I’ve been playing MMORPGs for a long time. I started the year Everquest came out, and save for the occassional break between games, I’ve pretty much always been active on one or another.

In all of these years, I’ve never once hit the level cap.

Oh sure, I came close on World of Warcraft (67 priest I think) and I often wonder why I’ve never once accomplished this dubious honor. Well, after much meditation on this subject (minutes and minutes, in fact) I think I came to the conclusion. Instead of blaming my own resolve, I think I’ll do instead what comes instinctively to humans as a species: I’ll blame someone else. MMORPG developers, all of you, pull the old bait and switch on your consumers. At first you mask grinding with quests and other shit but by the time you’re painfully close to the level cap all pretext of distraction is removed. Fuck you, you’re grinding. I suspect the reason they do this is because they reason they already have you paying, and you’re already that close, so you’ll surely endure those last few levels of pain because the glory of a maxed character is forever.
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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.

While the popular game media does it’s best to avoid fanboy warfare, constant articles about the PS3 needing to be “saved” by games, movies, price drops etc. create an eternal sense of hopelessness around the console. Although it has not sold as well as the xbox 360 or the Wii, it is still doing a brisk business in its own right. With Christmas on the rise and a slew of exclusive games to be released, it seems the PS3 will see a marked success in 2009 even amidst the economic crisis. In the back of our heads however, there has always been one game that we knew could save the PS3 if its stock began falling: Final Fantasy 7.

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It is no secret that both gamers and companies like remakes. While gamers like them because of the nostalgia, companies like remakes because of one thing: THEY PRINT MONEY! Cheap to develop, easy to sell, makes gamers happy, and it seems like a perfect plan, right? Wrong.

Pick a game that you want a remake, got it? Now think, you’ve already completed the game at least twice, you defeated the bosses, saved the world, the princess, etc., so why would you want to do it again? There are new games out there waiting for you, new tales, new battles, you see? A remake is never going to be as good as the original, mostly because that it’s not a full remake. (continue reading…)