The Final Fantasy XIII Hostage Crisis: Hour 19

I've often stated my belief, only half-jokingly, that Shin Megami Tensei, as a series, is everything that Final Fantasy wishes it could be, from a storytelling and character-building perspective.  One of the most recent entries in that series, the spectacular Persona 4, is a great example - it's a lengthy tale (I spent 67 hours total completing it) but none of that time was spent poorly.  The story is well paced, the characters are fleshed-out and likable, and the overall narrative is both easy to follow and intriguing in its twists.  Persona 4 is, for my money, one of the best JRPG's of all time.  It's the kind of game that I always thought Final Fantasy, deep down, wanted to be.

Final Fantasy XIII has shown me that I was wrong in this assessment.  Because Persona 4 is still a game.  If XIII is anything to go by, I'm not sure Final Fantasy wants to be that anymore.

The Final Fantasy XIII Hostage Crisis: Hour 5

For those who have not met me, or rather, those who have not conversed with me over the thrilling topic of video games, I should point out before I write another word that my feelings about the mega-popular Final Fantasy canon are constantly stuck somewhere around the area of general distaste.  To say I'm not a fan of the main series is slightly understating things, though this is mainly based in me questioning why I lovey-love with all the love in my heart many of Square Enix's other gifts to the gaming world, while their main work tends to drive me away angrily.  I consider Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG to be among the all-time great games, and I heartily enjoyed more recent spin-offs like Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and Tactics Advance.  This serves to make my hatred of the main FF canon even more consuming, seeing that Squeenix is capable of such great things, yet seems to take none of that into account when making their main series  (Though I'm more lenient on FF6 and FF9, which seem to get it slightly better.) 

So then.  It is with these feelings that I went and got Final Fantasy XIII yesterday.

#FactCheckFail

In response to a recent drug bust at Columbia University, The Daily Beast decided to create a list of what was, in their research, the 50 druggiest universities in the nation.  A noble endeavor!  What caught my eye was how my school (soon to be alma mater) Northeastern University pulling in the #2 overall ranking as a hilariously drugged up school.  Woohoo!

Except for one iiiiitty-bitty problem....

New Layout! New Music! Fun!

Celebrating a new layout, which has come about as I finally got bored of my old layout.  Whee!  It's a lot sunnier, which works well for the theme of the site.  As for site content - actual, real things, written by me, going up on the page - there should be something coming, very soon.  I've just finished Metroid: Other M, and a review has been considered, but I don't have anything ready just yet.  It should be up this week.

For now, a return to Music of the Day!  To go with the sunny new theme, "Sunshine Day", by the Brady Bunch.  Camp never hurt so...good?  We'll go with good.

Dragon Age Part II

Or, as I like to call it, "Dwarf Politics, the Game".  As I mentioned in my last review, I was about to start recruiting dwarves into my medieval army of awesome, having already recruited humans, mages, and elves.  What I didn't know was that it would take about as long to recruit the dwarves as it took to recruit the other three classes combined.

Video? Video!

Huzzah, your blogger feels like a not-lazy bastard, for he has created a video!  This is a short slide show accompanied by possibly the funniest audio clip I've ever heard.  It's a news story about two men getting seriously injured while doing horrible things, and is probably the only time in my life I'll ever get to use an image called "gerbilcannon.jpg"  Enjoy.

Dragon Age: Origins

I'm growing quite fond of Bioware's recent offerings to the gaming world.    Mass Effect is easily one of my favorite recent games, and the second game in that series is every bit as spectacular.  So, with my new-found love for their brand of Western RPG's growing, getting  Dragon Age: Origins was one of the easiest purchasing decisions I've made since I heard that two of my all-time favorites, Kirby Super Star (one of the most underrated games ever, possibly the best game one the SNES and my all-time favorite) and Punch-Out!! (an absolute classic in every way) were getting remade.

But was my decision justified?  Ehh...well, take a look after the jump.