1282 Corleone.

by

The other day I finally broke down and bought a set of hex keys because the Teen was really annoyed that I hadn’t fixed her guitar controller. I didn’t get the kind I wanted because Wal-Mart doesn’t have nearly the range of items they once did, but I got a set that will get me by, and they were relatively cheap. Once I got them home it was a simple matter of opening the casing and cleaning out what appeared to be fresh soda from the keys. This earned the Teen an admonishment that she protested. In light of her recently broken iPad I still felt justified in telling her to keep better care of her things.

Seeing as today starts a new month, and it looks as though my patreon total is going to stay above $400, I owe said patrons another chapter of my story. I’ll write it up and post it there first. After a bit I’ll post it here for everyone. I hate to keep it from other readers, but it’s only fair that there be some benefit to being a patron… Apart from the comic anyway. Regardless everyone gets to see it eventually, so whatever. Seeing as there is also at least one person carrying more of the burden than everyone else I need to come up with some kind of reward. I guess I need one for other ranges of patrons too. I’m thinking of doing a limited run poster of Brooksie to send to patrons who give X amount of money. Then making a new one every so often that they will get as well. I’m not sure what the cost of that would be, so I’ll have to look in to it. It doesn’t make any sense to spend all the money on presents when the idea of it is to improve the comic in the first place. I have too much of a headache right now to think any harder about this right now anyway…

I made the Teen her own Nintendo account the other night since you cant have more than one 3DS with the same ID. (Because Nintendo is fucking stupid as hell sometimes.) The only reason I did it was so I could download demos for her to try out. A lot of the time she thinks things look awesome, gets insane over them, then is disappointed when she actually plays them. Which is what happened with her xmas present from me this year. Call Of Duty: Ghosts, or whatever it was, had no zombie mode and was boring to her. Which made me feel like a chump for wasting my money on it. With the demos she can get a taste and I can tell if it’s worth the purchase. So far she has decided she wants Tomodachi Life. Which I was surprised by, but whatever. Cooking Mama and Fire emblem I have not heard back on. Honestly Fire Emblem was probably a lost cause from the start, but I like it so much I thought maybe she’d find a new type of game she could enjoy. I almost downloaded Bravely Default, but I held off so she wasn’t overwhelmed by choices. Also I think it’s boring.

It’s kind of sad for me that I’ve gotten sick of Square/Enix games. They were practically my whole adolescence, but now they just seem like recycled garbage. After having no real desire to finish Final Fantasy 13, or whatever it was, I came to the conclusion that Final Fantasy 12 was ACTUALLY my final Final Fantasy. Not counting Final Fantasy Tactics: GOTR, which was a fantastic game that I loved. I think it came out after 12… Anyway, I guess I’ll see what comes down the pipe. If it looks like they stop sucking so much maybe I’ll just call this period the dark ages and forget about it.

Oh, in case any of you have a WiiU or 3DS, but don’t get the Nintendo newsletter, there’s a really good sale on Capcom games right now. The 3DS Resident Evil, that actually plays like a Resident Evil game, is on the list for $9 or there abouts. Well worth it if the demo is anything to go by. It was impressive and a price that low makes even I want to return to the series. There’s also Ducktales Remastered on the WiiU, which I’ll probably get. It looks really good.

Anyway, just thought you should know. The kid wants me to play zombies with her, so I’m going to go do that.

16 Comments

FFXII is easily my favorite of the series even though Square doggedly maintained the fiction that Vaan was the main character when it was CLEARLY Balthier. I also didn’t finish XIII and have zero interest in XIV or any other MMO so I guess I’m just left waiting to see what the next game brings. More recently, I enjoyed the heck out of playing through KH 1.5 as it had been many years since I had played the original.

12 didn’t really have a “main” character. Penello was just tagging along, everyone else was “main”. (Well, Vaan was for a while then just became tagging along too. Everyone BUT Penello had some time in the spotlight….

(The rest is more at Jackie)
That said, I did finish 13. Didn’t do a lot of the side stuff, but I did enough to have a Genji Glove for the final boss bit. It’s kinda annoying actually. Part 1 was annoying…actually, I hardly remember that bit. Part 2 was really annoying…but part 3 was a joke. While you can only actually hurt him while he’s Staggered……then you can go obscene damage. (Especially with a Genji Glove. Killed him in one Stagger.) The only thing that really makes it have any difficulty I think is the part where you have a Doom counter.
I tried 13-2. Got like, maybe an hour in before I heard that the Crystarium actually has a specific way to “max it out” this time around, and want to start over but haven’t gotten to it. That and it pisses me off that….well, your third character is a monster you collect/train. There is an Omega for this. But it’s pre-order only. -_-

Anyway, from my experience, I’m not 100% sure of my favorite. 7 is the “well-known classic”, and is obviously good. 8….no. Just no. 9 was awesome though. (The superboss, Ozma, is a luck-based fight though.) 10’s gameplay was good but the story was meh. And obviously 12 was awesome gameplay. (Actually, I should probably put work into that LLG I was doing on 12. Got quite a bit into that. =D)

Though if you count KH games, I’ve only really played KH2, but it was pretty damn good. If I had to describe the gamplay, I’d probably say some kind of cross between FF12 & FF13, only better than how that makes it sound. (By rather a lot, actually.) Also played KH2FM, which has a buncha new bosses. Which have some interesting stuff. (That said, Terra is a complete pain in the ass.)
(Oh, and the “WInner’s Proof” keyblade has an ability which is useless any way you put it. Don’t want to level up? Then just be on Critical Mode and stay level 1 the whole game. Want to level up? Can’t use it until 99 then.)

I used to be a big Final Fantasy girl, but I agree with you about them rehashing old stuff without really doing anything new and enthralling. Heck, they’re probably making more money these days re-releasing ports of their old games for various systems. I know I’ve bought FFVII and VIII at least three times by now.

These days the only game series I really and genuinely look forward to are Persona and its various offshoots. (Shin Megami Tensei if you’re nasty.) Whatever allegiance I had had for Square Enix these days sort of goes to Atlus – while it’s not die-hard, must-have-every-title, in general they tend to release a variety of stuff and it’s quirky enough with enough ‘different’ elements that it tends to keep me interested. YMMV, of course, and I’m not an action, arcade/platformer or shoot-em-up type of gamer, so that will affect whether this is a tip or not of interest to you!

I can’t stand the whole Call of Duty Zombies thing. First off, zombies in general have been overplayed. Second off, with no actual end, just larger waves of stronger and faster zombies it seems like a step backward (and don’t get me wrong, I love Galaga to this day, but I love it with a hefty dose of nostalgia. Which isn’t also to say there isn’t room for an infinite wave style game along the lines od classics like Galaga or Pac-Man, but for something I am likely to spend $60.00 on rather than a quarter for three lives I’m significantly less interested in an ephemeral ‘high score’ than I am in completing whatever story objectives let me see the end cut scene.). To me the better … I don’t know, minigame isn’t the right word. Um… bonus game? Anyway, the better bonus game is the Aliens hive demolishing thing off ghosts. And yeah, it’s only a half step over infinite wave, but at least the backgrounds change every few waves.

Also: Making some online top ten list of high scores seems less like something to achieve than something that happens when I fail to do any of my more legitimate projects. Damn. Maybe I actually am growing up. It would certainly explain my urge to yell at kids to get off my lawn…

I’m so torn whether I like Reggie and Thomas conversations more than homoeroticjokefuntime with John. It’s all so splendid either way!

I’m constantly wondering when they’ll actually release the “Final” Fantasy, but I suppose the success that’s come with belching out the same thing over and over again just keeps the squeenix blood pumping somehow. It’s a fascinating trip to look back at the old games and see how well things have aged though. I can play FFIX again and again like reading utterly childish fantasy novels without any hesitation, but things like VII and VIII with their unpleasant modern resonances just sicken me when placed next to their jaded graphics.

Still, loathe as some people may be about the recent choices made by squeenix, it’s hard to argue with the sales numbers with Final Fantasy the Hallway (13) closing in on X in terms of overall sales. Bravely Default crushing it’s Vita rival Persona 4 Golden is also worth mentioning as the game was well received overall in spite of being (at times) a loathsome and repetitive bag of wank. It begs the question of what gamers actually want, and honestly I don’t really get it myself these days. Heck, I’m playing Earthbound on the SNES because I’d rather be doing that again than playing new releases on Steam lol.

Its weird to see insight from a character that makes such an effort to create and believe a illusory world all his own. Maybe the fact that parts of his brain can see both worlds explains why he so often jumps to anger (its got to piss you off to be vaguely aware of exactly what you are doing but unable to do anything about it because the captain of the ship is looking at a whole different ocean!)

There’s a Disney cartoon where Donald Duck is constantly having accidents and blaming it on “Fate.” “Fate” actually narrates the cartoon and snaps; “There he is, blaming ME for HIS carelessness!” and shows exactly where Donald made the mistakes that led to the accident!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.