First an update on the promised Mana Khemia review. I finally got the damn game, 11 days after Amazon promised me a copy. What the hell is the point of 'pre-ordering' a game if they don't have enough copies to send out to people. Amazon's a big company, I preordered my copy about two weeks before the release date when it looked like my EB wouldn't be getting the game at all. They got the stategy guides but not the game itself...anger rising.

I wanted to play through at least chapter 7 before making a full judgement call. I'd rather play through the entire thing once and then do the review but that may take a while longer and it looks like every option should be opened up by the end of chapter 5. I'm currently on chapter 4 but reset it once because I got a B on the first course. Apparently an A is tricky to get and you only need a B to get the full free time -- didn't know that at first.

Second update is on my NHL picks. Those took a while to write and outside of Gray Fox there was little interest and hell it didn't even make the c-blog recaps for that day or the next. I believe that's worse than fail, correct?

Third thing -- this wasn't my first choice for the second entry in these but I want to play through the game again seeing as its over a decade old and I was fuzzy on things. Mana Khemia is taking up all my at-home gaming and Crisis Core all my on the road and at work gaming so I haven't exactly had time for my refresher so I instead defaulted to this somewhat well known girl but one that's still never talked about all that much.

For those of you who missed my first entry in this series on the absolutely hot, but overlooked Captain Rose, it can be found by clicking this link -- now.

A small excert from that post to set the 'idea' --

Of course video games have their 'first ladies' in Lara Croft, Samus Aren, the DOA cast, and so forth. Mia Shinranui may have been the source of my first fapping actually. But everyone's already talked about those girls and for good reason. They're at the top for a reason. But there are some girls that just fall through the cracks and I'd like to highlight one of them every now and then. Maybe make it a bi-weekly thing, or what not.

This won't be a tirade on how badly women are protrayed in video games. Other people have done that article and the industry just doesn't get it anyway. Honestly, if the industry wants to be taken seriously and seen as a legit medium, they may want to actually protray women in a real way (though I guess that's really not that much fun and entertainment should always come first.)

I'm trying not to veer off into that tirade even though its bubbling up. But for now, it's just going to be a cutsy look at some pixelated babes I love that I don't hear get talked about much. I'm not saying these characters are deep or memorable -- hell most of them are about as shallow as can be, but it's not like the pickings for deep, original female characters is there in video games. You can count them on one hand -- even if you've been in a freak accident at some old tyme factory. Or some farm equipment. Or you didn't listen to your dad and blew most of your hand off with a firecracker. Or just insert your own gruesome way that fingers can be rend from the body. And please share.

The second girl to be enshrined is Quistis Trepe from Final Fantasy 8. I'm sick and tired of no one giving her a second thought. Hell she's even forgotten in the very game she stars in. Everyone was super excited when Kingdom Hearts was going to do the super-hyper-Nomura-Final-Fantasy-Disney-crossover and ....we get Selphie....and Waka....fuck off. And you change our little flower girl's name to Aerith and give her shitty voice acting? Grr.

Ok, before I get too far into why I hate Kingdom Hearts on just about every level, I probably should get back on the task at hand....

WHO IS SHE

Quistis Trepe is one of the instructors at Balamb Garden, a military school, despite being only 18, the same age as everyone of the other characters. She's also Final Fantasy 8's Blue Mage, and until FFX-2 came along had no competition for sexiest Blue Mage in history.

She intially joins the main character Squall (or Leon...fucking Kingdom Hearts) on his field exam to beat up Ifrit but is later demoted because she apparently lacks leadership qualities. Doesn't help her case that she's probably one of the most insecure characters ever and she opens up to Squall about her demotion. And then it's promptly forgotten about once Rinoa shows up. And then they just decide Quistis's feelings for Squall are merely sisterly in nature or some crap -- A misunderstood love. Which is good I guess -- could you imagine the serious brooding in that relationship?



WHY SHE'S NOT TALKED ABOUT

Well she's from Final Fantasy 8, prehaps the single most polarizing game in the history of games. Sure people argue and fight about FF7 more but you either love FF8 or you absolutely hate it. There's no in between. It took me all the way until 2005 to friggin beat FF8 and it sort of redeemed itself in the end and now I support it although I will still never understand what they were thinking with the junction system and the Orphanage story line, which was a little too convienent for my tastes.

But she also has two other female leads and she's pushed into the 'sisterly' role. You have Selphie with the short skirt and the 'tee-hee I'm cute but soooo clumsy (ie ditzy)' attitude and then you have the uber-hot Rinoa who Squall is 'destined' to be with.

I have nothing against Rinoa other than the fact that I barely used her in the game at all, but ugh Selphie -- and they let HER pilot the big friggin airship? Are you kidding me? She also looks like Nomura just put female hair on Squall and gave him overalls and a skirt. But I do admit -- skirts do divert most attention away from "problem areas" such as personality and face.




But yeah when you're bringing the 'teacher' look with glasses to a party that contains Rydia, the dancer in FF4, Faris (remember I love pirate wenches), Celes, Terra, Tifa, Aeris, Rinoa, Selphie, Princess Garnet, Beatrix, Yuna, Paine, Rikku, Lulu, Ashe, Penelo, Fran mmm Fran....it's kind of hard to get past the bouncer and through the door. Only Maria can challange Quitis for status as the least talked about girl in Final Fantasy history.

Oh and she's a damn Blue Mage. Who the hell ever used Blue Mages? Quite lying because filling out a blue magic list was a pain in the ass and stupid. You spend all the game trying NOT to be hit by these weird ass spells, and now all of a sudden you want to be hit? And hell, half of them didn't even work most of the time.

WHY SHE'S HOT

You're pretty much going to learn all of my fetishes throughout the course of these entries (and the simple answer is ALL OF THEM) but who didn't have a teacher they just wanted to show you were a graduate capable of teaching her a thing or two? My first was my seventh grade teacher, who's probably disgusting looking and old by now, and I'm sure if I could go back and watch how I acted around her -- I'd call myself a douchebag. And then duct tape myself to the flag pole...naked.

The only other one was my 'government' teacher senior year. I put government in quotations because we didn't learn about how 'government' worked. We learned how the US government was supposed to work and memorized a good chunk of the US Constitution. She was a complete bitch but man, the things I would eat out of her ass. Damn.

But cripes lets like bullet point this shit.

She's a teacher
She looks so amazing in her glasses
That blonde hair with the weird ponytail....is just killer
She looks damn seductive in her potrait
She has her own fanclub of students...in the game...not in real life.
She's been successful early in her life
She's adept with a whip
Did I mention the glasses already?
How about her being a teacher?
Or the whip?



And while she got the longer skirt compared to the brat, you combine it with the boots, the belt, the exposed naval, the seperated sleeve thing she's got going on, and the entire pink motif -- and the whip -- she blows Selphie out of the water. Its odd but true, sometimes more clothes adds to the imagination. Look at her blue SEED outfit. You can't tell me you don't want to be all over our little librarian wanna-be? There's a huge sex-kitten waiting to be let out there.

Also, as a Blue Mage -- she knows how to take a hit. Yeah, I went there.



But Quistis also happens to be one of the more 'real' Final Fantasy characters out there and incredibly easy to relate to as she feels all the pressure applied with her almost glorified position. Who doesn't fear failure? Or coming up short in the expectations others have in you? For most of us, fear of failure is what motivates us every day.

She's also rejected like you or I. Rejected from her position and rejected by Squall, who's cold demeanor and anti-social 'tude throws her even further into her depression and insecurities. A Misunderstood Love my ass. She's mature enough to step out of the way because she realizes what Rinoa means to Squall -- which is impressive for a girl that's still a teenager. Although I can't be the only one that deep down inside wishes she'd act a bit more like a vindictive teenage bitch and at least put up more of a fight. Grab Rinoa by the hair and bitch slap her a couple times. Save the Queen? No, she's going to Fuck the Queen Up.



She's expected to be an adult while still being a teenager, unblossomed. She tries to be mature because that's what is expected of her at this point. She gets to use Ellone's departure as an excuse and way out. Yet she still yearns to be acknowledged by one person more than any other -- Squall.

I honestly wish they did so much more with her. She's about a hundred times more interesting than the other two girls she competes with, and maybe the rest of the FF series as well. Square, how about you stop with the FF7 spin-offs, the mining of Ivalice and the planned whoring of FF13 and spin-off a couple of the other fablous worlds you have? And do something with Quisits.