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!
So theres a dude on youtube who makes videos a bunch named Hyadin. He's awesome in himself, but today I'll just speak of one of his videos. Its his BubbleMan Video.
BubbleMan is a boss in MegaMan 2. The song in the video is remixed from his theme in the game and then given words. The first few seconds are in Spanish for some reason and then it has a few English lines, but the bulk of it is in Japanese. Mostly because Hyadin is Japanese. Don't worry about not understanding a lick of it, I'll proved a general translation (general because the translations I've read are kinda iffy.)
So basically BubbleMan is all alone because he was designed to live underwater (he's a robot). The first part of the song he's trying to convince himself that everything is all right, but he soon admits how lonely he is, but that he can do nothing about it. He says that he longs for the sun. Then Megaman shows up, the first person that BubbleMan has seen probably since he was created. BubbleMan wants to be MegaMan's friend, but alas, he was created to fight him, not befriend him. BubbleMan looses the battle, but is thankful that he got to meet MegaMan and know friendship. At the end there it seemed as if someone was coming back for him, looking suspiciously like MegaMan.
No, I don't have an excuse for why I haven't posted here in almost two months, and yes it is three thirty in the morning. Oh wait, I guess that that could be an excuse. I have had a relatively normal sleeping schedule for almost two months now and during the day I get almost no computer time, its the night time that I get on the computer and accomplish things.
Anyway, to the point. Have you all heard of Super Smash Bros. Brawl? It will break my heart if you say no, so look it up if you haven't. Dissidia Final Fantasy is basically Super Smash Bros. Brawl but with Final Fantasy characters instead of Nintendo characters.
Those of you who have read my list of best things ever know that Final Fantasy is very high on that list. Then Dissidia came out. Dissidia takes awesome from all 12 Final Fantasy games and puts them into one super awesome game of amazing. Let me make this perfectly clear: Dissidia Final Fantasy is one of the best things ever. I love it more than almost anything else, and there are very few things that make me as happy as Dissidia. Yes, I do know how that sounds, and yes I am a total dork.
So basically, Dissidia (which is Latin, or some dead language, for conflict) plays out like this. There is a great war of the gods that has been going on for eternity. Cosmos, the goddess of Harmony, has been battling Chaos, the god of Destruction. Both gods recruit warriors to fight for them. Cosmos recruits all the good guys from Final Fantasy and Chaos recruits all the bad guys.
I can't tell you how happy I was when I heard that ALL of my favorite characters would finally meet. If you didn't know, the Final Fantasy games are all separate. The only thing that connects them is the title (and some other little things). This was on my list of best things ever long before I even played it because of the concept alone.
Dissidia is a fighting/RPG game. Your characters will level up as you use them and learn new abilities that you can then use in battle. You can play as the good guys and the bad guys, though you need to unlock the bad guys.
There is so much to do in this game! I've had this game for only two months and I've already played it more than any other game ever. I won't tell you the exact hours played because it would probably cause some of you to shake your head in shame and disbelief.
Nothing is perfect, and sadly Dissidia is no exception. There isn't really anything wrong with the gameplay, its one of the characters. The Cloud of Darkness is what her name implies, a cloud of darkness. This cloud unfortunately takes the form of a scantily clad woman, and its because of that character that I am limited in the pictures and or video's that I feel are safe to show you. If you are offended by the following video because of her, let me know and I'll take it down. Hopefully you won't even notice as she is in it for just a brief second.
This video had to be mirrored so that youtube would take it for some reason. This is the opening:
Okay, I'mma try and be more regular with updating you on the awesomes of the world. I have a few others planned and hopefully I will remember to post them.
Sometimes I'll read a book that I find painful to put down. I also get very annoyed at myself when I finish because I should have slowed down to enjoy it more. Green Rider is one of those books. I could not stop reading it until I was finished. This is another reason that I was noticeably absent from blogging for a while, I was reading this, and the two books that come after it.
To give you even more insight to how much I enjoyed it, a tale. I was reading it and I realized that I had to stop reading it because real life was getting in the way. At this time to voice my frustration I said, and please pardon my french, "Freaking cow butt!" I do not believe I have ever said that before, and I hope to never say it again. This book is so good I said cow butt at the thought of stopping.
So perhaps I should enlighten you on what its about. Karigan is running away from school after getting suspended. While on her journey home she finds a man with two arrows piercing his back with am urgent message to the king. It must be delivered and she is the only one around so he asks her to deliver it. She agrees and takes the mans horse and message and rides off, but the ones who killed the first messenger are now after the second.
So yeah, that's the basics. Its a straight up fantasy novel, with Kings, and Kingdoms, and monsters born from the evil of the blackveil forest. The only thing its missing is dragons, but I'll forgive the author for that on account of having such an awesome book.
The author created a very convincing world that has very real problems. The king is constantly worrying about the Providences in his kingdom and it constantly trying to keep them all from fighting. Karigan has problems and worries besides the obvious ones (people want to kill her dead) and throughout the series we see how she reacts I was cheering her on the whole way. I want that character to be happy and all the others! That doesn't always happen though. A lot of the time in the series someone will come out happy while another will be hurt; often you wish it was the other way around for the characters involved and then the author makes you feel guilty for thinking that.
So far there are three books in the series: Green Rider, First Rider's Call, and High King's Tomb. Each one is filled with unexpected twists and has a bunch of general awesomeness. You will find yourself cheering Karigan on as she does increasingly awesome things.
There is a fourth book in the making and it cannot come soon enough! I have to know what happens in the next book! I have to know who the King... ah, but that will be spoiling for you wouldn't it.
GO! READ! THESE! BOOKS! You won't be disappointed. And if you are, you are free to take it out on me.
Several things happened that kind of killed any enthusiasm I might have had, the biggest you can read about on my other blog. I'm finally getting back on my feet and am prepared for more awesome. In fact, I have several awesomes prepared for you. Expect two posts, one about a book series and another about a game to come soon.
