Final Fantasy: Dissidia: Part Two

So you may remember my old article on Final Fantasy: Dissidia, if not you can check it out here. Anyway, while my parents were watching a movie on the laptop I got bored and decided to see what was new on PSN (with my PSP). Low and behold I find that a Dissidia Demo has been released, my reaction? YASHA!!!

I immediately downloaded it and began to play and I have to say, the fight controls aren’t anywhere near as difficult as they were hyped up to be but the fights themselves are quite difficult. As it was stated in the previous article, it is like Street Fighter one-on-one battle system. There is a full 3D world including interactive maps full of things waiting for you to crush.

Personally, from the Demo alone I believe this is going to be an amazing game and I cannot WAIT to get it for my PSP. So for all you PSP folks, what are you waiting for?! Stop reading this and go download the demo!

This is a No-Smoking Venue…

Now I know why I never attend any concerts…they just aren’t my thing. I was working security for two on Friday and Saturday (I have two more next week) and they were just major headaches. People don’t know how to read giant freakin’ signs right in front of them that say ‘No Smoking’ or comply with the venue’s request for no smoking. This means that we, security, have to walk through 5,000 people to get to you, the one who for some reason thinks he can smoke. By the way, just because the band says you can smoke pot, doesn’t mean the venue or security says you can. [/end rant]

Anyways, the two concerts were for Common Sense and Flaming Lips. I had never heard of either of them and I wish it was still that way. Common Sense influenced the likes of Slightly Stoopid apparently and when I heard them and saw them they just kind of screamed Coronado, maybe that’s just me though.

Flaming Lips are another story, I all out hated them. I didn’t like a single thing about them, and they made it difficult to do anything. BLAH, ranting again.

So yeah, I don’t know how much I got paid but I’m glad I have a little bit to relax before the next concerts.

Natsume Yuujinchou

I just finished this two season series last night and I must say I am quite saddened that it’s over. There was a great story line accented with awesome characters and the artwork had a classic anime-style feel to it. If you needed an anime to compare it to overall, I’d say Inyuasha might be the best comparison…just less confusing.

Natsume Yujinchou is about a high school boy named Natsume Takashi, who happens to be able to see Youkai (or spirits). Natsume inherits Natsume Reiko’s ‘Book of Friends’ and learns quickly that many youkai are after its power to control the youkai. Takashi is befriended by Nyanko, a powerful youkai better known as Madara (voiced by Kazuhiko Inoue from Naruto as Kakashi) who agrees to protect Takashi as he begin’s his journey.

On a five star rating, I’d give this anime a perfect 5/5, I can’t really explain why, so watch it for yourself!

Final Fantasy XIV

You’ve heard the hype about Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy (Versus) XIII but have you heard about Final Fantasy XIV? I saw the trailer for this game (included at the bottom of the post) when I was reading the IGN’s “History of Final Fantasy” and was actually quite surprised myself.

Just in case you haven’t heard about Final Fantasy XIII you can check out a brief synopsis on Domofactor’s blog or just click here. Since he did a pretty good job covering it I’m not going to say anything other than the fact I can’t wait to play it. (I still haven’t finished Final Fantasy X or XII and just started the original digitally re-mastered version on my PSP.) Final Fantasy XIV is another Online game just like Final Fantasy XI. I myself have never played XI due to the fact I hate joining MMORPGs late in their lifetimes. Hopefully I’ll have a PS3 before XIII Versus comes out because I’d hate to miss this.

Final Fantasy XIV takes place in a world called ‘Eorza’. The monsters in the world represent the same ones from XI but have been altered to fit the new world.  I believe my favorite thing about this is the fact you get to create your own Final Fantasy Character (which those who have played XI already know) but for those who have played XI, there’s a chance you can transfer your data to the new game, but Square Enix isn’t completely positive.

Brief ADD Moment – Apparently XI’s story isn’t done yet and Square Enix still has another year of content planned…maybe I’ll pick it up…

Anyway, World of Warcraft diehards rejoice (I’m not one of them) but apparently WoW has had a slight influence on Final Fantasy XIV. As I promised, there’s a trailer below along with the source of information above if  you want a more professional article.

IGN’s Article – What We Know

 

Final Fantasy: Dissidia

Alright alright, I know what you’re thinking, ‘Great, another Final Fantasy post’ …probably more sarcastic though, but! This Final Fantasy game is different from all the others simply because its a straight brawler. The production for this game started back in 2007 and has been moving fairly slow, I didn’t even hear about it till late into 2008. The game features the main hero and villain from each Final Fantasy game all the way up to FFX. Yes, this means we get to see Cloud and Sepiroth again for all you FFVII people. The character art is slightly different than the character’s original art, but its still pretty easy to tell who is who, however there is a reason to that, Takeshi Arakawa explains;

“This game has been produced by the Kingdom Hearts team; when the Kingdom Hearts games were made, there was a very clear consciousness about doing action games, which were new to us. The team had the same mission to create an action game, but with a Final Fantasy theme. So basically Dissidia is a Kingdom Hearts game with some battle features in it.”

There still is a story to the game, after all what would Final Fantasy be without a story? I can’t really explain the story any better than they have already.

“Cosmos, the goddess of harmony. Chaos, the god of discord. Reigning from distant realms, the two gods had gathered warriors from all lands to lead them in savage war. Cosmos and Chaos were of equal strength. It was believed the conflict would last forever. However, the balance is now broken. Those who answered Chaos’s call created an inexhaustible force. And under vicious attack without relent, the warriors fighting for Cosmos started to fall one by one. The conflict that has continued for eons is now about to end in Chaos’s favor. The world has been torn asunder, sinking into a vortex of disorder. As for the few surviving warriors. their fates have yet to be determined.”

When I think of Fighting games I tend to think of Smash Brothers or Tekken, but this one is a little different. Like Tekken and Street Fighter you are pitted against another character in a one on one match (as can be seen in the image to the right featuring Tidus vs Jecht, both from FFX) and in a 3D environment at that. But since its not a regular Final Fantasy game the battle system has been revamped and a lot of the little stuff has been taken out or replaced, MP (Magic Points) for example. MP has been replaced with BP, or Brave Points, that work kind of like a Limit Break and provide the character with more power when the bar fills up. Check out the Trailer below…might just be me but I got chills. Release Date: August 25, 2009 Console: PSP

 

For more information on the game, pictures and videos check out the IGN.com