Explore, be curious (Day 237)

I haven't slept since I wrote the last blog entry. In about two hours I'll be hitting the 24 hour mark. Not only that, but I've been driving around all day grabbing job applications and getting my face out there. My wrists hurt from filling out so many paper applications, and I still have a lot more online stuff to do. I probably went to 15-20 different places today, but I'm glad I finally did it. Surely something will come of this and I can start getting my life back on track here.

My uncle has been really helpful in this whole process. I'm glad that he had enough faith in me to let me drive his Jeep, because that eliminates a lot of the stress of the process. My car is in a state of disrepair at the moment, and has out of date tags and no insurance. It's a gamble to drive it anywhere at all, but occasionally I did so because I had to. When I have access to a fully fueled and insured vehicle, I can just go anywhere without worrying about getting pulled over and ticketed--provided I'm not driving recklessly, which I almost never do.

I am absolutely exhausted. My uncle wants me to come over for dinner in a couple hours but I don't know if I'm going to make it. I feel like I'd be severely misguided to turn down free food, but I just might be tired enough to do it. I'm ready to collapse right now. Food is just not alluring enough to me in my current state of mind. Once I sign up for this healthcare thing that I have to do, I want to be done for the day. I want to just sink onto the bed and get some rest.

I'm going out again tomorrow to turn in all of my paper applications and show my resume to anyone who might be interested. I have a few promising prospects, but it's all up in the air right now. I want to be gainfully employed again and actually have enough money to do. . .well, anything. The socialization aspect of all this certainly cannot be ignored either. I need to meet new people and make connections. That's a part of my life that's severely lacking at the moment. I want to have the right to be happy and work-simultaneously. I can do it. I know I can.

Paladin (Day 236)

My sleep schedule is in a pretty weird spot right now. I've been trying to shift it ever so slightly each day so I can get up tomorrow at 10 AM and start putting in job applications. My uncle is letting me borrow his Jeep all day. It'll be completely fueled and everything, so I have no excuse not to use all of the resources available to me. He also gave me a list of about 15 different places I could apply, so it's not like I can just sort of wander around and make an excuse about not knowing where I should go.

It'll be nice to get out of the house. My only concern is that I'm still incredibly broke, so I won't be able to go get a bite to eat or anything like that. Maybe I'll try to bring some snacks with me. I'm also considering picking up a friend to hang out with so I don't get bored. If I have the vehicle at my disposal all day, then why not? I'm going to get tired because I'm pulling an all-nighter, but that's what coffee is for. 

Other than that, I've been playing a lot of Orcs Must Die! 2. This is a game that I play every now and then and it's pretty much the only game of its type that I keep coming back to. You could probably tentatively describe it as a tower defense game, but it's the least generic and formulaic of its kind. What differentiates it from its peers is its high level of polish and-more important--its support for cooperative play. It's an absolute blast to play with a friend. The game seems designed from the ground up for cooperative play in fact, because it's several degrees more difficult when played alone. Enemies stream in from all sides and you're required to multitask extensively to get the job done.

It's very rare for traps to be strong enough to hold off a section of a map alone. You'll have to run back and forth between different spawn points to prevent the orcs, trolls, and ogres from reaching your rift. This is much less frustrating when you have an ally to shore up one side of the map. Honestly, I'm not sure why the game isn't more popular than it is, because it's one of the most fun games I've played. 

Engulfed (Day 235)

Casnie knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she wasn't in the same place anymore. She'd not traveled the dark world of the Exod but it was unmistakable that she'd made some sort of journey. She looked behind her and the warped forest was nowhere to be seen. The ghostly mist that had permeated her surroundings was now gone, replaced only by the air--real air that filled her lungs. She drank it in in long, satisfying breaths. She felt as if she'd been freed from a prison. But where was she now? And where were Aisen and Terakiel?

There were trees there, as there had been in the forest--but they were spindly, living plants very unlike the pale ghasts that had reached out their limbs at her. The grass was thinner, and marked by patches of exposed soil baked by the sun. It was invitingly warm there, but very dry. She felt very thirsty all of a sudden, but there was no water in sight. On the horizon she could see that the spindly trees thinned out even more until there was nothing but a massive flat expanse of earth. She looked behind her again. She could have sworn that she had just passed by a massive grove of trees--but no, it was no longer there. She had been yet again deposited into the middle of an unfamiliar land, but this time she had no one to give her an idea of what was going on.

She listened intently to the dry wind rustling through the trees, perhaps hoping she could catch a hint of that wordless chant that had brought her here. If she strained her hearing just so, maybe she could hear it. If she closed her eyes tightly and let the world disappear, then maybe--but there was nothing. Nothing but the warm wind stirring the cloak draped around her shoulders. She suddenly felt overdressed for the weather, but she declined to remove her cloak. She'd likely never get it back. Who knew where she might end up next? Then again. . .she might be here for good.

Casnie shrugged her slender shoulders at no one in particular. She was done trying to figure out why these things were happening to her. There was no point in trying anymore. The air was dry and the soil was parched--but there were trees, grass, and greenery. There had to be water somewhere nearby. She wheeled around to face what had been a massive forest only a few moments before. She felt certain if she advanced in that direction she wouldn't be back to where she had been. She wasn't sure she wanted to go back there. It was just as unknown as her current location. At least here she wasn't being chased by murderous reptiles--at least not yet.

She took a few experimental steps back the way she came, but everything remained the same. She felt the rushing air, and the muted sounds of nature around her. The mist did not return. Her surroundings did not distort around her and make her unsure of her direction. For the first time in what seemed like forever she advanced in a straight line and was confident she was doing so correctly. The grass and trees were greener and more alive in this direction. Surely she would eventually find water if she kept up long enough.

She hoped she might find some sign of civilization on her way. The sooner she found people, the sooner she could figure out where she was and find her way home. She was worried about the plight of Aisen and Terakiel, but what could she do? She didn't have the faintest idea of how she might go about returning to that strange forest--and even if she did, how would she go about getting out again? She didn't even know how she'd gotten here.

Air Chrysalis (Day 234)

Dragon Quest II has a vast world map, especially for a game that was originally released on the Famicom. Granted, it doesn't have twisted labyrinthine dungeons like Faria, but the map itself does cover an extremely large area. It's much bigger than the world maps of games like Final Fantasy VI. In a way this is pretty cool. There's a lot of stuff to explore. However, when your travels take you from city to city it gets a bit tedious to sail all the way between them--especially since the developers declined to include a map of any kind. I've had to resort to using a map online, which gets pretty annoying. I wish I had a printer.

The game is definitely more about exploration than its predecessor. Once you acquire the ship it becomes incredibly non-linear. It reminds me a little bit of the World of Ruin in Final Fantasy VI or the latter portions of Chrono Trigger--except it happens a lot earlier. Even at these early stages of the game, I'm tracking down important items that I assume I'll be needing for late game like the Water Flying Clothes and several of the Erdrick armor pieces.

I'm not sure exactly how much longer the game is, but I'm enjoying it pretty far despite the tedium of traveling all over the world. I'm looking forward to Dragon Quest III since it has a class system and a four character party. After that, I'll be moving on to the DS remakes of IV, V, and VI. Now, there's a very good chance that I stall out right in the middle of this process, but at the very least I'm going to beat this one. For right now I'm not really tired of the series so I'd like to continue on. 

I'm not really certain why I keep taking on these ambitious video game projects. I think maybe once I'm an old man I will have finished everything but it's pretty unrealistic to think that I'm going to beat the entire Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy series--at least not in a timely fashion. Granted, I'm almost done with Final Fantasy but I have this way of getting sidetracked. I have at least 50 games I still need to finish and that doesn't include any of the games I plan to tackle in the future. Maybe I'm going a little crazy here.

Why do I have this compulsive need to finish so many games? I guess it's just sort of an obsessive tendency that I have coupled with this desire to have something to write about. Coming up with something to write about every day when my life is so uneventful is actually pretty challenging. I have to come up with new things so I play a ton of games. I can't just play the same old games all the time because I run out of things to write about. It's not like I don't enjoy playing all these games--I really do. It satisfies my completionist compulsion and gives me writing material at the same time. It's a win-win.

Avalanche (Day 233)

I've been spending my time today on washing my car and playing a lot of League of Legends. My car is in pretty poor condition but the wash made it look a bit better. It's still a tad dented and there are spots of rust here and there--but it'll do. My uncle and cousins are helping me and my mother in our current poor financial situation--and hopefully they'll also assist me in landing a job. Once I get insurance on my vehicle and get the tags up to date, I'll be able to drive around without the fear of getting pulled over and fined. That'll be a nice change of pace. Getting the brakes fixed will be nice too, since they've been making an awful grinding noise for the past. . .couple of years or so.

I need to get out and be more active, though. Getting a job at this point is going to be a tough adjustment because I've been firmly seated in front of my computer for the majority of the past six months. I'd like to start going on walks/runs again, but the weather has been pretty poor for it. I think it's starting to warm up, but the temperature still seems pretty unpredictable.

I'm feeling a little bit better about my situation, I guess. I'm sure I'm not going to end up with the greatest of jobs, but it'll be nice to be making money again. There's a lot of debts that I have to pay off--and aside from that, it'll be nice to shop for my own food again and to buy stuff for myself. Even though I have a massive backlog, I like the idea of being able to actually buy new games. Plus, there are some games that are must-buys for me like the upcoming Super Smash Bros title for the Wii U. 

I'm also really nervous. I remember the last time I worked and I wasn't in the greatest of moods. I don't want to fall prey to depression or wake up in the morning and be miserable with my life. I haven't felt that way lately even though my situation is a little bleak. I like being in new social situations but if I'm surrounded with people I dislike it obviously makes me unhappy. I'm just nervous about the kind of people I'm going to meet and the mood that it's going to put me in. 

It's important that I get things going again, though. I can't just sit here in my home and stagnate like I have been. I've said these kinds of things to myself over and over so it's starting to sound a bit like a broken record. I hope that I actually listen this time.

The Future That Awaited Me (Day 232)

I have conquered the beast that is Dragon Quest. It was much shorter than I expected. I doubt it clocked in at more than 10 hours--about half as long as Final Fantasy, its primary competitor. I've heard these two games compared a lot over the years, but they're actually pretty different games. Final Fantasy is a class-based RPG in which you control a party of four characters of your own creation. In Dragon Quest you take control of a single character with predetermined stat growths and spells. They're both fun games, but I'd probably give the edge to Final Fantasy here.

The true form of the final boss.

  Ending credits.

I wasted no time in moving directly onto Dragon Quest II. I have almost no preconceived notions about this game, so this should be interesting. After playing for about an hour, I discovered that this entry is the first party-based title in the series after acquiring Prince Ronaldo as a team member. Like Earthbound, each party member seems to have an inventory to store items. This is a welcome change from the first title where I was frequently low on space for items.

Dragon Quest II

The gameplay of Final Fantasy II compared to its predecessor was a radical change. Other than the addition of party members, the gameplay in Dragon Quest II seems largely unchanged--although I've not made it far yet. My new party member Ronaldo seems to be able to cast spells whereas our unnamed protagonist has lost the ability to do so--although it's not the same guy this time around. It's another descendent of the great hero mentioned in the first game, but evidently about, oh, 100 years have passed. It's always 100 years.

If Dragon Quest II is even close to as short as the first game of the series, then I'll probably be done with it within a couple days. I know a ridiculously small amount about this series as a whole, so it's going to be really interesting to play through it. I know that some of the later games are extremely long, so there's a pretty good possibility that my progress will stall as I continue on--but I'm still interested to see how I progress.

Nephele (Day 231)

Welp, I didn't end up making very much progress on any of those games yesterday because I got caught up getting some details with my car figured out and playing League of Legends with some friends. Even though I don't play the game very much at all anymore, I still really enjoy it so long as I have certain people around to play with.

After I finish up Kirby 64, I'll just have Kirby Squeak Squad left on the list of main series Kirby games left to finish. I get a certain level of satisfaction from finishing an entire series of games that I can't quite surprise. I'm quite close with Final Fantasy too if you completely leave out the only-online titles. I'd like to play those but the amount of time required to invest in those games is insane--which admittedly is not unlike any other MMORPG.

I think today I'm going to finish Kirby 64 and focus primarily on Dragon Quest after that. I don't think the game is very long at all, but I've been putting off resuming it for a couple days now. I don't even dislike the game or anything, it's just that other things keep coming up.

I can't think of much to say today! Generally when I spend too much time playing League of Legends, I don't feel particularly chatty in the blog entries that follow. I feel like I've pretty much said all I can say about that game since I've been playing it pretty regularly for like four years now. Occasionally some new stuff happens but I'm slightly apathetic about it at this point. I think it would be better for the health of this blog if I focused on other stuff--but sometimes I just can't ignore my whims.

I've been thinking lately that it would be cool to incorporate a lot more screenshots into these blog entries. I like the idea of documenting my progress on games as I'm playing them. I like the idea of streaming as well, but that feels like a waste if no one is watching. At the very least there is a chance that someone will go back and read through some of these entries, whereas I don't expect anyone to go watch old VODs of me playing Dragon Quest or whatever. Maybe next entry I'll do a sort of picture documentation of the progress I make through that game. Of course, that would actually require me to make a significant amount of progress, which is the tough part.

Lippincott (Day 230)

I thought it might be interesting to do a visual representation of some games I'm currently playing. After finishing Kirby Mass Attack, I figured I'd branch out and try a few things, although I am continuing with the Kirby series.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

Kirby showing off his amazing refrigerator powers.

The Crystal Shards is a game I've played before, but it was many years ago. I've pretty much always been a fan of the Kirby series (or at least since about 1997) but for some reason I never owned this game. I guess I was more focused on finding a good RPG for N64 at the time, which. . .was honestly a very unproductive search. The only good RPG on the system that I can think of off the top of my head is Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber and it was excellent. Most people will tell you their favorite N64 game is Super Smash Bros or Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time or maybe Super Mario 64, but for me Ogre Battle clenched it by a large margin.

But that's not the point. The Crystal Shards is the only game in the Kirby series that allows you to combine powers. It's such a simple and effective idea that I have no idea why the developers haven't repeated it. The idea was flirted with in Kirby's Dream Land 3 by augmenting the effects of powers with certain companions. The Spark power when paired with the tiny bird Pitch would result in a RC Pitch that could be controlled with the d-pad, for instance. I love this kind of thing and I hope they do something else like it in the future.

Dragon Quest

This guy's about to cast a spell on me.

Yep, it's the original Dragon Quest. Despite being a self proclaimed JRPG aficionado, I have never played a single game in this series. I've always (and perhaps unfairly) dismissed the series as painfully generic. I don't think my accusations are completely unfounded, but I feel I should give the series a genuine chance before I make the declaration. And hey, I'm enjoying it so far. The gameplay is incredibly simple, but engaging. It mostly consists of grinding until you can afford the equipment you need to brave the monsters in the next area. Unlike Final Fantasy, I have more than enough MP to cast the spells I have.

Breath of Fire II

Every JRPG has a slime enemy.

I've actually played a pretty good portion of Breath of Fire II before, but never finished it. At some point I lost my save data and thus my motivation. My primary complaint about this game has always had nothing to do with the gameplay. The original English localization is notoriously horrible, which killed my motivation to ever replay it. Fortunately, some rudimentary sleuthing turned up a complete fan translation of the game. So far, it seems to be vastly improved from the original and I see no reason why I won't complete the game this time. Of course, then I'll feel obligated to finish Breath of Fire III, since I've finished both BoF and BoF IV. 

Mind = Spun (Day 229)

I have finished Kirby Mass Attack and I am proud! I so rarely finish platformers, and both this and Kirby and the Amazing Mirror were quite the ordeal! This is because it required so much backtracking. This wouldn't have been as much of an issue if I'd been more thorough and I went through the levels, but I didn't think that I'd need to collect all the medals. I'm definitely not a completionist when it comes to games like this so I decided to just try to finish the levels without exploring every nook and cranny. However, once I completed the boss stage of level 4, the game informed me that I needed to acquire a rainbow medal from each and every stage. As it turns out, I had not done so for at least 3-4 stages in each of the 4 levels.

To be honest, I thought about giving up right there because I didn't relish the thought of retreading my steps in a few of those levels--especially those that took place in complete darkness or underwater. But I managed to do it with only a few difficulties. The final boss wasn't even that tough! I was glad, because I was pretty much ready to be done with the game by then. Overall, it was a really fun game, but it's just. . .not my preferred genre. For a platformer to really grab me, it has to be absolutely exceptional. My favorite Kirby title is probably still Kirby Super Star. It's probably one of the more traditional in the series, but I like it because of the gameplay, the graphics, the music, and the style. It's really fun, fast-paced, and funny. It also has by far the most variety of powers--each of which has a variety of moves to use.

Most Kirby titles have very simple powers. Kirby and the Amazing Mirror had some cool powers--the Sword and Fighter powers were very good, but then you had powers like Spark, Fire, and Beam that were just as boring as ever. For some reason, almost none of the Kirby titles barring Super Star expand that much on each power. I love the idea of having entirely different movesets for each power and I can't fathom why the developer didn't choose to continue that trend. I can forgive the powers for being basic in the Dream Land series because of how each power behaves differently depending on which animal companion you have--and the same can be said for The Crystal Shards because you can combine the basic powers to make new powers. That's also an idea I really wish they'd repeat, because it's a really cool concept.

I've now beaten every Kirby game I own--so I'm experimenting with the idea of trying a few that I don't. I've played Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards before, but I've never owned it and I'm reasonably certain I never finished it. I really like the concept of combining powers, so I'll probably play that soon. Kirby Squeak Squad is another Nintendo DS Kirby title that came after Canvas Curse but before Mass Attack. It's evidently a more traditional take and therefore didn't get as many accolades--but hell, I'll probably like it. I'm certainly willing to give it a shot.

Honestly, I think those are just about the only Kirby games I haven't played. There's a new title coming for 3DS that I'd definitely like to play, but that's reasonably far off. I've finished Kirby's Adventure, all three Dream Land titles, Kirby Super Star, and of course Kirby Canvas Curse and Kirby Mass Attack. I've even played Kirby Air Ride. Barring maybe a few spinoff titles, I think I'll safely be able to say that I've beaten the entire series pretty soon.

Physical Education (Day 228)

I'm not sure I'll ever be completely sold on the viability of touch screen controls for gaming. I think the Nintendo DS and 3DS are great handhelds, but even when I really enjoy games that employ heavy usage of the touch screen, I always walk away with some level of irritation. If not for its touch screen controls, I would have completed The World Ends With You many years ago. I like the battle system, the music, and the graphics--but the controls are awkward and no matter how much I try, I cannot get used to them.

Somehow, I managed to get through Kirby Canvas Curse, which is controlled exclusively through the touch screen. It was a good game, but I'd still much rather play a Kirby title with more traditional controls. Kirby Mass Attack is another game in the series that requires exclusive use of the touch screen, but in its case, you have to simultaneously control 10 different Kirbys at once. These Kirbys must be led through obstacle courses, lava, murky water, space, and around spiky foes. When a Kirby dies, it starts to float away as a ghost--unless you recover it. Sometimes this is impossible, like if your Kirbys get squished against a platform in a vertical scrolling level or if all Kirbys die at once.

Touch screen controls have never felt as responsive as I'd like them to be. I always find myself frantically stabbing and swiping at the screen in an attempt to get it to do exactly what I want. I'm unsure as to why it wouldn't be simpler to hit a button to jump instead of swiping up on a touch screen. Of course, in the case of Mass Attack and Canvas Curse, the game's would likely not be playable with traditional controls. They are designed from the ground up for touch screens, and in that way they are well designed. However, this cannot make up for the flaws inherent to the control scheme.

I'm almost done with Mass Attack. After I'm finished, I think I'll probably be taking a break from games that make heavy use of the touch screen. I've always felt it made a lot more sense as a supplement to gameplay rather than a primary element. I don't usually play platformers that often, but I think I'd like to try something else after I'm done here. Maybe I'll try something out on the Game Boy Advance. Alternatively, I could play Klonoa, a title I abandoned many years ago when my first Wii malfunctioned. Handhelds seem more convenient at the moment, though--so I might look around and see what I can find.

Await Rescue (Day 227)

I've been watching a lot of House recently and have been quite enjoying it. This is somewhat surprising to me because it's a big name Network TV Show and I generally find those to be pretty contrived, aside from a few exceptions. I enjoyed Lost a lot and even appreciated the ending despite the general vitriol associated with it. House is different, though. It's part of a pretty well tread genre. It's a medical drama, although it certainly has its fair share of humor.

I guess I'm just really attracted to the misanthropic protagonist. I'm not misanthropic and I don't hate people but I do find the condition interesting. I've known people like that and a lot of his actions really do ring true to me. The way he alienates everyone around him consistently might seem a bit extreme to some viewers, but his behavior is very familiar to me. I guess you could say that I do share some traits with that character, but I'm at nowhere near that extreme a level. I'm just an introvert. I like people, but I don't like being around a lot of them at once. I like being around people in small doses. I prefer smaller groups to large ones. In House's case, he would rather only be around people when it serves his goals. He feels the need to unravel puzzles--not because it helps to save lives, but because it gives him an answer. If he consistently comes up with answers, it means he has control. He will always be sought out for those answers because no one does it as well as he does.

House is formulaic. Most episodes begin in the same way--the primary patient to be treated in that episode will experience a bizarre medical issue and most likely lose consciousness. Sometimes a fake out will occur and the person you are led to believe is getting sick will not be the person of interest. This reminds me a lot of the Six Feet Under cold opens--except in that case, someone generally dies at the beginning of every episode. Like House, it's not always who you initially expect. 

The episode will then progress with House soliciting input from his hand-picked team of young doctors. They will generally get the obvious diagnoses out of the way first, but in almost every case, House seems to have a much better idea of what might be wrong with the patient than his assistants do. Even though the patient's life is often as stake, he seems to toy with them, prodding them to rack their brains for the solution. In most cases, House will come up with a few ideas that his team has not considered that will be shot down for various reasons over the course of the episode. The patient will unexpectedly start coughing blood, seizing, go into cardiac arrest, or otherwise get much worse while the team continues to deliberate. 

In each episode, there will generally be a moment where an unrelated piece of information will cause House to have an epiphany--a eureka moment. House is essentially a show about medical mysteries, and the parallels to Sherlock Holmes are obvious. In almost every case, House is primarily responsible for eventually figuring out the underlying medical condition and solving it. Occasionally patients will walk away with a chronic condition but it is very seldom that they are terminal. Statistically, it seems this might be a bit of a stretch, but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief because the show is so consistently entertaining.

Beyond that, it's a show about a drug addict who practices medicine while subverting authority and breaking every rule and regulation in the book. I have to wonder if a real world diagnostician, no matter how talented, could get away with that kind of thing year after year without facing jail time and suspension of a medical license. I'm three seasons in now; I'm curious as to how the show's creators would maintain the same level of tension considering House always seems to get what he wants without (or with very little) consequence.

Bam (Day 226)

I'm not saying I'm embarking on a quest to complete all the Kirby games I've missed. That's the kind of grand declaration I might make about oh, say, marathoning the entire Final Fantasy series. It's not going to happen. I am, however, planning on completing two Kirby titles in succession, one of which I've already done. Kirby and the Amazing Mirror was a different take on the formula from what I'm used to--but Kirby Mass Attack doesn't particularly even feel like a Kirby game.

Like Canvas Curse, Mass Attack experiments with the Nintendo DS's touch screen and is controlled entirely through it. In Canvas Curse you guided Kirby through levels by drawing a line for him to slide around on. It was an interesting concept but I personally found it grew tiring over the course of the game, but that's probably just because I have somewhat of a vendetta against games that make heavy use of the touchscreen. Mass Attack does not entirely abandon the line concept, but it does allow you to order Kirby to run around as usual--or rather, 10 Kirbys.

It seems Kirby has been split into 10 by evil forces that I won't discuss here. You start off each major level with access to only one Kirby. By acquiring food, you will gradually be able to bring more Kirbys into the fray. Unlike other flagship titles of the series, Kirby does not possess the ability to copy powers--although I think it would have been interesting if he could. Imagine the possibilities of having powers that scaled with the number of Kirbys currently under your control. Instead, combat is primarily conducted by violently assaulting foes with your stylus, which will provoke your Kirbys to pile up on them and beat them to death. In other cases, you'll need to fling your Kirbys skyward in an effort to rack up damage or knock foes down.

To progress to new stages, you need to have access to a certain number of Kirbys. The final boss stage requires the full 10 to be under your control. I've only played through the first major level and the final boss was the series classic Whispy Woods, although it was a much more complicated encounter than usual, with spiky projectiles falling from the top to bottom screens and different segments to destroy. The strategy still mostly amounted to frantically poking at the screen until my opponent was dead. Admittedly, it was more than that, and it was pretty engaging despite the touch screen requirement.

But still, it just doesn't feel all that much like a Kirby title when I can't suck up enemies and steal their powers. I don't know; maybe I'm a purist, but I feel like this game could have been an original IP with any other character you could think of. It seems to me like Kirby was thrown in just to sell copies. But maybe I'm too cynical. I'm still going to play through it--and I'd like to play Kirby's Epic Yarn too, which I know wasn't originally intended for our little pink fluffball.

A Love Supreme, Pt. 4: Psalm (Day 225)

I have spent the last day without internet access doing almost nothing but two things: watching House and playing Kirby and the Amazing Mirror. I picked this game up again because I thought I could finish it in a relatively short period of time. I enjoy the series and thought it would help to take a slight chunk out of my backlog. I finished the game and enjoyed it, but man, did it take me a lot longer than I expected.

Most Kirby titles are pretty linear. One notable exception I can think of is The Great Cave Offensive subgame from Kirby Superstar, one of my favorite titles from the series. Instead of a linear stage progressions, The Great Cave Offensive tasks you with combing a massive maze for treasures until you have found them all. Kirby and the Amazing Mirror borrows this concept and makes an entire game out of it consisting of 9 expansive levels filled with puzzles, alternate passageways, and bosses, some of which show up entirely too often. I can't count how many times I came across Batafire, a fiery bat boss while backtracking to figure out where to go. It was at least seven times too many.

I have traditionally enjoyed Kirby due to its simplistic and fun gameplay, excellent music, and colorful graphics. Kirby and the Amazing Mirror has this in spades, but its exploration mechanics bring to mind nothing else more than Super Metroid, a game that I respect but don't necessarily enjoy. I think I've made it clear over the course of this writing exercise that I'm definitely more fond of RPGs than any other genre. I like platformers but they rarely hold my interest. I think I could change this state of mind if I just showed some willpower. I think if I hadn't lacked internet access over the past 24 hours I probably would have given up on this game--but I didn't. I kept backtracking and backtracking and examining my map until I figured out what obscure passageway would open up new content.

Of course, before you find maps locked away in hidden chests, you're pretty much going in blind. You are required to consistently explore every inch of the levels that you encounter to make sure you haven't missed any hidden doors or chests that might lead to a new boss or a new level. Although the levels are number from 1 to 9, there is no logical order to these levels. The first level of the game is Rainbow Route, but it has many passages to both Area 3 and Area 4. It would be difficult to complete these levels in numerical order, if not impossible. While I praise the game's non-linearity, I have to say it does make the game more frustrating for me personally. Objectively, it probably gives the game more depth--but it's certainly not what I'm used to.

The game was also significantly more difficult than I was expecting. While I breezed through the first several areas, I suddenly found myself dying repeatedly against certain bosses, whose fast moving patterns I couldn't quite get the hang of. The final boss in particular proved to be quite the challenge, because you have to fight Dark Meta-Knight and then three different forms of the Big Bad right after that. Even with a hefty buffer of extra lives under my belt, I found myself getting stricken down over and over. It makes me wonder if my platforming muscles are atrophying. A few years ago, I played through each of the classic Mega Man titles--most of which are much harder than this game. Since then, however, I've played very few games in the action/platforming genre. Maybe I should consider this a crash course.

A Love Supreme, Pt. 3: Pursuance (Day 224)

(My internet was down yesterday.)

Aisen took a long drink of the stream water in his cupped hands. It was cold and refreshing, soothing on his parched throat. The air was choked with mist but he felt no moisture in it. It was a substance made up of mysterious eneriges--he was sure of that. Perhaps it was responsible the enchantment that seemed to have fallen over the forest. It was responsible for constantly leading him astray.

This situation was his fault. He knew that. He had suggested that they split up and search for Casnie--but he hadn't understood at the time just how strange and mind warping the woods were. After being violently ripped from the Exod by a stranger from half a world away, Aisen had to wonder why he still expected his surroundings to behave in a predictable way. He lacked foresight. Maybe he was being too hard on himself but he couldn't help but feel frustration when he considered his predicament.

But at least he had water. It was soothing--and in a strange way, filling. He felt the hunger gnawing at his stomach melt away as if it had never been, like he'd just eaten a refreshing meal.  Not too much, not too little. Just the perfect amount of fulfilled. He glanced at the perfectly clear water dripping from his outstretched hands. He didn't need any more of it. He wished he could bring some along with him, but. . .he had no means by which to transport it.

Aisen also had no idea where he was or where he should go. But there he was by a stream of lifegiving water--which evidently possessed the mystical quality of entirely satisfying one's hunger--and he wondered why he should leave. There was a chance he might find his way, but considering the progress he'd made in the last hour he severely doubted it. Would he have a better chance if he just stayed put somewhere he could conceivably survive? Would Terakiel find him? Would Casnie? Oh what irony that would be if the one they'd been looking for had found him instead.


It wasn't giving up, he reasoned. It was the safe thing to do. Here, by this wellspring of life he would be guarded from the dangers of the deep, misty forest. Here, everything would work out. This was where he was meant to be, perhaps all along. This was where his life had been leading him up to this point. This was his final destination. The end ofa  long journey. Aisen laid his head down to rest and he felt his eyes flutter and then close. The world disappeared, and he felt that perhaps, so did he.

A Love Supreme: Pt. 2: Resolution (Day 223)

The strange winged insect hovered around Terakiel enigmatically, its ghostly buzz just barely reaching his ears. Like the forest itself, it had a way of vanishing if you were not looking directly at it. He had his doubts that it existed on the same physical plane as himself--but indeed, he had his doubts that he was still in the same reality that he knew. Everything in that forest possessed an indefinable otherworldly quality. He felt his stomach tightening just trying to comprehend it.

"So. . .you said you might be able to locate my traveling companions," Terakiel ventured. His instincts told him to continue traveling forward, but if the moth was correct, then those instincts could not be trusted.

I believe they are here in the forest. That is--there are a number of individuals in this forest that I can sense. I do not know if these are the ones you seek.

"More than just my companions? There are two of them. A female with short brown hair and a male with long fair hair."

I cannot say. Your descriptions have no meaning for me. I fear I do not see humans in this way.

"But you have an idea of where they might be? How?"

I do not know that they are the ones you seek. There are many humans in this forest. Perhaps these companions of yours number among them.

"Who else. . .is here?" Terakiel asked, confused. "I would not have thought many others would be here. Getting here myself was quite an ordeal."

It is not a simple thing, this forest. There are--how shall I convey this--pockets, as it were. Dimensional holes.

"Like the Exod?"

No, not exactly. Think of this forest as a massive lobby. It allows one access to many different locations.

"Forgive me, but that does sound a lot like the Exod. That black world--it takes you to different places."

You're correct, of course--and there are similarities. But it is not the same. This forest does not take you anywhere. Travel through the Exod and you might end up on the other side of the world. Travel through this forest and you might get nowhere at all--or you might end up in one of these dimensional pockets. These pockets exist on the mortal plane. The forest itself does. . .not. Not exactly.

"But why is this place here? Why is it like that?"

That is not something even I can answer. Even if I could, I doubt I could explain it in a way you found satisfying. I might posit another question to you--why is anything anywhere? Was it placed there by a Creator? Do you assume to know such a thing?

"Well, no, I don't. I don't know how the world was created or who did it. Or why."

Nor do I. There are those that claim to know the answers to the questions but I believe these individuals to be lying or delusional. Is it not for us to know? Not necessarily, no--but I certainly don't know and can't imagine how I would begin to investigate such a thing. Suffice to say, this forest is here--or not here, as the case may be--and it rather reliably deposits travelers into these dimensional pockets. From there you might even be able to find a way out. If you stay here, however, you may never leave.

"I. . . can't leave until I've found them. I understand if you cannot help--you don't owe me that. But I can't leave. They're my responsibility."

I understand that. I told you I would help you. If your companions have somehow found their way into these dimensional pockets, then that becomes more difficult. I will find humans for you, but I would prefer to stay hidden from them. The consequences that may arise from that will be your responsibility.

"These people--do you think they would hurt me? You think I would be in danger?"

There is no way to be certain. I can tell you that your race does not have the best reputation among mine. However, there are good and bad apples in every lot and that applies to us, too. I think that there is some risk involved but I also believe you are willing to take that risk.

"You're right. Which way do we go?"

A Love Supreme: Pt. 1: Acknowledgement (Day 222)

I've put around 8 hours into Bravely Default but unfortunately I don't feel like I've accomplished much of anything yet! I can already tell this game is going to take me some time, especially since I'm going to be attempting to play through all of the sidequests (gotta unlock all the jobs!) and also because I'm playing Hard mode. Why would I do this on my first playthrough of a game? Well, there's a good chance I won't play it again (at least not for a very long time) so I might as well experience what difficulty the game has to offer. I did the same thing on my first playthrough of Fire Emblem: Awakening and I think I enjoyed the experience more because of it.

My initial impression of the game is a little mixed. I love the music and the presentation. It has a simplistic art style similar to The 4 Heroes of Light but has better execution. Maybe it's just because the 3DS is a more powerful handheld--I don't know. Suffice to say, backdrops, enemies, character models--they all look a lot better and make me feel like I'm more a part of a breathing world. I also really dig the music, which is memorable and adventurous. The chirpy noises that composed the 4 Heroes of Light soundtrack just can't compare. One thing that I wasn't exactly expecting was the voice acting. Bravely Default has a lot of it. Every important scene features full voice acting and while some of it is excellent, it can be inconsistent.

I'm torn between disabling English voice acting or just powering all the way through. I watched a streamer on Twitch play Persona 4 with Japanese voices turned on and I balked. I'd really gotten to know those characters and their voices and it just felt wrong to me. It helped that for the most part the voice acting in that game was very good--with a few exceptions. I couldn't imagine not hearing Yukiko and Chie's voices, but I must admit I could have done without Rise--although Laura Bailey does a better job as Serah in Final Fantasy XIII-2. It's completely possible the voices in Bravely Default will grow on me. They're not that bad. The only game in which I've disabled English voice acting is Odin Sphere--because it was atrocious. Helpfully, Muramasa: The Demon Blade by the same developer featured only Japanese voice acting.

Bravely Default inherits a lot of mechanics from The 4 Heroes of Light but I believe it seeks to expand on them, to flesh them out. Jobs will possess a great deal more than four abilities and will take significantly more time to master. Like Final Fantasy V, job skills can be mixed and matched. You might have Chivalry from Knight as your primary job but run White Magic as a secondary command. I'm not sure why The 4 Heroes of Light didn't have this system in the first place. The game is, however, pretty slow-paced. As I said I've spent a number of hours on the game but I've spent a lot of time just running around fighting through countless random encounters, leveling up so that I might conquer my next foe.

I can't fault the game for this because I chose to try hard mode. So far, bosses have massive HP pools. The boss fight I just went through featured two enemies with about 5000 HP--when my characters are dealing anywhere from 50-200 damage per attack, depending on number of hits and whether or not they critically strike. This is fine, because I was seeking a challenge. What I find more important is strategic depth. I've already discovered that bosses are more or less immune to status effects, a penalty against it in my book. Why even give me these spells if I'll never have a reason to use them?

Positive stat buffs seem to be a lot more useful. Monks possess an ability called Invigorate that allows them to raise their attack for two turns. This seems like a really short period of time, but since Bravely Default allows you to attack 4 times in one turn (at the expense of 4 Brave Points, which can be built up by Defaulting or simply by going into deficit and being unable to act for several turns), you can use it strategically. If you use Invigorate twice to boost your Physical Attack to 150%, you can now make sure that you get the full possible benefit of that buff and unload all of your attacks at once.

Braving and Defaulting do tend to provide a fair amount of strategic depth. In that particular boss fight I had my Black Mage (with White Magic secondary) frequently take multiple actions in a single turn. In this way she was able to attack with spells and heal the team simultaneously. Meanwhile, my Knight/White Mage was able to cast Protect on frailer members of the party while also attacking. So far I really like the system, but I feel I will be spending a pretty significant amount of time grinding.

A Is to B as B Is to C (Day 221)

After playing through a couple of games I've been putting off for years (Final Fantasy I and II) I've gotten in the mood to pick up on some more old unfinished titles. A cursory inspection of unfinished games on my Backloggery reveals that there aren't a whole lot of games that would be easy to just pick up and finish. I took care of a lot of those a couple years ago, because for some reason I was at the end of several different games. For the moment, the easiest titles for me to just pick up and complete would be Kirby and the Amazing Mirror as well as Kirby Mass Attack. I'm not really in a huge platformer mood right now but I might try them out anyway since I do dig Kirby quite a bit.

Lost Odyssey is an option and something I attempted earlier this year (or perhaps late last year). I have a save on the last disc, pretty close to the final dungeon with absolutely no clue as to what I need to do. I attempted to restart the game but lost interest fairly early in, unfortunately. It's a game I admire for a number of reasons, but the gameplay is relatively vanilla. I could consult some walkthroughs and try to figure out what I need to do to progress and just power through--and I think that's honestly what I will do at some point.

Once I get my video card, I'll have access to my entire PS2 library that I need to catch up on. Since my actual console is broken, I have to use an emulator. I can get these games to run okay at the moment but with a video card they should run perfectly. I have a ton of PS2 games that I still need to finish, like SMT: Digital Devil Saga and its sequel, Phantom Brave, Makai Kingdom, as well as Final Fantasy X and X-2. If I take care of those I will have vanquished a pretty significant chunk of my backlog.

If I somehow find a way to grab a new PSP charger I'll be able to start working through some of those games I haven't finished, most notably Dissidia 012--a good game that I'm. . .pretty bad at. I also have some other options there as far as RPGs go, but I would just as soon leave them uncompleted. I'll have to revisit them once again to really make my final decision there.

1978 (Day 220)

After considerable difficulties I have finally finished Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light! That is not to say that I have completed it--there is considerable bonus content available in the game but after reading up on said content I have precisely zero interest in tackling it. It is not a game I would recommend to anyone looking for a good RPG, but as a Final Fantasy fan I'm glad I played it. It is certainly not without merit but its numerous flaws are just as apparent.

If 4 Heroes has one thing going for it, it is its difficulty. Although inconsistent, most bosses are very challenging--and sometimes this is fun and engaging. In other cases it's simply frustrating. Many bosses will pepper your party with harmful status effects that strip all control of your character. Other times you seem hopelessly at the mercy of RNG as you pray that your enemy doesn't choose to target your frailest character eight times in a row, efficiently removing them from combat. The counterplay, of course, is to make your characters as defensive as humanly possible. This is not a terrible gameplay decision to make per se, but the fact that it limits your creative choices is certainly frustrating.

4 Heroes of Light is an RPG in the Final Fantasy tradition of job systems. It most closely resembles Final Fantasy III (and indeed Matrix Software was responsible for developing a remake of this game) but it does borrow some elements from Final Fantasy V as well. Like III, job classes (called Crowns) can be changed at will once they are unlocked--and like FFV each class sports a number of unique skills. In this particular case, each job has exactly four skills and a passive that is always in effect once the Crown has been fully upgraded with an array of gems dropped by defeated monsters. Final Fantasy standards like Black Mage, White Mage, and Monk (although it's called Fighter here, perhaps in homage to the series' debut title) are available to the game's four playable characters.

Unlike Final Fantasy V, job classes are static and abilities from different Crowns cannot be mixed and matched. If one were to adorn Jusqua with the Salve-Maker's Crown then he is a Salve-Maker that has access to only abilities from that job. However, each class can equip any weapon, armor, and/or magic in the game. Base stats and proficiencies may make certain combinations awkward but they are nonetheless doable. White Mages, Black Mages, and Shaman reduce the AP cost of white, black, and dark magic respectively, whereas every other class must pay the full cost when casting.

On paper, most of these elements sound pretty great, but sometimes things just don't work out in practice. In a game with 28 different job classes, you would expect a great number of different viable class compositions. Although I have not experimented as extensively as perhaps I could, I have to say that this is just not the case. The lionshare of boss battles require a healer, which means that your party composition already must include a White Mage or Salve-Maker. I decided to opt for the latter for the sake of variety and was pleased with their playstyle because they're able to re-use recovery items like X-Potion and Remedy to great effect--not to mention they can use them on the entire party simultaneously.

Beyond that, many classes are very situational or not intended to be used frequently in combat. The Merchant class, for instance, serves only the purpose of finding more gems, which can be sold for cash or used to upgrade Crowns. I had to spend a fair amount of time using this class to upgrade some of my Crowns, hoping against hope that the RNG would favor me. I'll be honest--I would have preferred a simple leveling system to unlock new skills for these Crowns.

Bard and Musician are two musical classes with various buffs and debuffs at their disposal. When they are first acquired they are at most passable. In most cases I found I had more success by concentrating mostly on offense and dedicating a single character to the healing role. I thought maybe this might change as the game progressed--and in a way it did. In the latter half of the game the difficulty really started to ramp up. If the player characters were not equipped with the correct gear to resist whatever element bosses used most prominently, it was close to impossible to proceed.

As soon as this starts happening in 4 Heroes of Light, you get access to the ultimate white and black magic spells: Lux and Desolator. Lux is the ultimate support spell. It's so good in fact that it completely invalidates the aforementioned classes as well as a whole slew of other white magic spells. Lux costs 5 AP and lasts for a battle's entire duration--whereas previous buffs generally lasted 3-4 turns. Lux not only causes the party to regenerate about 10% HP every turn, it increases the party's maximum HP, increases damage, and increases defense. This is essentially Musician Serenade, white magic Protect, and white magic Berserk all rolled into one, with even more power added in just for good measure. It completely warps game balance--and because it becomes mandatory to conquer the later boss battles, it must have a dedicated user in your team composition.

Now, I probably could have gotten by without Desolator even though it is also incredibly strong. However, it only does damage--and there are several options for dealing a lot of damage in this game. Granted, there are very few options that deal quite as much damage as Desolator, and for this reason I felt I was forced to include a Black Mage in my final party composition despite not using one for the entire game. Black Mages can cast Desolator for 4 AP and have access to two very strong damage buff abilities in Magic Mojo and Spell Focus. I felt as if I would have been crippling myself if I had chosen not to include one.

Once I made it to the final boss I felt like I had run into a brick wall. Its second form tosses out huge amounts of magic damage every turn from every element in the game. For most bosses, equipping the correct elemental shields allowed you to nullify a considerable amount of the damage they would deal--but since this boss in particular abuses every element, that was no longer cutting it. My Salve-Maker was equipped with the legendary Shield of Light which reduces damage from all elements, but there's only one of those in the game. Therefore, I felt I was also forced to include an Elementalist, a support Crown that passively receives less damage from elemental attacks and is able to impart that same bonus to his allies with the ability Mysterio. Before including Elementalist in my composition I felt as if I didn't stand a chance at defeating that boss.

So that left me with one slot in my final party composition that was completely up to me. I chose Monk because I really liked their combination of durability and extremely high damage output. With Lux and Chakra, I was able to boost his HP to the game's cap of 999--which meant he was also regenerating over 100 HP per turn.

There's honestly still a lot more I could say about this game--and why not, I spent a lot of time playing it--but I've already written a lot and I want to move on. I'm ready to play Bravely Default. I'm hoping it's considerably less frustrating, but I'm going into it with a fresh perspective.

I am Ahab (Day 219)

I've really been enjoying all the Final Fantasy games I've been playing lately. My original plan to marathon the series is starting to look not quite so unreasonable, although I think I'm still definitely going to skip a few. I played Final Fantasy I and II and also played through Final Fantasy V in co-op. I'm a little under halfway through a Final Fantasy VI romhack with that same co-op partner. I have very little desire to play Final Fantasy III again so I doubt I'll revisit it. To be honest, I'd love to play the Final Fantasy IV Complete Collection because it comes bundled with The After Years, a mini-sequel of sorts. I've never played it and it looks pretty fun!

There's a pretty good chance that we'll try a co-op run of Final Fantasy IX if we ever manage to get under the same roof again. It's one of those games that I think I've only played through once and I definitely wouldn't mind revisiting it as I liked it a lot. I've even flirted with the idea of playing FFVII and/or VIII again since I'm in such an FF mood. The fact remains that I need to finish 4 Heroes of Light (which I should have been working on today) and then move on to Bravely Default, which despite the title definitely belongs to the FF pantheon.

Aside from that, there is the looming giant that is Final Fantasy X, which for reasons unknown to me I have never attempted to seriously complete. FFXIII-2 is sitting there waiting to be finished as well. I can't say I lost interest in it at all but I was suddenly seized with an uncontrollable urge to tame this series from start to finish. I have now played and finished every Final Fantasy from the first to ninth, as well as XII, XIII, and the Tactics series. What else is there in the way of side games? There's Final Fantasy Dimensions for iOS and Android which I certainly wouldn't mind investigating one of these days if I had the cash. There's Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest which I would play strictly only for completionist purposes.

One series that I haven't dipped my foot into at all is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles but I was under the impression that series was very much tailored to multiplayer. If I'm mistaken--great, maybe I'll check some of them out. There's also several Compilation of Final Fantasy VII games I haven't played, like Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus. If I were to play those I'd definitely have to play through FFVII again because it's been many years since I last played it. Of the two I'm much more interested in Crisis Core since Dirge of Cerberus is, by all accounts, a pretty mediocre shooter.

I've been thinking about the series a lot lately. I've had an idea in my head that I really like about a game--or possibly a romhack I guess--that unites characters representing each of the main Final Fantasy titles. Each of these characters would exhibit mechanics from the games in question. A Final Fantasy I character would be allowed to switch between jobs like Monk, Thief, Warrior, and White Mage and be able to promote to a higher tier of those classes after a certain point (or level). A Final Fantasy II character would gain stats by performing certain actions instead of leveling up. Maybe a Final Fantasy IV character would be able to choose from a pool of abilities from that game like Recall, Aim, White Magic, Jump, etc. Maybe he/she could set a certain number of these abilities as well.

I think the most challenging aspect of creating a game like this (aside from the obvious knowledge required to do so) would be in incorporating elements from Final Fantasy XIII. How would Ravagers, Commands, etc be included without affecting the balance of other characters? Would each character be assigned to a certain role? Would black mages be Ravagers, white mages be Medics, etc? The character in question would of course be able to switch between these roles whereas others would be determined based on their class or archetype from the game they starred in, perhaps.

The Map is Not the Territory (Day 218)

Casnie was no longer running. This was not due to a lack of respect for the great beast scrabbling through the underbrush behind her but more an exercise in practicality. She could keep ahead of the beast by maintaining a brisk pace. If she were to keep running flat out she would eventually tire. Something told her that the reptile on her tail would not run into such dfficulties. Still, she couldn't be sure. She'd never seen anything like it--and once she was done with this whole mess she hoped she never would again.

She couldn't help but realize as she tramped through the densely tangled brush that she had been vaguely aware for the past several minutes of a low din to her east. Little else seemed to make sense to her so she followed it. She followed it for a long time, until she began to lose track. The sound was growing louder, but slowly. Very slowly. It was strange--most sound in this great forest seemed to be enveloped by the ghostly mist hanging low in the air, but not this sound. This low, rumbling noise that seemed to reach out from the earth itself--it was perfectly audible. It sounded like a voice--or perhaps several voices crying out in unison.

If there were people here then surely they must know how to dispose of this creature. She hoped this was the case even though she was uncomfortably aware of a nagging doubt. This reptile did not belong there. This was not his home and he was understandably perturbed. Did it see her as prey? She was unsure, but it continued to follow, never flagging. It continued its slow but relentless pace. She had to confess to herself that she was growing tired even at the leisurely pace she'd set for herself. It had been an eventful day for her--that was for certain.

This was all she had left. That low, throbbing rumble to the east. Was the sun dipping beneath the horizon? She could not say. Tendrils of mist seemed to cling to her shoulders as she muscled her way between a pair of knobby tree trunks. The temperature was dropping but the mist seemed to let off a light all its own. She could see perfectly clearly where she was going despite the circumstances. For the first time since she'd entered this maze she felt her gaze was under her own control. She stared straight ahead defiantly. She did not feel her field of vision slowly slipping to the side as it had before. Perhaps the wood's curse had been broken. She could not say.

The trees and brush began to thin out. She was definitely approaching a meadow of some sort. The grunting beast struggling to force its way through the underbrush would find purchase there and perhaps gain great speed. It would be dangerous to go this way--but the sound of voices grew ever louder. It was a great wordless moan that melded with the buzzing sound one hears in total silence. It was deafening in it's own strange way. She could scarcely hear the scuffling sound of her leather shoes disturbing the grass.

"Is there anybody there?!" Casnie yelled as she grew closer. "I need help! Help!"

Unlike the din of voices carried to her ears by the mist, the sound of Casnie's voice evaporated, carried away by the wind. Even she could tell that she could not be heard. She felt she could barely hear herself. She might as well have been underwater. In fact, she couldn't help but feel suddenly that she was moving through sludge. She knew very well that she had picked up speed since the trees had thinned out, but her dead run was taking place in slow motion. She chanced a glance behind her and the world spun, ever so slowly, the color of the trees, the mist, and the dim sky so far above melding into a colorless blur. She could not see a reptile. She could see very little.

A great rush of wind pierced Casnie's eardrums and she could hear the deafening noise of her footfalls on the dirt, the sound of crickets chirping, and she could smell the scent of the leaves permeating the air. The buzzing sound of silence was still there--but it was muted, subtle. She could hear the sound of hear breathing and the air filling up her lungs. She took an experimental step and could hear the scraping sound of her shoes on rocks and dirt. She felt no tendrils of mist caressing her cloaked shoulders and if she were to look above her she could see an early evening sky. Something had definitely changed. She was no longer being followed.

Ever Thus to Deabeats (Day 217)

Well, I actually got my DS charged and resumed 4 Heroes of Light from where I left off. Turns out I was only a few dungeons behind the progress I'd made on the emulator so I decided why not? A lot of the game's UI frustrations are lessened when you can more comfortably play it from bed--and the graphics aren't quite as much of an eyesore on the tiny DS screen. The problems I've enumerated previously are still present, of course, but I expect I should be able to power through and finish it. Hopefully, I'll do this soon because a friend of mine just dropped off Bravely Default for me to borrow.

Now that I've aquired a few of the legendary items (the Shield of Light, the Cape of Light, and the ultimate White Magic Lux), the game's difficulty definitely seems to be tapering down. Lux in particular seems to sort of break the game as it seems to completely invalidate Bard, Musician, and Dancer. Lux costs 5 AP and rolls together the effects of the Musician's Serenade, the Bard's Ditty, and the Dancer's Perform. Unlike these skills, the effects of Lux last for the duration of the battle. You cast it at the beginning and you get health regen, increased damage, and increased AP regeneration for the entire fight. Why would the developers choose to completely invalidate several classes by introducing a spell that anyone can use that massively outperforms them?

Combining the Shield of Light and Cape of Light also protects the bearer from status effects (ala the traditional Final Fantasy Ribbon) and gives resistance to all elements. For most of the game it is important to equip the right equipment in preparation for certain bosses or you'll get thrashed. That distinction is now no longer important because you can outfit your healer with gear that makes them susceptible to nothing. As long as the boss in question can't destroy your party members in a single turn, you're probably set.

The only positive aspect of this change is that the game is going more smoothly and I feel a lot more powerful than before. After feeling weak and ineffectual for so much of the game this is a welcome change. Still, the sharp change in difficult is disconcerting, to say the least. It's fair to say that the difficulty up to this point has been increased by some poor gameplay elements, but I do really appreciate how important it's been to equip the correct gear--something that is seldom really that important in other Final Fantasy titles.

If I focus on it tonight, it's possible I'll finish 4 Heroes of Light. I don't regret playing it at all, and it's especially nice since Bravely Default is sort of a spiritual successor--but I can't say that it will rank highly for me in the Final Fantasy pantheon. 

Hey You (Day 216)

My co-op partner and I are about 7-8 hours into the Evil Type romhack of Final Fantasy VI. Primary features include greatly enhanced difficulty and rebalanced character skills and magic. In these early stages of the game (before we start acquiring Espers), the main rebalancing seems to be in Locke's Steal skill. You get very early access to an item that changes your Steal to Capture (Mug in most other Final Fantasy games) which greatly increases his early game utility. It also appears that the variety of items you can steal is much higher, with an emphasis on acquiring slight upgrades on what you might otherwise be able to purchase--as well as a lot of X-Potions. Fortunately, the game's difficulty warrants such relatively easy access to strong restorative items.

As I've mentioned before, Final Fantasy VI is a fantastic game with one major weakness in that it strongly lacks difficulty. So far, this romhack is doing an excellent job at remedying that problem. Most random encounters require thought to conquer and boss battles require preparation instead of mindlessly spamming skills. I felt like I could get away with using Edgar's Autocrossbow above all other tools because Noiseblaster and Bioblaster were never really required. In this version of the game, Noiseblaster (which confuses enemies) is an invaluable disable for just about all regular encounters. Bioblaster is even useful against bosses as it usually applies a poison based off their maximum HP.

Without the supply of X-Potions stolen from random enemy monsters, many of the early dungeons and encounters would be infinitely more difficult. Similarly, the equipment Locke has managed to theft from our opponents has given us a leg up against increasingly challenging opposition. That is not to say that the difficulty is unfair, per se. In fact, I'd rate it somewhere along the line of the difficulty of Persona 3 or 4--in fact, maybe even not that hard. But it's certainly challenging enough to be interesting, and that's all I can really ask for. I love Final Fantasy VI and this is just the thing it needed to get me to replay it.

We've just reached the top of the tower in Zozo where Terra lies, so if I'm not mistaken we'll be acquiring our first Espers very soon. We're going to be planning out the stat growths our characters will receive--something that I have never once paid attention to in the past. I wasn't unaware of it, but it was never before necessary to prioritize. The game just wasn't challenging enough. In this playthrough we'll be doing what we can to specialize our characters so that they are uniquely tailored to the roles we need.

At the same time, we're trying to do as little grinding as possible. After all, the original intent of this romhack was to ramp up the difficulty of a game that sorely needed it. Why go against that spirit? By the time we reached the end of Final Fantasy V, our party was around 39-40--just enough to feel powerful but not so powerful to trivialize enemy encounters. That's definitely what we'll be shooting for.

Of Smoke and Fog (Day 215)

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been replaying Final Fantasy V with a friend of mine. It's impossible to avoid comparisons between it and 4 Heroes of Light since I've been playing them concurrently. It's mindboggling just how much more effectively FFV tackles the job system. Even all these years later, it's just so much more fun. Even though I've played through the entire game before, I really became engrossed in the gameplay--especially during the game's latter stages.

I've likened the job system of 4 Heroes of Light to a toolkit on multiple occasions and highlighted that as a strength of the game. The weakness, of course, lies in the fact that you don't really feel like you're developing your characters over time. Aside from stat growths, you don't really inherit anything from your jobs as you level. In the case of FFV, you can use your jobs as a toolkit as well. Thieves are required (or at least heavily recommended) in certain sections of the game. Geomancers make traversing certain dungeons much much easier. Heavily armored targets are susceptible to axes (and the Berserker is the only class that uses them). Many bosses attack very quickly and are thus susceptible to the Time Magic Slow.

At the same time, you develop your characters over time. By the time you reach endgame, you have the potential to mold your characters into unstoppable juggernauts. Cara--that adorable little girl--was a berserking, double-grip axe-wielder equipped with Running Shoes who frequently attacked three times before anyone else in the part had a chance to do anything at all. In 4 Heroes of Light I just can't reach anywhere near this level of power. Everything just sort of feels bland and oversimplified.

Final Fantasy V honestly has some of my favorite gameplay of the series and I thoroughly enjoyed replaying it. It's highly likely that I'm going to be revisiting some other classic games of the series but it's difficult to imagine any other title would overtake it in terms of gameplay. I've always felt Final Fantasy VI represented the total package as far as the series goes, but we'll just have to see how I feel after playing it once more. One issue I've always had with it was the extremely low difficulty--which is why I"m going to be playing ROM hack that significantly increases it.

Covington (Day 214)

I am (hopefully) closing in on the home stretch of 4 Heroes of Light. It's not a terrible game but it is so riddled with flaws and design decisions that I personally disagree with that it can be a little stressful to play. There's a skeleton of a game underneath the surface that I really enjoy, but in a way there's not enough flesh on that skeleton's bones.

There are too many ways in which choice is taken away from the player in this game, from the smart-targeting to the lack of customization options. I likened the job system of 4 Heroes of Light to a toolkit, and that's true to a certain extent--but it's not what I'm looking for in this kind of game. I really enjoy the aspect of experimenting with different job classes, but I'd also like to be able to retain certain skills I learned even as I move on to stronger jobs. I refuse to believe the developers wouldn't realize that was a feature most gamers would enjoy--especially fans of Final Fantasy V and Tactics.

Too many classes also just seem a tad vanilla or strangely uninspired. There's a job that has abilities centered around the amount of time you've been playing the game. The longer you've played, the more damage your abilities do. This is a really silly concept to me that has no place in a game like this. There's another job (Monk) that grows in power by dying repeatedly in combat. This encourages a ridiculously counterintuitive gameplay pattern. I have no idea what they were thinking there.

In other cases, they've put their own spin on traditional job classes. Mystic Knights in Final Fantasy V were awesome because they literally cast elemental spells while attacking with a sword simultaneously. The Spell Fencer in this game dumbs that down and simply turns them into a class capable of changing the element of their physical attacks. Their tier two ability is literally just a stronger version of this skill. Not until you've mastered the class do you have something similar to what we had in FFV.

Other Final Fantasy mainstays like summons, Ultima, Flare, Holy--none of those are anywhere in sight. When it comes down to it, 4 Heroes of Light is a very loose spin-off indeed. From what I've heard, Bravely Default adheres more closely to the Final Fantasy tradition despite not bearing the series' name in its title. I can't wait to play it--but I'm definitely going to finish this game first. I've made it pretty far into it--and like I said, it's not that bad.

States (Day 213)

One thing I'm not a huge fan of in 4 Heroes of Light is the fact that you spend so much time without access to your entire party. I'm pretty far into the game and I've been split up countless times. You generally only have access to one or two party members at a time with a guest party member filling in that previews a future job. This works in theory, but in practice it's mostly just frustrating--because your guest character has a static job and it really messed with the strategy I want to focus on. I don't feel like I should have to wait this long into the game to actually experiment with party compositions, especially now that I have about half the jobs unlocked.

There are quite a few things about the game that I admire but it is positively riddled with other frustrations. To unlock one of the job classes, you have to participate in a math minigame. This minigame has absolutely no relevancy to the area in which it is found nor the job that it unlocks. If it unlocked the Calculator class (ala Final Fantasy Tactics) it would be wholly appropriate--but no, it unlocks the Beastmaster. That makes no sense. And yes, I looked up an application that computes the problems for me and it still took me a few tries to get a high enough score.

On the other hand, the class itself is pretty interesting. There's a plot point in the game where a party member gets turned into a cat--which leads you into acquiring the Transform Staff. This staff can transform you into an animal and back again, which is actually relevant not only to the Beastmaster class but various NPCs scattered around the world. There are a lot of animals you can speak to while in animal form, including a fox companion you might find at every save point who gives you hints on how to progress. This is a welcome feature when it's seldom obvious what you're to do next.

Under normal circumstances, stats are penalized to 70% of their original values while in animal form, but if there is a beastmaster in your party, those stats are doubled to 140%--meaning that your stats get a 40% bonus from standard human form. This seems pretty significant and I'd definitely like to experiment with this further. Beastmasters can also capture weakened enemies and release them as an attack, much like the Mediator class from Final Fantasy V.

Viceroy (Day 212)

I woke up today at the crack of 7:30 PM with a feeling of anxiety. It's not really an unpleasant anxiety, though--it's that kind of anxiety you have when you realize you have a lot of things you want to do and you're not sure in what order you wish to do them! Chores? No, I'm talking about sitting around at my computer as usual. I realized immediately that I needed to get a blog entry out of the way so I'm doing that now--while catching up on the games of the European LCS, starting with Gambit vs. Alliance.

I'd also like to continue playing The 4 Heroes of Light tonight, which I made a fairly significant amount of progress on last night. I still maintain that it has a lot of questionable features, the most frustrating of which is the smart targeting system, but there is definitely still a salvageable game lying underneath the surface. I must bemoan the fact that skills from different jobs are not interchangeable, but I respect the way the developers chose to take the game. The jobs act as a sort of toolkit at your disposal. Most bosses require unique strategies to conquer. You're expected to change up your party composition frequently instead of slowly and laboriously building up your characters to a final "endgame build."

I was frustrated enough by a recent boss battle to consider quitting the game completely--but I'm glad I persevered. In this particular case, my frequent deaths had nothing to do with my strategy, which was perfectly sound. Nor was I particularly underleveled, as I soon found out after grinding out about four levels in preparation and subsequently getting thrashed once again. My problem was actually so much more obvious than that. My armor was out of date! I've become so accustomed to Final Fantasy II where your armor is almost entirely irrelevant that I have neglected to pay attention to my choices in this game.

Numbers generally skew toward the lower side in 4 Heroes of Light. My party members, which frequently separate and lose their way from each other, are all around level 20 but only one or two of them have broken 100 HP. Similarly, defense and magic defense are single digits. An armor piece that upgrades your defense by 1 is a worthy upgrade. By the same token, a piece that upgrades your defense by 4 is a massive upgrade. This is something I failed to realize. The boss in question went from doing 40 damage to my entire party twice per turn to doing about 12 damage--which ended up being significantly more manageable, all things told.

Simply keeping your armor up to date isn't enough. Sometimes you need specific pieces of armor to have a chance at contesting certain boss fights. There's a certain demon boss early on that uses powerful dark magic capable of one-shotting either of your party members at the time. Fortunately, a shop in the town this takes place sells a shield that significantly reduces the damage you take from dark-elemental spells. Similarly, the Hellhounds outside this town have powerful fire-elemental attacks that can be defended against with another shield. NPCs are almost always worth talking to because they'll give you hints about what equipment you might need at a given time.

Other games might give you these same hints but you would be safe to completely ignore them. In the case of 4 Heroes of Light, ignore any advice you get at your own peril, because it might result in an untimely Game Over. I really enjoy that the game makes your choices and your strategic options meaningful because I've played too many games where you're given lots of choices but none of them actually mean anything. My frustration for the game is slowly turning into admiration instead--and I'm looking forward to discovering more. I'd like to discuss some of the jobs I've unlocked, but I think I'll save that for another time.

Dysphoria (Day 211)

I've made some progress on Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light! After finishing Final Fantasy II, I moved on as quickly as possible. I'd been planning on playing it for quite awhile but I'd made a pact (to myself) not to start it until my business was done. Unfortunately, my DS is dead and I'm letting someone borrow my charger--so I've had to resort to emulation. That's fine, though; I'm used to it.

The 4 Heroes of Light

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light is a throwback to classic Final Fantasy with a 3D makeover. It was developed by Matrix Software, who were also responsible for the DS remakes of Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IV. I enjoyed those games for the most part, but my main gripe with them (and this game as well) is the graphical style. I'm not a fan of it. I think simplistic graphics are fine, but in the case of these games, the playable characters are positively formless and lack visual personality. I have always been a staunch supporter of hand-drawn 2D graphics. The sprites in the PSP versions of the first two Final Fantasy games are absolutely fantastic, for instance.

In the end, graphics are not that important in determining whether or not a game is fun to play. In the case of 4 Heroes of Light, the gameplay is solid. Touch screen controls are integrated seamlessly into the game instead of being treated as an afterthought. In most cases I feel like it's more fluid to use the touchscreen than it is to use the d-pad. Instead of magic points, this game operates on an Ability Point system. Each character generates 1 AP per turn by default. Basic attacks cost 1 AP, but spells and other skills vary in cost. Fire costs 2 AP for instance, but Black Mages reduce the cost to 1.

A boss battle.

One questionable design decision was in how targeting works. Every spell and attack in the game is smart-targeted--that is, you don't have control over who you target with what ability. In most cases this doesn't matter that much. The random encounters are not especially challenging and heals automatically target whoever has the lowest health. I would have appreciated being able to choose a target for buffs such as Berserk, however. I gave the spell to my White Mage and wanted to cast it on my Bandit for the 50% attack increase--but she cast it on herself instead. I had to opt to give it to the Bandit, but it costs him 2 AP to cast instead of 1, so it would have been much more effcient on the White Mage. 

Boss battles are actually typically quite challenging. I died to the first boss in the game and had to grind quite a bit for another early boss because he one-shotted my team with one attack. One of the main reasons I like classic Final Fantasy games is because boss battles need to be prepared for and require strategy--and that is definitely true in this case. I hope that the boss difficulty scales with my power, because right now my characters are quite weak. 

So far I quite enjoy 4 Heroes of Light . It has a lot of character customization and it's satisfyingly challenging. I'm looking forward to unlocking all of the classes. For right now I have Freelancer (default, Wayfarer, White Mage, Black Mage, Bandit, Bard, and Musician--but there are 28 and all, one of which I know is Mystic Knight. It might not be translated that way but that's what they were called in the fan translation of Final Fantasy V.

Genesis Device (Day 210)

I'm incredibly relieved to say that I've finished Final Fantasy II. With that done, there's only Final Fantasy X left for me to complete in the main series, although there are quite a few side games that I haven't touched. I haven't yet decided what I'm going to do about Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV. There's a good chance I'll be playing the latter at some point, but when would I get the opportunity to play XI? And what amount of time would I have to put into these games to consider them completed? In the case of Final Fantasy XI, the level cap is 99. Normally i would consider an MMO "beaten" once I've reached the level cap, but that seems incredibly excessive in its case.

In the case of Final Fantasy II, I definitely can't say it ranks among me favorites in the series. There's a good reason why I've waited this long to actually play through the game. Although there are many positive aspects of this game, the execution is lacking dramatically, at least in the Origins version that adheres so closely to the original. Like the Elder Scrolls series, Final Fantasy II has no traditional leveling system. Stats are increased and modified by taking certain actions. If you take damage during a battle, your HP may rise. If you attack with a weapon, you may gain strength and/or proficiency with said weapon. This is all well and good and I think at least on this level the system works. However, leveling spells is a different story.

Magic is drastically undertuned in Final Fantasy II, especially when it comes to hitting multiple enemies. In the first game of the series, only higher level magic was capable of hitting multiple opponents--but the damage was the same regardless of the number of targets. In Final Fantasy II, spells can be single or multi-targeted with a massive decrease in damage. As a result, it is seldom ever worth it to target spells at multiple enemies. Unfortunately, even when spells are single-targeted, they'll generally do far less damage than attacking physically. Furthermore, it is a significant time investment to even level up a spell far enough to deal just barely comparable damage to these attacks.

Spells required 100 points to level up. At early levels, you might get 2 points per spell casting, but very soon you'll only be getting 1 point per cast--which means that you'll have to cast a spell 100 times to level up a single time. Spells cap out at level 16. By the time I defeated the final boss, Maria's Flare was at level 8 and was dealing somewhere around 800 damage. Comparatively, Gus, Firion, and Leon were dealing anywhere from 900-1500 damage just by attacking physically with no investment of MP. To be honest, it seems like I would have been better served not using attacking magic at all--although support spells like Berserk and Haste are still eminently useful.

I haven't played the PSP version of Final Fantasy II so I can't say if it's any more balanced or not. I like the system introduced in the game but it is impressively flawed. I would definitely be interested in playing a version of the game that was more effectively balanced.