Breath of Fire IV pt 2

Author's Note: This is being written months away from the game. Coming back I realized I never completed this. So here goes nothing.

Chambra. It's freakin' desolate. There's a bunch of workers that are trying to clean out the city from the "hex" a magical based weapon that apparently causes purple smoke. And DEATH. Or poison or something. So after some wandering around, no one wants to help you. Because they're normal freakin' people, helping complete strangers clean up their town so they can live there, and not helping 3 random dudes get through town.
The view switches to the outside of the gate, something lurking closer....
and closer.....
and closer....
and BOOM!
Enter Ershin, The asexual robot that speaks only in third person. So after persuading said robot to your cause, the rush through poison town is real. Trials and tribulations of typical JRPG fare await and you end up on the other side. Also, you're chased by a dragon, worm, wyrm thing. See what I did there?
You end up at a dam. Ryu and company cross it. Dragon is still there and breaks the dam with the party escaping just in the nick of time. There's a cutscene that involves the cliffs and seeing the dragon thing again. I don't remember why. It happens.
The next town is Kyria. It's freakin' awful. Think of the Hunger Games compared to Battle Royale. Now think of Home Alone compared to Kyria. Pits of doom, bear traps, explosives and cages. What the actual..... anyway,  super lame.
After pulling a few stints of B&E you enter the Mayor's house and get trapped in a cage where Ryu has an ever so eloquent conversation with a Parrot. Main Character? Check. Intelligence? Swing and a miss.
After said discussion, the team goes to the nearby woods to find Mr. Mayor. But, puzzles galore await. In this instance, you gotta chase a bird pig thing into the forest to find this jerk. After the arbitrary ::mic voice activated:: BOSSSSSSSS BAATTTTTLLLLEEEEE::: you go back to town, and speak with Senor Mayor. His helpful tidbit? Yeah, sure bro, there's an underground tunnel that allows you entrance to the town of Synesta.
Thanks guy....
Synesta is a lovely desert town, that has seen better days. Torn apart from war, there is now a run down orphanage being run by a nun. The kids run amok and apparently have free reign.
There's a not so optional minigame of hide and seek where you have to hunt down the little vagrants.
I may not remember as much of this story as I thought when I started this post, but you know what I do remember? These mini games SUCK. This was a huge pain in the ass.
After hunting down all the kids, you go and realize one of the little miscreants is hiding in the abandoned dungeon. After finding the dog-boy, he tells you that Nina's sister had come in to the orphanage to help. I totally forgot that the whole premise of this game started with looking for her. Because the amazing party to save the world obviously needs to be everybody's slave first. What happens next you ask?
You fight a musclehead boss. Because. BOSSSSSS BATTTTTLLLEEEEE.
After some serious pwnage you talk to a mob boss that dresses like a pirate and he sends you on grunt work. Go steal back stuff that was stolen from him, then clean up his warehouse. All while leaving poor Nina with Marlok. There's a lot to be read from the context provided here, but I'll let you figure it out on your own should you care.
I can't believe I'm still writing this. I'm definitely going to be more diligent because this is getting ridiculous.  To be continued

Breath of Fire IV Part I

So you start this game as a winged chick (Princess Nina) and a Man Tiger (Cray). They're rollin' across the desert (smokin' endo sippin' on gin and juice)  on a landspeeder ala star wars that's slightly more pirate-y. I'm into this. Neat atmosphere, and the change from the Dragon dude to birdy chick is day to night contrast. Some talking ensues about finding her sister. I forgot her name. We'll call her TalonClaw.

I might have gotten the order kinda twisted. This is from memory and I played this part like a month ago.  ANYWAY, the ground starts shaking and OUT COMES A..... giant.... fleshlight dragon. SAIL AWAY! Oh noes!! The ship crashed. And is broken.
Well, Mr tiger needs to stay behind to guard the crashed sandflier so bandits don't get it. (I despise those Jawas. Disgusting creatures). Let's send the princess to go find help. Because royalty knows how to interact with the lower echelon. This totes can't go wrong.
So anyway princess birdfeather travels through an expansive desert . She comes across a merchant that gets sucked into a sink hole. So she looks over the edge to see, and FALLS IN. Then she gets attacked by a scary dragon-werewolf looking thing. She has wings. She fell in a hole. A HOLE.

Anyway, the dragon roars and flies off. She notices a naked dude. (The main character? who I'm 73.67 percent sure was just birthed from the dragon thing. Anywho, he gets dressed and doesn't really know his shit so Nina's all, "you're a completely perfect stranger that I don't know, but SURE come hang with me it'll be mad netflix and chill." They leave and travel through this giant ass desert of death (there are monsters and bugs and lots of SUN).
During one scene Nina plummets like a brick down a cliff. Ryu jumps down after her, only to pass by here because she used her wings. They bond.
Using the moon as a framing device, the camera switches to this badass emperor dude (Fou Lu) that's a dragon who's like a billion years old. Older than Christ would potentially apply, but that involves Christ being in this universe, and as of yet, that's not super feasible. This dude is awesome. I killed lots of T Rexes like they were nothing. Oh... I'm the legendary Dragon of Doom. I also speak in shakespearean tongue.  I'm being hunted by the imperial army of the time like I had the hidden plans for the Death Star. The woods are set on fire in a hope that *that* will kill me. I mean, C'mon, if I'm a super old king dragon dude, who the hell thought it was a good idea to be like, "let's use fire!!" That's like giving a chemo patient hair clippers for a congrats on losing your hair from radiation present. Bad Ass God Emperor gets trapped on a rope bridge. By Yohm General of the Imperial Army who uses an ifrit style summon to knock me off the bridge...fade to black...

Back to Nina and Ryu... they come to a town, and after some wandering due to both camera and control issues, I end up in a bar. 'Barkeep fetch me some sandflier parts!"
Nah bro, this is a bar. We serve beverages. and food.

*fuzziness of the memory for a bit*

You get in a fight with some dude, and ultimately end up going behind the bar to the "black market". Worst black market ever. Dude literally in the supply closet of the bar. Cops would NEVER think to look there. He's all like, go into the desert ship grave yard and get your own stuff. So, you do.
(I was wrong, bar fight happens after you collect the parts and come back)
BOSS FIGHT!!!
You're literally fighting a genie from the bottle lookin' guy. KICK HIS ASS BRO!!!
ftw.

Ryu jumps in and attacks Boss Genie's master. After slashing at him, you and Nina GTFO quick!
The party finds themselves in the middle of the desert being closed in by Imperial troops. How the hell did the army find you to be able to surround you? This seems like a serious misuse of manpower. A merchant that you helped at the bar comes to your rescue and smuggles you out to a town called Chamba. Deus Ex Machina.

Chrono Trigger

Something about this game keeps me coming back to it time and time again. I remember the first time I saw this being played at my buddy Dan's house back in the mid 90s. I had arrived at his house, and when I walked into his (gaming room? den?) He had just entered Magus' lair. He play it for a little bit and then lives went on. I do remember seeing a complex leveling guide that he used to mark off how close he was to obtaining the next skill techs. Looking back on it, it was pretty silly but back when I was 12? 13? It was pretty awesome and impressive.

I've played the countless iterations and re-releases (yes, I really did just type re-re and no, not in reference to Rhianna), and for whatever reason, I come back to this game every so often. Something about the *silence is golden* rule for the protagonist, or the idea of time travel ushers this game as awesome for me. Perhaps it was the countless hours I spent in my bedroom playing this in middle school (which was a traumatic experience in it's own right with my parents going through a divorce), but the amount of times I find myself thinking about the music, art, and general everything of this game is borderline psychotic. With that, I recently found the DS copy of this game, and now that I have a 5 month old daughter I'm limited to my gaming but am thrilled to play this for the 20 minutes here and there that I can.

It's somewhat nostalgic that I think about both this game and the anime Iria.... Iria is an anime that I happened to see at 4 or 5 in the morning back when DBZ was airing on basic cable and only "mature" anime (as in blood and guts and awesome) appeared on the Sci Fi channel before the stupid spelling change again during middle school. I never thought much about it after until a random Game Informer had fan art of said anime which caused me to pursue research until I was able to find the DVD series at an FYE near where I lived. This series relation to chrono trigger was merely the fact that I remember the protagonist (Iria) as a female Crono in reference to the hair. Needless to say, Chrono Trigger is a source of great entertainment that I hope my daughter can one day appreciate. Even for a little while.

Gaming Dialog: Final Fantasy Tactics, SOTN, and Toilets

I'm still unsure of how I want this to proceed so experimentation with delivery and timing will be a must. At the request of a Mr. Bob (name has been changed for purposes of anonymity), I present you with another aspect of gaming through the eyes of the most important person in the world.....ME. (Ask any emergency responder...)

Tonight we start with a classic.....

Final Fantasy Tactics.

Interestingly enough, Bob (see what I did there? Dropped the formality because he's a friend. Although now that I think about it, Bob doesn't suit him at all. I'm going to change Bob to Pancho. Even though he's not hispanic providing diversity is always a good thing....) introduced me to the series back in 7th or 8th grade along with Castlevania Symphony of the Night.  Back in the day, I hated this game. During an era in which I had fallen in love with JRPG classics such as Chrono Trigger, the Final Fantasy series and Xenogears, Tactics was a complete change of pace as it entailed having a tutorial that involved what seemed like 200 pages of reading. With yesterday's post I ignored the tutorial for good reason; FFT had forever scarred me from tutorials that can be skipped. With Pancho's assistance I was able to get through the first few maps until Dorter (Read main story battle #3...I think).

This map destroyed me.

Only now, 13 years later was I able to dominate this map and all of the hellish minions that inhabit it. Courtesy of Beardface for being a walking encyclopedia of all things Tactics-related. What I didn't realize was that being a squire SUCKS. Certain skills are helpful in the beginning but they are sehr squishy. As it stands, I have a relatively limited attention span when it comes to just about anything and therefore dying is not something I'm going to stand for especially in a tactical based strategy game that I had no experience with before. But, now that I have overcome this 13 year barrier the maps are much more palatable and the game has become a 15 hour experience that I am enjoying. Just got to chapter 2 and have been grinding a little too much. Ramza has become a mighty Chemist that will help quench the thirst of his allies with potions and revive the fallen who have been slain from the knave's hand. Or pretty useless and going back to some monk w/ heavy armor action. ::shrugs:: Either way. But, the grinding is getting tedious.

Next up Legends of Grimrock

Second round of this. Learning more with every mouse click. This game has alot of potential and definitely screams old school. The auto map feature presents an easier time but still the exploratory aspect is interesting. Another snail, this time I have armor sort of...a loincloth and some sandals spread amongst the two warriors. Something I learned the battles are time based (waiting on cooldowns) while the enemy can spam attacks... not a great thing to underestimate. Also, I've learned that unlike many JRPGs.... apparently all my characters have had their eyes gouged out and have the upper body strength of a small hamster. Nothing says preparedness like doing zero damage to a giant oversized snail with teeth.

The more I continue through the depths of this subterranean castle I realize that whoever designed this thing to begin with (in lore) must have been very bitter. Cells, death traps and zero toilets. On the other hand, this is something that has always bothered me about games. Where are all of the bathrooms? Be it dracula's castle, or old school RPGs, the bathrooms were nowhere to be found. Also, the grocery stores had some very questionable sales practices. Weapons and armor and curative "potions" and "elixirs" available, but no basic necessities like toilet paper (again bathroom hygiene), food or water. This is necessary stuff people, and granted that may not be the most entertaining form of revenue for a video game at least pretending to have standard stuff can make the game potentially more immersive.

But, this digression has gone long enough.  That's it, what's your thoughts about this?

Gaming Dialog

Consider this more of a narrative review of some form.

Legend of Grimrock.

To start I vied after this game after playing about 40 hours of Class of Heroes and looking for something along a similar vein. This harks back to some old school RPGs and was a must buy courtesy of a very generous steam sale.

Hour one begins with the standard fair following prompts and creating a party. As I'm super creative after a long day of work, I had a human warrior named Leader, a minotaur warrior named MooMoo, a Lizard rogue named Lizzie and an insectoid mage named....Buzz? Splat? Memory fails me in the current moment. Being the stereotypical guy reading of the instructions/tutorial neglected. After about five minutes tutorial was referenced as necessary to figure out how to attack the giant slug like thing that appeared before me. Party of four (eaten? melted by mutant snail slime?) to death.

Restart.

First puzzle of the Dungeon.

.Spoiler.

Confusing and frustrating as hell without clear guidance.

After backtracking through previous progress x4, guide consulted, solution for puzzle was actually in the vicinity of initial puzzle rather than in the immediate space in which said party existed. Frustration abated.

File saved. Off to play Motorstorm RC on Vita.

Motorstorm RC

After mandatory tutorial (can't skip unfortunately) races broken down into micro segments in which primary focus was to earn 3 medals per race, per map. Most of the races I played consisted of various types of RC (That's remote controlled) cars that varied in size, shape and color, but little in the way the cars felt to handle. 24 medals down, 3 achieve-no- trophies later... I got to a particular map involving passing a set number of opponent cars in 40 seconds. Obscured vision, opponents getting in the way and ice resulted in much user frustration with a potential for crying. Doctor recommended prescription: Time away from racing, possibly watching Lydia writhe in pain from walking into the same trap over and over again. Plus beer. But that's downstairs and I'm in no mood for the spiral staircase of doom.

Skyrim

Steam booted up to play Skyrim, but Lego Batman 2 caught attention.

Lego Batman 2

Running Robin in the Batmobile over and over again is hilarious.

Half an hour wasted, nothing accomplished to progress through game/whoring of achievements(steam version).

Skyrim

After wasting time, I booted up Rim of the Sky along with a few great mods that need to be mentioned. First and foremost is the Master of Time and Space which allows the user, Dovahkiin <----nerd speak for main character....in other words, you. Or me? Us... but not at the same time. I might add that upon release of Skyrim (11.11.11) any parents who named their child Dovahkiin (okay, okay it really means "Dragon Born") won free games from BethSoft for life. I think. Anywho, Master of time and space allows the main character to slow down time to an incredible degree while retaining the ability to move at standard speed. The other mod, involves a bow that upon firing an arrow, the enemy (BAD BAD GUYS!) go flying. In a sense, kind of like Icarus trying to reach the sun. Or that whole, what goes up must come down sciencey thing. If you haven't noticed, I digress just a bit. For those of you that haven't put it together, slowing down time and firing a dozen and a half arrow at a particular bystander (Riften thief anyone?) watching the arrows creep closer, and then toggle speed to real time makes for quite the entertaining exit for the thief. Perhaps he landed on the Death Star moon mod. (That's no moon....)

Alas, bed calls for no particular reason. More to come? We shall see.

A new leaf

I've used this blog very little as it has served my interests not at all. However, with a newborn on the way maybe this could turn into a running record of her life...to a limited degree because there are all sorts of creepers on the web.

US Code: Title 17, 107. Limitations on exclusive rights : Fair use.

US Code: Title 17, 107. Limitations on exclusive rights : Fair use.

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include— (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

This is awesome.