I received some feedback from people who have been playing my game project lately and I've gotten a wide variety of responses. One of the most prominent areas that I was told needed some adjustments was the period between Dojo #2 and Dojo #4. The cap of the amount of people you can have in a party at that time is two people, and it is really limited on what you can have for that second slot. Because of the rigidly defined roles of mercenaries, one can either go all out damage, all out magical damage, or all out healing with no in-between room.
To combat this, I have added a new class that only mercenaries can be. This is the "Magician" class. While the player has access to the "Tamer" class which a mercenary cannot access, the same is with "Magician" for the player. Because of the wide variety of spells a "Magician" can learn, it defeats the purpose of levelling it for the player to experience the seven existing classes.
The Magician is the master of learning single target spells that take from both the "Elementalist" and "Paramedic" discipline. However, Magician cannot learn area spells.
Magician (Mercenary Only)
LV 5 - Fire 1 Lv 6 - Earth 1 LV 7 - Ice 1 LV 8 - Wind 1 LV 9 - Bolt 1 LV 10 - Heal 1 LV 11 - Water 1 LV 15 - Fire 2 LV 16 - Earth 2 LV 17 - Ice 2 LV 18 - Wind 2 LV 19 - Bolt 2 LV 20 - Poispur 1 LV 21 - Water 2 LV 22 - Sleepur 1 LV 24 - Safe 1 LV 25 - Heal 2 LV 26 - MagSafe 1 LV 30 - Mute 1 LV 32 - Sleep 1 LV 34 - Paralyze 1 LV 35 - Heal 3 LV 36 - Slow 1 LV 38 - Sharp 1 LV 45 - Fire 3 LV 46 - Earth 3 LV 47 - Ice 3 LV 48 - Wind 3 LV 49 - Bolt 3 LV 51 - Water 3 Magician will be available when the new version of the game goes live on September 8th.
I have been trying to work on a lot of my relationship theses over the past few months and one of my friends over the past couple of weeks pretty much smashed all of them. So this blog entry will be pretty much centered around more of my opinions and experiences rather than trying to set a standard for people to adhere to, because apparently that does not work.
Anyway, I do not consider myself to have fairly strict standards when it comes to having meaningful relationships with other people. Well, I take that back, other people consider me to be unnecessarily strict with what attracts me, and I don't understand. But anyway, people who have liked me in the past have encompassed many different social classes, if you will. But I seem to miss the message because apparently I never understood they liked me. Probably arising from one central standpoint:
I was not attracted to them.
I was not attracted to them because they didn't seem to respect me. I would talk and talk and they just were the of people who never listened and just replied with "nice" or "cool". Now I find those words to be insulting, and I RARELY ever use them by themselves unless I am very angry. I would say "That's pretty nice/cool! I [insert whatever input I have that's meaningful to the conversation]." I value honesty and sincerity. I'd honestly rather have someone tell me straight up they do not care what I am saying rather than act like they give a damn. I find that to be more attractive.*
*(See below)
Now, my definition of attractiveness may vary from the common interpretation of attractive. In fact, it is rare nowadays when I say that a woman is attractive or beautiful.
The thing that attracts me to someone, more than personality, looks, or even common interests is respect. If there is mutual respect between a girl and a guy that likes each other, that is going to bring itself much farther than looks (which disappear with age) or personality (which tends to bore the people involved after a time.)
I have a staunch belief that a relationship of two people who may have the best looks and the best personality will not last long if they don't have a sense of decency and respect for one another.
Now, I'm not downplaying that looks and personality aren't important, and they are. (Not necessarily in that order) You can be the nicest person in the universe, but if you are nice in the sense of acting like you're listening instead of actually taking time to listen and understand your partner, there's a loss of a connection. A sense of respect is gone because you only are self-centered and egotistical.
Looks can be nice too, but if you're a guy with a million abs and supreme muscles or a woman with gigantic breasts to the point where your back is about to break, how fickle are you that you feel you show off these "assets" if you will and throw away your personality and be a complete asshole to people you consider to be "beneath you". In turn people like that tend to lose my respect as well.
I just wish people can have a sense of being themselves. I'm not a believer in saying "he/she is out of your league". Personally, if you like someone, and you want their attention, the best thing you can do is just be yourself. With all of the fake people in the world today trying to be someone they aren't, it's always refreshing to find someone who is themselves, and it shows they have a degree of creativity and originality rather than some boring mindless person that just follows everyone's trends.
I probably come off conceited posting all of this. But lately it has been seriously bothering me watching people throw away their dignity and sense of pride in order to get a girl's or guy's attention. Harassing a guy or girl you like until the wee hours of the morning because he or she will not go on a date with you is seriously a form of disrespect. If you can't even respect the privacy and reasons the guy or girl who explained to you why they are not interested is enough, how are you going to respect them in a full blown relationship.
Anyway, I just needed to vent. /end blog entry.
One thing that particularly saddens me is when a friend is sad and there's really nothing you can do to help them out.
It happens to a lot of my friends, and I feel really bad because I can't do anything about it.
One of my friends has parents that are really "out there" so much that he's going to harbor ill will towards them. While I have been helping him throughout the years, I am worried that because of this, he will end up never maintaining a good relationship with them in the future.
Another one of my friends is having issues with a person they like who is not sure if the person they like, likes them back. Actually, this is more than one friend. A lot of my friends are having this problem, and I wish we as a society could be more open with those we have feelings for. But everyone is so afraid of rejection and that blow to their self esteem that they can't bring themselves to do it. Myself included. In due time, one of two things will happen. One, you end up looking back at what could have been. Or two, they tell you they like you way after the fact and you or they already have a new boy or girlfriend and it's too late to do anything about it.
In any case, I wish we as humans were more open with each other, but our inhibitions and our worries prevent us from doing so. It's a shame, really. There would be much greater potential for happiness in the world.
Until next time, blog readers!
Happy August, blog readers!
I'm still here, need not worry. I've been busy with some real life projects and that has taken up some time. I'd like to point out that there will be some new videos by the FFS Entertainment team coming soon.
The names of the videos are: "Pokemon in a Nutshell" and "Secret Agent Yachiru". They should be posted in the near future, so keep an eye open on YouTube! I'll probably favorite them on my YouTube profile.
I make an appearance in the later as my evil alter ego, "Mocha Man". And it's absurd-stupidly funny, so hopefully if you're reading you'll check it out!
As for twitter, I guess it's safe to say I'm a dedicated twit. So follow me! Rawr.
I've been wanting to get into the Chrono series for quite some time, and I was finally able to get myself a copy. Actually, I did have Chrono Trigger for years on the PlayStation, but I just never had any time to play it due to the busy round and about school schedule. So when the game came out for DS, I took my time and knocked out some RPGs I was working on at the time and then got a copy of the game to finally play through it as I had the chance.
Too Little, Too Late: Episode 6 By: Grover
_____________________________________________
Storyline:
The story of Chrono Trigger is simple, yet very complicated. Like the title suggests, it's a story that heavily involves time travel. You have Crono (Chrono in JP) who is your typical silent protagonist who is the strong swordsman. Marle, who is Crono's love interest and the princess healer chick, but she can be one hell of a damage dealer with her bow as well. Lucca who is Crono's childhood friend and is a genius with machinery. Robo who is a futuristic robot with insane amounts of HP, Ayla who is from prehistory who is a bisexual savage chick who was born before magic, Frog who is from the middle ages and was turned into such by one of the main enemies in the game, and Magus who I can't explain too much of without spoiling a good part of the story.
When something malfunctions with testing a time machine of Lucca's creation in 1000 AD (what is considered the present in terms of the game) while Marle is inside, Crono uses the time machine as means to go back in time to save her. Little do they know, that Marle was captured in the past because she was confused to be her own ancestor, who herself was also captured in that time period. (Which starts its own paradox). As the game progresses, it is shown that the events of the past affect the future in subtle ways when shown in the story, and the player gets to witness it firsthand, even some sidequests in the game can drastically change how the future of the same area looks.
It is notable that the characters were designed by Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball and Dragon Quest fame. Parts of the story (in the PS1 and DS version) have anime sequences with the cast taking part making this similar in quality to that of the Lunar series which was released after Chrono Trigger.
Score : 20/20
_____________________________________________
Gameplay
*Note this game play is from the DS version. The SNES/PS1 are identical save for the slightly (in my opinion) more confusing user interface.
With that being said, Chrono Trigger is very easy to get into. And what turned me off from the original game on the SNES and PS1 was the extremely confusing interface in terms of combination techs. Combination techs are when two or all three members in the party execute an attack at once, taking all of their MP and their turns simultaneously. The DS version makes the combination techs more understandable and easy to use.
What I don't like about the gameplay is that in the later parts of the game, it gets very non-linear all of the sudden, and it goes from "holding your hand" on where to go next to pretty much on a "You're on your own" kind of perspective. Personally, I don't like the pacing of that, but I can safely say that's pretty much my ONLY complaint about the game, and that's a good thing.
Score: 15/20
_____________________________________________
Innovation to Genre
This RPG introduced the idea of New Game+. That's where once you complete the game, you can replay the game from the start, with all your character data, items and equipment being saved. This is an innovation in itself because it encourages the game to be played multiple times.
This concept was used in many future releases, such as FFX-2, Vagrant Story, and even the sequel to Chrono Trigger itself, Chrono Cross.
Score: 20/20
_____________________________________________
Music/Sounds:
The music of Chrono Trigger was composed by Yasunori Mistuda with some compositions added by Nobuo Uematsu and Noriko Matsueda.
I'd have to say the music within Trigger is very well done, and it reflects the music of the eras very well.
Not to mention this is the game that came up with countless Internet memes. Most notably what became known on the internet as the "Robo Roll" and "The Brian Peppers Theme".
Some other themes I like:
Antiquity: (12,000 B.C.)
Score: 20/20
_____________________________________________
Re-playability
Chrono Trigger has more than one ending. Take that back, it has WAY more than one ending. There are about 13 endings, if I remember correctly. And the only way you can really experience each ending is to complete the main story, start New Game+ and sequentially fight the end boss at earlier parts of the story. (The final boss of the game can be fought at any time, but it's advisable that you do not in your first playthrough, you'll probably be killed anyway.) Some of the endings are interesting, but I won't spoil it for you if you've not played it. But they are definitely worth seeing.
Score: 20/20
_____________________________________________
Conclusion:
Chrono Trigger was released in what I consider to be the golden age of RPGs, right before the 3D era and in times when games like Final Fantasy IV, VI, Lufia, and the first two Breath of Fires were the premier RPGs on the market for the Super Nintendo. Before it's re-releases, Chrono Trigger and its SNES contemporaries were going for quite a pretty penny, and they probably still do. They're very rare games if you're looking for the SNES originals and for a good reason. I highly recommend this game, and if you're a hardcore RPG fan, this is one you definitely cannot miss.
The magical event that comes once a year. The moment us gaming nerds eagerly wait for every June. I'm an Atheist, and I don't celebrate Christmas, this IS my Christmas. That's right, it's the Electronic Entertainment Expo! (Or E3). This is the only thing all year that has me jumping around in joy like I am a little kid again, and LIKE IT! If you're a serious gamer like myself, then you most likely know what I'm talking about. Hell, you may even do it too. Anyway, this is my entry on what I considered to be really cool announcements for E3. If you're looking for standard FPS's, you're not going to find them here since I pretty much hate them with a passion. ...Except one, which you'll see below.
Too Little Too Late: Episode 5 By Grover
Nintendo 3DS Handheld (Nintendo)
This by far has me to be the most excited out of everything that has been announced so far. The last main series of handhelds that Nintendo released was in 2004 and everything they have made has built on that old hardware, now this pretty much declares the birth of a new generation of Nintendo as far as handhelds are concerned. The processors are rumored to be as great as the Xbox 360 and Wii as well as the graphics (according to what I've seen in Kid Icarus) to be between the latter Gamecube titles and Wii titles. So far this will be ahead of the PSP (in my opinion) until the new iteration of Sony's handheld is released. Now, I know for sure that I'm getting one, as this promises to be very awesome.
(Is it me or has that girl never played a DS before? Explaining how the bottom is a touch screen... Anyways!)
Release Date: Before March 2011.
Final Fantasy XIV (PS3/PC)
The spiritual sequel to Final Fantasy XI, this next installment of the Final Fantasy series is going to be entirely online, but not be as medieval as its spiritual predecessor.
The setting looks like it's going to be very similar to Final Fantasy VI so I'm excited, that was one of my favorite Final Fantasy games.
Even though my PC doesn't pass the Benchmark test (only can get it to 1000 something. Ugh, Nvidia), I may end up purchasing a PS3 primarily for this game. It looks beautiful! I hope to see you guys in the game, as I will definitely be playing it from launch (if at least the retail launch).
Release Date: Retail: Late 2010. Beta: Summer 2010.
One of my favorite platform series, this game is is the sequel to the game: "Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!"Though, it's not developed by its original development team Rare as they were bought out by Microsoft in 2003. This new iteration to the series is being developed by Houston-based Retro Studios who previously worked on the Metroid Prime series for Nintendo.
Release Date: Q4 2010
Goldeneye 007 (Wii)
This game doesn't need an explanation. It remains pretty much my only favorite FPS. I would play this game in multiplayer and single player for HOURS. I miss those days. >< This is a remake of another game made by Rare, but because of its acquisition by Microsoft, development has been handed to EA Studios which now possesses the license to the 007 series in terms of film-to-game franchise.
Release Date: November 2, 2010. Twisted Metal (PS3)
For the end of the 1990's, Twisted Metal dominated the PlayStation as "the car battle game" for the console, until SingleTrac handed things over to Sony's in-house game development studio "989 Studios" which single-handedly raped the whole franchise with Twisted Metal III and IV. (Which are still good games mind you, just not in the Twisted Metal essence)
Development was then handed to Incognito Studios in the early 2000's which was made up of former SingleTrac employees to work on the new Twisted Metal: Black for PS2. Even though that studio is pretty much finished now since the main people have left the company, a new one made by Incognito team and the Twisted Metal creators are in "Eat Sleep Play" which will develop this new installment.
Release Date: 2011
Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (Nintendo DS)
Matrix Software, the company that made remakes of Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IV for the Nintendo DS made their own FF from scratch. The musical director of FFXI, Naoshi Mizuta is doing the score for it too!
Release Date: October 8, 2010.
Sonic Colors (Nintendo Wii/DS)
Release Date: Holiday 2010.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)
The trailer for this game looked pretty damn awesome. Needless to say, the controls were unresponsive, but nothing ever goes well in a show now does it?
Release Date: 2011 Dragon Quest IX (Nintendo DS)
Work in progress.
Metal Gear Solid (Xbox 360) Work in progress. Fallout: New Vegas
Work in progress. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (Nintendo DS)
I never really gave the series a chance, but I really want to try out the series starting with this title. It's the third game in the franchise after "Golden Sun" and "Golden Sun 2" for the Game Boy Advance.Other than that, I really don't have any other details for it since I've not played the series.
Release Date: Holiday 2010. Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals (Nintendo DS)
Remake of the first RPG series I've ever played for the SNES. I'm
eagerly waiting for a release for this!
Release Date: Fall 2010
Pokemon Black and White Version (Nintendo DS) They said this would be mentioned in E3 2010, but didn't make
it? I don't know...
Release Date: Spring 2011.
Mario Kart 3DS (Nintendo 3DS)
Announced for 3DS, but no major details for it were released. It's presumed to take advantage of the capabilities of the 3DS. The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time 3DS (Nintendo 3DS)
Announced for 3DS, but no major details for it were released. It's
presumed to take advantage of the capabilities of the 3DS.
Super Street Fighter IV (Nintendo 3DS)
Announced for 3DS, but no major details for it were released. It's
presumed to take advantage of the capabilities of the 3DS.
Star Fox 64 3DS (Nintendo 3DS)
Announced for 3DS, but no major details for it were released. It's
presumed to take advantage of the capabilities of the 3DS.
Pilotwings (Nintendo 3DS)
Announced for 3DS, but no major details for it were released. It's
presumed to take advantage of the capabilities of the 3DS.
I can't think of any serious gamer who hasn't played or heard of a Mario game. His 8-bit theme pretty much defined the sound of video games for decades. When a non-gamer thinks of video games, that catchy tune comes to mind almost instantly. Anywho, his newest installment came out for the Wii a couple of weeks ago now, and being the massive gaming nerd/geek that I am, not only did I play through it and rescue the princess, I wanted to write what I thought of the game. Now bear in mind, I didn't go for all 240 stars or all of that shiz. I will eventually. So far I've nabbed the princess back and I was on my way to getting all the extra green stars.
Too Little Too Late : Episode 4
By Grover
Introduction:
Storyline (20 points) -
The Super Mario franchise has had the same story throughout the whole series. You shouldn't expect any major deviations from the formula.
Mario loves Peach, Peach gets kidnapped by Bowser, Mario goes through levels to catch Bowser, Mario rescues Peach. They do unspeakable things to each other while the credits roll. Pretty simple.
The story is actually not as significant here as in Super Mario Galaxy 1. Rosalina's role is pretty much non existant in this one and it's just Mario going for Bowser.
You get a nifty hub area too, but that will be explained in the gameplay.
Score: 20/20
Gameplay
(20 points)
The gameplay and
controls are identical of Super Mario Galaxy 1. One uses the Wii mote and the
nunchuk to control Mario. Shake the wiimote to attack enemies, and so on.
Attacking an enemy and killing them by shaking the Wiimote yields star bits
which can be picked up by walking into them or pointing at them with your Wii
mote.
Though the biggest change in the gameplay from Galaxy 1 was the addition of
Yoshi. One can lick/eat enemies by pointing with the "tongue" (via
Wii mote) and spit out star bits. Yoshi is also required for some of the
levels.
Speaking of levels, some of them are pretty damn imaginative. See for yourself!
The levels themselves use the same engine as Galaxy 1, but they've massively split the different galaxies into many different levels. In Galaxy 1, one galaxy would have 3-5 different stars. In Galaxy 2, with the more diverse set of levels, each of them only have between 2-3 stars. It's a welcome change (at least in my opinion) because I didn't like being shot to the same level four-five times for a slightly different objective.
Also, the hub area! It's much more accessible and straight to the point. In Galaxy 1, the hub area was this giant space station that took 5 minutes to get from one place to another. Galaxy 2, it's a small area which is in the shape of Mario's head. All you have to do is run to the cap (where you usually start off anyway) and then you go to a world map (reminiscent of Super Mario Bros 3, World and New Super series) where you can literally jump right into the action from there. It's a very welcomed change, and it puts way more emphasis on level creativity than ever before.
Also: You can play as Luigi, he's not too different than Mario, other than flutter while jumping instead of flipping around. Developer ghosts also appear if you clear the level with Luigi.
Score: 20/20
Music/Sounds
(20 points) -As in Super Mario Galaxy 1, the music was done by the great Koji Kondo of all Mario music fame as well as Mahito Yokota and Ryo Nagamatsu. As with Galaxy 1, the Galaxy series has taken more of an orchestral influence to most of its themes rather than the traditional approach.
Some of my favorite music from the game:
Score: 20/20 Innovation to Genre (20 points) -
Although Super Mario Galaxy 2 set a new standard for all platforming games from here on out, I personally believe Galaxy 1 had a way bigger impact, before Galaxy 1, no platformer had such precision despite the massive change in physics in the game engine and how it worked. But in any case, it only is outranked by its predecessor, and that's really saying something.
Score: 16/20 Re-playability (10 points)This game is the poster child for re-playability. You only need 70 stars to "beat" the game, but there are so many extra stars to catch once the main quest is over, the total racks up to over 240! That's not to say it's easy, because it's not. You need 120 stars to even unlock the second half, and it only increases in difficulty from there.Needless to say, I'm not much of a completest myself, I'll probably come back and finish the stars once I've finished some other games I've been working on. But the challenge is still there. Score: 10/10 Nostalgic Inclusion (10 points) -This game bleeds itself with nostalgia, two of the three themes I posted were from Super Mario 64, the game starts off and has many levels which takes place in a 2D side-scroller position, there are notes around the level that make up tunes to well known themes from earlier mario games. There's a nod to the series all around here, and that's not really a surprise there.
Score: 10/10 Conclusion:
This game is an absolute must have for anyone who has a Nintendo Wii. If you have a Wii and do not have this game, I can legitimately ask this question: "What the hell is wrong with you!?" Final Score: 96/100 (A+ HIGHLY-HIGHLY Recommended!)
