A bit over ten years ago, I sat in front of my tinyass 14″ TV and gawked as the intro to Final Fantasy VII rolled up before me. I was completely stunned from frame number one. Hearing the music pump out as the camera shifts to an overview of Midgar… Several hours later, I put the controller down, sniffling as I had just witnessed Red XIII’s ‘reunion’ with his father. No other game has managed to capture me so completely before.

2008: I’m standing in a GameStop store somewhere in California, looking up at Crisis Core standing there in the shelf, mocking me as if to say “Ha ha! I can’t buy me because you preordered a copy already on Amazon!”

To hell with that!

With a slight bounce in my step, me and my boyfriend retreated to his home. Our spoils: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and the Official Strategy Guide (Yeah, I collect guides), and although it’s not quite as absorbing as the game it’s based on… it definitely kept me going.

 Story & Characters

Crisis Core takes place a few years before the events in FFVII takes place. You get to follow Zack Fair, a young and upcoming 2nd Class SOLDIER. Shinra is currently busy with the Wutai War and Zack and his mentor Angeal is sent out to do some missions there. When suddenly one of the First Class SOLDIER’s disappears, taking a number of soldiers and weapons with him. Zack and Angeal are the ones who is sent after him.

The missing SOLDIER is Genesis. (Genesis is a new character in the FFVII universe, only having a small part in the spin-off Dirge of Cerberus. In the japanese version, Genesis is voiced by the famous singer Gackt). Genesis, Angeal and Sephiroth were best friends in SOLDIER. Genesis and Angeal even grew up together. But when even Angeal goes missing after a little while, it falls upon Zack to locate the missing SOLDIER’s.

As you progress through the story, the little puzzle-pieces come together. The reason for the defect from SOLDIER, Sephiroth’s insanity, Zack’s fist meeting with the young man named Cloud and their escape from Niebelheim together.

There are several new characters in the game, Genesis being one. There is also Angeal and Director Lazard who is the director of SOLDIER. Otherwise it’s mostly a sweet reunion with old characters. There are many sweet moments between Aerith and Zack. Cloud, of course as well. You get to see Tifa, Tseng, Hojo and even Yuffie.

Graphics

Maybe it’s me being old, but when I think of handheld games, I mostly imagine 2D graphics of such caliber like the later SNES kind. So seeing something as visually stunning as Crisis Core on a piece of  plastic that’s 8″ long… that just blows me away.

Ok, sure the PSP is a powerful machine, but Crisis Core takes it to an extra level. The cutscenes are all FMV so of course they look good, I mean, the machine DOES show movies on it. But when it comes to the in-game graphics. That’s amazing. The many expressions and the softness of the design in their movements is jawdropping. It feels like playing Kingdom Hearts 2 on a tiny tiny screen.

Sound

There are many recognizable songs in the game, so fans shouldn’t be disappointed. The game’s Theme Song “Why” is preformed by Ayaka. At first when I heard it, it didn’t really catch on to me. But when you’re at the last moments of the game, it definitely does!

Gameplay

The battle system in Crisis Core is more action than the usual Final Fantasy games. Still, I think it works great. It takes a little while to get used to but battle’s flow on pretty nicely when you get the hang of it. It would be nice to see a similar adaption in a ‘real’ Final fantasy game (though FFXII was pretty close really).

Crisis Core implements something called a DMW (Digital Mind Wave), which is basically a little slotmachine that gives you different bonuses depending on what it rolls. It might seem a little random, but it works fine for me.

Beside the actual story of the game. You can participate in different missions sent to you by Shinra. The 300 different missions can tend to be a little repetitive as it’s mostly about dungeon crawling and defeating a boss at the end. But I still kind of like them, they might not contribute anything really to the story, but it’s a nice way to get yourself some levels and new cool items.

Overall Opinion

Crisis Core is a great game.

Playing a game, where you know how it’s going to end, doesn’t at all ruin it in the case of Crisis Core. I know that Zack’s fate was already sealed as soon as I pressed the “New Game” button, but that doesn’t prevent me from not crying like a baby when he lies there on the ground.

The replay value of the game is kind of low in my opinion, the actual game is very short, maybe roughtly +20 hours if you don’t emerge yourself in the missions. And even though I love the game, I somewhere wonder if it wouldn’t be better to just have made one long movie out of it.

You could always go watch Last Order, but then you’d miss out on a lot of the game.

However you see it, if you are a fan of the gameseries, you definitely don’t want to pass up on Crisis Core. It’s basically what all the fans would want from a game (except length maybe). Even if you haven’t played FFVII before, Crisis Core would actually be a good place to start, unlike Dirge of Cerberus where you really had to have played FFVII if you were to understand the characters.

Now… we only await the remake of Final Fantasy VII.

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.

It’s been three years since Final Fantasy X-2 was released. More than ever it feels like playing a movie. A very beautiful game with a different battlesystem.

 Graphics

What else is there to say than “stunning”? Although as for myself I am deeply in love with Nomura’s work.  Akihiko Yoshida doesn’t exactly do a bad job (Who didn’t love the artwork in Vagrant Story for example). The dungeons are richly decorated and there are details in every little corner of the world. Though probably every screenshot I have seen of the game makes me throw up a little in my mouth, when sitting there in front of your TV, experiencing the moment. Visually, it doesn’t get better than that.

Sound

There are no memorable tracks for me from Final Fantasy XII. But I still love the music in it. It’s more “mood-music” Than anything else. Maybe I’m not as hardcore as I used to be when playing Final Fantasy VI and VII, where every little tune stuck to my brain like flypaper. There isn’t really anything as rushing as the battle music in Final Fantasy VII. Or sad heartaching moments as when Squall and Rinoa are alone in the Ragnarok in space. At least nothing that I remember.

AND YET! I still dare to say that the music in Final Fantasy XII leaves nothing to be desired. Everything is still there.

Battlesystem

The battle system in use is something new in the series. Unlike before where you would go to a spcial battlecreen, Final Fantasy XII handles battles directly on the field, much like any old adventure game, only by using almost the same kind of familliar commands we are all used to. The characters have been gifted a cmall amount of AI. And you can completely customize the settings for each and every one of them by using something called “Macros”. using this system you can either battle enemies completely by manual hand, giving each character one command at a time (as usual) Or you can preset Macros to do all the fighting for you. All you have to do is get close enough to the enemy for the characters to spot them. In fact, by exploiting the system, you can even make the characters fight for themselves, gaining experience and leveling without you even being near the game.

While Final Fantasy X had the Sphere Grid. Final Fantasy XII has the Liscence board. Working in almost the same manner, you can unlock skills as your characters progress. The major differance is that you also unlock the ability to use certain weapons and armor. This is slightly annoying, because you can easily make “the wrong turns”, leaving yor party to suck at that critical boss or the like. Of course you can always backtrack and gain more experience to buy that shiny sword of the overpricing merchant down the road.

The Characters

Maybe I’m getting old and is stuck in nostalgia-mode or something. But I found the characters particularly flat in this game. I do miss the really in-depth characters from previous games in the series. Who doesn’t remember the heart-breaking moment when Locke brings the Esper Phoenix back to his loved one, or when the decision for the throne was made by a cointoss.

After playing the game, I know hardly anything about either Balthier and Vaan. Maybe this was a deliberate move by SquareEnix to be able to push out more sequels, but in my eyes this was a faliure. I think that if they want people to buy them, they need to bring back the sweet feeling you had when you first played the original game. Just look at Final Fantasy VII, sure it’s probably the most spoken-of game in history, but it’s not because the characters were shallow and you had to wait for either Dirge of Cerberus, or Crisis core to find out more about them.

Also, I feel that Final Fantasy XII lacks the bad-guy. Sure, Vayne isn’t exactly a nice guy, but he lacks that extra edge like Sephiroth and Kefka. Heck, even Seymour had it.

The Story

It’s a world full of politics, on good and bad. A princess that wants to save her country from the evil Empire (sounds familliar?). It’s a game of power and the will to stand up to the opressors. Though the game does lack the particular “Doomsday” Feeling. The main character, Vaan and his best friend Penelo get caught up in an escalating adventure that takes them across the nations. With the sky pirate Baltier and his loyal companion Fran, they bind up with the princess Ashe and the Ex-Captain Basch.

The game’s length is on an average side, boarding on short. Though with all the extra  little sidequests you can make, it will probably take quite a few hours to see all of the displayed areas of Ivalice.

The World

Ivalice is familiar to most SquareEnix players that have engrossed themselves in the Tactics series. There are a multitude of different races, and of course, Moogles and Chocobos on display as well. The so familiar Judges are in the cast as well. Acting like generals over giant armies and take their orders from the Emperor and his family.

Summary

In all, I do like Final Fantasy XII, though I may not praise it as much as others do. It is most likely deserving of a replay, since i think that you miss a lot of key elements in the first playthrough. I think that it is definitely a must-have in the collection of games. Though vivd Final Fantasy users are definitely in for a change.