The Final Fantasy XIII Trilogy

Overview

I am going to be giving my overall thoughts on the Final Fantasy XIII Series of games so far.

Final Fantasy XIII

This game first came out in Japan on December 17, 2009 and like a lot of people I was interested in the next-gen Final Fantasy games. Of course, I didn't really understand what was going on at the time because I don't speak Japanese, but the game was intriguing to me and looked amazing. At first, I thought that Snow and Lightning were the main romantic leads, but it turned out that they were not and in the end I was glad. Everything from the story, to the settings, characters, music pieces, and game-play mechanics were refreshing. FFXIII was the sole game that made me buy a ps3 and it holds a special place in my heart as it is also my 1st ps3 game. This game gets a lot of hate especially in the states for little to no reason in my opinion, but overall it is a solid jrpg.

Final Fantasy XIII-2

To be honest, I wasn't really excepting there to be a sequel to FFXIII because I thought that the story wrapped up pretty nicely at the end of FFXIII, but never the less I was excited at the news since I immensely enjoyed FFXIII. This game made it's debut in Japan on December 15, 2011 and this game was a waste of mass potential. At the time when you bought this game you bought an incomplete game, and you had to buy the story dlc to view the complete ending of the game and many people were pissed and upset about this. Also a number of people were not happy that Lightning was not the main playable character, and that she was just a supporting character. Personally, for me I liked the variety of different music present in this game compared to FFXIII, but FFXIII was still the better game overall between the two.

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

This game is set to hit stores in Japan on November 21, 2013 and still not very much is known about it and it's contents, but this game just may well be the best game out of the trilogy. So far with all of the information that has come out for the game it seems that it's heading in the right direction, and also seems to be harder than the previous two entries in the series. I'll just have to reserve my full judgement until the game comes out and I play it and experience the game for myself.

Resident Evil: Revelations Mini-Review

Review

This game was a solid entry for the Resident Evil Series and it was nice that Jill was a playable character after her prolonged absence. The story takes place between Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, and you're pretty much left on a ghost ship and have to fend for yourself. The combat and game-play is pretty standard and scanning things/enemies is vital to your survival. 

Verdict

The ost is great, there are some pretty good scares in the game, and overall it's a mostly enjoyable experience. The campaign is lengthy but the excessive backtracking is one element that I could have done without.

Score: 7.7

K-Pop Special

I rarely seem to talk about k-pop these days and decided to do a special post about it. I was first introduced to k-pop in 2009 through the k-pop group Super Junior. I then got heavily into k-pop but at some point I had a falling out with it in 2011. I then got back into k-pop again in the spring of 2012 thanks to a friend who showed me SHINee's music video for Sherlock, and ever since then k-pop has stuck with me ever since. The year 2012 was really a great year for the k-pop industry as a whole, and so far this year has also had it's share of great comebacks and debuts of various k-pop artists. The k-pop industry is always rapidly changing and is a very competitive market with all of these new artists debuting so, at times it can become hard to stand out and come out on top.

Autumn In My Heart

I finally finished this painful, dragging, and hard to watch drama. Whoever said that this drama was better than Winter Sonata is 100% wrong and it's not true. This drama was way worse than I could have ever imagined and it definitely doesn't deserve all of the praise that it gets. The only thing going for this drama is the soundtrack honestly. I usually don't have any trouble getting through a k-drama, but when it came to this one I did, but at least I did finish it in the long run unlike the horrible k-drama Mary Stayed Out All Night. At first, this drama lures you in with what promises to be a intricate and interesting story, but as you continue watching it you soon find out that's not the case.

Verdict

Steer clear from this drama and don't waste any of your time watching it and save yourself the trouble. 

Score: 5.0

Stairway To Heaven

This k-drama was exceptional on many levels and a great watch indeed. This drama is essentially a modern take on the classic fairy tale Cinderella. From the acting, characters, settings, and the ost it's a perfectly thought out drama. It's 20 episodes long and the story concludes in a nicely paced fashion.

Verdict

If you're bored or need something good to watch I highly recommend this drama. It's entertaining to watch, the visuals a spectacular, and you might even find yourself tearing up a little along with the characters.

Score: 9.3

Skip Beat Chapter 201

Basically, Kyoko just spent this entire chapter freaking out whether or not Lory would let the cat out of the bag about how she's in love with Ren. The mangeka is really dragging this manga out that it's becoming ridiculous. I mean, at the rate that this manga is going Kyoko won't kiss Ren until the 300th chapter. All of this time has passed and barely anything major has happened. I can only hope that something extremely eventful will happen in the upcoming chapters.

Memory Lane #05

The game Parasite Eve at times I feel is a game that is harshly overlooked. I also think overall that the Parasite Eve Series has an interesting premise and in the future should be rebooted so that the bad memory that is known as the 3rd Birthday can be erased from our minds.

The Last Of Us Mini-Review

Now this is game is a prime example of what you would could a masterpiece of a game. This game had everything: a phenomenal story, settings, characters, and game-play. When you play this game you feel like you're watching a movie that keeps you at the edge of your seat. The art direction in the game is impressive and it definitely deserves all of the praise that it gets. Naughty Dog has done it again and delivered another exceptional game.

Verdict

This game is an absolute must buy type of game. The environments are always changing and the characters in the game you really grow to genuinely care about them. My only gripe about this game is that it starts of kind of slow, but other than that it's excellent. This game is among the best games that have come out this year so far.

Score: 9.4  

Vampire Knight Finale

The manga Vampire Knight has finally come to an end and 7 years of my life along with it. I first started reading vk in 2006 and was immediately drawn into it's world and art. To be honest I didn't really have too many expectations when reading this final chapter because I've felt that the story of Vampire Knight lost it's self after the conclusion of the Rido Arc and first half of the manga. After the whole time-skip thing Vampire Knight just was not as good as it used to be and just became a soap opera and angst fest, but being the loyal reader that I was I didn't drop this manga and continued to follow it. At first after reading the final chapter I was utterly disappointed and I couldn't believe that this was how the mangeka decided to end this story, but after letting it sink in and much thought I came to actually like the ending even though it was a safe and easy way out type of ending. 

Above all I'm glad that my otp ship Zeki became canon and I was so glad that Zero got a happy ending after  all of the bs he had to endure and suffer throughout this manga. The ending was definitely rushed there's no question about that. The two kids I think are personally both Zero's and Yuuki's and unless the author comes out and says otherwise that's what I'm going to stick with. Kaname on the other hand being turned into a human by Yuuki was somewhat excepted in a way, but in the end Kaname was given a 2nd shot at life while Zero and Yuuki are together in the afterlife and their children will continue to look after human Kaname. So all in all it was a decent way to end the manga albeit the cliches, and without further ado I bid my farewell to the manga Vampire Knight.

Shipping Cafe #06

In the back of my mind I've always felt that the AidouxYuuki ship was kinda of a comic-relief type ship. I mean, Aidou was kinda of the 3rd unofficial male suitor in the series that was vying for Yuuki's attention, but than again not really. Personally, I find this ship kinda cute and see it as a what could have been type of ship because I know that Yuuki trusts Aidou and respects him to a degree. Plus, he was pretty much tasked to look after Yuuki during the whole time-skip and from then on by none other than Kaname. I think at some point down the road Aidou developed either a slight attraction to/crush on Yuuki, but of course she was too oblivious to it or it didn't really cross her mind.

E3 2013 Special

E3 is now over and mostly everything that needed to be said is done and over. This year's e3 was the best e3 in a very long time and that's saying something especially after e3's 2012 lack luster showcase.

Microsoft vs Sony

These two press conferences were the main highlights of this year's e3 in more ways than one. Microsoft went first with their press conference and played it safe there wasn't really anything too surprising. Now, when it was Sony's turn for their press conference they basically gave the middle finger to Microsoft and it was an unbelievable occurrence. Sony's press conference was live, filled with energy, and they took care of business. Sony really cares about the consumers and game developers in general and it doesn't hurt that the ps4 is $100 cheaper than the clunky xbox one. There were surprise announcements made at Sony's press conference and the whole internet exploded with memes about the outcome of the two press conferences and they were hilarious. 

Click to view gif

In the future, out of the two next gen consoles I can happily say that I will definitely be getting a ps4 where most of the games that I'm interested in will be playable on and I personally just feel more comfortable and trust Sony more so over Microsoft.

Square-Enix

This year Square-Enix came out in a big way revealing the long anticipated Final Fantasy Versus 13 that has now been re-named as Final Fantasy XV. It was great to see this game in such a long time and it's shaping up to be a great jrpg.

Another surprise was the announcement of the long awaited conclusion to the Xehanort Saga which is Kingdom Hearts 3. I've waited 7 years for this game and I thought that this day wouldn't come for a long time.

More info came out for LRFFXIII and this game is shaping up to be a great game as well. 

+ Lightning will have a lot of costumes to chose from over 100

+ The combat is more free flowing and fun

+ The game will tie up loose ends of the characters within the FFXIII universe

+ When you buy the game you will be buying a complete game

+ There will be no episodic dlc as dlc will more than likely only be more costumes and possibly weapons for Lightning

Other News

Bayonetta 2 was also shown off and I so wish that it was playable for other consoles other than the Wii U, but it's a situation that can't be helped.

A new Mirror's Edge was also presented and I'll be on the look out for this game when more info is released.

   

Remember Me Mini-Review

Review

Remember me is the perfect example of a game with great and interesting ideas that ultimately failed on it's execution. Overall the story of Remember Me is simple and to the point with heavy morality undertones. Nilin for the most part is a likable protagonist, and the future setting of Neo-Paris 2084 was interesting. The combat is wonky and a little all over the place, and the game developers thought that it was a good idea to only show off the underbelly of Neo-Paris 2084 instead of showing off the great visual prowess of Neo-Paris. The one interesting aspect of Remember Me is Nilin's ability to remix/essentially rewrite a person's memory since in this game everyone's memories are digitized. 

Verdict

This game is a weekend rental at best it's not worth the $60 price tag. It possess great ideas and potential, but it fell short of the mark with it's poor execution. Remember is a decent game and if it had a more refined combat system it definitely could have turned out to be better game-play wise. The game is also on the short side so, if you're somewhat interested in this game pick it up when it's in the bargain bin.

Score: 7.0