With all the Japanese RPGs for the PS2 such as Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 and 4, Final Fantasy XII, Dragon Quest VIII, Kingdom Hearts, and a multitude of others by Square-Enix™ and Atlus™, the question on most gamers’ minds is “how did Square-Enix™ play into this from the PS2’s birth?” Square™ is responsible for the creation of Final Fantasy X, the tenth installment in the Final Fantasy series (if you were to go only by the Roman Numerals). Square™ previous Final Fantasys have mostly received critical acclaim from reviewers such as Gamespot™ and IGN™. This Final Fantasy does not stray from this pattern. Final Fantasy X’s graphics contain stunningly beautiful CG and the slightly weaker graphics the player gets when they control the characters.

Sin in all his beauty

Final Fantasy X’s protagonists consists of Tidus (pronounced Tee-dus), the main protagonist; Yuna, the heroine; Lulu, the motherly figure with magic; Wakka, the racist sports player; Auron, the intelligent swordsman who knows nearly everything about the plot before you do; Rikku, the quick energetic girl; and Kimahri, the silent guardian. They are placed within the fictional world of Spira, which has been technologically torn apart by a creature known as “Sin.” Sin was created 1000 years before the end of Final Fantasy X to stop the machina (machine) intensive city-state of Bevelle from destroying the magical city of Zanarkand, where Tidus originates from. Sin is the main antagonist of the story and was summoned by Zanarkand to stop their destruction. You travel around Spira on a quest to talk to the Fayth to get new “Aeons” which are the summons for this game.

While the story is deep and convoluted, the gameplay is somewhat more simple if you are only looking to complete the main quest. The gameplay consists of Tidus and friends (you only use Tidus for traveling and Yuna in one special part of the game) traveling on a linear pathway to the end of the game in which you are allowed to partake in side quests such as monster catching or Blitzball, a soccer like game played underwater. The combat is like any other JRPG, you are given a menu with with Attack, Skill, Magic, Item, Special, and a few others. The game uses something called Conditional Turn-based Battle(CTB) which is completely turn-based based on conditions. The Attack button can be replaced by “Overdrive” when the Overdrive meter is full. Overdrive is the replacement for “Limit Breaks” and “Trance” in previous games. It allows for a slightly overpowered attack which deals at least thrice the damage of normal attack. The game’s leveling system isn’t based on forcing you to follow pathways and keeping a character to one standard. For example, the heavy damage hitter Auron can be transformed into the healing slave and the healing slave Yuna can be transformed into a heavy damage hitter.

For a person who has never played a JRPG once in their life, they will see this game as a fresh exciting game with a great story. For addicts like me, they’ll see that there is only some variation in this new game, but the amazing story will still keep us going. For what it’s worth, Final Fantasy X is definitely worth picking up if you’re a fan of JRPGs and story.

In a world with so many MMORPGs on the market, it can be tough to decide which games have actual content, and which are just meant to be profit machines for companies. The latter seems to be happening more often recently as companies fear to break the ‘be like World of Warcraft’ mold for fear of making no profit. This causes the market to turn into one bland, singular blob of mediocrity in our games. It’s for this very reason that this gamer in particular cannot recommend any new MMO releases this year. So what are we left to? Well not much.

Despite all that I’m about to say, I want to make it clear that I’ve played my share of MMORPGs (and still do.) I do not dislike them, I do however see many, many flaws in them. I would like to outline a few popular MMORPGs with established (or not so established in a few cases) playerbases so that you– the gamer- can decide what is worthwhile and what isn’t. The first thing this gamer can advise however, is to avoid any free or web bases MMO like the plague (you’re going to get exactly what you pay for.) So what’s good? What’s bad? What’s just plain laughable? Well it all depends on what you’re looking for. Let’s start out with the most popular and work our way around from there…
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”Men cry not for themselves, but for their comrades”

Crisis Core : Final Fantasy VII is the first good FFVII spinoff. Instead of being a gigantic clusterfuck of fanservice that was Advent Children or plain old crap like the Dirge Of Cerberus game, this game is actually worth your time.

The game tells the story of Zack Fair, Soldier 2nd Class (later 1st Class) and follows his adventures until his eventual demise that leads (indirectly) in to the original Final Fantasy VII. The plot of the game is quite interesting with some new characters together with some old ones returning. I`m happy that the game only has two scenes of over exaggerated Advent Children action and both of which turn out to be virtual reality, the rest of the game is down to earth in terms of action by Final Fantasy standards.

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Square Enix released a trailer for the mysterious Final Fantasy XIII Versus. And to be honest? It looks amazing.

Final Fantasy XIII Versus

The grahics are breathtaking: It’s like you’re watching a live-action movie. The shadows, the reflections, it’s amazing. But really, Square-Enix, can’t you tell us something about the actual game?

This trailer is similar to your average action-movie trailer. There’s a lot of flashing pictures, a hint at romance, the main character looking cool, and a lot of spectacular special effects. But you still don’t know anything about the movie. You have no idea whether it’s good or not. You have a slight idea what the plot is about, but nothing more than that. And you have no idea whether the movie is good or not.

What did we learn from this extended trailer? Well, the cutscenes look amazing. And we have four guys very much in touch with their feminine side. And a car. Oh, and some random girl shows up.

But we still don’t know anything about the actual gameplay. And that is what a game is about, not how pretty the graphics are. The fighting scene is obviously not how the actual gameplay works,  so we’re still absolutely clueless.

Will there be party members? Will there be spells, or mechanics similar to them, like in the regular Final Fantasy series? Will the gameplay be button mashing?

Please, Square Enix. Don’t just throw some pretty graphics at us. Tell us about the actual game. The thing that will keep most players busy, not the pretty graphics.

You can download the trailer here

Square Enix have done quite a pretty admirable job of milking the Final Fantasy series for all its worth – and while their efforts have been nothing short of rage-inducing, it’s nice to know that they’re not above tossing us a fanservice-laced bone once in a while. This bone is the latest Final Fantasy title for the PlayStation Portable, namely Dissidia: Final Fantasy, a fighting title that lets us pit the protagonists and villains of the series in awesome-looking battles. The what-if possibilities, as well as the epic rematches made conceivable with Dissidia are enormous, and we see one of the latter being played out in a fresh gameplay trailer. Yes, you guessed it, it’s Sephiroth versus Cloud, fighting in the lifestream. Definitely something to watch.

The graphics are amazing, the action fluid, and the sound nothing short of intense. Make no mistake, we’re still a bit iffy about the 3D movement – this often leads to a cat-and-mouse chasing sequence that makes play not only annoying but frustrating – but from th e looks of things, you’ll be able to continuously dash and jump towards your opponent, making combat the fast-and-furious affair it should be. And the limit breaks are pretty awesome to watch, too.

You can view the trailer here.