Due to the awesome, yet bad for sony, news that FF XIII will be released on the 360 as well, I have a small prediction to make about the upcoming Sony Press Conference:

Square Enix and Sony will announce a PS3 Exclusive FF VII remake.

I just got a feeling that this almost has to happen for the PS3 to retain any pressure on Microsoft. Besides, I still believe that a company doesn't go through the trouble of making a very well done Trailer just to use as a one time "test" video.

Also, I'm happy that Star Ocean and Infinite Undiscovery got at least some time on stage at Microsoft's Keynote. A new trailer would have been nice, but it's good to see at all. Also, I had almost forgotten about the Last Remnant.

Also, it sort of sounded like Johnny Yong Bosch is voicing the (i guess) main character in Last Remnant. For those who might not know, Johnny voices: Vash the Stampede from Trigun, Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach, Nero from DMC 4, Yukimura Sanada from Warriors Orochi, Lelouch Lamperouge from Code Geass, Guy Cecil from Tales of the Abyss, and many, many, many, many other things (not bad for a former Power Ranger, eh?). I congratulate him on all his success, but damn I'm getting tired of hearing his voice. >:/

Anywho, here's hoping we get some big news from Nintendo and Sony tomorrow. (INC NEW GAMEBOY! ...Ok, so two predictions. :P)

Ura-

I was extremely happy to hear that the Star Ocean PSP remakes finally got US release dates. After taking care of some business, I went to the Official NA Square Enix website to see if they had put up an official site for Star Ocean: First Departure. I was suprised to find that they had actually put up a big Star Ocean Portal site, a-la the Japanese "Eternal Sphere" website.

I was, however, disheartened to find that the websites look completely thrown together and ugly. I mean compare the US Star Ocean Portal Site in comparison to the Japanese Star Ocean "Eternal Sphere" Portal Site, along with the First Departure websites for both.

First you have the main pages -

The Japanese Version:


The American Version:


Notice how the Japanese Version has a bit more of a clean design, complete with update logs, news about the games, and recent entries into the "Eternal Sphere" blog. I mean, hell, it actually has a blog.

The American Version has a very plain layout, and looks like it was thrown together last night. I can understand the lack of a blog, update and news columns considering the fact that it was JUST put up, and also that most official websites don't have blogs.

Now take a look at the Star Ocean: First Departure websites for both -

The Japanese Version:


The American Version:


The Japanese version has a very clean design about it. The Tabs at the bottom of the screen are relatively small, they are clearly labled, and they expand when you roll over them with a whole bunch of different options for each section. Each section is accompanied with various pieces of Artwork and Screenshots along with text boxes and very slick section transfer animations.

Then the American version has two stars that only reveal what section they go to when you mouse over them, and the sections themselves are very bland. The information page looks very thrown together, and the other section is entitled "Pre-Order Now" and only offers links to three retail chain websites. Now I'll let them off a bit easy considering this site was just put up, but couldn't they have at least put some information about their product other than when it's coming out and where you can pre-order it at? Things like the Story? The Characters? ANYTHING?

I know I'm probably being overly judgmental, but come on Squeenix. How do you expect to attract more interest in your games if you don't even give them a decent site. Hell, it doesn't even have to be flash. A well laid out, normal website could do a lot more for your product than a lame, poorly done Flash site with horrible sound bites.

Square Enix isn't the only culprit of putting out bad Official Game Sites. There are many that could be better than what they are. For example, the US Dynasty Warriors 6 website in comparison to the UK Dynasty Warriors 6 website. Granted, I don't think the Warriors series has a big a following here in the US as it does in the UK, but the fact still remains that the US site is definitely inferior to the UK site. The US Site is lacking in information about the game and it's characters, whereas the UK site has a ton of information on both, not to mention a little mini-game that allows you to unlock new wallpapers and stuff.

Naturally, there are sites that are very well done here in the States. For example, the Infinite Undiscovery website is kind of bare, but looks great. The official NA site for Final Fantasy IV DS is very well done, which you'd expect from a Final Fantasy website. Perhaps the fact that Star Ocean isn't Final Fantasy is the main reason SO's websites didn't get more lovin'.

In the long run, I guess a website doesn't mean that much. I mean, after the game comes out, it rarely gets visited. Not to mention, there are a ton of outlets to get info, videos and screenshots of upcoming games online. I guess I'm just bitter that Star Ocean isn't getting any love from the webmasters at the NA Square Enix website. I mean even their new iPod game got a better site than Star Ocean did.

Grumble.

Ura-

Square Enix has finally announced their E3 Line-up, and with it, they've also announced Release Dates for Star Ocean: First Departure and Star Ocean: Second Evolution for the PSP.

"Release dates are now available for Star Ocean: First Departure and Star Ocean: Second Evolution. Star Ocean: First Departure will release in North America on October 21 with Star Ocean: Second Evolution following on January 6." - Source, RPGamer.com

This announcement has been a long time coming. I'm not happy that we're not going to see Second Evolution untill 2009, but I'm sure that Infinite Undiscovery and First Departure will be more than enough to tide me over until then!

Here's hoping they get decent Voice Acting for both, though I think it'd be funny if they went with the original voice cast from the US PS1 release of Star Ocean: The Second Story.

Ura-

When you go to High School, there are typically a lot of "firsts" that come along in those four years. Things like getting your driver's license, getting your first car, getting your first "serious girlfriend," getting your first job to pay for your first car and to spend the rest of your pay on your first 'serious girlfriend' so that you can get a slim chance of getting yet another "first." For me, only the license, the car and the job happened, so I spent the extra cash on gaming.

Despite the over all sadness of that last statement, I did spend a lot of my free time in High School playing Role Playing Games. Now, I had been gaming a lot nearly all of my life, but I never really got as engaged in it as I did during the year 1999, which was the start of my freshman year of High School. This year would see my first playthroughs of what I consider to be my "Holy Trinity" of RPGs. These games would forever effect the kinds of games I play through my life, would turn me into a huge fan of Video Game music, and they would also turn me into a huge fanboy for one particular game developer.

The first of my "Holy Trinity" of RPGs came out in 1998, but I wasn't introduced to it until early 1999, when my best friend told me about his struggles with the last boss. That game was Xenogears, and it was the first actual RPG I had ever seriously played up to that point in my life, and it started to reinforce my theory that "Giant Robots make everything better."



Xenogears takes place on a planet that a huge interstellar ship crashed into ten thousand years ago. As man began to evolve, they discovered ruins of this ship. Among various advanced technologies, they found "Giant Humanoid Fighting Machines" called "Gears," which quickly changed the face of warfare on the planet.

The story centers around the exploits of a man named Fei Fong Wong, or "Fei" for short. Orphaned as a child, Fei is forced to leave his home village of Lahan after it is destroyed in an incident. He leaves only seeking a new place to live peacefully, but is instead dragged into a journey of strife and self-discovery, and along the way, he would come to battle men, machines, and even "god." The characters in Xenogears all had great depth to them, and many characters were far, far more than what they appeared to be on the surface.

The battle system was very engaging and challenging. It used a variant of the Active Time Battle System found in Final Fantasy games. You can battle as your character or inside your Gear. Attacks were done via a combo system for your characters, where various combos of the three basic attacks (weak, moderate, strong) could be strung together to do a "Deathblow Combo." Each character had their own variety of attacks and combos. Learning these combos is also essential to Gear battles, as they unlocked various attacks you could use, provided you build up the correct "Attack Level," which consisted of four levels: 1, 2, 3 and Infinity. The higher the attack level, the more devistating the attack.



You can enhance your gear with various items to give it more armor, a more efficient engine, weapons, ammo, and special items that gave it even more abilities. In Gear battles, you were also limited by the amount of fuel your gear had. Each attack and Attack Level combo had a certain fuel cost. The fuel limits made more than a few boss fights very frustrating. In fact, Xenogears is host to two of the most frustrating boss battles I've ever played in an RPG, and they happen in succession. (Anyone who has played the game all the way through probably knows which battles I am referring to.)

(There's a lot more to Xenogears' battle system, but I'll leave the details out for you to discover if you haven't played the game yet. :p)

The music of Xenogears was also something really special. The game's soundtrack, composed by the great Yasunori Mitsuda, gave me a deeper appreciation for great Video Game music. In particular, the song playing during the end credits, titled "Small Two of Pieces" and the final battle theme "Deus" both really sparked my interest. I still hold that, while maybe not as memorable as Final Fantasy VII's "One Winged Angel," the track "Deus" is the best final boss music I've ever heard in an RPG to date.

The story pacing on Disc One was what you would expect out of an RPG, but the pacing on Disc Two was extremely hurried. This is due in large part to the fact that Xenogears is an unfinished game. While no specific reason was ever given, some believe that the higher ups at Squaresoft had either lost interest in the project or cut funding, and told the development team to finish quickly in order to focus on other games. The game was intended to be part five in a six part series, as evidenced by the fact that the title appears with the words "Episode V" under it during the end credits, and was originally planned to be called "Project Noah."

Despite the fact that it is unfinished, Xenogears is arguably one of the greatest RPGs ever made. It is truly a game that "stands tall" above almost all others. If you ever get the chance to play through this game, take it.

In my next post, I'll talk about the second game in my "Holy Trinity" of RPGs, which comes with a pretty embarrassing story.

So I've still been wrapped up in the Icy Grasp of World of Warcraft ever since my nostalgic feelings prompted me to re-up my account. For the most part it's been enjoyable, but I can't help but notice how utterly disinterested I've become with gaming apart from WoW. Its not a new feeling, however, as I felt the same when I was still raiding Molten Core/Blackwing Lair/Ahn'Qiraj/Naxxramus back in the good ol' days of pre-expansion WoW. The game obviously sucks up alot of your time, mostly due to the fact that it takes so long to really get anything meaningful done, especially at 70. I'm not raiding at all, but rather doing dailies and farming mats to level my blacksmithing ability, which is probably the most expensive profession in the game. I've discussed how engrossing WoW is before, so I won't prattle on about it, but the whole "disinterested with gaming" bit has gotten me thinking these past few days.

For the past hour or so, I've tried to think up all future game releases that I'm currently looking forward to that don't pertain to Warcraft. So far I've come up with Tales of Vesperia, Metal Gear Solid 4, Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean: First Departure, Star Ocean: Second Evolution, Valkyria Chronicles, and that's pretty much it, aside from things that aren't yet confirmed like a possible Skies of Arcadia 2 (Please make it so!). Thats a very small amount, in my opinion. Granted, I'm an RPG nut/tri-Ace fanboy, but even still, there's just not much out there that excites me anymore. I kind of hate the idea of me being set in my ways and tastes for games because it makes me sound like I'm getting close minded, but it seems anymore that the only things that get me excited are tri-Ace/Square Enix/Koei releases.

I think part of it pertains to the fact that I think there are entirely too many First Person Shooters coming out, and it's been that way for a couple years now. I mean, Call of Duty 4 was great, and frankly that can last me for a long time if I ever want to jump on Xbox Live and have some fun. I never played Gears of War, even working at a Game Crazy with attached Hollywood video and never bothering to rent it (and even when I tried to, it was usually out. They only had one copy because all the others were either stolen, transferred to us to sell, or scratched beyond repair.) So naturally, I'm not that excited about Gears of War 2. Haze looks meh, Killzone 2 will probably end up being shit, and I could go on, but won't.

Then there's the Wii. I hate my Wii. It just sits there, taunting me, saying, "You fucking cunt, you spent $250 on me and you've got shit to play! Hah! I revel in your discontent!" You might be saying, "Urashima, you dumb fuck, what about Smash Brothers?" My answer would be, well, what about it? It was great the first two weeks, now I have no reason nor want to play it with all the characters/stages unlocked and no wireless connection to use for online play, which ALSO means no chance of downloading WiiWare titles and such. I know they're making a Tales of Symphonia 2 for the Wii, but honestly I know they'll find a way to fuck it up with motion controls. I don't want to flick the wiimote up and down to do a damn Tiger Slash! I know you have to expect that sort of thing with the Wii, but come on, some things just don't need freaking Motion Controls. I'm not going to sell it on the off chance something worthwhile DOES happen to release on it. Not to mention there is also the Trauma Center releases that I can pick up and play should I ever want to, and I'll end up buying ToS 2, motion controls or not, because I'm a chump like that.

In this time in between Christmas and E3, there usually isn't a lot of exciting news to be announced, so perhaps it may be natural to feel this way; however, I still can't help but feel a little jaded. Ah well, perhaps E3 or the Tokyo Game Show will lift my spirits a bit. That, or a damn confirmed release date for Star Ocean: First Departure. The only thing I've been using my PSP for these days is to play music. It requires more Fellpool Air Slashing and Welch Vineyard.

Till next time, ladies and gents.

Ura-

(P.S. - That was a great Champions League final earlier today. I was cheering for The Blues, but it just wasn't meant to be, I suppose.)

...back to the cold icy grinding grip of World of Warcraft. It wasn't something I had planned on doing, but nostalgia over my old days playing with my friends, many of whom have long since left the game, brought me back. My account was reactivated by a friend who used a "Scroll of Resurrection" on it, which gives you 10 free days of play time, provided your account has been inactive for 90 days. Seeing as how I hadn't logged in since July of last year, it was well qualified to be rezzed.

I was sort of excited to get back into the swing of things. I logged into my old main, Shinobu on Skullcrusher, and after getting in touch and caught up with friends and old guildies who still play WoW, I went to play around a bit on my Blood Elf Paladin, Urashima. I hadn't really kept up with the game all that much over the past 7 months, so I was very astonished at how quickly I leveled up my second paladin. It really only took about a month of on and off playing to get him from 40 to 70.

Just about everything has gotten easier in this game. Like getting decent gear, for example. All you have to do is either grind out honor in the battlegrounds, or pay an arena team to put you into their ranks for a few games, gather arena points, and buy even better epics than what the standard honor grind gets you. Money is also very easy to get, since there are dozens of daily quests which net anywhere from 9 to 15 gold for those who do them, AND some of those quests give you items that you can then turn around and sell via vendor or Auction House. It also seems like PvP is easier, but this could be due to the fact that I've been mainly PvPing on my Horde character, rather than my Ally character. In my battlegroup, Ruin, the Horde side tends to have a much better winning percentage than the Alliance does.

All of this ease sort of ruins the game, though. Easy grind quests net rather large profits. Granted, the entire game is just a huge grind, but it just isn't the same. To be honest, pre-Burning Crusade WoW was the best. It wasn't as easy as it is now. Granted, WoW has never been the hardest of MMOs, but its crazy how insanely easy it is in comparison. Even the instances are easy. It seemed to take forever for even the best guilds to down the big bosses in raid instances, like Naxxramus. Now the big instances have shrunk their max raid size to 25, and 3 or 4 well geared players can defeat Onyxia, a feat that used to take a well coordinated 40 people to do. There's even a horde guild on my server selling Black Temple loot like people used to do in Molten Core and Blackwing Lair.

Oh well. I'll probably continue to play off and on untill the next expansion pack releases. Its a good time waste, and console releases have left me sort of jaded again. There's only a handful of releases I'm even that excited about. Mainly Tales of Vesperia, Star Ocean: First Departure and Second Evolution (If they'd ever get freaking released outside of Japan!), and I have to purchase Ikagura when I get the chance to get some more Microsoft Points. I will say that the very averageness of Brawl has left me very Jaded about the Wii, and I still have yet to unlock all the officers on Dyansty Warriors 6, which I really need to get around to doing.

Oh, and to those of you who might be wondering why in the bloody hell I leveled up two Paladins to 70, my only response is this: Shinobu is Holy, Urashima is Retribution, and Otohime is Protection (but only 44. :P). In all honesty, Paladins are good fun. The recent tweaks to Retribution make us a very viable damage class. I've found that Blood Elves are the best choice for Retribution paladins, as Seal of Blood is ungodly good, and Mana Tap and Arcane Torrent actually do help quite a bit in Leveling and in PvP.

Untill next time, ladies and gents.

::Ura::