Beat Shadow of the Colossus this weekend. Fantastic game. Absolutely a work of art. The ending is extremely stunning, cited as the 4th best moment in gaming by gamepro.com.

4. Shadow of the Colossus (PS2): Epic in design and flawless in execution, Shadow of the Colossus is a rare gem amongst pebbles. If slaying 16 giants wasn’t cool enough for you, the ending was quite a surprise as the colossal deity takes control of your body and transforms you into a devastating behemoth of destruction.

Of course, the natural off-topic question is “What is the first three?”.

1. Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation): Aeris is killed by Sepiroth in one of the most heartbreaking scenes ever in a video game.
2. Halo (Xbox): Surviving the last level of the original Halo, The Maw, was one of the most climactic experiences in modern gaming.
3. Metroid (NES): You beat the Mother Brain, race through the tunnels, and when you reach the surface of the planet…blammo!

Can’t agree completely but whatever. Shadow of the Colossus was a great experience. Was really cheap as it’s been out since 2005. Good stuff.

Phew. Man that last level was a hard one. And thank god they send you back into the part you died in. I kept dying in part 2/3 and they spawn you in part two when you try again, very nice of them. Otherwise, I’d be attempting that one all weekend.

Overall, a classic game. Ending is a bit thin but at least they let you “sandbox” afterwards. Impressive for the PS2 platform. Certainly the best one yet. Weather was great, acting was great, story was meh, the design stuff was really good and the humor was very entertaining.

I’m just glad it’s fucking over after like a year+. Going to shelf it for a long time. Like my embarrassing goat pornstar films. Um.

Done and done. Gamecube version. Took me many months, especially since I put it down for a while.

Definitely rememberable. The first of the series that I played. A friend of mine (from pg99) played the absolute crap out of it, I saw the movie, didn’t really get it. So I guess this was my inauguration into the series. And in the end, I get probably a crappy score:

Hit Ratio: 67%
Enemies killed: 974
Number of times killed: 52
Clear time: 23:54’53″
Number of Saves: 86

After God of War, I’m sticking with my “game on rails” statement. This game felt like you controlled a mummy. It was cool for the thrill and surprise but overall, I enjoyed the other aspects more than the action. The story was decent, acting was laughably B movie. But the highlight was really realistic weapons. No other game really communicated reloading / click-click and the limited supply of ammunition. You can’t carry everything. You can’t miss too much. You have to place good shots. You have to search boxes for more ammo. And you have to reload 5 guns in a row sometimes after a big fight.

Anyway, I don’t want to get into a full review. The second disc really took off. It got pretty intense really quickly. And then it ended kind of flat. Satisfying and complete but nothing like Akira’s screaming God opera ending with universe burning laser show, scorching disbelief.

Beat God of War and couldn’t be happier to be through it. It was a real struggle to finish it. Tedious, a few bugs and lots of swearing.

The story was good and the developer did some real nice tricks to make the PS2 sing. There isn’t any loading between zones or areas and the art direction is top-notch. However. One section towards the end you have to jump up on some high platforms and then fight pairs of Satyrs until some platforms ahead of you appear. The thing is, I found some path up to the fight they weren’t expecting (from the right side) so I had to jump all the way back down blindly (they don’t expect you to do this so they don’t give you any camera favors) and this was really annoying because it was a bug that got me stuck (of sorts).

And really that same camera favor bit is kinda the weirdest aspect of this game. You can’t look around. The camera is an enemy of sorts. If you go to a corner, the camera might spin around revealing a chest with something in it. So you feel like your own viewport is something fighting against you. And this is what I mean by a game on rails. It’s a railroad platformer.

Finally beat River City Ransom on NES. I think I had gotten pretty far on the GBA version back in October of ’04 but I don’t think I ever finished it (certainly not on NES). I remember borrowing this cart back in middle school from a friend two streets over. Never understood it, never even came close to beating it.

This time around was a bit different. Fired up an emulator from bannister.org for OSX and plugged in my USB NES pad. Authentic experience with scanlines, noise, screen warping (tube TV bubble warp) and the real freaking pad. Was a blast. Totally uber’d. All my stats were 63/63 and 127/127. Which reminds me … why did NES use 8-bit numbers and get away with it, 0-63 is 64 as in River City Ransom, 0-127 is 128 as in max lives in Ninja Gaiden with the Game Genie code, 0-255 equals 256 as in max rupees in Zelda?! Well wikipedia explains it better.

UPDATE: I went back and found my old save state from River City Ransom EX (gba remake) and found I was on the last area. So I mopped it up. Ha, beat it twice.

Just beat Windwaker. A weekend sprint to the finish. Of course, it was a fabulous ending. Up until recently, I wasn’t digging on it, it started to feel like Metroid Prime did (I just wanted to get through it). But Windwaker had a sweet aftertaste after it was all said and done.

Wow, really dark. I’ll spare the details but I was really thinking R rating for the ending bits. Geez. Very artistic though, the way Ganon goes. I think in the NES version he just blinks away or something. In Windwaker, my jaw was on the floor.

I guess the Japanese really know how to finish things (Akira).

There were a bunch of things I left undone. I didn’t do all the little sidequests to death. I did some. I could never sort the mail fast enough and the picture puzzle on the wall I just left alone (I hate those things even in real life — you know, the sliding puzzle things). I did however manage to clear the gauntlet thing. That was grueling. Hardest part in my opinion (and I mean down to the heart piece).

I had a row of hearts plus 2, however many that is.

Overall, the gameplay was really great. I had only played the NES zelda before, I know the series is so much more involved than these two. Regardless, it was great to see all the classic stuff back in action. You had the boomerrang, the triforce, recognizable enemies, bombs and arrows.

Some side things were really fun. Getting the trading routes with the shop was very lengthy but I liked the result. Catching the girl at night stealing from the safe was a very clever little side story. Good times. I found myself waiting a lot on animations and other things. I wanted to play a little bit faster than the game would let me. Very small detail.

Phew. Well, good relaxing weekend. Ready for Twilight Princess sometime next year.

Windwaker was not without inspiring me to record this. Opening credits, has been the theme since I can remember.

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Jesus fucking Christ.

Did you ever see Ice Age? You know how the nut scenes were freaking hilarious but the parts like

My family abandoned me. They kinda migrated without me. You should have seen what they did last year. I mean, they got up early, and quickly tied up my hands and feet, and gagged me with a field mouse, and barricated the cave door, and covered their tracks, and went through water so I’d lose their scent, and… and… who needs them anyway?

were kinda like “um, wait, I don’t have any kids” why aren’t I watching Lethal Weapon? Well, that’s what KH1 was like. It was kinda like Ice Age. A good movie, but would you see it again? No. Would you buy the DVD? No. Do you feel like you aren’t going to get laid watching it? Yes. But are you married? Yes. So maybe you should have some more popcorn and see Ice Age 2? Pass the butter.

Anyway, 56 hours to beat it. The ending and the parts leading up to the ending were extremely satisfying. The very, very last screen says “The End” with the covershot. It doesn’t repeat, it doesn’t let you start a new game. The end is the end and the only way you can start any other task is by resetting your PS2. And that’s the way it should fucking be. I’m looking at you NES Rampage.

FFX-2 is done. Not 100%, just beat it. 100% is insanely long, like, if you miss something you have to restart. I don’t have time for that. Not for some extra full motion CGI at the end.

Thank god it’s over! Argh! Was such a chick game! I think I have to beat up someone really huge to have the right to wear these balls!

Whatever!

calms down …

The good parts … lots of choices to make. Was pretty easy/relaxing … I just didn’t get into it. Meh. The music was very jp-pop and heart-felt cheesy music. But then, it developed into something I unfortunately liked. Pop has a very evil and terrible way of forcing you to like the hooks, even if you deny it.

Anyway, I’m sure FFX-2 is good in some people’s minds. Just not mine. I felt it was too marketed towards female players (which is probably fair considering the number of male-directed games) and I was pretty sick of FFX when I started it.

Completion at least. Completion at last.

Continuing on with The Final Fantasy Project, Final Fantasy III (the JP NES version) is beaten. FF3 is the last of the series on the NES and so that means a long goodbye the orginal NES console and onto the SNES.

I used the walkthough by Version 1.1, by Dan Orner (omegaonyx@geocities.com). The game had to be translated by a patch and it only came out half right. I had no idea what they were saying and what the story was (except what I could read online).

The final dungeon was hard. Here are some of my notes while preparing for the final countdown.

The Final Dungeon
Woots. Preparing for the final dungeon in FFIII. This fucking game is l33t. Very hard compared to the other two. Dunno if its a JP thing, but it’s very challenging and there’s NO WAY I could have done it without a walkthrough. The job system is amazingly awesome. Especially when you think about the time that this game was out. It’s a damn shame it never made it to the states. The DS remake is well deserved. It is very good towards the end. Very hard, but it blooms nicely. The map is large, the dungeons are confusing and strange. The Bahamut fight was impossible, I had to do it many times, even though I considered myself ‘overleveled’.

Yes, the bahamut fight was hard. At the time, harder than most. There was the 2-HEADED D, 29000 HP, the 2nd to last boss, that also gave him a run for his money.

But eventually … the final boss had to be fought …

FINAL BOSS: DARK CLOUD, 65000 HP

My crew was very capable towards the end. The walkthrough recommended level 60 but I was level 58 by the end. The Sage job class was amazing as was the Ninja. Having two of each was just unfair to anything against me .. heh. A walkthrough leads to a super-über ending. In this case, the Ninja and Sage jobs were hidden off this impossibly hidden path with no possiblity of unhiddenment.

Ahem.

The Ninjas completely own. In FF2, the blood sword was the ‘killer item’. The blood sword made the last boss fight in FF2 a walk in the park. In FF1, the Masamune was the ‘killer item’. In FF3, the killer item was the Shurikens only usable by the ninja.

Luckily I had two of them.

NINJA
The ultimate fighter. Give him two of any weapons and watch him go! He slices, he dices, etc. His special weapon (save it for the final bosses) is Shuriken. He can equip two at once and they can hit together for over 9000 damage! However, they cost 65000 Gil EACH!

It is true that they are expensive. And you throw them once like ammunition. I had to pimp my White Mage on 14th and E for a couple of Friday and Saturday nights in order to afford a stack. He got some terrible diseases and such … but I just cast PURE and he was fine. He even got his virginity back.

With the emulator’s speed up function, it was pretty easy to watch some futurama, hit left-right to get attacked and hold down A + the ‘emulator fast forward’. Kinda relaxing actually. Bam, bam, level, bam bam, rich.

After a couple of episodes I could afford 33 Shurikens which was way more than I needed.

I really didn’t switch jobs too much. What I mean is, you can switch jobs (your class or role in the game) anytime you wanted. All the modern jobs were there. Red Mage, Dragoon, Summoner, Monk, White Mage, Black Mage, Fighter, Paladin and others. They were all playable. But I pretty much stuck to this progression per member:

• Fighter -> Knight -> M.Knight -> Ninja
• Monk -> Black Belt -> Ninja
• Black Mage -> Black Wizard -> Sage
• White Mage -> White Wizard -> Sage

As I said in FF2, it’s very neat to see the history of the series. This game was released in 1990 (later than I thought) and it’s amazing to see them keep the story straight for 15 years. Or even come up with a story that can last for 15 years.

Was a very good game. More developed than FF1, more depth. Better feel than FF2. FF3 has all kinds of different areas and lots of ways to travel. More of an epic touch.

Good game.

A great little finish. The emperor fell to my little party of pixelated protagonists and the world was in order again.

There were no levels so I can’t tell you what level I was. “Guy”, the generic tank had about 6700hp. I wasn’t as uber as possible, I just was playing through it. Overall, there were some nice firsts in the series. Introduction of the Dark Knight and Dragoon peeps, first reference to Ultima (I think), first meeting of Cid, first Chocobo. I don’t know how much of this was on the NES version. According to wikipedia, FF2 was the start of a heavy story element in the series.