It was Sephiroth with the katana in the Dining Room. BAM
So I just have to give a shoutout to a fresh, gaming celebrity on the interwebs - MatPat. This guy is known for creating the well-received series, Game Theory; a show analyzing mysteries and hypothesis' within the gaming world - a video game version of Mythbusters, if you will. One of his earlier videos looked at a moment that rocked the gaming world since 1997 - the murder of Aerith Gainsborough in Final Fantasy VII.
MatPat takes a look at a different game in each video and much to my enjoyment, he deeply analyzed a scene (albeit a sad one) from a Final Fantasy game. All of us know that in Final Fantasy VII, Aerith (or Aeris, a mistranslation) was impaled by Sephiroth's incredibly long katana, but MatPat proposes another killer of the Ancient, which is how he ends all of his videos; that is, by proposing a theory.
MatPat looks at the scene of Aerith's death very analytically; dissecting it in a true scholarly fashion. I suggest you watch the video to see how it plays out, because Mat's findings just might shock you.
I meant to blog about this a while back, but I've been extremely busy as of late. For you FF fans out there, you may have had this game on your radar for the past while: Final Fantasy Type-0, which was previously known as Agito. It's an upcoming title for the PSP and there's one word that comes to mind- blood.
The game is the most violent yet, (one of the bloodiest games I have ever laid my eyes on), and is sure to be one of the more mature games for the PSP. Besides the extreme violence (a chocobo dies!), Type-0 seems to be heavily laced with dark themes and a mature plot revolving around war and politics.
I haven't followed this game very much - in fact, this trailer is the first I've seen of this game, and the sheer violence and moodiness caught me off guard. Come to think of it, even though violence is a huge part of the Final Fantasy series, blood isn't a typical visual element. VII introduced blood while VIII used blood in one cutscene, but Type-0 has brought violence for the series to a whole new scale. Type-0 is sure to be the first Final Fantasy to receive an M rating, (at least in North America). That's my prediction.
And to top off this post, here's the aforementioned trailer in Japanese. Sorry, no Ingles yet!
Some of you probably remember the disappointing release of Final Fantasy XIV. After it's release, many reviews scored the game very poorly, received a bad reputation, and worst of all, angered many fans of the franchise. During the previous weekend, CEO of SquareEnix, Yoichi Wada, announced that Final Fantasy XIV will be ending it's subscription before the end of the year and heading into a strong development period that will completely change the game.
After the failed release of Final Fantasy XIV, many members on the development team that made the game either resigned or were switched with another employee. They had been re-working the game since, but only in small pieces. Soon, the game will be entering a very strong development period, as shown in the development chart in the link at the bottom. Many aspects of the game, such as the graphics, menu systems, communications, and many more will be revamped until everything is '2.0'. By 2013, Final Fantasy XIV will be quite different (and better, I hope) and the PS3 version will be released as 2.0.
I've never played Final Fantasy XIV, nor it's father, Final Fantasy XI. Both are MMOs, and although I'm not particularly fond of the genre, I'm more than willing to try something that has Final Fantasy in the title. So once the PS3 version is released in 2013, I'll be sure to document what the game is like. Here's to hoping it'll be good!
See what I did there? With the title? No? Well, you will in a minute - as if you could read. Final Fantim is one person, (or possibly many - I'm watching you), who has taken up the task of re-mastering the Final Fantasy VII OST. Of course, the collection is finished and available for download from the artist him/herself, (I'll provide a link at the bottom of this post). This re-mastering is very well done, with most pieces being recreated to not just sound like it's original version but to sound even better. And best of all, the whole thing is FREE.
So what's the catch? "There is none". I don't believe you. "Just like you didn't believe that George Lucas would f*** up the Star Wars blu-ray trilogy?" Touche.
Final Fantim has also remastered some tracks from Final Fantasy VI as well as one track from Final Fantasy IX. I have listened to all of his/her work many times over and it is, by far, the best re-mastering of the Final Fantasy VII OST out on the web, to my knowledge - and I know everything. "Really? Then what boxers am I wearing?" Clowns. "Creepy."
The dude/dudette has really poured their heart and soul into this project. Similar to how I just spilled my coffee all over myself and my bedsheets. I LIKE TO TYPE AND DRINK IN BED, OKAY?!
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.
The other day, a friend of mine gave me two Final Fantasy figurines as gifts. The first figurine I show off is that of Terra from FFVI fame and the second Cloud Strife from the FFVII prequel, Crisis Core. Both of these collectibles are very nice and I'm quite happy to have these two entering my collection.
Pretty much all of the details are in the video above, as well as the un-boxing of Terra and Cloud. Both were made by Trading/Play arts under Square Enix supervision and the production is pretty good, even more so for the Cloud figure.
The Terra statue cost about $20 and the Cloud figure was about $30, the latter being a great price considering Play Art figures generally cost somewhere between $45-$70.
I usually don't end up getting many collectibles of this nature, so there won't be too many posts about figurines in the near future.
Enjoy this video and if you have questions or comments, post in the 'comments' section down below and I'll be sure to reply as quickly as possible!
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.
