Delays are welcome: Mirror's Edge DLC in February

(tags game, Xbox 360, DLC, Mirror's Edge, Final Fantasy)

Too many game blogs to read, and I keep on reading the same content over and over.

Anyway, Mirror's Edge DLC for the Xbox 360 is delayed to February. Yea. I did not clear many of the speed trial maps yet, despite my "OMG GOTY" exclaimation.

And Idolm@ster for the PSP is delayed till February, though I already knew about that.

Oh and yeah I saw the Final Fantasy XIII trailer. Animation looks great but the voice actresses sound a bit off. The guy's voice was pretty good. Gameplay? Menus again? Please. Is this coming in 2010 or 2009? Actually watching this video makes me want to play FF XII again.

Final Fantasy XIII promo web site

(tags game, Final Fantasy)

Now that the official Final Fantasy XIII promotional website is open, I can grab multiple pictures of Vanille, without any watermarks. Ha ha. Nice soothing music.

I read somewhere that the game system is not Gambit system, but the tired old menu fighting. Ugh. Instantly I am not interested.

Devs hate/like Xbox 360: FFXIII, Death Smiles

(tags game, Xbox 360, Final Fantasy, shmup)

Okay, so I know Square Enix likes the Xbox 360 because it has some games on it, some of them even exclusive (for now). But how about that the recent Final Fantasy XIII in Japan (anti-)confirmation published in an interview with FFXII director Motomu Toriyama by Dengeki Playstation magazine: "Absolutely No Final Fantasy Xbox 360 For Japan (says director/writer Toriyama)" (日本でのXbox 360版「FF XIII」の発売は絶対ありません（鳥山氏）) (thanks Kotaku).

By golly it makes me irritated, but then again, I only bought FF XII when it was used and cheap. Anyways, why should a director say the game is not coming out for a system? This is bad PR for Square Enix, because this kills anticipation. However this is good from a business point of view for SE, to force those Japanese gamers on the fence to commit to purchasing the PlayStation 3 version which is presumably on schedule. I bet he is saying, "Do not be confused, loyal Japanese gamers. The first version of FF XIII available will not be delayed (because the 360 version is a not yet created port) so that our financials won't be impacted."

(promo screen from FF XIII, reported by Gamespot Japan 2008-08-04)

I suppose it means I won't be meeting this lovely creature puppet any time soon. There's always the screenshot gallery, ha ha.

On the other hand, arcade shmup developer Cave's game Death Smiles (デススマイルズ) is being ported to the Xbox 360. No other platform is mentioned for now. (Thanks Famitsu) This is nice, except I never played this game and I'm not that much of a Cave fanboy. Still gothic lolita (though it doesn't matter in-game) and purple enemy bullets grab me more that that touch-screen/pad gimmick that is Otomedius.

Fanboy Square-Enix, Hate

(tags game, Final Fantasy, failure, Xbox 360, Japan)

The big gaming news this week for me was Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII coming to the Xbox 360. What a coup! As a gamer who doesn't have a PlayStation 3 yet, I feel pretty happy about spending tens of hours leveling up on my Xbox (with Achievements mmmh).

Unfortunately, the current word is that only North America and Europe will be getting it. WTF. For Japan, FF XIII will be PS3 only. WTF WTF. If there's an Asian version (usually Chinese market), I'm going to buy it with the quickness. But probably this one game will be region locked hard. A friend of mine speculated it will be brought over as an "International Version". Sounds likely, but aren't those versions released 1 year later after the original installment?

This is why I hate... who to hate? Square Enix, who's hands are probably tied behind their back because of a Sony contract?? Well I want to hate on Sony, but SE is the one that has to deal with Sony, so its their fault as well. Who cares, the Xbox 360 version has probably just started development. I bet you it will be released late 2009.

As an aside, I have no idea how the game is supposed to play, but if there's no Gambit "programming" system, I'm not going to jump on it on opening day.

He's just discovered the Steal ability: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

(tags game, Gameboy Advance, Final Fantasy)

So... at around 75 hours into Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, I discovered the joy of stealing weapons. But why stop at weapons when you can steal abilities! So now everybody's a Thief, or at least the two main guys, Marche and Montblanc. Of course I can't be stealing all the time. I do back them up with people who can cast Sleep, which makes the Steal success rate 100%. Most excellent.

Now, I'm 95 hours in. Ninety-five hours. Why did I ever say I'd never ever no longer get into a menu-based Final Fantasy?

Stealin' weapons and time: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

(tags game, Final Fantasy, Gameboy Advance)

I spent almost the whole day today leveling up my characters in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. It all started a day or two ago when I finally overcame a story-unlocking stumbling block. My main "tank" learned the two sword attack so down went the oppressor. After that I got some other weapon that allowed my Thief to steal the enemy's props. Unfortunately, stealing requires me to de-KO the baddies, and to Disable their attacks with the Aim skill. Which means I play a stage for tens of minutes instead of quick tag 'em and frag 'em. By the time I finished my "just one more stage", it was almost three in the afternoon. Busted. :0

Aww hell it's calling me now, again. No posting for today, but shoot, I had some topics to post.

You will not give me a yellow card.

(tags Final Fantasy, Gameboy Advance, game, failure)

Like I've been postscripting on the other posts, I've been playing FFTA. 60 hours in-game, wow, the GBA Micro is convenient. But the Laws are getting tougher now and whenever I get a yellow card (which really isn't a bad thing), I just turn off the game. So much for rolling with the punches.

Is strategy ever going to become necessary in FFTA? I've just been pushing around my "tanks" and mowing down the enemies sloppily.

Hello Xbox 360, jealous of my Game Boy Micro?

(tags Idolmaster, purchase, Xbox 360, demo, Burnout, racing, RPG, Final Fantasy)

Well I have to turn on my Xbox 360 today, because I have to buy this month's sale DLC in Idolm@ster. Bye bye 2800 points. Yeah, "Japan Downloads Idolm@ster Content Big Time" (thanks Kotaku). It doesn't seem like there's any announcement for the next catalog or sale. It's time to concentrate on Live 4 U.

Yesterday, I finally checked out the Burnout Paradise demo. I want this game. It looks pretty cool and I can really dig into the stunts. With a city this big and seamless, it would be a shame to not have any taxi mini game. But no Burnout to date has any images of people, so it doesn't make sense. Some parts of it remind me of driving around Los Angeles, like the big white Paradise sign and the beach area. Oh yeah, the announcer is in Japanese, except for the part where he says "right here, on Crash FM". It sounds okay, but wierd. Japanese radio announcers are so cool, they speak perfect intonation (American) English while shredding it up in Japanese. I wanna be like that.

I bet you Xbox 360 owners have downloaded your Undertow for free right? It's an apology gift. (Game Watch: マイクロソフト、Xbox LIVE アーケードで「Undertow」を期間限定で無償提供 )

And I am still playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. It's not hard, it's just a easy treadmill of leveling up and acquiring spells/skills through combat points (AP?). 43 hours, probably most of it in bed before I go to sleep.

He's just discovered the Start button: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

(tags game, GameBoy Advance, Final Fantasy)

It's rather strange that this unautomated menu fighter RPG Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (FFTA) has gotten a hold of me. The in-game clock says I've put almost 20 hours on it, but I haven't even got past the sixth default mission yet. There are 300 total missions, and I suspect that only a fraction of that is the story mode.

I figured out in the Equip items menu that on the currently selected item, the Start button shows the improvement (blue) or regression (red) in the stats. Before discovering this I was annoyed with jumping back and forth between menus. Now I can equip with confidence. :-) But then again I also figured out that I shouldn't be reequipping so much. "Abilities" anyone?

Still the game hasn't thrown me any real strategy difficulties at me, yet. I recall that I played most (?) of GameBoy Advance Wars 1 and 2 without finishing the story mode because it started playing out like Chess. Ugh, I suck at Chess.

I also took a peek at a GameFaq guide but I shouldn't have done that. I was wondering what good were those Judgement Points, since most of my characters now have "10". I still didn't figure it out. FFTA has been fun for me partly because of the exploration of the game system. I am not going to glance at another guide until it gets hard.

And yes I've been stealing glances at FFTA-A2 for the Dual Screen. But I rather play a game like this in English.

Completed Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings

(tags game, Dual Screen, Final Fantasy, failure)

I completed Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings DS game after a two week vacation just using my PSP. It turns out I stopped just before the last chapter. One more major boss fight and I could have ended it.

I am very disappointed with it. The controls are wack and slow. Its hard to select a certain character during a fight. The characters themselves are so pixelated that when they do a thumbs up gesture it's laughably crude. The story was forgettable, with the theme of all for one and one for all.

Still I finished the game, all 23 hours of it. There are 3 extra bosses I tried but couldn't collect. Those are for the hardcore. Forget it, I will never play this game again.

Like an RTS should

(tags game, Final Fantasy, Dual Screen, real-time strategy)

The extra missions unlocked before the endgame are kicking my ass. I think they finally turned on the AI on the enemy side. I am having flashbacks of Homeworld frustration.

That is all.

Set your addiction to "stun": Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings

(tags game, Dual Screen, Final Fantasy)

I opened my copy of the Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings (I've been procrastinating with the PSP thing). The game starts out slow and doesn't get very challenging, which is what the FF story mode is all about. I'm not totally addicted to it, I even started reading a Harry Potter book (the 4th one). But I have put in about 15 hours and I must say it's ... not work, so it must be fun.

Can I complain about the pixelated sprites? Or how it's so hard to select just one character to heal or something? Never mind, I'm going to finish the story mode.

The word is shunsatsu

(tags game, hardware, ECsite, Final Fantasy)

I swear that anybody that wanted a Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings Sky Pirates Edition could have gotten one, if they were around the Kobe area. Senaka: OtaRoad blog mentions that FFXIIRW:SPE was already sold out. "Shunsatsu" (瞬殺) Yes, I keep forgetting this word, but this is what I meant with that 'virtual "theft"' post.

Purchase quest: Final Fantasy 12 Revenant Wings Sky Pirates Edition

(tags game, hardware, Final Fantasy, DualScreen, purchase)

I took half a day off to buy the Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings "Sky Pirates" edition (ファイナルファンタジーXII レヴァナント・ウイング スカイパイレーツエディション), which is just the game and yet another DS Lite with some custom imprint.

I woke up at around 4:30 AM, but didn't get moving until 6:15. I was first in line at the Sofmap Kobe at 7:15. There was a sign saying line up here, but it was still vague because there are two escalators. No one else showed up from 7:30 to 8:45, so I read the last week's Famitsu magazine. (What a good issue: Final Fantasy 1 for PSP guide, Toki wo Kakeru Shojo review, editorial student Takamare! Takamaru comic and other various infos).

Luckily a Sofmap guy showed up at around 8:45 and took my name and Sofmap member number. He said I didn't have to wait in "line" no more, ha ha. And the store opened at 10:00 instead of the normal 11:00 so I did some other things like take pictures of Kobe in the morning. The weather was spectacular.

I got back to the store, and was first at the register. The game wasn't exactly flying off the shelves, no lines, no crazy FF peeps. I noticed the register gal took my copy from a stack of 5 with Post-Its of customer names. Could it be 5 other people showed up early? If they did I didn't see them.

It got me kinda of thinking, Is this game any good? It got 9, 8, 7, 9 from Famitsu (yeash I invoke the Famitsu scores). And its says it's RTS for beginners so I'm there.

Let's stop the blog and play!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that the official homepage is hosting time-limited downloads of backgrounds. I already missed the first two days' sets, aww.

Final Fantasy presentation, gaming later

(tags game, PlayStation Portable, RPG, Final Fantasy)

So I did go out and buy Final Fantasy for the PSP. So much for never playing another menu-fighter RPG without the Gambit system.

I checked up on the language selection and sure enough there was "hiragana", "kanji" and "english", so I passed on the message to GameLife.

The characters are redrawn and the text font looks absolutely beautiful for reading, in both English and Japanese. The FMV looks like it's from another remake, though. It doesn't quite fit the 16:9 screen. The map is flat, doh! I don't expect much from the music and sound. There's the catch-em-all "Bestiary" list that is quick-binded to the square button. And I did quickly try to customize the window colors to match my "champagne gold" (R, G, B order):

Top left: 31, 30, 25 -- Top right: 23, 18, 0
Bottom left: 23, 18, 2 -- Bottom right: 12, 7, 0

I gotta get this started... A whole game post without even playing the game!

But then again I gotta finish Comic Party. And I want to finish reading that bite-sized snack of a book The Indian in the Cupboard. And I watch my premium DVD set of The Girl Who Leap Through Time (時をかける少女). And there's FF12RW for DS next week. It never ends.