had good equipment.  I equipped him with the new Crystal Bracelet and the Dragon Armlet. This way he has a high number of magic points.

So then I quickly went to the Portal of Severance and put the final Goddess Materia into the pedestal.  So the portal opened up, and out came this sub-boss, (the same kind of creatures that ate Zack’s hair back in the highway).  This battle turned out to be very speedy because I chose to use the Graviga on this monster too. Heh heh, I can’t say I was cheating; I just had a very powerful gravity materia with which to fight it.

I didn’t get that key for the jail cell that has that giant animal-like monster.  I thought that sub-boss was gonna give it to me.  Zack says before going into the portal, something like “Genesis is just up ahead. I can feel it.” And it gives me a choice to either go on or go back and do something else.  So I went back.  I would have wanted to find out what I get after that beast behind bars.  But I also wanted to go to Genesis.  Who knows? Maybe he has the key to that cell.

I had to stop there anyway because the PSP’s green battery light was flashing.   >.<  Oh well…

Nostalgia: It's the Sonic the Hedgehog Cheerios Commercial from 1994

OMG, I forgot all about this commercial, and now I remember it!  It was great to see it again.  Yayyy!

What to do with my Mega Man X Collection…?

I gave it to Sis.

I’ve played Mega Man X, Mega Man X2, some of Mega Man X3, and X’s side of Mega Man X4. I started playing X’s side in Mega Man X5, and then it just got…well…I didn’t feel like I had to get back to the game again that eagerly. But Sis really misses it. She is as much a Mega Man X and Zero fan as I am…only more so because her favorite Reploid is of course Zero.

It didn’t make sense for me to keep the Mega Man X Collection in my bedroom when I wasn’t playing it. Sis would benefit having the collection in her bedroom and feeling like the collection is hers now rather than needing to ask for my permission to get to it when she wants to play Mega Man X5. As a matter of fact, she is currently left off at the Sigma battles for X’s side. She’ll have to play through the Boss Run again, but those will be no big problem since we know their weaknesses. It’s Sigma who’s the pain in the @$$. Sis also wants to finish playing through Zero’s side of the game, in which he had become a Maverick and X had to fight him.

[Sigh]

We made a trade; I gave her the Mega Man X Collection, and she gave me the Casshern Sins Part 2 Blu-Ray (we each bought one part of the Casshern Sins collection). This way she gets what she wants, and I get what I want, and we don’t have to pay for anything more. Heh heh, we got in an argument about this actually :D What is the Mega Man X Collection doing in my room if I am not going to be playing it any time too soon?

My Re-Appreciation of Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII ^8^

Monday night of last week I suddenly felt like watching all the unlocked scenes from Dirge of Cerberus: FFVII, so I switched on the PS2 and put the memory card and disc in the PS2. I wanted to watch all of them, from Chapter One to Chapter Twelve, but as it happened it was actually 12:00am that following Tuesday morning, so I couldn’t. Each scene has to be chosen individually and each and every scene has a loading time. Ugh. I only reached up to the very beginning of Chapter 7, when Cid Highwind’s airship The Shera comes in to help out Vincent, Yuffie and Reeve.

:D

Rosso: “Hand over the Protomateria, and I will kill you quickly.”

Vincent: “……. [Blinks]…….” (Translation: “No.”)

Rosso: “Not one to bargain, aren’t we?”

I had forgotten how great the original score for this video game was. I got the soundtrack a few years ago sometime after I got the game itself. The composer for Dirge of Cerberus is Masashi Hamauzu. I love the whole score, but I had to find the OST and put some of the tracks in my Dream Pod. Just in case I get the urge to listen to something Dirge of Cerberus-y.

Finally Uploaded Videos to my Channel

I finally got to uploading my Noseless Cloud plushie videos for my YouTube channel.  I can't do it on my computer because the computer in my bedroom is not compatible with the Flip Camcorder.  The software is too new for this old thing.

Anyway, these are only two of the videos, in which I make fun of my Noseless Cloud doll.  There is more, but I will submit them to my channel later.

Enjoy!  ^,^

http://www.youtube.com/user/AmethystAnne001

EDIT:  The videos are a bit stop-and-go at the moment.  Sis says I'll need to compress them and re-upload.