Hey Saturday Sun (Day 206)

I've been looking into playing some ROM hacks recently because I want to replay Final Fantasy VI but would prefer if it were even remotely a challenge. I found a hack called the "Evil Type" and it seemed pretty promising, but unfortunately I can't seem to get it to work. Every time I apply the .ips to the unpatched ROM, the game no longer works. When I try to load it up, I just get a black screen. This is pretty disappointing because I think it would be really fun to try. Oh well; I'll keep experimenting with it. For now I'm pretty irritated with it.

This is the second day in  row of not making progress on Final Fantasy II. I'm a little concerned that I'm going to lose interest. I'm not super into the game by any means, but I would still definitely like to finish it--if for no other reason that I would no longer feel obligated to play it. I feel like I can't resume Final Fantasy XIII-2 until I'm done with it, and I'd really like to continue playing it. I'm not sure why I deprive myself of something I actually want to do, but I guess it's just how my mind works.

Honestly, I'm not really even in a difficult spot in Final Fantasy II, if such a thing even exists. I've taken a brief break from the game due primarily to circumstance. I've been playing a lot of League of Legends with friends instead. I like hanging out with them (online) but sometimes I feel like it'd be better if we just chatted instead of actually playing. It seems so rare these days that I actually have fun playing the game. Because I play it so infrequently, my skill level has degraded. My decision making has degraded. And I don't feel motivated enough to do anything about that. There are so many other games I'd rather play instead. I'm beginning to grow tired of being inundated with League of Legends content all day every day. 


I've been in moods like this before and it led to me taking a break and maybe playing WoW for awhile. Well, I've recently played Rift pretty extensively so I'm not in much of an MMO mood. The problem is that I like having a game to play socially. League of Legends is a perfect fit because it's free and easily accessible to just about anyone. Sometimes, though, I feel like I've just really had my fill of the game. I've been playing it for years--and not just sporadically. I've been playing it very regularly for probably four years now. But I have so many other games to play now, and I no longer feel the need to play it alone. It's getting to the point where I'm reluctant to play it even with friends.

How do I continue to socialize with these people without feeling like an exile, though? I don't have social interactions like other people do. I very rarely leave my house. I'm definitely an internet kind of dude. I can keep showing up in TeamSpeak and chatting with these guys but the temptation to play LoL will always be there. In some cases I might be pressured into it, even if I don't think I'll necessarily enjoy it. It's not an easy situation to resolve.

Grinning Mouths (Day 205)

I'm still intent on finishing Final Fantasy II but I haven't made any progress on it today. I've been too busy watching the EU LCS, which as of me typing this only has one game left to go. Today is one of those strange days where I can't seem to really wake myself up, despite pouring a river of coffee down my throat. I felt like I was pretty alert at the beginning of my day but I've sort of sat around and done nothing since then.

I've also started up a cooperative playthrough of Final Fantasy V with a friend of mine. I haven't played this game in years. It's the only SNES game in the series that I haven't played through dozens of times--mostly because I didn't play it until I was in my late teens. Final Fantasy V was not originally released in America, of course, but it was translated by fans quite a few years back before Square-Enix brought over the PS1 and GBA ports to America. To this day, the Super Famicom fan translation is the only version I've played. I haven't found much of a compelling reason to try anything else.

I really enjoy playing through these classic RPGs with a friend. I wouldn't really have any incentive to replay them otherwise, and it's fun to chat about them with someone else who has played through them before. There's a surprising amount about Final Fantasy V that I've completely forgotten. Everything is familiar, of course, but the specifics have faded away. Now that I've played a pretty significant chunk of Final Fantasy II, I realize that Faris is sort of a callback to Leila--both of which are purple-haired female pirates.

I floated the idea of playing the Final Fantasy VI fan translation after we finish FFV and he seemed pretty receptive. That's another game that I feel like I don't have a lot of incentive to play alone, but I really would be interested in seeing how the game progresses with a more literal translation. I can't say I would necessarily prefer it to other version of the game but I would like having the perspective.

After I finish watching the LCS, I'm definitely going to start working on Final Fantasy II again. It's definitely not my favorite game in the series but I do think it's interesting. I think the gameplay mechanics are good, but poorly implemented. Leveling up spells over time is fun, but it's tedious in FFII because of how much time it takes. It also seems like many spells are unnecessary to progress through the game. It's cool that you have spells like Haste, Berserk, Shield, Barrier, and Wall but I suspect that I could play through the game without ever having to resort to them. I think if I just did a little grinding I could probably get through most fights (and even some boss fights) just by mashing the A button, selecting Fight consecutively. My opinion on this could easily change as I get further into the game, but I suspect it won't be getting much harder.

Crash and Burn (Day 204)

I think in the past I've had aspirations to be a sort of film buff but I've never invested enough time in actually watching important movies to feel qualified to comment on them in any real way. I enjoy the medium of course, but my opinions on the format are less valid than some others'. There are, of course, some directors that I really like, but even then I haven't seen all of their work. I really enjoy Paul Thomas Anderson, particularly Magnolia, but I also like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.

I decided yesterday while playing Final Fantasy II that I would start watching more films, particularly those by critically acclaimed directors. I thought I'd even watch films that might not have been so well received just so I could form my own opinions. I decided to start with the Coen Brothers. I'll be watching through their film catalog in order and rewatching the films I've seen before. So far, I've watched Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, and Barton Fink. Of those four, the first three were completely new to me.

Blood Simple was originally released in 1984 and it was the Coen brothers' directorial debut. It's a thriller featuring relatively unknown actors, including Frances McDormand in her first film role. I thought it was interesting to see Dan Hedaya in a prominent role in that movie--I'd only ever seen him before on Cheers as Carla Tortelli's scumbag ex-husband Nick. He's far more sinister in Blood Simple, where he hires a private investigator to tail his wife (McDormand) when he expects she's cheating on him.

Raising Arizona, on the other hand, is a goofy comedy film featuring the infamous Nicolas Cage in one of the performances that garnered him the cult following he has today. Cage plays a no-good recidivist who falls in love with a female police officer played by Holly Hunter. They marry and discover that they are unable to have children, so they cook up a ridiculous plan to kidnap a child from a famous couple that have just given birth to quintuplets. Their reasoning is that they just have too many kids to handle. This film is also the first appearance of John Goodman in a Coen brothers film--and in my opinion, he's the best thing about it. Frances McDormand also returns in a minor role.

Miller's Crossing is a bloody gangster film set in the 1940s featuring Gabriel Byrne as Tom Reagan and Marcia Gay Harden as Verna Bernbaum in lead roles. John Turturro has a memorable performance as a clever bookie while Jon Polito and Albert Finney play rival crime bosses.

John Turturro, Jon Polito, and John Goodman (that's a lot of Johns) all return for Barton Fink, a surreal film about an aspiring writer with delusions of grandeur. Although he believes in the integrity of his work, he jumps at the chance to sell out to Hollywood. The premise is simple, but things get really weird as the movie progresses. As Turturro's Barton Fink holes himself up in a creepy hotel to write, he befriends his neighbor, Charlie Meadows (John Goodman). Goodman plays Meadows with a mixture of quiet intensity and affable charm--but there is terror lurking underneath the surface. I've seen the film before and gladly watched it again. It is my favorite of these first four.

The Rebel Army (Day 203)

Final Fantasy II is really an oddball in the series. Both the first and third games had gameplay centered around giving your generic characters different jobs or classes and otherwise had pretty traditional experience and leveling systems. Just about every Final Fantasy game regardless of the mechanics continues to adhere to the standard leveling and experience system, but Final Fantasy II was different. Experience points no longer exist. Instead, attributes increase after certain conditions are met. If you lose a lot of HP in combat, chances are you're going to gain some HP after the battle. If you attack physically a lot, you're going to gain strength and proficiency with that weapon type. It bears more similarities to the Elder Scrolls series than it does to Final Fantasy.

One standard that FFII did introduce was the concept of magic points. I won't pretend it was the first game to pioneer the mechanic--I honestly don't know one way or the other--but this trend continued in Final Fantasy IV and most games in the series that followed. That stat upgrade system was however never repeated. I'm not sure if Squaresoft received a lot of negative feedback on it or not--but I can't say I mind it, in theory. The only real problem I have with the system is that it's highly abusable. To increase the HP of your characters, you need only lose HP in combat. You can do this by attacking your own characters. Wearing no armor makes you take more damage so you gain more HP. It's a very counterintuitive system that encourages you do things you wouldn't normally do.

In the original Final Fantasy, spells are organized into tiers. There are several different tiers of fire magic, thunder magic, etc. In Final Fantasy II, you'll learn a base Fire spell that will continue to grow in power as you use it. This is a good system, but it's tuned in such a way that it takes absolutely forever to level this magic. You'll have to cast the spell in question hundreds and hundreds of times before you have it adequately leveled. This is likely highly unnecessary, but it does hurt my compulsive tendencies to max out certain things by the time endgame rolls around.

Another strange aspect of Final Fantasy II is in the keyword system. It's actually pretty interesting but to my knowledge was never repeated. As you talk to certain NPCs, you'll memorize keywords and be able to ask other NPCs about these keywords. This is required to advance through the plot which is admittedly barebones. Still, FFII was the first in the series to feature named playable characters, a trend that resumed in FFIV and continued for all future titles. It was an important game for the series, but I also feel like it was a failed experiment in some ways. I'm enjoying it so far, but it is certainly not without its frustrations. If I end up having to level my magic up to level 16 to progress in the game, that will be extremely frustrating.

The National Anthem (Day 202)

I think the first time I played Final Fantasy was something like 11 years ago. It was most likely the Final Fantasy Origins version though I have dabbled in attempting the original NES version a few times. Last night, I finally finished it. It's unclear why I've waited so long to do so. I've played through much more difficult and time consuming games before--none of which were nearly as important or influential as Final Fantasy. I'm glad to be able to finally say that I've finished it, and doubly so that it was the Origins version since the Dawn of Souls and PSP versions of the game are significantly easier and streamlined. Honestly, I'd like to play the PSP version at some point but it'll probably be way down the line.

Despite a laundry list of flaws, it's hard to fault Final Fantasy. It launched one of my favorite video games series of all time and it's still fun to this day. Like many early Final Fantasy games, it really picks up near the end when you start acquiring the best spells and items. I was happy to acquire the legendary Excalibur in much the same way you do in Final Fantasy IV. I brought the adamantite to the traditional dwarf smith. Soon after, I grabbed the Masamune from the final dungeon. I'd never thought about how many similarities Final Fantasy IV shared with the first three games of the series.

Final Fantasy V was a transitional game for the series. It brought back the traditional job system mechanic from the first and third games but evolved it significantly by allowing you to mix and match abilities from different jobs. Like the the first and third games, it put much less emphasis on character development and chose instead to emphasize the gameplay. In a way, it was sort of the end of an era. I feel that Final Fantasy VI really changed what the series was about. Final Fantasy IV was the first game in the series to focus on having a diverse cast of characters but VI really kicked it up a notch in that regard with a huge cast of memorable characters (barring oddballs like Umaro and Gogo) that could be switched in and out of the party at will.

After VI, the series changed for good. Each title put much more of an emphasis on plot, character development, and customization. The crystals, which had been such an important element of every Final Fantasy game, were noticeably absent from VI and most future titles. Many traditions stayed, however. Chocobos, moogles, and airships continued to show up frequently. A character named Cid almost always featured prominently. Iconic weapons like Excalibur and Masamune were also commonly seen.

All of this really puts me in the mood to marathon the entire series, but I'm almost positive that's way too ambitious a goal to shoot for. Final Fantasy only took me 21 hours to finish, but that was spread out over several lengthy sessions over the course of three or four days. Although I'm playing Final Fantasy II now, I'm not entirely sure how long that's going to take me. I'm not particularly fond of the idea of playing through FFIII again either, even though I do have the DS version.

No, I think it's a much better idea to finish up Final Fantasy II and then play Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, which I abandoned a couple years ago. It's sort of a predecessor to Bravely Default, a new 3DS game that is getting a lot of positive attention lately. It might be a good idea to play through it before I give this new game a try.

Mt. Gulg (Day 201)

I have vanquished the first two of the Four Fiends of Final Fantasy. To be honest, they were not at all challenging. Most of the difficulty in the game lies in getting to the bosses in the first place. To take on Marilith, I needed to traverse the twisting passageways of Mt. Gulg, a volcanic cavern flowing with lava. Fortunately, the lava in the cave only dealt 1 damage per step--with the added benefit of disabling random encounters for as long as I walked on the lava. It felt safer overall to just trudge through lava, despite how ridiculous the idea seemed at first.

I'm making steady progress for now. I seem to be making a lot more gil than I was before, but it's possible that the prices of subsequent spells will simply skyrocket. The level 5 spells were 20000 gil apiece, which would have seemed ridiculous only a few hours of playtime before--but with enemies just outside the city of Melmond awarding me with around 4000 per encounter, it ended up not being a big deal. It's kind of a bummer that so many of the spells seem to have such limited use. I've never been a big fan of spells that rely on low accuracy to do anything at all, and Final Fantasy has those in great quantities. Quake swallows up enemies, Bind and Stun both paralyze, and Reaper instantly kills foes but rarely works.

Black and white mages do have access to several utility spells that are quite useful, but it would seem it's only necessary to use them for boss fights, which seem to be incredibly infrequent. In about 11 hours of gameplay, I've encountered two major boss fights and two minor ones. The minor boss fights required little else more than simply basic attacking. Against Lich and Marilith I buffed my party with Shield and my warriors with Haste. This part of the game, at least, is fun. Trudging through mazelike caves while battling through countless random encounters is frustrating, but I feel I should be used to it by now after playing dozens of games with these exact mechanics. Final Fantasy was a very early example of this kind of gameplay.

I suspect I'm getting close to being able to promote my classes. Surprisingly, I've made more progress into the game than I ever have before. After years and years of owning Final Fantasy Origins, I've finally actually made progress. If I can complete these first two games in the Final Fantasy series I will have satisfied this obsessive compulsive tendency of mine--and I can go back to playing Final Fantasy XIII-2.

Are there other games in the series I should try to tackle? Final Fantasy II is obviously my next project, but what of Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest? Although I've played it, I don't recall ever finishing it. It's not a good game by any stretch of the imagination, but I think it would be interesting to attempt. I also still need to play Final Fantasy IV: The After Years and Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. I'll probably end up playing none of these until much later, of course. My plans always end up unraveling.

Matoya's Cave (Day 200)

Wow, I honestly never thought I'd make it to 200 days on this blog. When I started out things were shaky and I thought maybe I'd keep it up for a week--and maybe fitfully update from that point on when I became guilty I wasn't updated. But no, I've updated every single day for 200 days. Even if I haven't achieved anything else of note in that period of time, that's pretty impressive! I'll admit--some of those entries were a bit phoned in, but for the most part I've done very well. I've written a ton of fiction, a lot of opinion pieces on video games, and lots of different anecdotes from my life. For someone who just sits around and play games all day, it's impressive I've managed to think of something to write about every day. I'm continually surprised at that.

I've been progressing as steadily as I possibly can in Final Fantasy; I'm beginning to experience a great deal of frustration with the game's pacing. Items are incredibly expensive and spells are in short supply. I'm forced to purchase countless potions and antidotes just to get by because just about every enemy has a chance to poison you--which is a permanent condition. If you're poisoned deep in a dungeon it's a miserable experience. You get lost and get thrust into encounter after encounter while desperately trying to find the exit. Then once you make it outside you use a Tent to restore your party's health and save the game. . .but that doesn't remove the poison status.

I guess it's sort of unfair for me to deride the game for these old school mechanics because I went into it knowing exactly what was ahead of me. There are multiple versions of these games that offer a less frustrating experience--but I've embarked on this journey as sort of a personal challenge. I want to be able to say that I've beaten this games they were meant to be experienced originally. It's funny to think about what gamers at the time were expected to put up with, though.

As soon as I arrived in Melmond, I saw that the new spells cost 8000 gil and thought that was ridiculous. I had enough trouble farming up 4000 gil apiece for the spells in the previous town--and then I noticed that the newest armor for my warriors sported a price tag of 45000 gil. I had to buy two of these for the two warriors in my party but it took me hours of grinding to save up for them. Then, I delved into the depths of the Terra Cave where Lich waited for me--and I died within three turns. I might have had better luck had I not used most of my spells just getting there.

I've had to deal with arguably even tougher trials in classic video games before, though. I played Faria early last year, an NES game that flew under most people's radar--for good reason. it was a weird hybrid of Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy mechanics with little of the charm of either. Even though I'll admit that Final Fantasy's dungeons are frustrating, most of the frustration there is due to random encounters. In the case of Faria, the dungeons are impossible to navigate without a map--something the game does not provide. If I hadn't consulted a map on GameFAQs, I would have been lost for literally days in any of the game's dungeons. Compared to that game, Final Fantasy is just fine. I think I'll still probably start consulting maps.

Castle Cornelia (Day 199)

I have been very harsh on the Final Fantasy series mostly because I love it. I've finished just about every title from the series and consider myself very knowledgeable about it as a whole--but I don't hesitate to point out the numerous flaws where I see them. Despite the flaws present in every game in the series, I still feel like every one of them is worth playing and probably even finishing--which is why I'm finally attempting to get through the first two games of the series now.

I had the option of playing the PSP versions, but decided against it after doing some research. In all honestly, these versions are probably objectively superior, not only graphically but in gameplay as well--but they're also streamlined and made more approachable for a newer audience. These are things I can't fault Square-Enix for doing and if we're being honest I'd like to play these versions some day. However, for now I'd like to experience the games as they were originally intended--as a more hardcore experience targeted toward an entirely different demographic. Items are very expensive and extensive grinding is required to progress. In this way, Final Fantasy Origins is very true to the original titles, with only a few allowances for the sake of convenience.

I have dismissed these first two Final Fantasy titles as tedious on multiple occasions, but I've always harbored the desire to finish them. I've put about five hours into it so far and I'm enjoying it despite the usual frustrations associated with the game. It's time consuming and repetitive, but also satisfying to see my characters slowly ramp up in power--and it's satisfying to delve deep into a dangerous cave and make it out alive without suffering casualties. It's satisfying to amass great amounts of gil and have what I need to purchase expensive upgrades to my equipment. The gameplay itself is not challenging, but it's like a war of attrition. The game throws wave after wave of enemies at me, wearing me down over time. I am forced to deal with status ailments and a lack of resources at my disposal. I have to plan ahead or I'll be punished for it.

I would have to worry about none of these things in the PSP versions--and perhaps not in the GBA versions either. And I would probably enjoy them more in the short term--and I'd be happy to have completed at least one version of these games. But when I get through these versions, which are so true to the originals, I'll feel like I've actually accomplished something closer to what was originally intended. It's not a feeling I experience all that often with newer RPGs. It's often a casual experience where I breeze through. I feel no frustration and I have fun, but I don't feel as accomplished once I make progress. It reminds me of the Persona games. I absolutely love the series, but it was frequently incredibly frustrating climbing floor after floor and fighting off waves of enemies--only to die and lose hours of progress. But when I finally made it, that was a great feeling.

I can't imagine I'll ever think of Final Fantasy as one of my favorites in the series, but it feels so weird that I've never finished this title that influenced so many games that came after it. It's interesting to see how the series has developed over time--and above all else, it's still a fun game despite its flaws.

Erosion Blues (Day 198)

I've logged around 12 hours in Final Fantasy XIII-2 so far, and it's already put me in a Final Fantasy mood. I'm currently looking into making yet another attempt at playing through the first two games in the series. After a little research, I decided the Final Fantasy Origins versions would be best since they're very true to the originals while having superior graphics. It also helps that I've owned the disc for many years. In fact, I tracked down my PSOne (the tiny one) and the disc was still in the tray after all this time.

I've discussed this before, but out of all the contiguous Final Fantasy games, I've finished everything but the first two, Final Fantasy X, XI, and XIV. Regretfully I don't think I'll be jumping on FFXI and grinding out 99 levels any time soon, but the others are all definite possibilities. If I can work up enough motivation, I think I can play through the Origins versions of the first two titles and alternate working on those while playing through FFXIII-2. After I've done all that, I could move on to FFX--although I did run into some emulation issues the last time I tried.

Before I jump into that ill-fated plan, I should probably talk about my initial impression if FFXIII-2 since it seems I've been putting that off for some time now. I was a fan of the original FFXIII despite its convoluted and confusing plot and mostly asinine characters. I thought the gameplay, though controversial to some, was fantastic. It introduced a sort of job class system that was unlike any of the previous games in the series (barring perhaps a superficial resemblance to FFX-2). Each character had access to the same pool of six classes and could switch between their available classes at will during combat. Each of these characters would learn skills from these classes in different orders and have differing aptitudes for each class. It was necessary to mix and match which classes your three combat characters were using in order to succeed in combat.

Not everyone was happy with the style of combat when the game originally released, though. Many dismissed it because it felt like the game was playing itself--and indeed you could get through many battles by selecting Auto-Battle whenever prompted for input. However, not every encounter was like this and boss battles absolutely required strategy to prevail. Unless one were to power level beyond what was reasonable, many boss battles required careful thought. The lionshare of the strategy in FFXIII was in paradigm shifting. A paradigm is a combination of classes. For example, you could have Lightning as a Commando, Sazh as a Ravager, and Vanille as a Medic. This is a balanced strategy that is fairly safe--but your damage output and potential to stagger is limited.

Each class--or role as I think they were called--performs a specific function. You could almost treat them as roles in an MMORPG. In an MMO, you generally have a healer, DPS, a tank, and sometimes a support. FFXIII (and its sequel) basically have these roles with DPS and support split into two roles apiece. Ravager and Commando are there primarily to deal damage, but their secondary purpose is to cause opponents to stagger. Ravagers build up the bar required to stagger an opponent very quickly, but without the assistance of a Commando, the bar will also drain quickly. Staggering an opponent is often very important, because it greatly increases the damage they suffer. For some enemies, staggering them is the only way to do any significant damage at all.

Saboteurs and Synergists are essentially two sides of a coin in that they both support the team--by debuffing enemies and buffing allies respectively. Many boss battles are almost impossible without the spells these roles provide. Saboteurs can poison, reduce defenses, and a host of other things. Synergists are capable of massively increasing the defensive and offensive capabilities of his allies.

Sentinels do little to no damage, but are greatly invaluable in that they absorb and redirect massive amounts of damage directed at allies. They are the tanks of both FFXIII games. I use these the least, but they are often necessary to get through difficult phases of boss fights. They are most effective when combined with a Medic to keep them alive nigh-indefinitely. Medics, like healers in MMOs, are also capable of curing many status ailments.

Not much has changed as far as the battle system goes for Final Fantasy XIII-2, aside from a few notable changes. This entry is getting pretty long, though, so I might save that for next time. Once again, I haven't really talked about the game in question all that much--most of this applies to the original game. Oh well.

Theme of Lavender Town (Day 197)

Yesterday I talked about how I'd mostly stopped writing about the games I was playing right around the time I finished Suikoden II. I'd played the game before, so it didn't feel extremely natural to write about my. . .second impressions. Still, when I started playing the PlayStation version of Tales of Phantasia, I decided to relax and play through the game without worrying about writing anything. I ended up enjoying that game a lot and finished it--something I can't claim to have done with the SNES version. Both the gameplay, graphics, and fan translation were greatly superior. I immediately ranked it in my head as one of my favorites in the series, although Tales of Symphonia likely still rested firmly on the top.

I decided right then and there that I was going to marathon as many games in the Tales series as I possibly could. As always, my plans did not quite reach fruition. After sinking about a dozen hours into Tales of Destiny, I lost interest and moved on to my next project. More recently I revisited this game while on a co-op spree, but that ended up not going so well either. Even though Tales of Destiny isn't really an amazing game, the gameplay is perfectly adequate and I'd like to finish it someday. I think it's going to end up being one of those games that I power through and finish when I feel a sudden burst of motivation. Maybe I'll continue on to Tales of Eternia after that--we'll have to see.

After giving up on ToD, I became aware of my dissatisfaction with how little writing I was doing. I flirted with the idea of forcing myself to write every day--and as it turned out, I did just that. I've been doing it ever since, for about, oh, let's say 200 days or so. Baldur's Gate was the first game I played during this period and therefore it was the first game I covered on this blog. I played through it, its expansion, and its sequel in a very completionist way. I fully intended to play through Throne of Bhaal afterward because I'd never finished it before--but as is so often the case, I lost interest! This always seems to happen at the worst time.

Six to seven months later, I've played a lot of games and finished a few. I've very slightly thinned out my backlog but unfortunately I'm still behind so far this year. If I finish the three games I'm playing right now, I'll be breaking even--and let's be honest, I'm not sure that's even going to happen! I'm reasonably sure I'll make it through Final Fantasy XIII-2, but hitting level 60 in Rift seems almost to be an unattainable goal--and Vagrant Story's end seems woefully out of reach as well.

Well, I kind of got off on a tangent there, but tomorrow I'll probably actually start talking about Final Fantasy XIII-2. It's a game I've put of for a very long time for no good reason I can ascertain. I'd like to start up a Final Fantasy marathon of sorts with this title but my plans never end up working out so nothing is set in stone. 

Blinded by Light (Day 196)

Way back in June of 2012, after having lost interest in Bowser's Inside Story, I turned my attention toward the PlayStation 2. I had a lot of games from that console sitting around to be finished and I still have a ton I need to get to to this day. I set to work right away on Tales of the Abyss, which I had already made a decent amount of progress on. Honestly, it's one of my least favorite games in the series, but I powered through it anyway. The gameplay was similar to Tales of Symphonia so that was at least one saving grace.

Emboldened by my success with Tales of the Abyss, I decided to tackle another PS2 game. I'm a huge fan of Front Mission 4, but its glacial pace and unforgiving difficulty made it a difficult game to make progress on. Despite the fact that I had already logged a good 50 hours on the game, I was stalled out and had been on the same mission for a year or more even then. After some serious grinding, I managed to get past the mission in question and used that as motivation to get me to push forward and finish the rest. I'm still proud I managed to do that.

I didn't finish another game until about a month later--this time it was Pokemon Platinum. I'd played Pokemon Pearl shortly after it released but wasn't fond of the battles' slow pace. Platinum fixed this issue so I enjoyed it a lot more. I'd also finished Pokemon Black and Pokemon SoulSilver earlier that year. I didn't finish another game until I was all the way in Austin, Texas. I had a regular job during this time but I still managed to finish Cave Story 3D, Torchlight, Orcs Must Die! 2, Borderlands, and Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy during the four months I lived there. I also played a little of the newest WoW expansion, but I didn't make it to level 90 until January when I was back in Kentucky.

At this point, I was out of a job again. I didn't have a whole lot to do so I became interested in the idea of making something out of all the video games I was playing. I started playing games for reasons beyond simple pleasure. I played several games and wrote pretty detailed synopses/reviews of them. I played Crystalis, a very old and mostly forgotten NES RPG that I found to be quite good! Faria, another NES RPG I played and finished right after that was not so good, although I did find it interesting since I had never heard of it before.

I toyed with the idea of playing the original Final Fantasy at this point--something I've tried and failed to do on multiple occasions--but instead I moved on to the SNES and playeed Lufia & the Fortress of Doom. It's a serviceable RPG but considering the stellar lineup the SNES has to offer, it's forgettable. I'm told Lufia 2 is significantly better, but after sinking 40 hours into its predecessor and not particularly enjoying it, my heart wasn't set on playing the sequel.

I decided to jump consoles again. At this point I wasn't writing about what I was playing to nearly the same degree. I fully intended to write a great deal about Suikoden, my next little project, but it didn't pan out. Suikoden is a game I had played extensively in the past but had never finished for whatever reason. I played through it and unlocked all 108 characters, much to my delight. I enjoyed it enough that I immediately played through the sequel afterward, despite having beaten it as a kid many years ago.

As it turns out, I've finished a lot of games since I bought Final Fantasy XIII-2. There are still a few more to get through--and then maybe I can actually talk about my initial impressions of this game.

Knives Out (Day 195)

According to my my Backloggery, I purchased Final Fantasy XIII-2 a little over a year ago. I don't remember the circumstances surrounding that purchase, but I recorded the purchase on Christmas Day in 2012. If I recall correctly, I had only recently returned from Austin, Texas and most likely didn't have very much money at all. It's possible I got some money for Christmas, but I really don't remember. Regardless, I didn't take it out of the plastic until last night. 

I think I bought the game originally while I was still playing through FFXIII. Although for the most part the game was very linear, it was still a relatively lengthy game. I enjoyed a lot about it and considered it a worthy entry to the series, although its worth to me had very little to do with its plot and characters. Once I completed it, I probably wasn't ready to jump into anything that had very similar gameplay and I assumed (correctly) that FFXIII-2 would have a very similar playstyle.

Upon further inspection, it appears I was completely wrong about the date on the FFXIII-2 purchase. Either I read the date on the description wrong or I made a typo all that time ago. Instead of purchasing the game in December of that year, I'd purchased it in February instead, which would mean that I'd bought it way back when I was still working at Walmart. In fact, I bought Final Fantasy X and its sequel on the same day, about one month before I quit. Exactly one month later, I finished Final Fantasy XIII. I was now unemployed and felt like I had a ton of time to finish up some games.

Instead of moving directly onto FFXIII-2 as originally planned, I started playing Disgaea 2, a game I'd originally abandoned most likely because I had been burnt out directly after finishing the original Disgaea. I'd been playing it off and on for a long time but for some reason I'd never really become absorbed in it. I finally summoned up the motivation and forced myself through it. Then, in an uncharacteristic move, I started and finished Disgaea 3 right after that in a relatively timely fashion. This was a game I'd borrowed from a friend of mine along with Disgaea 4 and I still have both of them. I should give them back!

Of course, at that point I was burned out on Disgaea again and I wanted to try something completely different. What if I played something that focused much less on the actual gameplay and was entirely focused on the plot? I settled on The Secret of Monkey Island, which I purchased on Steam. I don't remember how I paid for it, but it's possible I was working for Sitel at the time. I was going to play Monkey Island 2 directly after that but unfortunately Diablo III happened to come out at just about that time. I still haven't gotten back to it.

I played through Diablo III a few times until I got bored with it and eventually so did my friends. It was this point that I decided to tackle the monumental task of trimming my backlog. I looked through some of the games I hadn't finished and decided to start with Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time. At the very beginning of that year I had embarked on a similar exercise and managed to beat Superstar Saga, the first game of that series. The final boss had been particularly tough but I enjoyed the game a lot. Partners in Time was similarly amusing, but I think I enjoyed the first game a bit better. Unfortunately, I lost interest in Bowser's Inside Story about halfway through and I've been stalled out on that series ever since.

I was originally going to talk a little bit about my initial impressions of Final Fantasy XIII-2 in this blog entry, but I think I've stumbled across something else I want to talk about. It's interesting to go through my gaming history for the last couple of years, especially since I've had to get a little creative in figure out what I should play with very limited funds. More on this to follow.

The Grand Experiment (Day 194)

Hopefully I'm going to be able to start up a couple different games soon. I'm still playing Rift very regularly but I don't have a lot to say about it. I still love the diversity and variety of different builds you can try, but since the leveling has slowed down so much, I'm not unlocking new stuff at nearly the rate I was before. I'm getting closer and closer to level 50. Once that happens I'll be able to try out the expansion zones and content; I'll probably write about that.

A friend of mine is about to finish Bravely Default and once he does he's going to let me borrow it. I'm pretty excited to try it since it's a new IP from Square Enix and really pays tribute to classic Final Fantasy. I'm sure I'll like it a lot and write about it extensively. I've also been considering playing FFXII-2 since I've owned it literally since it came out and have never touched it. I liked a lot of aspects of FFXII, but the plot and characters weren't my cup of tea. The new FFXIII title, Lightning Returns, looks really interesting, but I likely won't be able to try that out for some time.

I'd also really like to get back to Vagrant Story, but with Bravely Default coming my way soon, that might not necessarily happen. It's a great game but I feel like I'm getting distracted from it. I feel compelled to amass more and more gold in Rift until I can afford the Storm Legion souls and experiment with them. I'm already swimming with ideas about the Tactician soul for my rogue. I'm experimenting right now with a heavy sustain build that makes me invincible while soloing. Unlike World of Warcraft, quest mobs can occasionally pose a threat. Instead of building for maximum damage, I feel like it makes more sense to build so that you can continue questing nonstop--which requires an excessive amount of healing.

I'm trying out a hybrid of Bard and Rifstalker at the moment, with all "increased healing" passive skills taken. I get passive healing after every kill and every time I planeshift (teleport), as well as benefiting from a constant heal over time in Motif of Regeneration. When things get dicey, I can start using Coda of Restoration instead of a damaging finisher and I also have access to Defer Death, a long cooldown survivability spell that shields me for 50% of my maximum health when I would otherwise receive a killing blow. This usually gives me enough time to heal back up. My damage isn't terrible, either. Although I don't have the enormous burst damage I had as Nightblade, I have serviceable sustained damage that doesn't slow down my questing too much.

Adeluge (Day 193)

The first game of this week's North American LCS is Counter Logic Gaming vs. Cloud 9. CLG is finally achieving some consistency now that they have access to their starting jungler Dexter after having solved his Visa issues. Although they had mixed success with substitute players HotshotGG and Chauster, letting Link return to his home in the mid lane has certainly solidified their overall play. Cloud 9 has been doing very well, but their current place in the standings pales in comparison to their meteoric rise in the summer split, where they held an uncontested #1 position for the entire event.

This LCS split is proving that Cloud 9 is not the only competitive force in the North American scene. Team Solo Mid, revitalized by the pickup of their all-star European midlaner Bjergsen, is currently at the top of the charts, boasting wins against every other team currently in the LCS. Even underdogs Dignitas have taken a win off the Cloud 9 juggernauts. Today, CLG can add themselves to the short list of teams that have taken a game from them.

CLG's composition for their game today is similar to ones they've run before. The central champion in the team comp is Sivir, a champion that while universally considered good, is often passed on in favor of current favorites Lucian and Jinx. CLG took advantage of the champion by running a dive heavy comp with Shyvana, Vi, and Leona. Their mid lane pick was somewhat unorthodox but it synergized with the composition extremely well. Lulu was incredibly helpful in ensuring that dives succeded as CLG roamed as a team. While her damage did fall off, it didn't matter. Dexter build damage on Vi  after getting ahead, and Doublelift's Sivir and Nien's Shyvana were able to pick up any slack there might have been.

After forcing dive after dive after dive, CLG amassed a huge gold advantage and just continued to force fights. They baited baron and broke off once it was at 1/4th health to start a fight. They ambushed C9 at dragon and aced them. Their teamwork was about as good as I've ever seen from them. It's refreshing to see that all their asssurances that they'd have tighter teamplay once Dexter returned weren't empty words.

It's interesting to see C9 on the back foot, because it's not something you see very often. CLG seems to be becoming a team that really runs away from early game leads. Vayne has historically been banned away from Doublelift, but they might be better suited to ban Sivir. Although not a mechanically intensive champion, she snowballs fellow bruiser teammates to insane levels--and Doublelift certainly knows how to play her.

Tessitura (Day 192)

After getting all the way to level 45 in Rift, I've finally decided to try out PVP. I've been scared off by a lot of folks in the public chat whining about how unbalanced low level PVP can be, but I'm glad I finally decided to try it. Although I haven't been stomping every game so far, it definitely seems like I can make an impact, at least in my current spec. Being able to initiate on enemies from range while in stealth is pretty interesting--different from a rogue's playstyle in WoW, for instance. I can also chase fleeing opponents for days by spamming Twilight Force, which applies a slow at a 20 meter range.

Against casters (especially healers), I can open up with Smother, which deals damage and applies a 5 second silence. If I can output enough damage in that 5 second window I can usually take them out, provided no one else is around to heal them. I tend to skulk around the edges of fights and pick off stragglers, because as a stealth class I feel like that's what I should be doing. I played feral druid in PVP quite a bit in WoW, which had access to a pouncing ability from stealth to close the gap. In the case of Rift's Nightblade, I don't actually have to close the gap. I have access to ranged abilities and CC.

If I want to nuke my opponent down, I'll open up with Death from the Shadows, which awards me three combo points, as well as applying a stack of Fiery Spike, a fire damage over time effect that stacks up to five times. I can usually chain that with Dusk to Dawn once I pop out of stealth, which roots for four seconds and significantly increases the damage of my finishers for an entire minute, while also dealing a hefty amount of damage over time. Once I've used these two abilities, my next open is dependent upon a variety of factors. If Scourge of Darkness is off cooldown, I'll use that. It buffs my next several abilities (anywhere from 10 to 25, depending on soul build) to deal a flat amount of extra death damage. If I can't close the gap on them (usually my root would be on cooldown or they have a way to break out of it), I'll spam Twilight Force until I can catch up. However, if Scourge of Darkness is on cooldown, I still have access to a ranged finisher in Flame Thrust and Blazing Strike for melee.

I really enjoy the versatility of the class. I remember playing several melee classes in WoW and being frustrated at not being able to catch my opponent when my mobility spells were on cooldown. The issue was especially irritating when playing my warrior. I'd close the gap to them with Charge, but then they'd find a way to disengage and I would begin running after them futilely while they hurled attacks at me. This was exacerbating when attempting to engage hunters, who had every way they needed to outplay me. With Nightblade, as long as I can get to within 20 meters of my target, I can still contribute--although I'll still put out a significantly larger amount of damage in melee range with Dusk Strike and Blazing Strike.

I've yet to try PVP with any of my other specs, but I imagine I'll give it a try soon. I haven't tried Bladedancer since I got access to the spec's 4 second stun. Saboteur would also probably be interesting, since they output the majority of their damage in one giant burst. I can't imagine Riftstalker would be very useful for much--at least not with a full tank build. Their damage is abysmal, and they don't even have a lot of CC to contribute.

My Angel Rocks Back and Forth (Day 191)

Welp, I wanna go ahead and get this out of the way so I can start playing video games without guilt! Not that I usually feel that guilty about playing video games, but my conscience will weigh on me if I know I still haven't gotten this done. I know I'll get wrapped up in something or another and put this off and maybe even skip it even though that's never happened. Some of these entries have been extremely late, but so far (knock on wood) I've made sure that every single entry gets done for 190 days. This is the 191st day and that's pretty impressive! Even though some of the entries are a bit halfassed, I'm pretty proud of what I've done here.

If you go back to the first week of this exercise you'll see some entries that are pretty puny. I didn't have a great start at all. At least one entry within the first week was pretty much just one short paragraph, ironically about the fact that I'd like to write fiction more often. Fortunately, that's just what I did. I've written something like 50 pages of fiction, as inconsistent as it might be. But it's about more than just that. This blog contains a lot of rambling about games, music, eSports, and also some reflection my personal life. Some of the entries are stream-of-consciousness while others are carefully planned. This whole exercise has really helped me get in touch with who I am. And it prevents me from losing myself.

Things may not be so great for me right now, but I'm glad that I have this huge body of work to look back on to remind me of good times in the past--and hopefully it will continue to document good times in the future. For the bad times and the mediocre times, I still have a lot to say. My imagination is boundless and my hobbies numerous. If I have the will, I'll never run out of things to write about. Occasionally it'll seem like a chore to write these entries, but that's only because sometimes my mind is blocked. If I can figure out how to open it up (and believe me, this is easier than ever before), then I'll think of something.

One thing I wish I would really get back to is Terakiel's story. I've written so much already and I have a lot of material to draw on--and honestly, I still have a lot of ideas I haven't even begun to implement. The problem is that I feel like I've sort of run my characters into a brick wall and I don't know how to let them escape. I guess that's the amateurish level of my writing showing, but the fact remains that I'm a bit stuck. The easy thing to do would be to skip over some details and move on to other ideas--but that seems lazy to me. I'd like to think up an honest way for the situation to develop, but as of right now I'm just not sure.

I also have a lot of ideas for the other story about the bearded man, but I feel as if I need to be in a certain mindset to write those excerpts. They can be very fun to do, though!

Isolation Years (Day 190)

I'm sort of atttempting to fix my sleep schedule now. It's almost 10 PM and I've been up since around 2 AM. In an hour or two I'll probably go to sleep and hopefully not sleep for 20 hours because that won't be good for anyone. I'll be groggy and my sleep schedule will still be messed up--although admittedly it won't be as bad as it has been. Even the river of coffee I've poured down my throat is doing little to stave off my sleepiness at this point, but I think I'm going to stay up for at least a little longer. I"m trying out yet another build on my rogue in Rift. 

The specialization I've gotten the most mileage out of it and still probably enjoy the most overall has been Bladedancer. Riftstalker is also great for groups, but not so great while soloing due to its low damage output. Bard can be fun, but it also seems a little monotonous--I think it would also be a lot more fun in a group. Saboteur is really intriguing, as previously discussed on this blog, but the playstyle is really schizophrenic. It involves a lot of running around tossing charges until the inevitably payoff--at which point your opponent probably still has about half of its health left. It's satisfying when you get multiple crits and oneshot opponents, but otherwise is inconsistent.

What I'm trying now is Nightblade, one of two melee stealth souls available to the rogue calling. While Assassin is more or less a direct analogue to WoW's Subtlety Rogue, Nightblade is significantly more unique. Almost all of its damage is fire- or death-elemental, whereas Assassin focuses primarily on physical damage and poisons. Nightblades imbue their weapons with various different fire and death enchantments and hurl several different attacks from middling range. In fact, all of their from stealth openers can be used from 20 meters away. The only staple Nightblade skill that requires you to be in melee range is Dusk Strike, which ramps up in damage (and energy cost) every time you use it. Oftentimes your burst will allow you to dispatch a foe before it has a chance to get close enough to attack you, however.

The soul has a lot of different things going on. It prioritizes burst damage but also possess a lot of damage over time effects. One of its primary abilities is Fiery Spike, ranged burn that stacks up to 5 times. Eventually you'll have access to abilities that apply Fiery Spike for you so you never have to cast it manually. Similarly, Flare Blitz has the potential to apply Fiery Spike to multiple targets in an area if your primary target has at least one stack of it. Nightblade's AoE damage, although not approaching the godlike level of Bladedancer, far eclipses Assassin, whose only form of AoE control is the non-damaging Poison Cloud. Fiery Chains works a lot like a WoW shaman's Chain Lightning, except in this case each target hit has a 50% chance of adding a combo point. If you're lucky, you'll get five points right off the bat at which point you can transition into a full damage Flame Blitz. 

I've only been playing the new soul for an hour or two now and I'm definitely still not used to it. I've become very comfortable with Bladedancer's straightforward rotation so this complexity of these new skills is taking me by surprise. I like the soul a lot, though, and I'm going to continue playing with it for a long while.

Miles of White (Day 189)

For some reason I cannot fathom, I decided recently to start watching Attack on Titan, a pretty popular recent anime. I've never been much of anime watcher and I'm typically annoyed by a lot of their common tropes--despite the fact that I'm a pretty big fan of JRPGs which are typically steeped in anime themes. Still, I've watched a couple over the years that I've really liked. I watched the Persona 4 anime and liked it a lot, but that should come as no surprise considering how much I liked the game it was based on.

My decision came about as sort of a random whim. A friend of mine mentioned anime in passing on Twitter and something just sprang to life in my mind. I suddenly felt the need to watch something so I asked him for a recommendation. He asked if I'd heard of Attack on Titan. I had, but I'd had no particular intention of watching it--until now. I've watched a little under half the series now--that is, I've seen the first twelve episodes. And you know what? I like it a lot.

From what I can ascertain, Attack on Titan is one of the more mainstream of modern anime. I get the impression that "dedicated" anime fans might dismiss it out of hand or call it overrated. I can't say for sure because I'm not really a part of that group. If anything, I'm a casual observer. I have nothing against anime per se, but not a lot of it generally interests me. I have little to no perspective on whether or not it's derivative of other anime in the same genre--but I can certainly say it's often very pretty to look at. The music is exceptional and frequently sets the mood of the scene perfectly. The amount of detail put into the pseudo Tudor style architecture is impressive. I really get the sense that the characters are inhabiting a living, breathing world.

The eponymous titans are equally interesting. They are creatures of great and varying sizes--certainly imposing, but also deeply unsettling. They closely resemble humans, but with every trace of humanity removed from their dead eyes and mirthless grins. At a glance many of these titans seem almost comical, but in a way that makes them all the more terrifying. Their only motivation, their only interest, is in the destruction--and consumption--of humans. Evidently they do not require human meat to survive. That is not their purpose. As they crash through the imperious walls of one of the last great human settlements, they are driven only by their desire to kill, to eradicate the human race.

Humans are a stubborn and valiant lot when they need to be, at least in the case of Attack on Titan. By making use of strange devices called 3D Maneuver Gears, many of the most elite soldiers within the walled city hurtle through the sky, propelled by compressed gas, firing grappling hooks into the many structures choking the city to gain momentum. With these devices and a great deal of combat training, these soldiers are able to scale the massive titans and destroy them--by attacking them at their weak spot. This weak spot is located at the nape of their massive necks. With twin swords that are apparently standard issue in this particular military force, these soldiers cut a swath through the titans' necks and they fall violently to the ground, stripped of their regenerative powers.

Eren Jaeger, Mikasa Ackerman, and Armin Alert make up the main cast of Attack on Titan. Eren is determined to eradicate all of the titans as a form of revenge for what they had taken from him and his friends, his resolve bordering on bloodlust. Mikasa is Eren's stoic adopted sister, whose combat skills are without equal. She will do anything to protect Eren. Armin possesses a brilliant mind, but is astoundingly frail and weak of spirit. Together they form an effective emotional core for the show.

Attack on Titan is a grim and brutal ride, but only because it makes you care about its characters. I am emotionally invested in their trials and tribulations because of how effectively their various motivations are painted. Eren and Mikasa have an overwhelmingly dark past--but it has made them stronger and in a way prepared them to face the titanic struggle ahead of them.

Where I End and You Begin. (Day 188)

For some reason it just never occurred to me to start writing an entry last night. It's almost 6 AM but considering my bizarre sleep schedule I don't really consider it a missed entry; I'll be writing another one later on today, I'm sure.

I can't decide if I want to try to go to sleep right now or drink some coffee and stay up for longer. I've only been up for around 12 hours. It seems like I might have had a decent reason to stay up some more, but I can't seem to recall what that might be. If I go to sleep now, I'll probably wake up some time this evening, and the cycle will continue. I don't really like waking up in the evening, but there's not much I can do about it. Alternatively, if I stay up, I'll probably end up falling asleep at around noon or 1'clock, which would still result in my waking up pretty late at night. The same problem is there, but I guess it might be okay since I'm making progress toward shifting my schedule.

If I do that, I need to make sure I write an entry pretty much as soon as I get up--or I guess I could just write one right before I went to bed. I don't know. I'm still undecided on this. I feel pretty sleepy (and cold!) now, but I know I'll feel less so if I drink some coffee. My life is filled with harrowing decisions such as these--it is a nonstop roller coaster ride of excitement.

One other pressing concern is that I'm running very low on food. Once I've used up the rest of my ground beef (which will be tomorrow), I'll only have a few packs of ramen noodles left. I could probably make those last another day or two, but I'm getting. . . uncomfortably low. I'm going to have to make a trip pretty soon. I'm hoping the roads will be in good shape once I decide I need to set out to get groceries.

This is much more of a traditional blog entry style post than I usually write, but I think that's okay. I have some other things I'd like to discuss, but I think I'm going to save them for later--possibly later today. I'm about halfway through Attack on Titan. I don't usually watch anime at all, but I was suddenly overcome with a bizarre urge the other day and just went for it. I'm enjoying it, but that's about all I can say for now.

Moonlapse Vertigo (Day 187)

After several weeks of absence, Dexter has finally resolved his Visa issues and has come back from Europe to rejoin NA League of Legends team Counter Logic Gaming. I've been keeping up with their progress these first few weeks with various subs, including the much-touted return of HotshotGG and former support Chauster--both taking up the mid lane role while Link is relegated to the jungle. Their results have understandably been rather mixed, but HotshotGG's Nidalee play was impressive as always, and Chauster's Yasuo and Ziggs play was actually very good--definitely at a pro level. I think if Chauster had been a career mid laner he would have done very well for himself.

However, with Link back in the mid lane and Dexter back in the jungle, it was time for CLG to prove themselves. Although they have picked up a few wins with substitute players, they've repeatedly reminded viewers that they are much stronger with their official roster. It might be too early to say that for sure just yet, but today they picked up a very impressive win against Evil Geniuses on a roster of reasonably familiar champions. Probably the only uncommon pick was Doublelift's Sivir. Doublelift has always been a player that is partial to more mechanically-intensive AD carry picks but in this particular case he picked (likely with guidance from couch MonteCristo) what was best for the team. Sivir's On the Hunt was a great boon to the team, enabling Link's LeBlanc, Dexter's Vi, and Nien's Shyvana to repeatedly dive EG's backline.

Things were not going well in the beginning of the game in the top lane, however. Nien, once a career AD carry player, has often been criticized for not playing the top lane role at a professional level. In this particular game, he employed a strategy he has often used before in which he starts Doran's Blade in the Shyvana vs. Mundo matchup in an effort to either secure an early kill or push his opponent out of lane. Although a first blood was very much within his grasp, Snoopeh's excellent map presence on Olaf prevented him from snagging the kill and instead he went down instead. Only about 40 seconds later, Snoopeh came back up to the top lane and secured yet another kill, momentarily pushing Nien's Shyvana out of the game.

Although these two early kills must have been demoralizing for CLG, it didn't stop the rest of the team from continuing to pressure. Although Link's Leblanc was bullied early by Pobelter's Orianna, he eventually roamed bottom and made a play with Dexter's Vi on EG's bottom lane. Although Krepo's Alistar play was fantastic in this game at denying several engages, the overall team play of Counter Logic Gaming was too much for one player to suppress. With Vi's Assault and Battery, Leblanc's Distortion, Thresh's hook, Shyvana's Dragon's Rage, and Sivir's On the Hunt, CLG were able to repeatedly wombo combo EG's lineup into oblivion.

In the postgame interview, Doubelift confessed the Sivir pick was a response to his perception that EG's bottom lane plays relatively passively. He felt that the champion's laning phase was not strong--but he was confident he could easily farm against his opponents and scale into late game while becoming an incredible asset to his team. I think I agree with his assessment, despite Krepo's many attempts to make plays. As has been the case since the CLG.EU days, Yellowpete has never been the kind of AD carry to impress with flashy plays. He is often reliable but does nothing for the team when they fall behind. Krepo on the other hand has become a playmaker. Unfortunately for him, his teammate seems to be lagging behind.

Although CLG dominated this matchup, it's easy to see that EG is a promising team. Snoopeh's early game pressure was very impressive, and Krepo's mechanics on Alistar were actually top notch. Innox escaped a great deal of sticky situations with his annoyingly tanky Mundo. If anything, the often inconsistent Pobelter underperformed on Orianna, and Yellowpete again failed to make an impression with his AD carry play--on a champion that is known to completely take over games. Yellowpete reminds me a bit of Cop's old play style when he frequently played Miss Fortune. In Cop's case, he took the fan criticism to heart and completely revamped his playstyle to become one of the best carries in North America. I can only hope Yellowpete eventually follows suit.

Give Up the Ghost (Day 186)

Man, I keep thinking I'm going to get tired of Rift (since it's already happened to all of my friends) but so far it just hasn't happened. I feel like there's a ton more stuff to experiment with. I've already experimented with so much just with the rogue class and I'm not even done yet. I predict I'll definitely be hitting level 60, even if my dreams of acquiring 900 platinum don't actually come to fruition. I'm hopping back and forth between four different roles at the moment, and I'd like to add more--though the platinum cost for doing so may dissuade me.

My four roles right now are Riftstalker, Bladedancer, Bard, and Saboteur. I haven't tried Assassin, Nightblade, Ranger, or Marksman. There's also a soul available as part of the expansion (Tactician) that I won't have access to until I spend some credits. I'd eventually like to get all of the expansion souls, but that's something pretty far in the future at this point.

Rifstalker is the sole defensive soul available to rogue--it's definitely one of the more unique tanks I've played. It focuses on mobility, evasion, and deflection to protect his allies. Unlike other traditional tanks that use a one handed weapon and a shield, Riftstalkers dual wield one-handed weapons and focus on deflection as opposed to blocking. Deflection is enabled once you have access to Guardian Phase, a toggleable self-buff that significantly increases your defensive stats. I like Riftstalker a lot because of its high mobility and the fact that it doesn't particularly remind me of any of the tanks from WoW. Death Knights and Monks are capable of tanking while dual wielding, but their playstyles are very different from Rifstalker.

Bladedancer is the role I'm using most often to solo quest. It is a relatively straightforward melee damage soul that doesn't rely on stealth like its counterparts Assassin and Nightblade. It has access to a variety of "Rhythmic Actions," self-buffs that last for 21 seconds. These are very powerful, imparting massive bonuses to such stats as dodge, crit, and damage of combo point generating abilities. One of their signature abilities is Reprisal, an ability that reminds me a lot of a Protection Warrior skill from WoW in that it is only usable after dodging or parrying. It's a high base damage skill that rewards you for having high Dexterity and has high synergy with Side Steps, a Rhythmic Action that massively increases your dodge chance. The role also possesses a couple of extremely damaging channeled AoE abilities in Dancing Steel and Hundred Blades.

I tried Bard for awhile as more of a novelty than anything else--but I was surprised that it did more than adequate damage despite being a strictly supportive soul. Unlike Rifstalker and Bladedancer, Bard is mostly ranged, with usage of several music-themed attacks like Riff, which instantly grants five combo points, Power Chord, a 2-combo point attack, and Cadenza/Cadence, attacks that generate 3 combo points over 3 seconds. Their finishers are called Codas and have various effects, including single-target damage, AoE damage, healing, and debuffs. With enough investment in the Bard soul tree, Codas will refresh your Motifs, a series of 20-second duration group buffs--but they're only guaranteed to do so with a five combo point investment.

Saboteur is another ranged soul and probably the strangest class I've tried so far. It has access to a staggering number of different bombs, charges, traps, and mines. I'm having a hard time puzzling out how to actually put together a rotation with this class. Their primary ability is Blast Charge, which functions as a combo point builder--but it doesn't do damage until you've used your finisher, which is Detonate. You can layer five charges on a target and then detonate them, at which point they all do damage simultaneously. This results in a pretty massive burst of damage.

So far, I have access to four different basic charges I can place on a single target to be detonated. Two of these are basic charges that deal single target and AoE damage, whereas the other two are high damage bleeds that deal damage over time--both single target and AoE. These basic skills I can easily wrap my mind around, but then you get into bombs, traps, and mines. Mines and traps are placed at the feet of the rogue and have various effects, such as damage, bleeds, and knockups. Bombs and typically targeted at a single enemy and deal AoE damage around that enemy--except for Chemical Bomb, which is targeted on the ground and deals damage over time in a large area.

One of the soul tree passives allows you to detonate charges on your target by using Fragmentation Grenade or Annihilation Bomb--which typically results in a larger burst of damage than if you had detonated it normally. It's still all very confusing and difficult to internalize on a fight by fight basis, especially since I have few ways to protect myself after the initial explosion.

The Moor (Day 185)

I'm still really going to try to hit level 60 in Rift, but after that I can't imagine I'll be doing a whole lot. Unfortunately, all of the friends who started playing the game with me have stopped by now. I guess I can understand--there's not a ton that differentiates it from other MMORPGs, but I feel like it has a decent amount of polish and some great ideas. I guess I like the idea of playing through it for the perspective it gives me on the genre as a whole. I've played WoW extensively but this is the only other game in the genre that I haven't spent more than a couple hours on.

Still, I've been playing it a lot less the past few days. I think I'll try to gain a couple levels per day, but I won't be hitting it quite as hard as I have been. Instead, I'm going to spend a bit more time on Vagrant Story, which I neglected for the first days of playing Rift. I'd like to get back to Gungnir as well, but to be honest the game is so slow it's hard for me to keep up a steady progression. I'm sure it becomes slightly more fast-paced later. Hopefully I will get back to that at some point--I do have quite a bit of loyalty for the Dept. Heaven series.

My co-op partner (who has now tired of Rift) suggested that we try TERA, another recent free-to-play MMO. I'm not entirely against it, but I'm wary of it since its reviews are lower overall than Rift. It also appears to be a more graphically intensive game, which isn't great news for my integrated graphics. There's good news on that front, though. A friend of mine is buying a new video card and he said he would have no issue gifting me his old card. My GPU has been busted for ages now--I would love to be able to play some of the games I love without having to turn the settings down to ultra low.

I've just passed up a very slow portion of Vagrant Story populated by heavily armored human enemies. The interaction between weapon types, enemy types, and armor types is fairly complicated. Although I had a weapon primed for use against human enemies, it was very unsuccessful against these human opponents, seldom hitting for beyond single digit damage numbers at the beginning of a combo. The reason for this is because the weapon in question is a sword, an edged weapon. Edged weapons evidently do not fare well against heavy armor. When I experimented with a mace against these opponents I had much better results, despite it having no particular affinity against human opponents. This makes me wonder if I should carry around more weapons for specific situations.

As I may have explained before, weapons used against a certain type of enemy will gradually become stronger against that type of enemy while making them less effective against that type's direct counterpart. Therefore, I have three different weapons for use against humans/phantoms, undead/evil, and beast/dragon. The human/phantom weapon is a scimitar, as previously mentioned. It makes me wonder if I should start carrying edged and blunt weapons for each enemy archetype--although that would leave me with no options in the event that I needed a piercing weapon. I'm pretty sure it's impossible to carry nine weapons--and I don't want to carry much more than five because I want to pick up new weapons to store in my warehouse.

Storing weapons in your warehouse allows you to have a lot of raw materials for use in the workshops scattered around Lea Monde, the world of Vagrant Story. You can combine blades, hilts, and gems to make new weapons. Oddly enough, you can even craft crossbows in this way. Each of these materials impart your weapons with new properties. You can also take a blade that has a ton of affinity for a certain enemy type and combine it with another blade to make a higher quality blade that keeps (most of) those affinities.

It seems pretty unlikely that I'm going to be carrying the specific weapon type that I need for a certain situation, so I guess it comes down to trial and error. Hopefully I will generally have access to my warehouse before major boss fights so I don't get completely stonewalled.

Credence (Day 184)

Man, I have been not been able to wake up at all these past few days. I'm incredibly dependent on coffee to make it through my day, even if all I'm doing is sitting in front of a computer. I just can't stay alert. I get sleepy. No matter how much sleep I get, I just can't stay alert and awake. I feel like I've had this problem forever, regardless of whether or not I'm currently consuming a lot of caffeine. 

I know a lot of it has to do with my extremely low activity level--but who wants to go outside and walk around in below freezing temperatures? I feel like I can't win here. I'm out of coffee and I'm sleepy all the time. I'll wake up and be alert for about two hours and then it sets in--I start to feel that lethargic haze creeping over me. It's getting pretty old, actually.

I've never been able to find a good solution for this problem, so my solution was to just keep getting a lot of caffeine. Unfortunately, this makes the symptoms even worse when I don't have access to it. It's cold and icy outside, so I may be without coffee for awhile. If I don't get some soon I'm going to. . .well, I guess I'm just going to sleep a lot and feel really tired. It's a very unfulfilling way to go about your days!

I really just want to get out and buy some stuff, but I don't have the cash and I don't fancy my chances on the ice with my two-wheel drive vehicle. I'm not a great driver in the first place. I'm certainly feeling a little trapped at the moment--as if my only viable course of action is to sleep until something happens. I have no control.

Serenity Painted Death (Day 183)

"Where is she?" Terakiel asked as he peered into the impenetrable sea of trees before him. 

"I don't know," Aisen replied honestly. "I"m not sure why she would have decided to go on so far ahead."

Terakiel paused to consider these words. "Do you think. . .that she was trying to escape?"

It was a troubling thought. The forest was vast and thick--and not one of them knew a thing about where to find civilization. Not even Terakiel, whose home lay nearby, could tell them anything about where to go. If she had set off on her own under those conditions, then she must have had a very good reason. Aisen could not come to terms with the idea.

"I very much doubt that," he said finally. "I feel she knows the dangers associated with traveling alone. She doesn't know us--that much is true. None of us really know each other, but. . .I trust you. I think she trusts us as well."

"How can you be sure?" 

"I can't," Aisen admitted. "But it's a feeling. I have a good feeling."

"Then why isn't she here?"

"It's hard to say."

"Something must have happened that set her running off into the forest," Terakiel ventured. "Maybe she caught sight of something."

"Like what?"

"I don't know--maybe she could see a source of water in the distance? Or maybe even. . .a break in the trees?"

Aisen took a moment to look around him. As far as he could see, trees engulfed the landscape, twisting and tangling into one large, shapeless mass. He couldn't make out any remarkable features at all that might tell him which direction would be best. It was overwhelming. He was sure Casnie would have been similarly at a loss. 

"I don't know about you, Terakiel, but I can't see anything."

The other man nodded slowly. "You're right. Maybe we should call out to her?" 

Aisen could tell the man had little faith in his own words just as surely as they were enveloped by the impenetrable thickness of the surrounding woods. Sound had a way of being swallowed up here. He was only dimly aware of the sounds of nature surrounding him, but those sounds too seemed to evaporate only a few paces ahead of him. He was sure their calls would not be heard--and nor would hers.

"We have to find her," Terakiel continued. "Maybe we should split up and search the surrounding area." 

"How then would we find our way back?" 

"I can't imagine that would be difficult. We'll just walk a straight line, but in different directions. If one of us happens to find her, we return the same way we came." 

It sounded logical enough, but something about these woods was profoundly disconcerting to him. He felt his field of vision distorting every so often. It was subtle--almost imperceptible--but it was definitely there. He felt he might lose his way in the area very easily. 

"I'm not sure that's the best course of action."

April Ethereal (Day 182)

I'm going to apply for some jobs today. If I type it into this blog, I have to do it. It's a record of my lie if I don't do it. I'm in debt and I need to rectify that. I want to be able to buy things. I want to buy my own food. As much as I try to tell myself that I'd rather just stay at home, I do occasionally want to get out of the house. This is why I got a haircut. I was supposed to be moving in the right direction. I'm making myself more presentable. I'm more likely to be well received in the event of a job interview.

Tonight I will apply to two jobs. That's going to happen. I have to stop putting it off. I should do the same tomorrow. I need to stay by my phone and wait for a call. Even if I have to apply to something I don't want, I need something. It is absolutely ridiculous how long I've put this off. I know why I'm doing it. It's because I have no concept of the future. Time continues to pass and I'm surprised. There is something to be said for living in the present but sometimes it's too much. You have to plan for something. If this keeps going I'm going to end up in increasingly bad situations.

It's been cold and rainy lately. I haven't felt like doing much of anything aside from playing Rift or any number of other video games. I have no reason to leave the house because I have no money. I have nothing but appreciation for my mother who brings me food just about every week--but sometimes I'd rather go grocery shopping myself. Maybe if I could get out of this house I could kickstart my brain and even put in some job applications. I know I would certainly buy a lot more coffee. . .

I'm making a promise to myself. Today I will look up some positions on something like Indeed.com and pick two openings and apply for them. If that doesn't work, I'll default to applying to Walmart, Kmart, or something similar. I have to get this done now because I've put it off for far too long. If I keep repeating this to myself and in text I have to get it done. I reread these entries habitually. It will weigh on my conscience if by the next time this is read it hasn't been done. I'm psychologically manipulating myself here.

I know I can get out of this somehow. I managed to botch my last chance at having regular paid work and I have been incredibly discouraged since then. It would not have been difficult to keep that job if I'd applied myself. I am at a loss for words on how I continue to fail to complete even the simplest of tasks. It's as if I'm hardwired to continually self sabotage. I don't like having a job. I don't think most people do--but it's something that I need to survive.

When (Day 181)

Eventually I will start playing some other games aside from Rift, but until I get to level 60, it is my current fixation. The game's not perfect by any means, but I really enjoy a lot of the mechanics and gameplay. Combining different souls together adds a lot of depth to the game even if each soul isn't perfectly balanced against the others. As a level 27 rogue, I've already respecced my soul trees three or four times in an effort to experiment with what I like best. I'm currently trying a Bladedancer/Riftstalker combo with just enough points in the latter to get three of the soul's blinks as well as passives that increase my crit chance and damage by 15% for 10 seconds after teleporting.

I'm almost positive I won't stick with it for long. In the long run, the number of points I have in Riftstalker will make it impossible to get Binary Strike, a powerful Bladedancer ability that serves as a replacement for Keen Strike, one of the soul's main damage abilities. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to get Double Strike either, a strong finisher that would replace Deadly Strike or Guarded Steel, depending on what I'm using at the time. Both of those finishers deal the same damage, but Guarded Steel has the added benefit of increasing my armor based on the number of combo points I've used. It's not relevant to my DPS, but it does help while soloing.

I currently have Marksman as my third soul, although I don't have a single point in it--and I don't really plan on investing in it at all. What I find interesting is the fact that you can seamlessly switch between ranged and melee combat, something that WoW can no longer boast. When Mists of Pandaria came out, the ability to simultaneously equip ranged and melee weapons was removed for reasons I cannot fathom. Many classes chose to equip a ranged weapon only for the boost to stats it imparted--but it was a nice bit of variety to pull out a ranged weapon in certain occasions. This is what you can do in Rift, except you can combine abilities that required a ranged weapon to be equipped with abilities that require a melee weapon. You can seamlessly chain Hasted Shot into something like Keen Strike as long as you closed the distance in that span of time.

One complaint I have with Rift is that abilities typically don't have flashy or distinctive animations. Abilities like Keen Strike and Quick Strike look functionally identical in that they just interrupt your normal flow of auto attacks with an instant cast strike--but WoW had this exact same problem. I'm more familiar with the catalog of abilities available in World of Warcraft currently, but as I amass more knowledge about Rift, I'll be able to make a fairer comparison. Despite this issue, I still find combat to be fairly entertaining, at least on the Rogue. Combat was less exciting on my Cleric, but only because I was going with a healing spec. Healing in dungeons was actually quite fun and a lot more engaging than low-level healing in World of Warcraft, where you might have access to four different heals at most.

I can't say I'll invest as much time into Rift as I have on World of Warcraft (and let's be honest, I hope I don't) but I do enjoy it quite a bit and I'm going to be playing it pretty regularly for the next few weeks. It's entirely possible I'll be disappointed with the endgame content, but for now I like it a lot--and I still have ambitions of raising enough platinum to buy REX so I can unlock more content, particularly character slots and the other souls.

Patterns in the Ivy (Day 180)

I really want to get back to Vagrant Story because I like it a lot and want to finish it, but Rift is definitely my current fascination. I haven't made a ton of progress since last time because I've been splitting my time between two different  characters. I spend an alarming amount of time chilling at the Kelari Refuge docks just mindlessly fishing. I'm not a huge fan of the fishing mechanic in just about any game I've played, but for some reason I tend to spend a decent amount of time on it when I can.

I'm still experimenting with different souls as I can. I was initially playing a straight DPS rogue, but now I'm trying out a tank, combining Riftwalker, Bladedancer, and Bard. I haven't been in any dungeons with this character yet but the play style is a blast. It involves a lot of teleporting around from enemy to enemy and phasing out of reality. It bears some superficial similarities to the Dream mastery from Titan Quest. Personally, I think it's intriguing that a tank archetype exists for rogue at all. Rift inherits a lot from World of Warcraft, but this is one instance in which it differs greatly.

The urge to create new characters is pretty high--but unfortunately on free-to-play you are limited to two character slots. I have plenty to do with the two characters I have, but it doesn't change the fact that I'd like to try out the other two base classes. As it stands now, I can't experiment with the Mage or Warrior souls at all. I'll either have to wait until I have real money (heh) or farm up enough platinum to buy REX, which grants you the game's version of real-life currency. Once I have about three REX, the first thing I'm going to do is unlock the newer souls from the expansion. I'm unsure as to whether or not that will enable more character slots, but I guess I'll find out.

I did finally get to experience healing in a dungeon scenario on my Cleric (Warden/Purifier/Sentinel). My spec focuses mostly on the Warden, which is a water-based healer. This brings restoration shaman from World of Warcraft to mind, but their play style is actually a lot more similar to restoration druid in that their spells consist almost entirely of heals over time. They even have a stacking heal (called Soothing Stream) although unlike Lifebloom it stacks up to four and heals more at the beginning instead of the end.

Purifier bears similarities to discipline priest in that it focuses primarily on absorption--although their spells are themed after fire, which I thought was pretty interesting. Fire is typically depicted as an aggressive, damage-oriented element, but Purifier has spells like Healing Flare, an instantly cast heal with no cooldown and Symbol of the Torch, which is basically Power Word: Shield but surrounds the ally with burning embers. This is the soul that I'm using the second most on my healer and I'm only just barely dipping into Sentinel, mostly so I have access to Healing Breath, another strong instant cast heal.

Rano Pano (Day 179)

I spent the majority of yesterday feverishly playing Rift. I started a brand new character and got all the way to level 20, which took me something like seven and a half hours. I went with a Rogue this time, combining the Assassin, Nightblade, and Bladedancer trees. I'm not sure how viable that is, but it does seem like fun so far, even if I'm not really dipping into the Nightblade tree much at all. In fact, I might switch it out for something else at some point if the mood strikes me.

I really enjoy how the Soul Tree system work in the game. I guess it's somewhat similar to the Titan Quest skill tree combinations, actually--except in that case, you get to combine three of them! At level 20, I'm about halfway up the Assassin tree. It's unclear at this point how much I'll be able to dip into the other threes, but I'm looking forward to going through a lot of experimentation to figure out what I like best. As far as gameplay systems go, Rift really hits the mark here.

The majority of my quests from 1-20 were in Freemarch, the first non-tutorial zone of the game. I'm unclear whether or not the other faction starts somewhere else, but it would make sense if they did. Even though I was there for several hours (on two different characters), I didn't find the layout of the zone or quests to be at all repetitive. A massive city called Meridian takes up the central section of the zone, with the starter area Ark of the Ascended to the north. A swamp and great body of water lay to the south while a large fortress in the mountains is to the east. Over the course of my time there I visited each area while simultaneously participating with other players to close rifts that had opened up everywhere.

My only real complaint with the game so far is the amount of content that must be purchased with Credits to access--but I guess it's not a super valid point of contention considering the vast majority of the game is absolutely free to play. I like the game enough that I'd definitely drop money on it if I could, but unfortunately that's not possible at the moment. The bright side, of course, is that there are ways to acquire credits without access to real life currency. An item called a REX, which is equivalent to 1250 credits, can be traded between players. These items are frequently sold on the auction house for about 1000 platinum. Such an amount is difficult to acquire for a new player but according to some higher level players, it's not that unattainable. If it's anything like WoW, I'll have several thousand platinum once I'm max level and have valuable goods and services I can provide.

The other major bummer is the fact that I'm limited to two characters slots since I'm playing for free--but again, this restriction is limited once I have access to credits. I suppose I can grin and bear it for now until I have more platinum. With the amount of content in the game I shouldn't have a problem finding things to do on the two characters I'm playing currently.