Suikoden (PS1) (PS3)

 

Now I get it, the painter painted the cover of the game!

Well, I was waiting for the Suikoden remaster to come for the Switch, but for some reason as of writing it has gone two weeks and it seems to be stuck somewhere. Didn't really bother since I'm waiting for the Xenoblade Chronicles X to come out this following week and that is a 100 hour commitment at least. So I decided to continue the playthrough I started in 2024, but never finished (don't recall why, but it didn't take me 8 hours to finish). Was recommend this by the one driving me to work at the saw mill back in 2013 so I got them for the PS3. Konami's own RPG-series.

So your the son of a high-ranking General in the Empire. The Golden Emperor Barbarossa have been turning evil for some reason and his closest advisor, the sorcerer Windy is whispered to be behind it. One day you meet up with Ted, a friend and after some mission to check the taxes of a northern village Windy intercepts you and kills Ted since he carries the Soul Eater Rune. Before being killed Ted gives the rune to you so now you gotta escape the might of the Empire. You join up with an resistance group lead by Odessa Silverberg and Flik and Victor. After a mission your hideout is found out and Odessa is killed. The rest gives leadership to you so you start the Liberation Army.

So you have to gather the 108 Stars of Destiny in order to stop the Emperor and Windy. It's a fun game and is not only an RPG, but also a base builder and strategy game (although the strategy is kinda minimal). Yes, a strategy game where you take control of the Liberation Army and have to lead them to victory by choosing the right attack or use special things like Ninja's to get information on the plans of the enemy, Merchants to make the enemy army turn to your side and so on. Fun distractions, if it wasn't for the reason that your 108 Stars of Destiny can die in the battle for some reason (seems mostly RNG). 

Really, the most trouble with the game is probably the 108 Stars of Destiny. You gotta collect them all, but of course some of them are missable or hidden behind side-quests and so on. So I used a guide through it all. Maybe when I replay it on Switch I might play it more legit, since it was so slow on the PS1 with reloading and so on. Actually, I spent most of the time gambling with Gaspar to accumulate enough gold to keep the Stars of Destiny you could take with you upgraded in armor and equipment. A pity that the max amount was only 999 999, but it at least forced you to constantly use it since the end-game allows you to hit that amount fairly easy just by battling monsters. 

Cause that cost a lot. Also interesting in that level grinding isn't really a thing in the game. Characters get EXP depending on how tough the monsters are according to their level which allows you to easy level up a character that have lagged behind, but the cost to sharpen the weapons is really step at the end and matters more. But just save/restore the save if you succeed on the gambling and since each time you win you can gamle it all the winnings add up really fast.

In the end I had fun, but as the end credits roll and each of the 108 Stars of Destiny gets a small note like in Skies of Arcadia I just can't feel for all of them since frankly, I've forgotten most of them. Skies of Arcadia only had what, 22 characters in your crew? That's manageable, 108 isn't. Especially since very few of them has any story beside joining. A bit of waste I think. Well, some returned for the sequel which I also have, but I might not finish it since as mentioned, in 4 days Xenoblade Chronicles X is supposed to be released and this took me 26 hours and I would suspect that Suikoden II would take the same amount of time. 

Final Fantasy II (Pixel Remaster) (Switch)

 

So fortune shine your light on me and my dog
'Cause we need some security
While other folks are living high on the hog
I'm the black sheep of the family

Continued with the second game, the black sheep of the original games. Still find the story rather interesting, the gameplay... felt worse somehow. I just boosted everything, HP goes up after an amount of battles, easier to grind abilities and stats, they don't do negative growths, but... was the encounter rate always this high? Same problem with money in that everything was so expensive, but the ability to stop encounters make it palpable. They also seem to have added extra musical tracks since it doesn't correspond to the Famicom track list, but that might have been since any rerelease. I would also say, one thing to have made the whole forcing you to grind every single person more easy would have been to do it like in Grandia, you get an orb with the experience to give to a new character (to speed them up as actual replacements) or give it to one of the remaining players to specialise them in magic or weapons. 

Still, no extra content with the dead characters which is a pity since this version I might have geared them out just fine and been able to grind their stats a bit. For example, in every pixel remaster you can just press Y in combat and the game goes into auto-battle doing the same actions the character did last time meaning it's perfect for this game where you had to use every spell or attack to get good at it. Getting Esuna up? Just spam it for a character and it will go up in no time. I noticed though that the weapon levels seemed a bit... strange, they hardly went up except after some bosses if I used it, did they limit it or something? Or was it always like that, but adding a fast grinding ability didn't make it work? Also, seems to a something like 10 levels for spells (I got cure up to 15 and the enemy highest seemed to be 16). 

PSOne, GBA or Switch? PSOne has the cutscenes and that's it. Probably finish it sometime to get it over with. But GBA has that extra mode with Scott, Minwu, Joseph and Richard. And they are likeable characters so I feel inclined that one day I should probably play through the version legit and make sure I don't shaft them on the gear side like I done every other playthrough (penny pinching is real if everything cost this much, that's why Minwu didn't get any mithril gear... on the other hand the switch version seemed to give me the former party members gear so maybe I've just been an idiot all these years).

Update 2024-11-05: Well, I tried playing the Origins version and guess what? If you try to use warp points, the game freezes on me if playing on the PS3. Apparently it also can freeze if you try revive party members in the church and crossing a bridge after getting the sun flame trying to play the cutscene off Hilda getting overtaken by the Dreadnought. So my game is unplayable as of the moment. That sucks! At least it confirms it's last place status.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

The first Metroidvania

So I finally finished Symphony of the Night on my PS3. It was really fun playing through a classic Metroidvania game. Need to dig through my DS collection. Anyway, this game starts with a look back at the end of Rondo of Blood when Richter Belmont defeated Dracula. Afterwards it turns to Alucard, the son of Dracula rushing toward the castle as it has once again been summoned to this world. There he meets Death that takes his weapons and armour. Wandering the castle Alucard finds Richter being the new lord of the castle and Maria trying to save him.Behind the scenes lurks Shaft who mind controlled Richter to summon Dracula and it's up to Alucard to stop him.

The game is a mix of platforming, exploration and RPG mechanics. Grind for exp to get better stats, get items that help you in different situations and explore to find some lying around. It also allows you to play it differently to your liking. You don't have to use the armour that absorbs the damage from the optional hardest boss in the game, but to me it sure was welcome. One thing I didn't like was that the map was hard to see. I actually had to have a map on the computer right next to me to actually see where I was supposed to go since the TV-screen made it hard to see where rooms where connected and such. And my parents TV isn't that small. And it was even zoomed in. 

It was fun, and as noted the voice acting is so chessy, but everyone gotta quote it as some point. A pity that the second half of the game hardly have any cutscenes. Wonder what game I should play now.

Resident Evil 5 (co-op)

This game again

So some year ago I finished of Resident Evil 5 and commented on the co-op, now, I played the whole game in co-op-mode together with my younger sister. And it was fun. Especially since we had access to unlimited ammo and all that for shotgun, machine guns and pistols (and unlocked it for a rifle on the way) meaning we just threw out all ammo and blasted at our hearts content. I put us on the normal difficulty and it was easier as two players since it was full control of the characters and not caring about the safety of the other in the same way as one person play. The game still has some bullshit gameplay I've come to realise during a second play-through. First the damn truck in the beginning that kills you more than once as you try to shoot the driver. Hate it. Second the run sequences avoiding the Ouroboros and the rolling stone. Quick-time event insta-death.

And now to the most annoying thing about the local co-op. The split screen is horrendous before you adjust to it. The screen is split in two, but since the widescreen would mess up they shrink each screen and place it diagonally of each others. Now, since we played it at my parents place we used their TV. And it isn't small, but goddammit, it was still hard for us to see. And no way to adjust after your own liking. 

So all in all, it has diminished somewhat, but playing with a partner makes it enjoyable on a completely different level. Maybe we should try hard mode with the acquired gatling gun. And I would gladly play it on Switch  together with Resident Evil 0, 1, 2, 3, Code:Veronica and 4. Maybe 6 if they give me local co-op.

Altered Beast (Arcade)

Couldn't find a box art for the arcade game

Altered Beast, a Mega Drive game I played at a classmates house some times. Got it for the Wii Virtual Console, the 3DS and and Sega Mega Collection for the PS3. And I played the arcade version of that game after unlocking it by playing the first stage with my youngest sister. Pretty much only was able to get to the boss of the second stage and after that the lives and continues was out, but in Arcade mode, guess what? Unlimited continues. And by brute forcing our way through we finished the game in what, 20 minutes? I guess difficulty was the length of this game.

The story is that Neff, some demon god kidnapped Athena so Zeus raises one or two centurions from their graves (with some so bad it is god synthesised speech). So they fight their way through 5 levels, collecting some power-up spheres to alter their form into different beasts, a werewolf, were-dragon, were-bear, were-tiger and a better werewolf. Worst is the were-bear since it doesn't have a long-ranged attack but must get close. Were-tiger is probably the best since you can even attack upwards . After defeating Neff (why couldn't it have been Hades or something like that? And why is roman centurions doing in an ancient greek setting?) it turns out it is some kind of movie production shown by "behind the scenes" footage like the main guy taking of his animal mask or some one with a clapper.

This game is sort of a nostalgic cult classic and I would lie if I didn't want to play it as a kid, but playing it as older, it's pretty much cheap with sluggish gameplay. At least the arcade version moves a bit fluently, but still it's rather hard. 

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Get of my lawn!

First game I bought for my, at the time, new PS3 Slim version and in actuality my first very own Playstation I owned (we had Playstation 2 in the family so I had some PS1 classics from the get go). And since my only experience was Twin Snakes and the NES version of Metal Gear (which I never got out of the first forest area) the story was a bit hard to follow. I at least had watched the very long trailers for the other games that tried to sell those games as movies so I knew some characters, but not the big twists of the games. And it doesn't get better that we start in the the damn desert area. I hate deserts ever since playing King's Quest 7 and 5. And now I'm sneaking around like a 80 year old in some middle eastern battleground in search for Liquid Ocelot as he amasses some army of mercenaries. With you have a little mini-robot, a camouflage suit and some kind of futuristic eye-patch. And on the codec Otacon and Sunny. Why was Sunny? First time playing no idea. And playing the rest of the series didn't help much, but she apparently is Olga's daughter... and the question that followed who was Olga? Someone from Metal Gear Solid 2. Anyway, sneak around town you stumble upon Meryl who lead the Rat pack and new bosses of the games, the beauty and the beast brigade.

Original 4-Ever

After the middle east you end up in south america tracking down Naomi who was in the first game and was missing during the rest of the series. After rescuing her you go to some eastern european country where the plot is revealed. Ocelot is highjacking the world controlling system the Patriots created who consists of Major Zero, the boss of Big Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3. Since every soldier must be connected to it basically Ocelot have full control of all the worlds armies. So you go back to Shadow Moses Island from the first game, which was basically the only major throwback I recognised. Yada-yada, follow Ocelot out on the sea on an old warship piloted by Mei Ling. Fight Ocelot on the top a crashed GW and then we are at the cemetery from the beginning when to my surprise Big Boss appears with Major Zero in a life-support wheel-chair. Big Boss turns of the life-support and then dies himself due to the FoxDie virus that existed in Snake, the end.

It was a fun game, but as you can guess from me skipping it, my first time I didn't even know who half of the characters was since I hadn't played the games they were in. They also released a patch a couple of years later which added trophy support so I basically had to restart the game since it was necessary for it to register. I only mustered to go to south america, after that I preoccupied myself with other games. And a big problem with my original run was the throwbacks to other characters which I didn't know so it isn't much for beginners. Playing them in order is probably the best course of action.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

He always runs when other walks!

The third game in the series and once again I had to wait until the HD release to play it (although my mind gets jumbled over if I played the demo for the 3DS before or after getting the PS3 version). Anyway, the setting is the cold war and Naked Snake is sent into Soviet territory to extract a scientist that is working on a secret weapon that can shift the terror balance toward the russians advantage, the Shogohan (or however you spell it). It's a prototype metal gear. He lands and extracts him, but is confronted by the Boss, his superior officer that coached him through the mission while on the way to the extraction point. You get thrown of the bridge you stand on while the Boss assembles her former secret Cobra unit and takes of under the leadership of Volgin, a soviet officer working in secret to take over the world. And then fires a nuclear missile which puts the US and Soviet on high alert. After recovering Snake is sent back in to find the scientist, stop Volgin and kill the Boss to clear his name and avoid mutual assured destruction.

And we dance, into the fire

During the game you met up with Eva, a russian double spy sent to help you by the americans and Ocelot who tries to stop you (and later turns into Revolver Ocelot). Your enemies besides the soviet troops are The Pain, the Fear, the End, the Sorrow and the Fury. And your own support team is Major Zero, Sigma and Para-Medic appearing in your codec conversations... I don't think there's really that much else to say about this game. Biggest gameplay mechanic of this game was the new camouflage system in what colours you used or clothes (or even if you were naked) that affects your camouflage score that helps you avoid detection from the wild life and soldiers. Also you have to repair yourselves if you get injured with some improvised surgery or hunt for food by stalking wildlife like snakes and birds. Really interesting concepts. But since I'm lousy at games I play on easy and hardly needs to care.

It was fun playing it, but the story seems to repeat itself. Soldiers who are being used by their governments without care. Of course there is no secret society... or it actually tries to explain where it originated from. So after being captured, tortured and eye blown out and the scientist killed you find out that Volgin is sitting on the philosophers legacy which is apparently some amassed wealth from China, Soviet and the US as part of the second world war push to stop the Nazis. But Volgin tries to use it for his own purposes. So the Americans sent in the Boss to get it, but you didn't know that. Eva is actually a chinese spy working to get the legacy for her side while Ocelot that have been your antagonist through the whole game was your actual contact. Everyone backstabs everyone here and there and after defeating Volgin and the proto-metal gear Snake and Eva escapes only to Snake duel the Boss on a field of white flowers that turns red as she dies on the field. Then they escape again on a plane. While surviving the ordeal Eva steals the secret documents on the legacy and leaves. Snake gets back to the US. Gets a medal and earn the name Big Boss.

We Got all the time in the world!

I really liked the game and it could have been to play with Snake and to hear his constant growling or the fact that it is pretty much a James Bond-movie from the 60's with similar music (the snake eater theme really sound like a classic Bond theme). Also it's a bit more low-tech than the other games. There is no nano-machines. No clones and the rest I get a hang on like the nuclear weapons and such. Plus it's set to the backdrop of the cold war with the Cuban missile crisis. I even know who the world leaders are like Kennedy, Chrusjtjov and Brezjnev are. A simpler game for a simpler time.

Oh and the Bond references are Thunderbolt, View to a Kill and On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

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Kingdom Hearts: ReCoded

Another cutscenes movie of a handheld game

Kingdom Hearts: Recoded... if Kingdom Hearts 2 made a Tron reference this is pretty much Kingdom Tron: The Movie. Premise is that it's at the end of the games timeline. Jiminy Cricket looks through his journals and the first one (clearly of the first game) has nothing in it since it was erased in Chains of Memories beyond a note thanking Namine... except that it appears another note appears. King Mickey, Donald and Goofy uses a special device to encode it as data (again with encoding things to data), but the information is corrupt so they send in an avatar of Sora to debug the whole thing. Basically yet another retelling of the first game, but they also put in Chains of Memories parts as well. Now everything would have worked smoothly if not for some reason they were all sucked into the "computer" together with Pete who contacts Maleficent so they cause havoc on their end while data-Sora tries to fix it with the real Mickey, Donald and Goofy. I don't get much else of the story other than that after much struggle rid the book of bugs and confront the one behind it... Namine? 

For such a simple premise as Disney- and Final Fantasy-characters in one game it's a really complicated plot. Maybe I just didn't care again since its like a 2.5 hour movie without the roaming around to figure things out and missing a lot of boss banter that sometimes gives a lot to character motives. At least I haven't needed to learn another control scheme or using cards to play.

Other things to mention is that mostly the same voice actors, but they changed the Genie from Dan Castellaneta to someone who actually sounds more like Robin Williams. And to be honest, even though I know it's not the same voice for Mickey I can't tell the difference. It also sets up the plot for the next game with fighting a resurrected Xehanort... which was the apprentice of Ansem... and yet only was a Nobody. Apparently by skipping Birth by Sleep I missed out on some important plot points so I should probably finish of that game next.

Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix

Original cover of the game back in 2006

So I finally finished it, took me around 50 hours and reaching level 80 before being fed up with the side-questing and just finish it. At least I finished it before AntDude, but maybe not fair since I started like, a month before he started publish his reviews on the games in the series (and by now you can guess that I write these a long time before releasing them, but hopefully he has released his review before this). So lets see, shall we begin with the story as per usual?

Wait, who's this guy again?

So the game starts with introducing us to Roxas, a normal kid enjoying the final week of summer with his friends. Now, watching the movie in the last game I already know his backstory. He is Sora's Nobody, a being that have no heart and is part of Organisation XIII, he's actually their 13th member. He was defeated by Riku and somehow ended up in Twilight Town with memories changed. Of course, if you played the game in 2006 you wouldn't know that since then he was just Roxas, our tutorial character to give an excuse to reintroduce the basic controls from the last game and some added things, like now you can skate on a skateboard. So basically Roxas and friends are trying to make the days go, but Roxas starts to notice people in black cloaks that no others see, times stop at times and beings like heartless and nobodies appear and with them the Keyblade. Exploring the town he finds the girl Namine in a mansion at the outskirts. In the end he finds a mysterious laboratory under it that leads him to what pretty much is a cryochamber. And after all stress and pressure he starts it up... and he disappear as Sora awakens from his sleep, having regained all memories he lost at Castle Oblivion, but the memories from that castle is gone. Really, this section is rather bitter since I assume everyone wanted to play Sora, but from a gaming perspective this made more sense, but you actually gets attached to Roxas even though you know he must disappear somehow and it gets really though when he himself starts to wonder if its real or not and more or less begs to exist.... and then he's gone. Not only that, but walking around town as Sora afterwards feels empty, since no one remember Roxas. No trace of what he accomplished, the street tournament, his friends don't recall him and so on. It's like he was completely erased, like he was a Nobody.... Well, at least I can play with Donald and Goofy again.

Did he change clothes?

And here the real part of the game starts. You leave Twilight Town and meet Yin Sid, the wizard from Fantasia that gives you your knew clothes and access to the Gummi Ship. And you're of. First stop Disney Castle, you are visiting the home of Donald and Goofy. Not much there beside introducing Queen Minnie and whatever Daisy is. You travel to Hollow Bastion that been resettled by the Final Fantasy characters from last game and Merlin... so basically the new Traverse Town. We even have Uncle Scrooge here trying to make some ice cream. Actually preferred Traverse Town to be honest, much more atmosphere. Then the rest of the worlds. There's worlds from Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, Hercules (old), The Little Mermaid (old), Aladdin (old), The Lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean and Nightmare Before Christmas (old). Most of them follow their respective movies and for the new worlds no problem, but The Little Mermaid I've already seen once so I don't need it again, but they had to so they could use some more songs from the movie in a musical. And again, the only ones that uses the movie music is Nightmare, Mermaid and Winnie the Pooh (of course the book is here again) of the old worlds and are joined by the Pirate movies. And to be honest they used a short excerpt from Beauty and the Beast at the end of that chapter. It's only the best Disney movie so of course it had to do it. The only one I don't know is the world based on Tron. Yes, another live-action movie from the 80's that I've never seen and fittingly is accessed through a computer in Hollow Bastion (where also Winnie the Pooh is as well). 

From the same creator who made Animalympics you say?

So you run around, level up, get abridged versions of the movies and I gotta hand it to them, Aladdin they based on the sequel Return of Jafar instead of repeating the same story again as they did with Mermaid. How can they even explain that since I killed Ursula in the last game and they point out that both Oogi Boggy and Maleficent are resurrected while Jafar was seen caught in the lamp in the last game, but Ursula just shows up and Ariel still believes her as if that part of the game didn't happen. Hercules is probably the only one I can't say that much about since it's basically just an arena level, but this time placed in the underworld and you can play with Auron from Final Fantasy X, neat.

The bad guys I presume

So if we go back to the story, why was Organization XIII a threat again. Well, in the span of the game they tried to get Roxas back, and if he wouldn't cooperate they were ordered to kill him, harsh, but hey I haven't read the terms of contract at the organisation. Then they tried kidnap Kairi, which is pretty much I as a player starts to see them as a threat... if I have played the first game and know who Kairi is. And the game tries to fool me in that a man named Diz is a bad guy since he has an evil laugh and plans some dark things with Ansem, the big bad of the first game. Helps that he is voiced by Christopher Lee. Turns out Diz is the real Ansem, a good guy who was usurped by the bad Ansem, not the one he planed with since that was Riku transformed by the darkness into Ansem. But Ansem bad guy is dead, so in this game we have his Nobody instead, Xemnas. And boy is that a cheating bastard. So endgame is that you figure out that Twilight Town also has another version of itself explaining why no-one knew who Roxas was. That Twilight Town has a portal to the World Between Worlds. Sora and gang fights their way through while meeting up with Riku and Kairi who escaped her prison thanks to Namine and later on King Mickey who helped Diz as he was collecting data... of Kingdom Hearts with act as a moon in the world of Darkness? The game has literally dropped me somewhere and I can't explain what happens. I don't even get the plan of the Nobodies. Are they struggling to feel? Or are they just eradicating everything so everyone will be as them? And defeating Hearless with the Keyblade creates the Kingdom Hearts? Or does it create Nobodies? I'm so confused. And I haven't even mentioned with the subplot of Maleficent and Pete going around looking for a Castle to control the heartless. I think they did a heroic sacrifice since after that they don't show, but with this game what would I know?

Pete, former captain of the guard and boss of Mickey Mouse on his Steamboat... how could it go so bad?

Anyway, the machine Diz uses blows up killing him... what he tried to accomplish I don't get. You fight your way to the top, fight Xemnas a couple of times. Everything is fine as you win, everyone but Riku and Sora are able to get in the Door of Light before Xemnas return and you jump on some sort of space ship and destroy him. And then the final battle atop the monster start which is also pretty awesome as you throw buildings at him and then the most cheapest fight start. Cheating bastard I say. I died like 6-7 times because the bastard is able to hide outside the perimeter of the fighting area and then he traps me so I have to play as Riku, before telling what the hell I'm supposed to do while the clock is ticking down. And then the damn quick-time event I just have to prey to god I get right otherwise he drain so much HP that is game over... again. But I beat him. And then we are in the world of Darkness just walking around. We end at the beach I recall from the Recoded movie? They pretty much give up, but a flask post appears from Kairi and a door of light appears. They enter and returns to Destiny Island. They meet Kairi, Donal, Goofy and Mickey, all in CGI. They don't look that good. Credits and then the post-credit sequence when they are alone on the island again (Riku, Kairi and Sora that is) and they get a new flask post from Mickey hinting on a future game. If its the other game on the CD I have to find out another time.

It looks a bit uncanny I must say

So overall a good game, I had fun playing it. Same voice actors, the music was alright and the little assets they borrowed from the movies they made good use of. The worlds felt a bit short though. A bit linear compared to the more maze like worlds from the first game. Gameplay wise... pretty much the same, but they added Drive forms in which you with one or both other characters in your party combine strength so that Sora goes into a ultimate form. And as per usual I ignored it until I noticed right up to the end that I didn't have high jump, double jump or glide which they even included in Chains of Memory... where you didn't even need them. Turns out that to get those abilities you have to grind out your drive forms. So I spent 10 hours getting most of them up the cap of level 7 so I could glide and jump to collect most of the puzzle pieces scattered across the worlds. I have a small nagging suspicion that they mentioned it when they introduced the drive forms, but I forgot about that and didn't bother using Drive since I might need it if a tough boss come by. So instead I went back and forth between a save point and some enemies to beat up so I could save the drive gauge by entering the gummi ship. Glad I did cause I stumbled upon this added area in Hollow Bastion (or Radiant Garden as it's renamed at the end point of the game) where you need to max those abilities, but I came through and then fought my way through some of the hardest heartless encounters in the game. Lucky 80 was enough. I still don't get the motivation of the villains and Sora's own motivation is finding King Mickey and Riku, just as in the first game so that's fine. All it really did was actually tempting me to get a Playstation 4 in order to play Kingdom Hearts 3 when it gets out. And at the current standing there's Nino Kuni 2, Kingdom Hearts 3, The Last Guardian. What do they say? At least 5 games before buying a console? Especially since I know neither of these would end up on a Nintendo console no matter how strong the NX is gonna be. Maybe wait for the Neo which would be an upgraded slim version I guess? I also guess I have to learn to listen to a different Mickey Mouse since the voice actor passed away around the time after the release. And Diz won't have Christopher Lee either since he's also gone. And now I made myself sad. Then again I learn that the voice of Goofy was in the original Robocop from 1987. Best movie ever!

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

or Eat the blue ice cream movie

God, the last game was a disaster for me. An obnoxious gameplay mechanic with cards is just annoying. Why was all spin-off games (and even main series games) so into card based gameplay? Thankfully I can play this game which is apparently set before, during and a bit after Chains of Memories. So I boot it up and... and it is a movie. Well, at least I don't have to play the game. Basically it's the cutscenes from the game with a small text in between explaining story event during the game. It's a couple of hours and what I got out of it is... that some guy Roxas belongs to an organization named XIII where he is friends with Axel from the last game. Roxanne is member XIII and they introduce XIV, a girl which looks a bit like Kairi, in the same way Naminé looked like Kairi.  And mostly the three of them sits and eats blue ice cream on a clock tower. Apparently some internal conflict within the organization where Axel is trying to smoke out some traitors while watching the two kids back. Roxas and XIV try to keep each other safe, but for some reason XIV is breaking down. Axel has to get her back several times and then she disappears which sets Roxas out to get her, but he is confronted by Riku who unleash some... I guess darkness to stop him. Which interestingly enough is the ending teaser from Kingdom Hearts 1. If you don't get it, sorry, I could hardly follow it. I'm glad I didn't have to play it since it saved me several hours of  gaming. Still, coming from this way I hardly care for the characters since Axel is the only one I know about (besides those doomed by canon is I killed them with Sora in the last game) and even if he was the nicest of the people in the last game I hardly find him that interesting. Although my sister disagree I would assume. 

90 % of the movie people!

I will give it credit though for feeling very nice to see the bad guys (I assume) have this interaction. I don't get what they do and I assume it's due to it being a prequel to Kingdom Hearts 2 where you get to play Roxas. I know this since my sister for some reason become completely obsessed with this series and pretty much have them all and I watched her play the second game so I get a little. But now I got Kingdom Hearts 2.5. but I wonder when I will get the time to play that. I'm getting a bad habit of ending series before finishing them off.

Kingdom Hearts: Re:Chain of Memories

Cardgames in a castle

So I got to play the sequel of Kingdom Hearts. If I'm correct it was originally a Game Boy Advance-game, that was remade to a Playstation 2-game that then was ported over to the PS3. Given that origin I get why they changed the gameplay. Instead of the action-rpg that the original game gave us they instead gave us a... card-based rpg. Seriously? That's not the only time a spin-off game gets a card-based gameplay. Metal Gear had the Acid-series, Paper Mario gave us the boring Sticker Star (which obviously had stickers instead of cards, but it work pretty much the same). Sometimes it doesn't need to be a spin-off, but the whole game like Baiten Kaitos. And to be frank I hate that game mechanic. Either everything is chance based or you have to craft the perfect deck with just the right sequence of cards to really make the best attacks. But I think this game is even worse than at least Baiton Kaitos. Barton Kaitos problem was the randomness of what cards you drew from your deck, but here using combos means that the first card in the combo is taken away shifting the orders of card you get. Meaning that if you don't finish a battle before reshuffling your whole strategy is out of order. Best bet is editing together a magic deck since it really works for crowd control. Start with Aeoroga, then a magnetic attack followed up by stop time then hit the rest with firaga and blizzaga. Throw in some Thundaga and curaga to make sure you always stands on top. Really, a battle just last at most 30 seconds and in the final area I went up over 10 levels without much problem. In the end that deck was even able to defeat the final boss even though it was a hassle. 

Dude looks like a lady

Story starts right as the original game ends with our heroes following Pluto to a mysterious castle, Castle Oblivion. They are tasked to reach the top of the castle and along the way they will lose their memories and might regain some lost memories. Basically it works as the Auryn wishes in the Neverending Story 2. During the trip Sora get's memories of a girl named Naminé and he begin obsessing over her to save her. Behind the scenes a secret organisation is behind all this as they control Naminé to erase Sora's memories and replacing them with those they want. But apparently the local leader is trying to use Sora in order to take over the organisation and Axel, the red headed one, is working to stop the pink haired one. In the end Sora defeats all of the local organisation members (but I get it that Axel is the only one that lives to tell the tale) and saved Naminé and to undo all the jumbled memories Sora, Goofy and Donald is put in stasis. 

Same white walls everywhere, makes it feel like the endless staircase in Mario 64

I hate this game. The gameplay is just annoying since your action is limited with what cards have which determines combos and so on. The story has interesting parts, but most is just meeting the same characters in the first game, but changing up the story, although still pretty much be the same outcome... and pretty much the same bosses. You change the layout of the castle by using room cards you collect after winning a battle (unless you have over 99 of them, which you will get). And when you defeat the final boss (who cheats by the way by using an attack that makes you drop all your cards so you have to pick them up, bastard) you unlock another mode as you play as Riku... F*** that. The only time I would play that is if I in 10 years replay the game... you know in anticipation when they finally release Kingdom Hearts 3. But seriously, maybe a handheld console would have worked better since that was the original intent... and when I'm thinking about it, why do they give you glide and super glide abilities when you can't use it to search the environments?

Final note is the voice acting, clearly Haley Joel Osment hit puberty and makes the decision from the remaster of the first game to not add voices even better. On one hand I think the voice doesn't suit anymore, but I assume that is nostalgia talking, cause as a whole it sound alright. David Gallagher and the others sound as they did before so it sticks out a bit, but he isn't bad. And since he got that voice for the whole game it makes it acceptable for me. I would guess I would have approved even more if he hit puberty in Kingdom Hearts 2 after this game since, hey, prolonged stasis exposure.

Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix

The original cover of the game

Back in 2002 at my birthday I got the original game as a present. I guess I was 15 or so if my math checks out and this was an enjoyable game. It had Final Fantasy-characters, Disney-characters and what wasn't to love? Most voiced Disney characters were voiced by either the real voice actors or someone close (as far as I know, since most of these I've only heard the Swedish dubbing for). The main character Sora was voiced by the kid from The 6th Sense, Haley Joel Osment and the big bad is Billy Zane, you know the actor playing the Phantom? From the Phantom movie back in 1996? Alright so he was also the bad guy in Titanic. And the part of Riku went to David Gallagher from 7th Heaven... 6th sense, 7th heaven??? Nah, must be a coincidence. So basically the game is an action-platformer RPG. You swing your weapon, use magic and jump around a lot. The spells are all from the Final Fantasy-games, but here they are actually useful outside of combat to interact with the world. See a chest on a floating platform? Gravity it down. Lighting a fire? Fire of course, but if you need to extinguish it blizzard works. Of course the platforming isn't always the best, sometimes a jump doesn't register, close quarter combat on small railings are not advised (especially in Hollow Bastion) and small nitpicks.

The remake cover... or is it remaster?

So you play as Sora, young kid living on an island together with Riku and Kairi... and Wakka, Tidus and Selphie. But those three aren't important other than training exercise. The main three kids dream of leaving an island so they construct a raft, but before leaving dark shadows appear on the island and Sora is sucked of to another world, Traverse Town. There he meet Donald Duck and Goofy who are out looking for King Mickey who has disappeared. Donald is a wizard and Goofy is a knight. Sora have for some reason been given the Keyblade, a weapon that will destroy the Hearless, shadowy creatures consuming people's hearts. The only way to stop them is to the seal the keyholes on every world so Sora sets of in Donald and Goofy's Gummi Ship in search for the King and Sora's friends. You know, reading the summary... this is a really silly game. How can't it be when you mix the worlds of Final Fantasy and Disney? And for some reason this was a really enjoyable game for me as a kid and replaying the remake I quickly found myself feeling very nostalgic. You travel to worlds based on Alice in Wonderland, Hercules, Tarzan, Winnie The Pooh, Aladdin, Pinocchio, The Nightmare before Christmas, Peter Pan and The Little Mermaid. And you would think they would use the music from all the movies to really catch you, but if my ears hears correctly I could only find three places were they used the movies music and that was The Nightmare Before Christmas, Winnie the Pooh and The Little Mermaid. And those have the worst ear worms of them all.

HAVET ÄR DJUPT, HAVET ÄR DJUPT!

Fun fact the Swedish dub for Sebastian is the same actor who voiced Gandalf in the Swedish Lord of the Rings radio dramatisation.

So during the course of the game you face the antagonist, the Disney Villains. A shadow conspiracy led by the most dark and evil characters from the Magical Kingdom led by Malificient. There's Hades, Captain Hook, Oogie-Boogie, Ursula and Jaffar... they are the villains because they f***ing cheats. Now, stupid as I was I went for Proud mode since the easier settings sounded like an insult. Take these extra items and such thing. So stupid me choose proud meaning that they hit harder and apparently have a bigger repertoire of attacks. Doesn't help that most of them are puzzle bosses with platforming needed. I especially look at you Ursula. Magic in cauldron... f***ing cheap. Most other bosses you can beat with some grinding. That is until the end game start. You sealed most of the Keyholes and you found your way to Hollow Bastion, the place where the Final Fantasy-characters live in. At the beginning Donald and Goofy abandons you when the Keyblade switches over to Riku who has joined the dark side so you have to get help from Beast (from Beauty and the Beast) to enter the castle. Inside Beast is fooled away and Riku is about to confront you, but at that moment Donald and Goofy switches sides again since even though they were given orders to follow the wielder of the Keyblade, they can't abandon a friend. Defeat Riku and he leaves, but becomes possessed by an unknown person. You find Maleficent and defeat her, but as she tries to escape Riku joins her and plunges another Keyblade into her heart transforming her to the Dragon from Sleeping Beauty. Turns out that the person possessing Riku is Ansem, the lord of Hollow Bastion that researched the Heartless and apparently was consumed by his findings. You find his scattered reports after defeating certain bosses. This was an interesting twist when I played it the first time. He was with you from the beginning hinting about some dark mystery during the first 10 minutes of the game and you naturally assumed Maleficent or Riku would be the final boss. And so this person shows up that everyone told you would have the key to understanding the heartless. Really subtle work there.

Maybe not his design, but you can't get everything

You defeat possessed Riku and retrieves the unconscious body of Kairi... who's a Disney princess and her heart together with 6 others princesses (Snowhite, Aurora, Belle, Cinderella, Alice (?) and Jasmine) the villains had kidnapped in order to open the Keyhole, but Kairi has lost her heart so she is basically a lifeless doll. Turns out her heart was hidden in Soras's heart all along so to release it he uses Riku's blade and stabs himself and seemingly killing himself. Wow, and I thought this was a Disney game. Suicide? Hardcore. Well, since this is Square of course he comes back, but in the form of a heartless and have to travel down the whole castle to catch up with Donald, Goofy and Kairi who escaped Ansem when Riku's spirit stopped him. Kairi senses that it is Sora in the heartless and tries to shield him from the other heartless ready to attack and as in any Disney movie he regains his human form. It's kinda sweet. They escape back to Traverse Town to regroup and after some side questing you can return and seal the keyhole, but Ansem have disappeared. You travel to the End of Worlds and start the decent and the surrounding gets more and more twisted until you reach...  NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN

First suicide and now the literal devil, this game is hardcore

A tip, just fly behind him and whack him. A bit undignified for one of the most scary Disney characters I must say. Travel onward and you reach the end, which is the beginning, Destiny Island, Sora's home. Here a fight in what, 7-8 stages with Ansem until you bash him enough so he opens the doors to Kingdom Hearts where he is obliterated by light... ok, so he actually thought it would be darkness, but since this is a Disney spin-of of course every heart has a speck of light. The gang tries to close it and on the other side Riku and king Mikey appears, sealing the door from their side. Credits roll and our friends are now searching for Riku and Mikey again. The End!

And King Mickey saves the day

I really liked this game as a kid and playing again it felt rather nostalgic and I actually did things I didn't do before like actually trying to synthesis items. The only thing I dreaded to touch was the Gummy ship construction since I still don't get how to use it. This being a remake certain things have changed and been added. First and easiest to see is that they changed colours on several of the enemies. Why I don't know, I actually prefer the blue colours compared to the yellow ones on the soldiers and fat men. They also added some scenes that stand out like a sore thumb, not because they don't fit the narrative, they actually explain things that I didn't get in the beginning. The problem is that it's voice less and you see that this should be speaking parts due to the font they uses on the text. It's a small nitpick cause I could see how the voice acting would stick out even more since Osment was a kid when it was first released. Other thing's I find interesting thinking back is the completely useless side-characters you can add to your party, but you are limited to three people at time so one of the regulars have to go. Now why would I change? Donald and Goofy is clearly superior due more items to use, more armours to wear. The AI is still bad for all of them so it doesn't matter either. The only time picking the other characters is in Agrabah due to Aladdin being able to hit 2-3 switches to unlock treasures, Neverland where Peter Pan is needed to fight an optional boss and Hollow Bastion where Beast can break down walls (and for story reason he is your body guard during your first trip). You even have to equip them with better gear since they come with just the standard. Things that they should have changed is the information in the bestiary. Can't they please add what everyone drops so I can quickly check which enemies to grind for stones, shards or gems? And also where to find these monsters. Jiminy Cricket, you can do better you know.

Yeah, show some concern will you!

Now I never played any other game in the series since it was all over every console and since I moved away in 2006 and never bought a Playstation 2 to play the sequel and I actually think I couldn't get my hands on the GBA game or even the DS ones. Well luckily there's 2 more games on this compilation so let's get started.

Final Fantasy XIII

13 was always an unlucky number

So I finally finished it, 6 years after I bought it and played most of it. Some may recall when I talked about during that year about how I felt about it and I wasn't that negative against it... and then I stopped playing it for 6 years. So something must have happened, what? Well, the talked about corridor disappeared, opening up the world and allowing side quests together with taking of the roof of the level up system. And the roof forced me grind up to the max each step before a boss and suddenly I'm thrown into this open world where I must grind and grind to max out. Also the side quest monsters were way above my league so grinding was the only option. So no wonder I stopped. I was tired of running back and forth on this damn map accumulating a couple of million crystallise points to level up my characters. Before that I had no problem since even though it didn't allow me to explore it at least gave me story segments in different intervals and the roof on my level up system forced me onward since what was the point of grinding?

The area that broke me, Gran Pulse

Grinding is also some of the most mind numbing exercises I've ever done in a game. But the system should be right up my ally. I've hardly ever using status ailments or buffs if the game doesn't requires it (like Skies of Arcadia) so this automatic version is perfect. As soon as the enemies are "read" the AI instantly knows which are the most effective spells and strategy working for it. As a player all I have to focus on is choosing the appropriate Paradigm for buffing, rebuffing, healing, defending or what type of attacks I should do. But the battles takes forever since the strategy to defeat the enemies are as fast as possible to stagger them which often destroys their shields and makes them vulnerable. And I just mash X until the health goes down when the medic paradigm sets in. I actually can watch my tweeter feed while playing since all I need for the most is pressing X. It's almost as if the game wants to be an action-rpg, but chickens out due to the ATB/turn-based roots of the Final Fantasy-series. So I've changed a bit from my initial reactions to the game, is it due to everyone else saying it's bad or is there something else? So why was I able to overlook the flaws when I began playing? Because the story had some interesting elements to it that sadly didn't fulfil their potential.

Cocoon... was it some sort of moon?

So as far I can remember of the plot (it's been 6 years since I played it last and I quit just before the end, no way am I playing the game from start). The Fal'Cie are entities that gives the world of Cocoon food, light, warmth, protection and what not. They serve the humans on the order of the Maker. In turn the people are more or less apathetic and care free to their surrounding. An interesting start. I think this is supposed to parallel the welfares state problems in that the more welfare the government provides the more apathetic it's citizens get and are more easily manipulated (remember I'm a political scientist so I probably read to much into this). Meanwhile the Fal'Cie are tired and hatch a plan to release themselves from this non-existance. They are gonna kill the humans in order to get the attention of the Maker. Also an interesting story point. It's basically Skynet becoming self-aware. How can you mess something like this up? The background so to speak it interesting, but the foreground, aka the main protagonist, are just boring. All six main protagonists are Le'Cie, branded humans that are given a mission by the Fal'Cie and if they don't fulfil them they are transformed to Cie'th. And if they perform there's so called "Focus" they get crystallised. Not the best incitement to do as the gods tell you really. 4 of them are from Cocoon while the other 2 are humans from Gran Pulse, Cocoons enemy and the planet below Cocoon and they have been crystallised before. Most of these met up when the Sanctum looked down this town where a Le'Cie was spotted and the whole town was scheduled for purging. They join up as Snow and Lightning looks for Serah (Lightnings sister and Snow's girlfriend) near the awakened Pulse Fal'Cie. Sarah get crystallised so Snow and Lightning want to save her. Hope wants to kill Snow due to his mom being killed in their escape from the Purge train. Vanilla and Fang are from Gran Pulse and Sazh... well, he looks for his son? Now, in battle you only have 3 characters... so why couldn't it just been 3 people? I mean, I don't care for anyone of them and I say that since I can't remember much about them. Nothing stand out. Compare that to Grandia which I also took a break from, but I still remembered the characters and what defined them. Here I had to look on summaries to remember what the hell happened.

Why should I care about you?

Really, had they minimised it to 3 characters and giving them clear motivations instead of being puppets led by the puppet master it would have been more interesting. Another problem is that a lot of the story isn't told by the game, but lies in the datalogs you unlock. Why? Show, don't tell, and especially not make me read in a video game in 2010 to explain the story unless I can explore a library within the world itself, you know, in a town maybe. It can flesh out the story, but here it is needed to tell me basic ideas of what the Fal'Cie and so on is. Really, make the main character a Pulse human that have amnesia from waking up and let two supporting characters tell me what the world is about. Even more so, instead of purging people for being in contact with the Le'Cie, purge towns due to a limited amount of resources the Fal'Cie can create, forcing a population control. Let the Fal'Cie be an overprotective dictatorship and that humans must move out of their comfort zone to really achieve greatness. Make them conserve the society. Really, much better settings and for the love of god, let me talk to humans so I can care about their daily life. The only ones talking is the protagonist and antagonist in this game. Why should I care about all the other humans. Are they decent or just pigs? They seem to hate me out of fear, but come on why? They destroy a town, but why should I care? Make me talk to villager and then purge it if you have to. That makes me at least invest a bit more in this world. 

This was... Serah?

You notice that there can have been great improvement to the story. That is the greatest sink of the whole game, I don't connect with the characters or the setting. Here the minimised exploration hurt it even more. On the other hand the game looks absolutely gorgeous for being 6 years old and the music is fine enough. Mind you it isn't Nobuo Uematsu and they seem to have taken away classic tracks like the Final Fantasy intro and the victory fanfare, but it's nice listening to. Although it doesn't stand out. and lastly we have the weapon and armour upgrade system. It's pretty much rigged so you have to have a guide to even understand what you should do. Collecting certain items you can upgrade your equipment, but not in collect certain items to create the next type of weapon, no, you use the items to give it experience points so you level up the equipment. If you max out there is always other items to push it beyond. Problem is that I ended with I think my standard weapons, but over level 50. Are they good? I don't know I don't dare start levelling up another weapon since I first don't have enough material to reach the same level and secondly I don't know if it would be good anyway. Should I have waited until later to start levelling up, but then the question arises... would I have defeated the bosses without an overpowered weapon? I actually found a sword called Lionheart which is a throwback to VIII and as the last weapon in the game (as I understand it) should it not be the best weapon? And if it is how should I know? At the moment I start checking out the two sequels and every one says those are much better. And instant thought is, maybe I should play those. Maybe the time they are on sale, but sadly, this feels like the last Final Fantasy game I will play. XV everyone talks about, but since that is a PS4 it will take a long time before I even try it. On the other hand PS4 is also getting Ni No Kuni 2 and that would actually be fun... I hope.

Tales of Zestiria

The Tales of King Arthur

Back in the Gamecube days I bought the Tales of Symphonia game and found it rather enjoyable. I got the sequel to the Wii and actually never finished it. Didn't get a Tales of game until Tales of the Abyss for the 3DS. So as you notice I only got the Nintendo releases even though I got a PS3 and there been like 3-4 games and the first I bought was the HD collection of Tales of Symphonia which I wished was released for the Wii U but no. And then I read that LittleKuriboh was one of the voices for this game so I got it instantly. And then I learn that Kirbopher is one of the major voices... sweet! And what do you know, celebrities draw sales apparently cause after finishing the game I say it's the weakest Tales of game in the story department I've ever played. The premise is that it is the Age of Chaos caused by the Lord of Calamity who causes strife in order to create hellions, creature born out of the Malevolence in the peoples heart. To combat this a Shepard shall emerge from the humans and together with the Seraphim bless the land and purge it of Malevolence.

Meet the Shepard Sorey

Sorey, raised by the Seraphim leaves his home with his best friend, the seraph Mikleo, to warn Alicia, a knight they found in the ruins they were excavating and being hunted by an assassin. On his journey he will take up the mantle of Shepard from the fire seraph Lilah as he is pure and will rid the world of all Malevolence. As standard the interactions between the characters are fun, informative and well acted. Sadly the main character is boring, a goody-two-shoes that more or less is a Loyd, but lacks the great villain to compare him to. Heldalf is no Mithos Yggdrasill for sure. Of course Abyss didn't have a strong villain either, but Lukes journey and depth was something that made that game stand out. Here... nothing. And maybe it isn't the main focus of the game. You have very little environments and it's more focused on dungeons. A dungeon crawler. Action, battles and treasures. And it works. The armatize functions work well enough and unleashing the Mystic Arts are really satisfying. Sadly they even revamped the weapon system for a loot based economy where you gather weapons to synthesise and combine for better effects. Sadly this means you either spend 100 of hours gathering items, synthesising and taking notes of what does what... or you buy a guide... or read a FAQ, but it's busy work and I can't tell if a weapon is better or not due to all the skill bonuses. Just tell me if it's better Attack or Defence and I'm fine alright?

Well, apparently some people don't need clothes

So I'm a bit underwhelmed with the game, the only thing I can't say a bad thing about is the music which is made by Motoi Sakuraba, he who made the music for Golden Sun and you can tell. Certain themes sees eerily familiar and with an easy four element set up I feel right at home. Other things that are fun is they incorporated a discovery system where you find relics, plants, creatures and monuments that reminds me of Skies of Arcadia... doesn't help that Sorey begin with the same color-scheme from clothes to hair, all that's missing is an eye-patch.... oh, here it is in Fashion. Sadly that is all discovering you do since the overworld map is gone and we have a smaller world with a few settings. Sadly that feels like most RPG's are heading and I guess with more technical power you push more detailed environment, which feels big and looking across the whole area is fantastic, but the continent feels small in comparison to the two worlds of Symphonia or the one world of Abyss. Also there is several problems with the story. The malevolence angle, while understandable, gives the sense that you can't do anything without causing hellions. Lie, malevolence. Feeling sad, malevolence. Denying, malevolence. Really, an ascetic monk would probably be the only one not be affected or as they pointed out people really determined that they do the right thing, which somehow causes no malevolence. Right, I just need to believe in what I do apparently and it doesn't care if it is good or evil. No, I might play Tales of Symphonia Chronicles after I finish the DLC in this game.

Wild Arms (PS3)

Spagetti-RPG

More than a year ago I watched the Completionist let's play channel where they played this very game. It looked rather fun and since I had a craving for JRPGs I went ahead and got it. Finished it now and boy it was really good. It was probably a blessing since much that they played through I've already forgotten so it was fun to rediscover it although some twist you kinda can't forget. The special about this game is that it has a western setting and theme to it... which basically means that instead of a samurai game there is guns, since the spaghetti western already proved you could take Japanese samurai movies and set them in the west and they were as good (up to ones taste of course). Of course this is Japan so it isn't enough so you get Golems, which are basically mechs, demon cyborgs, space elves, guardian spirits, space stations and cities and human cyborgs. It's freaking amazing.

I AM IRON MAN!

The story is that the world of Filgaia is under siege by the race of demons, who are space travelling parasites, part machines. They are led by Mother who is the first and pretty much a Lavos who travel from planet to planet devouring it. But 1000 years ago they came to Filgaia where the Elw (space elves), humans and guardian spirits united their forces and defeated the demons and put Mother in stasis. Of course the battle took its toll so the Elw escaped to another dimension  while the technology level of humans went back from the space age one to a wild west setting while the guardian spirits put up mechanism to contain Mother which obviously, since this is an JRPG, starts to fail one Millenia later. The intro cutscene tells of the demons return and attack on castle Antarctica where they have found the cocoon prison of Mother in an excavation and only one person escapes the onslaught. Jump forward some years and you met your three main protagonist. Rudy, a boy who tries his best to help people, but since his abilities scares people he is always wandering aimlessly across the world. Then there is Cecilia, the princess of Adlehyde who is the chosen one of the guardians to be the protector of the Tear Drop, some sort of artefact. And last there is Jack, the swordsman treasure hunter with his talking mouse Hanpan... who quite clearly is the lone survivor of Antarctica. They all met excavating a golem named Lolitha and due to an attack of the demons that steals them away you set out on adventure to save the world.

Always bring a gun to a sword fight

During the course of the adventure you will fail to stop the resurrection of Mother, but since her only desire is to destroy the other demons allow you to finish her of since they want to make Filgaia their own home. In an confrontation with Zeikfried (the main demon lord after mother) he deciedes to chance it all by overloading a generator and creating a black hole that will swallow them all, but he believes he is strong enough so he uses a chain of magic silver to hold Rudy. As the chains won't break Rudy cuts his own arm of revealing that Rudy is really made of Living Metal, a machine created during the war as soldiers that went out of control to become killing machines. Of course Rudy is different since his time spent with his grandfather gave him a caring heart (although I've slaughtered monsters and demons left and right and hit bullies and so on). So you must go to the Elw dimension so that they can fix his arm. Unfourtunalty I remember that so the twist didn't have the same impact when I played through it. Also, Zeikfried ended up where Mothers weekend body was left and she devoured him overtaking his mind and continue her search for destroying Filgaia. A tower rises in the middle of the world and you climb that and end up on a space colony that orbited the planet and has a final confrontation with "Motherfried"... utterly ridicules name. After that you use the transportation device back, but are intercepted by Zeikfried that regained his own will and fight in the dimensional space causing the tower to explode and the Golem sacrificing himself to save our heroes. Freaking AWESOME.

You're an ugly Mother...

Really this game is so over the top with it's setting and it's memorable and fun to wander this world. The gameplay is amazing, besides the typical rpg you have tools in which you can traverse the dungeons which is fairly reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda, with hookshot, magic wands, bombs and radars which also gives us some rather fun puzzles (except those that are just a pain, like the four statues that makes three of them placed correctly and the fourth must be destroyed by a bomb). Also, the music is unbelievebale good and fit the western themes with acoustic guitars, whistling and so on. It's really good, although I think it glitches out on me a couple of times when it couldn't decide which music track to play or which sound effect to use... of course just change setting and you are good to go. Talking about glitches I need to tell that I played the game as intended for almost half the time then I recalled the duplicator tricks and used that to max out my stats. The trick is that you use an item twice in combat and then change it with something you only have 1 of and want to duplicate. The game doesn't realise the item has been moved so uses the items with intended effect, but since its counting the new item which only has 1 of it counts zero and then 255, giving you 255 of that item. This is a really simple glitch when even I understand why it occurs. This apparently only works on the original game, but really, the game isn't that hard and it probably saved me 10 hours of grinding for levels and cash. If I play this game again I will most likely play it as intended without the glitch, but I just wanted the story this time. 

To think that one of the characters is actually almost 30, unthinkable

A final note, I already mentioned the similarities to Lavos from Chrono Trigger, another similarities was a cutscene when a tsunami was hitting the world which looks identical to a scene played after the destruction of the Kingdom of Zael and then one of the concept arts during the credits looks awfully familiar to a similar concept art for Chrono Trigger. Just a funny note.(you could probably say the tower of Kal Dingle is similar to the Black Omen). Also, New Year Tomorrow. Wonder what 2016 will have in store.