Final Fantasy VII (Switch)

I can still hear the music!

So I finally finished Final Fantasy VII. I bought this game originally for the PSOne back in the early 2000's when I was on a street fair at my grandparents town where they had this game and was the only one I didn't have of the Playstation 1 Final Fantasy games since all the others my parents bought me for Christmas and birthday present after we got our first playstation console (that being PS2). Now, I didn't finish it then. I got to the "final dungeon", but I didn't feel as confident at my capacity to win and everything else that you could do so it drifted away (mostly due to not being able to make time to sit and play since someone always wanted the damn TV). Then when I moved out and finally got myself a PS3 I thought I would give the game a whirl. I got to Junon and the military parade, but got stuck with my OCD-tendencies to 100 % it at a time since I was following a guide. And I returned to it some years after that and it wasn't worth it since I forgot how to play it, but now when it was released on the Switch I got the perfect opportunity as well as it releasing in conjuncture with my summer semester giving me 4 weeks to finish it off. Now, I finished it just after 1 playing it for a total of 25-30 hours.

It's regarded as the best Final Fantasy and one of the best games ever made and I can see it. It begins so strong with some random flower salesgirl walking in the city of Midgar as a train is on its way into a station. From the train the ecoterrorist group AVALANCHE attacks the guards and break into a Mako-reactor owned by the megacorporation Shinra and blows it up. You pay the role of Cloud Strife, a former SOLDIER (Shinra's private army) who turned mercenary and is paid by AVALANCHE to be their big muscle. AVALANCHE is lead by Barret, a one-handed black man supported by Tifa, Clouds childhood friend that put them in contact with each others. After escaping the explosion they head back into the slums of Midgar below the city and tries a repeat on the next day. They are caught in a trap and Cloud falls below the city into a church where he meets the flower girl who will guide him to his own sector if he acts as her bodyguard from the Turks, After finding Tifa who got information from a sleezy pimp about an attack on the pillar holding the city above their sector they rush back and find it enveloped in a firefight as Barret is on top fighting of Shinra's soldiers while the other members of AVALNCHE dies protecting the pillar. Cloud and Tifa runs up the pillar while Aeris (the flower girl tries to save Barrets adoptive daughter Marlene). AVALANCHE fails to stop the bomb being activated and the Turks have kidnapped Aeris and taken her to Shinra's headquarter at the tower in the middle of the city. Cloud and friends escape on a swinging hook from the destruction and climbs to the tower for revenge. They save Aeris and Red XIII (a sentient wolf) from the deranged doctor Hojo, but are captured by the president of Shinra. In their cells they are suddenly released and find blood trails in the tower leading to the presidents office where they find him dead with a sword belonging to the famed SOLDIER Sephiroth through his back. The vice president Rufus arrives and takes control and Cloud and friends escape the city in a motorbike and car and the hunt for Sephiroth starts.

They might look a bit weird, but remember, late 90's PS1 graphics

That part of the game is amazing. First that compared to standard fantasy fair that it is cyberpunk in nature makes it look cool. The music and atmosphere is fantastic and the action of that part of the game is supreme. It helps that it only took me 2 hours to play through that part since a function of the Switch port is that by pressing the R-stick speeds up the game x3. Especially important when I decided to redo the first part at Don Corneos place since why not try to 100 %? You could also give yourself the advantage to always start with "the overdrive" attack or take away random fights. I didn't use those since it took away part of the game, but it was nice be able to quicken up the long summoning sequences. And that explains 25-30 hours instead of the 60 it would probably taken me on my original run. Now, that is interesting since I recall that in Final Fantasy IX to get some secret weapon or whatever you needed to make it to a certain location within 12 hours which was impossible on its original European release since due to the PAL format it would take to long. I wonder if I will be able to with the Switch version. But I'm getting ahead of myself. So what's different from other Final Fantasy games? Like Final Fantasy VI every one can learn magic, but only through equipping materia that you level up by fighting and gaining AP. How much materia you can equip depends on your equipment and also determines how fast they will grow (or at all). Equipment is simplified to weapon, armour and accessory. The materia system was probably another reason I didn't finish it since I didn't get it. Especially since I had a hard time realising that the best strategy is choose 3 main fighters and equip them and no one else. Saves money and materia, especially since maxing a materia creates a new one that you can level up as well. And I got the tips to sell fully mastered All-materia since that would ensure no cash-problems and it did. Feels nice finally buying the house in Costa del Sol. 

So what are the themes of the game? It starts with environmentalism which is all the rage these day. The planet is dying due to mankind sucking it dry due to the megacorporations greed and they treat other human lives as trash, and then the world gets a much more concrete threat in that a meteor is heading for the planet caused by Sephiroth and only Aeris, the last of the Ancients (a highly powerful lost civilisation). Which leads to the most iconic moment of the game which I think best is summerised by the Clan of the Gray Wolf:

I miss those guys

Yes, Aeris is killed and Cloud pretty much goes into depression since Sephiroth almost made him do the deed. And that's due to Cloud being injected with Jenova cells (like Sephiroth and other SOLDIERS), but Cloud was experimented on after the incident that caused Sephiroth go haywire and Cloud lose his memory and made him merge his life with the SOLDIER Zack, that was Aeris boyfriend and the SOLDIER sent with Cloud and Sephiroth. Cloud was only a red shirt that failed to become a SOLDIER and was so ashamed that when they returned to his home town he hid his presence from friends like Tifa. Cloud falls through the lifestream, the very life force of the planet so Tifa and Barret leads the group, but when they find Cloud strapped to a wheelchair due to Mako poisoning Tifa stays and Barret elects Cid, a pilot that aspired to be the first man in space, to lead the group. Cloud gets better after another trip through the lifestream together with Tifa that unlocks his memories and confirms that he is Cloud and not just failed clone of Sephiroth. And as usual this indicates the end game and I just move back and forth until I have enough and finished the game.

I don't have the extreme nostalgia for this game since it wasn't the first Final Fantasy game I played, and I played it way later than it's release. Still I see the fun in it. The first part is amazing, and it's still fine up to the point where Cloud falls into the lifestream for the first time. It gets into aimless meandering and pretty much stumbling upon the next story point. Like me just exploring the underwater section and finding a key. Apparently important story item that I was lucky to find. Obviously people would find it by searching the sea anyway. Also, certain side quest is irritating. Take the Golden Saucer where you can gamble and get the best items of all, but you need first to pay with gil to play and hopefully win GP that you can spend on playing in the Battle Arena to earn BP so you can buy items. I hate that. Dragon Quest got it with buying points in the casino so you could play and they also enabled you to buy items. I get that due to the ease in maxing All-materia and selling it for 1.4 million gil in one go that it would break the economy, but at least skip the play to win GP segment since I suck at it and the most I got was the 30 GP from the Mog adventure that you only can win once. Even though I won't buy a Playstation 4 (or 5) for the remake I hope they fix this mistake. It's annoying. Or maybe there is some scalper somewhere and I missed it. Another side quest is the Condor reactor where you gotta play some real time strategy game and this time it was fine since I had a guide that told me every time I needed to go back to fight off Shinra, but another tip for the remaking team is that they should use the telephone to warn players that Shinra is on the move since running back and forth without a guide to see when it's possible to play it is just obnoxious. My first run I played it twice, first time stumbling upon it and the last mandatory one since I always felt pushed forward and didn't think you could return to the continent until you got the Highwind. But overall satisfying finishing the game. 

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)

Adol Christin is back!

While writing this I just started my vacation and if you are reading it at release I unfortunatly been working for 2 months, but what better way to spend your summer vacation with video games? And a game set on a deserted island, it screams of summer morning adventures. The latest game in the Ys-series, and I've only played Ys 1 & 2 as described here. It starts out at sea on the cruiser Lombardia captained by Barbarosa and you, Adol Christin, and Dogi work as sailors for passage over the Greekian sea. During the night the ship is attacked by what people would call a kraken and the ship is sunk. Adol ends up on one side of the island and later stumbles upon Laxia von Roswell... as she is taking a bath in the nude. Now, I won't deny that as a heterosexual man, it tries to cater to me and I don't mind that in particular, but... is the first thing you do as you washed ashore on a deserted island with several beasts on it, to take a bath? Admittedly, she had her rapier close at hand and was able to swipe at Adol as he approached... leading to her dropping her towel (where did she get that?) and exposing herself. What nagged me about this is that Adol got blamed for snooping by her, and she wouldn't let it go for the first part of the game. Which feels kinda unfair to me, I wouldn't know, but I at least wouldn't take a bath after being washed up on an island especially not alone. I've seen enough horror movies and others to know that isn't a good idea.

Besides that, you find the captain and start to look for other survivors to be able to build a camp and trying to find a way out of the island. You find some obnoxious nobleman, a doctor, Dogi, some kid and more. Meanwhile Adol, Laxia and the fisherman Sahad explores the island in search of materials and a way off the island. During the night Adol have dreams of a woman named Dana that was the Maiden of the Great Tree, a prophet of the lost empire of Eternia that ruled the island. Apparently evolved from saurian (dinosaurs) so basically reptile people. Eternia was destroyed in a Lacrimosa, a reaccuring natural catastrophe that resets the world by destroying the dominant species and you can pretty much guess that humans are next. So far it's pretty much the Lost World or other Jules Vernes work. And then it turns to Jack the Ripper. One survivor is a Romun officer in charge of apprehending the Ripper, a serial killer that was last noted aboard the Lombardia. And then the captain is attacked, then the nobleman and you have to find him... since the captain can identify that it was a man that called out to him. So the males of the camp is a suspect. There's Adol, the captain, the doctor, the nobleman, Sahad, Hummel (another playable character), the romun officer and the last person you found, a sailor with medical experience... it's the doctor isn't it? I got it 20 minutes before the game spelled it out. You fight the doctor, but he is able to fatally injure the captain, the nobleman i killed by the kraken as he tries to escape with a rowboat and the doctor is then killed himself by a freaking dinosaur. AMAZING GAME!

After that Adol tries to reach the north side of the island where the dreams of Dana takes place. The dreams become more real as you now get to play Dana as she lives through the end of Eternia with more saurian attacks, random weather phenomenas and as she gets visions of the future tries to guide Adol from the past by planting saplings that will keep ruins stable across the millenia or other "change the past" deals like moving a rock and so on. You also can do a special dungeon that tells the history of the kingdom. In the end Dana arrives in the future and it is revealed that the kingdom flourished with the help of the Great Tree that gave the eternians the power of essence, that is basically magic. That is part of the Great Tree's plan in causing evolution and rejection. It brings forth a dominant species and when it rules the world, destroys them and take one champion to continue warding the evolution. Four times before the age of man it have caused the Lacrimosa and reset the world. You enter the tree to release the caught spirits in the tree to power up your sword and after that beat up the tree. Adol wakes up and the castaways are preparing to leave. Dana is nowhere to be seen and everyone else have forgotten her. Adol travels to where the tree is supposed to be and finds a new smaller tree, with Gaia, the goddess of Earth explaining that she set up the tree to foster the evolution of all living things. And then tells them that they can meet Dana again by traveling through another dimension where they fight some creature and this for some reason brings back Dana as goddess fo Evolution and the bringer of the Lacrimosa if humans gets out of control and then they leave.

It was a fun game. While Tales of Vesperia dragged on in the end, this was fun from start to finish. It was fun gameplay with quick fights and grinding to get materials to get new weapons, armours or brew potions and other things. It had mystery about what happened to the eternians, the castaway rescue mission felt important and the characters gave me the feelings I was supposed to get. Sadly I gathered that if I had played Ys III-VII would have enhanced the game more since they constantly referenced events from other games and the only one I knew was Dogi the Wallcrusher since he appeared in the second game. Music great at times, the sad theme really got me in the end, and I think the captains death really hammered it in. Didn't help that all he talked about was his kid daughter he would see when he got home. *sniff*.

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (Switch)

Main character pose

So in wait for the (hopefully) coming off the Tales of Symphonia to the Switch I can at least play through Tales of Vesperia since I never played that before. And a good sign is that they actually bothered recording the song for the intro, most other games just use an instrumental version. And they also recorded voice over for the skits as well. And I like the voices here as well. I even heard Liam O'brian from Critical Role, although sometimes the text wasn't what was said. And that took me some time to get since I wondered if I heard correctly. And the gameplay is pretty much improved from Symphonia. Things like automatic use of items by your party members that you can stop by pushing the right stick and a new skill system that feels like Final Fantasy IX. Bad thing with that is that the AI goes through TP like snow in summer, and tend to use up all my TP-gels. It also have an overworld you can fly around on in the end part of the game. I like all that, and the story... kinda falls apart in the end. 

It began great with Yuri Lowell, a former knight that just hangs around the lower quarter of the Imperial capital with his dog Repide until someone cons the people by stealing their new core for the water fountain. Trying to catch the thief Yuri gets taken by the guards since they mistake him for a thief (and he has a history of causing trouble so the knight keep an eye on him). While captured another inmate gives him a clue to escape and during the break he meets up with princess Estelle as she tries to warn Flynn, a knight that is Yuri's friend and he gets dragged into that as they stop an assassination on Flynn. And the story takes of as they try to warn Flynn, meets up with Karol, a mercenary guild-member that never sticks around since he's scared (being a kid and all), Rita, the genius mage that studies blastia cores, Raven, the old guild spy, Judith, the krityan dragoon, and lastly Patty, the amnesiac girl looking for her grandfather, the pirate captain Alfried that committed a massacre. 

During the course of the adventure we explore ideas of corruption in those with power or pretty much mankind over all. They set this up with Ragou the senator and a commander of the knights who conspire to gain power for themselves on opposite sides of the imperial powerstruggle (the knights vs the senate) if Estelle or Ioder should be the next emperor. And that is fine... until Yuri kills them as he sees that as the only way to stop them from abusing power. And I can understand that. I like the idea since it also mirrors him and Flynn who chose to stay as a knight and change the system from within (and they wear black and white). The problem is that happens at the halfway point and there is no main bad guy anymore. So you travel around and try to stop the guild Leviathan's Claw that was giving the others weapons, but they aren't really the bad guys, they just profit on the struggles between others. Behind them is apparently the imperial commandant Alexei that people say had some ideals that made him go over the top to take over the world by using a super weapon from the time of the ancients. Meanwhile the Entelexeia (sentient beasts close to nature) tries to kill Estelle since her ability to destille aer (mana but not really since it appears later in the story) without blastia is a danger for the natural order. Now, the Entelexeia is trying to stop the return of the Adephagos, an eldritch abomination from the stars that feeds on aer, but fail as Alexei in his misguided search for power opens the shield that he thought was a weapon, killing him and leaving Brave Vesperia (the guild they decided to form) the ones to stop it before Duke, a characters that shows up from time to time, uses all human life to destroy it. 

It follows the rythm of the other Tales game pretty much, but where Symphonias twists and turns felt natural and the end goal was pretty clear, here I don't know. Alexei turns evil the last quarter of the game and a bit after that the Adaphagos appears in the story and then Alexei dies and leaving the Adephagos. Which you don't fight. The last battle is with Duke who belives that mankind must be sacrificed to save the planet since it was them that called the Adephagos the first time and again and again almost summoned it until now. And I agree with him, to stop this from happening take away the problem. And Duke was always this mysterious character that showed up helping the main characters, but reluctantly. But I got him. But as the final boss? No, the story fell apart there. Thank god that the gameplay didn't screw over me in the final battle. I accidentally shifted character and they all went into auto-mode and I couldn't switch back as the auto-mode wouldn't disable. Lucky my party pushed through. 

I feel disappointed by this game. Symphonia had the best final boss and Abyss the best main character. I like Yuri and friends, but Yuri doesn't have the arc of Luke and as I said, the end goal changes so you don't have that and the true final boss you don't fight. Thinking through the main cast, only Raven and Patty is interesting. And Raven I guessed pretty quickly that he played both sides. Patty took me by surprise and I don't know if I found everything in her story. Cause can't figure out why she looks like a little girl when she is apparently quite older than the others. I played the game for 60+ hours and I don't feel like playing through everything. It's not a bad game, it works and it distracted me for a while, but I don't feel anything for it. That or the fact that I stopped and played other games inbetween since the backlog is growing and soon I bought all Wii U and PS3 games again just to have them on the Switch.

The King's Fifth

Only 20 % in taxes? Tax haven!

Now to something completely different' You know I'm a big fan of the TV-series The Mysterious Cities of Gold? Well, since I have to wait a couple of years (hopefully) for the next season of the show, I decided to read the book The King's Fifth by Scott O'Dell that was an inspiration for the series. The story is that the cartographer Esteban is on trail for murder and withholding the king of Spains part of the treasure he found on his journey in the new lands of America. So you have the parts at present while he is in prison and the courtroom and the other the retelling from the start at sea and then how he is persuaded by Captain Mendoza to join him in the search for gold and how he ended up the only one who knows where the treasure is.

Like the show, it ties in to actual historical events. For example they meet up with Coronando who had an expedition to look for Eldorado (he is also famous from Indianan Jones and the Last Crusade with the cross of Coronando that starts the film). But really fast you realise that there ain't no flying golden condor machines or ancient civilisations destroyed in thermonuclear wars and such. No, this is fairly grounded in reality. There is certain parts that is certainly lifted from here. Several names, like Zia, Mendoza, Esteban and Gomez. Certain events like the the storm at sea and the golden lake. Certain characters could be seen as inspirations, for example Roa is described as a bit bigger and fits in with Sancho and I wonder if father Fransisco inspired parts of father Rodriguez. They also mentions Marinche even though she doesn't appear in the book proper. Zia even have an animal sidekick although a lizard instead of a bird.

It's a rather short book and it's interesting how it follows Estebans journey and he goes from just a kid wanting to make a map of the unknown until the gold fever grips him as well and how it pushes Zia and father Fransisco away from him that acts like moral anchors in the story, until the end when he does the only right thing and throws away the ill-gotten treasure since it poisons the mind of the spaniards. And even though he tells the spaniards that the gold lies in a place that no man can reach them, the gold fever have them in its claws. Well worth the read.

Resident Evil 4 HD (Switch)

In a small provincial town

Eagerly awaiting the game I actually pre-ordered it on the Switch eshop just to be able to play it again. And I wasn't disappointed. 17 hours in I finish the normal game and 4 hours later finish the special mission Separate Ways. The story is that Leon Kennedy is in Spain looking for the presidents daughter Ashley that was kidnapped by this cult worshipping a parasite, las plagas, that when injected into people will hatch and then allow the master plagas to control the infected. Leon gets infected himself so as the clock ticks he gotta save Ashley, find a cure and get out of Spain alive. Separate Ways follows Ada Wong as she tries to gather a sample of las plagas for Albert Wesker and explains certain parts of the plot that where hinted at in the main game.

Now, I love the main game. This is the first Resident Evil game I played and the Wii version was fantastic with its motion control targeting and unfortunately you can't play with motions controls here. After some practice it was working out for me, especially since the Revelations game and 5 and 6 used the twin stick style of play as well, making it not that hard getting into it. But it is noticeable that it isn't as fast in pointing and such. Another thing that I noticed is that there isn't any easy-mode. This annoyed me a great deal since I usually played first on easy to get to know the game, then unlocking the Special Costume 2 where Ashley is in a suit of armour making it harder for enemies to kill her and then tackle Normal mode and maybe try on Professional mode. Now, since I already played it a couple of times I could manage things pretty well as well as getting treasures to sell and get my hand better weapons and upgrade them, but I would at least like the option to be a scardy cat. Fun enough I found out that in the original North American release you had to die a couple of times in the beginning to unlock easy mode, but not in Japan or Europe (thank god). 

Also, I couldn't help but notice that the resolution in Separate Ways looked a bit worse than the main game in cutscenes and such. Don't recall if that always was there or not. Anyway, this is still my favourite Resident Evil game, Revelations 1 is a good contender, but this just feels bigger. Could also be due to the enemies being more varied and such as well as the environments. The upgrade system is also better. And then we have the stupid decision to not include subtitles if you have it on English. Better to turn it into Spanish or German. Why do that? Especially in certain scenes when the sound can hinder your hearing of the voices. I have no problems now, but in 30 years? Or people with actual hearing problems that want to play this game or people that aren't that good at english but doesn't have one of the larger languages to fall back to? Idiotic move really. Don't they want it to be accessible to as many people as possible?

Steamworld Dig: A Fistful of Dirt (Switch)

Back into the mine

So I finally got it on sale... so I doubled dipped since it was a fun game and I collect games I've played on the latest console to hopefully be able to retire them in the end. So far not so good since there is always that damn game that won't be ported over. Anyway, same procedure as last time, but I only died twice and it took me around 5 and a half hours to finish it. It might be that I played the sequel not that long ago and this is a bit of downgrade, but it feels like they done things to the game, but maybe it's faulty memory from my side. Also, the character models when they speak looks differently from what I remember so I assume they change it for this version, or they did it for the sequel and this now standout since I remember that version more clearly. 

Overall I found it enjoyable for some treasure hunting. 

Blaster Master Zero 2 (Switch)

Back to become the blaster master!

I played Blaster Master Zero when it got released and I got it for both Switch and 3DS and it was a fun ride. And now the sequel have arrived... although the first game was pretty much a reboot of the original game this one isn't for the second game, I assume mostly due to not being made by the original team.  Still, I haven't yet finished the original NES version. Story is that after the battle in the last game Eve was infected by the mutants and to cure her Jason, Fred and Eve set out into space to find planet Sophia where she came from. And the first thing that happens is the Gaia-Sophia dropping onto a planets surface introducing the latest mechanic as falling from great heights give you back some SP for your special attacks. Obviously the first test makes it so that you can't leave the planet due to damaging the booster so you got your work cut out for you. Basically structured the same as last game. Travel in the Sophia and find caves to enter as Jason and gather power ups. The special thing this game is star maps so when you travel back into space can find another planet or spaceship. Gather keys from bosses to enter wormholes and such.

This actually make it much easier than last game due to not having to travel across the whole planet and they bitesized it in different big and small planets. I enjoyed it since I don't get as lost and you don't need to play it relatively fresh to know where to go. This time there is also other peoples in the game, other blaster master I gather. And obviously you gotta fight them all. And they are the toughest enemies in the game. Stein in his Atom especially. He just blast me, but after slowing down and more focus on not getting hit I defeated him and continued the adventure. Like last time there is a bad ending and a good ending. This time I got it just playing normally since I gathered the different emblems from the blaster masters and nothing about getting 100 % items. The boss that divides the good and the bad ending is a huge planet that you gotta crash into. Amazing! Sadly the part up the true ending isn't that fun I think. The planet mutant had swallowed the wormhole to Sophia and defeating him separates Jason and Eve and you get to play as Eve instead. Which is nice, but it's a long walk just without a tank in the overworld, meaning that high jumps are instant-death and everything hits like a tank. You get a tank, but it doesn't have the same functions and are pretty much a downgrade. That feels bad to me, I want it to be in Metriod Zero after losing her first suit, Samus find the fully upgraded armour and just wrecks things up. Empowerment. But the scene when all Blaster Master joins up to defeat the mutant cocoon and save Jason from petrification is awesome.

It was a fun game, a bit frustrating at times with certain bosses while most tank bosses outside the other Blaster Masters were fun fighting like the walking mountain. Decent music, but there isn't something equal to the pumping level 1 track from the first game. Graphics looks nice and each planet or area is distinct. Fun playing as Eve, but she should have had something like Sophia Zero from the first game to just empower her.