Retro Love: Final Fantasy Tactics - War of the Lions

For the Beoulves!

As you may have noticed, I've been on a bit of a retro kick lately. There's just so much awesome stuff to talk about from the past generations - an excellent example of said "awesome stuff" is the legendary Final Fantasy Tactics. Nearing its 15th year of kicking ass and taking names, the original FFT still stands, in my opinion, as the greatest example of the console turn-based strategy game ever developed.

As I no longer have access to the original PS1 version (my PS1's been broken for well over 5 years already, and FFT has some serious emulation issues when played over ePSXe) I'm going to be using the excellent PSP remake, War of the Lions, to refresh my memory for this installment of Retro Love.

Moving on, I decided to write this article because I've gotten back into playing Tactics again after a long hiatus - this is my fifth (!) time playing through the game, making it second only to Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (PC) as the game I've replayed the most. What is it about this game that inspires such devotion and love?

The graphics of the game have aged surprisingly well - especially when compared to other games released in the same time frame. The 2D sprites for the characters are very expressive and convey a lot of emotion, while the battlefields are simple in terms of polygonal architecture but are textured very nicely - they feel very "natural". Compare the same to more recent SRPG releases like Vandal Hearts II (PS1) or even the first Disgaea (PS2) and you'll better appreciate the effort present in every frame. (Note: The PSP remake looks considerably better than the PSOne version available online due to the smaller screen size and what seems to be a subtle smoothing effect, which cuts down on jaggies.)

A truly masterful OST.

The sound, on the other hand is absolutely AMAZING. This is one of my favorite game OST's of all time (second only to Square's own Chrono Trigger) - the stirring music really captures the mood of each moment, from stirring war beats, to gentler symphonies that convey a sense of wonder and adventure, and even melancholic, darker compositions that accompany key
moments in the game's twisted, circuitous plot.

Speaking of the original plot, that might be the game's only true weakness. It's well written and interesting, but the translation of the script for the original PS1 version was beyond abysmal. In fact, it gets progressively worse throughout the game, to the point where exactly what happened in the ending was pretty unclear to me. Happily, this glaring chink in FFT's armor was fixed on the PSP version, which has one of the finest Square scripts ever written.)

Ahhhh. Job System goodness.
(Note: Some classes in this screenshot limited to the PSP version.)

But all of those positive attributes don't hold a candle to the game's absolutely immaculate gameplay. I can think of few examples, in any game genre, where I feel that a game that was released more than a decade ago can be demonstrably better than a game released today. Yes, Disgaea and its Nippon Ichi Software brethren (Makai Kingdom, La Pucelle, Phantom Brave etc.) may have their complicated gameplay systems and damage counts in the bazillions, but the simple elegance of Final Fantasy Tactics' amazing Job System (still better than FFV's) provides a compelling reason to keep playing. The abilities you can learn are varied and have many different tactical applications, and provide an addictive carrot/incentive to fight "just one more battle". I also like that the game puts up a good fight - I'm a FFT veteran, as I previously mentioned, and I've seen everything the game has to offer, but the random enemy/party positioning and enemy levels that scale to your party's level help to keep you on your toes. (Just the other day, I got wiped out on Lenalia Plateau! Grrrr.)

In closing, if you've somehow never played FFT before, and have an passing interest in (or an open mind about) playing turn-based strategy RPG's in the Vandal Hearts vein, you owe it to yourself to play this immediately. Hey, if you have a PSP, the file's pretty small - less than half a gig if I remember right - so you've got no excuses. PS: Do not play this game, pictured below, as it's a much, much crappier title.

I give you... the most disappointing game ever.

Sigh. It's never a good sign when the sequel you've waited for for so long puts you to sleep in 25 minutes. Never a good sign, I'm telling you.

"I got a good feeling!"

B-Grade Bonanza: Mediocre/Crap PS3 Games That For Some Reason I Really Want To Play, Installment No. 1

One of the things I miss the most about the PS1 and PS2 generations (aside from the scads of adventure and RPG games that seem to be in short supply these days) is the fact that I could purchase B and C grade games on a whim,because they were so cheap. You know the ones I'm talking about - broken, simplistic fighting games like Evil Zone, horrifying FMV titles like Combat Queen, bad anime adaptations like School Rumble, Osama bin Laden-hunting games like... uh, Fugitive Hunter... the list goes on and on. Now, obviously, I can't go doing the same thing nowadays, as most crap games are
still going to run me over 2 kyaw (I was laughing my ass off at Datablitz the other day - they were selling Rogue Warrior for Php 2,950.00!!! WTF, good luck with that, pals.) So my only choice is to track down the games that I'm morbidly curious about second hand, so I can have the pleasure (?) of playing them all.

Or borrowing them from beloved friends. Where art thou, my wealthy, like-minded, generous benefactors?

One game I really wish those benefactors would lend me is 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand.

"You filthy gentleman of Arab descent! Wheh Mah Skull????"

Now, I'm well aware that this isn't a "bad" game by any means - simplistic, arcadey and low-IQ, yes, but not bad. But I really want to play Blood On The Sand for the "story". Ever since the "Wheh Mah Skull?" meme made the rounds of gaming blogs and message boards everywhere, my secret, forbidden desire to play this game has grown ever larger.

Just think about it, people - this is the plot, in a nutshell:

1) Mr. Cent, for some inexplicable reason, decides to do a show in the Middle East.

2) The concert promoters pay him in kind, in the form of a crystal skull.

3) Dirty terroristic middle-eastern types steal his skull.

4) Mr. Cent says "Wheh Mah Skull?!?!", gets royally pissed off, and kills a whole bunch of unfortunate Arab dudes with his, um, G-Unit.

THAT'S THE BEST FUCKING STORY I'VE EVER HEARD! I need this.

System Retrospective: The PSone era

Console Name: Sony PlayStation, later rebranded as the PSOne in its final years
Original SRP: USD 299.99
Original Philippine SRP: Php 15,000.00 (modified)

Notable Titles / Cult Classics: Gran Turismo 1 & 2, Parasite Eve, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, Suikoden II, Metal Gear Solid, Syphon Filter, Vandal Hearts I & II, Tomba!, Parappa the Rapper, UmJammer Lammy, Final Fantasies VII through IX, Ridge Racer Type 4, WWF Warzone, Tomb Raider 1 & 2, Poy Poy, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 & 2, Ace Combat 2, Tekken 1, 2 and 3, CastleVania: Symphony of the Night, Brave Fencer Musashi, Other Life Azure Dreams, Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, Xenogears, Ape Escape, Bust-A-Groove, Valkyrie Profile, Legend of Dragoon, my hands are getting tired

With all the (admittedly well-deserved) praise the PS2 gets for having the best and most comprehensive console game library in the modern era, I thought it would be a good idea to shine some light on Sony's maiden voyage into the world of console gaming, its rich and interesting history, and reminisce about the many great titles we played on it.

First, as always, some history: as you may or may not recall, Sony's system wasn't even supposed to be a "Sony" system at all. The PlayStation was originally created as a special project for Nintendo; it was intended to be a CD-ROM based add-on for the SNES, which Sony would then manufacture. After Nintendo pulled the plug on the project, a vengeful Sony decided to strike out on its own and sell the hardware they had developed as a stand-alone product.

Thus, the Sony PlayStation (lovingly yet inexplicably dubbed the PSX by industry types) was born, and the era of PlayStation begun.

The PS1's immediate competition, the Sega Saturn, launched earlier than Sony in an effort to build up a larger install base ahead of their incoming competitor. However, this was a bad move tactically on Sega's part for the following reasons: A) They had no games to support this advance launch, and the Saturn launched in the States with an absolutely abysmal selection of titles. B) Just a few months prior, Sega had duped their loyalists into purchasing a 32X, which supposedly gave Mega Drive owners 32bits of game-processing goodness but in reality was a very expensive paperweight. Launching a "true 32-bit" console in the form of the Sega Saturn so soon after these empty promises left many Sega fans feeling betrayed, and these deserters jumped ship to the good ship Sony.

And what a good ship it was indeed! I remember that crazy piece of shit launching for 15 large at Game Stuff in Virra Mall (the pre-fire version), the unit amazingly enough coming pre-modified despite being scorchingly new hardware. Fake copies of Battle Arena Toh Shin Den sold alongside it for the princely sum of Php 300, and to those of us who first saw them, it was like the future had finally come.

Toh Shin Den in particular looked amazing; after seeing the blocky visuals of Virtua Fighter, we were all disappointed, thinking that if that was as good the visuals of these new fangled 3D fighters got, we'd stick with Street Fighter, thanks. BAT looked fantastic, was much more fast paced than Virtua Fighter, and was much easier to learn. Unlike Sega's disgusting abortion of a launch, Sony followed up BAT's impact really quick: Tekken 1! Ridge Racer! Wild Arms! Crash Bandicoot! The hits kept coming in waves, and Sega couldn't keep up. It didn't help much that the Sega Saturn's multiprocessor architecture was hard to program for in comparison to the comparatively simple PSX. (Oh, the irony. Little did Sony know that 2 generations later, they would follow Sega's ill-conceived architectural mistake, which surely cost them some market share to the Xbox 360.)

Moving forward, as the PSOne got older and the years wore on, Sony pioneered a lot of things that we take for granted nowadays:

First off, they began the emancipation of gaming as a medium in the public eye; by that I mean they elevated playing videogames as something that was percieved to be the territory of little kids and obssessive computer geeks to something that was viewed as socially acceptable.

Secondly, Sony became the only company to win a console war (in terms of unit sales) on its maiden voyage: the PlayStation handily outclassed both the N64 and the Saturn by huge margins, which had never been done before and hasn't been repeated since. (They would achieve another milestone in the 128-bit era by becoming the first console manufacturer to win the console war in two consecutive generations, but that is a story for another time.)

Lastly, they held their own and established the disc-based medium as the new standard that had to be followed. Discs were cheaper to make than cartridges and held more data, thus games could be mass produced for a fraction of the cost it would take to publish a cartridge game, and still retain higher profit margins. They were also able to hold much more space in terms of game data, allowing for uncompressed textures and sound, which in turn made for better looking, better sounding, and lengthier adventures. Nintendo counted on their brand recognition to carry them through, and failed miserably - their decision to use the cartridge based format (which meant more money for them, and a greater amount of control over game reproduction) cost them market share and the support of key allies. It is common knowledge that the reason long time Nintendo ally SquareSoft decided to jump ship was because of their belief that the RPG genre could no longer be advanced on the limited space a cartridge format provided. As a result, Sony got Final Fantasy VII exclusively, and the rest was history.

Anyway, while we're talking about games, have you ever stopped to think about just how MUCH gaming evolved as a medium during the PSOne era? It's not even close to resembling any other period in gaming history, as the level of evolution console gaming experienced in this span is simply unbelievable. When the system launched, we were mostly subjected to better-looking versions of the same stuff we were playing in previous generations, as Sony was basically trying to work from Nintendo's pre-existing template for success. But at the time of the system's death many years later, many genres had undergone a complete and total transformation. I'm going to put on my Ace Attorney hat now and present some conclusive evidence for your approval:

Remember when having an "arcade-perfect" conversion of a racing game was a crucial selling point for a console? That's how PSOne began, with Namco plugging Ridge Racer and its "futuristic" 3D graphics.









By the time the console neared its end, Gran Turismo 2 had clearly established that arcade ports were a relic of the past, and that increased depth of gameplay was demanded of console racing software.









At launch, RPG's hadn't evolved much from the 16-bit generation, as simplistic old school RPG's like Wild Arms 1 and Beyond the Beyond were the norm.










At the time of the PSOne's demise, Squaresoft had had successfully expanded on the much more cinematic formula that FFVII had previously established, heralding the advent of the CG-heavy, multi-CD epic.







The Street Fighter series and its countless spinoffs were absolutely dominant at the beginning of the 32-bit console cycle. Most fighting fans, after seeing the slow-paced, plodding gameplay that Sega's Virtua Fighter 1 provided, elected to stick with the old and familiar.







Six years later, Namco had pretty much established dominance in this sector, growing the fighting market by leaps and bounds with each successive installment of the new-fangled, gloriously 3D Tekken, and reducing the Street Fighter diehards to an insular cult (a cult to which I still belong, by the way, so no hate mail please.)







At launch, platforming was still pretty much mired in its 2D and 2.5D past - simplistic (if still satisfying) titles like the first installments of Rayman and Crash Bandicoot.











By the end of the era, it had evolved into the 3D collect-a-thon, represented best, I think, by the marvelous Ape Escape.










At launch, console first person shooting was still attached to last generation, flat-plane PC titles like Final Doom. (DOOM!?! WTF?)











In the twilight years, we had Quake II, which while still being port of a last generation PC title represented a considerable evolution from the pap us console guys were forced to live with. It was also one of the best multitap games on the PS1.








One last point to ponder: at the PSOne's advent, action adventure as a genre meant mindless shooting and simplistic, linear gameplay with a modicum of plot or character development, like Contra: Legacy of War.



While at the PSOne's deathbed...

action adventure meant Metal Gear motherfucking Solid. Nuff said.

Please Make This Fucking Game: Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix Wright) Collection, for PSN/XBL

Capcom's Ace Attorney saga is one of my favorite series of all time. When it first came out, I was so hooked on the game's offbeat humor that I found myself subsconsciously thinking "Objection!" and "Take That!" during applicable real life situations:

Boss: John, I need that additional report in by 3PM tommorrow, OK?
Me: Um... I've got some other stuff to finish sir, but OK, I'll squeeze it in. (OBJECTION!)
Boss: Huh? May sinasabi ka?
Me: Wala sir. Guniguni mo lang yan. (TAKE THAT!)

That's both pretty funny, and pretty fucking sad.

Anyway, the reason I love Ace Attorney so much is that the characters are so endearing. Phoenix Wright (and to a lesser extent, Apollo Justice) comes across as a very "everyman" type of hero; he's generally competent, but often gets bamboozled by his rival, district attorney/chief prosecutor/lovable jerk Miles Edgeworth. By the end of each case though, using a combination of help from his many hilarious cohorts, tenacious courtroom theatrics, hard-boiled investigating and no small amount of pure, dumb luck, he wins out in the end and gets his client (who somehow always happens to be the victim of some kind of frame-up) acquitted.

In every installment, the humor is always goofy and hilarious (I've never played a Phoenix game in which I didn't laugh out loud and break into ear-to-ear grins many, many times), the writing is sharp and free of Engrish, and the plot is gripping enough to keep you playing into the wee hours of the morning. Sure, the gameplay is simple, but it's extremely fulfilling and entertaining, and in the end that's what counts for me. I'm not sure if gamers would be willing to pay full PSN price for such short games, so I propose that they sell the original 3 game series as a package.

The reasons I think a release like this on the PSN would be a good idea are fourfold:

1) Phoenix Wright needs to be exposed to other audiences besides Nintendo fanboys. It's too good a series to just keep on one platform, and sharing this on PSN and Xbox Live would expand Ace Attorney's awareness.

2) I want to see high-resolution, redrawn sprites and a booming orchestral version of the soundtrack, unlike the WiiWare version which is just a straight port. They could use the already-released-on-CD live versions and use that as the BGM. If that's too much like charity for Capcom (can't give away ALL the good stuff at once, after all) they could just clean up the MIDI files from the DS game instead.

3) They could package everything together in one download - all three Ace Attorney games (and Apollo Justice, if they're so inclined) for like USD 25 or 30 sounds about fair. You could make a considerable amount of money for a relatively small amount of effort, as the games have already been translated. Considering it would be download-only, and they wouldn't have to pay for cartridge or disc production costs, Capcom could make a pretty decent amount of dough.

4) A PSN release would serve as a marketing tool to promote the upcoming Miles Edgeworth game for the DS. Nuff said.

5) They could make it worthwhile for long-time Ace Attorney fans to repurchase by packaging the three AA games with the fabled, never-before-translated-into-English Gyakuten Saiban Encyclopedia, which gives a comprehensive reference to most every character, case and major plot event in the Ace Attorney universe. I'm betting the Nintendo customer who buys Phoenix Wright is exactly the kind of hardcore gamer who also owns a PS3 or 360, so the market will be there. Quirky Japanese titles like Ace Attorney don't exactly appeal much to the mainstream.

And with that, I rest my case. TAKE THAT!

As a further closing argument, I leave you with the Phoenix Wright machinima version of "Boot To The Head" from a year ago, a truly classic comedy skit. (CLICK HERE for the YouTube/SaveVid link as this site doesnt want to upload MP4's.)

And one for Jenny and the wimp. Hahahahahaha! :-)

C'mon, Capcom, make it happen. PLEASE MAKE THIS FUCKING GAME!

An essay on Trophy Whoring: One man’s addiction, and subsequent “cure”

I’m not ashamed to admit that I was (and still am) a trophy whore.

Yes, I’ve got an addictive personality, and in the past, I always secretly envied Xbox 360 gamers’ ability to gain Gamerscore for any title released on that system. Needless to say, when Sony announced that Trophies were going to be implemented into PS3 games, I immediately set about tracking down some titles that had announced their support for the service: I bought Burnout Paradise off the Playstation Store, and I duped some poor dude into trading me a sealed copy of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (R1) for my recently bought copy of (ugh) Devil May Cry 4 (R1). (Yeah, the game may have been pretty new, but Uncharted 1 was way, way better than that steaming pile.) And that, my friends, is where my problem began.

When addiction takes hold, it takes a while to let go.

Going back, the Uncharted experience was really great, but what totally pushed it over the top was the Trophy collecting. It was really addictive to work through the game, and watch your level climb ever higher with every shiny doodad you collected (combined with the malamig-sa-tenga na “You Got A Trophy” sound effect).

Initially, this actually had a negative effect on my gaming experience at first. In the months following my acquiring the Uncharted platinum I was so OBSESSED with getting more Trophies that I found myself subconsciously refusing to play games that didn’t support them. And don’t think this obsession was limited to crap titles only – it extended to some really great games as well. Trophy addiction seriously hampered my enjoyment of Soul Calibur IV (a series I usually play ad infinitum) and even caused me huge delays in completing Valkyria Chronicles (!), which I sorely regret. I seriously considered picking up games based on their Trophy-Per-Hour ratio, despite their being mediocre at best (Knowing full well that it was crap, I almost bought Leisure Suit Larry! What the fuck, man.)

Allowing people to check their Trophies online?! That should be illegal!
How am I supposed to get any work done?

Eventually the glazy-eyed addiction wore off as I got less and less experience from each new Trophy. At TLVL 12, I think it takes 3 bronze or one silver Trophy just to get 1%, so parang nawalan ako ng gana to compete with those hardcore types who are like Level 15 and up. I also found out that a lot of people just rent games in order to up their Trophy count, which is something i’m not willing to do... as I’ve always been more of a buying person because I’m a big fan of collecting games. I still love earning Trophies, but I’m not obsessively competitive anymore and I’m content to just grab them as I go, saving my obsessive Platinum-collecting efforts for games I really, truly appreciate (next up: a triple dose of adventure, with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Dragon Age and Tomb Raider: Underworld up next on my Pt hitlist, with a dash of Modern Warfare 2's delicious brand of mindless action on the side.)

December draws near at last, and all the major releases that I want are safely in my collection – now, let the game backlog clearing begin!

Incoming Drop: God of War Collection (November 17, 2009)

I have a confession to make. Two, actually.

One: I never finished God of War 1.

Two: I never even PLAYED God of War II.

Before you get up in arms about that, I have valid reasons for this: during God of War 1’s heyday, I was able to make it all the way to the sand area until the game hung. I was playing the jacked copy and apparently the non-DVD9 version didn’t have the second half of the game. As for God of War II, my PS2 fat’s lens had long since given up the ghost by then, and I wasn’t willing to put in the work getting GOW2 up and running on PS2HD using WinHIIP, as DVD9 transfers are always tricky. Ah, the good old days.

Anyway, enough blatant discussion of PlayStation-branded piracy! With the pretty 1080p graphics and the awesome trophy support (1 set of Trophies for each game! Unprecedented.), plus the convenience of having both Kratos-filled games on a single BD, God Of War Collection is looking like a pretty solid buy for me as long as the price is right. I’d much rather pick this up than same-day release Assassin’s Creed 2, which, considering how lukewarm I was on the first game, looks like a pick-it-up-when-it-gets-cheaper sort of thing for me. Even if it's better than the first (which looks likely) I'm not paying until I see proof of quality.

Plus, it’s a way for me to pay Sony back for stealing the first two games from them in the first place. Hah!

Announcement: Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands (NDS) is out!

Calling all Natsume fans, the latest edition of Farmer Fantasy(tm), otherwise known as Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands (NDS), is out in English! You can stea -- er, pick it up at all the usual places. Haven’t played it as much as I want to (as most of my free time is being killed by the unholy combo of Dragon Age and MW2), but hey, it’s Harvest Moon, baby! Pretty hard to mess that up. :-D I can at least report that the graphics and framerate are very solid, and although touch control is present, it's not required. Seems very entertaining so far, the perfect nightcap game to play before I go to sleep.

Harvest Moon is like the fucking Mega Man of RPG’s – always just more of the same old crap each time, but it's so fun you play it anyway. :-D Now how about a PS3 version, guys? I’d willingly pay full price for a remade, 60fps version of HM: It’s A Wonderful Life (PS2)....