If you've spoken to me for more than 30 seconds you know that I love dragons. I read about dragons, I write about dragons, I blog about dragons, I watch movies about Dragons. The other day I finally got to see the movie How To Train Your Dragon, and I loved it. (Is anyone surprised by this? Anyone?)
How To Train Your Dragon is the story of a village of Vikings that are constantly attacked by dragons. Because they're vikings, they're stubborn and refuse to leave. Hiccup is perhaps the most pathetic excuse for a viking there is, and as such has never slain a dragon. He's got more brain than brawn, an unusual trait for a viking. He comes up with a contraption to catch a dragon so he can slay it, and it works, but no one will believe him and so he runs off looking for it himself. This is how he meets the dragon he later calls Toothless.
The friends that I was watching this movie with said that I was completely absorbed into the movie from beginning to end. This was evidenced by the lack of food consumed. We had a lot, I had almost none once to movie started. It was dragons from start to finish, just the way I like it. The movie had a lot of different types of dragons as well and explained them all as Hiccup met met with each kind. The dragons themselves had qualities of cats, dogs, and horses. Toothless would walk around in a circle before lying down to rest. A tinier dragon would curl up next to Hiccup and purr after being fed. I'm not sure how they were like horses, but that's what the special features told me.
I highly recommend this movie to anyone who loves dragons, and even if your just mildly okay with dragons this is still a good and funny movie that anyone can enjoy (you just enjoy it more if you love dragons!)
I can't believe that I haven't talked about Marvel Vs Capcom 3 here yet! MVC3 is such a huge mash up of awesome that I'm not sure how much more I can stand before my head explodes. This is the most recent trailer for the game. See how many characters you recognize. (Of course, if you've been following this game as close as I have, you'll know every character except perhaps one.)
Okay, so mayhaps this post is a bit behind schedule, but so is everything that I've done lately. I actually beat the game a while back, and am halfway done with it again, but due to my forgetfulness I didn't make a post about it until now.
So I had been waiting for Final Fantasy 13 since I became a fan of Final Fantasy (This was before even 10 came out). This is because they were obviously going to keep going that far and because 13 is my favorite number. I was so excited for it that nothing was going to bring me down whilst playing it. And unfortunately, there were things that were trying to bring me down. But more on that later.
As I've said in my previous post, I loved the music. This realization was met with mixed feelings. Its good that I like the music, but the music was not done by Nobuo Uematsu who has done almost all Final Fantasy songs to date, so liking music that wasn't made by him made me feel like I was betraying him. I'm weird like that. I'll post one more song for you all. This song is called Dust to Dust and is the song that plays at a pivotal point in the plot.
Final Fantasy has almost always been good at telling a story. This Final Fantasy is no exception. The story starts in a place called Cocoon, a floating paradise that is maintained by beings known as Fal'cie. There is a lowerworld that Cocoon floats over known only as Pulse. Everyone on Cocoon fears Pulse and what they feel is an inevitable invasion from it. Then a Fal'cie from Pulse is discovered and Cocoon panics. They order a purge of all people who might have been connected to that Fal'cie. This purge is where the story starts. Lightning and Sahz are both on a purge train, though neither of them need to be. Lightning stops the train and with the help of Sahz, fights her way to the holding area of the Pulse Fal'cie. Sahz follows her for his own reasons. All of the other characters are also heading in that direction, each for their own reasons.
The only thing potentially worse than a Fal'cie is a L'cie, which is a human that has been forcibly made into a servant of a L'cie. L'cies all have a focus that they must complete for their Fal'cie masters, and everyone on Cocoon fears that they Pulse Fal'cie will make Pulse L'cie. They were right. All of the playable characters are turned into L'cie by the Pulse Fal'cie and thus are marked as enemies of Cocoon and hunted relentlessly.
The characters don't initially know what task they are to complete for the Pulse Fal'cie, but if they don't complete this task, they their punishment is transformation into a terrible monster. Completing it won't save them however, as it will turn them into a crystal for eternity. And then there is the problem that they were given this task by a being from pulse, so most fear that their task would be to destroy Cocoon. Will they accept their terrible fates, or will they defy destiny and attempt to save a world that hates them?
Enough of the plot, how about the game play? Yay game play! The battle system in FF13 is very fun. Each character has predetermined roles that they can fill, such as medic or commando, and during the battle you may switch between those roles as the tides of the battle begin to change. The battles are also incredibly fast paced and a good many of the boss battles require cunning strategy for you to win. I find the battle system to be incredibly fun.
You don't level up as traditionally as you do in other Final Fantasy games. The level up system is similar to Final Fantasy 10. You get points after each battle that you can spend on attributes and abilities within each of the roles your characters can play. I really like the feeling of progress you feel as you level your characters up. Of course, I can say the same about just about every RPG I've ever played, but 13 makes it unique.
The game isn't all good however. There are some complaints that must be noted. The first is the biggest and most obvious. For the first 40 or so hours, you are essentially going in a straight line. There are no deviations in your path that go for more than a few feet. You just follow the path and kill dead anything that gets in your way. This was a major bummer. But not enough to make me stop playing, as I said, I'm already halfway through my second playthrough. The battle system and the story are enough to keep me going until I get past that path. After a certain point, the world opens up and you can explore a huge area, and this is my favorite part of the game. I love exploring, and while the game doesn't let you for a while, when it does, it does it well.
For the first few hours that I was playing this game, it just didn't feel like a Final Fantasy to me. I soon realized why. They left something very important out.
No, not a parrot, the song that it was singing. They have some new fanfare that isn't a fanfare, but a few happy notes that don't make you feel as happy as the usual one does. After the killer battle music, the lack of the fanfare was hard to take. Its made this game seem like a not Final Fantasy game for a long time. That feeling was mended when I came across the Chocobos, and later, the Cactuars.
All in all, I love this game, and that is evidenced by the fact that I am playing it again. This time I am attempting to get 100%. I feel that Final Fantasy 13 is very awesome, and I am happy by the fact that they are making more games set in the world of Final Fantasy 13 (all of which I intend to play somehow.)
Hopefully my next post won't be two months from now, but I'm not making any promises as I am bad at keeping them.
Final Fantasy XIII is awesome in general, but I haven't beaten the game yet and so I cannot talk about it in full. Instead I will focus on two of my favorite tracks from the game.
The first is called Lake Bresha. I only recently went through this area while playing the game and whilst I was there I remember thinking how much I liked the music that was playing. It was very fitting and helped build on the atmosphere of the place.
The next is called Blinded By Light and is the battle theme. This one just fills me with happy every time. This song was one of the songs used in the first trailer and I have loved it since I first heard it so long ago. The battle themes in Final Fantasy have always been good, and this is no exception. It really gets me exited to battle.
So you guys remember Numa Numa right? If you don't, go youtube it because if you say no I think my heart will break for you.
So apparently Numa Numa was insanly popular back in the country it came from (Romania I beleive) because look at this.
Yes, that is an opera. AN OPERA! Of Numa Numa! People took it so seriously there that they made an opera of it! I can't watch this without laughing out loud!
