New Years Gaming and Holiday Thanks

Hey guys. It is the New Year. 2012. The year we are all suppose to die. I welcome it. Because in the end I will be playing Games, reading Manga, and watching Anime till we all pass. Though I doubt that will happen unless it is a self fulfilling prophecy.  I got a crap ton of games this Holiday Season. My thanks goes to all my family and friends who provided me with an awesome gaming winter. Here is a list of the amazing things I got. With a lull of JRPGs and fighters out there I scored mostly action games and Western games.
1. Batman Arkham City
Amazing game which I beat within three days.
2. Deus Ex
This game has single handedly brought back that city crawling Blade Runner feeling I got from games like FFVII. Thank you Square-enix and Edios. Also thanks to my wife who got me this game.
3. Metal Gear Solid Risk Board game.
I have yet to play this. It is huge with nice detailed figurines of the Geckos and Outerhaven.  Once I have the time and the people to play this with I'll probably do a review.
4. Infamous 2
I got the first game as a free download from Sony for the "We are sorry we were hacked thanks for sticking with us" promotion that came with the start of PlayStation Plus. Needless to say I was hooked. This game was one I had my doubts about but after I found out that it wasn't just a mindless city crawler with super hero powers and found out that it had a mature storyline with great gameplay and action, I couldn't put it down. I beat it a few days before I got the second one. So far there are a few big differences, but they feel like changes for the better. I love it.
5. No more Heroes: Heroes Paradise
Hate me as much as you want, I haven't played the original, nor have I had time to start this PS3 remake. I'm dying to, but I must game with the thought of finishing titles.
6. Zelda Skyward Sword
Wow this game looks amazing........yet again if only I had the time to fit it in.
To round out the rest of the list there was Enslaved (that Ninja Theory retelling of Saiyuki), Mass effect2, Rage, and a few others. As you can tell I am full of new games lately. All of which have to unfortunate go on the back-burner. .
All in all I want to give a shout out to my Family for giving me so many awesome titles to play through.

Christmas gaming goodness

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy Newyears to all! I hope everyone had as good of a Holiday season as I have (minus throwing up from bad pizza on Christmas morning). I'm sure many of you got gifts for the Holidays like I did and lets hope that all of them were something special. But enough talking about you guys now lets talk about me and what I got.







First I got a DS XL mario bundle with Mario Kart DS. All I have to say is once you go big you'll never go back. Surpisingly the Mariokart DS is a rather solid game with plenty of retro tracks for us Snes and N64 players. The DS XL has cool art work of Mario's power ups on the front of the case.




Second I received two games (more as graduations presents.) These games were Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals and Magna Carta 2. The Lufia game is a remake of the Snes/Super Famicom RPG Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals. These games are known as Estpolis Denki エストポリス伝記 in Japan. This remake is much different from the original as it is now a puzzle based action RPG much like Zelda or Ys instead of a traditional RPG with turn based battles and limited animations like the original. I'm only a few hours in at this point but so far the graphics are amazing, even if the English voice dub leaves a bit to be desired.




Magna Carta 2 is a sequel to the Playstation 2 game Magna Carta Tears of Blood. Anyone who has mentioned the game in my presence before knows that I have a really blood curdling hatred for that game due to its amazing graphics, good story and the worst gameplay of any RPG. However I will save that for another day. Magna Carta 2 , so far, has great graphics, a pretty decent story save for some cliche's and an addictive battle system that is a mixture of Final Fantasy XII and Infinite Undiscovery. So far I rather enjoy the game though the fact that all quests are done in an MMO fashion puzzles me, but it is a Korean developed game.

Lastly I received Final Fantasy: Four Heroes of Light for the Nintendo DS. So far ,though only a few hours in, I love this game. It has the classic story and atmosphere of all those games from 1-5 but with enjoyment of a Jobclass system that feels like a mix between Final Fantasy III and X-2. Moreover the battles are rather well done. They may be a bit too old school for some people's tastes as heroes can only hold fifteen items and have six abilities at once including spells. This aside the personalization of characters and their progress through their levels has never been this under the players sole control as much as it is in this game. However, ignoring all of that, the graphics are the best part of the whole package. The simplistic cell-shaded art-style of these world is simplistic but some how more detailed than the top graphics accelerated PC and PS3 titles. Small things like the wind blowing through the grass or roses growing throughout an evil witch's castle makes this game's world extremely charming. I know this ended up being a small review but I can't help but to give this game my highest recommendation. Every RPG and Retro gaming fan should check it out for a fresh start to the Final Fantasy series.

EYE ON JAPAN 1

EYE ON JAPAN

Here is a new article series I am starting up called Eye on Japan. Here I will talk about Japanese gaming news, Old school gaming in Japan and Japanese culture (mostly as it pertains to gaming)

Its sad when a facebook app mmo is better than a main title mmo. As you all probably know by now, me being the square-cultist that I am, there have been a few struggles and disputes between me and FF14. Feeling a bit spurned I started to wonder if Square still had my back or if I would have to rely on spin off titles to keep my fan boy rage stirring. Unfortunately the later is true but there has been some great spin off titles for us rabid fans. There is the new DS spirit Sequel to FF1 called Four Heroes of Light, which may I add for old school purists is a great way to go.

After that there is a new Facebook app by Square to promote the Four Heroes game which in itself is a good stand alone game. With the feeling and art style of FF tactics you almost feel as if your visiting Ivalice all over again. Its really a "welcome home" kind of feeling. Unfortunately being a pay to play kind of game, despite its lack of fees there are plenty of times when you will have to let your character recharge action points in order to continue (meaning logging off) or will not be able to participate in a quest due to lack of premium items ect. However these aside, the multi-player battles, epic bosses and cool treasure hunting aspects are more than addictive. If your willing to stoop down low enough to play a facebook game but want to keep your dignity as to not play main stream titles like farmville (looks to Harvest moon and sheds a tear...."I'll never forget you even if the whole world does") or if you are dying for another game that feels like a part of the ivalice alliance then look no further than Knights of the Crystals.

LINK:

http://apps.facebook.com/knightsofthecrystals/

Square News!

In other Square Enix related news the third Parasite Eve game (Third Birthday) looks to be turning out nicely. There are a few quirks for those of us who are huge Eve fans. Aya is now 39 and borderline giving a whole new feel to the term cougar. She also has many different outfits at her disposal this time, all which come with their own special skills and weapons, such as Lightning's clothes and gun-blade from FF13 and a maid outfit.... Enough time has passed plot wise that the mitochondria have taken over much of the world causing it too look like a barren wasteland much like that of Gears of War. It should prove to be interesting. If anything you should check out Square Japan's site for the game as it has awesome backgrounds to download which I am boasting right now.

Dissidia 2

Square recently announced that the next Dissidia game will include Vaan from FF12 and Tifa from FF7 as playable characters. So we get some Whiny pretty boy action and big bouncing boobs, so all can be happy.....right, at least Tifa is still wearing her old-school PS1 outfit. This of course was in addition to the announcement that they were adding Lightning from FF13 to the mix.

Other Japanese Gaming News

In other Japanese gaming news, Hironobu Sakaguchi , the father of Final Fantasy, and his team at Mist Walker are near done with their new masterpiece Last Story. Here's hoping it is interesting, though most of his target audience are ex- and still Square-enix fans who more than likely aren't too keen on the Wii and its lack of hardcore JRPGs. Maybe they will be intict to pick one up due to his marketing ploy of making a special edition Last Story Wii, which if rumor has it, will come with a soundtrack.

Last on the list of news there is a new Pokemon.....wait thats a Digimon game. Yup a new DS Digimon RPG that is set to imitate Pokemon in some ways as there will be two different types named after colors (Red and Blue). Digimon Story: Super Xros Wars Red and Blue will be coming out spring 2011 in Japan.

See ya on the Flip side!

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