Remember Your Childhood- Final Fantasy 8- Review

  Okay, so the reviews have been pouring out. I've been cleaving through my backlog, and getting to the real up to date games. One of the last games on this list, is a game it took me 15 years to get around to- Final Fantasy 8.

 I have a funny history with this game. For so many years, whenever RPG discussions came up amongst colleagues, I always blindly referred to FF8 as my all-time favorite Final Fantasy game. There was even a point in time when I considered it my favorite RPG. This was lazy on my part. The thing is, that I drew that conclusion off of a very jaded and limited view. Years ago, in high school, my friend Luis hooked me up with a PS One system, with a few games. One of the games he gave me was Final Fantasy 8. He gave it to me with a partially used strategy guide. The game itself came out in 1999, as a continuation of SquareSoft's series. This was in the days before Square Enix. At the time I traded my friend, I was in 10th grade. The Game Boy Advance came out in 2001, and I got the system at lauch, by trading in my playstation, and finding a way to get the extra money. I was underwhelmed with my library, and after several months, the opportunity to get a playstation back, appealed to me.

 Me and my brother used to love to sit in the basement and work on RPG's for long hours of the night. I was always a fan of the genre. When I got the game and took it home, I had the luxury of following the guide, and traversing the many early missions in the game. In fact, I made it to the second of four discs. The strategy guide told you everything you needed to know, and find, in order to maximize your party and summons. I ended up trading the system, with only the memory of what I played, which was only 1 disc and about 30 minutes. I downloaded it off Playstation Network some years ago, and it has been in my backlog until I recently finished Monster Hunter. This time, there was no neat Strategy Guide and cup of tea.

  Final Fantasy 8 uses a very unique casting and summoning system. You have Guardian Forces (GF's) that you defeat and collect, in order to summon in combat to perform a powerful attack. Through these GF's, you can junction magic spells to your stats to increase them, and abilities to your character such as Revive or Devour, as the GF learns them. There is no MP, and leveling up does almost nothing to your stats, even with special bonuses that you unlock later on. There is also no normal money system. YOu get an allowance that is based on your Seed Rank.

 To set the stage, you are a member of SEED. This is an organization that battles villainous sorceresses, and researches advanced technology. Raised on one of the many bases. You rise in rank to take on missions of keeping the peace. According to the level of missions you tackle, you receive upgrades to your rank, which increases your allowance, which is paid periodically. After assisting a resistance force in a city under oppression, you embark on a mission to liberate the people from the control of an evil Sorceress. After defeating her, you find that the truth is much deeper, and the sorceress received her power from a previous one, who is trying to manipulate space and time and destroy humankind. It takes the assistance of a great scientist, to embark on a journey to stop that from happening.

  Visually, I felt at first, that the game was underwhelming for a 1999 game. This is mostly due to the fact that Legends of Dragoon came out slightly before, and had more beautiful textures. However, when considering the magnitude of the content and areas, the game actually does quite well. There are certain transitions and sequences, where cinematic graphics will blend right into real time environments, which I thought was a great touch. The cinematics at the end also make up for it.

   As far as gameplay, that's where I feel the game was broken. And honestly, I almost gave up playing the game completely. As you level up in the game, the enemies get exponentially stronger. Yet, in order to get spells you need to be effective in combat, you have to level up to face stronger enemies. The game, I felt, overly relied on summons in the early goings. Even when junctioning spells, often they didn't do enough damage, and the enemy was so strong, that the only way to survive was to spam summons. Your characters have the ability to draw spells. They do not learn spells. They stock a limited amount, or draw cast spells. There is no definitive way to boost attack power or perform combos. Characters have the usual Final Fantasy Limit Breaker, which is a collection of special moves accessible to a character a percentage of the time when near death. Draw Casting was a savior in the latter parts of the game. Fortunately, a good number of the bosses, possess spells that are effective against them defensively or offensively, that can be drawn. There is a spell called Aura, which boosts a character to be able to perform Limit Breakers successively for a short time. This was one of the many spells that fell flat. Near the end of the game, Squall- the lead character's limit Breaker- Renzokuken, becomes mandatory. Bosses and high level enemies possess HP that is out of the world. Most of them have over 150,000 HP. Normal attacks do 2,000 - 3,000 HP damage, if you have leveled up and junctioned your character for physical damage appropriately.

  Squall's Limit Breaker does about 4,000 damage with each of the 8 or so hits, minus the ultimate strike at the end, which is probability based. I heard about spamming that attack, but even with Auras cast, I was never able to do more than 2 in a row, before the spell just stopped working. I often cast Aura, and got not bonus at all, for no known reason. And all of this happens in the heat of combat with enemies that do almost full health bar damage with each attack. This game has a plethora of status magic, and elemental spells, but it is so hard to implement any of these strategies, due to how over powered the enemies are, and how quickly the battles, and damage move. If you stagnate too long during combat, the enemy will actually attack you at times during fights, as if it were a real time RPG. This felt unfair, as the lists of spells can get long, as you stock up on them in your inventory. If an enemy cast an augmentation spell on themselves, you can cast Dispel to undo it, but with bosses, they still get to attack 1 or 2 more times in that turn, doing massive damage. Then you'll be thinking you should have spent that turn casting damage on them. Each battle feels like a rush to kill the enemy before you get wiped out. It's hard to focus on defense.



  The other thing about this, is that this game is dependent on secrets. I was so disgusted as I read through walkthroughs after starting the game. I read one, and followed it in the outset, but got away from the walkthrough, to enjoy the game naturally. I explore naturally when playing these games, so it's not like bee-lined for the end of each objective. First of all, the first half of the game, sends you from one Seed mission to the next, giving virtually no chance to explore and level up. I had to do my grinding late in the game. The GF's that you need to find to junction essential abilities, are hidden throughout the world. Some of them are in dungeons, some are hidden in cards. Without a guide, it is highly likely that you will bypass a good deal if not most of them. Yet, you can't beat the game, or even compete without them. In the final tower of the game, you have the option of getting them from the bosses you face. But once again, you wouldn't necessarily know that, and could miss some of them there too. The ship that you procure to fly around in, you can get back at the end of the game, but the way I found out was ludicrous. I read a guide, and only by that guide, did I find that I had to go through a certain portal, run up and around a mountain, find a Chocobo forrest, win the Chocobo and ride it out, and walk across the shallows on the shore to the next island, around more mountains, to a random corner with my ship. You tell me how you can guarantee that all players would have found that naturally.

   When facing the last bosses, I found Draw Casting was a savior. However, you run into an ability they have to blow you hard earned spells away. The last battle comes down to attrition, and just taking the bull that comes your way. Don't expect to win the fight, with your toughest fighters still standing. You just have to hold on until you defeat the boss by the skin of your very teeth. I like nail biter boss fights, but this game feels too out of the player's control.

  The music was absolutely amazing. I have not heard a score this breathtaking and memorable in a game in quite some time. Composition wise, and arrangement wise, you can tell this soundtrack was passionately put together. I loved every part of it. The way the recurring motif was  used throughout the game was magical. There was even a scene in the game where the characters perform a concert, and play the ballroom theme song that the hero and heroine met and danced to. You go through the process of teaching the party members each part and solo, and then they perform it to a romantic scene. That theme comes back as such perfect times, all the way to the end, without over saturation. All of the other pieces are just as well written, and worthy of a disc. That added so much life to the game. I don't normally fancy myself a sucker for romance, but this game really does it well.

 Story wise, this was another Final Fantasy in the vein of Crisis Core, where the story was compelling and beautiful. The characters were serious enough to relate to. All of their lives intertwine, from a small orphanage, to a unified battle to save the world. The ending movie sequence was well done, and I think that's where the game transcended to the next level. I was truly blow away by the level of love put into the production quality. The cinematics during the credits, were especially impressive because they were very intricate and high level, which I'm sure was pretty ground breaking at the time. I couldn't overlook the issues, but I was somewhat pleased with the end product. I had labeled this game, the worst one that I had ever played in the last few weeks leading up to my completion of it. I appreciate the story, and the level of open world exploration and detail in the world, but I feel like some of the idiocy which is done for plot reasons, and the combat system itself, takes away from what an RPG is supposed to encompass. I play RPG's to explore, get competent and strong, and get absorbed in the story. You don't get much of a chance to do that in this game, as you are always underpowered. A lot of the cool secrets that exist, you have no way of knowing about without a guide. Then you can't really get that comfortable exploring, because you can never get strong enough to do so confidently. This took away from what I usually like in this game, on top of not being able to have spells and abilities of your own, but rather having to stock them constantly from enemies.


   There is a card game in this game that is played by people throughout the world. Winning strong cards is key, as you can use a GF ability to modify rare items from them later on. There is a quest that allows you to get access to very rare cards. However, winning these games is far from easy. In fact, it's extremely difficult. To lose a good card means, a restart of the game and a rematch. You get cards from some enemies as well. I beat this game for 2 reasons. 1- I managed to get the very hard GF- Bahamut and his card, which I modded into 100 Megaelixirs, which heal the whole party completely. And 2- I stocked up on a strong spell called Meteor, which hits all targest for good damage if you have your Magic Stat junctioned well. As I mentioned, the last boss can blow spells away, and does so all the way through the last fight at random. I was fortunate he didn't blow that spell away. My hero died, and it was a cycle of casting and healing until we just managed to survive.

  Would I play this game again- possibly. Do I see it fondly- I can't say that I do. The game is endearing, in fact, I would say it is beautifully romantic. I just think it falls short of the freedom that RPG's should possess. All in all, it was a great game in it's own right, that you will loathe many things about. I can't bury a classic 8/10

Mayweather vs. McGregor- More Than Meets The Eye

  I have to speak on the Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather fight. I have listened to ignorant rhetoric for far too long, and I am disgusted. I will say that it's good to hear that the deal seems to be nearly finalized. Hopefully, Conor has been active and hungry during these quiet months.

  I always hear arguments to the extremes. Some, angrily defend their position as MMA advocates, and think that Floyd should get KO'd because of his personality, and "what" he represents. Then, you have those who fancy themselves connoisseurs, and honest, knowledgeable boxing minds, who take the stance that Floyd, who couldn't put away a fighter for almost a decade, will undoubtedly kill McGregor, walking him down, and stopping him.


  Before I break into my argument, I just want to make it know to those who know less than they think about this, that there are currently, and have been several MMA champions, who regularly spar with world champion boxers, and hold their own in gym wars, where the real fights happen. When I say real fights, I mean the fact that, in case you don't know a fighter by the name of Spadafora, is known for beating the tar out of the undefeated Floyd Mayweather in sparring. The fighters you see under the lights, are often carefully tailored- especially when they are fighters who are marketed as unbeatable.

  Everyone saw Conor box the crap out of Nate Diaz in both of their fights. The knock on Conor as a boxer, comes from the neanderthal-like reasoning, that they don't know of any pro boxing fights that he has had. Nate Diaz regularly spars with Andre Ward, who is not just a world champion, but considered by some to be right on level with Floyd Mayweather. No one seems to do the math, and realize that if Conor, while undersized, dealt with him pugilistically, it stands to reason, he can probably box. I come from boxing roots. I've gone on record many times stating that the technique, as far as boxing goes, amongst MMA fighters, is usually laughable. They don't throw correctly, usually, and they don't set up, or defend appropriately while throwing. That is a blanket statement. Conor does not have all of those same issues, which is why he was able to handle Diaz in a way not seen before.


  I agree that Conor needs to put the rounds in, because boxing is game of repetition and muscle memory at a point. However, talent and technique are indiscriminate. When I watch Conor, I look at his pad work carefully, and his footwork and coordination. All of his striking talent, is transcendent. I've heard that he had an amateur boxing career in Ireland. But regardless of the accuracy of that, his ability, defense and timing are what they are. Not only can he take a punch, but he is able to avoid one. Max Kellerman made a statement, that fighters with good chins, only appear to have them, and are adept at tucking their chins to avoid punches. He is considered and expert, which is laughable, but no longer surprises me. He has never been an expert. He is the millenial's version of an expert- someone who stands around something for an extended period of time. He has no knowledge of the sweet science itself, of judgment about fighter ability. Jim Lampley dances circles around him, as far as understanding goes.

  Max Kellerman, expert that he is, goes back to the same logic that the layman does, when things get technical. That's why, the MayPac fight from a couple of years ago went down, and Floyd was exposed, and just about outboxed, Max saw what every stupid American fan saw- Floyd schooling Manny. I don't judge a person by how they state the obvious, but by how they respond when you can't. That fight was very technical, and only those who understand technique, and the art of fighting itself, sees what happens in those kinds of fights. A person should not be considered any kind of boxing expert, if they can't tread those deep waters.  But that's the millenial age of 2017.

 Conor has been sparring at Freddie Roach's gym and a few others. According to Roach, he punches like a girl, and I agree with that to a degree. Conor slaps his punches at times, not unlike Keith Thurman. When you have power, you don't develop an urgency to straighten punches. That's one MMA trait that has to be refined in Conor. Movement wise, he is excellent in the ring. What people need to understand, is that a fighter who can escape the clinch, and slip and counter kicks and punches, is going to have some, if not a great ability to slip only punches. Everyone is envisioning Floyd walking Conor down, with no way for Conor to stop his onslaught of punches. If Conor understands the mentality aspect of boxing, that absolutely will not happen. Mechanically, I've seen awareness and execution from Conor in pad work, that rivals if not equals Mayweather.

 It doesn't matter how many years anyone has boxed for. The question is how much have you learned. Maidana learned how to cover up, change levels, and jab. He was not stellar in his technique. He developed stamina, and was used to 12 rounds fights. Was he a world class boxer- yes. Did he have far more years of experience than Conor- yes. Was he a better technical boxer than Conor- not necessarily. Experience is key in boxing, but just like martial arts, it's about how much you learn. It's about how you understand the concept of timing and distance. McGregor understands that very well. That's what intrigues me about him. I'm looking forward to the fight, because it's going to be another reminder to people of how little they know about boxing. Don't be shocked if McGregor clips and hurts Floyd. Remember how long these negotiations have been. Floyd doesn't enter a contract that he doesn't have a 100% chance of victory in. His money and legacy are tied to him being undefeated, so that has been sadly fabricated throughout the latter half of his career. That's something, I've always detested about Floyd, because talent-wise, I really feel he could be one of the best.


   If this was truly a walk-through, I don't think the negotiations would have been this tied up. It isn't just money. Everyone is going to get paid. It's also about the threat Conor poses. Floyd won't step into it until it is assured he will win, and in the end, he's seen it, journalists have seen it, and any honest fan has seen it- that McGregor is historically, a wild card.

Running at the World in You- Genji- Days of the Blade- Review

  You know, it really is something to reminisce about where the eras split in the mid 2000's, to what entertainment, and media is today. I was playing 2 games this past month on the Playstation 3, Asura's Wrath, and the game that I'm reviewing today- Genji- Days of the Blade. Holding both boxes in my hands was remarkable, because Genji was released in 2006, at the very beginning of the system's life by Game Republic under the SCEA banner. That was a very different time. I remember just getting my first car at the beginning of the year, and moving into my first apartment not very long after. In those days, there was such attention to detail in every big project by a company, because there were still  envelopes that every developer wanted to shoot to push past. Xbox had release the Knights of the Old Republic Star Wars series around that time, and followed it up with other games that were in the same vein.

   Looking at the manual and box art, it was so refreshing to see a manual that was filled with depth and informative material. The box art had a very well designed inside panel, that came together in a product that just begged to be collected. Now we fast forward to 2012, when Asura's Wrath was released, and just like the New Super Smash Brothers, while an amazing game, there wasn't that much attention to the box, aside from the very good outside cover art. Genji also marked a time period in gaming history that was unique ratings wise. In the mid 2000's, there was a golden age of T rated games that were released for playstation 2, Gamecube, Xbox, and early 360, and PS3. The prequel to this game, Genji- Dawn of the Samurai, was released on the PS2. There are similarities to the Onimusha series which had success on the system. In those days, the best games that the industry had to offer, had fresh ideas, and were aimed at the mid-level of the rating system. This draws a contrast with the era that followed, where the bulk of the gaming projects are aimed at Mature audiences, with over the top gore being the crave.

  Genji stars the son of the previous game's protagonist, who died completing his mission in the last game. Upon starting the game, I was treated to very good visuals, and a few cutscenes. The game doesn't overwhelm you with this, and has a very balanced menu, with straight forward upgrading options, and an action based party system. You use a maximum of 4 characters who fight for the Genji clan. They have a history of doing battle with the Heishi clan, who are always after the powerful Amahagane relic, held by the Genji clan, to bring the underworld forth, and unleash great power. Each character has different abilities, and a different fighting style. The hero, Yoshitsune is supposedly the most balanced, while Benkei, his monk friend, is the powerhouse of the group, though lacking agility. To traverse the game's levels, you will need abilities like, Shizuka's grappling with here chain weapon, to reach other platforms, or Benkei's ability to kick and move large pieces of landscape. Then you have Yoshitsune's ability to run up and across walls. A fourth character, Buson, is a skilled glave weilder joins, who is the resurrected villain from the previous game. He was very unique, in that his fighting style was very useless, until you master it.

 The game played very smoothly at first, until the heat was turned on. I noticed after a while, that the characters have a somewhat rigid combo execution, and often would be open for counters. There is a lock on button for enemies, but due to the way the character's move, it really didn't assist much. I wasn't really overwhelmed with challenge in the game until after the half-way point. Some of the enemies are very tough, and the thing is that they can take huge amounts of, if not all of your life, if you whiff on a combo chain. Also, there is an animation for getting knocked down. If you don't execute Ukemi, which, if you are a fighting game buff, you know is a technique of rolling to break your fall, you will fall to the ground and be motionless for a good 10 seconds, while the enemy walks up, and stabs you. You can do the same to them, but regardless, this resulted in some very annoying deaths, when the enemy blitzed me.

  What I didn't expect, was the amount of platforming. This game got me there. Like Onimusha, this game is in a diagonal view throughout. Also, the camera moves at it's own will, similar to the Mario 64 nonsense. Sometime the hallway is so tight, you will see very little. And the hallmark of it all, is that you will spend 90 percent of the time, walking towards the camera. This made absolutely no sense. Maybe they wanted to add a fear factor. You can miss a jump and walk into a blow, due to the fact that the world in front of you, that you need to see, is behind the friggin camera.  And there is no way around it. You can't move the camera or zoom it a all. During some later dungeons, I died one time for the funniest reason. There was a room, on an enormous ship, that had traps and moving platforms. You had to navigate to one of the doors in the middle of the room. The way the camera spun, you could easily end up back at the door you came in, and not realize it. Falling brought you to a dungeon at the bottom of the ship, where a room full of random enemies spawned, and blocked the way with a Mashogane gate. Only by defeating them, could you go back upstairs, across the ship, through a room with collapsing floors, through a hallway of agile, and respawning fiends, and back to the room again. There are no item shops. The game gives you a half-way decent amount of healing items, but it's a long way to some bosses. I fell down into that dungeon probably 25 times. I was so proud of myself, because I managed to fight off those hordes without taking much damage, or any on a couple of tries, which I had to. But then I watched my life get lower, and lower, and I continued to miss the jump in the room, due to Yoshitsune's jerky movement. This happened until I couldn't fight the enemy off anymore, and I died before getting to save my progress.

  By the end of the game, I was calling the hero all kinds of retarded in frustration. The camera was annoying, but also the combat styles. The only character who fights like she actually wants to hit her enemy was Shizuka. Using her whips, she spun her attacks in an arc, which helped keep enemies at a distance to get a breather. But she was weak. Even after powering up her stamina and weapons, she didn't have any real power until near the very end. Yoshitsune, had an odd spinning setup to his combinations, that had no range, and left him open for counters often. Benkei was my road dog, and got us out of so many jams, with his charge spin attack. But his slowness and lack of mobility can cost you over time, so I only used him for clean up. Buson became a useful dude, but he had a very meticulous glave style, that required you to keep resetting, and using dash setups, which called for anticipation of you enemies movement. You have to be in the zone using him. However, during the game, when you acquire different weapons for each character, they have different styles for each one, and Yoshitsune developed a fast style with one, that utilized a flowing and fast combo with kicks. While weak at first, after powering it up, it was the life-saver that got me past the last bosses.

  The scenery was beautiful in the game, from forests, to mountains and hills. The game also transistions to a different play style at various points. There are several battles scattered thoughout the game, where you will be battling hordes strategically at a fort, taking out the generals and using the catapult weaponry to tackle ranged enemies. The bosses were very interesting in how they were designed, and towards the end of the game, they became insane. The last few were a true problem. I remember getting frustrated by Genji, but I didn't start controller spiking until towards the end of the giant ship. After you make it through the ship, you fight one of the top generals, and he has several forms. He was very challenging, but with special attacks called Kamui attacks, you can lob off some damage to keep yourself in it. I must say, I appreciated how deep and enormous the levels and world was. This is another mark of the era. You don't normally see hack-n-slash dungeon games like this, pay such attention to environment, if they even have platforming at all. Despite those flaws, it was amazing how much metroid-like back tracking there was. You literally get lost often in this game, and will spend long periods of time looking for items and keys to advance. I appreciate that, because it's a testament to design.

 Where I think I fell in love with the game, is actually around the time you fight your brother, who opposes you suddenly for reasons I won't say. He becomes very powerful, and while he is your older brother, he seems to envy and fear you. It has been a long time since I had such a high octane, and spirited melee bout with a boss like I did with Yoshitsune's brother Yorimoto. There were emotional scenes that surrounded it, and it was very poetic. Controller spikes aside, I really enjoyed how thrilling and fitting that fight was. The last boss, which followed, was nothing to sniff at, and in the end, it used the limitations of your characters' movement, along with an insane health bar, to make it near impossible. At the very end, you are taking damage almost unavoidably, as you strike at the vital spot of the last boss. It comes down to one or two hits, which reminds me of Prinny for the PSP, where you have to go nuts on the last boss to avoid his instant kill kamikaze.

  It was a fulfilling game, that I really enjoyed, and would love to play again. In fact, it inspired some of my subsequent purchases. I went on a shopping spree looking for titles like Genji on the Vita because I enjoyed it so much. I smile at the fact that it received average scores of 6/10 from critics. This is deja vu for me. There have been several titles, like Samurai Warriors for PSP, and New Legends for Xbox, that completely fly over the heads of so called game fans. 2006 was a time of content. If you are a true connoisseur, don't let the scores of the idiotic millenials dissuade you from what is an amazing mark in gaming history. This game deserves its true score- 8.5/10. Now walk into the camera!