What Shinra News Already Said, as well as What They Didn't Say

Okay, so a lot of Final Fantasy XIII-2 stuff has come out, along with even a Game Informer article (I don't remember if it was a review or a preview; it was most likely a preview) on it. I have been gone from this blog for quite a while now, and I do apologize for that. My life has taken a lot of my concerns since I finished FFVI. As a matter of fact, that FFIII playthrough I am working on is going to be put on hold indefinitely. When I can find the time to play that game again, I'll do it and I'll continue the playthrough. But for now, I've been mostly concerned with my college's orientation next week, my violin practice, my work at my city's performing arts center, and so on. Plus, Skyrim came out, and that game is pretty much the best video game that is out these days (Type-0 isn't going to be counted as anything since it isn't in America yet). A lot of my life has been taken by Skyrim already. I never found the time to take a look at what's going on with the series that I love (except for Type-0. I've kept a close eye on that game since my absence. Unfortunately, there was nothing of importance released within the past month, until now). However, if there are actually any Readers out there reading this (I know there aren't, I can see so on my blog's stats. To be honest, this blog is really more for myself than anything), they should already know that this blog isn't going to get updated that much. It says so in the first post that I wrote here.

Anyway, so Shinra News has been flooded with information on FXIII-2. I was going to take a look at Game Informer's article, and then I ignored it because all it was was a look at the game's first few hours of gameplay. I am not going to read that nonsense. On Shinra News, it seems that the culprit of all the XIII-2 articles is some user by the name of FFGirl. While it's nice to see someone who cares about the sequel of the controversial FFXIII, it would be much nicer to see other people who care about the series in general. Nobody has said anything about Type-0's overseas confirmation, and that news is probably a week old already. It does say that on Type-0's wiki page, but it should say it on the news since that is big and important. All I see on Shinra News is stuff about the DLC for the game and the soundtracks and all that. Who cares? Let me go over the news and show you all which articles are important:

(Oh, by the way, I just went to look and now they say that Type-0 has been confirmed for the West. Nice one.)

• Final Fantasy V and VI to Be Released on North America PSN: This informs of a release. Always important.
• Final Fantasy XIII-2 North American Collector's Edition Announced: As with the other posts of collector's editions, this is somewhat important because this shows what to expect to get when you pay extra money for the game.
• Game Informer Magazine Spoils Beginning of Final Fantasy XIII-2: This is important because if it wasn't there, I would've read the article and the game's beginning would've been spoiled.
• Official ESRB Rating for Final Fantasy XIII-2: Okay, this really isn't all that important. It's still nice to know, I guess.
• Final Fantasy XIII-2 New Artwork and Gameplay: The gameplay demo shown is all that really needs to be seen.
• Final Fantasy XV Could Possibly Be an Action RPG: This is important because this gives readers information from the makers of the game on what to expect from future titles (also, HELLZ YEAH! NO MORE LOADING BARS!)
• New Final Fantasy XIII-2 Special Set to Air in December: This is important for anyone who wants to listen to more information on the game.
• Japanese version of Final Fantasy XIII-2 Now Complete: This post informs of a game's progress in development.

And that's about it. Everything else is about screenshots and whatnot. Sure, they may include some tidbits on the gameplay of the game, but other than that, it's just a bunch of pictures to look at. These should be featured somewhere else, in my opinion. I guess it's not too bad to post them in the news, but there needs to be other stuff there like the articles I listed above. I would become a Shinra News reporter, but Blue says to stay away from that wiki and he seems incredibly scarred by it, so I am not going to do it.

I actually don't have too much to say about XIII-2, though. Actually, I don't really feel like talking about that game right away. I am going to run through the Type-0 internet articles and make sure there is nothing of actual importance to talk about. Then I'll go over the Versus XIII stuff, because I think there is some new information out on that game. Then, I will get back to writing about XIII-2.

On Type-0, it is said that there will likely be a sequel to the game. I already knew about this since Square had planned to make a little spinoff series going like Type-1, Type-2 and so on. However, if you didn't know about this, I guess you are now informed on that. Also, there is a second demo out for Type-0, but that's old news as well. I think the second demo might be the same as the first, I am not too sure. As for Versus XIII, there isn't much out other than that the game will have Moogles. Everything else on the interwebs is about XIII-2, so I guess I have no choice but to get back to that game. But first, I need to look at the new articles and videos that have been released on that game.

I'm sorry, I can't find a good video. I keep finding this one where the guy is holding the camera sideways. There was another of a press conference, and the translations were awful. If you want to see it for yourself, here's the two videos. I will admit, the articles that show screenshots of Sunleth Waterscape were impressive. I missed that place; I am going to be so glad to see it again.

Final Fantasy Type-0 Overseas Release Confirmed!

You know what, I don't care if this picture becomes overused. From now
on, this picture will be used every time some good news is released.

So yeah, that's about it really. Here's the link to the article confirming this bit of information. Don't bother going to the Final Fantasy Wiki anymore, they only care about FFXIII-2, which looks great but is nothing compared to this game right here. Did I mention this might be the best Final Fantasy yet?

Since I have some duties to this blog to fulfill, I am going to write about all the buzz going on around XIII-2 shortly.

Type-0 Is on the Rise

What a better way to break the news than Rem's cute face?

Final Fantasy Type-0 sold half a million copies in Japan. If those numbers aren't convincing enough for Square to release the game overseas, then I guess I am going to have to go over there and sit down with them to get them to do it. The game sold 472,253 copies, to be exact, making it the fourteenth best first-week selling game in Japan of all time (I think). Other sites are now putting up the question of how it will do in comparison to sales of other games, but that doesn't seem to matter to much. Famitsu gave it a 39/40; in other words, a near perfect score. I believe that Square is just waiting on fan reception now from the Japanese audience, but what I really think is going on is that Square is just toying with all other audiences. I am sure that they will release this game overseas. There's just too much going on with this game. You have the fact that it's considered almost perfect by Famitsu, you have how it is one of Square's best first-week sellers and ranks up there amongst their top PSP games, you have the fact that the game itself is incredible with the potential of being the best release yet, you have Rem, you have plot spoilers in the game's trailers. Then there are the hundreds of trailers and screenshots that audiences overseas were able to get a hold of. There is even a Game Informer article on the game when nobody even knows if it will ever be released (making it the first game I've ever seen in Game Informer that hasn't been confirmed for a release outside of Japan).

Then again, you have that twitter update from that guy who said he was voicing King. I guess that should give away the whole thing.

Damn it! I hate it when you know that a game like this will be released, yet you still want the developer to certify that certainty. Ugh! SQUARE, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, CONFIRM THE OVERSEAS RELEASE! This is what happens when you tease a manic!

The Answer to Our Prayers

BAM! Type-0 is going to be released overseas. Nuff said.

This means I get to watch in horror as Rem dies. It's like the time I watched Amadeus and shed tears when Mozart died. Then again, the game is probably going to be so perfect, like the movie Amadues, that I will find Rem's death to strengthen the whole of the game. I'll probably miss her very much, but we'll see when the time comes.

Final Fantasy Type-0: Best Final Fantasy Yet?

Square refuses to allow embedding on their newest video of gameplay footage from Type-0, but that's not going to stop me from putting it here. I have my ways of doing it. I do not take credit for the video as it is a video that Square Enix created.

This
game
looks
amazing.

It has everything I could've ever wanted in a Final Fantasy. A full group of characters, not just four or six. The game has a seemingly intricate storyline, even though I am not so sure since I cannot understand Japanese. It basically has all the basics of an RPG, but there's more.

First, above all things, are the live action battles. I am talking Kingdom Hearts fighting here. Gone is the little loading bar, because in this game, movement across an open-field environment is now a dynamic feature. In FFXIII, I liked how the characters and enemies moved around on the battle screen since it felt more realistic and quick paced than just standing there waiting to attack. In this game, it seems that concept has been taken to full lengths. The battles seem even quicker and more hectic than the fights in Kingdom Hearts. Basically, every battle in this game looks like one of the really tough boss fights from Kingdom Hearts. However, the director of the game says that it won't be too difficult, so I guess I shouldn't have to worry about that.

Well, damn, I forgot everything I wanted to say. The opening clips were interesting, showing off boss fights, new environments and even sniping! Cool! What I found notably interesting was the scene with the fight against a dragon... the one at some castle looking place. This game really looks like it is going to have a wide variety of settings, so it's like every theme of Final Fantasy history put into one. Or maybe not, but whatever, the world looks great. They then show off what the Suzaku Magic School and how interestingly intricate it is. This game also shows off the summer costumes, which reminds me of this interesting note that the DLC in this game is going to be free. I can only assume that means the DLC won't be amazing or anything, but still, that's cool. That's like getting DLC for Fallout without having to pay a cent.

Seriously, though, that world map is awesome. What a way to bring back the good old days of the Final Fantasy series when it was at its best. There also seems to be other vehicles than chocobos and airships. I doubt that they will be as prominent throughout the game, but that doesn't really matter. I still find it awesome that this game has some knockoff Magitek Armor. That has to be one of the coolest things Square ever designed. Also, the world map is dynamic in the sense that there are actual places that are astoundingly different than just a patch of sand for a desert or a slew of mountains for a snowy area. In this game, you actually see individual landscapes and towns on the map, making it all look very intricate. This is really cool. To top it off, the world map even turns into this massive war battlezone, incorporating elements of an RTS game. It looks good, but I wouldn't know for sure because I've never played a RTS game. I heard that Revenant Wings, the fail FFXII sequel, was a terrible example of an RTS.

Soon after that display, I got to see Rem fighting two of those yeti things I fought in the demo of the game. This time, she is donning that cute summer outfit, and she is throwing her knives around like boomerangs! That is so cool! I think she also gets to poison enemies that way. Rem is just simply a badass. It's too bad she dies. What? Are you complaining about the spoiler? It's not really a spoiler, they show it in the trailer for the game. I know, it's total nonsense. After watching Rem, I got to see some gameplay of Deuce, which was interesting to me because I never got to see what Deuce was like in combat. Although I find the use of a flute as a weapon questionable, it is pretty cool to see the music she plays turn into magic, and the flute even makes little tunes! That kind of reminds me of when I thought of a superpower in which I make soundwaves do anything, from grow trees to destroy buildings. I thought that was really cool to see. The game then shows Cater in combat, whose magic guns seem to be interesting. Even more interesting to me though is the boss she's fighting, which has that dynamic movement I mentioned earlier and it even has strategy to fight given the little part where its eye opened up and revealed itself to be a weak spot. That kind of reminded me of the Metroid bosses that you have to find the right place to shoot them at. Following that is a fight against two behemoths. Simply awesome.

Then I saw the guy who is the monk of this game. Then I saw an interesting boss battle that was taking place in the dark, so I couldn't see the boss very well. That is a pretty awesome effect right there. Then, I saw the most awesome thing ever: airship battles that you actually control an airship and fight it out! Cool! Then the Marlboro makes an appearance, and fulfills the Final Fantasy standard of being massive. Then I saw a cool clip of having to use a turret on an airship to fend off some dragons. Then I saw some fights against giants. Then I saw Machina get killed instantly, making me wonder if that is actually scripted into the battle or if that's really a cheap move the boss can use. I then got to see the Summons in action. I saw Shiva, which I've seen a thousand times already. Then I saw Ifrit, and then I saw Diabolos, which I mistook for Chaos in another post I wrote here. Then I saw Bahamut! Nice! What I found very interesting was that Bahamut dons a similar appearance to his FFX appearance. I then saw Odin, who seemed fun to use. Then Diabolos does a cool thing where he turns into a bunch of bats and kills people by flying around. Then I screamed like a schoolgirl when I saw Rem use Meteor! Simply awesome! Then I saw Deuce do some interesting move that looked a lot like Ultima. Then I was finished off and killed when I saw Bahamut use Mega Flare to do 9999 damage on a boss. AMAZING! Now this is a gameplay trailer! Then, at the end, I saw a woman with no pants on walking around humming something. This game has everything! I wonder what the point of showing that was. Probably just to get more guys to get the game.

So from all that, we have blood, we have sniping, we have Kingdom Hearts combat, we have stylish moves, we have a flute that plays music and kills people that way, we have a dynamic world map, which also has an interesting RTS mode. We have a cool little hub/Hogwarts ripoff where the characters accept missions and stuff. I think there are towns, too. We have chocobos, we have Magitek Armor, we have actual airship battles. We have free DLC. We have alternate costumes for characters, so that way Rem can look even cuter than ever. We can restore magic by blowing up the corpses of enemies. We can hopefully still pan the camera so that way we can look up some school uniform skirts. We have classic summons, and we even have limit breaks! Plus, we seemingly have some form of nudity, bringing me back to the not so long ago days of when I played FFVI and found so much more sexual innuendo in that game than I could possibly count. So from what I've gathered from this trailer, this looks like Crisis Core and Revenant Wings done right.

And there's still more! There's much, much more than what that little trailer had to offer. This game apparently has a mode where you put your PSP on Sleep Mode and your characters will "study," or in other words, AUTO LEVELGRIND!!!!!!  Finally! Square found the way to make the game do the level grinding for the player! YESSSSS!!!!!! I remember when I read in one of Blue Highwind's walkthroughs and he said something about how great it'd be if Square created an auto levelgrinding system, and I figured it'd never happen, but lo and behold, this game delivers that system! I know a thousand fans are probably going to complain about how "cheap" that would be, but they're a bunch of idiots. I hate it when people get pissed off over something being cheap. If it was allowed to be in the game, it is certainly not being cheap. Being cheap would be taking a glitch and using it to exploit the game, like that petrification glitch in FFXII that renders bosses completely useless in a fight.

Besides, if you don't want to be "cheap" and have your characters study (I like how that's the term for auto levegrinding), you can always go to the arena. Yep, Hogwarts I mean Suzaku has an arena in it where you can fight battle simulations and gain experience. What makes it even more awesome is that if you die in the arena, you won't die in reality and you get to keep whatever experience you made in the arena! Getting back to the airships, if you can't finish off the dragons with the turrets, you'll have to fight them in combat, which should be pretty cool. Last, each character has their own personal moogle sidekick! CAN THIS GAME NOT GET ANY BETTER!

With all that awesomeness, I seriously, seriously think that this will probably be the greatest Final Fantasy ever. I know, I know, I am really going crazy here. Chances are, this game might not even be released outside of Japan, which will ultimately suck hard. But come on, how long can FFVII really be the greatest Final Fantasy ever made? It's great, but until a remake is made, I just don't see it beating out the next ten Final Fantasies, if A) the series even continues to run that far, and B) if Square Enix doesn't keep screwing up. Thirteen wasn't too bad, to be honest, but Fourteen seems horrible. I just can't wait for this one. I feel kind of weird saying that Type-0 will be the best Final Fantasy when it's A) just a PSP game and B) not even a numbered title, but I have to take all of what I see about its gameplay into consideration. If the storyline is actually good (and it should because Rem dies), then that will pretty much put Type-0 up there as the best. Oh yeah, and that reminds me: when you beat the game, there's apparently a second storyline to fulfill if you start it over. Da hell? So I guess that means I can expect a very intricate story or something. This game has to be good. I don't understand why Square is so nervous about releasing it overseas. How could you be nervous about releasing a game that could be your best work yet? What I really don't get is how Square wasn't or didn't seem too nervous about dishing out FFXIII when they know it had all these things that screamed for a do-over, and now they are completely nervous about a game that is probably perfect the way it is. THEY NEED TO RELEASE TYPE-0 OVERSEAS. FORGET THE JAPANESE MARKET; THE GAME IS GOING TO MAKE MILLIONS REGARDLESS! JUST RELEASE IT OVERSEAS, THERE IS HIGH DEMAND FOR IT IN EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA, I JUST KNOW IT.

PLEEEEEAAAAAASSSSSEEEEEE, SQUARE, I AM BEGGING YOU!

To top everything off, Siliconera confirmed that there is a secret unrevealed Thirteenth Member of the original Class Zero. That means No. 10 is in the game somewhere! Dammit, I need that game nao!

Type-0 Extended Trailer

UNFORTUNATELY I do not have the trailer here... yet. As soon as it finally gets on Youtube, though, I will snatch it and place it here. You see, I found it at this website here. The problem with it is that it takes forever to load, and I'd rather not have my Readers watch something that literally took thirty minutes to finish loading. Anyway, get ready for a very rushed commentary on the trailer, because I wrote it as I watched the trailer. That involved some serious lightning speed finger reflexes, it was insane.

The trailer starts off with these two weird chicks called Diva, which happen to be the same creatures from the game's logo. The scene then cuts to some clip of an Imperial invasion, with a character named Narrator. Look at that, the Narrator is now a character in the Final Fantasy Series! Well, you do have Vanille, Tidus, and Marquis Ondore, but now for the first time the narrator is actually named Narrator!

The trailer then shows off all the characters in the game. Actually, these are probably the main characters that I'll be seeing throughout the game. I'm sure there are more, which will be completely insane. I've never seen this many characters in a freaking game. This is even more than FFVI for hell's sake. As the game showed off the thousands of characters, I noticed that Seven looks a little too much like Lightning. When Rem came up, I let out a cheer. Then, I saw an interesting fellow named Naghi. What make's him so interesting, you ask? HE WEARS THE SAME UNIFORM AS CLASS ZERO! Could this be the missing No. 10 culprit here? I bet he is! Awesome! I finally found No. 10! After him are some other interesting and not so interesting looking characters. You have GILGAMESH! There are these two people who I assume are the keepers of the red crystal? I've also noticed a couple of people in those Green Goblin uniforms I saw in the demo for the game.

The trailer then cuts to a bunch of gameplay clips. Most of this is stuff I've seen before. I also see some interesting moves that look like limit breaks. There's a fight with GILGAMESH! I also see Bahamut and Chaos as summons. Then I see some cutscene clips, and the first seems to be a battle at Concordia (is this what happens after that ambiguous custscene from the demo with that giant dragon thing flying out?). The ones following this appear to be clips of Class Zero getting whooped. Then that chick in the sailor uniform runs in to inform Class Zero of something. Then there was a scene with some Concordian girl sending in a dragon to fight Class Zero, which leads me to wonder why they aren't allying themselves against the Empire of this game, but I'll never know. Then came that scene where it seems like Machina is talking to a glowing blue figure, and I figured it was Rem dying. I assumed it was Rem, but that looked like it could've been anyone's hand. I got kind of nervous, and after desperately wanting the other cutscenes I didn't care about to go away, I saw that Rem was still around, so I figured that she doesn't die.

Before I see her again, though, are some other crazy cutscenes. One of those people who were guarding that crystal spoke to everyone from that place Class Zero is from, and then I see that lady with the really long cigarette talking to a crystal statue of what I believe to be Diva. That's cool that the crystal statues from FFXIII carried over to this game. We go back to the people from the school Class Zero attends, who appear to be fading away. Yawn. I really don't care about them.

Then, my heart was split in twain. You can tell the exact seriousness of the situation by the fact that I used an archaic word, twain. Seriously, I started sobbing over this. I thought I was going to suffocate. Square apparently thought it would be funny to take my worst fear from the last trailer and bring it to life to screw with me. Just after the scene with the people fading away, I saw Machina kneeling before somebody raising out her hand. Upon hearing her voice, I found it was Rem! She sounded like she was in pain! What's going on? The camera then zooms out and I see her on the floor, with the building all destroyed, and everything is raining and all. And there is blood all over her pretty face! NO! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?! REM, WHY ARE YOU DYING REM? WHY????? SQUARE, HOW COULD YOU KILL A BELOVED CHARACTER BEFORE EVER GIVING ME A CHANCE TO MEET HER? WHAT KIND OF EVIL IS THIS!!!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, *sniff sniff,* I couldn't contain myself. Also, the background music was kind of annoying. Well, I guess I'd better move on with my life, because I am probably never going to see this game in America. Square is getting on my nerves with all these games they make a huge display off of and never release them. It's like they want to tease their non-Japanese fans. What would really be something is if Square developed a Final Fantasy game that was only released in Australia, Europe, and North America but not Japan. That will probably never happen, though, so I should forget about it. Still, that would be very funny.

XIII-2 Trailer: "New Adventures"

For some reason this trailer isn't blocked, but the trailer for Type-0 is. I don't understand why companies block trailers over copyright when the purpose of a trailer is to get as much people as possible excited for whatever they are releasing trailers for. I can understand Versus XIII since that is a game that is still in heavy incognito development for some reason, but Type-0 is on the verge of being released, and so is this game, so I don't see why those trailers need to be blocked.

Anyway, this has to be the first XIII-2 trailer I am completely satisfied with. The E3 trailer was cool, but it wasn't enough. The PAX trailer was filled with cutscenes and made the game feel really dramatic. The TGS trailers were cool, and they actually showed new things, but that was also a problem since I barely understood what the hell was going on. I like this trailer because it finally gives a clear depiction of what's in the game. There is actually a good proportion of gameplay footage to cutscenes, for once, so I got to see some interesting gameplay elements. I got to see some of the environments I will get to explore, and I also got to see minigames. Oh god, after FFVII, the thought of playing minigames in a Final Fantasy has left some dread in me, but I like it too because it brings back the good old feel of the previous Final Fantasies. There's even chocobo racing!

As far as the cutscenes go, they seem to actually give a good depiction of the story and what's going on. However, my only gripe is with the first scenes where Lighting falls into another dimension right at the end of the original game. As far as I remember, Lightning wasn't just standing back away from the entire group, contrary to Snow's suggestion that implies he never saw her come out of crystal stasis with the rest of the party. This is a huge plothole as far as the trailers show. Maybe the game will start off with a different version of the original game's ending that will fix that plothole. I also find some other cutscenes to be interesting. I don't get why Square decided to show Noel getting killed, though. I am guessing Square has developed a habit of giving away spoilers in their trailers now. First Noel, then Rem. Next thing I know, I'll see a trailer of Noctis getting killed. Then the same thing will happen in the trailers for FFXV. Then in FFXVI, the trailer will show the entire plot. Well, then again, FFXIII-2 is actually supposed to have multiple endings, so I guess it is kind of hard to spoil the whole game given that.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, or mostly unrelated, I love how everywhere on the Internet that has a Type-0 trailer or a XIII-2 trailer has more people who actually like what they see than people complaining about how Square is going downhill and that, ever since they merged with Enix, they (the fans that whine about everything) got a skyscraper shoved up their bums. Some would probably argue with me that those people who like what they see from XIII-2 and Type-0 are just a bunch of noobs to the series, but I don't get how they can outnumber a fanbase that grew since before these games were even conceived. In any case, I don't really give a damn, I am just stating what I see. If you don't like these games, then good for you, I don't care. When you start complaining to me for saying these games are great, I can honestly say go to hell because I am saying that they are what's best for ME. I don't see what's so bad about calling a game good just because I enjoy them, but whatever. Fans who complain about the merging of Square and Enix and then take it out on fans who don't mind the merging are a bunch of butthurt morons.

FFIII Playthrough

I know, I know, it seems like these playthroughs are all I write about nowadays. I am really excited for this game because I've heard so much about how it was a game that pretty much defined the series. The battle system is the basic framework of what became the generic battle systems for the Final Fantasies that followed it, up until FFX, I believe. Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II, in my opinion, were prototypes; THIS is what should truly be the first Final Fantasy of the series.

Now I know I said I would never play one of the old games ever, but that was before I knew anything about FFIII. Given that FFIV is the first Final Fantasy to give an illusion or trace of a plot, I always figured FFIII was just like FFII and FF, but I was wrong. FFIII, from what I know, is similar to those games, but it is more colorful. Plus, the game was remade for the DS. Now, why did I choose FFIII over FFIV and FFV? Simply because of how much I've heard that this game is a better game than FFIV and FFV, even though it is nothing compared to the rest of the later games in the series (while FFXIII might actually be considered worse by most, however. I still think I would like FFXIII more due to the fact that there is a plot and that there are actual characters and not just people with names). This game has an interesting medieval setting, since it sounds more Scandinavian than Medieval, but I think that's just me. This game is also the first game to feature MOOGLES, by far my favorite video game race ever created. It is also the first to feature chocobos. Forget about FFII, they play a much smaller role in that game than in this one. Also, the Cid in this game is the first true Cid for A) having an airship from the start, and B) for not dying.

The thing that should make this experience interesting is the whole Job System, because that is something I never experienced in any of the Final Fantasies I played since in those games, roles for characters are already predetermined by their base stats and such, like in FFXIII. FFXII took it in a strange direction and made it based on what equipment you use and nothing else. They later remade the game to include Jobs, but that's a remake, not a new game. Anyway, I hope I can figure out the Job System real quickly because if not, I am screwed. As for my playthrough, don't expect to see it finished. I don't know if I will have time to finish the game before I leave, but we'll see. Also, the FFIII playthrough is going to be the last playthrough I write for a while, so be prepared for that.

Maria and Draco

I'm sorry, I had to post this here. During my adventures in FFVI, I came across this whole Opera portion, and I will always love it to death. If you want to see the rest of it, click the Part B related video.

FFVI Playthrough!

I decided to forget about the FFXIII playthrough, because all I was really writing about was the many cutscenes in that game. I mean, I was enjoying it, but now that I have FFVI for the GBA, I feel like writing a playthrough for that one instead. So yeah, there's the latest news for this blog.

My Adventures in Ivalice are Complete!

Yes, Readers, that is correct. My commentary/playthrough on FFXII is done, and now you can view the whole story of my adventures there from when I met Vaan all the way to when I tear Vayne apart. I will try to continue that playthrough occasionally to include the Sidequests, like the rest of the Espers and whatnot, but don't count on the whole Sidequests portion to be completed.

As for new projects, I plan to try doing a commentary on FFXIII. I have to think about this a little more, though, because that game is a pain in the ass to start over since I cannot just take advantage of certain things right away. In FFXII, it was easy since I could chose to do things like get the Zodiac Spear whenever I wanted, but in FFXIII you can't just go off and do that, which sucks. So we'll see if I do that.

The XBOX 360 FFXIII-2 Trailer, in English!

Okay, I saw both this trailer and the other trailer I previously posted, and they both made me feel a lot better about the PAX trailers. While the PAX and E3 trailers looked a little too dramatic with silly voice acting, these trailers seemed to show the game off a little better this time (although I hate that pop music playing. Final Fantasy is supposed to have grand orchestrated music. Oh well, can't always be perfect). I wonder what that city place is? Is that the future?

The more I think about it, the more I come to realize that this game is in fact much darker than before. I wonder what the hell's going on here. Hopefully, when I play the game, I can rescue Lightning and save Pulse. I don't want to end up with a stupid ending; that would be a little embarrassing, ha ha.

Final Fantasy and the Tokyo Game Show

I hadn't realized that the Tokyo Game Show had occurred this week. I didn't really look into it that much, but I was excited to see new trailers for XIII-2 AND Type-0, as well as another bit of news that I will get to later. It was quite the shocker.

First, here's the Final Fantasy XIII-2 trailer.





I am more impressed by this trailer than I am with the other one from the PAX convention. Then again, the voice acting here is in Japanese, which is sometimes better than the English voice acting, so I have to see for myself when the game is released. My god, Hope and Snow look almost completely different. I'm wondering what the hell happened to Snow, he looks like a jungle kid or something. I am glad to see other things than what has been repeated since E3, though. I don't get what's the deal with that Lightning's Rival guy. He looks like a dragoon for some reason to me. I also have a bit of nervousness about the music in the game, because so far I keep hearing all this J-Pop as battle music.

Well, aside from the changes in the characters, there isn't much to talk about from this trailer. Maybe if I understood what everyone was saying, I could talk a little more about what the hell is going on in this crazy game, but I can't speak Japanese so I will have to wait until I get the game and see for myself. Let's move on to the Type-0 trailer.




Huh, not much to see in that trailer. Only more fight scenes to make me wish that Square would confirm that the game will be released in North America. Is that Rem in the last scene of the trailer? I'm talking about the person that Machina seems to be crying out to. Dear God, what is happening to her? She better not be killed off during the game or else I swear I will rage at Square for a long time. I know, it's hilarious how I've only played the demo and haven't seen the other characters, yet I have already given Rem the award of loyalty.

Aside from the whole compilation of FFXIII, Square is taking on another project: they are remaking Final Fantasy X for the PS3 and PSP Vita. Of all the Final Fantasies they could've picked, why FFX? I think they just wanted to troll the fans who are dying for a remake of FFVI and FFVII, which are probably the best ones they ever made. I am pretty disappointed that they chose to remake FFX, but from what I heard about some things like character models and such, that game actually needs a remake. Maybe if they remake it they'll change it to an open world instead of a straight line, somehow, but I doubt they would do that. In any case, I am willing to buy it as I haven't played FFX yet. If they really are remaking that game, I guess I could put off buying it off of ebay for now. I just hope that they release Type-0 overseas, because something tells me that that game will be amazing.

Lightning and Norse Mythology (Can't Say I Didn't See That One Coming)

This article states that apparently Lightning is Serah's only relative that remains (which is something I thought I already knew), and that Noel is actually from the future. What the hell? Apparently in the future the fate of mankind is an awful one and therefore he goes back in time to save it. Um, talk about anticlimactic? I hate it when plots do that. Well, at least I don't know if Serah and Noel really save the world or not, but honestly I don't really give a damn. Where's Lightning? This game should be about finding her and owning things with her!

Apparently, the world she is in is called Valhalla. Da hell? Did Square just go Scandinavian on its fan base all of a sudden? I hope to god that this game doesn't flop, because to be honest the more I hear about it, the weirder it begins to sound. I still see a lot of good in terms of gameplay, however, which I guess can compensate for any weirdness within the story... I hope that the story isn't stupid. FFXIII's story was whatever, but if they find a way to make it worse, I am going to have to put down my loyalty to that title and only say that Lightning was the only thing worth getting the FFXIII titles for.

Oh by the way, the article has a new render of Lightning in case you hadn't looked. It has a better image of her new gunblade, so I guess I better check out the new hardware Lighting is using this time.

And I am deeply sorry about the FFXII playthrough. I finally found something that will make me useful, so I guess I can now go back to playing through that awesome game. Not today, though. I'll try for tomorrow, okay?

New FFXIII-2 Trailer

This looks great, but the more I think of it, the more I realize that this game is going to have a ton of needlessly dramatic scenes. I hope that that will be just an assumption. Also, there's just something about the voice acting that irks me, especially when it comes to Serah's voice acting.

Wait a minute, what's this? Somebody's boomerang killed that giant crazy alien monster? Is that Hope? No way! That's gotta be him! Wow, it looks like he finally ascended into his first steps towards becoming awesome. Let's hope that the game delivers what I see in the trailers here.

Serah's CG Render Plus New Location Information

It fits! This is great!

In case you hadn't noticed, that's Serah's appearance for the upcoming FFXIII-2 which, unlike Typo, has been confirmed for release in the U.S., thank god. That revealing outfit is going to give Noel and I a very freaking difficult time focusing on our true goal: the search for Lightning. It's okay because in the end Lightning's new armor is even more revealing. My god, Square is not holding back on this game. Hopefully I can remember my commitment.

What I found interesting, not to mention amazing, is that Paddra Ruins is a "new" location in FFXIII-2. It was that crazy place in FFXIII's Yaschas Massif that looked like an entire modern city, but Square decided to make FFXIII extremely limited in terms of exploration, and therefore you couldn't see anything more than a courtyard swarming with Cie'th there. Ugh. I am so glad that they are making this place more explorable. I definitely wanted to get at least a look of what was inside one of those fallen skyscrapers. It looks like I can do so now.

FFXII Main Theme

While I'm here in Ivalice, I can't stop listening to this song! It is so beautiful :')

Edit: Yeah I'll admit I am a noob and didn't realize that this is really the generic theme song for Final Fantasy as it appeared for Final Fantasy Vanilla, as I call it. Not Vanilla Bean, not French Vanilla, just plain old Vanilla. That's what it is! Don't get me wrong, I guess you could call it a wonderful and "revolutionary" RPG, but compared to this, it sucks. Besides, this version of the song with an orchestra that I believe to be real is much better than that synthesizer version, so shut your trap. It therefore belongs to Final Fantasy XII.

Must Return to Ivalice!!!!

Well, Readers, I have to admit real life is boring as hell. There's no anticipation of school, all my friends are busy, and therefore my real-life blog that I have made unavailable to the public until the final years of my life has been sitting around not collecting any posts. This sucks. I don't wanna play FFXIII again because I have beaten that game seventeen different  times (I am dead serious), and that eighteenth time that I promised a playthrough for is not going to come because why do so when FFXIII-2 is coming out?

Now that I have a new computer, my emulators for FFVI and FFVII have become unavailable to me. I could download them again for my Mac, but for some reason my Mac doesn't seem to agree with the concept of emulator software, therefore rendering FFVII unavailable for a replay and FFVI unavailable to be finished. I don't have FFX yet, but with the recent acquisition of a debit card and a checking account, hopefully the day that I can sit down and play that game for the LAWLZ will come soon. For now, I am extremely bored, and playing those four measly missions in the Final Fantasy Typo Demo is starting to get old, as much as I want to disagree with that statement. I mean, how many times am I going to send Rem through a city in Milites and blow up everyone with her powerful magic that makes her Thunder Missile spell so awesome to watch (and hot)? How many times am I going to whip everyone's ass with her knife attacks that are fun to watch (and hot)? How many times am I going to pan the camera against the floor as I go up the stairs to get a view under her skirt that is hot to watch (and hot)?

Sure, Final Fantasy Typo could be an amazing game, and I definitely would love to spend hours playing it if I ever find the time, but that is only applicable for the game. The demo, on the other hand, is fun until you realize that you are never going to see the rest of the Hogwarts School of Final Fantasy, that you are never going to check out the other half of Class Zero, that you are never going to make Rem a god-like war machine like Lightning after many hours of stat development, that you are never going to kill that Cid guy, and that you are never going to find out what really happened to No. 10, no matter how many hours you put into that demo.

Therefore, I am only left with one option: return to Ivalice. The problem I have always had with Final Fantasy XII was that, after a long while of playing, I lose the incentive to play it and I inevitable forget about it. It is a wonderful game, and I have beaten it a couple of times, but I never got to finish it at this age where I can appropriately enjoy the game. Plus, I never played through the game via Blue Highwind's walkthrough. I only managed to get through half of it with his walkthrough before I lost the motivation to play FFXII. Now, with nothing going on for me, I guess there's no reason not to try it out again. I'm still waiting on some job applications to be fully reviewed, so I guess in the meantime I should head on over to my dad's place and pick up my dusty PS2. I wish my PS3 could play FFXII.

So what does this mean in the grand scope of things? Well, not much, other than I might do a playthrough on the game if I can find the appropriate times to put it down and write about it. With my MacBook, it will be much easier to stop what I am doing and switch over to write about it. The same goes for Blue's walkthrough on the game. Before, I had to go through much ink and paper to make his walkthrough accessible to me, but now that I have a "portable computer," all that trouble is a thing of the past. So let's do it, Readers, let's go back to Ivalice! That is probably by far the largest and most developed setting in the whole Final Fantasy Series. In my opinion, Ivalice is to Final Fantasy as Azeroth is to World of Warcraft. Plus, I never heard a bad thing about any of the games that take place in that world's setting. I'm sorry if you aren't on board with me on this one, Readers, but I am going to do it. I am going to go through FFXII and try to make a playthrough on it. If I do, expect to see it on its own page, unlike the Typo Demo's playthrough. Until next time, Readers who decide to stay here on Earth. Have fun with its ordinariness.

Rem's Summer Outfit

"Awwwww yeeeeaaaaahhhh."

Update: I was playing the demo a little more and I found that I can get a good view of her "skirt" by making the camera look up while going up some stairs. This enabled me to learn that she is actually wearing pink panties.

Final Fantasy Typo Demo: Mission 4

This mission is called Through the Heart of the Enemy, and like Mission 3, there are no cutscenes except at the end. Upon starting the mission, I found that it was actually a challenge. It appears to be in The Forbidden Forest again, what a coincidence! My favorite training ground has become the last stand of war in this demo. Oh, how I'm excited. Well, I lost Sice on my first try, since I thought I could tank everything. I am going to try again using King so that way I can kill the smaller enemies easily.

Nope I still lost Sice. This isn't good. Let's see if that Magical Armor is anywhere in my inventory.

Well, there is not much to say about this "impossible" mission. I decided to make Machina my sacrifice character again and use Shiva to eliminate a couple of the giant mecha, some soldiers wielding chainguns, and those annoying bull-mecha that keep running my party over. After Shiva left, I brought Rem into the picture and was once again amazed by how her unassuming Thunder shotgun magic went a long way in taking down those damn Magitek Armor. Of course, I am sure that if many people were reading this, they would call fowl upon the use of magic due to limited MP. I don't know how I did it really. I guess the fact that I charged each spell was what saved that MP there. By the way, if you are playing as Rem and you are trying to take down the giant guys, don't use Fire RF. It sucks, does only five damage. Her knives are more effective than that magic, somehow. The soldiers aren't too much of a problem neither, even though I hadn't seen one of them with a red circle around them. I just used King to wipe them out. As for the giant mecha, again, Rem's Thunder Shotgun goes a long way. I can also admit I was sort of lucky here and there because I was healed just before I died.

At the end of all this, a cutscene plays in an entirely different location. Da hell? You see all the Rubrum soldiers running up and killing all the Imperial soldiers, but then they are raped by another penis in Magitek Armor. This guy has an eye patch and everything, so he must be scary. But what the hell happened to No. 10 and the Green Goblin I saw in the last Mission? This demo is kind of stupid because of that, but it's not supposed to be about the cutscenes, I guess. The gameplay is fantastic, on the other hand.

And with that, that is pretty much the end of the demo, supposedly. I came, I saw, I conquered. Those Missions weren't all that difficult at all. There's supposedly a few other things I can do, but I don't know how to do them since it's all in Japanese and nobody wants to post videos of the sidequests in the demo. I'll see if I can get you Readers another post on this demo, if not, oh well. It's been a pleasure. Now let's just hope I didn't waste my time with this demo and that Square will actually release the game in English.

Final Fantasy Typo Demo: Mission 3 (Rush the Big Bridge)

Alright, this mission doesn't have any cutscenes except for one at the end, which has no dialogue. When I started off, I was in some kind of canyon, I think, and upon moving forward everything looks like cliffs and rocks and whatnot. There is supposedly several pieces of "magic armor," I'll keep an eye out for that. I hadn't seen No. 10 anywhere. I thought it was the guy in Mission 2 who was guiding me through the ice area, but he just disappeared. Well, that could've been No. 10, but he wasn't wearing a Class Zero uniform, neither.

Well, okay, the first thing I notice is this huge thing that looks like Bahamut from FFX. What the hell? I see it shooting lasers everywhere and all this other stuff. I guess I will be fighting with it! Sounds awesome!

King seems like he is the most useful here. All this Magitek Armor running around basically means to me that I need to pay more attention to those yellow circles than before. I managed to get one S.O down, but then I foolishly accepted another where I have to defeat three huge Magitek Armor in only thirty seconds. How the game expects me to do that is beyond me (I guess this is where Shiva comes into play). I am going to try that S.O again by sacrificing a character for Shiva (I guess Machina is going to have to do for now).

Holy shit, I raped those machines to hell. It was crazy. First, I completed the first S.O, which the time changed to a minute when before it was three. Da hell? I guess the S.O timers are random here. When I reached the part with the three giant mecha, the timer gave me two minutes. I wasted no time; I switched to my sacrifice character and summoned Shiva, which took care of those machines instantly. I was shocked. Those things had huge amounts of health, and their defense was inconceivable, but Shiva drained their health like water in a sink. I was very impressed. Well, I managed to reach a save crystal. There are little crystals on the floor; they could either be the summer outfits or the "magical armor." These dead guys on the floor look familiar... no, it can't be! They're students from the Hogwarts School of Final Fantasy! Those bastards! They killed children! If these people are from the school... that could mean... no, I refuse to believe it. No. 10 can not be dead! I am going to destroy all these Magitek pieces of crap and I will find No. 10! Come at me, Empire!

So on with the charge. I ran into the next area as Rem and raped all the soldiers by killing them with the red circle around them. I started another S.O, and I managed to kill the Magitek Armor at the end of the area just in time. In the next area, there were a bunch of soldiers and this Magitek Armor that was shooting artillery. I was trying to kill the soldiers before starting the S.O, because that artillery guy was annoying as hell. Whenever I waited long enough for the red circle to show up on the small fry, I would get blasted by that stupid thing. I managed to get rid of the soldiers, though, and so I started the S.O. The thing needed me to do something in one minute, and I thought it was to take out that Magitek Armor. So I switched to Sice and spammed the hell out of that thing, and I took apart that mecha in seconds. However, the S.O was still counting down, which was scaring me because I then started thinking that it needed me to complete the area. I switched to King and managed to take out two snipers using the red circle thing, and then it said I completed the S.O. Immediately after that happened, another S.O notification popped up, and I thought the game was saying that I failed, lol. I opened that one up and it was two minutes. I figured it was the one that I needed to get out of the area for. So as I approached the exit to the area and thus the end of the mission, three mecha came out. They were like bulls, charging all over the place. Nonetheless, I made short work of them with King. I nearly died a couple of times, but I didn't worry because Rem and Sice had my back. After I destroyed the last enemies and cleared the S.O, another notification to do one popped up, ha ha. I accepted it and ended the mission immediately after like a boss.

Some crazy stuff is going on at the last cutscene. A bunch of soldiers that I saw from the beginning of the demo are running around screaming. There's this airship that they're all running to that flies away and is chased by a bunch of dragons. All of a sudden, this giant beam of fire comes out of nowhere and blows up that whole area and kills everyone. Class Zero looks ahead and sees...

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? THE GREEN GOBLIN? Oh no... this can't be. That must be No. 10. Oh shit. What happened to you, man?

Well, the cutscene ends with that ominous guy that I have decided to be No. 10 in this demo. You don't know if the guy is good or evil, but considering that he came in a bolt of fire and killed thousands of allies, I assume he is evil. Damn it. Looks like I am going to have to go Mano a Mano against No. 10. You up for this, Rem?

By the way, this mission was also easy. I just needed to restart a couple of times because the S.O's were ridiculously short on time. However, if I played through it without the S.O's, I probably would've finished in ten minutes. I didn't even need to use Shiva on that part, I just did so that I could complete the S.O. I wonder how "impossible" the next mission really is.

Final Fantasy Typo Demo: Mission 2

I don't think I can equip those summer outfits. If I could... well, I don't know. I don't really care about the summer outfits that much, though. I decided to do another run through of Mission 1, and I tried doing some of the S.O challenges. I still have no idea what I was rewarded, but I noticed that during those events my party seemed to be getting buffed up. I am still worried about dying at the end of those things, so I what I decided was to give each mission an initial completion to get the feel for them, and then try out the S.O's. On this run through, I played as Rem and I didn't die for once. I raped the hell out of the Behemoth compared to last time, but then again I spammed the hell out of magic since I was given an unlimited magic buff and Rem is supposedly the best magic caster. After killing that damn thing and completing the mission, I found that I had gotten a C on one thing, and A on another and a B on another, which equaled a B in total. The highest score is an S, but I don't I will be able to figure out how to do that. Oh well. On to Mission 2: Giudecca Battle.





It looks like this takes place in Concordia. All I see is a bunch of ice all around me... is that a dragon! How did I go from a Behemoth to a dragon?! Well, shit. Sorry Readers, but I might be out for a while on this one!

Well, the dragon turned out to be nothing. However, on the second area, I accidentally accepted an S.O out of my nervousness, and I got myself killed for failing it. Well, it looks like it is time to start over.

Okay, so the purpose of that S.O is to run through that area without killing any enemies. It made my whole party invisible, so I guess that should've been a big clue. The next area is just some giant circular ice area with a bunch of small dragons flying around and attacking. Sice died here, unfortunately, but I put up a great effort to keep Rem alive. I spammed her thunder shotgun magic, which seemed pretty effective against the dragons. For some reason, King wasn't having any problem whatsoever. I guess he's just a badass like that. I even opened up the "pause" menu and tried using a few items, and he managed to keep himself alive somehow. I leveled up Rem once, but I think King leveled up a few times. The Victory Fanfare plays whenever a character levels up. I heard it like five times. People say that the only way to beat this mission is to use Shiva, but it really wasn't hard at all. I didn't see what the hell everyone made a huge fuss about. At the end, these weird zombie fish men came out of nowhere and another S.O came up. Having watched a video of someone else do it, I tried it out. I think the point of it was not to get hit by any of those zombie men, because the guy in the video was dodging everything. So that is what I did, dodged and spammed magic. After that, these letters came up on screen which indicated I completed the mission. Wait, what? That's it? What about that huge dragon? Well, that was lame. Then again, I guess I am better off not even trying to touch it. But still, this mission was bogus. If this was really difficult for other players, I can't imagine how easy Mission 3 must be.

Well, then again, I did get low grades on this mission, but that was because I wasn't sure of half of what the hell was going on. I am going to try out different spells for Rem before I move on with the game.

Edit: It turns out that the S.O with the zombie fishmen is not avoiding damage. I got hit by one of them and nothing happened. This mission is piss easy.

Final Fantasy Typo Demo: Mission 1

It seems that each mission I choose will give me a set of cutscenes that are obviously not going to be one after the other in the real game, but at the same time it disappoints me a little. I don't know why. I don't even understand anything that they're saying, so I don't see why it matters to me. Here's the cutscene for Mission 1, Operation Empire Escape.





I lol'd at the part where King returns insults to the soldier. Time to move on. I am on my own from here on out, because the guide on Siliconera sucks and only covers basic information. I especially love the last cutscene, though; the part where the Cid of this game just says that somebody left. Who the hell is he talking about? I assume it's that emperor guy who's mysteriously vanished, but I doubt that a person with the title of High Commander wouldn't notice when his ruler is missing.

Okay, so let's begin. My party of Rem, Sice and King started off at some junction with a save point. Taking a look around, I can see that this city is actually kind of modern with a futuristic feel. There are steel buildings and skyscrapers here and there. The soldiers run around with guns. They even come in military vehicles. This place has everything it needs to be a warzone. So anyway, as I started heading through the first area, I found that my party was automatically being switched out by a bunch of silhouettes. I wouldn't have had a problem with them, since they were level ten, but they weren't balancing out my party correctly. I was trying to make my party consist of a favorite lead (Rem), a heavy hitter (Sice), and a ranged attacker (King). When the silhouettes would come in, they would come in when everyone was at full health when their purpose is to come in when my party was dying. It was annoying because I would then find myself in a party with shadow figures of Nine and Machina, and I didn't need those characters at the time.

So in the midst of this confusion, I got killed. Rem died and I couldn't bring her back unless I had Phoenix Downs, but I doubt that they are in the demo. This really pissed me off. I had to resort to using Queen as my interchangeable lead for Rem. Tons of experience potential for Rem was completely thrown out the window. As I pushed through the Imperial forces, I began to notice that there were some stronger enemies with more health than others. A couple of these were apparently leaders. What would happen with them would be that if I killed one of them, the rest of my foes would surrender. I killed them before I killed the leaders, though, so I have no idea if this actually works in the demo. I saw a yellow circle around those enemies instead of a red one, and I assume that means that only does a ton of damage rather than instantly kill them, because that is all I've seen happen.

Another thing of interest was some of the enemies I fought. There was one enemy that reminded me of these guys, but it looked a little more robotic. After running through sprawling streets and all, I came across a giant spider robot thing. It was apparently being controlled by someone, so I assume it was one of the many forms of Magitek Armor in the game. What I found cool about running around the city was that I could hear all these people on the radio, which I presume to have been enemy broadcasting. It was a nice touch. What bothered me was that I was getting all these on screen notifications by a moogle and by the game about different things, and since I can't read a lick of Japanese I will never know what or how important that information could've been. There were also these things that kept popping up called S.O's. They are apparently little challenges, like survive a set of enemies without taking damage; however, I would never be able to know what the challenges were since I can't read Japanese, so I had to ignore them.

Getting back to the Magitek Armor boss, it was a pretty vicious battle that seemed impossible. The thing had a ton of health, each attack it did cost me almost two hundred points in damage, and the highest health I have as a character is four hundred. Queen had around three hundred, and as my last valuable lead, I had been worried sick about how things will go for her. After a while, the Magitek Armor would run off and stand on the side of a building, and from there it would just spam rockets. It took me a while to figure out that I was supposed to hide behind several trucks, which would be shot by the rockets and blown out of the way, creating a path forward. However, at the end of this, there were just a bunch of barricades. The mecha would then hang from a skyline ahead of the barricades and continue to spam rockets. There was no way across, and again it took me a while to notice an entrance to one of the buildings. Once inside, that annoying mecha would come at me again. I had to attack it through the doorway, which felt a little awkward. Then, it would climb up to one of the windows and spam more rockets (like, jeez, enough with the rockets!). Finally, after completing my hundred-thousandth dodge roll, the Magitek Armor gave up and ran away. I continued further into the building to be greeted by a save crystal and some circle on the floor that restores all stats. Unfortunately, it didn't revive poor Rem. Sorry Rem, I will be sure that I will know what I am doing the next time we embark on a mission.

After saving, I started heading up the stairs. The interior of this building was very... how do I put it? It was like any other modern steel building facility you could think of, I guess. Nothing was fancy about the building, it had a warehouse feel to it. Again, it gave me a sense of futurism that felt very different from the setting of the Hogwarts School of Final Fantasy. As I traversed the hallway, I noticed a fork in the road that lead to some stairwell with a force field in the middle of it, preventing me from going further. I think I needed to accept an S.O challenge, but the risk of failing them would be death, so I didn't want to take any chances. I kept moving forward until all of a sudden, this big yeti looking thing comes out of nowhere and attacks my party. It wasn't really all that bad, though. It kept tripping all over the place and giving me the yellow circle around it. It took me a few tries, but I managed to hit it a couple of times while it was yellow and I managed to knock out a lot of its health. Also, even though I was getting hit a little hard, it wasn't as bad as that Magitek Armor. Besides that, someone was healing me. I believe it was Sice.

So after I killed that random as hell yeti, I kept moving forward and noticed a shiny thing behind a crate. I picked it up and I was notified that I found something, but I have no idea what the hell it was since the name was in Japanese. As I kept going, I found myself in a battle with these three bat things that were from the practice battles in The Forbidden Forest. These guys are so easy, and for some reason the game rewarded me with a Victory Fanfare for killing them (I guess it was just there to let fans know that YES, THERE WILL BE VICTORY FANFARE AGAIN!). That area definitely looked like a warehouse with all these crates and barrels and whatnot, but I couldn't go down to that place. I was rather on some balcony which lead to another hall. Along the way I found another shiny thing, but this time I wasn't even notified that I had found something. Da hell?

At the end of this hallway was none other than a Behemoth, once again on all its fours! Yes, another iconic Behemoth and not a stupid-looking FFXII Wolfman. Those things looked so stupid. This guy was definitely vicious looking, but the fight against him was even scarier than the way he looked. As I tried to take him down, his quick attacks were leaving my entire party at dangerously low health. Also, the fact that this was located in a small room in the building contributed to the difficulty of the fight, given that the monster was about the size of a dragon. After several desperate attempts to heal, Sice and King died and I was left with just seventy health. One more blow from that Behemoth would've ended Queen for me, and then I would've been stuck with Machina or Nine as my lead. I was already facing the inevitable option of placing Ace and Machina in my party as backup, but I couldn't do so because adding party members requires you to do that in real time during the game, and given that the Behemoth was relentless, I had no time to stop and bring those guys out. So I took a last stand as Queen against the Behemoth, mano a mano, and I managed to hit the guy during the incredibly brief period of time that a yellow cirlce showed up on his giant ass. I hit him while that happened, and not only did I bring him down to almost little health (well, I had already knocked down a couple bars of his health, so if you are doing this I wouldn't expect the same thing to happen with full health), I also sort of knocked him out! He was on the floor struggling to get up, and I didn't take any chances then; I mashed the hell out of the melee button and killed that beast for good!

After he died, I healed myself by standing (you can do that in the game. It works better by "sheathing" your weapons with L and R). Then, I brought out Ace and Machina for further assignment, since I figured this was only the beginning. I walked out to the roof of the building, and I guess I could've gotten a good view of this Milites city, but I paid no mind to it. I went down some fire escape, and about halfway down, the mission ended. While it was a sigh of relief for me, I wished I could keep going. The mission then concludes with that last cutscene of Cid saying that somebody left, whoever the hell that person is. Also, at the end of the mission I was taken to a screen that shows my results. I got a D on one thing and a C on everything else. Damn. Also, I think I was rewarded something, but once again I have no idea what it is.

Stay tuned as I figure out which moogle leads me to Mission 2! Will it be Moogle Number 1, the pimp, Moogle Number 2, that blue guy by the door, or Moogle Number 3, the moogle that is constantly whining throughout the game! Find out next time!

Edit: Oh, I have an idea as to who Cid could be talking about! During my short stay in this Milites city, I searched for No. 10 and came back to Hogwarts without him or her. I couldn't find the guy anywhere. However, maybe Cid knows where he is! Maybe that's who he was referring to when he said, "So he's left." That's gotta be No. 10, I just know it!

Edit 2: I found out that those crystal things are apparently the "summer costumes." I don't know which belongs to whom, nor do I see a way to equip them. I'll have it all figured out in the next post.

Type-0 Demo Playthrough: Prelude

Okay, I have downloaded the game and it actually works! The problem is, I have no idea what the hell I am doing here. On the very first screen, I am given the option to choose between two things, and I don't see what I am supposed to pick since it is all in Japanese. I'll just go with the failsafe choice of always selecting the top choice.

Okay, I assume that choice led me to a trailer, because that's what I just saw. Showed off many things, but not much of it was really new to me. I am sure that there is a video of it on Youtube somewhere. I remember seeing many of the scenes in the video with English subtitles, but I don't remember what the hell anyone was talking about. Oh well, let's get on with the game already!

You know what, I am just going to post the videos so that I won't have to describe them. Let's start with the demo's opening scenes.




So as you can see, a ton of crazy stuff is happening. I was hoping that the guy you see all bloody and dying next to a chocobo would be No. 10, but it seems he is Izana, Machina's older brother. Since he is not of much interest to this demo, I am going to move on from him. As he dies and people are being obliterated left and right, the game's supposed protagonist Ace comes to his side and tries to help him, and another one of Square's newest hotties by the name of Queen walks by and tells Ace that there's nothing that can be done (I especially like the glasses, that's a new touch). I presume this is because their magic crystal I mentioned in another post had been taken by now. In any case, they abandon the guy for no reason I can particularly fathom. The scene moves on to Machina and Rem, another cutie, who discuss that the powers of their crystal seem to be returning. Cool, let's go kill things already!


It appears that I start off in the Hogwarts School of Final Fantasy, playing as the cute Rem girl I just mentioned. I tried using some of the attack controls and all to see her moves, but I guess I can't do so inside a non hostile environment. Oh well, let's move on. Pretty interesting red screens they have here. They're like doors; I guess they're there to keep outsiders out. I tried going out through the door behind me, but some moogle is whining and not letting me go that way. I guess the only way forward is literally forward. After heading out the door ahead of me, I found myself where I was trying to go in the first place: the school's courtyard. It is a lively place with many kiddos running around and funny looking moogles floating all over the place. There is a fountain statue in the center of some bird that isn't all that much of interest. Looking up, I can see the top of the main buildings of the school, but there is a tower that extends out of view. I tried moving the camera up some more to get a better view of Rem's skirt, if you know what I'm saying, but the camera doesn't let me do that. However, when i do a dodge roll, I can get a very brief glimpse at her white panties. AWWWW YEEEAAAHHHH.

Alright, enough with the tomfoolery, let's head into Hogwarts now. I have to talk to a blue moogle to get inside, so let's talk to him. Once inside... DAMN this place is sweet! I can see myself spending hours here! It's just a living room area, but it has this Eighteenth Century Elizabethan feel to it. I love it! There are several characters here with blue and red icons over their heads. The blue icons indicate area changes, like the blue moogle I spoke to, to friends and item shops and etc. The Red icons indicate quest characters and whatnot. The guide on Siliconera says to speak to some black moogle in the center of the room, which I swear to god looks like a pimp. He has three options, the first is to practice battle, the second is to start the first mission, and the third is to stop talking to him. I decided to go with Practice Battle so that way I can get a feel for the game already.

Alright, so here's the lowdown. The battle practice took me to some forest to practice my moves (I think this also happens in Harry Potter where Harry and his classmates are sent to practice magic in the Forbidden Forest. Square is definitely pulling a Harry Potter ripoff here). Triangle does normal melee attacks, which are supposedly weak but I found myself able to make short work of my opponents with melee attacks. Then I tried using her other abilities. Square does magic, which was a shotgun blast of lighting. The more you charge it up, the more powerful it is, but I think it costs more MP as well. Circle does a special ability, but I haven't quite figured out the proponents of the Circle attack yet. I am going to go into The Forbidden Forest again to try it out some more, but from what I've seen, it is the most powerful attack. X supposedly blocks, but I have yet to see that happen. I just dodged rolled and charged up a cure spell. I also nearly got whooped by a bunch of weird dog things. I am going to try that again because I was really unsatisfied with how that went.

Okay, so the Circle attack does cost MP. It can be charged up as well to do more damage than it already does. The melee attack, as far as I can see, can't be charged, but when I held down triangle Rem just kept attacking, but I prefer to button mash. I was able to keep doing more rounds at the end of the whole thing, but unfortunately I had to stop and go back to the Elizabethan salon or else I would eventually die. I leveled up a couple of times by doing this, by the way. It turns out that the Crystarium in this game is what you use to power up spells. I don't want to mess with it just yet, though. Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention, after you kill an enemy, you can lock onto its corpse and absorb something called Phantoma, which I presume to be the creature's ghost. It gives back some MP, and I think it also gives you points to spend for the Crystarium. Also, when you lock on to an enemy, you'll sometimes see the target thing change to a red circle. As far as I see, it means Instant Death as Square calls it. When you hit the enemy with that red circle around them, it kills them automatically. I think it works with just about any normal enemy in the game, but I am not too sure. I am going to train just a little more, and then I'll continue with this game.

Well, I think I am done practicing for now. I have gotten the hang of the controls and stuff. I was able to summon Shiva, but using her was a nightmare. She was impossible to control as she was sliding all over the place with her ice rollerskates. Plus, I killed myself to summon her and the practice battle ended. Thankfully I didn't get a game over on the demo of the freaking game. That would've been so embarrassing. Let's move on plotwise now, because this damn moogle is constantly kupo-whining at me about something.

Before I move on, I am going to read this guy's information on the game. He is lists the different qualities of each character and states that he didn't like Rem too much. I beg to differ, I think she is a wonderful character. He said that her magic was weak, but her fire magic was doing two hundred hit points for me, so I have no idea what he's talking about. Since I can go through each character, it looks like I am going to be spending a little more time in The Forbidden Forest. I am going to check out this Nine guy, since he has a lance and the Jump ability and is therefore the Dragoon of the game.

Nine seemed pretty cool to me, but what sucks about him is that he is useless against flying enemies. His standard move is a thrust of his lance, and he doesn't aim at the target, so flying enemies are definitely not an adversary I would want to face. Let's see, who's next here... Ah, it's Queen! Remember, the hot chick with the glasses? Let's check her out. The guy says that she's cool, so let's see if there is more to her than just her looks.

She's pretty good. I still like Rem better, I don't know why. I guess it's a first character first serve loyalty thing. However, Queen is definitely better than Nine. Like Nine, she also attacks in a straight line, but she seems to do a jump whenever I am fighting a flying adversary. She has this blizzard attack that you sort of use a first person aiming thing, and that shoots a "missile" of ice that hits pretty hard and freezes enemies, it seems. Her ability is this cross of energy that heals allies and hurts enemies. Damage done to them is transferred as health. However, it only seems useful with other party members present. Let's check out Ace now. (Ugh, it's the boy with cards. How the hell do you use cards in a fight?)

Ace can be a potentially good character, but he is really weak. Two hits and I am already close to death. Also, he has no reliable method of healing himself. I doubt Nine does, neither, but he at least has better health. Queen and Rem so far are the only characters I've seen that can heal themselves. Ace's fighting style is pretty neat, I admit. Seeing his cards fly around and kill enemies is reminiscent of Luxford from Organization XIII (this whole Class Zero is actually reminiscent of Organization XIII). Also, when he dodge rolls, he teleports through his cards somehow. His special ability, Deck Open, allows you to draw four random cards which can do a variety of things. This includes restoring health and MP, but it is not very reliable as it is random. Besides, you will find yourself down to low health pretty soon after healing anyway.

Next we have Sice, the emo girl of Class Zero that runs around with a giant scythe as her name implies. The author of the article said she was a great character, let's see if I can agree... Well, damn, she actually is really good. In my opinion, she is the heaviest hitter, and she moves pretty damn fast for someone holding an oversized scythe. Her thunder magic is pretty cool to watch, and her Dark Nebula attack is pretty strong although I don't find it really all that spectacular. Again, I like Rem better. Queen might be in competition with Sice, though.

Okay, next we have King, the guy with the two guns. I have always been interested in King, he kind of reminds me of Balthier for some reason. The author says he is really strong with his abilities and all... Well, I agree. I like him a lot better than Ace and Nine. He is really strong, health wise. He tends to lose accuracy with his guns as targets get a little out of range, but that's okay. His blizzard bomb is powerful, and his Powered Bullet attack is even more so. Last we have Machina, who I have always been interested in playing as well. The guy complains he is slow, but I have handled slow characters before, so maybe this guy won't be so bad.

Machina is actually pretty good, but I am not so sure if he is really as good as I think he is. I am going to have to check him out later on during the actual missions. So far, I have my party system set up. Rem, Sice, and King are my primary three. Queen will have to play Rem's role in my reserve party as the two are pretty much interchangeable, in both battle skills and appearance! Following Queen will be Ace and Machina, to test him out for a bit. I might end up switching him out with Nine. I know I had originally taken a large interest in him due to his Dragoon role, but he's just not that spectacular.

Well, I am going to hit the hay for now. Tomorrow I am going to level up my characters a bit before I move on with the game. Then I'll cover Mission 1 here. Stay tuned!

Type-0 Demo

It turns out that the demo of the game wasn't just for a bunch of Japanese people who attended the demo event. The folks at Siliconera shared this awesome article here that gives links and instructions on how to download the demo, either via PSN Japan or the company's website (I personally went with the other link to the company's website, as that is the method that Siliconera explains and to get the demo off of Japanese PSN you need a JPSN account, which sounds a little complicated to me since I am an English noob).

The article also gives lovely links to other articles that explain the game's controls an whatnot. I don't know if it's included on that page, but here's a link to a guide for the demo. This should be interesting. Expect a playthrough, and this time I am ABSOLUTELY SERIOUS about it. I know I said I would do FFXIII and Dissidia 012, and I know I never got around to doing them. I can't find the time to do it. However, given that this is a demo, things might be different. Let's see if I can at least find No. 10 during my brief aventure into FF Typo.

Final Fantasy Type-0

Ever since I first started reading about Final Fantasy XIII, I have been ignoring this game and pretty much anything that has to do with it. However, since Versus XIII is still a widespread mystery and since XIII-2 is moving at snail's pace to be released, I decided to take a look at this and see what it's all about. Besides, I think it would be great if I could shut up about XIII-2 and look at something else for now, even though I am sure XIII-2 will not disappoint.

Well, the first thing that I read about this game is that the gameplay is centered around magic. It is something that the characters rely on since they are aligned with a crystal of magic or something. It seems to me that the game is going to start off at some school of magic, and with that I see that Square is now trying to make a Final Fantasy version of Harry Potter. I remember when I noticed a ton of similarities between Final Fantasy XII and Star Wars. Maybe Square is trying to do something where they recreate various movie series. Next thing I know, there will be a Final Fantasy with an eccentric detective who sets off on some adventure with a friend who has some Japanese-ish variant of the name John H. Watson.

So the first thing of interest to me is the class of characters. Class Zero, as they are named, is the group of youngsters who embark on this story. Each character is ridiculously named after a trump (playing card), and they are given their own number. At first, I read that the class consisted of twelve characters, but after I skimmed through the list I saw that the last guy was No. 13. The Final Fantasy Wiki stated many times that there were twelve characters in the class, and I didn't understand at first how they could make the mistake of saying that there were twelve characters numerous times on both the Final Fantasy Type-0 page and the Class Zero page. Then I looked through the students again, and I noticed that No. 10 wasn't listed. Uh oh. What the hell happened to No. 10? Who is he/she anyway? Nothing on the wiki even hints that they had a clue that there wasn't a No. 10. There's no reference to any interviews with the directors of the game where somebody asked the question "who's No. 10," which leads me to assume that nobody ever noticed that No. 10 was missing. Am I seriously the only one here who noticed that there is a student missing in the Hogwarts School of Final Fantasy?

Actually, the school is named Peristylium Suzaku, the first part of the name meaning "garden" in Latin (I know a little Latin. Cool, huh?). When I noticed that, I realized that this game was starting to feel a little similar to Final Fantasy VIII... a little too similar. Any similarity with that game, aside from the gunblade, is too similar. The gunblade itself was something that I found rather stupid until Lightning received the perfected version of the weapon. Anyway, so I read through the gameplay information again and it turns out that, like in FFVIII, your stats are things that you sort of change through magic. Sorry, I reread the character development information and learned that it is nothing like in Final Fantasy VIII. The whole thing about magic is that you can somehow customize the stats of a spell (I like that, sounds a lot like Oblivion and it's magic creation system). It says that the characters are developed through a crystarium like the one from FFXIII, thank god. In my opinion, that was the best form of character development, aside from the older games where all you had to worry about was leveling up and letting the game take care of increasing the stats for you. So there's another plus I see in this game. I guess the only similarity then would be the school, but hopefully I won't find myself playing through all of UMD 1 (yeah the game comes in two UMDs, insane) in that school. That was the problem with FFVIII, it took too long to move on with the plot.

Another plus I see in FF Type-0 (I'm going to call it "Typo," from now on, because of how they changed the name) is the party system. As in FFXII, this game allows you to chose a party of three and switch between party members at any time; and when the lead member dies, you can switch in someone else from the list of fourteen playable characters (two "transfer students" are also in Class Zero, but they don't have official trump card names like the rest of the bozos in the class, so I guess they aren't considered cool enough to be a numbered student. Whatever). I like this party system much better than in  Final Fantasy XIII, but I suppose in FFXIII that kind of system wouldn't make sense given the pace of battle. However, Square said that Typo is supposed to be the fastest version of their ATB battle system yet. I can never figure out a damn thing of what they mean by their ambiguous statements such as that.

Let's talk more about the setting. Above is the Hogwarts Final Fantasy Edition school where Class Zero studies magic. It's good to know that it is not as ridiculous-looking as Balamb Garden. It actually looks like an authentic school, and in my opinion it gives off that magical feel. Unfortunately, other than the school and the map, I haven't really seen anything else from Typo's world. I assume that this game is not future-esque like in FFVII, FFVIII, FFX, and FFXIII, which I always found interesting about Square's RPGs. It's okay with me though, because I am starting to take interest in the fantasy themes and all. The world, I presume, is called Oriens, and is divided into four nations, which are the Suzaku Fiefdom of Rubrum, the Milites Empire, the Lorican Alliance, and the Kingdom of Concordia. That school is from Suzaku. I don't have much to say about Suzaku and Concordia since neither page on the wiki provided a suffice amount of quality pictures for me to look at. The Milites Empire seems to be technologically advanced as there seems to be asphalt roads, steel buildings with lights and all that other crap, and mecha running around (which happened to be named Magitek Armor. Interesting). The Lorican Alliance looks like a European city, like something out of Rome or Austria from old history.

Apparently, what's going on is that the Empire wants each nation's crystal for themselves, so they are invading each country with their specialization in weapons due to their crystal. They are easily able to take over the nations of Lexington and Concord... I mean Lorican and Concordia. Apparently, those two nations found themselves stuck with the lame crystals, as Lorican's crystal is the Crystal of Shielding and Concordia's crystal is the Crystal of Dragons. You would think that the Crystal of Dragons sounds pretty badass to be considered a lame crystal, but it has to be stupid because the Empire is apparently able to overcome the adversary shown below.

So all that is left is the nation Rubrum. Apparently, Rubrum proves to be a difficult adversary to the Empire. However, I also read that the students of Class Zero are trying to get their crystal back in this game. The stupid idiots on the Final Fantasy Wiki are never clear with what they write. If that is the story, a bunch of kiddos fighting a huge imperial government, it sounds interesting. I just hope that the game does not turn into another Final Fantasy VIII. Square said that the game is hardly similar to the other FFXIII titles, which is why they removed the Agito XIII part of the title and replaced it with Typo, but I don't see the lack of similarity. Apparently in Versus XIII, it is exactly the same concept. A city with a crystal is under attack by other people who wish to have it, because apparently the crystals of their cities "died" or something. How is that not anything like Typo? Whatever, at least in that sense I can assume rightfully that the game will hardly be as annoying as FFVIII was. It also seems that I am noticing things that nobody else is noticing today. On terms of Final Fantasy, first I noticed the notorious missing student No. 10 whom the idiots of FFWiki failed to pay any mind to, and now it is how this game has the same concept as Versus XIII and Square doesn't realize it. I don't really mind the latter, but I am very interested to know just who is the ominous No. 10?

I guess he or she was somebody who wasn't created because Square couldn't think of a cool name for the character. You could clearly see that they were running out of ideas with the names since No. 7, No. 8, and No. 9 were named Seven, Eight, and Nine respectively, when they could've been named Mullet, Ocho, and Nina, also respectively. I guess when they got to ten, they thought, "Shit, what the hell do we name this guy? Screw it, let's go on to the easy ones, the court cards. Jack, Queen, and King. There, simple as that." Ten could've been named Dime or Sawbuck, but I guess that never came across their minds. And where's the Joker? Why isn't he included in Class Zero as the class clown? Goddamn it Square, there goes another perfectly good character. For that purpose, when the game comes out, I will be deliberately keeping an eye out for No. 10 and the Joker student.

Then again, the game might never be released here. So far, only a Japanese release has been listed. America and Europe haven't even been mentioned... Wait, I take that back, because the director of the game said he was trying to make the game "appeal to North Americans." That could mean anything, though, but I will keep an eye out for any information on a release date. Hopefully that will be at least a week before it's time to head on over to Tallahassee.

Edit: As a matter of fact, it turns out that Cater, Cinque, and Sice aren't even real names for cards as well. Something is definitely up with Square's naming system for this game. The name of the moogle is even ridiculous, it's Hattsumikamine Rōtoyōsuna Eripuruchi. Talk about the longest damn name in the world. I wonder if the voice actors in the game have to go through the trouble of pronouncing that whole goddamn thing. That name should definitely say something about whether Square is really considering releasing this game overseas.

Edit 2: Cinque is actually a card name for five, but it apparently is no longer used. I still don't see anything on Sice and Cater

Edit 3: Sice and Cater are apparently names for the sides of dice. That clears up the confusion. I still don't know what the hell happened to No. 10.