Come With Us Now on a Journey Through Time n Space

Posted : 1 week, 5 days ago on 15 August 2008 07:56 (A review of Chrono Trigger)

Chrono Trigger is a game that all true RPG fans MUST experience before they can consider themselves fully fledged in the genre as a whole. It is an epic game that spans all of time.

The characters in this game are brilliant, all fantastically written and cast, as they are all beings from separate periods in history. Their time frames run from 65,000,000 BC through to 2300 AD as does the plot of the game, where Cronos and his associates battle against the evil Lavos who seems hell bent on destroying existence.
They are not your regular generic characters either, there are the human characters, Crono, Marle and Lucca. Then there is the nobel knight "Frog" who used to be a man, but was turned into a Frog by Magus, another enemy of the gang. Another character is Robo, a robot from 2300AD and lastly Ayla the cave woman from 65,000,000 BC. They may sound a bit "silly" here, but trust me, the game is perfect and the characters are memorable.

Something which I specifically liked about this game, is the fact that you can firstly, complete it at several different stages, therefore giving the game a fresh alternative. Most RPG's force you to log at least x hours before you can complete it. Chrono Trigger says heck, if you can beat Lavos straight away DO IT! If you want to wait until the end, let the superb story unfold, WHY NOT? Its entirely your choice! There is the New Game + if you fancy trying out all the possible endings etc.
Another plus is the battle system, like most RPG's there are moves players can do, like Limit Breaks from Final Fantasy. However what sets this apart is the fact you can combine characters, Frog and Chrono can combine in an attack for example to cause more damage, or you could mix Robo into the mix and have all 3 do a move. Again you can mix and match depending on your party, and you get different results/moves depending on who you use.

There are a lot of sub-quests in this game, which means it has longevity. There are boxes littered throughout the game which you can not open the first time through, meaning if you are a perfectionist you are already certain to need to play it twice to get it all done. There are a lot of extras in the New Game + so it is well worth it.

Of course, playing this you are putting up with Super Nintendo quality graphics, and a quite old school feel. But that adds to the quality in my opinion, as this game doesn't rely on its looks, it relies on what it has inside. Musically it can boast being scored in part by Nobuo Uematsu, Final Fantasy legend. This in mind, it explains why some of the scenes are composed so magnificently, and how the mood is set precisely to how it should be. The sound is superb considering this is 1995 and the SNES is weaker than your average DS/PSP!

You wont be disappointed with this game, its easily available online as a ROM if you look for it too, which is how I discovered it, and now I consider myself a huge fan. I have just recently read it is due on the DS late 2008 early 2009, which means it is going straight on my Christmas list! I must own this game.

I definitely recommend this to all RPG fans, but also to retro gamers, and to anybody feeling like they lack a special game that they can cherish. If you own a DS then what better opportunity to see what i mean than now? With our hand held consoles becoming so advanced now days and companies releasing all their classics to a new audience, its prime time to be catching up on all you missed when you were younger/unborn.

Good luck, and Thank me when you're done :)


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Perfection

Posted : 4 months, 1 week ago on 19 April 2008 04:35 (A review of Final Fantasy VII)

Voted the greatest game in history on gamefaq you can understand why I am a little confused to discover Final Fantasy 7 has not even made it into the top 3 pages on Listal! I presume a lot more people have played this than have rated it otherwise there is something awfully wrong here!

Final Fantasy 7 is the defining game of the playstation era, it is the most epic and awe inspiring game ever to be released and over 10 years on it is still as popular as ever.

I and several people I know have played through this game over 6 or 7 times, its story never gets old. There are perfectly crafted characters, fantastic scenes and a wonderful adventure, and there is just so much you have to do to fully master the game!

I recommend this to anybody with eyes, if your blind dont talk to me, otherwise get the hell onto your local boilermakers, or whatever shop you have to buy it in, put it into your Playstation and sit! Play it for the full 30-150 hours you should spend on it (at least 60 to do it justice, though the actual main story can be completed in a lot less) You will not regret playing this game, it is pure brilliance.

Japans greatest achievement is making this game, their finest minds were creating this, every other technological advance they have made since was playing second fiddle to its creation. All final fantasies since have been good, but none are truely on par with this game. Rumors of a remake had people drooling but thus far it is unlikely. It is a game that has spawned numerous sequels and prequels in the past year or two which is great considering there was nothing for a decade after its release. The graphics may be the only worry in this game, but that should not matter to you once the story immerses you. Remember, you are playing a game from 1997!

So, Stop reading this review now and start playing the game! I am appalled that you haven't. If you have, you will know what I mean. No Playstation should exist without having had this game inside it.


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FF in epic proportions!

Posted : 5 months, 2 weeks ago on 16 March 2008 06:13 (A review of Final Fantasy XII)

Utilizing the fact it was created in a time when disks were capable of holding vast amounts of data FF12 is the most epic and vast Final Fantasy of the series. Its towns and villages are HUGE and the world map IS a world, unlike FFX where you had "big areas" but it felt like a small jaunt.
The story in this is a little more adult than the previous titles, i think it decides that being a serious franchise is far better than selling out to the new generation of idiotic children we are spawning. Its like watching real films after years of watching teen flicks, you suddenly realize that you have been missing out on something brilliant all along.
The characters in this are great, the voice acting has improved leaps and bounds since the days when Yuna laughed in FFX and all you heard was "ha....ha....ha" The only trouble is they INSIST on having the main characters voice be that of a whiny American adolescent. There is no need for it!
This game is challenging, more so than previous ones. There is an insane amount of scope to the game, and you can basically form the characters in any way you want. You get to chose the weapons, the magic, what each character will do in any given scenario. I love the fact it gives you so much control, you get to adapt to each surrounding and figure out your own style of beating the game. (For example, i had my characters using mainly sledge hammers to batter their way through their enemies for most of my game, reflecting my personal preferences. Others perhaps would prefer to use bows? Or rely heavily on magic. The choice is entirely yours!)

There is so much to do in this game that il be honest i pretty much skipped most of it for sake of completing the story first. So now i am replaying it as i need to tie it all up, the game is worth replaying.
If you played through 9 and 10, and didnt like them (i liked them a lot personally) you owe it to yourself to set things right with Final Fantasy 12! It is a lot better.

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One of the top Final Fantasy titles!

Posted : 5 months, 3 weeks ago on 8 March 2008 07:15 (A review of Final Fantasy VI)

Final Fantasy 6 completely stepped up the game for the final fantasy series in my opinion, if you look at 1-5 they are pretty linear stories, following a set path and leave very little to your own creative devices. There is always plenty to do in an FF game but Final Fantasy 6 got the ball rolling on another level. This game has a whopping FOURTEEN main playable characters to it, each having at least some form of back story that could be explored, or ignored, wether or not you wished to take the time to find it. Along side this you also had the option to decide just how many people you wished to take on the end of the game with, adding more challange, as there is a point during the game where everything goes awry and your party becomes separated, and it is generally up to you who you want to seek out and pick to join you in the final battle. The characters are very 3 dimensional in personality considering there are so many to concentrate on, but the character that i enjoyed most was the man named Shadow, who has quite a lot of story if you can find it. This game is a total must for any true Final Fantasy fan and must be played if you have only played 7-12 as you are missing out! The graphics etc are of Super Nintendo quality which is nothing to be sniffed at, but it has been revamped and improved a bit, and there are some nice up to date computerized cut scenes to be watched and enjoyed throughout. This is one of my favorite games, i felt compelled to replay once i completed it as it is on par with the excellency you expect from Final Fantasy.

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Greatest Super Mario Game Ever.

Posted : 5 months, 3 weeks ago on 6 March 2008 06:04 (A review of Super Mario World)

Mario world, oh how this takes me back to my youth! I spent countless hours playing this game in pure liquid heaven. Could never make it past castle 8, Wendy's Castle, so i would have to cut through Star Land to get to Bowsers Castle, i love that i remember this! This game had absolutely everything which makes Mario wonderful, Yoshi is there in all his Glory, Luigi is involved, the Princess is kidnapped as usual. Theres not much mention of Toad which is a bonus, and the entire Bowser clan is there to be defeated!! The worlds in this game were immensely fun, for its era it was quite a large game i believe, i mean it was certainly the longest scale game i played before the age of 10 (This is before the time of CD based games...although the Mega CD wasnt far behind!! FF and other RPG's existed though which would have been longer of course) I would play this game forever if there was a format i could access it on now, if you grew up without this game, or Super Mario 3, then you have had no childhood im afraid.

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A Very Underrated FF Game.

Posted : 5 months, 3 weeks ago on 6 March 2008 05:57 (A review of Final Fantasy X-2)

A lot of people judge FFX-2 on appearances, but after playing it through almost twice (during my first play i had to restart 3/4 through due to PS2 malfunction!) i really found a lot to like about this game. It has a bit of a girlish element to it at first, considering the only 3 characters you get are Women, and at the very start they seem to be singing for a living which i thought was lame. But After you get about 20 minutes in it is just like FFX but it expands upon things and finishes the story. There are some brilliant elements to it such as the spheres you can find throughout the game, these add depth to this story and also to FFX's story, there are parts of the world that you were unable to explore in the first that are open in the second. It wraps things up for the story, explains a lot of odds and ends, and it is a challenging game.
It is the first FF to show you a percentage of how much of the game you have managed to achieve also, certain parts can only fully be done by playing the game under New Game+ But the bulk of it can be done in one play through, you get rewarded with extra scenes, and a better ending the more effort you put into playing it and eventually get to find out what happens between Yuna and Tidus. You also get to play the game in the particular order you chose in some cases, as more often than not you are faced with a list of 10-20 different places you can go, and each one will add a little more to the story, give you a little more work to do, and add more to your % of filled games. There is a hell of a lot to this game, and you can play it as quick or as in depth as you like. Perhaps some of the concepts used in this could have been better used in other final fantasies, as its usually the style to never revisit the same ideas often, so in that case it is a shame that this game gets the small respect it does, as i think they had something with it, its equally as special as all final fantasy games are, just not epic or stand alone.

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