Post by devilmaycare150 on Aug 8, 2003 22:23:22 GMT -5
..Boredom only begins to sum up how lame my summer was. The Texas heat, is unbearable, I can't go anywhere because I don't have the heart to bother my dad and request to drive around when he comes home from work and falls out like he's about to die..
Usually, I can make it through everything because I'm home alone, my mom's a clerk at the post office, and my dad became a custodian at the same place when he quit his job as a carrier because a coworker nearly died when he fell out from heat stroke, and he gets paid about the same as when he was a carrier. It gets boring being home alone almost all day, but sometimes people need some time alone..
It happened in the second week of June, when I was first starting to get used to the routine of summer days. My mom came home early..and didn't go back to work. She still hasn't gone back there, I knew this might happen (she gets alot of crap from the people waiting in line at her workplace) but this was the worst time possible. I knew what would happen, and soon, it did.
She made it where I can't go on the computer for more than 4 hours a day, fine, that's great. But there's nothing else to do, my God, I never knew the kind of drudge they showed on television until now. I'm becoming a heap of laziness according to my mom..but I don't see her doing much else except talking on the phone because of her stress leave or whatever..hell, I've things have gotten so bad I've become an ER and Law and Order enthusiast..somewhere in between all that, my mom drags me off to a Christian psychologist center every Thursday where everything revolves around me sitting on a couch while she talks about her problems, and how immature and disrespectful she thinks I am and how I always jump into conversations too correct her. The psychologist nods at the right places, and then says a verse in the bible, his favorite one for me is saying that folly is in the heart of a child, but the rod will drive foolishness far from him. My mom wails on about her depression, and how I'm not helping her get through it, and how I always cut her off mid sentence, then when I try to answer her, she cuts me off and goes on to another subject, then says it's okay for her to do it because she has full authority over me because the bible says so..she says I have to show her respect no matter how I treat her and what not..my dad, has always been on my side, and he's another link to me keeping my sanity when she's around..even worse, I've developed a kind of..insomnia..I can sleep..I just don't want too..ever..as you can probably tell, that doesn't help matters..I'm starting to get over that, but during those lonely nights where my it seemed like there was nothing to do..and I couldn't sleep until 4:00 in the morning..these games where all I had..
But..what's left? I don't want to open another RM2K game to play right now, I'm rather sick of the program at the moment...
Xenosaga? I stopped playing that in May, I didn't bother buying it, and it's a good thing I didn't. If I hear that battle theme one more time..besides, I'll beat that another time. Like when I can finally get that battle theme out of my head..
No..I had to go back a bit..I had to do one last thing..
..Beat Final Fantasy 7 one last time. There was no real reason why I needed to do so, unlike many people, I figured out the story while I played it for the first time. But I just needed some extra incentive to play it again, and hearing about The Jacket's own little FF7 sequel that could (hopefully) be decent enough to not be yet another game that insults such a majestic game. Of course, my second play through was fairly rushed, so things were a bit..disorderly in a sense; I didn't buy enough All Materia's for instance, I forgot to go to Gongaga Village, forgot it existed really. But I was glad about that, the first time I played through FF7, I was a bit unsure of myself, so I used a strategy guide, which kind of killed it. I needed to miss a few things, it's hard to explain, but having a strategy guide next to you, getting everything without using your own knowledge kind of makes the games lose a definite sense of exploration and enjoyment. But I just needed to revisit the game that made me get into RPG's..I helped me get through a lot those nights, and I saw a few things I didn't before, mainly by accident. Things like..reading the letter on the desk in Tifa's room in Nibelheim, reading, and understanding some of the files in the Shinra Library in the same town, and finally being able to peice together Hojo's true meaning in the whole affair, and how his ambitions and jealously of a fellow scientist nearly caused the destruction of the entire world...
That was good for awhile, but I needed some new blood..something I've never played before..
Arc The Lad; the epitome of everything a backburner (my little slang for a game to hold me off until a big title comes out) game should be. I didn't want anything huge at the moment anything, nothing really hyped up, I needed something I knew nothing about. Nothing at all, no expectations, just something that I saw, grabbed, and played in a spontaneous whirlwind of actions. I was so glad I grabbed this game..
.Hack//Infection and Xenosaga were great games, but heavily flawed (especially .Hack) and after those experiences, I knew I just wanted to experience an old-school kind of game if you will. Something that was bare bones, slightly cliche, but still enjoyable. It's been a LONG time since I've played a really enjoyable game people, I'm talking at least a year maybe. I didn't need high-tech graphics; of course, they helped if they were made in a likeable style. I didn't need anything ground breaking. And ATL: TOTS is just that at it's core. Good music, a nice set of characters, a few plot twists, a predictable, but brilliantly presented storyline..I adored it. More importantly, I enjoyed it..but after that game, I needed to find something else, it was criminal how long it was taking for Silent Hill 3 to reach US shores..I needed something else to hold me off, lest I watch TNT movies and be reduced to late night sitcoms..
..So..rather relcutantly I might add, I crawled back to the double edged sword of a game I bought quite by accident called Breath Of Fire V: Dragon Quarter.
It's a rather good thing I did, it made me remember just how good the game was. How original it was, how underrated it was, how majestic it's music seemed, how many shortcoming's it had, and most importantly, just how d**ned hard the game really is. All you people out there complaining about how easy RPG's are, rent this strategy RPG, and it'll keep you quiet for awhile. Party members die left and right, and most monsters can easily massacre your party in a mere 6 turns.
You can't win a game like this by going
in with gun's blazing, and swords slashing. Strategy is the name of the game, and it's stretched many times to show how important it really is, unless you'd like to spend countless hours leveling up your characters. Your characters are almost never as strong as the enemy before them, and usually, it takes brains to figure it all out.
I found the game's dark atmosphere rather refreshing, and it's tale of three people just trying to escape a miserable existence instead of saving the world not only believeable, but very well done. The main problem is, there's close to zero character development really, there's the standard plot twists (some rather good ones, I might add) but the three main characters just don't have any background of note. Ryu, instead of a wandering soul, is a young adult with a steady job. Nina, instead of a sometimes pampered princess thrown into the fray, is an experiment gone wrong. Sounds promising, but it doesn't go anywhere. It's a pity really, such an excellent soundtrack, and an original concept, Capcom could've pushed this abit further, and turned this into a classic. But because of it's difficulty, and the trade from a lively, heavily populated world, lush with vegitation, to the dark, easily depressing world of Sheldar, when you play this, you'll either decide it's a decent enough game to finish, or despise it greatly as one of the worst games you've ever played.
..That's about it really..
Usually, I can make it through everything because I'm home alone, my mom's a clerk at the post office, and my dad became a custodian at the same place when he quit his job as a carrier because a coworker nearly died when he fell out from heat stroke, and he gets paid about the same as when he was a carrier. It gets boring being home alone almost all day, but sometimes people need some time alone..
It happened in the second week of June, when I was first starting to get used to the routine of summer days. My mom came home early..and didn't go back to work. She still hasn't gone back there, I knew this might happen (she gets alot of crap from the people waiting in line at her workplace) but this was the worst time possible. I knew what would happen, and soon, it did.
She made it where I can't go on the computer for more than 4 hours a day, fine, that's great. But there's nothing else to do, my God, I never knew the kind of drudge they showed on television until now. I'm becoming a heap of laziness according to my mom..but I don't see her doing much else except talking on the phone because of her stress leave or whatever..hell, I've things have gotten so bad I've become an ER and Law and Order enthusiast..somewhere in between all that, my mom drags me off to a Christian psychologist center every Thursday where everything revolves around me sitting on a couch while she talks about her problems, and how immature and disrespectful she thinks I am and how I always jump into conversations too correct her. The psychologist nods at the right places, and then says a verse in the bible, his favorite one for me is saying that folly is in the heart of a child, but the rod will drive foolishness far from him. My mom wails on about her depression, and how I'm not helping her get through it, and how I always cut her off mid sentence, then when I try to answer her, she cuts me off and goes on to another subject, then says it's okay for her to do it because she has full authority over me because the bible says so..she says I have to show her respect no matter how I treat her and what not..my dad, has always been on my side, and he's another link to me keeping my sanity when she's around..even worse, I've developed a kind of..insomnia..I can sleep..I just don't want too..ever..as you can probably tell, that doesn't help matters..I'm starting to get over that, but during those lonely nights where my it seemed like there was nothing to do..and I couldn't sleep until 4:00 in the morning..these games where all I had..
But..what's left? I don't want to open another RM2K game to play right now, I'm rather sick of the program at the moment...
Xenosaga? I stopped playing that in May, I didn't bother buying it, and it's a good thing I didn't. If I hear that battle theme one more time..besides, I'll beat that another time. Like when I can finally get that battle theme out of my head..
No..I had to go back a bit..I had to do one last thing..
..Beat Final Fantasy 7 one last time. There was no real reason why I needed to do so, unlike many people, I figured out the story while I played it for the first time. But I just needed some extra incentive to play it again, and hearing about The Jacket's own little FF7 sequel that could (hopefully) be decent enough to not be yet another game that insults such a majestic game. Of course, my second play through was fairly rushed, so things were a bit..disorderly in a sense; I didn't buy enough All Materia's for instance, I forgot to go to Gongaga Village, forgot it existed really. But I was glad about that, the first time I played through FF7, I was a bit unsure of myself, so I used a strategy guide, which kind of killed it. I needed to miss a few things, it's hard to explain, but having a strategy guide next to you, getting everything without using your own knowledge kind of makes the games lose a definite sense of exploration and enjoyment. But I just needed to revisit the game that made me get into RPG's..I helped me get through a lot those nights, and I saw a few things I didn't before, mainly by accident. Things like..reading the letter on the desk in Tifa's room in Nibelheim, reading, and understanding some of the files in the Shinra Library in the same town, and finally being able to peice together Hojo's true meaning in the whole affair, and how his ambitions and jealously of a fellow scientist nearly caused the destruction of the entire world...
That was good for awhile, but I needed some new blood..something I've never played before..
Arc The Lad; the epitome of everything a backburner (my little slang for a game to hold me off until a big title comes out) game should be. I didn't want anything huge at the moment anything, nothing really hyped up, I needed something I knew nothing about. Nothing at all, no expectations, just something that I saw, grabbed, and played in a spontaneous whirlwind of actions. I was so glad I grabbed this game..
.Hack//Infection and Xenosaga were great games, but heavily flawed (especially .Hack) and after those experiences, I knew I just wanted to experience an old-school kind of game if you will. Something that was bare bones, slightly cliche, but still enjoyable. It's been a LONG time since I've played a really enjoyable game people, I'm talking at least a year maybe. I didn't need high-tech graphics; of course, they helped if they were made in a likeable style. I didn't need anything ground breaking. And ATL: TOTS is just that at it's core. Good music, a nice set of characters, a few plot twists, a predictable, but brilliantly presented storyline..I adored it. More importantly, I enjoyed it..but after that game, I needed to find something else, it was criminal how long it was taking for Silent Hill 3 to reach US shores..I needed something else to hold me off, lest I watch TNT movies and be reduced to late night sitcoms..
..So..rather relcutantly I might add, I crawled back to the double edged sword of a game I bought quite by accident called Breath Of Fire V: Dragon Quarter.
It's a rather good thing I did, it made me remember just how good the game was. How original it was, how underrated it was, how majestic it's music seemed, how many shortcoming's it had, and most importantly, just how d**ned hard the game really is. All you people out there complaining about how easy RPG's are, rent this strategy RPG, and it'll keep you quiet for awhile. Party members die left and right, and most monsters can easily massacre your party in a mere 6 turns.
You can't win a game like this by going
in with gun's blazing, and swords slashing. Strategy is the name of the game, and it's stretched many times to show how important it really is, unless you'd like to spend countless hours leveling up your characters. Your characters are almost never as strong as the enemy before them, and usually, it takes brains to figure it all out.
I found the game's dark atmosphere rather refreshing, and it's tale of three people just trying to escape a miserable existence instead of saving the world not only believeable, but very well done. The main problem is, there's close to zero character development really, there's the standard plot twists (some rather good ones, I might add) but the three main characters just don't have any background of note. Ryu, instead of a wandering soul, is a young adult with a steady job. Nina, instead of a sometimes pampered princess thrown into the fray, is an experiment gone wrong. Sounds promising, but it doesn't go anywhere. It's a pity really, such an excellent soundtrack, and an original concept, Capcom could've pushed this abit further, and turned this into a classic. But because of it's difficulty, and the trade from a lively, heavily populated world, lush with vegitation, to the dark, easily depressing world of Sheldar, when you play this, you'll either decide it's a decent enough game to finish, or despise it greatly as one of the worst games you've ever played.
..That's about it really..
)
Anywho, this game is pretty kewl, but there's only four worlds, and the first two worlds are dead easy. You'd have to be ashame of yourself if you couldn't get everything out of it on the first try. I'm at the fourth world, but still have some things to get in both 3 and 4 before I take on the last boss. I'm only keeping this game for if any younger kids wants to play it later, it's that easy)
)
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