Breath of Fire II would probably fall under the category of one of my favorite games ever. Although a long-time fan of the series, I don’t think that I’m being biased about this one!

The first game in the series was released at the same time as Final Fantasy VI. When sitting there reading my gaming-magazine oh-so-long ago, both Breath of Fire and Final Fantasy VI was featured in the same magazine. So after carefully thinking it over, I asked my parents to get Breath of Fire for me.

A decision I have NEVER regretted! Not once!

This was the beginning of a wonderful journey. My first roleplaying game ever that I myself owned, Breath of Fire is still very dear to me, though it probably wouldn’t even rank in a Top-10 list of my favorite games ever. But it opened the doors to the wonderful sequels that Capcom would release.

Now, on with the review.

Breath of Fire II was released in Japan in 1994 for the Super Nintendo. It has also been converted to the Gameboy Advance and can be downloaded from the Wii-shop to their Virtual Console.

Story & Characters

Though it takes a little while to get in to it, the story in Breath of Fire II is one of the best I have experienced.

The first quarter of the game, actually can be a bit tedious. But after a while, a great story opens up, filled with tragedy and sacrifices.

You follow the blue-haired young hero Ryu from childhood to adolescence together with his friend, the doglike man called Bow. They work as Rangers in a small city, taking any odd little job they can. Upon their jobs they find people corrupted by evil and eventually turning in to monsters. To find the root of this problem they decide to embark on a journey around the world.

On their journey, Ryu gains friends and allies along the way, one of course being Nina, the winged princess of Wyndia that is featured in every Breath of Fire game. They battle monsters that come in their way and see the new-founded religion St. Eva grow as their journey takes them to every corner of the world.

The characters in Breath of Fire II are really deep and through. You share their pains and sadness through the game, watching them make their sacrifices for the greater good. You learn of their harsh past, making parting even harder. All to save the world.

Graphics

The graphics in the game are ok. It was nothing special when it came out, and it’s definitely nothing special now. It’s working, rather clean and classic.

Sound

Music never was Breath of Fire’s strong point. And the second part in the series is no different. The battle-tune can get quite annoying after a while and parts of the game actually plays better with the sound off.

Gameplay

Breath of Fire II is actually a rather hard game, and some grinding before continuing in the plot might save you a lot of headaches. There are a few occasions where you are stuck in a single town/area with no chance of going anywhere else before continuing, which can be a bit annoying to say the least if you are too weak for the challenge ahead. The battle system is rather classic with the normal text-based interface. New to the series is the “Auto” function where you just have to press that button to get your characters to attack the enemies until you press cancel.

Summary

Ok graphics, descent sound, and an excellent storyline that will leave you teary-eyed.

Breath of Fire is a great example of a rather mediocre game can be transformed in to something epic and spectacular using nothing but tis story. I can’t count the times I’ve sat in front of the TV, crying my eyes out at the events displayed.

It’s a game that truly touches your heart, if you will let it.

Yesterday I got Devil May Cry 4

Yesterday I beat Devil May Cry 4

One word would describe how it was like playing it; Eyegasm.
Let’s start from the beginning. (and beware that there might be spoilers here too)

Story

Devil May Cry 4 takes place after all the previous three games. A cult worshipping the Dark Knight Sparda gets an unexpected visit from his son (our own and lovable Dante) who shows up killing people. Cue entry of new protagonist Nero, a white haired young man with wicked demon arm. After throwing some one-liners they battle it out in asskicking-style á la Devil May Cry trademark. In the end Nero, who is a member of the Knights in the city, is sent after Dante to capture him, leaving his beloved wannabe-girlfriend Kyrie behind. Big question: Why would Dante, protector of good and slayer of Demons do this to innocent people? *Dum dum dum….*

The story is definitely not as strong as it was in Devil May Cry 3, and maybe not even as strong as it was in 1. But personally, I actually like the story. Somewhere it fills me with a warm cozy feeling when Nero struggles to regain his beloved from the evil clutches of the badguys.

Graphics

There is no other way to describe the graphics as amazing. I would definitely class it as the best graphics I have seen so far in a game. The shading is amazing, making it almost look like you’re looking at a stillshot that’s been colored by hand in Open Canvas in some angles. Occasionally, you will get the feeling of slight blockyness, but it happens very very rarely. All the movements and animations are smooth and Capcom really has shown what the PS3 can do for graphics. The next real benchmark will in my opinion be Final Fantasy XIII.

Sound

All who loved the soundtrack in Devil May Cry 3, will most likely love the one in part four as well. A brutal mix with metal/rock against choirs. The ambient music is usually quite calm and soothing, until demons pop in to the picture and the asskicking music takes its place. Since I myself isn’t very knowledgeable about music, I’ll just finish it off saying it rocks.

Gameplay; Nero vs Dante

Did you think things could get no more asskicking in Devil May Cry 3? Think again.
At this point, I must confess that I am a converted person.

NERO IS SAVAGE!!

It’s definitely a fresh experience playing with Nero. Sure, both Nero and Dante have a sword and gun/s. BUT Nero also has his Devil Bringer arm. That arm makes all the difference! You can grab monsters, pull them to you, whizz them through the air like they are ragdolls to finish it off by slamming them in to the ground.

hard

Brutally

Deadly

SAVAGELY!

I totally love it. Unlike Dante, Nero only has his sword, gun and arm. They never change and he never learns to use anything else. But I do not complain as long as that sexy arm comes along for the ride.

So after about half the game when it switches to Dante in gameplay, you feel almost a little naked. Unable to pull anything close for a wicked smackdown, you instead have to dash towards them. A lot of monsters become harder to beat with Dante as well just because of the arm. Of course besides his trusty sword Rebellion that we all come to love, Dante has a new array of weapons: Gilgamesh, a weapon similar to Beowulf. Pandora, a ‘gun’ that comes from a briefcase andsupposedly has 666 different combinations. And Lucifer, a pair of ‘wing swords’ that lingers in the air.

But, even with these weapon. I would go with Nero any day. It’s kinda like the new PSP Slim & Lite, when first hearing about it you don’t really get the idea. But when you finally try it out and see how those little tiny differences makes together a better machine, you simply don’t want to go back to your old heavy lump of metal and plastic.

Gameplay; Areas, Control and Difficulty

The areas you visit as Nero and Dante, doesn’t bring that much new to the history in the DMC series. It’s pretty much same old, same old. Not that it really matters in this case, although at occasions you might feel like you’re running around in circles a bit. The enviroments are beautiful, as the rest of the game. The puzzles are easy, as previous games, experienced puzzle-solvers will have very little difficulty here. The only ‘remarkable’ area would probably be the end stages where you fight a huge boss, but enough of that.

The control in the game is near perfect, there is little to add or say about that, both Dante and Nero follows every single command with ease, excecuting deadly combo after combo after my will. The only thing, that has been a problem with all DMC games in my opinion, is that it can sometimes be a little hard to precise your jumps and when wanting to climb a pillar or such. You have a tendency to jump a little too far when wall climbing up on it.

If you were expecting something like Devil May Cry 3 in difficulty, then I’m afraid you will be a bit disappointed. Devil May Cry 4 is a challenge at times, but you don’t get that impossible feeling as you sometimes had in part three. I also have noted that racking up stylish points is way way easier in this game, not that that is a bad thing really, I was always pissed off that it was so hard to get SSS ranking for those damn statues in part three.

General opinion

Devil May Cry 4 is definitely a must have for PS3 owners. As for the X-Box 360 people… I dunno, I never liked the X-box so I don’t have one, but I would say it’s a given must there as well as most X-box games I’ve seen appear sucky.

Nero does a fine job as the main character, delivering witty and cocky comments to his victims as he moves along through the story. And Dante, although in dire need of a shave, has his sharp wits intact from the third game. As the fourth part in the series, Capcom seems to have tried to string all the games together working towards a plot that ties it up. If they have succeeded or not, I won’t say. Though even if this would be your first time playing a Devil May Cry game, fret not. Because Capcom has been kind enough to put together a little Devil May Cry story timeline for you. Playstation 3 users can watch this over and over while the game is installed partly on your harddrive, whilst X-Box 360 users I would assume can choose it in the missions menu.

Another thing to mention is that there is a lot of fan service in the game. The women in the game (all but Kyrie) all seem to have gigantic tits and some appear pantie-less. There are frolicking naked Nymphs as well as a lot of jiggle in the boobs-department. Personally, I don’t mind this at all.

So to sum it up:

Go buy the game.

Hellyo.

As usual I’m a lazy fuck and haven’t posted anything here for ages =P

Been mostly playing games and worked as of late. Got my hands on Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles and Phoenix Wright 3; Trials and Tribulations.

Let’s start with the Castlevania.
I love Symphony of the Night. I love Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow. I love Portrait of Ruin.
…But playing Rhondo of Blood makes me remember why I used to HATE the Castlevania series!! Yes, you may come kill me now. I just can’t take it! The music is awesome, the remake looks fantastic but the system itself is so so…boring. I hate the levels, I hate Richter’s slow movements and I hate the fact that I just have that damn whip!
…Although the game is not a complete loss, I got another copy of Symphony of the Night in it. That totally made it worth it.

Phoenix Wright:
When I first was told about the Phoenix Wright series I was skeptical about it. I mean… you play a lawyer, hooray? But It’s a wonderful series! I haven’t gotten very far in the third part yet, but so far it seems to be just as good as the previous ones.

OBJECTION!!! 

Also I await the arrival of Devil May Cry 4 now *boogies* I can’t wait!!

Now, I’ve also done some drawings.
Here is a pair of cuddling sheep

And here is a pic of Sunnie. It’s been a while since she was alone on a pic.

Now, it’s lunchtime. Bye.

Merry christmas everyone!

I’m happy as a bee because I got a PS3 =D
Well, to be honest there aren’t really that many good games out for it… but there soon will be!
Really looking forward to Devil May Cry 4 and the Final Fantasy XIII’s.
Currently playing Assassins Creed on it, it took a little while, but the game is really growing on me now. I love it.
Also got Enchanted Arms, it’s very japanese so far, but I’m sticking with the Creed for a while longer.

Here’s this years christmas pic, it’s a little different but I really like how it turned out. It might be a little hard to understand, but it is part of my story.

Here is art

…actually very happy how it turned out =D

Today, I bring you some pictures, taken by my cellphone.

We all remember those good old days while playing with Transformers, Turtles, He-Man or whatever was the fad at the moment. Today, I have grown up, though finding the figurines once more at one of my friend’s place brought back many memories of goodiness.

Of course I had to do something about that.

…And after having tainted your brain with these pics. I give you me. Who said carrots can’t be fun?

A remake of the Dreidel dreidel dreidel song… by me =D

I have a little penis, I made it out of clay.
when it’s hard and ready, with penis I shall play.
Oh Penis penis penis, I made you out of clay.
Oh penis penis penis, with penis I shall play

It has a lovely body, it’s shaft is hard and thin.
When it gets all tired, it drops and then I win.
Oh Penis penis penis, I made you out of clay.
Oh penis penis penis, with penis I shall play

Just some sketchest I made.

The first one of my tiefling-pirate Evan Mayflower.

The second one of my “new” Wren.

And the last one of my “new” Sita.

I must admit that I am proud over my boyfriend, the works he does are amazing. I always want to show his pics to my friends at work, and it really is a special feeling saying “my boyfriend did this”.

I just wish he would admit his skills himself.

*hugs*

Above title is extremely internal joke with me and my Roleplaying friends.

Made this:

…oh yeah… work sucks THE BIG FAT HAIRY ELEPHANT BALLS!

ta ta~