Radiata Stories

Seriously this game could have done so much better for itself, the storyline wasn't bad. But it was the long periods of waiting after a certain point that got me. The game focuses around Jack, son of a famous knight who took down a dragon, but ended up dying shortly afterward. His dream is to follow in his fathers footsteps and become a knight as well, in order to become a knight he had to fight in a battle arena.
If he manages to defeat his opponent he will become a knight, unfortunately for him the knight he faces is a girl, by the name of Ridley. Without breaking a sweat she kicks his ass and wins the battle, Jack feeling like his dream has been crushed, he is still administrated into the knighthood when they found out who his father was. He then joins a small group of knights consisting of Captain Ganz and his former opponent Ridley who turns out to be of high status in the kingdom.

After a few missions and a basic storyline missions, Ridley becomes injured in a battle due to Jacks incompetence. With that Captain Ganz and Jack are removed from the knighthood and asked to leave the castle. Jack then becomes a mercenary for hire, while Ganz joins a gang of thieves, this is when the storyline slows down to a mere crawl. Living each day doing so many sub missions and quests to the point your head hurts, and it isn't even fun.

The city is fairly large and you can recruit members to join your group, so there is extra soldiers when needed. Some will even pay you to let them join, others you have to do small quests or find to get them to join. But here is where the real kick to the teeth comes in, despite how many soldiers and comrades you have in your group. When the storyline starts to pick up again, you will be given an option, depending on which you choose you can either keep all your comrades or loose them. In my eyes it's a loose, loose situation for the ending you achieve with this decision.

At times it felt like they were trying to put humor into the game, with typical Japanese motions that is over played in a lot of animes.

Some of the armor that is given will made me cringe, some of them are really awful looking and will show in cut scenes. The worse one I remember is this tight red one piece jump suit. When he walks he moves his ass side to side as he shimmies across the floor, I had to equipped with with lower defense, because seeing a sixteen-year-old dressed in something like that will burn into your memory forever. The only thing I liked about the armor was Fayt's armor that can be required along with a blue wig to make Jack resembles Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, Fayt.

I really don't enjoy waiting around for the story to pick up or constant run around missions that aren't really necessary for leveling. The only thing I really enjoyed is the battle system, with Jack as a leader, you are able to call out orders to your comrades, and can even learn new commands from books and scrolls you can buy or find. Your army can consist of humans or of mythical creatures such as Elves, and Goblins. Out of all the characters my favorite would have to be the Light Elf Gil, who is not only shiny, but he is very powerful and a useful ally.

I seriously wouldn't recommend playing this game, unless you are a heavy fan of JRPGs which I am not anymore. If they tweaked the game even a little more it could be good enough for a sequel, but instead we got this game that has no real value.

Tales Favorites

With the new Tales of Vesperia that just came out and me regrettably unable to get it at the moment. I figured to ease my broken soul I would talk about my three favorite Tales games.
Number 3:

Tales of Eternia

Tales of Eternia is the original name to the English dubbed Tales of Destiny II, it was the first game I bought from a pawnshop, as well as the first Tales game I played. The story starts of pretty basic, Reed and his best friend Farah stumble upon an alien girl who speaks a weird language. After the village gets attacked due to the girls sudden appearance Reid, Farah, and the girl soon to be known as Meredy get banished from the village. They set out on a quest picking up their good childhood friend Keele, in search to find someone who can speak to Meredy. Soon it all leads to a great catastrophe known as the Great Fall will happen, as both the world Reid from and Meredy world is soon going to be destroyed by it.

This game has a lot of charm to it, each character has their own personal traits and humor every so often. There is a lot of side quests and hidden summonings such as Maxwell, and Shadow. The combat is fairly good, the only problem is using the special powers of Reid. It requires pressing all the buttons at the same time in order for it to work. It is much needed during the final battle in order to live and defeat the final boss. It took me quite some time to learn how to do it but once I did it was well worth the ending.
There is love story between Keel and Meredy, but Keel being too much of a nerdy coward was unable to tell Meredy how he feels.

The game was so good and well played that they ported it to PSP in Japan and even made an MMORPG based around it, which is regrettably canceled now.

My favorite part is when you go to this one hotel (the one with the fighting arena in the town) and while Reid and company stays there. Reid hears a rumor about a ghost that will ask "Where is my feet?" If you have your feet sticking out the ghost will take their feet for their own. The first night staying there they sleep on the 2nd floor, and sure enough Reid wakes up in the middle of the night as a strange voice is asking for his feet. Reid being too scared to move didn't get much sleep, second night you will stay on the third floor and sure enough Reid hears the voice again this time louder. He runs over to Keeles bed trying to wake him. Only to get a nerd sleep talking reply, and Reid is once again too scared to sleep. Third night you stay on the forth floor, and in the middle of the night Reid once again hears the voice and it was really loud. Freaking out the ghost would take his feet he makes a run only to fall over something in the middle of the floor. Waking everyone up, the lights turn on and there is a cat that Reid tripped over. The house maid comes in and explains that she taught a cat to say "Where is my feet?" as some kind of humor and to keep people from finding the cat and throwing it out. It's so stupid it's funny.

Number 2:

Tales of the Abyss

This game deserves the praise it got from so many, the game itself will leave a warm tingling feeling when you complete it. The game is based on two themes, existence and destiny, the game revolves around Luke a spunky smart-ass, who got handed everything to him on a silver platter. He comes from a wealthy family with close relations to the royal family in the city he lives in. At a young age Luke was kidnapped and later found with no recollection up to that point. With those events that happened, Luke was unable to leave the mansion for his family feared it would happen again. One day an assassin came to kill his teacher the master of sword fighting Van. Luke tries to protect Van by interfering with the killers attack only to be teleported to another place with the assassin. From there the story starts to move as Luke and Tear make new aquantices and learn about different threats that inhabit the world that they try to put a stop to. This game has a lot of plot twists and stuff that will bring tears to your eyes.

The character growth in it is something I really admire, such as Guy's fear with females and how he come to terms with it. As well as Luke's selfish attitude, as he turns into someone you can rely on as he learns his through past mistakes.
The combat has improved a lot, you can modify your magic to fit your style or not even be a magic user at all, like I did. It has a lot of side quests that are fun, there are costumes you can obtain with each character. It is also the only Tales game I know of besides Tales of the Worlds that doesn't use summonings.

The only thing I didn't like about this game was the loading, it takes 2 mins for it to loard the next area and even some fights.

The game is such a big hit that in October of this year this is going to be an anime based on it. Including the Japanese opening of the game, Karma. But to tell the truth I prefer the English guitar solo, compared to the Japanese singing.

Number 1:

Tales of Symphonia

This game has gained so much popularity through and through, so much that there is a sequel coming out for the Wii fairly soon. The game as well has a theme of Racism, mostly amongst the Elves and half Elves. Half Elves are considered be lower then dirt and are very discrimated amongst everyone. So much that a lot of the characters you meet have to hide the fact that they are half Elves and claim to be just Elves. But that's not the only trouble there is also The Ranches. A place where human slavery occurs, and a certain amount of humans are forced to work by the Desians. But wait that's not all, the world is getting depleted by Mana the source of life, due to the world dying "The Chosen One" has to become an angel and die for the world in order to restore Mana to the world.

Yes, this world is deeply troubled by so many disasters that it's very much troubling especially to a sword weilder Lloyd who always seeks justice. Raised by a dwarf after his monther died when he was a child, Lloyd lived with his best friend Genis, his sister Raine and the Chosen One Collet. After the departing of Collet and Raine as well as a mysterious man named Kratos, Collet and company seek out certain towers she must climb to become an angel. Lloyd and Genis were left behind but got into some trouble when they visisted a human ranch. When the Desians found out they attacked the village hurting a lot of people, due to this Lloyd and Genis were exiled from the village and set forth to catch up to Collet's party. The story is full of twists and turns as Lloyd learns more about his past, and about the future of the world.

The battle system is pretty decent for Gamecube, and the cut scenes are perfect with the close ups of characters facial expressions, which I happen to love a lot in games. There is a lot of costumes, side quests, and a lot of humor too boot. The only thing I didn't like about this game and it's very small is the dim witted Collet, she is probably the most sorriest character ever and I mean that literly. She doesn't ever stop apologising, she even apologisies because she aplologiesed. It gets really annoying really fast luckily at one part of the game she looses her voice for a large chunk of the game.

There is an anime and a manga released because of the fan ratings for this game. I am a sheep from this game at times I wish I could hate it but in all truths I love it. The storyline, cutscenes, characters personalities, and side quests all got to me.

Final Fantasy: Dissidia

I was looking around at a few websites and stumbled across this video for Final Fantasy: Dissidia. It's the character from Final Fantasy III as he fights the Cloud of Darkness. He makes it look easy compared to when I fight the Cloud Of Darkness. For people who unfortunately never played the DS version of Final Fantasy III. The Cloud of Darkness is the void with a face and a figure. She is neither good nor evil her only purpose in life is to bring the world to what it once was. Nothing.

But now it seems she has more of a figure then just a bunch of clouds shaped as her. The whole fighting style is pretty much like any fighting game but with jumps that make you pretty much fly, and a humorous classic battle system to choose one attack to fully unleash with no counters.

Threads Of Fate

Threads Of Fate has to be my favorite RPG, it's a shame a lot of people don't agree with me. Threads Of Fate is for the PS1 and is about two characters Rue and Mint, though their stories are different their goals are the same. The story bases around a small island in the middle of nowhere with ruins and treasures to await the two heroes. The main goal for both of the heroes is to find a [Relic], a [Relic] is an item that has special powers that is given to it's holder. The island has rumored to have the most powerful [Relic] in the world The Dewprism.

Rue is the main male protagonist who seeks the Dewprism to save his beloved adopted sister Claire who dies saving him. He has the ability to take on forms of monsters and has a dark and mysterious past that unravels more and more into the story.
Mint is the main female protagonist who seeks the Dewprism for world domination. Mint is a princess who was going to be ruler of East Heaven Kingdom. But got dethroned by her younger sister Maya who believes that Mint was too immature to take on the responsibilities of the throne.
If there is one thing I love about this game is Mint. She is everything that made this game awesome and she isn't like every other cliched female characters personalities. She is very energetic that sticks to her own selfish goals and but is willing to help people if they need it. She uses magic using her two hoops to cast spells or use the hoops to fight physically. She seems invincible with no fears for anyone or for anything. But under all that toughness the one thing she fears most is pumpkins. Ordinary pumpkins that are carved at Halloween. With that one fear her sister Maya uses the Book of the Cosmos [Relic] to create demon pumpkins to chase Mint.
There is a lot of colourful people in this game the highly fashioned in the arts of cute Fancy Mel, she is a witch who lives in the clouds. She has everything around her small house filled with cute clouds, stars, and grossly cute creatures she created. Then there is Mints rival in the [Relic] hunting Belle and Duke who have to be the weirdest couple.

Not to mention a lot of the bosses that you face were pretty good challenge. My favorite is Trap Master he can create any sort of trap that makes him a really hard at first to defeat. But the final boss was the hardest, I can't tell you how many times I died.

The sad thing is there is no bright future for this series it was a once in a life time thing that will never get a repeat again. The only thing that remotely comes close to the game is "Duo Princess" for PC, an unofficial fanmade game.

Despite what everyone says I think Threads Of Fate is a really fun and charming game. Mint is my hero and I made a banner of Mint for my blog and made this post of the reasons why I love Threads of Fate.

Official Website

Drakengard 2

A while back ago I did a Drakengard post about how it's a really disturbing game. I decided to do a small theme to talk about dragon and dragoon games. Drakengard is one of my most favorite games, sadly though I can't say much about Drakengard 2.

Drakengard 2 has it's ups and downs about the game, it's a lot more calm compared to the bloody game Drakengard.

It starts off 18 years later with a dragon child called Nowe. Unlike most people who wish to have the powers of a dragon have to create a pact and sacrifice something of their selves. Nowe didn't have to make any pact to ride his dragon Legna. When Nowe was first born Legna took him in as his own and raised him, but after a while Legna handed Nowe off to humans so he could become a knight.



There is some things about the game I wish that they put in the first one, such as armies that are by your side helping you like a real war. As well as potions can't count how many times I died because there was no healing orbs around.



Unlike the first game where after you defeat a ending you can play through a chapter that will open up another ending. But this game is horriable and will actually make you do everything all over again for you to get another ending. The only difference is that you will see new monologue kind of like Breath of Fire Dragon Quartor.

Another thing that turns me off is the pact prices, they seem a lot weaker compared to the first ones such as Hanch who looses her charm. So now everyone finds her hideous instead of charming and beautiful. Another is Yaha who can never be able to feel pleasure again which he finds tragic being in love with Urick and hints sexual gestures at him during the battle. Urick is probably the only good one, he made a pact with a Reaper and now can never die. His body can be hit, slashed, burned, punctured, and cut. But he won't die nor will he heal as seen when he first appears when and reveals his grotesque body to a bunch of thugs.



The only people who returning from the first game is Manah, Seere, and Caim. They never mention what happens to Arioch or Leonard. Verdelet was killed by Caim as revenge for sealing his dragon and making her turn mad. Through the 18 years Caim couldn't stop hearing her suffering and set out to free her. Only for a tragic end (Spoilers)

This game isn't as good as the second one, I can never see myself picking up again as I did with the first one. I only got one ending before I decided to turn it off for good. I doubt there will ever be a third Drakengard coming out.

Chrono Trigger/ Money Bank Delight

Chrono Trigger is one of the most popular JRPG of all time, there is hardly anyone out there who says they never enjoyed it. With it's multiple endings, fun mini games, and unique story line and characters. It's a golden game classic, the creators of the game consist of Hironobu Sakaguchi known for creating games such as Final Fantasy and The Bouncer. As well as the famous composer Nobuo Uematsu who created the soundtrack for the game. Then there is the well known Akira Toriyama who did the character design styles are similar (by their looks) to the characters of other media such as Dragonball, Dragon Quest and Blue Dragon.

The game first came out on the SNES in 1995 with it's popularity so high it was soon remade for the Playsation in 1999. The game itself was made with additional anime cut scenes. The game soon got it's sequel, Chrono Cross which I found to be a very big disappointment to the original. There is even an OVA that was launched for a Festival in Japan.

(Chrono Cross: Crono, Lucca, and Meryl on the beach.)

The story is about a guy named Crono who goes to the Millennial fair to see his best friend Lucca's newest invention. While looking around at all the games and activities he runs into a girl named Marle who decides to hang out with Crono at the fair. After meeting up with Lucca and seeing her new invention that can transport one person to another area using the machine. Marle decided to be the test subject for the machine, only for it to backfire sends Marle through time to the past. Crono soon follows her and winding up in a mysterious world of the past. Lucca soon catches up after figuring out how it happened. There he finds out that Marle was the Princess Nadia of his time. But because she came to the past and changed history she ceased to exist.



With the help of a talking frog everyone calls Frog, they managed to save Marle and keep history the same. After returning things only became more complicated and time travel became a must throughout the entire game. Finding time portals Crono and his friends travel through the past to the future meeting new friends and changing the present to a better place for everyone.

This is probably the only game where I actually like all the characters as well as the fighting system. You can make countless combos with each character depending on what sort of attacks they know. Everyone except Ayla and Robo can use magic which can be combined to make more powerful attacks.



The best part is that when you defeat the game the file will be saved and you can start all over with everything you had in the first play through. So you wont have much trouble getting any of the other endings.



A fanbase site was working on a very delightful looking remake to the game, the concept art and the music that was previewed was something I was really looking forward to. But regrettably Square-Enix put a cease to it. I can't really understand why they did it, unless they were making a remake (but they never did) and that would jeopardize their own product.



But now there is a Chrono Trigger coming out for the DS, I guess after all the remakes from classic games such as Final Fantasy III and IV they might as well bring out Chrono Trigger. It was just announced and not much is known about it. Is it going to be remade like Final Fantasy III and IV? Or is it just going to be the same game with the same graphics and music just on the DS with more touch action? The cash cow is really going to flow for this one that's for sure. If they remake the game then yes I will buy it. But if it's going to be just the same game then I probably wont.



If you never played a Chrono Trigger game I suggest you do, it's a great game that anyone can enjoy as long as you like JRPGs.

Monster Hunters Freedom 2

I picked up my PSP, it was collecting a mild layer of dust on my night stand. Too busy to play any good games for a while. The only game I was playing on occasion was Harvest Moon Boy and Girl. Which was a big disappointment, it felt like playing Friends of Mineral Town all over again.

Just a different story for how you got there with additional events and holidays. But still pretty much the same game.

It wasn't until EB Games was having a sale on a lot of their games, I went into the store to get PaRappa the Rapper (PSP), but left with Monster Hunters Freedom 2. I played it on the bus ride home and even to work. I started to do the basics but got to bored with the tutorial learning and jumped straight into a monster hunt instead. I imported my character from Monster Hunters 2 gave her new clothes to fit the environment but kept everything else pretty much the same.



Just like the first Monster Hunter you get your very own pig that you win over with your charm. He follows you around the village and your house and with a new addition you can dress him up in clothes. The one thing so far I noticed is that they take out the intro movie sequences of monsters that you need to hunt.

The story starts off a little different from the original, it shows your character walking through a snow side of a mountain just to find dead carcasses of wild beasts. A monstrous wyvern then approaches you and attacks you unable to do anything you fly off the mountain side. You then find yourself in bed as a man stands beside you telling you he found you lying in the snow and you got some minor injuries. You then learn that you were sent to this village to replace a monster hunter who got severely injured in battle and is unable to perform quests.



Can't really say more then that at the moment, there are a lot of new monsters even though I don't know how they can survive in the winter. If these monsters which look like dinosaurs or reptiles they should have cold blood and would die under these conditions but I guess Capcom decided that they are immune to the cold climate unlike my character who shivers a lot.

Dissidia Final Fantasy

I stumbled upon this video yesterday, I was shocked that they were actually doing something like this. Especially seeing how they already have Kingdom Hearts where the crossovers are done. But now this game seems to be crossovers of only Final Fantasy leaving out any Disney characters. From the pictures I looked up it seems to be the old Final Fantasy Characters up to 10. I didn't see any XI, XII, or XIII characters, but they did have Ultimicia which I think is really cool. She is one of my most favorite villains in the Final Fantasy series.

Not much is known about it only that it's for the PSP. I can say that it looks like something I am willing to play when it comes out.

Jeanne d'Arc

I just defeated Jeanne d'Arc it took me a while but I have to admit it was probably one of the best tactics game I played. I played quite a few tactics game and they abuse me with their leveling and just the whole movement of the game. But I think I found a game that didn't beat me bagging for me to stop until I cry and give up on the game.



The game at first was really in depth of the Joan of Arc story but once at a certain part it started it own little story leaving the tale of Joan of Arc behind. The ending I thought was okay there is hardly endings that I really like but it wrapped everything up leaving it so it could have a sequel if needed.



At the end of the game there is a free battle area that you can go to a cemetery and fight ghouls and ghost in. Other then that there is nothing really to do in it but repeat the ending over and over.



In the game you get to choose between two hidden characters either a whip girl named Rose or an aged witch that looks young named Claire. I went with Claire because I needed more magic users on my team and she helped a lot time and time again.



I don't usually latched onto a lot of female characters mostly because I feel that they always lack the will that I look for in characters. But Jeanne is probably one of those great characters I can respect to play as a female leader in the game.



It's a good game that I recommend to anyone who likes JRPG tactic games, it doesn't take too much to level and there isn't much of a grind you have to go through. So it's fairly easy to get through the game with little to no problem.

Final Fantasy X-2

It's been a long time since I played this game, I paid full price with this game and was very disappointed in it. This game shouldn't have been a sequel to Final Fantasy X, at best it should have been a Final Fantasy game of it's own. It wouldn't have been too hard to make it either.

"A young girl is in search of her love who died 2 years ago, she believed he was actually dead until she found a sphere. This sphere contain images to what might be her long lost love and is in search with her two friends and her new formed group the Gullwings to find answers by sphere hunting the world."



That would have been a good game on it's own but instead they made it a sequel to one of the best Final Fantasy's and making it a big mistake and almost ruining the series.

It wasn't a bad game it is quite good in it's own way, with the singing, the side missions, the jobs and the fighting combat. But it also had a lot of flaws such as "New Areas" that were some how hidden in the first game such as Wakkas hidden cave. I just couldn't believe they tried to pull something like that it was just really unbelievable. Not to mention a lot of the game had plot holes such as this "Ultimate Weapon Vegnagun" and Lenne trying to stop her boyfriend Shuyin from using the weapon on the world because he didn't want Lenne to go to war because she was a summoner. But wait. How can Lenne be a summoner? The first summoner was Yunalesca who defeated Sin, so Sin shouldn't come back for another ten years so there is no reason for Lenne to be a summoner. It's only been two years since it happened, and summoners don't go on the pilgrimage until Sin reappears. Maybe I missed something but that has to be a big plot hole right there. Just like in Final Fantasy X how Auron was able to go to Dream Zanarkand.



All in all I would never accept this as a sequel to Final Fantasy X the ending for it was just as good without this add on.

Jeanne d'Arc

Growing up I heard many stories of Joan of Arc, a woman of only seventeen who lead France to many victories over the English in the name of God. After being injured and refusing to give up on the battles she was captured by the English and trialled. She was convicted of Heresy by the English courts and sentenced to death by burning at the stake. I idled her as a child when I saw her on TV with the show Wishbone.





There is a lot of stories, movies, and so on about her. To my surprise when I found the video game about her called Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc in French). It's a tactics JRPG, about Jeannes adventures through the power of her holy amulet. So just by hearing that part you know they do mix fantasy into reality in this game. You can also use magic and there are animal-humans in it, but the story still sticks very closely to the plot.





There are anime cut scenes in it which I find really amazing. Mostly because everyone have French accents to make it really authentic. The only way it could be any better would to have French speaking and subtitles on the bottom.





The battle system is really good for people who like tactic games but hate the grind of it like me. Leveling is very easy because you gain experience doing anything from fighting, healing, magic, counter attacking, and living through the stage. The equipping makes it so you can make your character unique instead of having 4 classes of healers or 3 of warriors. You can equipped skills and magic to characters you desire and even have their elements of Luna, Sol, and Stella.



I really like this a lot it's one of the better tactics games I played. I'm already on the second chapter and I am not going insane from it.

Monster Hunter Freedom

I love Dragons and this game has a lot of them, with different types and locations of each Dragon. As well as a lot of monsters resembling dinosaurs and mammals we have today such as cats. Unlike regular house cats these cats known as "Felynes" can do a lot more then laze around. Such as mine, garden, fish, steal from you, take you back to camp when you pass out, and best of all cook for you in your kitchen. You get your first Felyne from a Cat Lady that has them hanging out of her big bag that she carries on her back. She reminds me of the cat lady from the Simpsons that throws cats at you and mumbling while doing so.

This portable game has a lot of things you can do besides hunt dragons, you can also fish, Barbecue, mine, hunt monsters. You missions from the Village Chef who assigns to do task for the village under contract. You start off learning the basics before heading for the hunts.

While hunting you can use different methods to hunt your prey, the way I usually do it is by luring out the monster by luring raw meat I slain from near by monsters. It wont take too long for them to come, then I make my move with a Flash Bomb stunning them as I move in to strike. My weapon of choice is the hammer. I find using a sword slow and hard to use compared to the hammer.

I haven't gotten very far in the game I am just finishing level 2 with hunting down the Legendary Liver quest.