Remember Stephen Hiscock, the artist who submitted some artwork? Yeah, the one with the OMFGDATISDASHIZ sketch of Bartz and his chocobo pal, Boco. Well, Steve is back with another sketch, and this time he drew a portrait of the Cloud Strife figure I showed off in the previous post. Steve decided to try a simpler approach to this sketch instead of a gritty one. Very well done Steve! Bravo! I can only hope to see more in the future.
Click image for a larger version.
If any of you readers out there would like to see some of your fanwork up here, whether it be art, music, or writing, I'd be more than happy to give a shout-out to you in this blog. Just send your work to sukotto.w@gmail.com. And if you want to see Stephen Hiscock's photography, click the link at the bottom of the entry for his Flickr page.
If you're a personal friend of mine, you may have heard me mention this game or have seen me play it. This is Dissidia Final Fantasy and it's a very good anthology of the series, so to speak. The characters (and villains) you know and love from Final Fantasy have clashed in this title of epic proportions. Currently, there are two iterations in this 'spin-off' series, but I'll be talking about the first one.
In this video, I briefly talk about what the game is like and the battle that is taking place in the video. Here, I'll write a little more detail on Dissidia.
Dissidia is an action-RPG-fighting game. The player can choose from a multitude of characters - a hero and villain representing each game in the series up to FFX. Yes, that means you can create battles between Cloud and Sephiroth, Terra and Jecht, and many more. Even though it's a fighter, it's actually very heavy with RPG elements - with the exception of exploration since there's no world to explore. There are at least a few modes included such as Story mode, Arcade, Versus, Duel Colosseum, and extras like the Museum which allows you to view information of characters. You can also watch and edit replays, which the outcome has spawned many fan videos on the internet. There's also a mode that allows you to battle wirelessly with your friends. I've only had the chance to experience this mode once but it was very fun!
I remember when this game was first being launched, there was a lot of advertising for Dissidia. I saw many posters decorating game stores, TV commercials scanned into my eyeballs, and Square even released figurines of Dissidia as well as potion cans; each character having their face planted on said cans.
Well, that's really all I have to say about Dissidia. All that is left are the fond memories I have of playing this game. It piqued my interest in the Final Fantasy world as a whole, so the game is quite important to me. As I said in the video, it's a very addicting and entertaining game; I've played at least 100 hours. Dissidia has even served as a great way to blow off steam, whether it be taking a break from heavy work or taking a break from stress in general.
If you have a PSP but have never tried Dissidia, I very much recommend it. It's a great entry in the series and it deserves my Seal of Approval.
So my good friend Stephen Hiscock is currently on a drawing frenzy and he's an artist who has unique ways of illustrating his ideas. The picture below is a drawing I requested and it's his own interpretation of the cover of Final Fantasy V. I'll include a link at the bottom if you would like to see Steve's photography ala his Flickr account.
Click the image for a larger version
The original cover of FFV for comparison.
This is such an awesome drawing. It really emphasizes Bartz's determination to rid the world of Exdeath. And y'know what? Steve drew this in 30 minutes. He has put a huge amount of detail and emphasis into the caricature of Bartz. The drawn chocobo is an intereptation that reminds me of the concept art of the chocobo during development of Final Fantasy II.
